Thursday 29 March 2012

Spotlight Voucher.

http://promotions.spotlight.com.au/events/E14_12/coupons/E14_12A_BOGO_Coupon.pdf if you haven't seen them online here is the link to the $10 voucher that is currently available for spotlight in Australia. This offer expires on Sunday 1st April. Great value to get $10 off your items. This means I can go and get some more fabric.

Tuesday 27 March 2012

this is from a blog that I read regularly Esthers Blog

Posted: 26 Mar 2012 01:57 AM PDT

Please read these blog links to see what I am talking about.
Imagine this: you design and create a quilt (or project) using commercially available printed fabrics. Perhaps you’re a well-known quilter publishing a book of your work and perhaps a fabric manufacturer sends you some fabrics to create your projects with. So far, this all sounds rather ordinary, yes? Now, imagine that the designer of the fabric range you used in your project sees your published book and decides to sue you, the quilter ($150,000) for breaching their licence. Unlikely? Impossible? Ridiculous?
I have been following the development of this very same scenario over the last week with great interest, concern and annoyed confusion.
I really feel that the Pandora’s Box of Quilting has had its lid pulled off…and the implications may not be nice for quilters.
  • How often do quilters see a quilt pattern and decide to purchase the very same fabrics used in the original quilt? Very often in my experience.
  • How often do quilters go out of their way to ask the designer what range of fabrics were used in a particular quilt? Very often in my experience.
  • How often have you purchased a fat quarter with no selvedge or fabric manufacturer details (not the retailer) listed anywhere on the fabric? Very often in my experience.
  • How often have you been pleased to know what range a fellow quilting blogger is using in a shared pattern or design? Pretty much always? Almost expect as much?
What are the implications of this situation? Does it mean that quilters are not able to create designs with commercially available printed fabrics free from the worry of being sued? Even when the fabric manufacturer sends it on to them? Are we all exposed to being potentially sued by designers who didn’t issue written permission or approval to us specifically to feature their fabrics on our blogs? Does this mean that, as a quilting blogger I am not allowed to show what fabrics I am using, creating and or simply like?
I don’t sell any fabrics and I don’t receive any monetary value from listing what fabrics I like or select for projects here on my blog. I know that the issue at hand is regarding a quilter publishing a book which included her projects being made up with a designer’s fabrics (which are commercially sold and available and in this instance were provided to the quilter for use), so my question is, if quilting fabrics aren’t allowed to be exhibited or shown or published as used examples without the permission of the designer…what are quilting fabrics for? Should we all be working with solids and hand dyes exclusively? Or are we simply not allowed to show and exhibit or publish any works which involve printed fabrics? And what are the implications for Quilt Shows and Festivals?
Surely quilted fabrics are made to be used in quilting and associated projects, so what’s the problem? Should designers have an avenue to sue quilters for promoting their own work using fabrics that were designed by someone else…and who’s designs were sold for the express purpose of quilting?
Anyone who follows my blog, website or is a member of my Yahoo Bom Group knows how seriously I take Copyright – it always matters. But is this really about Copyright? Surely designing a quilting fabric range means you expect quilter’s to use it?
This issue raises so many questions…for quilters and bloggers. If you blog, you are publishing.  So these questions are important.  It’s something I really think all quilters should be talking about, blogging about and expressing an opinion about.
Do I have to ask every single designer’s permission before sharing commercially sold fabric on my blog? Is that even possible? I couldn’t possibly discover the designer of each fabric range and writing to a manufacturer like Moda would take months.
This is my blog and this is my personal opinion. I sincerely hope that I don’t offend anyone because that is not my intention. But I am one of many quilters now questioning my design possibilities. I love finding new fabric ranges…will that have to stop now?
I have removed all Kate Spain’s fabric from my range, which is a shame because I love her work…but really, who needs the worry and heartache? And who wants to ask permission for every single fabric I use? I use hundreds of fabrics. Even in a scrap quilt??
Also, regarding Sselvedge’s on the fabrics ( when they are there), should they really tell us specifically what they mean by Rights Reserved? If something is Copyrighted, I am the first person to abide with it. However, I didn’t think quilting fabric was copyrighted to the extent that it couldn’t be shown once used.
What do you think?

Sunday 25 March 2012

Finshed the test quilt.

I finally finished it, what a lot of work, it is a very small quilt would I do it again, not likely. Did I enjoy making it no! in fact I nearly didn't finish it, if it wasn't for me doing it as a test quilt I probably wouldn't of finished. It looks nice, my husband thinks it is lovely. I think it is about 35inches square. So not very big at all. I think I will look at adding more borders and sashings to it to make it a quilt worth while at this size it isn't much use to me. Can't use it on the table my table seats 10 so it just gets lost on that. Will decide what to do later tho. I am looking forward to starting something fun, I am going to try a stack and whack quilt.
have a great one
Wendy

Friday 23 March 2012

Fabric copyright laws

well I have been hearing alot at the moment on the yahoo groups I subscribe to about fabric copyright laws. I didn't even know until reading these that they existed. I would never of thought about not being able to use fabric in my quilt because if I sell it I have breached copyright laws.
I don't really understand why someone who designs fabric for quilting could even place such laws on the fabric. after all quilting and being made into a patchwork quilt is what the fabric was designed for. Patchwork and Quilting is a huge business and it is a business for people to show and sell their products. It seems that you have to check fabric to make sure it isn't copyrighted.
I do know that in embroidery patterns some items have copyright laws. Disney items can't be used on any items that you sell, so if you are making something that you want to sell make sure you don't use Disney patterns.
here is a quote from one of the yahoo blogs from a couple of lawyer about licensing laws and copyright.
"We have located two federal courts cases concerning the use of fabric to make items to sell:

In Precious Moments vs La Infantil, 1997, the federal court invoked the first sale doctrine in denying Precious Moments attempts to block the use of its licensed fabrics to make bedding for sale. The 1st Circuit Court said making a fabric item from fabric lacked any originality so it was not copyright infringement. Since then, M&M/Mars, Disney Enterprises, Major League Baseball, United Media (Peanuts fabric), Sanrio (Hello Kitty fabrics), and Debbie Mumm, have been sued when these companies tried to block the eBay sales of items hand-crafted from their licensed fabrics. Every one of them settled rather than risk losing the issue in court.

In Scarves By Vera, Inc. v. American Handbags, Inc, 188 F. Supp. 255 - US: Dist. Court, SD New York 1960, American Handbags was using towels manufactured by Vera to make handbags for sale. On some of these handbags made with plaintiff's towels there could be seen, at the bottom, the name Vera coupled with the figure of a Scarab or Ladybug, all three of which were registered trademarks of Vera. The judge rejected Vera's copyright claims.

It should be noted that in both cases the judges required the defendants to provide disclaimers attached to the items because the items were being sold in stores. The disclaimers were to plainly disavow any relationship between the manufacturer of the item and the trademark owner. This was done so "an ordinary, intelligent purchaser" would not be misled that there was any connection. When selling on-line, a prominent, highly visible and well-placed disclaimer, such as our recommended Tabberone Disclaimer, would likely serve the same purpose and legal need as the disclaimers required by the courts. Precious Moments disclaimer court quotation and Scarves By Vera disclaimer court quotation.

Licensed fabric means the fabric is licensed by the rights owner to be manufactured and sold. It does not mean the fabric is licensed at the time it is sold. A license on the use of the fabric requires the person buying it to agree, usually in writing, to conditions on the use of the fabric before paying for the fabric. If you do not agree to the "license" before purchasing, they will sell the fabric to you anyway. In fact, no one even asks you if you agree to the license. They just sell you the fabric. Any fabric sold without a signed mutual agreement prior to the sale is not licensed and there are no provisions in the law that allow for otherwise. Any one who tells you otherwise is lying. And, under the definition of a "license", they would record your name and address, require periodic payments, and demand the fabric be returned to them when you are done with it. That just does not happen."

Thanks for listening! Happy Quilting!
Deborah


--- In Machine_Quilting_Professional@yahoogroups.com, Irene Frederick <ifrederick01@...> wrote:
>
> I decided to google the topic myself, and found a site with explinations of
> a number of lawsuits regarding fabric. Here's the site:
>
> http://www.tabberone.com/Trademarks/CopyrightLaw/LicensedFabric.shtml



makes for some interesting reading.
Wendy

Tuesday 20 March 2012

New York Beauty Quilt A Long

Here is the link for the next block in the New York Beauty. So head of to Sew Sweetness if you want to watch this weeks tutorial on how to make this block.

Wendy

Monday 19 March 2012

Tutu Quilt

Here is a photo of a quilt I made. I found the pattern on line at www.cutequiltpatterns.com
I just loved the pattern so I made one up it was really easy to make. I have added black ribbon down the border of the white pieces in the centre. I couldn't get rick rack here that was big enough.
I need to quilt it now. What would you suggest that I quilt on this.
leave a comment to let me know what you think.
hugs
Wendy

Sunday 18 March 2012

customers quilt

This beautiful quilt was made by one of our customers. This lovely older lady has only just started doing patchwork and i think this was her 3rd quilt that she has made. It is beautiful.
 This was one of the quilts that we quilted for charity. The local quilters were making quilts for the Mental Health unit at our hospital. We have quilted 12 so far and have another 8 quilts to do for them. This one was a really nice log cabin. I just love black white and red one of my favourite colours to quilt with.
 this is another quilt from the lady that did the first quilt. This one is her second quilt that she has made. I know that my first couple of quilts sure didn't look this good.
 This is another customers quilt. This one was done with an all over quilt pattern. Quite a lovely quilt.
over the next couple of weeks I will be uploading more photos of some of the long arm quilting that we have done for some of our customers.

enjoy your night
Wendy

Friday 16 March 2012

recycling

I found this great site today a machine embroidery site. Wow has she got some lovely patterns, on her site she has a free pattern where she uses the thread ends that we cut off from sewing, embroidering, quilting etc. She sandwiches them together between 2 pieces of soluble stabilizer and free motion stitches over the threads to make a lovely fabric.
You can check it out here. http://www.masterpiece-embroidery.com/machine-embroidery-designs.html I think  this would also be great with all those tiny bits of fabric that you end up with as well that aren't quite big enough to use in a scrappy quilt but you could make a lovely confetti fabric especially if you use the same colour blends in the made fabric. Will have to give this a try.
What recycling ideas do you have for your scraps.

Wendy

Tuesday 13 March 2012

Whack and Stack quilts

has anyone tried one of these whack and stack quilts. We have just finished quilting one of these for a customer of ours. they are a very impressive quilt. She said that it was easy to do but there was a lot of wastage in fabric. I suppose that just means more fabric for the stash.
The pattern she used was designed by Bethany S Reynolds taken from the book Magic Stack-N-Whack.
what do you think. I know that I am going to give this one a try the effect with the pattern formed in each square is really lovely.

Sunday 11 March 2012

Sunday family day

After a couple of tantrums and whinging and whining on my part, I have decided to do this test quilt my way and not the way of the pattern with the glue stick. It is slowly coming together it has taken many hours just to do one row of the 3 rows. It is flowing a bit better now that I have dropped the gluing and are getting to know the patterns. Thank god I only have to do the top on this one and not complete the backing and quilt it as I will be hard pressed trying to finish it by the end of this month. I work 36 hours a week and this one with has 3 rows of 3 blocks with 10 components of paper piecing per block and a paper pieced border. I will be working hard to get it finished.

Last weekend we had a big family weekend with Pipers first birthday and Sharnay's 17th birthday. My daughter from up the Sunshine Coast brought her dogs down with her for the weekend. They sleep indoors with them so I relented and allowed her to have them sleep inside in the family room with them. Today poor little Piper as she is crawling and only just walking was bitten by fleas. I am going to have to flea bomb the place tomorrow when everyone is at work and school to kill them. That is one thing we haven't had any trouble with our dogs as we had always kept up the flea and tick treatments. I will have to check them tonight to see if they have any fleas. If they do I will have to go and get a sentinel tablet from the vet to kill them fast.

Hope that you have all had a great weekend.
Wendy

Saturday 10 March 2012

Sewing

Sewing great place to find some really good blogs with lots of information you can join Webring for free. Check it out.

Test pattern number 2

Well I have been accepted to do another test pattern, this one is paper pieced. Has anyone else out there done paper piecing were you use a glue stick to help hold the fabric in place. This one asks that I do this, but now I am having so much trouble removing all the paper. How do you get it off, do you wait until you finish the whole quilt and wash it to soak off any remaining pieces. If you have any ideas please comment. I have done paper piecing before and never glued it. As it is a test pattern quilt I have to follow the instructions given by the pattern writer.
Let me know if you have any ideas.
thanks
Wendy

Wednesday 7 March 2012

found this wonderful site today.

I found out about this wonderful site today for all  you Aussie quilters. It is a page were they make quilts for our troops overseas. They do such a wonderful job the troops, I know as my father was a soldier who was in the army for over 30 years, visiting , Malaysia, Korea, 2 tours to Vietnam. A little gift from home make it all worth while to know that people believe in the job they are doing. My son is also in the army and all tho he hasn't yet been sent to a war zone, he has served overseas in Malaysia.
So if you can help with a quilt or a laundry bag that would be great. Here is the blog page to have a look at this wonderful organisation. http://aussieheroquilts.blogspot.com.au/p/how-to-help.html

Wendy

Tuesday 6 March 2012

New York Beauty Quilt A Long

the first block for the New York Beauty Quilt along was published today. make sure you click on the link on the side bar and go and join the fun.
Wendy

Photos of the test quilt



Here you go these are the photos of the test quilt that I did for Arbeedeen quilts you can purchase the pattern here http://arbeedesigns.com/star-medallion/ you will find the picture of my quilt on here too. I love it in the black and gold and it sits on my 10 seater table everyone who visits says something about this quilt. I will make another one in different colours when I get a chance. I have some fabric in purples with african violets on which I think would look great in this.