Peggy Creates

Few days at home

2012-02-26T00:19:00.000-08:00

I have had a few days at home. No work, its been wonderful. I got busy working on a few UFOs

First I had to have a brush up on my curves. Pulled out a lot of my greens & grey fabrics to work with. This is the start of the quilt Iam working on. I will be teaching this class in Dalby later this year. I am looking forward to teaching in Dalby.

For my 50th birthday family & friends made me all these little 5" friendship blocks for me.
Just have to build on to the outside now. I have lots of ideas but this is as far as I got this week. It was nice to sit down and read all the comets again. Maybe that why I didn't get much sewing done.

Made two floor pillows. Megan was very taken with them. She has put in a order for one or two

Decided she had better rade my stash to pick out the fabric for me to make the next floor cushion

While on the job she also picked out the fabric for me to make up the Harem cushion.

These are the fabrics she picked. Yellow and blue.
The Harem cushion this a class I teach

When Bev & I had the shop, this class run a few times. It was always a lot of fun.

Sorry about the photos. Iam having lots of trouble with my photos. There fine on the camera and the computer but as soon as I put them on the blog they go all fuzzy, Why I do not know. Is it me ? Or something Iam doing, or maybe its time for a new computer.
May be all of the above.
Hopefully next time the photos will be better, fingers crossed

Beginners Class

2012-02-25T21:41:00.000-08:00

Two weeks ago I started a Beginners Patchwork Class at Peter Taylor's Sewing Centre.
This is the sample quilt the Lady's will be making.
The first lesson was learning to use a rotary cutter & sew a 1/4"seam. The Lady's were a bit scared to start but in no time they were having lots of fun.
The Lady's in the class have also learnt to speak a hole new language ( patchwork terminology).Its exciting & a great pleasures to welcome new people in to the world of Patchwork & Quilting.
Our second lesson was sewing bias seams or triangles. With a little care and concentrating this block went together well.
Next was the Chun Dash block. The Lady's are becoming a lot more confident now.
The next lesson will be an introduction to drawing up there own block on 1/4"graph paper & how to make templates from there drawing.

If any one would like to join the class now is a good time. The class is on every Thursday,
Starts at 9.30 & goes until 3.oo

I also have two lady's that are working on there own projects. Its always lovely to sew with a group. You seem to get lots of impressions and ideas from one another.

Two of the Lady's busy in class. Working very hard on their blocks.

Black & White with a little colour

2012-02-12T00:41:00.000-08:00

When I was in the shop I started making 3" black & white 9 patch's. The idea was to have a swap or a changle. But the shop closed and nothing happened.
The other day while ratting through my cupboard I found the box full of the little 9 patch's, so decided to put them together.
It was fun designing this quilt. I do like to work in black & white.
I'm just showing you snippets of the quilt. Once the quilt is finished I will show the hole thing. I am very pleased with how its coming together.

Put the final boards on my "Headen Wells" quilt. This is the quilt I made at Sandy's retreat. I did plan to put 6" outside boarders on it but it seem to swallow the hole quilt ,so cut it back to 3". Looks a lot better.
Sorry about the photos, I must of had a blurry day.

My friend Bev has just arrived home from Japan. She went over to the
Tokyo International Quilt Festival. Had the best time & cant wait to go again. But!!! Next time I will be going with her! I received a wonderful bag of goodies from Japan. Fabric to make a knot bag, paper, sweets, lollies, trendy stockings for my daughter & a great book. Thank you very much Bev.
Click here if you want to look at Bev's blog
This is a hexagon quilt my Auntie Jill made many years ago. When I was about 15 my Gran started to make hexagon quilts.(long before I new any thing about quilting) Once Gran started she got us all going. I know Mum, Auntie Marry, Auntie Jill & myself all made one or two quilts each. Jill's daugther Dice now has her mum's quilts .They were never finished so Dice passed that job on to me. I didn't have any idea what to do. They sat here for a few years before I decided. I didn't want to change any thing that Auntie Jill had done so I had them quilted on to a background fabric. My very lovely friend Evol did the quilting for me. One down & one still to go. I think Dice will be pleased with this one. Its a wonderful memory to have of Gran & Auntie Jill.

In the last month we have had lots of rain. (Too much rain really). Because of all the rain the garden is looking beautiful, lush & green. Plus over grown & full of weeds. Now the weather is nice. Not to hot or not to wet, I thougth it would be a good time to go out & do a bit of work.
Wrong!!!!!!
Walking around taking those photos was very hard.
The sand flys & mossies almost carried me away. I was getting eaten alive.
Sorry to say but the garden can wait for another day.

The lawn has never looked so good. Doug has been on the mower non stop since the rain, now I know why he is out there after dark. The Sand flys have gone to bed. Lucky the new mowers come with lights.

Our 4 Geese.
You wouldn't believe the mischief these fellas can get up to. I had to put the fence around the garden behind them because they were eating every thing in it. Only this garden bed, they leave all the others alone. Del the dog is suppose to keep them under control but she is very slack in her Guard Dog duties. They do what ever they like & at the moment it is hanging around the back door. They like to be able to see or hear us for some reason.
Well i had better go, more sewing to finish, like always.

Bali Pop Baskets

2012-01-21T21:23:00.000-08:00

While in the shop we got in the Bali pops plus the pattern to make theses great bags. Bev made up the Bali Briefcase Bag or started it , she just has the handles to add. I was always going to do one but just never had the time.Same of the lady's at the patchwork club have asked me to show them how to make the bags. So thought I had better get in & make one up my self, so I new what I was doing.

First up 1 Bali Pop & a box of cord

Lots & lots & lots of covered cord

Time to sew it all together to make the basket, round & around we go

Still more around & around.

Almost a finished basket, just have to hand sew the binding down.What a fantastic way to make a bag, so many different ways you could use this technique. Cant wait to make my second one.
If any one is interested in making the Bali pop bags you can contact the Emerald Patchwork Group or contact me.

Up coming workshops

2012-01-21T20:25:00.000-08:00

I will be running 2 classes at the Emerald Patchwork rooms. The classes will start on the 14th of February The first workshop will be "Beginners Sampler Quilt"

3 hourly sessions over 7 weeks

I''ve designed this class to cover all the basics of patchwork. This is a great class for any one who would like to try patchwork with out being daunted by having to make a large quilt.

The second workshop will be

Free Motion Quilting

3 hourly sessions over 7 weeks

Suitable for all levels of sewing skills

We will be working on several practice pieces in class with the idea of you being able work with on the quilts your making at home.

After 4 long years my tree quilt is finished...

2012-01-16T19:33:00.000-08:00

Four long years ago I went of to my first AQC Australian Quilt Convention.It was one off the best quilting conventions I had been to. AQC is held in Melbourne each year. It is at the Royal Exhibition Building, an amazing old building. Plus they have the best of the best quilts on display, quilts from all over Australia & from overseas. There's so much to look at and to take in. They have a lot of classes available on the four days. Wonderful tutors from OZ & Overseas. Its very hard to pick what you want to do or to try to fit in every thing you'd to do.

The first year I went it was every easy for me because I picked a 4 day class with Rosalie Dace. Wonderful lady, I had the best 4 days in her class. The name of the class was "Branching Out" In this class we had to discover the different shapes, patterns, lines, textures, colours & symbolism of the trees while experimenting with design.We used a variety of techniques to make our quilts. So we had to branch out & try something new by designing a quilt based on a tree.

I took photos of trees on the river at the back of our place (so in our backyard) I love all the knots, burls, bark & holes on trees.This took a big part in the design of my quilt. Onces I arrived home from Melbourne I finished my quilt top & then it was put away in the cupboard waiting to be quilted. It's been in & out of that cupboard so many times its not funny. Every time I got it out to work on some thing would happen & away it would go again. Finally it stayed out this time & I've finished it! I'm very pleased with the end result. Just have to give it a name now, any ideas?

Exciting times here - look at the lovely parcel I received in the mail. Only thing is I have to share it with my friend Laurene. That's going to be hard, the colours are great (perhaps I shouldn't tell here it's arrived). It will be interesting to see how/where I use these fabrics.

I made this quilt as a scrap foundation quilt when we had the shop. It was a class we had at the shop. The quilt top has been sitting here waiting to be quilted, so I sent it of to Evol. As always she's done a wonderful job with the quilting.

Close up of the quilting.

Donking around at Christmas

2012-01-04T02:59:00.000-08:00

We had lots of visitors for Christmas & New Year. The Becketts even arrived with a Donkey (his name is George) Very cute fellow. George is going to live with Daniel & his family. George is to be a guard donkey. He is to run with Daniels miniature cattle & guard them, aparently donkey's are really good a protecting what they live with.

George liked to play with his ball. He would throw, kick & run with the ball every morning be fore he was taken out to a different tree for the day.

I still had time to put Martin,s quilt top together while our first lot of visitors were here (I really only had to add the boarder but at least I got it done) Passed it on to Evol to quilt for me. Another 21st quilt almost done.

Close up of the fabric I have used in Martins quilt, lots of good boy fabrics

The night before Christmas more of our family arrived, The house was almost full (we had 15 for Christmas) After Christmas we had more, about 24. Now the house was full. But it was great, wonderful to have family & friends around at this time of the year.

Under the Christmas tree was full. Í dont think we could of put any more under it.

Christmas lunch

Sally & I even got time to do a bit of sewing. Fix up work. I was unpicking & Sally had to stitch her Yo-Yo quilt back together in places. Any hints on how to stop the stitches from busting?
It is a bad photo but I had to show that I still got a little sewing work done.

Our lovely daughter Megan had her 21st Birthday on New Years eve. More family & friends arrived for the party.We had a crazy night. Young & old enjoying the birthday party & the new year.

Megan & I

Few days in to the new year our visitors started to return home. Daniel was all packed up & ready to head of with his new addition to the family. Geroge is in the back of the Ute & waiting to go. Kenny Watson the wolf hound is riding with George. The end of the holidays is always sad. It hard to say good bye to every one. Doug & I are going to be lost for a few days.

I had better go, Evol just rang to say she has a quilt ready for me to pick up. It's exciting picking up a newly quilted quilt, its always a bit of a surprise.

2011-12-27T05:14:00.000-08:00

We just had a good lot of rain and I wasn't sure if the markets were going to be on. Bev & I had every thing packed up ready to go. Just have to see what tomorrow brings.

We were trying to take a family photo for the Christmas cards but we look a bit scruffy, like we had just come in from a hard days work (which we had). Doug had been out in the rain.

The markets went ahead, the sun was out but the ground was very wet. We had the last of our shop stuff for sale at the markets, fat 1/4's, kits and 10 inch rolls.

These are the 10 inch rolls.

Bev and her mother setting up the site. We had a very good day, sold lots of our goodies. Not much left now. Every thing sold really well. Not long after we packed up & arrived home it started raining again.

Thursday Sewing

The Thursday sewing ladies, Bev, Mrs Bev and Evol were doing hand sewing and Mary had show and tell plus she was telling us about her holiday and the wonderful rock 'n' roll party they had for Phillip's birthday.

Daphine with show and tell, some table runners she started in a class I was teaching in the shop.

Bron is busy cutting out a quilt. This is the last time Bron will be with us for Thursday sewing, she and her husband Billy are off travelling around Australia (lucky them).

Better go now, I have a house full of visitors, I had better check what they are up to.

Leaving the Nest

2011-12-08T04:21:00.000-08:00

This is the Doilly runner sample I was working on at the Gemmie Quilters Doilly workshop. All finished.

We have had a busy week. Our daughter Megan has just left home. She is so excited about moving out in to the big wild world. Mum is excited for her too, but very sad at the same time.
It only seem like yesterday that we brought our little baby girl home from the hospital. The years disappeared so fast.

With all the moving & re-arranging I got in & gave my sewing room a good spring clean. I moved out the two cupboards full of my hand made dolls & moved in a book case.

Only have two quilts left in my quilting pile, No that's a lie I just added two more but you can see more of the sewing table now.

The jacaranda is out in flower. Its just as pretty under the tree as the tree is.Its a great colour.

The garden is looking lovely. A week ago it was so dry & hot looking. The only places that looked any good were the garden beds, the rest of the yard was brown with a little tints of green. I was only just keeping it alive with the sprinklers. Now after a few days of rain, every thing is lovely & green. Amazing what a bit of rain can do.

Christmas Craft Fair

2011-11-28T04:00:00.000-08:00

The Crafty Lady's are back .
Mum & my sister Kay had they're Artwork, for sale at the craft fair. Mum makes all kinds of things, mosaics, wire & tin work, pottery for the garden, and a little wood work. Kay dose all the wielding, garden sculpts, wall art, out door coffee tables & chimes. Both very talented Lady's.
Mum arrived from NSW. She comes up every year for the Craft Fair. Jean my mother-in-law travels up with her.

Spot Mum & Kay in the crowd. (viewing part of the craft fair.)

Some the art work Mum & Kay had for sale

Between my house full of visitors, the craft fair (which I had the last of the shop stuff for sale at) & work I have finished a few quilts.The pink one for Jo, second pink one I made to use the fabrics in a different way.

Quilt number 1

Quilt number 2

Close up of the quilting on the pink quilt.

This quilt is the first step or part of my No Rules No Rulers class. My friend Evol quilted it for me. She has done a lovely job. I sent 4 quilts off to Evol & this is the first back. Can't wait to see how the others turn out.

Table runner.This is the small quilt sample for the Absolute Beginners Patchwork class.Its been waiting a long time to be quilted. (one of those jobs that has finally been done)

More quilts to finish, visitors to feed & a good book waiting to be read so I had better sign off for now.

Thursday Sewing

2011-11-17T16:13:00.000-08:00

Sally, Laurene & Bev arrived for a wonderful inspiring day of sewing. It was great to get together to see what each person had been working on.
I have all most fnished my Headen Wells quilt. Two more boarders to go, smaller blue one then the out side larger boarder, but!!!!! I have run out of boarder fabric. Most of the fabric I purchased from the Silver Thimble, so I will have to ring Sandy to see if she still has it in the shop. (fingers crossed)

Laurene busy at work. She took over my sewing machine so I had to find same thing else to work on.That wasn't to hard to do when I have heaps of projects on the go. Laurene was working on three very interesting quilts. I can't wait to see them finished.

Sally was brushing up on her typing skills.

The 3 quilts hanging on the design wall belong to Bev & my self. Headen Well that I started at Sandys retreat. Center quilt is a pattern design am working on. Have used similar fabric to go with the quilt I made for Jo. The pink, green & brown quilt. The appliqued vines belong to Bev. She started this quilt at Toomoowba. If you go to BevBSews you will see more of Bevs wonderful work.

Bev & Laurene working. (Still haven't got my sewing machine back)

2nd pink, brown & green quilt.This is the pattern design am working on. Still have the boarders to add. This is a easy pattern to make.

Part of the pile of quilts I have ready to quilt. Lucky most of the quilts are small. I hope to have them all quilted by the new year.

I went for a walk around the garden. A lot of the plants are still flowering. They are so pretty. The Desert Rose has been flowering for weeks, the colour is stunning. You only have to look at nature to find the best inspiration for your colour choices.

The Retreat At Barcaldine

2011-11-08T03:39:00.000-08:00

Iv just had the best weekend out at Barcaldine, at a sewing retreat with Sandy from the Silver Thimble.

There was 29 ladies busy sewing for weekend, some of the girls had travelled some very long distances to join us. Sandy was a wonderful host and we all had a great time over the whole weekend.

The accomdoation we had was one great big dormitory, with bunk beds everywhere. All of these bed were covered in beautiful quilts, each different styles and patterns.
It was an inspiration to just walk into the bedroom.

Sandy was running four different classes over the course of the weekend. There was "Hidden Wells", "Distorted Nine Patch", "The Beginners'Class" and then the ladies that were working on their UFO's. I was working on the Distorted Nine Patch, for my niece.

This is the quilt I was working on. It's going to be the background, a tattoo that my niece Terri has designed herself is going to be appliqued onto it. I guess the creative gene is hereditary.

There was that much food, all of us could have eated for a week and still had leftovers. Everything was sooo yummy! Very bad for the diet, I've probably just put all the weight I've lost back on now.

This was the room that the Nine Patchers were working in. Organised chaos.

Saturday night was Show 'N'Tell Night. This is just a few of the ladies veiwing all the lovely things they bought with them, plus what everyone had been working on throughout the day.

These are the pavers that cover the sidewalk on the main street of Barcaldine. I think that it would be a great deisgn for a quilt. Even just the colours are magic too.

Our last lunch together. Again such lovely food!

It was very sad to have to pack up and say goodbye and have to head off home back to the real world.

Though I must say,

Thank You Sandy, for such a great weekend and I look forward to the next one!

Gemmie Quilters Doily Workshop

2011-10-25T05:45:00.000-07:00

I went out to the Gem Fields on Tuesday to teach my Doily Runner Class.We all had an enjoyable day. Most of the Lady's almost completed there runners, which was really good.

Some doily's waiting to be made into a creative art piece

This is the quilt, the Gemmie Quilters Club have made for their next raffle quilt. We will all have to make sure we get tickets. I must say it's a lovely little quilt.

These are some of the lady's that were in the class, with their almost finished projects. They can all be very proud of what they accomplished in one day, they did really well.

Brisbane Weekend

2011-10-25T03:48:00.000-07:00

I just had four days in Brisbane. Went down with my friend Bev. We went to the Queensland Quilt show & Stitchers & Craft. The quilts were wonderfull. You really need a good day to look at them all. I did take lots of photos, but I only put my quilt "Afican Beauty", up for you to look at. (With the copy rights I thought I had better not put any others on my blog) I come home with lots of insperasion.

Also meet up with one of the ladys from our old sewing group, Helen. It was really good to catch up.
Bev, Helen & I went off to lunch, we had lots to talk about. Its been years since I saw Helen but it only felt like yesturday. There were 7 of us in our sewing group. As time has gone on & people move away there is only 2 of us now (Sylvia & I are hanging in there).

On the way home we stopped of at Eagle Farm Markets. Bevs lovely son Chris run us to the markets on the way to the Airport. Great little market. So much food & lots more to look at. Just a pity we could'nt fit any more in our bags.

Took photos of the grandstand. Wonderfull quilting designs & piecing ideas.All the lines would make a stunning quilt. More ideas & designs to work on.

Its never ending the ideas we see around us.

Walking around the markets you see so much colour. More insperasion for quilts.

The flower stall was to die for, and they had them set out in colour shades red, pink, yellow & so on.

Walking back to the car I saw a few Fig trees.The branches were all interlocked, twisted & meshed together. Very interesting, took more photos but his one with the bits sticking out the side really took my fancy.

I have a feeling Chris thought I was quite mad, taking random photos of trees, the skyline and the market place.

Well our time in Brisbane is over. It's back on the plane to Emerald and home sweet home.

Jo's Quilt

2011-10-19T06:27:00.000-07:00

My lovely daugther Megan.
She will be 21 in January.We have both been busy making the invitations. My sewing room had been taken over with writing matrials and pens. All finished & in the post now, thank heavens.

In the last post I had all the fabrics picked ready for the next quilt I wanted to make. Jo's Quilt. After a few days of cutting & sewing I end up with Log Cabin blocks. All Green & Pink. The blocks are all up on the design wall waiting to see what happens next. I'm not sure if I like it, but I showed it to Jo & she said it was lovely. Which is all that matters really.

Stitched the blocks together and added 2 small borders. I made up more blocks, some different ones this time.
I must say this quilt is not my colours at all, but it is slowly starting to grow on me.

When I was working on the samples for the first step in my No Rules No Rulers class, I got a bit carryed away with the amount of blocks I made . They were lots of fun to make & I was finaly using my own hand dyed fabric. It just seem to grow & grow.
Doug, my very patient husband holding up my quilt.

I had a pile of quilt tops ready to be quilted. They had growen so much it was scary, I just did'nt know were to start. In the end it got the better of me & I sent 3 off to my friend Evol to quilt. She is a lovely lady, and not just because she did the quilts for me.
She's also great at giving me plant cuttings from her garden, I do love this and her of course.

These are a couple of close ups the quilts Evol quilted for me. Lovely work she's done with them. I really think that the circle patterned quilting goes well with the squares of the fabric.

Well I'm off to the quilt show in Brisbane tomorrow morning, very exciting. Bev and I are going for a few days to check out all the stunning quilts that are on display this year. I'm sure there'll also be a rather large dent in our purses after we hit the Stiches and Craft fair, can't wait!!

Works in process

2011-10-13T05:12:00.000-07:00

This is the quilt I started in Toomoowba.
The Sue Ross, "Pickle Dish" workshop at Precious Times. I have all my blocks together & one border on, Second border will be wedges of the fabric used in the quilt .

All the blocks in this quilt have been made useing the "Marti Michell' templates. There

are so many blocks you can make with this template set. The fun is how to put them together.

This is a class I am working on for next year.

Fabrics for the next project. Not all of those fabrics will be used. It is to be a pink, green, & brown quilt. Still looking for a few more pieces to add to this pile. Looking at the photo now I can see that I will have to take out the green fabric with the pink melons. Different colour range for me to be working with, but a friend asked for a quilt in those colours. Can't wait to see what I end up with.

Sewing, Gardenind & Family

2011-09-30T01:49:00.000-07:00

Toowoomba Flower Festival Parade

I really like the colours & movement in this photo.

Had the morning at the markets.
All the Ken Dolls were lined up so neat

waiting to be sold.

While in Toowoomba I stayed with my Anuty Mary & Uncle Allan, Mum was also staying plus cousin Jan was with us.We all love plants & gardens.

Mary is in the Geranium club, they had a big display & sale on over the weekend. Mum & I went along to help. I think the best help we done was to buy boxes full of Geraniums. I didnt know there were so many different kinds.( well I have a good variety now )

Went of to see the Champion Garden.It was stunning, absolutely beautifull.So many flowers,colour & the perfume. No words to describe it.You had lots to look at. They also had mosaics through out the garden. Another of my favourite things

Mum & Mary in the back ground. Dont you love the lines in this picture. The straigt & curved lines work so well together. Wonderful idea for a quilt.

Its off to Precious Times for a Sue Ross workshop. Sue is a wonderful lady We had a very busy few days.

Sue had lots of inspiration ideas to show us how to use the arcs we made.

To add little bits & pieces makes a big difference to your quilt.

Lisa & Majella spoilt us. They had Yummy food for morning tea , afternoon tea & lunch.

Thank you girls it was great.

My quilt , still working on it. I am happy with the light blue background but not with the pink in the centre of the arcs.Will try a few new colours, thinking yellow.

Sues quilt

On the road home.Bev took a short cut. Did I say that I went to Toowoomba with Bev. She done 2 workshops at Precious Times while I was out & about looking at gardens. We both done Sues ''Pickle Dish'" workshop.

The short cut took us on a dirt road. It was a pretty drive ,how much shorter I dont know.Its still a long drive (about 9 hours)

Spring Flowers

2011-09-11T04:26:00.000-07:00

The Trumpet tree is flowering Its just stunning. The flowers start out a rick cream, as it ages it changes to a lovely Apricot-Pink. It realy beautiful. Flowers about 3 or 4 times a year.

Sorry this one is on its side.Its late & I cant seem to work out how to fix it.

Show & Tell Afternoon

2011-09-07T02:22:00.000-07:00

On Saturday Bev & I put on a Show & Tell afternoon.

One of the hard things about closing the shop is, we don't get to see every ones quilts. It was lovely to see what people had started or finished.

My house was open to any of our old customers for show & tell plus afternoon tea. It was great to see every ones work.

Ruth holding Bevs work

Jeans Roundroben Block of the month

Laurene's hand work quilt

2011-09-02T19:23:00.000-07:00

Pretty Maids in a Row

This is a quick post - I've got a few ladies coming for Afternoon Tea today and wanted to share these quilts before I forget!

Until earlier this year, I owned a patchwork shop with my friend Bev. We closed it at the end of March, and I made this quilt while we were still operating to try out the Dresden Plate templates we had for sale. I was planning to make it into a class for the shop - may still happen yet. Although I've been teaching patchwork and quilting classes locally for many years now, last year I completed my Teacher Accreditation with Queensland Quilters. I particularly love teaching although it can at times be challenging to develop a class, sharing skills and ideas with others is certainly very rewarding and to be honest I get not just satisfaction myself but most classes I'm inspired by what the partcipants create or bring along to share.

Quilting Detail

I quilted it myself - I particularly love free motion quilting! _ I'm a much better quilter than blogger as I'm finding it #$%^^&* difficult to get these photos to go where I want them. I'm giving up and will work with blogger.

I have quite a few books and have been particularly inspired by the work of some wonderful artists and patchworks. Particularly Nancy Crowe, Jean Wells, Gwen Marsden, Katie Pasquini and many others. So this next quilt came about when I was given fabrics from the "Sugar Snap" range by Melissa Averinos for Free Spirit Fabrics and wanted to do something that showcased the lovely fabrics. This is what I came up with, again quilted by myself because I wanted to play with my walking foot. Anyway enough for today - I've got tea to prepare.

Week end in Brisbane

2011-08-22T23:56:00.000-07:00

Just got back from Brisbane. Went down to do a
brush up seminar for my teachers accredition.
It was a realy good day.Catching up with all the
other ladys was good.
Sue, Jan & Ros do a wonderfull job . If any one is
interested in doing there accreditation,I realy do
reccomend it. Those 3 ladys know there stuff.

We arrived in Brisbane friday morring,Daugther Megan & I. I had the worst sore neck

I could hardly move my head.Woke up this way, What I done in my sleep I dont know.

I had this wonderfull weekend planed, but it didnt turn out that way.

I did make it to the Ekka.Went to see the quilt I put in Quilt across Queensland.There were

a nice lot of quilts on dissplay, all very good. I had a fast look around at every thing,so much

to see, Great art , pottery , cakes , quilts and lots more .

The Ekka is full of inspiration . Every were you look

there is colour , shapes & so many ideas.

Each picture I took was full of colour.Wonder if the same would happen in aquilt.

I will have to play and see.

Wonderfull quilting design .This was the non

slip mat at one of the rides.Great pattern.

Flower Garden Quilt I made

for the Ekka , Quilts Across Queensland.

From Old To New

2011-08-18T03:06:00.000-07:00

My mum has just been up for her winter get away.

Last year while mum was here she come in to the shop to help Bev & I cover a chair each. We thought we done a great job and were very pleased with ourselves.

This year Mum arrived with a old chair that my uncle gave me. The chair came from my great Grandmother

(Mums grandmother).The chair would be well over 100 years old.Greatgran made the chair. There are 3 chairs in the family. Mum has one, Aunty Mary has one. Aunty Mary's chair is a 2 seater. Both have been coved by mum or with help from mum. Great Gran also made some other furniture.

It took us a week to recover this chair. Once we started to pull it apart it was surprise after surprise. It had 3 different covers. The original one was a patch work job. Hard to belive that one little lady on her own did all this work, and without the tools we have to day. Strong & determined woman in those days.

The packing or padding was bits of everything - feathers, wool, old shirts and singlets, towels, hessian bags. And the string Great Gran had used, it was so strong we had to cut the whole lot to be able to do anthing.

The wooden frame was mostly packing boxes with odd sized and shaped bits of boards here and there. It had wonderful strong legs , as well as wheels. Mum and I were amazed with the nails and tacks. I have never seen tacks with such big heads on them.

Mum and I had a wonderful time pulling layer after layer away. Lots of oh's and ah's.

putting it all back together was a big job. Two of the springs in the seat had broken, so we had to replace them. It was lucky that the upholstery man in town had a couple of spares poked away in the back of his shed.

This chair was contructed in such a different way to the chairs previously done by mum - we had to do it all backwards. Had to start with the seat and then do the arms and then do the back last. We also didnt get the same shape that Great Gran had. We did the best we could, with the materials we had.

Great Gran had a really nice shape to the arms and head rest. She had built them out a bit, bulged the head rest and arms for that rounded plump look. Unfortunately we didnt have the material or knowledge to do that.

But all in all we were both very pleased with how it turned out. Think we did pretty good.

Mum and I think it looks lovely, and i think she would be happy with what we have done with it. Plus I believe Uncle Brian will be pleased with it. And that it has ended up with another member of the family (and we think its pretty neat.)

I wonder if years down the track that one of my great grankids will do the same thing and have just as much fun ripping it to bits and putting it back together.

As we pulled the chair apart this is what we found

lots of surprise.

Patchwork seat,unreal

better look at the patchwork seat

Stitching holding the hole lot together

Had to redo the springs

All the stuff we pull off the chair

Getting the seat ready for the top cover

All finished & looking brand new.

Virgin Blogger

2011-08-14T21:51:00.000-07:00

My first time writing on a blog. How exciting! I love patchwork, sewing, gardening, creating and I'm hoping to be able to share this here.

I recently completed my Teacher Accreditation with Qld Quilters and thought this would be a great way to share my ideas and designs.

This is one of the designs I'm currently working on - using Marti Michell templates, but like many others I do have a few more on the go at this time. I particularly love free motion quilting and my time is currently taken working on a quilt I want to enter in the Queensland Quilt Show later this year.