Winter days and quilting.

 I finely got busy and quilted my Bali Bed Runner (pattern by Judy Niemeyer) I have made 4 of Judy quilt patterns. Wonderful patterns to make up, but I have shied away from the quilting. Just not sure what to do on them. So after brooding for a while I bit the bullet and jumped in.

                                                          Feathers won out in the end.

                                                  All finished, now for the next one.

 Saw this lace wire fence on FB and I just had to shear it with you. Love it. Would look stunning in any garden.

I have been busy playing with a few blocks. Looking for new blocks for my sample quilt. Last year while we still lived in Emerald I had a class at "Peter Taylor's sewing center" teaching a once a month sample quilt. Now I think it time to freshen it up a bit.

Time to put away the blocks and start a bit more quilting. Trying to work my way through the quilt tops I have lined up before I start on a new quilt. Ha ha ( that is a laugh)

Going to have a few days off to go and see Megan. The wedding is getting closer so we will have lots to do. Its all very exciting.
 Our baby girl is getting married. Wow..... How the years fly by.

Future and past applique.

I had a trip to the Tweed Regional Art Gallery to see the Margaret Olley Exhibition. The center has  re-created rooms from her home and studio in Paddington. Great exhibition. To see her home and work area plus her art work was so good. Wonderful Australia artist.

 

 yyyyiiiiippppppiiii   I have finished all my applique blocks. (24 of them) I start this quilt at a Kim KcLean workshop at the  New Zealand 2013 Quilt Symposium .

 The pattern is "Flower Garden" by Kim McLean.   

The blocks have all been trimmed to size. I now have 1139  1" squares to cut for the sashings and boarders. Did I tell you that I'm a little mad, think you have to be to cut that many 1" squares. (sorry Kim)

 

This is the very first applique quilt I made. Think it was made around the 1970's my first years of High School. I have turned the edges under as I was stitching it down on the machine, so it's pretty bad. The fabrics I have used, are all left over dress fabrics. Lovely yellow bias to join the blocks and  a chenille rug double over on the inside with a sheet for backing. It is so heavy. I made it the same way mum and gran made Woggers. Great to look back on and remember days gone by.

 

                                                           Few photos that I really like.

 

           Display of Knitting and crochet at the Crows Nest Craft Shop. Very clever

Happy sewing every one, wish me luck with the cutting of my 1" squares.

Easter Holiday

 Before I went on holidays I had a few days working in Lisa's lovely shop "Welcome to Precious    Times".  While there I put this little quilt together, Lisa had it all cut out and ready to go. Very quick and easy quilt to stitch together.


I had a lovely few weeks away. First a few days with Megan and Mykel at Casino. They have a pretty area of the world to live. Then it was off to Mum's for  Easter. We have started to have a family get together at Coonabarabran at Easter. Mum, her brothers, sisters and cousins plus there kids and grand kids.. so it is lots of fun. And we get to hear wonderful story's from there childhood.
Had a drive out to Warrumbungle to see how the trees where going after the bush fires. Lots of the gun trees are reshooting all over, the pines have gone. Just black reminders of what they were but hundreds of new plants popping up.
Also had the afternoon at "Pilliga Pottery". What a wonderful place, so much to look at.

 

The blue sky, Black pine trees, white gum trees and all the green regrowth. Stunning colours.

                                                 The pottery tree of life at Pilliga Pottery

 

It was back to mum's and time to start making a few thing. (no sewing)  We had fun recycle old junk in to impressive art work. Not sure what mum is going to do with the tea pots but they do look good all stacked together.
Love the Bird houses, they were lots of fun to make. Tried to get Doug involved but no luck.

Just had to put this picture in. The bougainvillea at mum's front gate is so pretty.
It was time to say bye and head back to Megan and Mykel's. Had a week with them before we come back to Toowoomba

The girls from Carinda send me a few photos of finished quilts from the Circle Play class I taught last year. Every quilt from this class look so different.

The holiday is over and it's time to get back in to my sewing. The problem is what to start on first.

Circle Play

We had the second day of the Circle Play class at "Welcome to Precious Times". In the first class the girls learnt the technique of curved piecing plus adding the dots and rings. They had gained the confidence to add more them one curve to each of the blocks by the end of the class.
The second class was all about the lay out and design.

  It was time to play on the design wall. All throw every one was working on the same block or technique all the quilt look vastly different. Every one has there own design and colour choice that comes out in the making of there quilts.

Same of the girls had solid boarders to add to there quilt and same had one small boarder to frame the center and a pieced boarder for the out side.

                    More dots, curves and rings were added as the quilt was being designed.

The quilt above and below are the same quilt. One photo was taken on the design wall and anther was hanging at the window. Each photo looks so different, the bottom photo is a little like a stain glass window. ( the seams in the curves all show up.)

I can't wait to see all the "Circle Play" quilts finished. Thank you Lisa and girls for a lovely creativity day. It was lots of fun.

Finished my Kaffe quilt, sorry a little stitching to go on the binding. Thank you Evol for quilting  my quilt.

                                         The back of the quilt, used up my left over blocks.

At the end of the day while looking around Lisa's shop I had the best find !!!!! I have been after this book for years and it has just fallen in to my lap. Thank you Lisa so much.
 Bye for now.
Time to get a cup of tea and check out my new book.

Blue Mountain Retreat

I have had the best 4 days at Blackheath- Blue Mountains with a group of lady's from Emerald. We all went to Anne Sommerlad Triple Treat. Anne had over 60 people from all over Australia arrive for the retreat.  Anne, Rachael Porter and Petal Davies were the teacher for the 3 days. We all had a wonderful time.
Arrived in Sydney with all our gear, the first night we went to see the "Lion King" Loved it, stunning show. The next day for same reason we decided to lug all our gear (ports and machines) on to the train and head out to Kim Bradley's shop. Boy-o-boy what a bloody trip !!!!! We finely made it and it was well worth the trip.( Did I also mention that it was raining.)
 Kim has the best fabric shop, she was so lovely to all the weary travers. We had a ball in Kim's shop. Then it was back on the train and up the mountains to Blackheath.

                                   Sally is stuck in the corner of the train with all our bags.

 

Along the path we walked to class each day you would see these cute red mushrooms, they are the brightest red and really big, just stunning but I think they would be deadly. No one was going to touch them to find out. Each morning you saw lots more, they would popped up over night.

 (I wonder were the fairy's are hiding.)

 

My first class was with Rachael. This class was English paper piecing. Lovely relaxed class because we sat and hand stitched all day. I got most of my block made, Finished it that night a home.

                                                Carol and Loraine happy sewing away.

My block all finished. Not sure what I am going to do with it now, Have to think about that.

 

 
Anne's No-pins, No-tack turned edge machine appliqued wall-hanging. Great class and a wonderful way to turn under the edge for applique. Only bad thing for the day was that my machine broke in the traveling. I was very luck that Anne had a machine that I could borrow. Thank you Anne

 The last day I was in Petal's free machine stitched and embellished class. Bev skipped this class so I had her machine to play with. Thanks Bev.  I only had half a day in Petal's class because my cousin Dice arrived and I went home with her.
Said good bye to all the girls, plus  Anne, Rachael and Petal. Thank you all for a wonderful few days. Anne has her dates up for the retreat in 2015. Hopefully we can all make it back next year.

I set off with Dice to have a few days with family before I had to go home. Had the best time. We went to "Strictly Ballroom" for my birthday. The show was really good, if you liked the movie you would love the show.
Now I am back home and it's time to get back in to sewing before we go again for Easter.