Last Weekend

Last weekend was our Symposium for the AQA,[Australian Quilters Association] There were several classes on, both Saturday and Sunday and I went Sandra Boyle's class. Here are 4 of the blocks in the quilt and below it, the block I started on the day. Sandra has done the quilt in all shades of red and green and I'm using the Papillon range of fabric to do mine which has reds,pinks,blue and grey.

 

It was a great day with lots of chatter.

I have making the blocks for the BOM from Canton Village quilts blog and have come to the last one. Jackie has put a picture of the layout on her blog and instructions for that will come next month. I have thoroughly enjoyed making everyones blocks and the layout looks great. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sewing in the Evening

I have been doing some sewing, in the evenings, after a certain little lady goes to bed, my Grand daughter, and the opposite corners around the centre of my Mosaics have their applique stitched on. Very similar but not quite the same fabrics.

I Had Forgotten

My son, daughter in law and grand daughter have come to stay for a few weeks while the renovations start on their house. My GD is 15months old, and I had forgotten how active they are at this age. Grace is on the go,go, go, sleeps for 45mins re-energising and is go, go,go again. She is such a happy child it is a pleasure to spend this time with her.
There has been some shopping too.So many wonderful new fabrics in the shops.I always buy green the double pinks are wonderful.

 

and some Windham and some Jo Morton's.

 

I also started a new pattern. Mosaics by Irene Blanck.This is the centre of the quilt.

 

and here is a picture of the whole quilt. You can buy it from here

I'm Getting There

Vine No.6 is finished and attached. It's a great carry-along project and I just pick it up and sew a few leaves whenever I can. 

 

 

I want to show you an old quilt I saw last week. It is the Chester Criswell quilt and Sharon who it belongs to is making the patterns for each block. These are available from her website. The red fabrics had not survived very well at all but the greens were as good as new. It was an amazing quilt to see and had names on every block and a verse on the bride's block.

 

 

Castlemaine

Here are the second lot of photos from the Castlemaine Applique Society meeting. The first one belongs to Bev. It still has borders to go on and is called A Perfect Garden.

 

 

This is the Maltaville quilt and made by Margaret Mew. I got the patterns for this quilt as a BOM but have only made a few of them. Now that I have seen the finished quilt and just how lovely it is, I must get back to finishing it.

 

 

 

The Goldfield Quilters have made this beautiful quilt for their raffle.

 

 

This is a minature hexagon quilt by Alison Gardiner. The hexagons were miniscule.

 

 

This is JoAnn's quilt.

 

 

and the last quilt belongs to Megan at the Threadbear shop.

 

 

 

It was an outstanding show of quilts and I loved them all.

A Chilly Day in Castlemaine

It was a cold chilly day in Castlemaine but the hall where the Applique Society has it's meeting was lovely and warm. It remained dry until it was time to drive home in the evening. Here are a few of the wonderful quilts shown. More tomorrow.

Rhonda's red and green quilt

 

 

 

A Tribute to Mrs William quilt in red and white by Ann Andrews

 

 

Sandra Boyle's Scrappy Whirligig

 

 

This quilt top has been by Trish.

  I really loved it, I always like quilts when a different coloured background fabric is used.

 

 

This quilt was made by Fiona Lindsay.

 

Judy Robins stars in greys and creams

 

This next quilt is the raffle quilt for Quilts in the Barn, Oct 2012

It was made by the Secret Sewing Sisterhood and quilted by Helen Hayes.

 

 

It was a great day,seeing these wonderful quilts, meeting new quilter's, having a wonderful morning tea and lunch and lots of chatter and laughs,yes, lots of laughter.

 

 

Weekend Retreat

On Friday I went off to the Ballarat Quilters Retreat. The rain was pouring down and it was very cold with news reports of snow. We arrived safely and on time, missing one truck accident that happened earlier and the 4 later accidents that caused several quilters having to take a long detour. We registered and went to our rooms and unpacked, then it down for a buffet dinner.  After dinner we had a meet and greet with the tutors and a show n tell. I apologise for the photos, the lighting was not good and I had to use the zoom which didn't help.
These 4 art quilts are by Jenny Bowker's  and are wonderful, especially seen side by side.

This is Kathy Doughty with her Soul Searching.

This black and white quilt belongs to Margaret Mcdonald.

This is Di Ford/Hall with her Antique Wedding Sampler which was the class I took.

Michele Hill was also teaching but the photo of her 'Tile' blocks was just too dark to show you.

The rain continued to thunder down all through Friday night and the creek that runs through the middle of the grounds of the Convention Centre, where we stayed filled and raged along. This is a photo of it on Saturday morning. The temperature dropped a few more degrees but the rain stopped and we had blue skies for the rest of the weekend.

On Sunday about 5pm we all went over to the hall to see everyones work. This is what was achieved in Kathy's class. I'd like to try this. I bought her new book called  and this quilt is in it

These are the 'Tiles' made in Michele Hill's class.

This is some of us from Di's class. Some started the Phebe quilt and some made blocks for the Antique Wedding Sampler.

This is Margaret McDonald showing what her students had made on Saturday  

and what her students had made on Sunday.

It was a great weekend but after 15years this was the last one. It would be wonderful if they could find someone to keep it going.

Time Flies

My daughter came to stay for a few days. It was lovely to see her and do a few things together. A long time ago she painted a picture for DH and I for our 25th wedding anniversary. When she was here earlier in the year she decided that it had to go. Her artwork has grown and changed since then and after some discussion it was decided that she would replace it with a more recent piece of work.
Here is the replacement. This is from her 12month 'artist in residence' at the Botanical Gardens in Brisbane. Isn't it just wonderful. We both just love it. You can see more of her work  here .

I have finished the centre of my Frost on the Ferns.

and this is the July block for the Canton Village BOM

I have been sewing a few different things, my BOM Marriage Quilt , which is now a month behind and some of my Trailing Vines and I bought a new quilt pattern. I'll show you it later. Next week I'm off to the Ballarat Weekend Retreat so I will try and remember to get lots of photos to show you.

Winner

It's the 1st of August and my bag winner is Jan.
DH picked No 7 and you were the 7th Comment.Please send your full
name and address and I'll get the bag in the mail.

Little Houses

I've been stitching Block 4 of Yoko Saito's Mystery BOM, in the Quiltmania magazine and I've thoroughly enjoyed making these little houses.

My elbow is feeling considerably better than it was and watching the Olympic's is such an ideal time to get on with my applique, eg. Leaves - so plenty of stops, arm stretches, etc is the order for the day.

It's been 10 Days.....

..........since I last posted.
I have been working on Block No 4 of Yoko Saito's Mystery BOM in Quiltmania and I'll show it when I have all the applique and embroidery finished.
Meantime I'm going to show you where I keep most of my bags. They DO get used so they're not all pristine and tidy.

To keep you all going while I'm not doing much in the way of sewing I'm having a 'giveaway'. One of my 'Tote' bags. It's made of upholstery fabric and a very handy size. I'll pick a number on the 1st August. Just leave a comment if you would like to have a chance of winning it.

Celebrate

I'm not doing much hand sewing and trying to rest my elbow. Driving my manual and changing gears seems to annoy it the most but sewing a few little leaves on doesn't. Whoopee! Vine no. 5 is finished and I'm half way.

and in the garden it's time for the Red Hot Pokers. They really do look fiery and the Honeyeaters swing on each stem as they poke their long beaks in. Just as well we have more than one clump with all the squabbling that goes on among them.

Friends, Patterns and Post

Yesterday I had some friends round to sew. Carolyn had had a tidy up in her sewing room and come across Jan Patek kits she had bought a long time ago and had never made. They were all great patterns and yesterday she gave me the Coxcombs and Stars pattern and kit. She feels that she will never make it and that I would. How wonderful is that. There are 4 bags of beautiful fabrics in Jan Patek plaid cloth bags. Oh! I'd like to make it, now. Thank you Carolyn, very much.

Today in the Post I got the pattern I bought from Dawn . It is called Calico Paradise and along with it she also sent me a large piece of V & A fabric. Thank you soo much, I love the pattern and the fabric.

There was also another postal bag with threads I had ordered from Aurifil. I needed 4 more colours for my wool applique. This is called Aurifil Lana, it is wool thread on spools so I can buttonhole stitch my felted wool applique on my sewing machine or use it for hand sewing. It gives a wonderful finish because it doesn't 'bite' into the felted wool like ordinary thread does. I use 'Topstitch' machine needles that have a large eye and turn the top tension down. The first quilt I used it on was my Settler's Pride 2009 and I've been collecting them ever since.

My hand sewing has almost stopped with my 'Golfer's Elbow' but I've been sewing on the machine and also making leaves for my vine, so no photos of my projects today. I really need to get out and prune the roses but that's another job on hold for the moment.

Slow and Slower

My sewing has gone from slower to slow over the weekend and now to a couple of leaves at a time. I had a little twinge in my left elbow,last week, I think from holding the fabric too tight and not flexing my elbow enough while appliqueing. I opened a new jar, on Saturday morning and now it's sore,sore. Here is my vine, only 2 branches to go on No. 5.

But I can machine sew. You didn't really think I was going to stop sewing? This the next block for the Bloggers BOM from Canton Village quilts. I needed to do a cream block. When I looked at my other blocks, I have too many red ones. My layer cake of Rounneries fabrics have been wonderful for this.

More from Castlemaine

Today we start with my three blocks of Yoko Saito's Mystery BOM in Quiltmania.

This is called "Chickadee"  

This is Barbara's Wedding Sampler

Marie"s Baskets , in such a wonderful green.

Rosalie's Jane Austen

and this is Irene Blanck's Aunty Green's quilt.

What a lot of beautiful quilts and there were plenty more that were just as stunning.