Christmas mail

Today is a hot day! 33C. Just the perfect time to wash quilts and get them on the line to dry.  Today I washed my Oak Leaves and Turkey Feathers quilt,  picture on my sidebar, and it has dark green, greys with oranges and RED fabrics. I'm always very wary when I wash a quilt with red fabrics so into the washing machine along with the quilt went 5 Colour Catcher sheets.  Just to show how wonderfully they worked, here is a picture of before, left- white and after right - red. The quilt is perfect, not one bit of bleeding.

 

I am a member of a Primitive Folk Art online Yahoo group. Each Christmas I take part in the Christmas Swap and today my parcel arrived from Sandy in Ohio, my secret swap person.  It contains wonderful goodies and here are some photos. Two Christmas Ornies, a Mitt and an Angel to hang on my tree that Sandy had made.

 

 

A FQ of Christmas fabric and a roll of Felted Wool. Yum!

 

and a wool hanging bag. Thank you Sandy I love them all.

 

Things have to be homemade and come from our stash and the bag was this years decision for the main item.

My parcel has been sent to Cathy in Florida, my secret swap person but it hasn't arrived yet. I'm hoping the mail is slow and it's not missing.

 

 

 

December 2

My DH saw the flower yesterday, how long it has been there we don't know but this is the first time this thicket of tall strap leaves has flowered. From the top of the leaves the flower stem is over 2 metres in length and the petals in each clump up the stem are a browny-pink colour. I have to say that it is in the far corner of the garden, out of sight behind the Magnolia tree when we come and go from the house. I need to walk around the garden and look up more often. 

 

 

These on the otherhand are right at the foot of the front steps of the house. They are Kangaroo Paw plants and so vibrate against the green foliage in the garden and 2 metres tall.

 

 

On the sewing side of things, I've started the 5th block of Yoko Saito houses. I received my Quiltmania magazine last week with the 6th block and the finishing of the quilt top. It is really nice how all the blocks have been put together.

 

I have also been making new vines and leaves for panel No.8. this week. I'm wanting to get this project finished.

Life has been busy

It has been a very busy month. My new Grand daughter, Indie Alexis arrived on the 8th Nov. while my brother was visiting from Scotland. Mum and baby are both well.
I have slowly been making the surrounding blocks for the Sundial quilt. They are smaller than the centre ones and seems to take longer when I have to make 4 of each one.

While I was at Stitch n Chat last Friday at Somerset, we were all given a mini Charm Square collection of Field Mates and asked to make 'something' with them. They measured 2 1/2" square, so I made 1/2 square triangles by putting a square of the same size in cream on top, drawing a diagonal line, sewing 1/4" either side of it, cutting down the middle and viola! all ready to sew together. I managed to find some old fabric from the same designers, Alma Allen and Barbara Adams, for the borders and my Grandaughters now have a quilt each for their doll's prams.

I've decided this needs to get finished so I have these two branches to needleturn to finish Vine No. 7

Will show you the result when I get it done. 

A Day with the Sewing Machine

I spent yesterday putting together the blocks from the Canton Village BOM. I couldn't decide what fabric I should use for the cornerstones as I originally thought of doing them in red but it ended up with not having enough  of the fabric left. In the end I fussy cut one I found in my stash which belongs to the same range of fabric. Unfortunately it is such a dull day outside the light, fresh look of the quilt just doesn't show up.

 

 

 

 

It looks and feels like Summer

 

I've been working on a piece for an online Christmas Swap, so I can't show you and I'm still reading books by Caro Ramsay. I downloaded one of her books to read while I was on holiday and enjoyed it so much, I am now in the middle of a 5th book written by her. I'm going to show you my front garden. There was a lot of rain over Winter and now that the weather has warmed I have an explosion of colour. The roses have all bloomed as well as the tall irises and the Granny's Bonnets. The smaller irises have been and gone just like the blue echiums. Today has been sunny and warm, 28C so they must think it's Summer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The old common Nasturtiums have spread wide and far and they look good indoors too.

 

Now that the third flower has opened on my Lily it is looking wonderful. It sits on the verandah and I can see it through the window.  

 

 

 

 

Back at Last

Back home from the holiday in the sun and the visitors have moved out.The house is quiet and almost has an empty feeling, with 3 adults and a 18month old gone I'm not surprised. There's  been a little bit of sewing  done and mainly on the Mosaic quilt. As you can see the flowers around the centre are progressing slowly.

and a few more blocks for the Sundial BOM but I'm way behind and have several to catch up on.

 

 

Next, the leaves are still progressing and this is now the 7th vine.

 

Last Tuesday several of us attended a 'Quilt' day at Linda's. Talking, lunching, looking at antique quilts and some show and tell. Randi, was over here for the Quilts in the Barn and staying with Linda and this was a get together before she flew home. Several of us are all members of a Yahoo quilting group. Here are Linda,Bev Randi,Jill and I at the start of the day before the fun began.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunshine

Can you tell I'm somewhere else?
Enjoying the warmth of the sun.

Saturday at the Barn

A few more of the quilts on show,today. Here is Jill sitting at the entry with the beautiful raffle quilt behind her.

 

 

This next one on the right belongs to Bev, one of my quilting friends that drives  me to Castlemaine for the Applique Society meetings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meredithe has several on her blog too and Linda will have them all on her blog after her Show is over.

 

Here are a few of the quilts Mary Koval showed us on Tuesday night. I thought you might like to see them too. These are all old quilts.

 

 

I must remember to add a yellow fabric to my quilts. It was mainly a dull quilt but the yellow just brought it alive.

 

 

 

This was a 4-patch and wonderfully scrappy.

 

* I've just noticed the bit missing at the bottom and when I checked my  photo it's my finger on the camera and not a fault in the quilt.*

 

I hope you have enjoyed what I have shown you. It has been a great display of quilts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday at the Barn

The first day at Quilts in the Barn was beautiful, warm and sunny . There is a wet weekend expected unfortunately. It was busy, busy ,busy. Lots of wonderful quilts to view, raffle tickets, fabric and patterns from the Quilted Crow shop, antique quilts and fabrics to see and buy. Here are a few of the photos I took. This beautiful quilt by Linda greeted us at the door.

 

 

 

 

 

A picture of the Quilted Crow shop.

 

 

Mary and Jo Koval in front of her quilt.

 

The small quilts.

 

 

Some more of the small quilts in the first aisle.

 

More in the first aisle.

 

 

 

This white on red applique quilt by Fiona Lindsay caught my eye.You all know how much I love applique.

 

 

More tomorrow.

 

 

 

A Night with Mary

 I was invited by Linda  to attend a Night with Mary, last night. Linda holds the Quilts in the Barn, quilt show each year to raise money for the Breast Cancer Research, The quilt show is on this coming weekend and the theme is red and white quilts, Infinite Variety Revisited . There will be quilts new and old, belonging to Linda, Mary Koval and friends, and last night we had a preview of Mary Koval's quilts which she has brought with her from the USA. We all had a very enjoyable, informative evening and the quilts were wonderful. We also got to see her soon to be released new range of fabrics, fabrics from the 1800's and some superb French fabrics.
The last time, Mary Koval visited, I bought a piece of 1800 Chintz fabric from her and last night I showed her what I had made using the fabric. I have always used other peoples' patterns to make quilts and I never realised just how hard it was to design something and work out the measurements of each round so that they all fit together with some equality.

 

 

 

and here is a close up of the piece of Chintz fabric in the centre.

 

 

 

If you're in Melbourne this Friday, Saturday or Sunday come and visit the Barn and see all the wonderful quilts that are going to be there. The quilts will be on Linda's blog after the Show is finished so for everyone overseas, you won't miss out completely.

 

 

 

 

 

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.