Christmas 2011

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas

Today is as good a day as any

 It has been so long since I posted , I had got to the stage where I wondered whether I would ever post another post but as today is my birthday I figured it was a good a day as any.
Today is a beautiful spring day, the sun is shining where we are and there is quite a lot of warmth in this spring sun.

 Of course all of the beautiful spring flowers are out, I just love filling our home with them so this morning I am sending these lovely Tulips to you all wherever you may be.

I have been doing lots of different sewing and cross stitch, some I haven't photographed yet so will save that for next time  but in the meantime I will show you some of my new obsessions.

I am obsessed with Jockey Caps, I am sure some of you will call these drunkards path ( I think ) but I believe when they are sewn into four in this manner they become jockey caps.

I think the fun part is mixing the fabrics , the quirkier the better.

I don't believe anything is off limits, what do you think.

I have also been working on this medallion style quilt in my class with Marg Sampson-George at Material Obsession. 

My background is an antique linen sheet which is so lovely to work on. The idea is to fill the entire background with all sorts of quirky shapes and things that appeal to the maker. Here you can see I cannot go without adding my beloved pears.

I have used this quilt to really try and improve my needleturn applique skills.I have to say I have really enjoyed the challenge.

I have also spent quite a lot of time exploring my recipe books and experimenting with some new recipes.

These sticky beef ribs with coriander sauce are a real winner from the cook book of an ex masterchef contestant, Marion.

Well this is a short post but I have to say it is great to be back, hopefully it won't be so long next time and I have loads to show you.

Happy sewing

j

Quilts in the Vines (part 2) The Home Patch

Following on from my previous post
Day one saw us pile into two cars around 4pm and head for the 'Home Patch' the shop of the very talented Anni Downs.
With Anni's permission I have snapped some pics around her store. This is a store with heart and caters for all tastes.


I think from the time we hit the shop Anni was madly measuring and cutting fabric.

no matter which direction one looked it was a feast for the eyes.

Ideas and inspiration aplenty

Loads of books

This little needlecase made from wool is a kit or pattern but how could you resist the kit

samples made up from patterns on sale

Miss Prims

gorgeous Valdani threads in luscious colours, I wish for the whole box not a single ball , just my colourway too.

piles of hand dyed wool, dyed by Anni's husband Peter

Its Christmas year round here, lovely little stitcheries designed by Anni

little ornaments with a Christmas theme, how could you put them away for a whole year.

Really pretty block of the month program, patchwork and embroidery combined

cross stitched samples, makes all the difference when a pattern is stitched

Shame this is not a little closer but on that bag is a needle punched piece. Anni has a lot of them around her store , they are so delicate.

If you love Janet Bolton then this is the book for you, and some cute wood print blocks


Inspiration to help make a house become a home

This lovely little quilt was hanging on the wall in the 'bright' fabric room

I hope you have enjoyed this little tour of Anni's store, it was lovely to meet up again with Margaret , I am sorry that I didn't get to see you before you left for the evening but thanks for staying back.

I am sure many of you know Anni from her stalls at various shows both trade and retail around the world and just like her shop there is always so much heart put into the display.

Next post I will finish off the rest of our retreat

happy sewing

j

Quilts in the Vines

Last weekend Bernadette hosted the inaugural 'Quilts in the Vines' retreat at Bathurst . Bathurst is a city in the central west of NSW.

Bathurst is well known for many reasons. One of them being the famous car race on Mt Panorama, another is the Charles Sturt University, many prominent Australian journalists attended this university.For me Bathurst is famous for the divine quilt shop 'The Home Patch' run by the gorgeous Anni Downs. Anni also has a blog Hatched and Patched. I will warn you now this post is image heavy.

Friday morning in Sydney we woke to the most appalling weather , rain rain and more rain , certainly not congenial to driving over the Blue mountains and Mount Victoria into Bathurst but a few quilt shop ,cafe's and shop stops did the trick. Surprisingly when we arrived in Bathurst not a drop of rain to be seen. Pre dinner bubbles, a lovely meal at the local pub and a night cap in Bernadette's room saw us retire to our rooms at a respectable hour ready for our two day quilt in.

Bernadette who also is a Personal Fitness trainer invited anyone interested to partake in an early morning walk around the famous Mt Panorama race track. I have to say when I woke the next morning I looked out the window from my room and thought no it looks far too cold so I hopped back into bed , when an attack of the guilt's got the better of me I was up and dressed ready to meet at the agreed time. Only 3 of us walked and it was freezing , the only way to warm up was to walk faster.

This hill might not look terribly steep in this image , it was one of those killers, you know a gradual incline but incline upwards. We chatted away pointing out the beautiful vistas the higher we got , I might add as I was puffing and panting my way up the hill our PT didn't look anything like getting out of breath. Oh to be that fit. This is Kate in the red jacket, Kate was my mind reader when Bernadette asked if we wanted to continue as we came to the very steep hairpin bend. We wimped out at that point.

The sun shining over Bathurst was a gorgeous site

Our hotel was in sight, we stayed right on the race track. The rooms were lovely but we all commented that the decor is rather masculine, I can only imagine how noisy it must be on that certain weekend in October.

Algona is the venue Bernadette selected for our weekend retreat after she and her husband had driven many miles to find just the right place and a great choice it was.

Nothing could be faulted, we had a very large room to ourselves we were able to spread ourselves out , design walls set up , cutting tables , sewing machine tables ,fabulously talented tutor ,like minded friends, a wonderful view and get this, our very own chef , who kept the sustenance up to us at regular intervals. Really what more could a girl want.

Marg Sampson was our tutor for the weekend , and our inspiration was Mary Jane Hannaford.

Mary Jane was one of Australia's most creative quiltmakers , she came to Australia in 1842 aged 2 . MJH was jilted but had an only child whom she raised alone. Her daughter went on to have 9 children. Several strong themes run through Marys quilts , her religious faith, her love of Australia and a melancholy sense of loss and time passing . Mary meant for her quilts to be hung and used decoratively , she embroidered funny little saying and used scraps of fabrics in strip like fashion. (check out Kate's blog she has a link and some images). Marg encouraged us to be inspired by MJH but to make it our own .

Out came our fabric stashes ready to cut strips of varying sizes.

Some got straight to work

Kate's featherweight (Elvis) never let us down all weekend, quietly whirring away.

Such concentration from Sue, it was amazing just how quiet the room was at times as I guess we all delved into our memories wondering what ideas we could put in fabric.

It was exciting seeing ideas coming to life

Kate had memories of birds being chased which is forming the centre part of her quilt

Elaine was down on the floor with Marg throwing some ideas around.

This is what they came up with, these little people representing her 2 children. Elaine was so excited all weekend, she was heard to say on a number of occasions "Marg's back , I'm back" you see Elaine has been away nurturing babies for the last 8 years and Marg as we know has been living overseas, happiness all round.

Laurel is Canadian born , Australian by choice, how lovely is that, I think she is cutting out a crown

Bernadette's visualisation coming to fruition

Mine up on the design wall , I wasn't too interested in the circle. Appliquing fabrics not on the bias seemed too hard a task for my liking. No sense of adventure !!

Being a kiwi I think sheep need to make an appearance , Janet Bolton's naive style suits me down to the ground

Maybe a hexie or two being the addict I am

I'll be back later continuing this post. I am having some technical issues so don't want to loose what I have already done.

See you soon

j

Where Does the Time Go ?

We have just had a long weekend here in Australia, this weekend celebrates the Queens birthday.It has been an extremely wet weekend but I have not been perturbed one little bit as I have spent a good deal of it sewing with a clear conscious as I could not do anything outside.

I have finally finished the centre of my basket quilt (hexagon rosettes and stars) it is time to start constructing the borders appliquing baskets filled with flowers and leaves.

I think the best approach to constructing the borders is to applique all of the baskets then to fill all of them with the flowers and leaves rather than doing one basket at a time.

I need to have loads of stems for all of the flowers that are going to grow from the baskets , I figured that it would be beneficial to make a selection of bias stems before I start then I can set up a production line when I am ready to start appliquing all of the flowers. 

A long weekend affords a little cooking time , we always have plenty of friends and family calling by when we are at our weekend shack so I enjoy offering something sweet to have with coffee.

Following on with my addiction to sewing Hexagons I made yet another little sewing purse. This time I did not cover papers.  I used 3/4 inch size but any size would work depending on how big you wanted the purse to end up.

I did a little book shopping this weekend, this is a book I have admired for sometime and the local Angus and Robertson were offering 30% discount over the long weekend. I have to say I feel really sad that the bookshops here in Oz are experiencing hard times. I know that times are changing and we can purchase from overseas for a lot cheaper than we can here , we can also download soft copies so that eliminates storage space however if we don't support our local stores we won't have them. I enjoy nothing more than strolling into a bookstore and perusing the shelves and flipping the pages. I am still trying to get my head around soft copies of books, it just isn't the same looking into my computer for a book as going to my bookcase and pulling out a book. I am trying so hard to embrace the changes and I am very aware that I could fall into the Dinosaur category if I don't keep up with the times. What are you all thinking about  this.

This is the Tea cosy that really inspired me to buy this book. I am not sure whether it is the colours that have attracted me although I do think the whole thing is rather funky. I will probably never get around to knitting it , I don't even drink tea but I have some friends that do , and can you believe that tea making can involve such a ritual, milk in the cup before the tea and the water needs to be fresh boiled, you cannot boil the same water more than once. !!!!!! You know who you are.

Until next post happy sewing
j