Saturday 31 March 2007

My DH & Harleys



These are my favourite things .... my Dear Husband James and my Harley Davidson Dyna SuperGlide Custom motorcycle. James' HD Heritage Softail is in the background.

Fun fun fun....

My Dolls

This is one of the first dolls in this style - I call her my country bride as her dress is made from my left over wedding dress material from 1993!


This young gal is my blue fairy - I love her character.

the wings took a long time to get right and working out how to clothe her.

My place

This is my place - well the back of my place anyway. My quilting room will be overlooking this view and the grass will be green soon ..if we get our winter rain! The fence in the picture is the halfway mark of our lovely 2.5 acres... the property goes down to the bit gum tree in the backround and hopefully I will have a big studio built there one day.


*The Big Decision*

I have finally bitten the bullet...I have ordered my long arm machine - an APQS Millennium with a 12 foot table. I am sooooo excited and can't wait to get it. I should be all set up and ready to start in about three weeks - check out the web site .... http://www.apqs.com

So much to do and so little time before delivery date .... Anyways, now I am on the road, these designs in my head will soon be reality.

Cheers
jane

Celestial Oceans



This is "Celestial Oceans". The photo does not do it credit. I used tulle with sequens over the star shapes and it really sparkles in the light. I was listening to the comments made at the Tasmanian Quilt show and was amazed at the amount of people who commented on this aspect of the quilt and wondered how I had done it *GRIN*. ...... happy to have been part of this spectacular show even if I didn't have a win. I pieced the top in 4 hours and took me about 8 to quilt on my domestic machine. Another 3 hours to put on the tulle and quilt the stars. I am happy with the end product although I don't know what I will do with it now.

Silent Heritage



This is my quilt "Silent Heritage" . I made it after getting a fat quarter pack of Aboriginal fabrics from Frangipani Fabrics. I designed this quilt and it is heavily beaded in the center. My statement when I entered this into the Island Threads Quilt Spectacular 2007 in Tasmania was:


As Australians we are all affected by Aboriginal heritage to some degree. The sun represented on the Aboringinal flag is the same sun we all live under. I wanted to convey this in my quilt for indigenous and non-indigenous alike.


The back is pretty too....

Island Threads Quilt Spectacular 2007 - Tasmania

Wow! I entered my two quilts, Silent Heritage and Celestial Oceans, in the Tasmanian Island Threads Quilt Spectacular this year. I went down on Thursday and Friday and while I didn't win any of the sections, it was a fantastic experience to be hanging up there with the State's best. I was so pleased because my quilt Silent Heritage was on the back wall and was the first quilt you saw when you entered the quilt show.

The Tasmanian quilting guild had done a fabulous job of putting all the quilts up on display. I felt the winning quilts were very deserving - however, some were not to my taste. The execution of piecing and quilting was varied and obvious that people are at different stages of their "quilting career". I am glad that mine held up with them all. My domestic machine quilting leaves a little to be desired and i could definately tell the before servicing and after servicing quality of my stitching. Can't wait to get my long arm because I can do so much more!!

The Island Threads Quilt Spectacular was great. However, the Craft and Stitches show was less than optimal - I think Tasmanian quilters are very aware of our isolation and therefore more aware of what is new and happening in the world of quilting. The people who put the show on don't appear to understand that and it was disappointing that the number of stall's and variety of products were not on show. The show is definately smaller than when it was held in Launceston which is in the North of Tasmania.

Anyways - must run and see my Mum & Dad - it is their 51st wedding anniversary today.
I am still working on posting pictures - so when I am able to I will post pictures of my two show quilts.

Jane

Wednesday 21 March 2007

Dear Jane

I am also about to commence my Dear Jane journey. I am going to make a blue and white DJ in the Around The World block setting. I can't wait to start ....but have a few other things I need to finish. I am currently looking for material and working out how much I will need....a lot I think! If anyone wants to see what a Dear Jane is - check out the link...http://www.dearjane.com/...If Jane Stickle could make one in 1863...we can make one in 2007. There are lots of Janiacs out there.

The Journey Begins

I have just started this blog so i can talk about my journey of becoming a long arm quilter - I am currently researching quilting machines to purchase one. I want to be able to create the things I cannot with my domestic machine. Purrfectly Quilted is my business name and I hope to be purchasing a machine in the next month .....so watch out quilting world.