Saturday 28 June 2008

Island Quilts 2008 - Hobart - Winning Quilts

Hi everyone - well I just returned from the Hobart Island Quilt Show where I was awarded a Highly Commended for my Miniature quilt - 8 x 10 inches and quilted on the longarm! that was a bit of fun and the first miniature I have made. I must slow down and not rush!!

One of my early clients also was awarded a Second place for a quilt that I quilted in my early months of quilting - so I get a certificate for that too! So....three competitions entered and three prizes - I am pretty happy

"Coloured Geese" 8x10inch miniature - Highly Commended
I made this little quilt on a Friday night - with scraps from a batik quilt I had made that week. I get notions in my head that I can make a quilt in a day - and you just about can with a miniature quilt - they are very lovely - but I guess you really can't sleep under them.










"2506 Evelyn's" - 2nd Place - Traditional Two Person Category


This was pieced by Jacklynne M. It was a lovely quilt - but hell to quilt on the long arm with all those seams - the pattern is one by Evelyn Sloppy called "Entwined"70x70 and is made by strip piecing the blocks and then sewing the segments in set orders - clever really. I used a pantograph pattern by Lorien Quilting called Nouveau Scallops.

Thursday 26 June 2008

Dear Jane Siggie Swap 2008, Birthdays and Hexagons

Well...I arrived home from holidays to my lovely bunch of siggies from the Dear Jane Siggie Swap 2008 ...about 125 siggies I think - last year I made a siggie swap quilt from the blocks I swapped - you can see this in my "Siggies" link.

They are beautiful - some are simply delightful, all are lovingly made and I love them all..


And last week it was my birthday - so here are some of my birthday cards from the Tas Scquilters Birthday Squishie swappers.. and beautiful blue fat quarters - two of which look very suitable to go into my Dear Jane quilt.










And this little fellow is a birthday siggie that I made for myself - I was needing to try out some glitter and fabric medium which I wanted to use on the birthday swap siggies - this is also for the Dear Jane Alternative Siggie Swap group - I can't believe I have joined up to swap 86 birthday siggies - oh well - when I get mine I can add them to my 2008 DJ siggie top.










My hexagons are growing - I have now done almost all of the white background hexagons (there are over 600 white 1 inch hexagons in this bag) - but still have about 42 blue flower blocks out of 68 to put together - most are tacked ready to construct the flower patches - then the big job of putting the quilt together - I want to finish this year as this will be a quilt for entering into a show - to showcase my machine quilting skills...



Did I say I loved quilting- LOL!

Wednesday 25 June 2008

Spoils from Sydney Trade Show

While I was at the Trade Show in Sydney I made a few little purchases .... A heap of Cat fabric fat quarters







Fat Quarters from two of Moda's new ranges - Fabulous Fall & Bistro - yummy yummy fabric.










I also snavelled up some bag handles that are no longer being made....cute I think.










But my most exciting buy was by far the Shiva Paint Sticks ... I can't wait to have fun with these babies...I have the plain colours as well as the iridescent colours - nice.










I also got this lovely book ....I am very very spoilt. As well as a lovely book by Thimbleberries.

Monday 16 June 2008

I'm Back........!


Well - I'm finally back home after 7,500 kilometres riding my motorcycle to Townsville and back. What a long trip - a very good and well deserved break though!
I didn't do very much sewing - just a few dozen hexagons ready for my blue and white hexagon quilt, and started a couple of Dear Jane blocks...have to see where I am up to with that one.
We had a pretty uneventful trip, missed most of the rain that the Eastern Coast had and the biggest yucky thing was that a lady (on a mobile) drove into our parked bikes and knocked them over - smashing our helmets and causing some damage to our bikes and luggage - luckily it will be fixable and we got new helmets that same day as they were unusable after being crushed.
We got to see a friend from Cairns who I hadn't seen for 11 years, friends in Coffs Harbour, Sydney and Ballarat - met up with the Dear Jane quilt group at the Bernina shop in Penrith for a lovely morning of chatting and sewing. Spent time with my husband's parents which was nice. I think I may be mellowing ....lol!
The next big trip will probably be Albany in Western Australia in 2010 to go to the Ulysses Annual General Meeting there. Good fun - and anybody who rides a motorcycle and is over 40 should join their local Ulyssess group - one of the best social groups I have been involved with.
Anyway back to the quilting for now ... I purchased some lovely Moda fabrics that will be released in August/September this year and will make some table runners which I may sell (need money now!)
Good to be back home though....Chat soon Jane x