Thursday 25 February 2010

Going on Holidays

I need to tell you all that I will not be quilting from tomorrow to the 14 April 2010....the kitties will be well cared for by our housesitters - I hope they behave themselves!

The reason for the "down quilting tools time" is .....

This man is forcing taking me on a lovely trip to Albany WA on our motorcyles .... sore butt is all I can say - lol!  It is the same distance as when we went to Townsville two years ago for the Ulysses AGM.   We have a ball and I find the best part of these trips is the journey to get there.










These are our bikes - mine is the pretty blue one!
Our son goes on the back with James on the other bike. 










And just so you can see the lap of luxury that we will be enduring whilst on this travelling trip - this was one of our camps on the way up to Townsville - pretty much doing the same thing again this time - it is luxury to have a shelter and table with chairs to use at camp!

Oh also ... my lovely blue and white "Life is Beautiful" quilt will be hanging at The Quilt Patch - St John Street, Launceston .... while I am away - it is still unfinished and not yet quilted but you can see what this beautiful quilt of Helen Stubbings looks like in the blue and white colourway.

Happy Quilting for now .... chat when I get back ... hopefully with a few fat quarters stuffed inside my panniers and backpack and lots of photos.   Cheers Jane x

Wednesday 24 February 2010

Shhhh ... quiet quilting

This is some custom quilting I have been doing on a customer quilt - I want to show you - but can't show you the whole quilt .... but you can see little bits ... I really really enjoyed doing this quilt - even though it took ages - having free license to quilt is quite a lot of fun.  What do you think?















The circles look pretty good with the pebble effect near them.
And I was surprised to find this in my mail this week ... The new Down Under Textiles magazine - 1st issue - it is very good with lots of information on how to do stuff. 
Imagine my surprise when I opened it up to this page and saw my photograph with my lovely journal covers ... how great is that!  it was a bit of inspiration the day I took the photo of some of my journals piled up high in the sun ... a great visual I think.   This is going to be a "must" magazine for me I think.

 
  
And as an aside ... I want these two cabinets... they would look lovely in my sewing room and look at all those drawers ... sigh ... maybe in my next life!

Anyway ... Happy Quilting for now .... Jane x

 

Tuesday 23 February 2010

I thought I'd show you my progress on two quilts

I thought I would show you the progress I have made on two of my own quilts - it has been slow growing as I only get to do my own stuff at night or some weekends.

But  ta da .... the borders are on ... now it needs quilting ... custom or edge to edge ???  I'd like to do custom, but time is lacking ... we'll see.











The other side - don't you just love how the sun shines through giving it a stained glass effect ... if only that would stay when the quilt was quilted.














Life is Beautiful ... strips sewn together












All sewn up ... I only have to put the small four patch circles in the crosshairs now ... forty something I think and I am hand appliquing them with blue thread for the blue part and white thread for the white part - as I have done for the bigger 4patch circles - looks very neat and tidy.












A close up












The back ... I still have to iron the long rows after stitching them.

So a little bit of stitching to go before I can quilt this quilt ... and it will be custom quilted - a good way for me to show customers how I like to quilt stitcheries.



Happy quilting for now ... Jane x

Friday 12 February 2010

Charity Quilt, Quilts and my Babies

This little quilt is for a fundraiser for the Franklin House Gardeners Committee - Denise made it using some sumptuous Japanese fabrics and I quilted it for her (my little contribution to the care of this lovely old home in Tasmania) using a lovely pattern called "Lotus" in keeping with the asian theme.   It came up a treat.

















The back looks good - I just loved the fabric she used for the backing... I could do with some of that.











A lovely quilt by Sharon ... I just loved the combination of those colours and fabrics - scrumptious!

 And a pattern called "Feather Me"








And the back....












This is the back of another quilt that I can't show you yet ... love the little flower pattern.











And last but not least .... Jet and Merlin - getting up to mischief I'm sure - no no we're not doing anything - certainly not smacking each other - aren't they too cute!



Happy Quilting for now ... Jane x