Two More Things I Love

I love William Morris' designs - they are elegant and sophisticated, romantic and wonderfully inspirational.  I also love Michelle Hill's interpretation of Morris' work in her quilts.   I am lucky enough to have been able to purchase a copy of Michelle Hill's latest book (a signed copy no less, from Patchwork By Sea in South Australia - thank you to everyone there as my book arrived today).

 I also love love love fabric and now have some fat quarters of Michelle Hill's range "In the Beginning"  and one layer cake of Barbara Brackman's "A Morris Tapestry".

Now to combine these into a beautiful quilt .. hmm may take me some time but I am determined to make a Morris inspired quilt.

Now for everyone who is waiting for quilting to be done, or wants quilting to be done ... I am in the process of changing over machines and am not 100% sure when that will be completed ... those that are waiting, I will advise individually...thank you all for your patience and support.

 Don't forget the QLD Premiers Flood Appeal ... and all the auctions that are taking place through Toni of Make It Perfect

This is my Quilt Auction

 This is my Jane Monk Studio Zentangle Drawing - Auction 2
The winning bidder gets to choose the letter I draw in the centre.

This is my Jane Monk Studio Zentangle Kit - Auction 1
A full official Zentangle Kit including DVD

Thank you everyone for your support of this greatly needed appeal....Happy Quilting ... and bidding .... Jane x

Workshop & Zentangle for Quilters Workshop

 This week for a couple of days I was in Ulverstone doing a workshop at Cranberry Crafts.  Lynne had arranged for Robyn Alexander of Colour STreams to come and do a two day workshop.   I booked this early this year and had no idea what I would be doing.

I must say I am really happy that I did do this workshop ... I learnt how to do nuno felting which I had never done before and expand on dry felting ... it was a lot of fun.     The kit I chose was a little bag in Olive tones.  This is the kit with absolutely everything that I would need, more than enough to complete the project.

 This is my finished bag ... I am very happy with it...don't know if I will be walking down the street with it (although I might).  I have learnt some very good techniques that I can expand on and use in my own way.   If you get a chance to do a workshop with Robyn Alexander - DO IT - you won't regret it.  She is very supportive and a very easy teacher to learn from.  Thanks Robyn and thanks Lynne for bringing her down here.  She is back next year I think!

Now onto the other workshops ... If you want to learn how to do this .... I am having a workshop at Esmes on the 4 December .... you will need to contact Lillian at Esmes (click on the link to get to her store) to make a booking (and I am not sure how many - if any - spaces are left ... give her a call.

I will also be doing this workshop "Zentangle for Quilters" at Cranberry Crafts in January 2011  and Michelle's Sewing Basket in April 2011.

For now it's back to the quilting for me ... Hugs Jane x

Finally Home

 To those of you who travel a lot - my hat off to you -it takes its toll - 39 hours of flying, waiting, flying etc to get home.  I am happy to have gone away and seen and done the Certified Zentangle Training - it was so well worth the trip, but now I am happy to be home and sleeping in the comfort and familiarity of my own bed and home with my family - I missed my boys (although I'm sure everyone knew I would).

This picture was taken somewhere over the International date line - I missed the 17th of October!

I just loved the movement of the clouds 30,000 feet or so.  Beautiful.

This is the Oakhurst Retreat Centre at Whitinsville MA where I stayed for the week - great hospitality - even a cup of tea (not like I have at home  but near enough! - Thanks Terri and Deacon Ed for looking after us all).

So now I am a Certified Zentangle Teacher ... I take Beginner, Advanced and special Zentangle Inspired Quilting for your Domestic Machine classes.  You can contact me on jane@purrfectlyquilted.com.au if you are interested. 

A great big thankyou to Rick and Maria of Zentangle for their hospitality, teaching and friendship ... it makes Zentangle even more special now that I have been to Whitinsville.  I met so many people (and they all seemed to know me - am I really that loud on my blogs - lol!) they were all friendly and interesting - so many interesting stories ... I have one to share with you later which will make you all smile - certainly gave me a great laugh!

So I am out of action for a couple of days to catch up, recouperate and generally get myself together and refamiliarise myself with my family (mmm does that sound like I have to do some washing, cooking, cleaning and gerally get those two boys of mine sorted out - one 17 and one 50 - oh and the two boy kitties to hug and play with lol!) ...  talk to you all soon.

Happy quilting for now ... Jane x

Early One Saturday Morning

Well ... early yesterday morning at 4am I arose to send off my husband for a day of trout fishing (incidentally - he didn't catch one fish!)   So not wanting to go back to bed I decided to embark on a little project that I have wanted to do for a long time.

I made a needle keep.  Now this embroidery is my first time at this style ... I have done simple back stitcheries but nothing like this before - so be gentle with me - lol.

I used all DMC threads and a bit of silk ribbon that I had.  Those bullion flowers needed to be bigger and the leaves as well - but I am happy with my first attempts.

The whole picture!

The inside - I made it a bit different to the pattern as  I used 100% cotton batting for my needles rather than felt stitched onto the lining.

I also wound on a few skeins of DMC threads that I had sitting in a bag ....

Doesn't this look much better than a bag full of threads.   All neat and tidy.

And a little box for the varigated ones.

To keep it catty ... Jet lazing in the sunshine

Shadow waiting to go outside to play...

Merlin quite happy just being Merlin really.

And to add some quiltyness ... this beautiful big quilt is destined to be a raffle quilt to raise funds for a home that caters to Cancer patients in Hobart ... when I have more details I will post them here ... the raffle is expected to be drawn in April 2011.

These photos really don't do this quilt justice - it is beautiful and the colours are luscious.

Okay ...  a reminder that in 4.5 weeks I am teaching at the Australian Machine Quilting Festival in Adelaide 1-4October .... they have added another class on Friday - so if you wanted to do my class but it clashed with something you were doing on Saturday - you can now do a Friday class - yay!

And then it is only another week and I am off to Massachusetts USA to do a class at the home of Zentangle with Rick and Maria - I can't wait for that either.

Happy quilting for now ... Hugs Jane x

Quilting meets Zentangle

Spearmint Twist ... A green table runner I made for my mother.

I did utilse the quilting space to showcase some background filler quilting and a few ideas I have for border treatment.


In October I will be teaching a class at the AMQF in Adelaide ... this is a machine quilting show that is open to both longarm and domestic quilters ... it is set to be a great show with fantastic teachers both Australian and International ... go and check out the web site and book in for a class.


Below are more pictures of this quilt so you can see the closeup of quilting.   I have used Zentangle patterns and modified them to be suitable for quilting.  Enjoy

This border pattern is based on the Zentangle pattern "Paradox"

I hope you enjoyed looking at these pics ... click on the picture to get a closer look.

Vist the AMQF website here to book classes in Adelaide.   I hope to see you there.

Happy Quilting for now ... Jane x

A little stitching

A beautifully green table runner for my mother ... I need to quilt and bind it before I can give it to her though.

The sun shining through this morning ... a beautiful day down here in Tasmania - we did have a very big frost this morning and now the sun is out - lovely.

This is a weeks worth of evening stitching ... making my paper pieced stars ... not too many to go now and I can start putting the quilt together.

I also did this little stitchery on the weekend ... I have had this lovely little pattern for quite some time ... sent to me from Iddy Biddy Designs in Qld as a little giftie ... it is very cute.

Two beautiful postcards came in the mail today from a swap I am in ... can you guess the theme - lol!

And a  couple of zentangles I have drawn last week - if you click on them you can see them better.  Don't forget ... if you want to learn how to draw these wonderful artworks I am teaching at the Australian Machine Quilting Festival 1-4October 2010 in Adelaide ... classes will book fast!

Another piece of eye candy ....  you can see more over at my zentangle blog ... janemonkstudio.blogspot.com


Now ... back out to the quilting room for me ... Happy quilting ...Jane

Fantastic News - AMQF October 2010

Fantastic News

I will be teaching at the AMQF (Australian Machine Quilting Festival) in Adelaide 1-4 October 2010. 

Do the Zentangle ® and create beautiful background fillers for your quilts - Basic starter class

You may have noticed that Zentangles are taking the world by storm. Zentangle® is an easy to learn method of creating beautiful images from repetitive patterns. It is a fascinating new art form that is fun and relaxing. It increases focus and creativity as well as improving your dexterity and pen control. Zentangle provides artistic satisfaction and an increased sense of personal well being, even if you thought you couldn’t draw ... you really can, one stroke at a time! I have taken Zentangles one step into my world of quilting where I use this method of drawing to discover new designs for background fillers. Inspiration is everywhere we look, even in the fabric we are quilting. So come along to this hands-on class where I will teach you how to draw simple, beautiful Zentangles and then how to adapt these patterns into background fillers for your quilting.

And for those of you who were wondering, I have the founders of Zentangle,  Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas’s blessings to go ahead with this – so a big thank you to them and their trust in my ability.   I will be flying off to the USA the following weekend to do a Certification Class with Rick and Maria in Massachusetts... so I will be one of the first people in Australia to be a CZT (Certified Zentangle Teacher).  

Now my internet connection has been slowed do snail pace ... uploading pics is painfully slow.   I will post a few photos here by Tuesday (when my provider resets my connection speed) ... so come back and have a look – I’d love to hear any comments.  In the meantime – head on over to the AMQF and check out their classes – they are for both longarmers and domestic quilters ... it looks all set to be a great festival and I am sure happy I am going!

Happy Zentangling for now ... Jane

Life is Beautiful ... and Zentangles in Tasmania

I finally finished appliquing the small circles on this quilt - Helen Stubbings - Life is Beautiful.  You might remember that I decided not to use the sashings and I am happy with the effect, how the circles frame the embroidered circles ... now for some fun with quilting this.

See how the coloured circles frame the embroidered circles - lovely.

Finished a quick little quilt for myself ... freehand quilting.

Big hearts and little hearts.

The back - I really shouldn't use white backs - although I love them.

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And if you haven't been over to my other blog site - janemonkstudio ... here is a little bit of what it is about.  My drawing, specifically my ink drawings.   I teach this method of drawing called Zentangles, to anyone even if you think you cannot draw - anyone can do this - really! - it is a wonderful way to practice patterns that you can use for your quilting backgrounds as well.    

So if you want a 2.5 hour art experience, come join me in a workshop where you will learn how to draw some simple string lines and fill them in with patterns.  We have all done doodles, now take it a step further and make your own mini works of art. No previous drawing experience required to participate.  This is an anything goes class with simple tools and techniques you can take away with you and expand into your own style.   You will be surprised at how good your Art will look. Get a group of six together and book in a workshop.