What does that have to do with commiting to cut?

I don’t think either country is seeking to cut ties with Great Britain anytime real soon, so nothing really!

It’s just that it’s our  first long weekend of winter, so I hibernate… and in the best British tradition, I potter.

The fire is roaring & maybe I’ll bake a cake this afternoon.

A suitably British looking fire place, not mine alas.

And then make something hearty for dinner.

But most importantly, I’m making time for sewing more of this.

And I’m ‘commiting to cut’.

I have sewn the last flower down during the week (I know pretty poor effort for a whole week LOL) and now want to

concentrate on the basket.

It’s a big shape and I always intended to break it up a bit with some reverse applique to reveal more of the blue.

I had only a very loose idea in my head, perhaps  a trio of shapes, curving-ish.

I traced the basket again on to paper and using the paper cut method, folded and… cut.

good old Scherenschnitte, in its simplest form

Open it out and Voila!

Yeah, that's okay

Try it on for size.

I think that could work.

I fancy that I work quite impulsively, all this has taken about five minutes, but then something happens and I start to vacillate.

I’m pretty sure it’s a Libra thing.

I have to fiddle about and start changing things.

Maybe it could use some circles? There are lots of circles in the block.

Oh no, go back!

It suddenly looks like a face, or a ghost.

Maybe it always looked like a ghost.

What is it people say?

Quit while you’re ahead.

If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

Learn to leave well enough alone.

Well I haven’t cut yet, but I have drawn it on so I feel commited.

That pencil mark's not going to come off easily so I'm ready to cut.

I’m just finishing my coffee and then I’m cutting, starting with just the centre shape.  Just in case I want to ‘tweak’ a little.

Enjoy your weekend, whether it be long or short, hot or cold.

til soon

Margaret

Why?

I turned the living room in to a Photographic Studio!

I had finally found time to set aside a day (but then needed two) to photograph quilts and get pattern covers designed for a ‘stack’ of quilts.

A stack of quilts to do, some Antique, some new.

I had planned to do this way back in February or even March! Outside… on a fine and wind free and DH not busy & can assist me kind of day.

Well it just didn’t happen LOL, then I figured surely I can do this inside.

DH isn’t having any non busy days but my friend Catie was here and wanting something to do.

The fun began with the moving of furniture, setting up the quilt frame and dusting off the tripod.

Then bringing in extra lights and doing test shots to test the light- shadowing vs glare and which camera gave the best result.

Phew.

Rollo was exhausted watching all that.

"are you nearly finished? I can't sleep, it's too bright"

Eventually we were on a roll and had a good system in place. Catie photographed and uploaded to the pattern cover template

while I gave her the info to enter… Quilt name, description and size.

Catie is quicker with her own computer and language.

I should mention here that Catie is visiting from France and English is not her first language and French is not mine.  But we are both improving at a remarkable rate

But I now speak (and even think) English in an odd slow and deliberate way, with a French accent.  I’m sure it won’t last.  But even DH is doing it!

The antique quilts needed a bit of tweaking of course, you can do wonders with a bit of string and double sided sticky tape.

donner un 'tweak'

I shooed Maisie off this quilt so I could finish the binding and add it to the Quilt Stack.

Antique Sail Boats, a new Crib Quilt

There is still a little bit to do but the hard part is done and the living room was back to normal for Friday evening.

Merci Catie...still smiling after two days.

 I haven’t had much evening sewing time the last few days but hope to get this new block finished during the week so I can decide what to add to it next, it will probably turn in to a medallion quilt.

Have a great weekend, it’s cold and wet here but I’m enjoying the time at home.

Happy stitching

til soon
Margaret

 I used up some smallish pieces from my remnant bins, rather than larger pieces from the shelves.

Of course I have hardly made a dent in the stash LOL, but I had fun choosing from pieces of my very favourite repro’s.

“Hours of innocent pleasure”

Scrappy Sail Boats

The top has been finished for ages but this afternoon I got it on the machine for quilting.

The background was in the shelf stash so that can count as stash busting too can’t it?

I don’t often blog about machine quilting, but on this quilt I’m trying out Precensia Thread for the first time.  I prefer not to trial a new thread on a customer quilt so had to wait until I could load one of my own.

It’s a nice fine 50 weight and it is behaving itself…that is no thread breakage, yay.

Feather success

Now for some eye candy of favourite repro’s, plus a ‘ring in’.

The Madder/Gold ombre (top middle sail boat) is one of my very favourite fabrics, I also have it in blue.

Of course there is a piece of RJR Smithsonian fabric, the large scale floral.

The yellow Scrappy Dot (Judie Rothermel from ages ago) is another fave.

I have large pieces of both these fabrics but did only use little cut pieces in this quilt…honest.

And this next one is not actually a repro but I felt it could be used as such, we need to think outside the box in quilt shops.

The one in the top right corner, I think it works.

I have made a start on the quilting and should have it done over the weekend.

But right now it’s Friday night and I’ve knocked off for the day.

I have some hand stitching ready to go, the fire is lit and Escape to the Country is on the telly.

Bliss.

Enjoy your weekend

til soon

Margaret

A rose from my garden, for you

I’m feeling a little neglectful, disappearing since February… eeek

It wasn’t intentional, and I wish I could say I’ve been here, there and everywhere.

But in fact I’ve mostly been right here at home, just doing stuff.

Which has been very nice.

All of a sudden, it’s Autumn and I love it, this is my favourite season.

Late afternoon and long shadows.

As you can see I have a few roses hanging in there,

this is typical of Central Victoria where the roses will get a second bloom after summer.

But the trees are giving it away

there won't be a second bloom of apricots.

In the Northern Hemisphere, Spring Market is nigh in Portland, Oregon.

I would love to have been there but alas, not this year.

However I have just sent a quilt over for Marianne Elizabeth‘s booth there.

I’ve been busy designing and making the quilt using her newest fabric range

Tatiana by RJR fabrics.

Stars and Stripes.

I moved the sewing machine in to the house when the fabric arrived, parked it up on the end of the dining table so I could sew late in to the evenings.

Strip piecing frenzy.

The stars I made using English Papers, that was a lot of triangles.

English Paper piecing

However I had the top complete in four days, but that did include sewing well in to the evenings.

Not bloomin’ bad huh, if I do say so myself.

Below is a little bit of distraction, I fancy making three more for a centre of something.

Just messing about with fabric.

It uses a Margot Krager Dargate Indigo, I have quite a bit of this and the others from the same range

so will potter about with this over the winter.

 Yesterday I picked up the latest copy of Homespun magazine.

They have a whole new look and I like it a lot.

Homespun magazine #120 on sale now

 Inside there is the pattern for one of my quilts,

Eastleigh

This is the first time I’ve had a quilt in Homespun so I’m feeling pleased and just a bit chuffed.

They’ve done a really nice job with the styling, I haven’t shown my cat that there’s another cat sitting on her quilt tho

For the time being she’s making do with this one

I’m off to sew, something…anything.

til soon, a lot sooner I hope

happy stitching

Margaret

I take the whole month *off* so I can *work* on my own things, bit of a contradiction I know.

However it’s all very enjoyable for me so doesn’t feel like work, and I often use the term ‘pottering about’ so it’s all very much at a summer pace.

This January my main tasks were to get some patterns written up and get the Maltaville Album Quilt ready as a complete pattern package.  Plus I wanted to get two of my own quilts completed (borders on or blocks joined) and quilted, they are just simple, fun quilts and I planned to try new pantograph quilt patterns on them.

And on the home front there were some special cooking things I wanted to do, fancy myself as a bit of a foodie I do

So how much did I achieve and how far did I get sidetracked LOL.

two modern quilts finished off and quilted.

I have sewn the binding on but have yet to hand stitch to the back, that can wait ’til Autumn.

The one on the left is a quilt I started ages ago with a Layer Cake of fun, modern fabrics.  The pattern is Memories of Japan by Suzanne Lyle and is especially for layer cakes.  The quilt on the right is the result of playing with some bold geometric prints that came home with me after a trip to Amitie quilt shop in Melbourne.  Of course both these quilts were intended to be a quick and fun diversion but took about four and two years respectively to complete.  Haha like I say January is the month to potter and finish.

I did get all the Maltaville Block patterns  redone to A3 pages and added new history info to the pattern sheets.

Maltaville Album Quilt centre block

What can slow me down is getting the photo’s suitable for pattern covers so that’s the hold up with that.  It’s always a two person job for starters.  I have several quilts to do now so a day will be set aside in the very near future. Very near!

I wrote up the patterns for two antique quilts and they are only waiting on their photo’s.

I did this one

and this one

didn’t get as far as I’d hoped on this one

or this one

I got a little side tracked with this new basket quilt

but haven’t actually done anymore on it since I showed it last

No name except basket quilt

And more than a little side tracked on this

Eagle Quilt

The next exciting thing is the Eastleigh Quilt and pattern appearing in the April issue of Homespun magazine (volume 14 #5)

Eastleigh Quilt

Eastleigh is an English Frame quilt, named after my Grandmother’s home town in Hampshire UK.  Today *would be* her 108th birthday.  I had such fun creating this quilt for Homespun and can’t wait to see it in print.

happy stitching and til soon

Margaret

]]> http://www.quiltstation.com.au/just-catching-up/feed 10 http://www.quiltstation.com.au/documenting-a-smithsonian-heritage-quilt-kit http://www.quiltstation.com.au/documenting-a-smithsonian-heritage-quilt-kit#comments Wed, 09 Jan 2013 04:12:31 +0000 Margaret http://www.quiltstation.com.au/?p=2462 One of the things I was lucky enough to bring back from the US, due entirely to my friend Sherry’s generosity, thank you , was a quilt kit from the Smithsonian Institute.  I will make it up but instead of just ripping it open (my usual M O) we talked about documenting it as it was unpacked.  At over 20 years old this is quite an interesting piece of quilt making history so that is what I am going to do today, in real time, that is I will photograph and upload after each stage of seeing what is actually in there.  I’ll only hit publish at the end though, that would be annoying to get copious posts in quick succession wouldn’t it.

So here goes, this is what came home with me

American Heritage Quilt Collection, wall hanging.

It cost $64.95 at the time, which seems pretty steep to me.  Especially for American prices and this is 20+ years ago but it is the real deal from the Smithsonian, bearing their logo.

It's authentic with the Smithsonian's logo on the packaging.

I’m going to slice along the bottom of the packet to open it, rather than cutting the top off.

Now that it’s out of the packet you can see the cover better

Tulip Garden, Wall Hanging with backing 40" x 40" Pre-stenciled wholecloth quilt.

I knew what to expect in regards to fabric in the kit (tho I haven’t got that far yet) but the first thing I saw gave me an “oh this is interesting” moment.

The History of the Quilts (Provenance)

Here are the five quilts which the Smithsonian licensed to be kitted up and their provenance.  I didn’t know the Maltaville Album Quilt was one chosen, here titled Floral Album Applique ~ second from top.  Mine is called Tulip Garden Applique.  Click on the above image to zoom in closer.

The reverse of the above page shows the pictures of the different quilt kits available, 11 in all.

Five are wholecloth "white on White" kits and six are applique.

 I wasn’t intending for this to be a post about the Maltaville Album Quilt, but this just came out of the packet, it’s real time remember

So, the Maltaville (here called Floral Album Applique) was available as a quilt 88″ x 114″ 12 blocks with one large centre block and surrounded by applique borders  or  as a wallhanging 40″ x 40″ .

Wow :-0

Also included in the paperwork is a 7 page set of general instructions prepared by  Holice Turnbrow.

I’m up to revealing the fabric, unless there is something else folded up inside.

Sorry, these two would have to be the most boring photo’s, pretty much all white.  In the photo below I accidently hit auto on the image adjustment but a happy mistake as it does show up the printed applique pattern better. However it makes the quality of the fabric look terrible when in fact it is a very nice quality.  I had wondered if I might substitute a different backgound but after seeing it I am happy with this.  That’s both the backing fabric and the printed applique background you see.

After zooming in on the photo I think there’s elements of a pomegranate there.

I’ll fold that back up and see what else there is.

Pre-cut binding supplied

Before folding up again, I just had a look inside the backing fabric and there is the pre-cut binding, one continuous piece, even joined at a 45 degree angle.

A bag of fabric and some more instructions by the look of things

Now we’re down to the applique fabrics, I knew these were fabrics I had seen before because of course I could see them from the back of the kit when I saw it for the first time.  I had remarked to Sherry about the coincidence of these being from the same range my LQG used for our very first raffle quilt for our very first exhibition in Castlemaine, Vic. November 1992.  So these fabrics would have been 1991 or early 1992 in to Australia and purchased from our local quilt shop Threadbear Quilters.

Applique fabric and a label

There’s a half yard (18 ” x 44″) of the red print by Marcus Brothers Textiles Inc.

12 ” x 22″ of the green print also by Marcus Brothers,

Bias cut strip of the green is included ~ pre joined,

and a plain cheddar piece, 11″ x 6″.

And a label.

Another set of instructions, these one specific to this project and again by Holice Turnbrow.

I think I would really like to make this up, but would prefer to keep this kit intact.

It would be great to make it in some RJR Smithsonian fabrics and I always have plenty of plain background on the shelf.

 I’ve just had a look on the book shelves for a photo of the original, sure enough I found one.  If you have  Mimi Dietrich’s book Quilts from the Smithsonian, That Patchwork Place publishers 1995 you’ll find a photo on page 40

I had better get a move on, it’s that same LQG’s first meeting for the year in about two hours, I want to go as I haven’t been for a couple of months.

til soon

thanks for visiting

Margaret

]]> http://www.quiltstation.com.au/documenting-a-smithsonian-heritage-quilt-kit/feed 3 http://www.quiltstation.com.au/summer-sewing http://www.quiltstation.com.au/summer-sewing#comments Wed, 02 Jan 2013 03:30:17 +0000 Margaret http://www.quiltstation.com.au/?p=2438 The temperature is rising as the week rolls along,

30 today (86F) 38 tommorow (100F) and 40 Friday (104F) and back to 34 Saturday (93F)

It’s a good time to be a hermit which I confess I am in January.  Apart from two walks around the corner to our little shop for mail/paper/milk I have not left the property since Christmas eve!!! Bliss.

My little studio is not airconditioned but it’s still quite pleasant in here, not sure how I’ll feel by this afternoon :-0

On Saturday Irene and Jenn came over, the three of us had not had a chance to get together to talk about what we want to do through the year, singly as well as collectively.  So it was a meeting of Turn Left for Harmony, all meetings should be like this.

I am ticking things off that list of ‘summer jobs’, one was to make the remaining three cushions of my intended set of four.

Possibly it is 18 months or two years since I made the first cushion, but happily all four are now made, tick.

Next job…

Work through the steps for making Perfect Bias Stems, 1/8″ wide using a set of laminated instructions purchased in Houston from

Amidon Quiltworks,

Previously I just made a 1/4″ stem with the bias maker and folded it in half but the bulk was less than ideal.

 Amidon Quiltworks sells a two sided laminated instruction sheet for Perfect Bias Stems designed by P3Designs and the sample stem Amidon gave me was 1/8″, perfectly bendy and flat.  Granted it was made with Batik and that is tightly woven and does behave itself well, but I was keen to have a crack at it.

I followed all the steps (20) carefully, it has been well thought out and I won’t show too much as it is copyrighted to P3Designs.

I used an RJR  Smithsonian fabric, Stem #1 worked well but I was a little disappointed in the fabric wastage, for the next stem I altered the instructions slightly to compensate.  It is a little bit fiddly (but these are skinny stems) but after making the six stems I needed I had worked out where I could minor tweak what is a very good method devised by P3.

My stems actually ended up being 1/8″ to 3/16″ wide, but I know where I went wrong and perhaps the coarser weave had something to do with it too but I don’t use Batiks so the method needs to work for my fabrics.

The Verdict… I am happy, but could be a bit happier, with the results and the stems are not bulky.  I’ll use this method again.

So what’d  I do with those stems?

LOL, started a new quilt of course

Some Dutch Chintz, some Smithsonian... what a lovely mix

This morning I started chooosing the flowers, it will be Broderie Perse for those, and settled on carefully selecting flowers from (but felt like hacking in to) the panel from the 1810 Chintz Medallion, Virginia Quilt Museum range by Quilting Treasures. Luckily I had two as I needed to cut in to them both to get the flowers I needed.

1810 Chintz Medallion by Quilting Treasures.

As is typical with me, I really don’t know what this will be nor how big, I’m just having fun with it for now.

ready for stitching when it gets too hot to do much else.

I didn’t plan for a butterfly in this block but as the panel had one I thought I might as well use it

Off to clean up the table and then play some more before, it’s now mid afternoon and the temp is still OK in here.

Thanks for dropping by

Margaret

I think even if I squint it can’t still be the 25th somewhere in the world so I hope you all had a fabulous day yesterday with the ones you love.

My son is still here as his wife had to work today so he and his Dad are playing with boy toys in the shed and,

after a morning of putting the house back together, I am pottering/tidying in my studio after a perfect day yesterday with my nearest and dearest.

Life is good.

I have a list as long as my arm of things I want to do over January, so a clean and organised studio space is a must.  But of course it doesn’t take long for me to mess it up again.

I still had sitting on the floor the bundles of fabric I bought in Houston, I want to show you them as there are some great fabrics for the repro afficionados amongst us.

I bought these at Cotton in the Cabin ‘s booth at Festival.  Unfortunately the website doesn’t show these wonderful bundles,

labeled Walnut Root Dye circa 1850-1860

 but they are worth a phone call or email I think if you were looking for early repro’s.  I don’t know where in the States they are situated.

Here is the same bundle unrolled for a better look, I’m not sure if Walnut Root Dye circa 1850-1860 was the name of the range or if this is just a mix of era appropriate fabric prints/colours.

these only have Baum Textiles on the selvage

This next bundle is labeled Bannister Hall c 1830 and this was a range, called Bannister Hall Summerhouse by Xenia Cord for Freespirit.

I don’t recall seeing this range at all in Australia so would be interested to know if it came to our shores.

Bannister Hall Summerhouse by Xenia Cord

I already had those two fat quarters of one print from an earlier US shopping spree so was thrilled to get another fat quarter to play with.

Next up is American Beauty.

American Beauty by Mary Koval for Windham Fabrics

A few of the above I have in the stash already but am down to scarily small amounts so very pleased to have found some more

and the last bundle I bought, although I should’a, could’a, would’a bought many more was titled Koval and Friend,

just a gorgeous selection of 19th c prints

and is a nice selection of prints.  I checked with Mary and she just laughed,  she couldn’t remember who the friend was but two selvages hint at it being Bethany Fuller.  In the absence of complete selvage info I am guessing these were all Windham fabrics.  A few I had seen before but others were new to me.

From a different booth, I did take a card but can’t put my hand on it at the mo, I found an early piece which intrigued me.

In the picture below it is the base print I found, Discovery by Jinny Beyer for RJR fabrics,

Discovery by Jinny Beyer for RJR Fabrics. Commemorating Columbus's 1492 discovery of the Americas.

a commemorative range 1492-1992 of Christopher Columbus’s discovery of the Americas.  The other four fabrics surfaced when my friend Sherry said “I’ve got some of that range” and there ensued a flurry of activity searching the shelves.  A bit of swapping followed and now I have five pieces from the range.

During the same shelf search, these early Jinny Beyer Shirttails surfaced, and thanks to Sherry’s generosity these found their way home with me too.

Jinny Beyer Shirttails for RJR Fabrics

Trawling Sherry’s fabric stash ended up being a Jinny hunt and I have to show you this because I think it’s beautiful.

Jinny Beyer for RJR Fashion Fabrics, that's all the selvage says.

A bit of picotage, full blown flowers in that brilliant blue I love ~ it hints at being teal, brown and some Perkins Purple.  Is this one of the best repro’s or what? To my mind it is and it’s from a time when we didn’t really buy repro’s cos we hadn’t coined that term yet.

From Cotton in the Cabin I also bought these two prints from South Africa, these are on the website.

Shweshwe quilting fabric, printed in South Africa by Da Gama Textiles

I think with some tea-dyeing these could pass for mid 19th c Prussian Blue repro’s.  That’s on my list to do through January,

add to list ~ buy plain pack tea bags.

Well it’s nearly 2013 and I am reflecting on what an amazing 2012 I have had, I feel very, very fortunate.

I have had some wonderful opportunities arise and I am grateful I was able to grab them with gusto.  I have met quite a few overseas blogging friends in person this year, you all know who you are and it has been brilliant to meet you all (and y’all).  I have made closer friendships online with others even if we haven’t met up ~ yet… And I have met and made new friends so I am a lucky girl indeed.

Thank you for dropping by and being interested in what I am doing here in my little neck of the woods, I really appreciate the support and friendships I have made here.

But I’m not done yet

Let me tell you about a couple of blogs.

The first is called PinMoneyQuilts and belongs to a friend from Melbourne, Linda Bear.

Linda had a quilt accepted in to Houston this year and I was pleased to be able to see it and congratulate Linda on her acheivement.

This is the quilt titled Best of Friends, it’s all reverse applique and is stunning.

Best of Friends by Linda Bear, thank you Linda for letting me show it and congratulations.

 The next blog belongs to another Kiwi lass, but unlike me Sharon still lives there.

I met Sharon at the Melbourne Quilt Market, she is the owner and creative force of Sharon Keightly Designs.

As soon as I saw Sharon’s quilts I had to chat with her and was amazed to learn that her applique is all done the invisible machine way, something that’s been on my mind to try for ages but is now on the tangible list for January.

For tonight though it’s the old fashioned needle-turn way as I start block number three of the Cannonsburg Quilt

I should be a bit further along but have not done any hand sewing for about two weeks !!!  It’s been prepped and sitting by my chair but there’s just been too much to do in the lead up to Christmas, so a quiet night in with stitching sounds good to me.

Now that the studio is tidy I will have fun in here and hope you get the time to drop by to see my progress.

til soon

happy stitching

Margaret

Applique block

But I’m pleased to say

“that’s one block down and eight to go”

Today I prepped another block in anticipation of something good on the telly tonight,

I haven’t checked, I’m just hoping there is :-0

In progress

Click on the picture for a better view, you’ll see that I don’t mark my background fabric at all,

but I do press the halfway marks, vertical/horizontal and diagonal.

I have a large light box (but even it isn’t quite large enough to fit these very large blocks)

and I prefer to just lay the background fabric over the pattern sheet.

The applique shapes are marked with the stitch line directly on to the right side of the fabric with whatever will show up.

In this case all the fabrics are marked with a white pen except the lighter blue which has been marked with a frixion pen (heat activated) so I have to remember not to iron that one.

I have finished this quilt below which you have seen snippets of

 here

and it looks like this

Quilt previously known as Vintage

Okay I know, you can’t see that much of it but a girl’s got to keep the odd thing up her sleeve.

It does have a name now, it only had a working title of Vintage which either had to go or be extended somehow.

I have decided to call it Eastleigh after the town in Hampshire where my Grandmother was born.  It rolls off the tongue easily.

I can tell you that this quilt is destined for Homespun magazine next year, about mid way through so don’t hold your breath just yet.

And I thought I’d just share with you that this elderly lady is still hanging in there despite a few scares this year

" I know I forget lots of things but I don't think I've eaten yet"

Rollo has just had her summer clip and is looking forward to Christmas, just around the corner now.

I’ll be back before then of course,

’til soon

Margaret

]]> http://www.quiltstation.com.au/being-a-bit-of-a-slow-coach-with-this-one/feed 15 http://www.quiltstation.com.au/back-home-after-a-whirlwind-visit-to-texas http://www.quiltstation.com.au/back-home-after-a-whirlwind-visit-to-texas#comments Wed, 14 Nov 2012 23:25:13 +0000 Margaret http://www.quiltstation.com.au/?p=2329 I’m not sure how to capture two busy and exciting weeks in a single blog post, but I’ll give it a go.

Jenn and I arrived in San Antonio in time for dinner on the Monday evening (the 22nd ), having left Sydney just prior to Monday lunchtime!

It’s always a pleasure spending time with our good friends Sherry and Darwin, their home has become quite the home away from home.

America was getting ready for Halloween (and Thanksgiving too going by the amount of pumpkins I saw), it was neat to see as we don’t celebrate that here in Australia.

Anyone for Pumpkin?

Of course the reason Jenn and I were there was to attend Quilt Market, arriving on the Friday morning to help set-up the booth.

We had to set off early in the morning from San Antonio to get to Houston, and because I am pathologically punctual we set off at 5.00am which allowed plenty of time.

On the road, it got light soon enough.

It was great to meet up with Marianne again and also to meet her ‘girl Friday’ Judy, we all hit it off really well and the time together just flew by.

First up was ‘Schoolhouse’ which I knew nothing about, but now I do know… 30 minutes (that’s 30 minutes, not 31) of manic activity showing attendees what you will be showcasing at Market.  Marianne spoke and watched the clock ticking, Judy and I held up all the quilts and Jenn handed out flyers and photographed the whole affair with three cameras as of course we all wanted our own record!!

getting ready for the next quilt on the list

Harmony Rose being seen for the first time at Market. She got an "aaaah" moment.

Then it was racing back downstairs to start hanging the quilts in their places on the booth.

Judy and I did take turns up the ladder, and it sure was nice having someone taller than I for a change.

At Market there is always a well known face or name going past.

A spot of celebrity spotting, with Eleanor Burns.

The next day, we and the booth were READY.

Marianne Elizabeth for RJR, ready to roll.

 We also caught up with quite a few friends at Market, dinner with Mary and Joe Koval, Petra Prins and the Quiltmania crew. We all went to Mama Ninfa’s  which was fantastic.  Really good Mexican food and with a wonderful vibe to the place.

Margaritas and munchies.

I had a couple of real highlights to this trip, the first was finally meeting a good blog friend in person.  We had tried to meet up earlier this year but the gods were against us that time.  But this time Michele from Betwixt the Betweens and I met up, along with another friend Gina (whom I always knew as Janet!!) and we had a super time together, as if we had known each other for years.  We were so busy talking and laughing that we didn’t get photo’s sorry.

And there was a perfect deja vu moment on the streets of La Grange, just outside the Texas Quilt Museum, literally steps from where Irene and I had met Kathy in April…

Irene Blanck, quilter Kathy from California and Texas Quilt Museum staff member Julie, April 2012

… Kathy and I locked eyes and grinned like cheshire cats in November.

Fancy meeting you here

We were thinking “were we wearing the same clothes last time”? No, phew.

And a big, big thrill was seeing a Mid 19th C Star Quilt hanging in the European Championship section of the Houston Quilt show.

I can’t really describe how it felt, I guess the only thing better is having your own quilt hanging there.

Mid 19th c Star Quilt by Kea Gutker de Geus from Velserbroek, The Netherlands. Quilted by Elly Prins. Awarded first place ~ Traditional.

Kea has used beautiful Dutch Chintzes in her quilt, it is stunning.

I will be back with some other quilts to show.

Thanks for visiting,

til soon

Margaret

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