It has been a frenetic week and a half, but so much fun.

I will try to fill you in on what I have been up to, but I feel like I have been spinning around like a whirling dervish.

In fact it may be better to tell it in reverse chronological order, but I hope it doesn’t get too jumbled.

This morning I got up to find Rollo snuggled in to my Mid 19th Century Star quilt, where she had no doubt spent the night.

This quilt has just come home from Holland where it has been residing at Den Haan & Wagenmakers in Amsterdam for a time.

(In fact another quilt is now flying back with Petra and Nel to Holland today…those quilts will  have more frequent flyer miles than me)

Petra Prins and I have been communicating via email for over a year but we finally met in person last weekend at the Sydney Quilt Show, well actually on the footpath on the way back to the hotel is where we met by chance and did “meet and greet” with hugs and kisses.

I was delighted to also meet Petra’s dear friend and business partner Nel Kooiman in Sydney but here is a photo of us together in Castlemaine yesterday. (See, there is no easy way to put a busy week in nice little chronological package)

Petra and Nel are the loveliest of ladies, very giving of their time and friendship. I feel very honoured that they like my work and we are able to do some things together.

With the return of the quilt Petra and Nel surprised me with the most beautiful thank you gift.

These fabrics are absolutely divine, scrumptious…superlatives fail me.

I bought Petra’s book in Sydney along with An Moonen’s book on the History of Dutch Quilts and there is plenty of inspiration for using these fabrics in here…

Petra’s book is published by  Quiltmania

Petra’s book has 19 projects to make and An Moonen’s book is full of fabric/quilt history and photo’s of Antique Dutch quilts from museums and private collections.  They sit on the coffee table, handy to pick up and be inspired.

Inspired.

That is the word that covers the last week and a half for me.

In Sydney Jennifer and I also met Mary and Joe Koval and four of the Quiltmania team – Editor Carol, Guy, Isabelle and Marie Lou.

Along with Petra and Nel we made up a party of ten for dinner at Darling Harbour where we had a great night of chatter and laughter, and learning more about each other… I have made some lovely and inspiring new friends.

At the Quilt Show (proper, as in actually at the Exhibition) Jennifer and I were very impressed with the work on display.  There are a lot of reproduction style quilts which suited us very nicely, but also great Contemporary quilts and Art quilts.

I took copious photo’s and want to show some of what I saw over the next few weeks, but I need to write to get permission from a few quilters first, some I know who you are and a couple I have to track down first.

However, I do have permission to show you this quilt which really ‘grabbed’ me. Thank you Linda.

That’s the title of this quilt by Linda Butcher. Jenn and I spent ages in front of this one, we both really liked the way Linda had taken the shapes from the fabric and created them elsewhere in the quilt with quilting and applique (which is pretty much what her artist’s statement said)  Great use of  ‘Fussy Cutting’ too.

The following day, Jennifer and I headed out to Quiltsmith and were chatting about the show and with staff and customers, when I mentioned a quilt and how much I liked it, showed the photo on my phone and the lady behind the counter said ‘That’s my quilt”, so she was happy to let me show it here for you.

But I digress and have jumped forward a day.

On Saturday night we met up for dinner and cocktails at The Rocks (a part of Sydney near the Opera House) with one of the Maltaville Quilt ladies, Kerry.

We had never met Kerry before but had great fun, chatted for hours about quilts (the ones we’ve made and the ones we’re going to make), quilt shows, quilting travel…

We vowed to get up early on Sunday, we tore around The Exhibiton some more,  raced out to do some shopping at Quiltsmith and just managed to rearrange the suitcases with the Quiltsmith purchases before the Hotel/airport shuttle arrived.  We were exhausted when we got to the airport Sunday late afternoon, way ahead of time but I prefer to relax when I get to the airport and luckily Jenn feels the same so we travel well together…A good book each (mine with paper pages and Jenn’s one of the digital things) and a couple of hours of quiet time was just what we needed.

And, getting back to that photo of Petra, Nel and me up the top, that was taken yesterday at the special Castlemaine Applique Group meeting where our guests for the day were, Petra & Nel, Mary & Joe Koval and Carol & Guy.   200 women stitching (and a couple of men), fabulous quilts for show and tell, so much creativity in one room…t’was wonderful.

Now things are returning to normal ~ quilting customer quilts (Melbourne’s Quilt show is later this month), Maltaville stitching (I took a block to Sydney and did …Nothing), Pattern printing.

But I sat quietly last night with graph paper and pencil and drew some new quilt possibilities…