Paducah is Fab.

April 27, 2012 by

I am loving being in the USA.

It’s quite late and I was in a class this evening so I’m a bit tired I’m afraid,

I have been in Paducah for a couple of days now.

There won’t be any photo’s today sorry, I’m using a borrowed computer with no photo shop.  But I promise I will get some on as soon as possible.

Just to keep you up to date with where I have been and what Irene and I have been doing,

we left San Antonio, Texas last Saturday and went to La Grange Quilt Museum.

Then on up to Paducah, Kentucky via Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee, spending three nights on the road.

Highlights were. . .  Natchez, Mississippi and the Natchez Trace Parkway (thanks Linda and Bev xx).

We travelled on it between Natchez and Tupelo.

Since arriving in Paducah we have just been ‘go,go,go’ and my head is still spinning a bit.

We leave Saturday morning to head back to Nashville and catch a flight to Charlottesville VA.

it’s also on Saturday that we say goodbye (for now) to Sherry, we will miss her so much.

I really wanted to write longer but I’ve got a big day again tomorrow with a lecture early so i had better hit the sack, Irene’s gone up already,

til soon,

Margaret

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Filed Under: Travel  

we are having the best time

April 21, 2012 by
image of Eye Of The Needle Exhibition, San Francisco Airport

Thank you for all the lovely bon voyage calls, emails and messages.  Irene and I are having a great time here.  We are still in San Antonio and love it here.

When Irene and I landed in San Francisco on Wednesday we were greeted in the concourse with this

image of Eye Of The Needle Exhibition, San Francisco Airport

Threading The Needle Exhibition, San Francisco Airport

We felt right at home :-)

We had an immediate connecting flight to San Antonio and were warmly welcomed to Texas by our friends Sherry and Darwin.

Sherry is working on a replica of the Rising Sun Quilt, it was a work in progress she bought off Ebay so today we had some show and tell

image of Rising Sun Quilt

Sherry's Rising Sun Quilt in progress, and Mandy.

Fiesta started in San Antonio yesterday, so Irene and I have been doing touristy things today, but of course we have already been to a quilt shop.

Seventh Heaven in New Braunfells where the lovely owner Dixie was very welcoming,

I hade pre-ordered some John Hewson fabric so picked that up

image of John Hewson fabric

John Hewson fabric

 and I did some extra shopping,

Dixie was very kind and gave both Irene and myself a copy each of the San Antonio cookbook, we are keen cooks so will love using them

image of fabric and cookbook

of course I found some fabric I 'had to have'

I’m still feeling I have a touch of the ‘vagues’ so I will sign off

oooh Darwin’s just come in to the office with a glass of red so that’s my cue

adios

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Filed Under: Design, Travel  

A Facebook page

April 15, 2012 by
image of Banyan Tree block prep

You may have noticed the new Facebook icon under the Quilt Station header logo

Yes Quilt Station is on Facebook so if you’re a facebook user, please click on the icon and have a look.

I’ve only done one post so far, it’s about a new quilt Jennifer and I are doing together.

I think this will be a great way for me to post and keep in touch more instantly while I am away, but I will still be blogging in the States.

I’m meeting up with a few of you and I’m really looking forward to that :-)

I’ve organised my sewing projects for the trip.

I wanted to get on with making another Banyan Tree Medallion Quilt, so at first I thought I’d prepare the Hexagons for one of the borders,

even tho I haven’t finished the centre yet.

I spent an afternoon choosing and cutting all the hexagons required and then bagged them in to the 24 blocks.

image of oodles of hexagons

oodles of hexagons

Then I even started to create a few and that’s when I thought

“keeping track of these fiddly bits while I’m away is going to drive me mad”

so I went to plan B

image of Banyan Tree block prep

Banyan Tree Medallion centre block

I figured I should “just get on with the centre block”

so I gathered the appropriate threads ~ the colours I only need a little of I wound on to cardboard.  I have an empty floss container for a thread cutter on the plane, so that’s ready to go in the cabin bag.

The new quilt Jenn and I are doing is another Maltaville Album Quilt, but this time much smaller.

It’s only 25 blocks and it’ll be Red and White, as we hope to have it finished for Linda Collins’ Quilts in the Barn exhibition later this year

Jenn came over last week and we made some more decisions about it.

image of Red and White Maltaville Quilt planning

Further planning for the new Red and White Maltaville Album Quilt

We had previously done a couple of mock ups on EQ 6, with blocks that represent blocks in the quilt, really just to see we had a balance of block types.

But because months can go by without doing anything on it, we’re always trying to figure out which block is what and where we were up to.

We’re a bit hopeless and impatient when it comes to too much preparation, well I am anyway.

Image of Red and White Maltaville Block

Red and White Maltaville block

I prepped a couple of blocks and will try to get them done while away

image of Red and White Maltaville Block

Red and White Maltaville

There’s only 2 full days til I leave tho,

eeeek better get a move on if I want to prep another block.

til soon

Margaret

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Filed Under: Applique, Banyan Tree Medallion Quilt, Broderie Perse, Design, Maltaville Album Quilt 1847, Quilt Patterns, Reproduction Quilts, Smithsonian Fabrics, Travel  

Just a bit of a (long) catch up

April 4, 2012 by
image of Dylan

I was going to say “where do the weeks go. . .”

meaning my US trip is approaching at an alarming rate (2 weeks til departure day and still a lot to do)

However as I was preparing some photo’s for today’s post, it suddenly felt like

“where do the years go?”

as my gorgeous boy child

image of Dylan

is gettin’ hitched, his words, just a few days after my return. I wish I were exagerating.

So in addition to the items on the ‘to do’ list was a worrying “when will I have time to shop for the wedding?”

Well the wedding frock gods were shining on me the other day. I went to the Essendon Quilt Exhibition (always a fabulous show) and timed it with some errands I needed to do in the area. Wedding shopping wasn’t on my mind for that day.

But I chanced upon a shop that looked promising and found something.  It’s the complete opposite of what I had in mind (which was a long silk shirt over trousers)

image of dress

wee bit glam

Only need to decide which shoes to wear.

However, after a nose bleed inducing amount of hours flying back from Boston, I am probably being optimistic about either of those shoes.

“I have been sewing”

Oh boy oh boy have I been sewing!

Last time I posted I had three Maltaville blocks to draft/sew and a couple of pesky calyxes to add to the centre.

Drum roll.

image of Block B2

Block B2

I seem to have not taken a photo of its neighbour B3 (don’t know how or why that happened)

But the final block I drafted and sewed was G7

image of Block G7 progress

Block G7 in progress

This one took some time, not one I could prep in one hit :-(

image of Block G7

Block G7

but finished now none the less.

I have trimmed the Centre block

image of Centre Block

If ever there was a case of the maxim measure twice, cut once this is it.

Of course I measured a lot more than twice LOL.

Then continued with the assembly of blocks

image of joining the blocks

and just yesterday sewed the last seam

image of Maltaville quilt

And now realise I’ve photgraphed it upside down :-(

But that’s as much as I will do on it til I get back,

I will worry about any embroidery and border treatment, not to mention the quilting, later.

I have started prepping some pieces for my travelling sewing, but will show that soon.

I will have my LQG Raffle Quilt to quilt as soon as it comes to me, which I know is imminently.

Here’s a sneak peak as we were assembling it last week

image of Goldfields Quilters raffle quilt 2012

image of Goldfields Quilters Raffle Quilt

They look pretty pleased with themselves don't they

Apologies for the colour, there is wierd overhead lighting which is great to work by but does awful things to photo’s

I am going to be updating some pages on the website this afternoon, I hope, hope, hope you don’t get swamped with emails about updates.

I’ve been a bit scared to do anything on it in case.

But I apologise if it does happen, I’ll be ready to bin the page if it happens again.

til soon

Margaret

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Filed Under: 1800s Reproduction Fabrics, Applique, Design, Maltaville Album Quilt 1847, Reproduction Quilts, Smithsonian Fabrics, Travel