Design

Autumn ~ gardening and sewing.

May 4, 2013 by 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

Maisie!!

I’m off to sew, something…anything.

til soon, a lot sooner I hope

happy stitching

Margaret

6 Comments

Filed Under: Design, Eastleigh, Musings, Reproduction Quilts

Just catching up

February 18, 2013 by Margaret

What a great January I had!

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

12 Comments

Filed Under: 1800s Reproduction Fabrics, Antique Quilts, Applique, Design, Eastleigh, Quilt Patterns, Reproduction Quilts

Summer Sewing

January 2, 2013 by Margaret

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

5 Comments

Filed Under: 1800s Reproduction Fabrics, Applique, Broderie Perse, Design, Musings

Repro Fabrics Galore, Merry Stitching, and Happy Blogging in 2013

December 26, 2012 by Margaret

Oh dear this blog post was to be my pre-Christmas catch up ~ oooops

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

10 Comments

Filed Under: 1800s Reproduction Fabrics, Applique, Design, Musings, Travel

Being a bit of a slow coach with this one

November 27, 2012 by 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

16 Comments

Filed Under: 1800s Reproduction Fabrics, Applique, Design, Eastleigh, Reproduction Quilts, Smithsonian Fabrics

Texas bound.

October 20, 2012 by Margaret

I’ve got to get a little more frequent with this blogging caper,

the second half of this year has flown by and many times in the last 4 or 5 months I’ve felt like a whirling dirvish.

I hinted last time about a new quilt to be introduced to you all in a fitting manner.

And I think Irene, Jennifer and I are as ready as we’ll ever be to introduce you to

Drum roll…

Harmony Rose

Harmony Rose

Harmony Rose showcases the newest fabric range Arabella Rose by

Marianne Elizabeth Classically Home

Jenn and I are super excited to be taking the quilt to Fall Market in Houston next week to release the pattern.

You can read more about Harmony Rose’s inception on our new web-blog

Turn Left for Harmony

and the beautiful fabrics we used for it can be seen here on Marianne’s site.

I’m sure you’ll be seeing them at a quilt shop near you soon.

Jenn and I will also visit Festival so maybe we’ll see you there

we sure hope so

til soon,

Margaret

4 Comments

Filed Under: Applique, Design, Travel

Time flies when you’re sewing.

September 20, 2012 by Margaret

I am astonished to see it’s a month (or so) since I posted last, but I take comfort noticing that some of my favourite bloggers are doing the same. Weeks and months are whizzing by in the blink of an eye.

Since May I’ve had an internal monologue of… “life will get a bit less manic, I just have to get through July and August”.

I think I started breathing again on the first of September.

Since I was here last I have…

been on a lovely weekend away with Linda, Bev, Jenn and Debbie to Sorrento.
been working steadily on the Vintage Quilt.
enjoyed a day with lots of other quilters and the Chester County Criswell Quilt at Linda Collin’s home.
finished the last bit of embroidery and finally started quilting the Maltaville Quilt.
finished a quilt for the US with Jenn and Irene (more about that later, we’ve had to keep it very quiet until recently)
been teaching at Patch n Quilt in Gisborne.
dragged out the Welsh Quilt for more hand quilting (the weather’s been miserable)
been quilting quilts for the Goldfields Quilters (my LQG) exhibition next month ~ all customers’ quilts done, just mine to do now phew.
finally made a start on reproducing one of the Antique Quilts I bought in Paducah, but I only started that today so does that count in this list? Oh what the heck, course it can count.

Pictures would be nice wouldn’t they.

Linda blogged ages ago here about the Sorrento Retreat but here’s a few more pics. It really was a super weekend

Now that's novel

I love this one of Linda,

soooo many circles

As well as other sewing, I sewed more circles on the Vintage quilt,

We watched a wonderful movie called The Help.

We all cried, ssshhh don’t tell anyone.

Do see it if you can.

And there were so many books to browse, not just sewing but also our other passion…

cooking.

And just take a look at the quilt on the floor and keep it in your mind.

Books galore

The Vintage Quilt is coming along nicely, I finally got my design wall up in the cottage.

That sure helped.

Progressing nicely

Just a couple more borders and it will be done.

The day at Linda’s enjoying the Chester County Criswell Quilt was fantastic.

Linda has blogged about it here

Many thanks to Sharon for making the quilt available for us all to enjoy, and to Linda and Bev for a fabulous day, so well organised.

The Maltaville Quilt went on the machine yesterday

I’m sooooo very happy to see this at the next and final stage.

Do you remember this Red and Green quilt, it was one I purchased in the US in April?

June Orr's 1849 applique quilt

I’ve been intending to recreate it as a pattern and I had drafted the blocks a little while ago.

But today, I finally got fabric happening.

The impetus?

I’m going on a retreat with my LQG this weekend and I needed some handwork ~ easy to transport, not too taxing.

But warning, it’s not Red and Green.

One of the large blocks

I think I must have trouble with two fabric quilts.

I love them~ I really do, but it’s just there are so many great fabrics that it’s hard to stop at two!

So now for the Irene’s, Jenn’s and my ‘secret’ quilt.

If you’re on Facebook you could take a little look at the link below then I’ll try and fill you in as best I can cos it’s a bit of a long story.

http://www.facebook.com/MarianneElizabethDesigns

Are you back? Did you see a quilt that looked like the one on Linda’s floor in Sorrento?

Crazy huh!

When Irene and I were away in the US we met fabric and quilt designer Marianne Elizabeth.

I could talk for an hour on the serendipity that brought the three of us together, but trust me, it was a fabulous bit of fate.

So, we chatted about fabric and quilts, then Marianne showed us some pieces from her newest fabric collection

Arabella Rose

and invited us to design a new quilt using them.

What a thrill.

So a big part of why I (and Jenn & Irene too if I can be so bold as to speak for them) have been a teeny bit quiet around blogland is that we have been sewing, and sewing and sewing and sew…

The quilt is called Harmony Rose and we want to introduce it to you properly ~ and in a special way ~ very soon.

You’ll just have to be patient a little bit longer, there’s just a bit more to do on the promotion.

And there’ll be a pattern of course.

I’m going to sign off for the night, it’s quite late oooh it’s suddenly tomorrow.

til soon

Margaret

1 Comment

Filed Under: 1800s Reproduction Fabrics, Antique Quilts, Applique, Design, Maltaville Album Quilt 1847, Quilt Patterns, Reproduction Quilts

Vintage

August 4, 2012 by Margaret

That’s still the working title, not even Vintage Quilt or Vintage … anything. Just Vintage, it’s the best I could come up with.

I took it to Mill Rose Cottage last Thursday, it was nice to catch up with Sue and the regulars, though I have hardly been a regular, this was the first chance I had to get there since April.

A bit of Sewing and a bit of Shopping, happy days.

I grabbed a copy of the book History Repeated by Betsy Chutchian and Carol Staehle.

I love to read about a group of women getting together through a mutual love of quilts and it leading to such a wonderful project. And of course, amongst the Divas there are a couple of names I recognise

I have been over in the studio today as I really needed to have a tidy up. I confess that I do work in a bit of a mess, functioning quite well until I get fed up with myself and get more orderly.

I get sick of rifling through stuff

The templates were piling up so they needed to be put away once finished with.

Templates so far

And my working book was looking quite empty despite the centre being nearly complete.

That’s bad, I use this as the basis of my pattern writing so it’s important that I keep it up to date while it’s all fresh in my mind.

So I updated that with instructions and fabric samples.

Quilt Workbook, plus a pile of circles

I’ve sewn on the last of the leaves and then needed to make some more circles. I have a nice little pile there but I still need about 20 more.

But I got a bit bored and decided to come show you how it’s looking so far.

I haven’t got a design wall up in the studio yet, I kept rearranging the furniture so wasn’t sure where I wanted it for awhile. But now I have decided and yesterday went to Spotlight to get some cheap Polar Fleecy (at Jenn’s recommendation)

Design Wall Fleecy, awaiting a curtain rod and a tall man.

So for now I am making do with the back of the door

Vintage centre block in progress

You may have spotted some fabric changes from the last post.

Vintage Centre Block ~ early stages.

My quits tend to evolve. I actually don’t know how big this is going to be or anything. It’s just fun playing.

Well I better go back and make those last circles.

Happy stitching,

til soon

Margaret

11 Comments

Filed Under: 1800s Reproduction Fabrics, Applique, Design, Quilt Patterns

Getting my mojo back

July 11, 2012 by Margaret

I remember a while back I was going to show you my latest project.

I’m happy to show you, it’s just that I seem to have lost my way with it.

I started with gusto, mmmmm should’ve been alarmed right there, before I went to NZ in June ~ wanting/needing something to sew in the evenings.

I spent a day in the studio, firstly doing a paper cut of a tree.

It's easy to keep trimming away but go easy. A whisker at a time, you can't put it back.

I really got into papercutting shapes while doing the Maltaville Album Quilt blocks.

It’s a quick and easy way to create shapes, sometimes it’s easier to let the scissors do the work instead of the pencil.

Having already chosen my fabrics I started the marking and then glueing the tree to the background.

A bit fiddly.

Those stems were very flimsy and had a life of their own,

but I got there and took this to NZ for pleasant evenings of stitching whilst catching up with family.

Applique tree

I did get a lot of the sewing done while I was away

Under the gaze of my Grandmother, keep working.

and finished the last of it in Sydney the following week.

And then I just lost interest in it.

Backing up a bit, several months ago I was invited to create a new design for publication in a quilt magazine.

I won’t tell you which one because the publication date for the issue is soooo far away. Light years almost.

I’ll tell you closer to the time.

But of course the quilt will need to be done and delivered by end October

I think for some people, pressure spurs them on but for me ~ my creative drive just bombed

I had plenty of ideas but mostly they bombed as well before I could get going on them.

That tree quilt was one that I had thought would be a possibility for the magazine, but then …

as I say, it just sort of went nowhere.

I’ll probably resurrect it again, but it’s just been put on the back-burner for now.

But that’s not going to help me for this deadline is it.

It’s my first time for this magazine and I want to start with something that says ‘me’, I’m not sure what that is but I guess I felt that tree wasn’t it.

So today I took the day as a Design Day, up early, heater on over in the studio in advance so no excuses.

A couple of days ago I had assembled a few fabrics in readiness for an applique centre block.

Fabric choices

I love that Margo Krager Dargate Indigo at the bottom of the pile. I’ve managed to accumulate meterage of most of the range over recent months, even though the range is several years old now.

Some of the above fabrics are ones I picked up in the US, just Fat 1/4s of useful prints and colours.

I knew I wanted an urn, almost undersized for the height and spread of the foliage so as to give the block a naive style.

And I liked the idea of a rope or cable centre stem.

The stem in progress

Years ago I did a Celtic knot quilt class, LOL that over/under mantra is stuck in my head so that’s how I did this stem.

I haven’t really marked any of the background, only a tiny pencil mark where the bottom of the urn will sit and another where I want the top flower to start. I just decided to start weaving the rope stem to look reasonably even. It’s fusible bias stem so after each cable I ironed it in place.

I haven’t yet even got much of a pattern just a few reference points so that I don’t extend beyond 18″.

By late afternoon I was pleased with my progress. I didn’t agonise over the fabrics, but there were a couple of flowers that were discarded. And the flower shapes were paper cut and then trimmed if I felt the size was not quite right, so in that way I was able to work quite quickly.

A day's work

There’s plenty more flowers and leaves to go on of course but I’m ready to sew this lot down before adding more.

I’m kind of making it up as I go along.

The beauty of having my own space is that I can walk away at the end of the day and not worry about the mess, yay.

And just quickly, a very close friend is moving away next month. I’ll miss her big time but we know she’ll only be an email or skype call away.

But a little of her will remain in Central Victoria, she needed to off-load some surplus furniture and some of it has made its way in to my studio. Yippee

A tiered table now doing duty as my cutting station, perfect height.

My back (and I) thank you Jude

And her very gorgeous cupboard from her sewing studio, now filled with my fabric.

What fun I had filling this

The Fabric Cupboard

The studio is starting to look lived in.

Don’t forget the giveaway coming up at the end of this week, it’s from this blog post here

http://www.quiltstation.com.au/new-zealand-then-sydney-and-a-give-away

Leave a comment on the above blog post by Friday the 13th, there are currently only 14 contenders for four prizes.

And I’ll have a poke around in that fabric cupboard for a bit extra to go in too.

til soon

Happy Stitching

Margaret

2 Comments

Filed Under: Applique, Design, Musings

New Zealand then Sydney (and a give away)

June 18, 2012 by Margaret

I’ve just opened up the draft of a blog post I started at Auckland airport a week and a half ago.

I thought it might have been the second fastest blog post ever, but I didn’t manage to get it finished before boarding time for the flight to Melbourne. So I’ve decided to start over

I have had a good time in NZ since last I posted, I did manage to get that post done (plus a quick cuppa) before a short flight down to Palmerston North. There was a gap in the clouds just big enough to see Mt Ruapehu poking through and that’s all I saw of her for the whole seven days. Even when I drove right past her on the return trip she was completely hidden.

Mt Ruapehu, another month and she will be covered in snow, and frequently cloud unfortunately.

I was staying with my cousin Dawn this time.

We were great mates as kids and are great mates still.

We like the same things, isn’t that always nice to be related and friends.

Dawn at work in her studio. She makes fabulous clothes from Vintage fabrics and is very creative.

Dawn lives just a short walk from my Mum so I was able to spend lots of time with Mum too.

Mum’s got Alzheimers but is getting great care and attention. She still knows who I am and we have fun together so it was important to make memories (for me) while we can. Sadly she will have forgotten I was there last week, but ‘in the moment’ all is fine.

But now I am back from gadding about the place/s and it’s time to get back to normal,

I realised it’s 2 months today since I left for the US and I have also had ‘a wedding’, a trip to NZ (that’s always a busy one)

and four days at the Sydney Quilt Show so it’s no wonder I’m a little disorganised.

Plus the excitement of being a featured home in Quiltmania magazine

Quiltmania # 89

Quilt Station has a seven page spread plus the third and final instalment of my Mid 19th Century Star quilt pattern.

I was chuffed to see Ady, who has made (yes finished) the Maltaville quilt, being my neighbour in Quiltmania, that’s one of her beautiful quilts on the opposite page.

I'm thrilled with how Quilt Station looks

Merci beaucoup to Carol and Guy, it was a real pleasure to have you both visit my home for the day

and Guy, wow I love that photo of me

So all that excitement

Woohoo

calls for a

Give-away.

I would love to give away a couple of the John Hewson panels/fabrics which were reproduced by Andover last year.

I bought extra at Seventh Heaven Quilt Shop in New Braunfells, Texas anticipating I’d want to pass some on.

John Hewson panel from the Winterthur Museum collection

There will be two chances to get one of these large urn panels, above

and two chances to win eight birds as shown below.

John Hewson Birds

to have a chance just leave a comment on this post, oooh let’s say,

by the 13th July. That’s a Friday ~ Friday the 13th. What fun!

I will mail to anywhere in the world and no doubt between now and then I will have unearthed a couple other treasures to add to it.

To leave a comment you need to click on the title of the blog post. That will re-open the post with the option to comment visible at the bottom.

The Sydney Quilt Show came hot on the heels of returning from NZ,

five of us from the Goldfields Quilters (Alison, Chris, Jennifer, Kathryn and myself) flew up on Thursday morning and were joined on Friday by Irene so you can imagine the fun we had.

The six of us piled in to a taxi van straight after breakfast on Saturday morning and headed over to

Material Obsession.

We were not going to miss out this time, adding an extra day to the itinerary as last year Jenn and I just ran out of time.

It’s a beautiful shop, I follow Kathy Doughty’s blog and her shop is a great reflection of her style and flair.

Here’s just a little of what I bought

These aren’t Repro’s as such but they could be. It’s all about how you look at it I suppose.

The Blue (Prussian like) with the Brown, once cut up, could go in to a mid 19th century quilt quite well I think.

And the Brown and Red diamond print wouldn’t look out of place either.

And if you are familiar with Material Obsession quilts you may be surprised to know you will find 19th c repro’s at Material Obsession.

I wasn’t expecting to find any but was very pleasantly surprised.

It’s true, I found (and came home with) quite a few. It is a very diverse and friendly quilt shop.

After that we grabbed two taxis and made for Quiltsmith (but lunch in trendy Annandale shopping precint first)

We left a couple of hours later with bags bulging, this time catching the bus back to Darling Harbour.

I was so pleased Jenn was methodically going through the bargain boxes, I had completely missed this much needed fabric.

Beth Ann Bruske fabric.

Jenn kindly shared the last of the bolt so I have *Plenty* to do *Whatever* on the Cradle Quilt. It had come to a stand still as quilts sometimes do.

Cradle Quilt, no excuse not to get a wriggle on with this now is there?

And these found their way in to my arms as well

Bits and bobs as they say, just for the stash

It is lovely to be home again. It’s winter and it’s cold.

I like to hibernate just a little, well sometimes a lot and I have plenty of work to do ~ both quilt designing and quilting on Violet.

It’s a good time to be at home and in the studio.

We have an elderly dog and she’s all of a sudden showing her age.

She’s given us a few scares in the last few months and she seems to want one of us around more during the day,

so it’s another reason to be not too far from home for too long. We’re watching and taking it as it comes if you know what I mean.

The other day I was measuring and photographing my quilts for showcase and she was trying very hard to be noticed

Rollo

I’ve just realised I have no sewing prepped for tonight,

oh well, I shall sit by the fire and look at a quilt book or two instead.

Keep warm (or cool) and happy stitching

til soon

Margaret

28 Comments

Filed Under: 1800s Reproduction Fabrics, Applique, Cradle Quilt 1826, Design, Musings, Travel

Autumn ~ gardening and sewing.

Just catching up

Summer Sewing

Repro Fabrics Galore, Merry Stitching, and Happy Blogging in 2013

Being a bit of a slow coach with this one

Texas bound.

Time flies when you’re sewing.

Vintage

Getting my mojo back

New Zealand then Sydney (and a give away)

Comments

Subscribe to my blog

I'm on Instagram and Facebook

My other blog

Blogs, Designers, Magazines and Shops

Archives