Dresden Stars

When I announced that I had won the Award for Excellence in Embroidery and Embellishment in Melbourne and showed a photo of my lovely prize of threads, I had a request for a photo of the quilt. So this is Dresden Stars, which is a teaching sampler for the classes I teach.
It takes people further than straight stitch and zigzag on your Domestic Machine. We sometimes spend thousands of dollars on a machine and rarely use the features on it. Fiddling with the tension opens up a whole new world.
In these classes we do pintucking, pleating, couching, bobbin work, thread painting, trapunto, decorative thread work, the use of wing, double and triple needles, machine lace and flowers and much more. There is so much we can do, most of the earlier quilts were cream, but now the girls are going into colours and there is a wide variety of quilts. We are possibly having an exhibition of these quilts next year, more info at a later date.
I had a lovely visit from Michelle and Larry Hill this afternoon on their way home from teaching in Victoria. We had an inspection of The Sanctuary and a cuppa and scones with jam and cream. Great to see you both.
I think thats about it for today, had a 5am start this morning, and spent time in the garden between socializing with friends. Was great to see Lois return from her sojourn north for the winter.
So till next time
Happy quilting,
Jude

More photos,

This is a photo of the plants I have put into the brick planter boxes at the front of the house. Can't remember the name, and the photo is not clear enough to read the label.
This is also a posting to try out a different way to upload photos, had an idea during the night, and it seems to be so much quicker. Its all trial and error, lots to learn in Blogging land!
Have a good day, I have another quilt to load, a doctor appt and more weeds to pull out.

Over and out, from Jude

Spring is coming!

Time for another posting, time sure does fly by.
Am much better than I was last week, but still the cough is persisting, but I wont bore you with the details.
Have been attacking the weeds in the garden at The Sanctuary since the inside is now done.
They are easy to pull out while its still moist, and there is plenty of mulch on the garden beds.

Tidied up (shifted the junk mostly) from the back verandah, so it feels like I am making progress.
The first photo is taken from the carport, looking into the doors that lead to the verandah area. Do you see my dog, sitting by the pot plant, his name is Bones!! Cheap to feed, doesnt make a mess and wont bark!! There is a kennell by the wood shed, where he will eventually reside.
 And the second photo is taken in the verandah, looking back to the carport. This is the view from the kitchen window and is only about 1/3 or the verandah area.

The rest of the photos are of some flowering things, which tells me that spring is on the way. The bottlebrushes will be blooming soon.
I really will have to find out a quicker way to upload photos. This will do for now.
bye from Jude

Recent quilting

While I am spending "down" time this week, with a cough and no energy, I am sitting at the computer a lot, so thought I might share photos of some of the quilts I have recently sent back to customers.
So sit back and enjoy a quilt show with a cuppa.

Have lots to learn about this blogging thing, seems to take a long time to load the photos, but thats a few for you to look at. Shall come back another day, hopefully feeling a lot better than i do now.

Regards Judy

First retreat weekend

Well I am home again after spending the weekend at The Sanctuary with a lovely group of friends who have all helped me in some way to get the house or garden going. It was a great weekend of sewing and friendship, thankyou girls. The house worked well, had a couple of issues to deal with, and worked out what I still need to buy, but mostly it was great. Still have a few friends to have another weekend with when they return south after the winter.
Still some work to do outside the house, paving in front of the verandah above, and some plants in the brick boxes at the front of the house, and finish some garden edges. The painter will be back when the weather fines up to finish a few bits.
Now I better get back to the quilts and work!

Regards Jude

Well another weekend has gone, the start of another week tomorrow. Have had a busy 3 days, went to Adelaide on friday, Horsham on Saturday and worked over at The Sanctuary on Sunday. With the help of some great friends we achieved a lot today, unpacked lots of boxes of purchases for the house and made up the beds and started adding things to the walls to make it look like home.
All the cutlery and crockery and glassware have been through the dishwasher and stacked in the cupboard.
I have a job to finish the hemming the curtains this week and do some cooking as well as a churn out a few quilts for customers. Next weekend is a trial run in the house with some friends who have all helped me in some way over the last 9 months. That was a shock when I worked out just how long we have been working on renovations.  Most of the tradies have done their thing now, the painter has a little bit to go, the carpenter put the new front on "The Shed" on saturday and is still to pave at the front of the house. Cant wait for it to be done, the back, back yard behind the shed looks like a building demo site. Will take some more photos this week, interesting to see the progress at different stages. I took a photo on the kitchen today and will upload it for you to see.

Maybe I need to take the stickers off the dishwasher! The kitchen window looks out over the paved verandah with tables and chairs to sit and listen to the prolific birdlife.

Yesterday we went to HOrsham, did a bit of shopping and picked up my quilt that had been shown in Melbourne at Showcase. The photo shows the beautiful chest of Madiera threads which was the prize I received for an Award for Excellence in Embroidery and Embellishment for my quilt Dresden Stars.
I cant wait to try out those threads. Maybe I shall have to go on a retreat of my own.
Well thats about all for today, will check in later in the week, with some more photos of how The Sanctuary is coming along.

Another quilt

Its probably time for me to add to this blog, has been a busy week, 4th August already.
I had intended to add photos of the house, but a quilt will do. This is for my good friend Jill, hope she likes it. Its a variation of a pattern of Michele Hill.
Next week I shall spend more time at THe Sanctuary finishing hemming the curtains and getting things ready for a trial run with 8 friends in the house for the weekend. Have a day trip to Adelaide tomorrow, which is a 3 hour drive there and also back again. Have a meeting to go to and drop off some quilts and do some shopping. Better get to bed early tonight and hope to be away before 6am!

Bye for now,
Judy