Another big catch up post

I better update the news of the last few weeks. It has been a hectic time, and more to come in the next week or two. Another group coming to The Sanctuary this weekend, and then Adelaide Quilt Show in a couple of weeks. It is our local patchwork day next Monday, and I need to have the next border of my quilt done by then. And on Tuesday it is Melbourne Cup Day and we are having a lunch at The Sanctuary with a Mystery Sewing project. Hopefully at the end of November I am going on a little holiday, so looking forward to that.

A successful weekend

Time to report on last weekend, before any more days elapse. Everyone enjoyed themselves, and managed get a fair amount of the quilts done. Some finished, some completed the centre of their quilt, and had borders left to put on. One managed to get the middles of 2 quilts done, and one speedy lady managed to get the quilt made, and quilted and the binding on ready for hand sewing!! It was fortunate that she knew how to operate “Max”, so loaded the backing and top on Sunday morning. All the cutting was correct, and I need only to make corrections to 2 lots of instructions! What a relief!

Most of the following photos speak for themselves, with no explanation needed.

This is the view from the kitchen window.

We had one lady who did not work on the Mystery quilt. This is June, and she does some amazing hand embroidery, and came to keep Jean company on the trip from Adelaide.

It is so hard to get everyone smiling nicely for a group photo. I usually take about 6, and I think this was the best of them all. They all look pretty happy. Not often that there is 11 for the photo! More than a full house, so I had 3 staying at my place across the road. Which was a good idea, until I woke Friday morning to find I had no hot water! A quick phone call to the plumber was made, and by 4pm that afternoon the water was hot again. I am thankful that it was Friday morning, and not Saturday or Sunday.  It might have been pushing things to have 12 ladies queuing for the shower at The Sanctuary!!

Someone “borrowed” my camera, and I nearly did not post this, but here you are!

I am looking forward to seeing the quilts with their borders on in the near future. There was a wide variety of fabrics and colours. Not like your normal mystery project where you at least get to choose your fabric even if you don’t know what the pattern is. This is where fabric and the pattern is a mystery. And having some spare bags makes sure that everyone is catered for. A couple of ladies bought extra bags, so I now have only 2 left, out of the 15 that were done. As another Paper Bag Mystery weekend is planned for June next year, and I have 5 names already on the list, I better start planning early this time so that i am not cutting at 4 pm on the day of the retreat!!

If you might be interested please contact me.

Kaniva quilt show

The old saying “better late than never” is still true I hope. It is almost 2 weeks since the Kaniva quilt show, but here are a few photos that i took They are all customer quilts that I have quilted, and I have posted them on my blog before, but they always look better when they are hanging, so they might look different now, and also with the binding on.

This is Sherrel’s Peace quilt, a pattern by Margaret Rolfe, with 96 paper pieced cranes. Lots of work by Sherrel, which was mostly quilted with SID, and a pattern in both of the outer rows. This quilt won the Viewers Choice award.

It was a lovely display of quilts, and with a few shops displaying all their goodies, it was a lovely afternoon out. It’s always good to catch up with other quilters and have a chat.

Special visitors return

Earlier in the year I had a visit from 3 ladies, who I now jokingly refer to as The Tarts! Their earlier visit was recorded back then. A couple of weeks ago they called in to see me again, and to show me the finish results of what they were working on months ago. The following photos just don’t do their work justice. It was just amazing. I cannot comprehend doing hand sewing at all, let alone this tiny, tiny work. I did write down the number of stitches etc that they quoted, but in the chaos of the last couple of weeks, cannot find the paper anymore. If you take into account the number of hours that these pieces have taken, the replacement value would be priceless!




Thankyou Jenni and Linda for calling in and showing me your treasures.

Quilt catch up

Once again I am a tad behind in posting quilt photos. These are the last of September quilting.  Life just seems to be so full of “stuff”, I don’t know where time is going. The whole year has just flown by, and we are heading full throttle to the end of the year. My good intentions at the start of 2014 was “balance”, but it has been very unbalanced instead. I do hope to have some “timeout” very soon, to catch up on stuff not done, and to “smell the roses”. I do dream of spending a couple of days reading a book, and sitting outside in the pergola and listening to the birds. But, still lots to do before that can happen.
This quilt was made by Frances, and she wanted lots of custom quilting.


This is Jenny’s simplified version of Storm at Sea, quilted all over with a wind pattern.

This is Jo’s quilt, Scrappy Log cabins, quilted with an edge to edge pattern called Shale.

And this is Annabel’s quilt, with an all over Modern Loops, which has turned out fantastic. Lovely texture that was great to rub your hands over! And this Annabel’s first quilt, and it’s great to see the younger generation making quilts.

Will be back with more quilt photos another day, although must admit to not getting many done in October. Too many other things were happening!
Blessings, From Jude

A week later

 

Time for another update, and this morning I feel much more relaxed, and a bit lost not having another design to write up, or fabric to cut. The last Paper Bag was still being done yesterday afternoon. Once again, the “last minute” queen. I must thank Pat, and Lois for their help in reading my instructions, and counting pieces of fabric. So by 4pm on the Friday afternoon, there were 15 Paper Bag Mystery’s all done.

In between doing the bags this week, The Sanctuary was visited by 6 lovely ladies from Tailem Bend, who worked on their Bedford Mystery Quilts. Photo below is of their finished results. It was a first for some, to do a scrap quilt, and their inclination was to “match” fabrics. But it is amazing by the finish to see just how well all the scraps go together, and a border just finishes them off. Maybe we are too picky deciding on “just the right” fabric colours, and just need to look at the colour value instead. I know for me it takes a bit of practice to step outside my comfort zone. My stash of scraps has grown to be quite large, after a few years of sewing, and I would love to finish my PHD’s and just work on scrap quilts, in the style of Bonnie Hunter.

Relaxing in the pergola, before they left for home. Thankyou for coming girls, and do hope to see you again one day. With a group at The Sanctuary during the week, I am a bit confused today, as to what day it actually is, as it felt like a weekend. A bit like having 2 weekends, one after the other?

Not sure just what these flowers are, but they have taken over a large area of the garden, growing right over other plants, and are making a lovely display at the moment.

And a few hours after the Tailem Bend girls left, another group arrived for the Paper Bag Mystery Retreat. They have come from Adelaide, Beachport, Kaniva, Bordertown. Naracoorte and Phillip Island. Thankyou girls for  coming, and especially to Gayle and Lyn who drove almost 8 hours to get here! Above they are all waiting for the allocation of the bags, which was a bit of fun, passing them from right to left and across the table a few times. And then they had to decide if they were happy or wanted to swap out with the spare bags that we had. And then the show and tell of what they picked, and worrying if it was easy or not?!

The weather is lovely this weekend, and as we have a group of 12, it will be dining out in the pergola time. And with 12 ladies, there is lots of chatter. Quite a few did not know each other, but it did not take long before they were friends. I love to see the interaction between them all.

I will be back soon, to show some more quilts, and report on another visit that I had by a couple of ladies some days ago. It’s time to head for the shower, and organise some more food for lunch. Looking forward to watching the quilts being made, and hoping I have not “stuffed up” in the measurements and cutting for the quilts.

Catch ya,

Blessings, From Jude

I’m still here

but am busy turning this pile of fabric, and more into quilt designs, cutting the fabric and writing up the instructions.  As of yesterday I have finished 9 of the bags. Hope to get 5 more done yet.

I have a busy weekend planned so not sure how much I will achieve, but only have until next Friday to finish, when some lovely ladies will arrive for the Paper Bag Mystery Retreat. I am so looking forward to that. We have more than a full house, so could be fun. I do hope they all like the bags they end up with. The allocation of bags is always a fun process.
I am enjoying the designing of the quilts, and learning lots more about the Electric Quilt programme. Last weekend I had some questions, and by Sunday afternoon Lois, Judy B (the Virtual Quilter) and myself were huddled around our computers playing and working things out. The best way to learn the programmes are to play.  And then when you design something for your bundle of fabrics, and you don’t have enough of Fabric A, and don’t have a clue where you bought it, or else it is no longer available, then you have to change the design of your quilt, and quite often it turns out the better option! (Think that sentence might be a tad long??)
Well, just thought I would check in. Better get to the shower, and start my day. Going on a road trip this morning, and another one tomorrow after church.
And perhaps I better think about food, and plan some menus, as next week, I have a group at The Sanctuary from Wednesday until Friday, and another Friday afternoon until Sunday. And they all need to be fed! Catch ya at the other end!
Blessings, From Jude