This week so far...................

Just time for a quick update of newsfromjude about my week so far. The countdown is on to finish the quilts that I need to take to Adelaide tomorrow, and it is Angels day here today also. And we get to help one of our members celebrate her special birthday at lunchtime. But before that.....

Last Sunday our local group finished the year with a Christmas lunch. We usually have a dinner at the local hotel, but decided to try something different this year. We had heard good reports of meals at Frances, which is about half an hour drive from here, so decided to try it out.

It was a lovely sunny day, and we met at the local hall, and travelled down together. 20 members attended, and enjoyed a lovely Christmas lunch. Just a few photos follow.

Our very talented President Pat made us all beautiful scissor fobs, which was made more special with our names included. Thankyou Pat.

After lunch, members travelled to the Frances Strawberry Farm, which was close by. After a sumptuous lunch we skipped the scones, jam and cream on offer, and all had coffees. A lot of us purchased fresh strawberries and jam to take home though. The owner gave us a talk about the business, which was very interesting. It was a great way to finish off the year.

You can see the rows of strawberries growing, ......

.... and picking would be so much easier when they are up high like this, instead of growing in the ground.

This is what I have been working on all week, and the end is in sight today.

Yesterday a couple of friends "from the city" came to town, to help celebrate the birthday with us today. In the interest of getting a balance in life, I decided to take them on a mystery trip and told them we were going out for coffee!! I don't think they expected to drive 50 kms for the coffee though!! We went back to Frances, to the Strawberry farm for our coffee, and this time tried the scones. And they were amazing. It was another lovely afternoon out. (I did come home and then worked until 10pm last night, to make up for my time off though.)

Better get back to work now, before the Angels arrive for the day. The temperature is getting up close to 40deg today, so might be time to turn on the air con. Be back with more newsfromjude soon.

Blessings,
From Jude

Quilts again......

It's time for some  more quilt photos.

First up is an Antelope Canyon quilt made by Val, using blue and white fabrics. 

Val made this for her brother, who likes the colour blue, and because the colours reminded us of the sea, it was quilted in an allover pattern called Ocean Froth.

Lyn made this quilt for a niece's birthday, using the Scrappy Trips pattern, by Bonnie Hunter. This was quilted allover with a pattern called Summer Buzz. 

Di has been busy finishing a few, and has made the next 3 quilts. This one is very pretty in pinks/purples and grey. This photo was taken in the afternoon as you can see the sun coming through the window. It was quilted allover with Vanilla Orchid.

The next 2 quilts are I Spy quilts, that Di has made for her grandchildren. The first one is quilted with a pattern called Spring Thing, and the next with a Swirly allover.

Jocelyn has also made an Antelope Canyon quilt, although this one is using the Texture Graphics range of fabrics. 

She decided that Antelopes are more American, and wanted to Applique kangaroos on her quilt and call it Kangaroo Canyon. Life got in the way and the applique did not happen, and she just wanted it finished. After some discussion we decided to quilt kangaroos on the quilt instead, so I hope you can see them bounding all over the quilt.

The back shows them better.

It must be the season for I Spy quilts as this one was made by Maree, for a granddaughter, and quilted allover with Flowing Ribbons.

Maree also made this scrappy curved quilt as well, and this was quilted allover with a pattern called Merrily.

I will be back soon with another post, as it's time to call it a day. I am steadily working on that unpicking job, in between finishing a few quilts. I need to get a few done to deliver when I head up the highway again on Friday for Quilt Appraisal day.

The weather is warming up this week, into the high 30's, so the watering is happening in the garden too. I have not put the mulch out yet, so hope it survives until next week.

Blessings, From Jude

Art Deco

I recently received the following quilt to do, with the instructions for Art Deco quilting. Well, I needed to educate myself in what exactly was Art Deco quilting, as this is the first time I have had to do one. So what to do, of course,ask Mr Google! I found lot of Art Deco quilts, but not many that I could see the quilting on. And a search for Art Deco quilting patterns came up with not much either. Thankfully I have a good friend who set me on the right path, and she said search for Art Deco line drawings! Thankyou Michele. 

It was obvious that I could not fill that empty space with feathers which would have been my first instinct. This is the quilt, hanging on my wall, where I hoped it would talk to me.

The following few photos show you what I did. You might need to click on the photo to enlarge it to see better, as the light was not really good that day for photos, and the quilt is rather large.

That empty cream space ended up with a linear design, which fitted the Art Deco theme.

 I was rather concerned about this border, and what to do. I did have some Art Deco type border pattern ideas, but did not want to take over the fabric pattern, so I ended up just following the fabric design for the quilting. I am so glad I have my freehand skills that I learned in the days before computerized quilting, so that I can combine the best of both worlds.

And again, I followed the lines of the fabric design for the quilting.

 This quilt was made for a shop window display, (before it goes to it's owners home), and on the way home from Melbourne I stopped to take a photo of it in the window. But all I could get was the reflection in the window.

Thankfully the shop owner, Jennifer Meek, had taken photos at night, and here you can see it hanging in the window with the Christmas decorations.

If you ever drive through Nhill on the highway between Adelaide and Melbourne, this shop is worthy of a look. I have photographed Jennifer's business card for details. As well as some gorgeous items in the shop, she has lovely patchwork fabric in the back, including a lot of bolts in the $13.50/metre range.

 I will be back with more quilt photos soon,

Blessings, From Jude

'Tis Sunday Morning.....

I am having a very lazy Sunday morning, so decided to update the blog before I shower and dress for a lunch out today. It is our patchwork group Christmas lunch, so hope to have a few photos of that for another post. I had good intentions of being in the garden this morning, to water everything after the heat and gale-force winds of yesterday. Fortunately the storm brought some rain overnight, which will keep everything going for a bit longer. The winds were so strong last night, that I did have some concern about damage, but all seems to be well this morning.

As reported in my last post, I have spent some serious time with Max this week, catching up with some quilting. All was going well, until a few days ago, and I am now unpicking a quilt I was not happy with. All I will say is, that I must have been having a serious "senior moment", and can't believe I did what I did. I spent Friday evening with my "unpicker", and then some more time last night. But last night I remembered that I had Netflix on my laptop, which helped to pass the time much quicker.  A few more nights of "homework" this week, and the quilt should be ready to be redone. I debated long and hard about unpicking, but know that I would not be happy if it "went out the door" as it was.

This is just a quick photo of a quilt that was on the machine this week, and I will post more photos later. But can you see the stitching on this bear?? It is all thread painted, by hand! The detail is amazing. Look at all those little knots on the collar, and the tiny flowers!! I am very happy with the quilting on this one, and there will be NO unpicking on this.

In between the quilting, there has been some garden time. I did take some time to "watch the birds", as there has been a lot of bird noise in that tree this week. I have a love/hate relationship with this Silky Oak tree, which looks just stunning when it is in flower. The birds love it, and I counted about 5 or 6 varieties at work on the flowers.

This tree is not in my yard, but just over the fence into the next block. Most of the year it drops its leaves, which make a big mess in my yard, as you can see below. And most of the year, I complain and grizzle about the mess, but then when it flowers I can appreciate how pretty it looks against the blue sky. It's a bit like the black birds, which also make a mess in the garden, by pulling the straw out of the garden beds, but "redeem" themselves when I hear them singing! Just like life isn't it? Always the good and the not so good in most situations. (Although sometimes you have to look really hard to find a good, but it's usually there somewhere!)

This hedge has really grown well, and is pretty in flower at the moment. I think this was planted about 3 years ago, and is filling up that fence line nicely.

That's enough newsfromjude for now. I will be back with a separate post of quilt photos, which are waiting to be shown.

Enjoy your Sunday, whatever you are doing,

Blessings, From Jude