Surprise

Helen has been quietly working on this octagon beauty by hand for not that long really. The blocks are @ 10" and go together quickly she assures us. A great pattern to highlight large scale prints

Look what arrived today - my spring swap gift from Erica in the US! How sweet is this - a pretty cushion from dresden petals (here they are again) and some fat quarters to go with it. PLUS Erica made the card as well - what a clever girl she is and a lovely swap partner too.

I have never done an internet swap before and this one was a lot of fun - keeping things secret til the end. Other gifts are on Flickr - check them out. Just beautiful.

Want the world to see your quilt? The V and A have a virtual quilt show going in conjunction with their quilt exhibition and you can put yours in it here. I did and there are lots of others - really interesting quilts from all over the world. Thanks to an Aussie Erica for the info.

Entries have closed for our quilt show - over two hundred items! Can you believe it and to think we were worried we wouldn't have enough. Lots of people have volunteered to help over the five days - thanks in advance to you all. Let the fun begin!!

Kiama

Not too many pics from classes this time but you'll have a laugh from this one. We had a night in Kiama after my Berrima class on Sunday and on Monday morning there was a quilt sale at the Community Arts Centre. They must have known I was in town! Minutes after this pic was taken Daisy was wheeled up the main street to the council depot to have a new paint job - what a funny sight.
Nowra Quilters had a display in the old fire station but I forgot to ask how often - maybe once a month? Some lovely things and all for sale at very reasonable prices.
The Noodle Box belongs to Jennifer from Berrima who's made it to give away to her sister - lucky girl. Lots of magazine publicity around at the moment for our Springwood High School quilt show with good friend Marilyn's smiling face in most of the write-ups.
Make sure it's on your calendar to visit over the Anzac weekend.
Finally received my copy of the latest Kaffe Fassett book - what a feast for the eyes.

Classes

I've just received today issue 130/September 2009 of Quilts Japan. Tho the whole mag is in Japanese the pics are fantastic and the projects could be accomplished with a bit of concentration. Anyway this issue has an English flavour with pics from several museums in the UK - Norwich in particular. Why wasn't it around before I was over there last year. This pic is of the Brereton Bed Hangings and more can be seen here. Real eye candy!

These two pics are from my workshop at Quiltsmith on the weekend. They include two projects from a past class and the start of the weekend's Oriental Mariners quilt. We had a great day playing with the same design in different fabrics and tho the quilt wasn't finished over the two days I'm sure the girls are well on their way. Can't wait to see them finished.

Now this one is a version of my Doily quilt below. Gabrielle from my Blackheath class has used up a lot of embroideries, hankies, lace and doilies in this beautiful, soft-toned example of how to get things out of the linen-press and into the daylight. She has @ 5 weeks to quilt it for our Springwood quilt show - no golf for a while girl!

This quilt apparently has caused lots of discussion in the shop - Ribbons and Rainbows - when people comment on their own stash of stitcheries and doilies languishing in the cupboard. Cut them up!! and get them out there I say.

Hubby's finally got the all-clear on his ribs nearly 10 weeks after the event so he's pretty much back to normal now. What a saga!

One thing leads to another

Have I been sewing lately? NO! because I've been doing this. Emptying my sewing room in preparation for the new carpet - wasn't that a job and a half. How can someone have so much fabric and stuff? Then we ripped up the old carpet and found a corner of the floor was rotten where water had come in. Behind the gyprok in that corner the studs had rotted as well! And while the room was empty why not paint it. I must admit it will be so much nicer when it's finished and imagine if we hadn't opened up the floor!

On a much happier note here is my Spring Swap for Erica in the US organised by Corry and her sister at Dutch Blue. It is a big cushion cover made using the Dresden ruler I've been talking about lately. I included a couple of fat quarters and a pattern of mine and I'm so glad Erica liked it. The swap was great fun and it was lovely talking to someone from so far away about all things quilty and more. My swap from Erica will be here soon - can't wait.