Home sweet home

With all the beautiful weather we've been having lately I've been taking some pics around the garden. The resident possum is collecting leaves for her house - maybe in preparation for a new arrival?

Hubby is the mosaic expert and has a great eye for using re-purposing junk. We have a few of these "houses" around the garden and it's been a really good year for camellias in the mountains. The chair we found on the roadside - it's a bit "french bistro".
A few years ago our house was often used as the location for photo-shoots for several well-known Australian patchwork magazines . The friendly guys and girls would come with lots of magazine projects and set up vignettes around the house using their props and whatever was suitable amongst our things. It was fun to watch the process and a real thrill to see our rooms as the backdrops for beautiful photos when the mags eventually hit the street. They've since moved on to newer and less-seen locations.

Have fun!

Found this great site where you can make puzzles from pictures. Click on the quilt and have a go at the puzzle. What fun!

Hexagon magic

No pics in this post again - my trusty camera went back to Coonamble last Sunday! I'll have to start using the big guns from now on - hope it's easy. The girls travelled over 300kms to Bathurst and Wendy even drove up from Melbourne for the weekend. They all stayed in a local motel and were having a wonderful time as you can imagine.
All coped really well with foundation piecing and we had a Georgetown circle and two curved flying geese blocks all happening at the same time. It was a busy day.
On the train Monday into Quiltsmith for another enjoyable day - sadly the classes finish next month. It's a fantastic shop with just my sort of fabric at every turn.
Only 16 more sleeps til quilt camp - hooray! Requirements have been emailed and I'm sure students are busy sorting fabrics and getting ready for a fab weekend. More on the subject soon.

New project

No pics this time of class quilts but here are students in action! There was so much fun and laughter on Saturday at The Vintage Patch it was hard to keep everyone under control let me tell you.

These girls sure know how to have a good time!

Have you seen the latest issue of Australian Country Craft? I have a project on the cover. It's the cushion pictured made from the original French General range using a dresden plate ruler and pieced wedges.

Lovely pics as always from the magazines.

I've found a blogger who does her applique the same way as me - over freezer paper then sewn with the paper still in and then removed through the back of the piece. Have a look here at some   beautiful work by Karla Menaugh.                                              I'm off to Bathurst tomorrow for a special one-off class with a group of girls who've driven all the way from Coonamble to sew at the Home Patch. They'll be attacking the New York Beauty block head on and I expect some great results from the class.

What do you think of this block? Just a sample from my new project yet to be quilted.
Wouldn't it be great as a 30"+ centre medallion!
I found it in the new EQ7 and with a bit of tweaking it's in my Circle Sampler

A pic from my latest class at Berrima Patchwork. Pity about the sun in our eyes but it was a FREEZING day outside the shop.
One more class for these girls and they're well on the way to finishing their Mariners.
I still have a few Japanese kimono fabric packs for sale in my on-line shop. Click on the Sewnsell button on the left to have a look.

Quickie

Thanks Jo and Hilda who both got back to me with the name of my sought-after fabric. It's Ancient History from the Winterthur Museum by Andover fabric. Thanks guys I knew you'd come thru!
Click on my side bar for the latest post about our Springwood High School quilt show next April. Work is well under way on the raffle quilt and lots of other important things that will go to make the show bigger and better than ever.

Question

I had my Quilt Retreat class at Warriewood on Wednesday and what a great day it was. Sorry no pics from the class (I was so busy I totally forgot!) but the 10 students I had produced some wonderful NYB blocks in their first attempts at foundation piecing.
There were three other classes running at the same time with lots of show and tell and way too much food. It was a hive of activity all day - if you get the chance next year you should consider going.
There were girls in my class who came from Canowindra and Inverell - they come down and stay for the week - how good would that be! I was very flattered they signed up for my class.
On that subject a group from Coonamble are travelling to Hone Patch in Bathurst to spend the day with me at the end of this month. Hope they won't be disappointed.
Now the question. I bought the fabrics in the pic just this week and would like more of the large print at the front. No information on the selvedge and the shop had none left. Does anyone know the name of the range? I'd be ever so grateful if someone could let me know.

Excited!

These are Judy and Deb's centres from my Birds in Paradise quilt. They have been guinea pigs for my new pattern and it has been an interesting exercise in clear instructions and accurate piecing. Thanks girls for being so accommodating.

These gorgeous blocks are also Deb's from my Quiltsmith class. A beautiful, soft, Japanese version of my NYB quilt.

I've long admired all the mosaics and collages of pictures on other blogs and short of downloading Picassa or something similar I was unable to achieve the same result. Until now!

How exciting and it's free here. Funny to be so wound up by something so easy really isn't it.

I started once-a-month classes yesterday at Cottage Quiltworks at Warriewood - what a lovely shop and the class was a lot of fun. Ten girls all really keen to try foundation piecing and what a great job they did too. Some pics from the next class I promise.

I'm back there on Wednesday for their Quilt Escape week. I'm teaching a class on New York Beauty blocks - should be a good day!

It's cold and miserable here today - just right for lighting the fire and hitting the sewing machine. Enjoy!