More from camp

Pam's lovely Hexagon magic centreLorraine's Underground Railroad quilt
Lisa hard at work and it's not even her quilt!

This top has been lovingly hand pieced over the last few months for Robin's very lucky grandaughter Bronte.
Lyn made this using a groovy curved plastic template . It went together really quickly and looks great.

Flattery

Just a quick post before we're off to quilt camp.

Have a look at the latest issue of Quilters Companion and you'll see my quilt on the left as a project this month. A hand pieced and hand quilted hexagon sampler.

Another piece of interesting news is here at Blueberries' blog where Tracey gives a critique of my Mariners class at the shop in April. It's good to get feedback - lucky it was on a positive note!

Never enough

These gems are from my latest WIP. It's a "circle sampler" and all the fabrics are spots and dots. It's so much fun to do coming up with different circular blocks and playing with the combinations of fabrics. A bit frustrating when work gets in the way but that's how it is.
These pics are from my Berrima class last weekend.

I never get tired of seeing these beauties. Everyone sews at a different pace and over the three classes for these girls one quilt was fully completed. Lots of homework for all the others!

Can't wait for the weekend when we're OFF TO CAMP! 3 days of sewing and laughing, chatting and laughing, eating and laughing - such fun. Might even get some work done on a quilt for a friend.

Happy Mothers Day

Lots happening in different classes at the moment. Ros has started this Pine Burr quilt to try and use up some of the stash. The centre striped fabric is quite striking but not a current one. What a shame.

Judy is on a NYB journey with fantastic results so far. Great use of batiks and hand-dyes. It turns out she's a friend of a friend twice removed. Life's amazing sometimes.

Margaret is one of my older students and has been sewing up a storm. The blocks were made and sewn up in four weeks and they are all 6" blocks. What a woman.

This is part of my new project - or one of them. It all started with the fabric below which is on the border of this version of the good old dresden plate. It includes some foundation piecing in the triangle border and lots of applique. I loved doing this top and am a bit sorry it's finished.

Just need to quilt it now.

On Friday I had the pleasure of being the guest quilter for show and tell at The Cottage Quiltworks in Warriewood. What a lovely shop - beautiful premises and great fabric. If you haven't been there yet put it on the list. Really nice girls and did I tell you their fabric was great! I have been invited to teach at their Quilt Retreat in July - five days of classes with 10 different tutors - and I will start regular classes there on the 2nd Saturday of the month from July onwards. Give them a ring if you're interested in joining me on a Mariners journey.

Had a really nice Mothers Day today - went to Ikea with my daughter and even had meatballs. It was a lovely day and had some retail therapy too. Hope yours was just as good.

Show and tell

A few class pics today and lots more to come. Heather's compass centre surrounded by Deb's NYB blocks. They could be from the same project!
Jenny's stunning Pickled Lillies top. This is such a graphic design and she has used so many different browns it's fantastic, not to mention it even sits flat. Jenny is on fire at the moment - I want what she's having.

Beautiful applique on Sharon's Mariners quilt.

Black is a perfect foil for most colours. Anne-Marie has done a wonderful job here. All blocks completed and basted ready for quilting in three lessons.

Good news re the proceeds from our quilt show - over $10,000 was raised for sewing machines for the textile students and a significant donation to CanTeen. How good is that!

A little break and it's on with the next one. Rachel has some great pics of the show - hop on over and have a look. She also talks about the new EQ7 program. It's a hot topic at the moment with everyone wanting to be the 1st to have it. You can pre-order now thru the EQ website. I've just conquered EQ6 but it sounds like the upgrade will be great.

Only two weeks to go til quilt camp - a whole weekend of sewing with no interuptions. I can hardly wait!

What a show!

Well we survived the weekend and three days of quilt show. Really five days when you think it took two days to build the stands and hang the quilts. All the committee put in a fantastic effort and I'm sure they were all as weary as me by the end on Sunday night.
Don't have any stats regarding heads through the door and takings but there sure were a lot of people there. On Saturday the cafe even ran out of sandwiches and bottled water! We had so many entries we had to cull @ 50 quilts as there were more quilts than hanging space.
I took lots of pics of the setting up and the display in general but my camera was not behaving so I have managed to salvage just a few from the show. Sorry guys.

Our "Unique Treasures" stall (above) had a fantastic result selling all sorts of things in the bric-a-brac and fabric related lines. It's such fun to "play shop). I sold quilts and quilt tops, patterns and fabrics and met so many friends and students who'd all come to check out the great work of our local mountain quilters.
Viewers" choice quilt was a beautiful Australian Wildflowers applique quilt (sorry no pic) and the raffle quilt was won by a local lady - so glad it didn't go to someone out of the area. I am keeping the raffle quilt til the Darling Harbour show where it's entered in the group category again.
This is the centre of Kris' beautiful applique quilt - the 3D flowers were lovely.

Denise's version of my Pickled Lillies was very dramatic - love the red accent.

This is Rachel's gorgeous "Amy-style" quilt. Maybe her 1st quilt? and hand quilted in number 8 thread. Just beautiful. Lots of fussy cutting and ric rac.

My friend Erica is having a give-away to celebrate a her 113th post. Have a look and you might win 113 beautiful charm squares!

Happy Easter

Life's been pretty hectic lately - 7 days straight teaching in 7 different venues! Not the usual timetable but with Easter some were brought forward etc. I'm so glad to have 4 days at home then it's off to Blueberries at Wyong for 2 x 2 day workshops.
How's this lovely 4-patch made by Brenda from Ribbons and Rainbows. Great horizontals happening there. I think they are going to kit it up for sale thru the shop.

Sally in my Blackheath class has done a fine job on this String Pieced star with foundation pieced border. She will tell you there are 240 spikes in that border! Looks great tho and worth all the effort.

Heather from the class at Quiltsmith has pieced this beautiful centre for her Oriental Mariners . She's been very controlled in her fabric placement and it's paid off. Lots of homework now to finish the next ring.

Here's the lovely Rachel hard at work on her Mariners centre. It's so nice to have "young" students coming to classes and Rachel is really enthusiastic about fabric and patchwork in general.

I've shown you the centre of this before but now it has half-dresden borders and I think I'll leave it at that. This was a trial of two different rulers and both performed well. Maybe some classes in the future?

There's a new button on my sidebar with a link to KimoYes in Canberra. Gorgeous vintage kimono and other oriental fabric. You can buy on-line and have a look at Jill's blog to find out what markets they'll be at in the future - they make all sorts of things from their beautiful fabric and if you can get to see them it's well worth it. I've made a couple of quilts incorporating kimono fabric from Jill and I'll have a pic next post.