Who's a lucky girl

Guess what? I won a 1st prize today at the Sydney quilt show!! Can you believe it - I was nearly in tears going to receive my award for the category New Traditions from Old Favourites with my Lots of Dots quilt.
It is so exciting to even have a quilt noticed at this show let alone win a prize. I am so pleased and thank the sponsors Matilda's Own wadding for my great prize.
Check out all the winning quilts here - the standard this year is very impressive. Try and get there - it's on til Sunday and you won't be disappointed I guarantee.
Not to mention all the retail therapy!

Prize winning Lots of Dots

My 2nd entry in the show was this Ancient Dahlia quilt. It didn't win a prize but looks great hanging with all the others at the show. It was quilted for me by Belinda Betts from Orange and she did a fantastic job.

Belinda's son Harry took out a prize in the Junior category at the show. Must be in the genes!!

I'm off to Wagga tomorrow for a 2-day workshop at Simply Stitches so should have lots of pics when I get home.



I'm sorry

I'm sorry I don't have any pics from the Springwood Quilt Show held on the weekend. I forgot every day to take my camera with me! Vicki was better prepared than me and has some good pics on the show blog including raffle winner information and viewer's choice winners. (I was one of them!).

It was a fantastic three days with excellent attendance each day. The cafe did a roaring trade and ran out of coffee on Saturday. Food was top class and we received lovely feed-back from lots of visitors.

After a debrief next week I should have some figures to share.

Instead of show pics have a look at these:

Sue has been powering away at her Lots of Dots and the blocks she has done are looking fabulous.

A few of Robyn's Dots on the wall with a quilt Lurley (seated) is working on made from a Japanese panel.

She almost matches the blocks doesn't she!

These are Toni's Reproduction Beauty blocks made from Michelle Marvig's latest range called Michelle's Backyard - fabulous colours and the designs are so beautiful. Ask for it at your local patchwork shop.

Circles

This video has been doing the rounds of blogs lately - if you haven't seen it yet it is amazing

 we have no excuse now!

These pics are from my summer school at Hobbysew and a 2-day session at Jukejema Quilt Barn

in Nowra. What a lovely shop that is and a fun group of girls too!

I've been seeing Mariners compasses in my sleep lately.

A few NYB blocks thrown in for good measure.

Have a look at the Springwood Quilt Show blog for all the latest updates on the raffle quilt journey and what's happening with the planning for the show. Only 90 days to go so get those quilts bound and labelled!

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.

Clever girls

Here's a selection from a few recent classes. You'll be amazed at how different but spectacular these quilts will be when finished.

This beauty was sent to me by Annette from Port Macquarie. She entered it in the recent Timeless Quilters quilt show and was awarded the runner-up prize for her efforts. What a beautiful interpretation of my Oriental Journey pattern. Well done Annette - we all know how exciting it is to win a prize!.

As the year progresses we have already started working on our raffle quilt for next year's Springwood High School quilt show and we NOW HAVE A BLOG to go with it. Rachel and I spent a lovely afternoon setting it up and there will be regular posts from members of the committee about what goes into making the show happen. We hope you will call by often to check us out and please leave a comment to help us give you all the information we can concerning this wonderful community event.

I have some exciting news coming for anyone interested in fabric packs of Japanese kimono pieces. I have sourced them from Victoria and they'll be in my on-line shop soon! Stay tuned.

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!

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.

What a mess

We had 5" of rain here last Friday night resulting in a flood through our garage and into my sewing/classroom. The carpet has been removed and we're waiting on insurance to replace it. Meanwhile no weekly classes til that happens. Sorry girls! We are all missing our regular get-togethers to catch up on all the goss and look at who's been sewing what.





These two quilts belong to my good friend Pam. One is her version of my Hexagon Magic quilt with hand pieced and appliqued hexagons around a centre medallion. The colours are so lovely and she's doing a great job, as always.
The little cot quilt is for her new grandaughter and I had the pleasure of quilting it. The pic really highlights the quilting doesn't it.

The NYB quilt is Toni's from a Springwood class.

What a great use of colour! Hope she has it quilted for our Springwood show.

The entry form for the Darling Harbour quilt show arrived yesterday. Lots of new categories and much food for thought. I have finished my entry - this year my entry photo won't be just the unquilted top like previous years! - and I just need to add a label.

Put the dates 16-20 June on the calendar - it's the big quilt event for us here in NSW.

William would be pleased

Back to my class at Blackheath today and look what was waiting for me. Laraine has been so busy over the Xmas break making this beautiful version of my Emperors Wheel quilt. William Morris applique blocks machine appliqued and the centre compass was her first go at foundation piecing. What a great job and a delight to look at. Maybe it will be quilted and bound in time for our quilt show in April? The way Laraine works I think so!

New shop on the block

Want to see a sneak preview of our raffle quilt for next year's quilt show. I'm sure the girls won't mind - it is in the process of being quilted by the lovely Suzie Anderson of Leura Quilting who will do a magnificent job as always. It's a Karen Cunningham design called Bluebell - some of you lucky ones probably have one on your bed at the moment. So for those who can't get into a class with Karen who is so popular there are waiting lists all over the place here is your chance to have one yourself. Anzac weekend next year but don't worry I'll keep you posted. (I love saying that!)

Take some time to have a look at a new on-line shop that just happens to be selling a kit for my Mariners Garden quilt here. Kellie and Caroline from the new Quilt Street have put together a great collection of fabric and kits with some really good specials on at the moment. They are also the exclusive Australian stockists for a range of Jewish themed fabric from the US picked up on their whirlwind trip to Houston last year. Well done girls - keep up the good work.

These are some of the Princess feathers the girls have done for our group challenge. Aren't they fantastic! We had a Xmas in July night this week for the unveiling. Some stuck rigidly to the rules while others did their own thing.

Some are already quilted while others are still WIPs. It will be great to see them all together at our next Springwood HS quilt show. I'll put some more in the next post.

A group of us got together today to make a start on the raffle quilt for the 2010 show which is the Bluebell quilt designed by Karen Cunningham, one of our local quilters. We had a fun day fussy cutting and covering paper diamonds and hexagons with lots of yummy food to keep us going.

Several of us were given a bag of papers and fabrics to take home and come back in 3 weeks time with a completed section and we hope to have the top finished and ready for quilting by October. Lets hope so.

She's a winner!

After my random number generator did its magic we have a winner for my Mariners pattern. It was tasha from South Australia - congratulations. And thanks to all who left a comment - maybe next time.
This has been such fun reading more and more comments each day from all over the world. Don't forget to come back and visit - I have some good news to share from the Sydney Quilt show but more about that later! And don't forget the SEWN launch tomorrow - should be good.

Latest pattern

Check out the latest issue of Quilters Companion for instructions to make my Funky Tumblers quilt. Lots of other great projects - it really is an inspiring magazine.

Don't forget to leave a comment to be in the draw for one of my Mariners patterns to celebrate the launch of the SEWN website on 8th June.

I'll have some of my patterns and quilts on the Fortunes and Fairies stand at the Sydney Quilt Show. Call by and have a look.

Guess what!!

I sent a quilt to the Cotton Expo in Narrabri for their quilt show and I won a 1st prize!! in the traditional section with Oriental Mariners. Very generous amount of cash it was too.

Had a lovely Mothers day at Bicentennial Park with hubby and kids (25 & 32 so not so kiddish I guess) picnicking and bike riding. What a great venue for both. There were lots of other families celebrating and we will certainly visit again - the bike paths are fantastic.

I'm on a deadline to finish quilting my entry for Darling Harbour - 3 and a bit weeks til drop-off day - better get on with it.

Stand-up quilter

I had to share this pic from my last class at The Vintage Patch - Betty the stand-up quilter (she's pretty comic as well!) Betty is quite short and does a lot of her work standing up - whatever works I say. This is her 3rd? quilt and her work is beautiful. She jumps in at the deep end and her quilts are huge. One will be on show at the Springwood High quilt show this weekend.

Please try and come up to the mountains Fri, Sat or Sun and take a look at over 150 wonderful quilts by local quilters - you will be very impressed I'm sure. Ten trading tables and a great cafe run by the students - it'll be worth your while.

On the subject of the show I have been making a quilt for The Vintage Patch to sell kits for at the show. It's a good one for the male in your life and a looks great in red and navy reproduction fabrics. The pic hasn't had the final border added yet.

Off to start quilting a Three Sisters wallhanging for Jeanette and her church - wish me luck!

Had a lovely day at Bathurst again. They are gearing up for Sue Spargo's workshop at the end of the month and by all accounts it should be very exciting.

Some pics here of the NYB blocks the gitrls are working on for their Reproduction Beauties quilts - cats, florals, repros, pretties - you name it they are doing it. And very happily too. After a few glitches with the foundations we are well on the way to completing their versions of my quilt and the raffle quilt for Swd High quilt show.

157 entries and the hall will be chocka-block our exhibition organiser - also known as Marilyn - tells me.

The theme of the show is Oriental Journey and Sue in my Swd class is doing my quilt-as-you-go Noodle box using great oriental prints. Foundation pieced with flying geese around an octagonal block. Very easy to quilt and put together.

I'm having a stall at the show selling patterns and kits for them. I've been busy cutting and packaging - reducing the stash quite well to make room to buy some new stuff. Isn't that how it works?