Fun stuff

Erratum: My quilt photos from yesterday seemed to have loaded in the wrong order. The junior winner was the fish quilt not the intricate pickle dish. 

Saturday was sumo day. On the way we stumbled across a temple in beautiful gardens, complete with a performing monkey and a christening. 

At the end of his tricks his,owner turned on the heater for him!

The baby cried thru the whole ceremony. That's grandma in the middle dressed in lots of finery. 

We watched a few wrestlers arriving like film stars on the red carpet. They are massive!

Sunday we hopped on the bullet train and headed for Hiroshima. Lovely city despite its history. 

I hope the girl next to me didn't  mind her picture being taken! Mt Fuji in all its glory on the five hour train ride. Amazing trip. Why can't we do something like that. 

Gardens everywhere and proper coffee shops. 

It looked like a meth lab. The coffee is produced from a test tube and a Bunsen burner thingy. Very modern. 

All around the Peace Park are these pAper cranes - thousands,of them and so pretty. 

These are all made up,of individual origami cranes. Beautiful. 

Finally at dinner we saw this little guy out for a walk. How bizarre!

Tokyo Quilt Show pt 2

This won 1st prize in the Original Design category. 

Winner in the Junior category

I'd love to make this 

This was a 1st prize winner but I can't remember what it was for. Beautiful. 

This was amazing and what a great idea. Little hexies on bigger hexies. 

Today we went to the Tokyo fish markets for breakfast. What an experience. Couldn't identify half the produce and all the breakfast menus were fish related. Very interesting!

Went to Yuzawaya department store and found the fabric section OMG! Echino for $14/m! Japan's Spotlight for sure. And found a Kinokuniya store for the magazine Patchwork Tsushin. Bargain at $11 - usually $30 in Australia. 

Tomorrow is punk city - the land of Anime. 

Tokyo Quilt Show pt 1

We are finally here! It's freezing and raining but who cares. These are my travelling companions, Heather, Esme and the long suffering Tony

As you can see we're all rugged up 

Note the diamond quilt on the forecourt!

We queued for 30 mins for a ticket, then 30 mins to actually get in. All those umbrellas are out in the rain. 

This is the view on entry. The show is over the baseball pitch with the stands all around for eating and resting. 

Just a few pics of quilts I liked and more in the next post. 

All the pieces in the compass were appliquéd not pieced. 

Close up of the above. 

Amazing stretched diamonds. 

This was,so intricate. 

More tomorrow with this great free wi fi. We're off to have yummy ramen for dinner. 

Summer schools

Friday saw me at Quiltsmith in Annandale for a workshop on my Scrappy Windmill quilt. 

Twelve lovely ladies came along and made a block each. Some were hand piecing but most were machining. 

Lots of beautiful  fabric combinations were appearing on the design wall...

We had Kaffe inspired, some reproductions and most were just scrappy. How the block looks best I feel!

A good time was had by all and the day is being repeated on Sunday 12th April for those on the waiting list. There's also a new quilt - Atomic Star - being offered on the same day. Call the shop if you're interested. 

What an issue!!

 Have you seen the January issue of Homespun? I finally found one today in the newsagent and I'm on the cover! What a beautiful rendition of my 30s Wheel quilt featured in the mag.

 

Foundation pieced rings of vintage style fabrics with embroidered linen centres.

These were cut from old doilies and a tablecloth from my rather large collection.

 

With just a few hexagons for good luck.

There's also a bio of me written so long ago I'd forgotten what I said but it makes me sound like a real quilter!

 

And that's not all - this is Hobbysew's ad for their new BOM designed by me. Featuring their Aboriginal range plus blenders, it's an exercise in different techniques and comes together for a double bed-sized quilt.

I made this over 12 months ago (actually I made four of them for other Hobbysew stores!) and it's great to see it finally released. Sign up now - I guarantee you'll love it.

But wait there's more. In this same issue is a hexagon project from my good friend Janelle Noack.

Janelle and I will be teaching together in Cooma in February - can't wait to catch up with her.

So it's a great issue all round - grab it while you can!

And don't forget the 10% off sale in my etsy store for all of January.

 

Happy New Year Sale!

After a BIG family Xmas and a bit of a relax for the last week it's time for the new year and all it holds.

My teaching calendar is pretty much full for the year so I guess I'm employed for another twelve months!

To kick start 2015 I'm having a sale in my etsy shop here. for the whole of January.

Have a look and you might see something you like when the price is right!

 

Happy New Year to all my blog readers - I had 16 comments after the last post - so happy to know someone's out there!