While I was away

I've been away doing family things and while I was away, the eagerly anticipated EQ7 package arrived!

I am looking forward to installing and getting stuck into some new designs. Hopefully this will save me  hours of drafting line drawings. I am reading (Ok, flicking) through the book, waiting for my daughter to explain the finer points to me.

I am hoping that EQ7 makes my designing life simpler and more productive. I really have so many designs I have not had the time to develop into actual work yet...this may make the difference...or not....it seems that computers rule everything nowadays, but I don't know what they have improved. I am hoping that saved time will be the big change. I've also heard that EQ7 allows designs to be turned into needlwork patterns, which my daughter is excited about (and so am I as I would love to see her work some of my own sketches into embrodiery.) We'll see....

As I've been away, I forgot to blog that Sunshine & Shadow won an award at the Sydney Quilt Show. I expected to be there, but at the last minute was unable. Many thanks to Deborah Laurie who went to the effort of posting my quilt back to me along with my prize. I won fabric which I am commited to stash busting quickly. It's a lovely new edition. They are fabrics I would never have bought, so it's nice to be working with fabrics outside my 'usual'. Thank to Charles Parsons for sponsoring the award. I also received a pack of batting, which is always useful! I love new wool batting, I find that it quilts beautifully.

To see the winning quilt gallery, click here

A catty posting

We have a very naughty neighbourhood cat. He is black and I think he/she is a Burmese. Every morning I come down into the kitchen, and within a few minutes of the household stirring, there he is. He sits so that the first thing I see when I look out the kitchen window is him. Then he trotters around the house and looks into my sewing studio window to see if I'm in there (of course I am!).We have started a morning conversation ritual where he mews at the window and I chat to him and then after some more mewing, he leaves.

All seems harmless enough. Except he comes back and stalks the house

until he has caught the attention of our pampered indoor cat and then they argue through the glass. This ends in my cat stomping around in a huff for the rest of the day.

This pic is his morning perch position. Yes he only has one eye. I wonder sometimes what kind of mischief caused that.

At the moment he isnt being too distruptive because my own cat is too busy basking before the heating vent to bother looking out the window and starting a fight.

Thank you to those who let me know I have a Lucilia. Apparently a difficult shrub, this one is somehow hardy. I have neglected it and we have been in draught, so I dont know how it  pulled through -it has not been watered once.

I am thinking about a Peony Tree in a pot after seeing some beautiful pics of one on Feather on a Wire's blog. Sally's peony tree made me very envious. It is so beautiful. I don't think it would last in our climate - I will have to look into that.

Back to UFO's: this is my focus until EQ7 arrives (waiting....waiting...), then I will be jumping into some new designs.

Cozy Weather

It's cozy weather at the moment. I was busily quilting and lost in my 'quilter's trance' that I get into when I'm working. Then all of a sudden the electricity cut out and I couldnt believe my eyes... we had snow! (Ok, just hail) but it was suprising none the less.

Twenty minutes later and the house was full of warm sunlight. Very weird weather day.

Usually when I get home I'm fast to get into the house and don't pay  much attention to the foliage at this time of year. But today I had to stop and take a photo and bask in some appreciation for the bush pictured here. It is blooming. I have no idea what it is. It's scent is sometimes powerful and almost off putting. Other times it wafts in through my bedroom window and it is delightful. For those of you who like Estee Lauder, when it is in a delicate mood -it smells exactly like "Tuberose Gardenia"

I was so lucky to catch a glimpse of a honey bee at work (?!) and he is in the fuzzy bit of the 2nd photo. I think its a confusing time for the garden at the moment. Warm sunny afternoons, sudden drops in temp and freezing nights.

With weather like this, I long for a cottage and an open fire (which my husband will dutifully stack, light and keep burning). No such luck. I am making do with bread and butter pudding and winter soups.

There is something so satisfying about winter cooking though.... I love dusting off my old cookbooks and thinking about recipes that can't even be contemplated during the rest of the year on account of the heat.

Oh yeah, have spent the week pottering througgh UFOs and I'm really pleased to be getting through them - the end is nowhere in sight. But you have to start tackling the list somewhere!

How I Mitre Corners

A mitred corner is a 45 degree seam

continue this tutorial by clicking below

Part 3 is launched

In the Pink: Part 3 is now up and running

It's been a quiet few weeks on my blog - I've just been so busy. I have to admit that the 15th has caught up with me again. Where do the months go? I think that is the question I pose the most on this blog.

I have slowed down a bit...it must be the cooler weather. The days feel much shorter and my preoccupations are revolving around bread and butter pudding, contemplating colours and catching up on some long overdue reading.

My UFO list, however, is ever before me (stuck on a wall) and I am working to remind myself that as time goes so quickly (seems to me at least) that looking back, quilts are a really beautiful way to document moments in time.

I had one of those moments last week when a quilt I posted went temporarily missing. It was sent via Platinum (receipted on delivery, guaranteed next day delivery) and it simply- didnt -arrive.

When I tracked it online, it stated that it had been delivered and signed for...the only problem is, it hadn't been. I was very lucky, the quilter on the other end doing the collecting, was very patient with me as I chased Australia Post up about it. It was finally located and 'dropped' on her door. Where was it for 3 days?? Who had signed for it? Who knows?!

Australia Post were neglectful and tardy with my box..and it's made me wonder how to deliver quilts in future. When you select the 'safest' tracked option, you like to think it will arrive safely. And you really don't want to put the next person along - receiving the quilts-through the annoyance and commotion that this type of scenario creates. Stress!!

I just had to get that off my chest - and have I received an explanation? NO And have I received an APOLOGY? NO Has the quilt receiver on the other end of all this received an APOLOGY? NO. Ok, enough said....

It's struck home that it's so easy to lose a quilt ...and I feel so attached to them. It's made me more commited to appraise (value) all my quilts and keep a better record of what I am making. All my quilts are originals and I would hate to lose any. Some, I'm ashamed to admit, dont even have a decent photo to be remembered by. Not to mention all the work and materials that has gone into each one.

Just yesterday my daughter refused to start a crochet blanket because she didn't want to invest '80 hours' into an 'acrylic' piece. And that made me think about all the hours and materials we quilters put into each quilt. (What's 80 hours? What is wrong with all these fussy crocheters??)

I have been very lucky, I know so many quilters have had there work lost or stolen, almost experiencing it myself put me in a prickly mood all day.

So onto a happier note, my bed will soon be cheered by In The Pink... how is yours coming along?

June Lyons Award 2010

The Waverley Patchworkers Inc Quilt Show is over for another year. On friday evening at the Gala Opening, I was surprised and delighted to be honored with the June Lyons Award for 2010, for my quilt Dream Fountain.

It was a great opening and I really enjoyed looking at all the great work that was there.

I must say, my heart beat a little faster when I heard that a Red Delicious quilt had won the Viewers Choice. They were just announcing it when I arrived to collect my quilt at the end of the show.

I am so happy about this and will post a pic of the Red Delicious quilt, which by the way is not red at all - but black and white!

Yes, even though it is not red, I still love it. It actually looks magical and I think it is just gorgeous. Thank you and congratulations to Jeanette for exhibiting your Red Delicious, can't wait to share it here.

PS
from all the excitement of the show, I have actually forgotten all the other winners...I know, my memory is like a sieve. But I will say that the winning Field of Flowers challenge entry was deservingly beautiful.

Note to self: next time, remember to take your camera with you (I left it on the bench) and can you believe that I dont know how to use my mobile phone camera?? There you have it - I don't!

Interestingly, I went to the opening with a friend who had not seen my blog or my own challenge entry and I asked her politely if she could find me amongst all the others - and after a well considered inspection, she picked mine...because of the type of fabric I had used on the binding. Maybe it's time for me to stop stash busting and start working with brand spanking new fabrics.

But really, I envy her eye for detail and I do think that all we quilters have a certain 'look' no matter what style we do.

Field of Flowers

The Waverley Quilt Show is on this weekend

Here are my 2 entries for the challenge 'Field of Flowers'

I do love a challenge and I do love flowers....so I thought I better make 2 entries!

I really enjoyed cutting out and making the flower heads. I think that when I have finished my current UFO list, that I will sit down with some inspiring fabrics and make a big bunch of fabric flowers for my kitchen table.