Sunday, June 30, 2013

June Finish

A few years back - at one of my patchwork groups, we made and swapped Happy Blocks ( a 4" square with 2" borders [finished]).  I nominated a sea theme and collected these.  I had made the top quite a while ago and have now quilted and bound it.  


It's a cool wet dull day here so photo opportunities are limited.

This one of the blocks I love the most - the colours are gorgeous - though they don't show up very well here...


Finished off with Susie's magic binding again...

Palmwoods Craftfest

Bestie and I headed up to the Sunshine Coast to check out the Palmwoods CraftFest.  A great show - all types of fibre crafts and some retailers.  I think this is only on every second year - but its really worth a visit.

Noela asked for some pictures - so I took ...quite a few:  Maybe photo overload...grab a coffee...

This is the display that caught my eye as soon as I walked in - that purplish jacket is covered in embroidery - maybe brazilian style - lots of flowers with bullion types of stitches - I should have taken a close up...


This quilt gave me a few ideas for a project I want to work on next year...

 a gorgeous pouch / purse

This quilt was very large - perhaps 6' x 6' and each block is hand done - the birds are embroidered with quite a fine thread and the backgrounds are hand quilted in patterns that really give the whole thing a lot of movement.
(It was hard to stand back enough to get a good photo) - I thought this was fantastic.


Here is the detail of one block

Next to this quilt was another quilt (done by the same lady) that was absolutely covered in hand embroidery - this time she started with a panel and toned down the strong colours in the panel to something a lot softer, then added the blocks & borders around it to make another very large quilt.

This is a section of the panel she started with
and this is a similar area of the quilt.  Perhaps you can see the entire flower is covered with feather stitch.  The purple leaves at the top were covered in a back stitch and all the small flowers were covered in satin stitch - mainly using variegated threads.
Amazingly neat and beautiful colours.


here is the whole quilt


and one of the side panels


The quilting (professionally done) was also amazing - not just the diagonal lines you see in the photo above but also some Chinese Symbols in circles.
We spent a lot of time looking at this - had there been a Viewers Choice - I'm sure this would have won the prize.

Another group of small quilts that caught my eye were about 40cm square of flowers that had been entirely covered with machine stitching.  I love strelitzias - so this was my favourite..


and here is the detail....



and one of the others in the group.



I also saw this lovely cross stitch of patchwork blocks


 and a group of objects made with coiled fabric tubes. 

 I also loved this City Scape - I think it was drawn onto the fabric then machine stitched and embellished.


Palmwoods seems to be a small villagey sort of area - the show had a lot of sections where the sign indicated that tutors had come in and given classes on a lot of these techniques  - there were more than I have showed here - like weaving using natural items like banana leaves and felted wool including seed pods.

It wasn't a huge area - but we took quite a while to take it all in.


And no trip to Palmwoods is complete without a slight deviation to Forest Glen.... 


and we were really lucky - because it was the last day of the Quilters Trail (a Shop Hop that went for the month of June) - they were open past the normal closing time of 2pm - we arrived about 10 to 2.!!!
and I was very restrained and only bought one packet of Theodora Cleave buttons.

Just as well Lynette Anderson's shop closes at 2pm - that could have been more dangerous.

A great day - I think I need to retire to Palmwoods - imagine how many UFOs I could accumulate then!




Friday, June 28, 2013

Wendy's Giveaway

Wendy (Sugarlane Quilts) is celebrating the finish of her very first pattern - it's really sweet - and you can win the pattern if you visit here and "talk the talk" or make the comments etc.

Got a busy weekend coming up - a quilt show at Palmwoods and a fun dinner date on Sunday - (ask me if you live in Brisbane) and I have to finish my project for June  for Sew Its Finished and Aunt Marti.  Sounds like fun to me....


Monday, June 24, 2013

Brisbane Blog Meet and Walnut Shells

Firstly - the "Walnut Shells"

Referring to my last post and the walnut shells...seems there is a difference between crushed walnut shells and pulverised walnut shells... I used the crushed version and it is really quite difficult to get pins into my pincushion - very annoying.  At the Blog meet - Teresa bought hers along - and she had used walnut shells - but hers were crushed, crushed again and crushed a few more times - hers are like sawdust.  Easy to stick the pins in...Do you think my daughter would let me crush my walnut shells in her Thermomix??? (probably not)

The Blog Meet on Sunday - a lovely meetup - thanks to Maree for coordinating - the venue is a great solution and it's all working very well.

A few pictures - though I missed some of the Show & Tell

Firstly, Helen with a gorgeous small quilt - wall hanging...not sure.
You know Helen - she's the quiet one and doesn't like to be in the limelight!!!
 
and a group shot of the SAL pincushions for June.

More photos - over here at Noela's.




...

Sunday, June 9, 2013

FNWF & a Catchup

On Saturday I finished off my Red Home pincushion. (it's the SAL project for June.)
It's so cute.  I used crushed walnut shells and silicone beads to fill it.  It's heavy so I think it will work well and not get knocked off the table too often.




 Sunday:  I used my pin cushion a bit today - I'm not sure I like having walnut shells in it - It is quite difficult to push the pins in.  Has anyone else used crushed walnut shells before??  How do you find it?

Also on Friday I received a lovely gift from Cath - see here where I won the giveaway for May.
She included a lovely note - saying that a birdie has told her I like Purple - I wonder how the birdie knew that??

and here are my goodies - a fat quarter - very yummy, a variegated thread (LUV variegated threads) & some buttons - all lovely - thanks again Cath.


And - only a short time ago I received the book I had won from Aunt Marti in March - there was a good reason for the delay - so don't blame her or the US Postal Service.  It's got some great projects in it - and some recipes - some of them look very tempting - I just have to convert some of the "American" products  (like Monterey Jack Cheddar).  And the book has been autographed.





I have been so lucky with Giveaways!!




Saturday, June 8, 2013

FNWF

I had hoped to finish this one but I did make some progress - I had forgotten that I still had to do the stitching on the house side and remove the papers from the hexies...mmm...that is proving to be fiddly - too much glue I think - I should have tacked them...


Anyway I hope to finish it this weekend (especially as it's a long weekend).


And I did get these squares cut...easy peasy 

Thanks for sewing along with me.

Sunday, June 2, 2013

A May Win

Cath - over at Bits & Bobs has a monthly draw from all the commenters for the month - and I have won for May!!!

Yippee - no idea what it is yet . . but really I think this is just a lovely idea to share the love around.  So pop over and get to know Cath.


Thanks Cath & thanks Mr Random Number Generator.