Frosted donuts!

Slight technical hitch with my blog hence the delay!
I received a lovely parcel in the mail from Piece O'Cake. Not exactly a present (I paid for it!) but a treat just the same. It's called a Frosted Donut and consists of finer cottons specifically for applique. Why do so many quilty things relate to food! Jelly rolls, layer cakes! Hmm. I could make a suggestion but I won't!


Thought I would also include a progress report on my latest quilt just to prove I really have been busy, really I have! The red perle has worked well and my hands have adjusted!


Last day of school holidays today. Bit sad as everyone is back to school on Monday!

Not a quilt but...

Yes, I know this is supposed to be about quilts and other arty things but we went to the show (Melbourne Royal Show) and of course had to check out the dogs and fell head over heels in love with the Australian Shepherds. At least I did anyway. So I have contacted Kate, a recommended breeder and reserved a puppy which will hopefully look a bit like this and will probably scare the cats witless!

We are away most of this week enjoying the forecast rain!
Cheers

Yeh, fabric sale!!

Have just been to the local farmers' market (love it) and bought the best bread ever. This was on the way back from a fabric sale at Patchwork on Central Park where there were lots of lovely fabrics for $5/m!! I did exercise some restraint and reminded myself that I did not need metres of cowboy fabric (I have teenage girls) so bought these:



Have started quilting the Hidden Star with red perle. Looks terrific but pretty hard on the hands. This will come to Point Lonsdale with us next week. It's a really little seaside town about an hour and a half drive from Melbourne. While it will still be too cold to swim, the girls will see friends and I will sew. Poor husband will be at home with his other two children (aka the cats) working and enjoying some time to himself!

Don't you just love a good lighthouse!

Oh and this is a glimpse of my latest project- the applique medalion.


It's a bit psychedelic at the moment but will tone down once its actually appliqued (I hope)!!

Holidays and sunflowers

Thank you Debbie for your comments. I love the community feel of blogging especially when it connects different people from different countries. Like having a very dispersed sewing group! It is also fun reading about preparations for autumn while we are coming out of winter and looking at a very long, very hot summer!

It is school holidays here and I spent two hours today in at the NGV (National Gallery of Victoria) where I volunteer. No, I don't get to touch or even talk about any paintings. I am a lowly Members' Volunteers who keeps the members lounge running. So it is not very glamorous but it gets me into the gallery!
They have their yearly European Masters exhibition which is the highlight of the gallery year. This year it is from the Stadel Gallery (Germany) and this is one of my favourites!


Other than that I have been working on a new block which has turned out looking a bit like a sunflower.


It was one of those ideas that I had to make immediately. You know what that is like. Now I have to decide what to do with it!

Glorious colour!!

Sorry to be absent for the last week. I and my house have been recovering from the onslaught of 40 teenagers at my daughter's party! Mind you they were very well behaved and only four jumped into the pool (which is currently 10 degrees!!).

If you live in Melbourne you wear black in winter. It has, unfortunately become our uniform. It also unfortunately makes those of us who are pale people with blue eyes look like old crows. So I have decided to slowly eliminate black from my wardrobe. This is not an easy task because a. I never throw anything out!
b. It is almost impossible to buy anything but black(or other pasty neutrals) in Melbourne.
The solution...the Liberty shirt!




This bit of gorgeousness came from a shop nearby. I fell in love with the fabric at Patchwork on Central and was going to buy the fabric and make it. But who am I kidding! I love all the little animals and the traffic stopping pink.

So I wore it yesterday when the ladies came over to sew. Unfortunately I missed getting a photo of them but I did take this snap of my poor old Periwinkle quilt which has been around forever. I lost one of the pieced borders and was so cross I had to put it away!




Meanwhile I think my new found love of lots of colour will be reflected in my upcoming quilts. There is a very bright applique medalion in the works but I am still struggling with the design (and the applique).

Cheers