Back in the land of the living!

Well it has been a while. Our household has unfortunately been in turmoil due to a child with a serious illness, a sporting injury and surgery (same child) and a very boisterous puppy!
So much for my productive year of finding myself!
So to keep it short-
I've been working on this:

I've also been walking alot with this:






Meanwhile I've been trying to keep these -



from being accidentally eaten by this-



!!!

Beautiful gardens

Just spent the day with a dear friend at the National Gallery of Victoria Open Garden Day. OMG!! The gardens were huge and incredibly beautiful.In some ways it was really nice just to stroll around knowing that we will never have an indoor pool and tennis court but wouldn't it be luverly!
No photos unfortunately because weren't allowed so I put this in instead.

What a gorgeous quilt from the Material Obsession blog.
I have both of Kathy's books and continually go through them trying to decide which project! All those delicious colours!

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

My sewing room and other messy things

My lovely almost-14 year old is having a big joint birthday party (with her best friend) this Friday. Consequently my sewing room (which doubles as an extra sitting room) will need to be cleaned up!! Otherwise adults will find out just how messy I can be. So I have to turn this:


......into a nice room to sit in!
I have therefore been working at terrifying speed (for me) on this...




.... so I can put everything away!

So far I am quite pleased with the results though I am not sure about the mustard. I was trying for an antique prairie look done entirely on the machine. This is the most complicated machine quilt I have ever attempted (my other efforts were no more difficult then nine-patches). Will soon have to find a backing which is always exciting! I am thinking of quilting it in red perle which I have never used before. Any thoughts!

More quilts!

Am currently obsessed by stars, in quilts that is! Possibly from starting to design the Lone Star for my friend but also stumbling across some beautiful non-traditional examples.

Unfortunately I can't remember where this photo came from so my apologies and I will acknowledge it as soon as possible but what a gorgeous quilt. I love the soft grey background and the different shades of pale blue. Can feel a new quilt coming on!

My Babuschka Project is coming along nicely and is only days away from the big reveal!

Teaching at Patchwork House and a few holiday reminiscences!

I am very excited as I will be teaching a quilting class at Patchwork House . Have done lots of teaching but usually about science and animals (that's another story) so I am really looking forward to it. Just a simple Star of LeMoyne that I made for my daughter a few years ago but it has always been one of my favourites with lots of old paisley fabrics (no photo as the quilt is at the shop).

Getting a bit over the cold weather here in Melbourne though it's good for sewing. Keep thinking about the beautiful Kakadu from our recent holiday and the warmth and the swimming holes....

This is Jim Jim Falls 170m high with a stunning swimming hole at the bottom. After 30 minutes 4WDing and 40 minutes scrambling over boulders you have earned a swim! The water is very deep and almost black. We were assured that the Estuarine crocs (they are the ones that eat you) had been removed at the end of the wet season and the fresh water species are very shy but we were still looking a bit nervous. So we sent the tour guide in first!

Much as I love Europe, Australia really is a beautiful place.

A new quilt and quilter!

My lovely friend has decided that she wants to make a quilt for her daughter. I have advised her that quilting is addictive and once she starts she will be unable to stop. It may even take over her life (and her cupboards) but she has chosen not to heed my warnings!!

So she dug out this beautiful photo of a Star of Bethlehem from an Architectural Digest cover and we are going to recreate the pattern. It lives in the Shelburne Museum and was sewn by a Sioux woman sometime in the late 19C. How gorgeous is it! It was part of a kaleidoscope exhibition held there in 2006.