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

Having a great day!

Thank you so much for your kind comments. I really needed them! My heating has broken down and while Melbourne is not Europe it is quite cold for us. My toilet is blocked so the boys from the drain cleaners are currently head down in the sewer overflow (well not literally!).
Oh here is my effort at a closeup of my quilt (as requested. I will have a better go when it is finished.


It's called a Hidden Star and sewn using Marti Michell Templates (www.frommarti.com/)a truly wonderful invention which makes it possible to machine-piece that which was previously only possible by hand (for me anyway).
I have also just completed this..


which I am pleased to say is my own creation and not bad for someone who previously avoided all applique!! Lots of fun using my carefully horded little bits of Kaffe! I just wish I could do a better job of photographing quilts.

Well toilet is unblocked, heating still doesn't work but a quilt top is nearly finished and my girls are home from school soon so I'm having a good day!

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!

A quilt with imagination!

This quilt was designed by Klashbert for Parcs i Jardins (Barcelona parks department)to use as an illustration and popped up on this website. It was sewn by Wai Lin Tse and I love it. I've decided that it looks like a deconstructed Bear Paw. What do you think?

Quilting with friends

Had a lovely night quilting with friends at the library. Two of my favourite things-quilts and the library. Ours is wonderful, like going into a giant bookshop where you can have whatever you want (well, for three weeks at least)! Unfortunately no photos today as something strange has happened and all my photos keep encrypting themselves (very Da Vinci Code)!

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!