Lots of work done at Retreat...

Not very much from myself but a lot of others were in the sewing mode!!!

This first one was made by Heather - Aussie animals foundation pieced from a book by Margaret Rolfe.

This quilt is a hand-pieced project from Annie

Judy's motor bike quilt for her father.

Partially pieced quilt by Lisa, from a Birthday Block exchange at Regent St quilts.

And this last photo is not a quilt as you can see, but beautifully painted sneakers that Jeann worked on. We all wanted a pair....Beautiful work Jeann.

I worked on my blue and brown hexagons and nearly finished appliqueing them onto the borders.  As soon a I have finished, hopefully this week, I will post a pic for you.

I hope you all enjoyed these photos - there were heaps more but as the lighting in the room at the time of Show and Tell was not the best some didn't come out as clear as I would have liked.  But a great weekend and looking forward to next year.

Progress

At last some progress has been made on a couple of languishing Phd's (Projects have done...) (I love saying I'm working on my Phd....)

It takes the thought of a quilting retreat/camp coming up this weekend to get a move-on.  Whoever thought of going to a retreat and not having something to work on!

Remember the blue and brown hexagon quilt I had started?  Well now I have completed the applique borders and them tacked them down to the hexagons in readiness to applique them on. The outer hexagon border is also completed, but I haven't tacked it down. That is happening later today. Once completed then all I have to do is to add a narrow border, sandwich with batting and backing, quilt, then put the binding on.  No big deal!  I can do this!  Although I won't be quilting it this weekend, but at least I will have it to that stage.

I have also completed some of my diamond hexagons for the Martha Washington quilt I am replicating.  Not in her colours as it is too hard to match up, but using what materials I have in my stash.  IF, and I mean IF, I have completed what I plan to do this weekend, I will work on some more of these diamonds.  I am loving them. They are 5/8" hexagons, not quite 1/2" but still small.  I love working with small pieces and love handwork.   I find it very therapeutic.

I guess this comes from all the stitching - embroidery; cross stitch and tapestries I used to do before I found quilting.  If I have the time I prefer to hand quilt rather than machine quilt.



These are some of the single rounds awaiting their final round.

And here are some with their final round applied.


No more rounds - they need to have the neutral hexagons in between.  For these I'm using a mixture of creams, beige, cream on cream, and some very very light patterns on cream.

When sewn together they will form larger diamond shapes, which also form a 'star' so you get a secondary pattern in your quilt.

Till next update, enjoy your weekend - are any of you planning on retreating this year.  I would love to know where/what you are planning with friends.

Take care,
Joy

Have you heard about

'Quilt @ Winter School'?  The wonderful Glenys who organises Fibre Arts in Ballarat each year and other week long fibre arts retreats/schools has put together a fabulous 'Quilt @ the Winter School' for next year - 2013.  There is a great selection of tutors AND the best thing is you work with the one tutor for the week, so you can complete your project, not take it home half-done and then put it away for another day.  How many times have you done that and then forgotten about it?

Plus, there is NO cooking or housework for a whole week (5 days).  To find out more click here or above - the link will take you to her website and all the information is there.  While there have a peek at some of the other schools she has organised - there is even one in Darwin!

In case any of you are interested(?) I have booked into the class with Carolyn Sharkey.  So I'm on the hunt for some fabulous photos and images that I can work with.  I will post some pics when I have the photos.

Please go and have a look at Glenys' site and really really think about joining the rest of us.

A relaxing week at Hall's Gap

A fortnight ago I spent 5 days relaxing, sewing and chatting (not in that order) at a retreat in Hall's Gap, in the Grampian Ranges north of Melbourne.  There were 14 of us altogether. 

Most of us only get together once a year for this special time as we come from all over Victoria and Mt. Gambier in Sth Australia.  It's a fabulous time and the Retreat where we stay backs onto the National Park, and we get a lot of wildlife coming around - this inquisitive Roo thought he was going to join us for morning tea!!!!

I was very pleased with myself as I was able to complete 12 blocks of the pattern 'Patriots in Petticoats', a pattern from Common Threads Quilting.  I adore this pattern as the setting is very different from a lot of other reproduction quilt patterns.

There are 16 blocks of this size (12") plus a larger one in the middle and a border of log cabins set in a ribbon pattern.

Mystery is solved!!!

In my last post I related the story of the upcoming Retreat and the Angel/Mortal swap that was happening.   Well, I can now tell you who my Angel was - Christine from Qld.  She was even further devious with one of the gifts at the retreat - when I was arriving to dinner on the first night she had the girls at the desk hand it to me!  The only clue there was that I knew she had to be in the room - among 60+ others.  A really lovely person and I hope we keep in touch.

Townsville is a beautiful place in far north Qld.  Retreat venue was fabulous and the staff very attentive and friendly.  This is a view from my room overlooking the river (around the corner from the main beach).

 And this is what we saw when we went to Magnetic Island for dinner on Saturday night - a supurb sunset overlooking Horseshoe Bay.  Just look at those colours, I took this photo with the camera in my phone, (and while on the bus) so not quite as good as the real thing, but still beautiful.

I will have more to tell you about the retreat as soon as I get myself back into gear and into the real world!!  Oh how I wish I was back there, relaxing in the sun, instead of rugged up in my winter woolies with 0c degrees the last 2 nights.  brrrr.