I love stars

Many of my quilts are based on stars of some type.  I love them.  I have been fiddling around with EQ6 lately and managed to work out how to draw up a 6 pointed star.  These are 5 that I have sewn up. I still have to add the set-in pieces to make them into a hexagon shaped block.  Not looking forward to that - I might like stars but not sewing set-in pieces.  This will test my maths skills and if EQ6 turns out a good block. 

A project for a quiet day I think.

While I'm on the subject..

of winning. 

Many years ago ( I entered two of my large embroidery works in the local Geelong Art & Agricultural Show. 

They are shown here - the Roses won 1st Prize in 'Surface Embroidery' and the Iris's received 2nd in the same category. 

Both these works hang on the wall above my bed.  I'm very proud of them as they were also my own design which I took off a couple of photos in a gardening book.

The best news.......

This weekend is the Melbourne Quilt & Craft Show at Jeff's Shed (Exhibition Centre).  I'm a member of my local Geelong Quilt Guild and also a little offshoot Art Play Group.  We only got together earlier this year to learn and try out new ideas in the Art Quilt area.  One of our group Lyn. thought it would be good to do a joint project and submit it for entry at the Show.  We did and not only was it accepted to be hung WE WON FIRST PRIZE in the Group Quilt Section.  How good is that!!!  I'm stoked!!

We made 12x12 inch quilts to the theme of 'circles'.  Mine is second from the right in the second row (bright pink background).  I used felt as the base and printed and discharged random circles then felted spirals and added some hand stitching and pearl buttons.

They were joined by using metal rings to continue the theme of circles and was named 'Circle Fabrication'.  I must thank Jenni S  of Jacaranda blog for these photos as I was not able to get to the show myself.   Her quilt is the first one in the second row.

Playing with the blocks

Yesterday I finished sewing the blocks for the mystery quilt I'm doing.  Today I started to play with them on my design wall.  Don't know what you think, but I'm quite pleased with how they turned out.  Just need to find the right orientation for the blocks.  This is one way, but there is another which I'm going with - you will have to wait and see when I've sewn them together.

Next Mystery Steps

Step 5 is where the shorter of the strips are sewn to one side of the blocks and then joined in rows.  I will then be sewing the longer strips in beween four of the blocks, thus making one quite large block.  With the very cold weather we're having here in Victoria I'm hoping to finish it off this weekend.

Step 6 is putting these large blocks together - borders and binding is your own choice.  Once I have them together will post the final stage before I decide on what to do for borders.

Whoo Hoo - I'm back

on line, that is.
Have been having heaps of problems with Blogger.  Hopefully all is well again.

In the meantime I have been busy, busy, busy.  I'm participating in a Mystery Quilt through my Monday night group.  It is from the Bedford Mystery series.  This series of mystery quilts began in South Aust by a couple of quilters as a means of raising money for a local charity.  It is also the first Mystery quilt I've done and am enjoying it heaps.

Unfortunately, in my haste to get started I didn't take early photographs of the first three steps - there are 6 in all.  Step 1 was the selection of fabrics - I chose to do mine in 'country colours' - safe.... Step 2 was to make 4-patch blocks and strips with 1/2 sq triangle on the end. These blocks are some of the ones finished up to Step 3.

This next photo is Step 4.  These strips are the same construction as part of Steps 1-3, but are longer.  Hopefully the latter bits will be finished very soon. 

A bit hard to see on my 'design wall' as I have used a cream for the light colour material and my design wall is made from a cream flannel sheet.

In the meantime I have also finished some ATCs that are due to be posted very soon.

More historical stuff

 I'm still going through my old photos of quilts that I have made in the past.

This first one is a small Baltimore quilt (the squares are 6" square).  I made this in a class at The German Quilthouse in Geelong, Vic (unfortunately it has been closed for some time now).

A pity you can't see the dimensional work, but there is a ruched flower, padded little rose buds, and free-form flowers used in the borders.

The whole quilt measures 36" x 36".

The next quilt (as you can see) is a kid's quilt.  I made it for my boss when his son Benjamin was born 6 years ago. 

I used pre-printed alphabet squares and stitched the animals, then added different size pieces of bright materials to the squares to add interest.

This last one is very special.  It is a signature quilt of my son's wedding.  I first did the applique and stitching and then we got the guests at the wedding to sign it.  It is finished to fit their dining table as a runner.

Hope you are enjoying my reminiscing as much as I am.

Meeting my favourite princesses...

As you know my family and I went to Disneyland and the US last month.  We had the most fabulous time.  It is a magical place to visit.  I would have enjoyed it even with my granddaughter.

She met all the princesses as well as Mickey and Minnie Mouse and Goofy, and a number of other Disney characters.

Two of her favourites are Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) and of course Snow White.  When she met Aurora, we were having lunch in Ariel's Grotto and she was wearing her 'Aurora' dress.

It was truly a magical happy 3 days.  The rest of the time we went to Chicago, Boston and New York.  I will post some snippets about this part of our trip over the next couple of weeks.

Hello

As mentioned in my previous post way back in April, I have been busy with family stuff. Hopefully I think it has all been resolved, except that I now have DS3 (Warwick) living back home - not just his 'stuff' but him as well.  Having spread myself out over the past few years in my little house, I now have to 'compact' a lot of stuff (that word again!!).  But this exercise has been good in one way - I have had to make strong decisions about what is really worth keeping and what is not. 

At the same time I have found some photos of stuff I have made over the years and given away as gifts etc.

Decided to scan these onto the computer so they wont get lost in the future.  Here are some - the first one is an old photo of me and my very first quilt, a scrappy pyramid.

The second one a basket wallhanging.

And the third is a sampler made in country style colours and material.  The original pattern came from Marti Michell.

I'm also learning to navigate myself around the new look Blogger. 

So much has changed since I last posted.

Oops, I've forgotten to change the aspect of the last photo.  You will have to turn your head to look at it properly...sorry about that.

Stuff etc - I'm sort of still here....accumulating stuff...

My apologies for neglecting my blog.  I have been busy with family stuff.  Hopefully most stuff has now settled down a bit. My mum's unit has now been sold and was settled last week so all the sorting/cleaning etc is finished.  I still have quite a few boxes of stuff in my house that need to find a good home.  DS2 returned from 5 years in Qld (Noosa) and bought all his stuff, even though he is sharing a house with a couple of mates, says his stuff wont fit there!  Then DS3 whose house has just been sold - please mum, can I store some of my stuff at your place until I get new digs!

Amongst all this stuff happening, I had a wonderful 5 days in Kiama last month at the annual Scquilters Retreat - 120+ other quilters from around Oz invaded the small coastal town just below Sydney.  In Melbourne we had the annual Australasian Quilter's Convention and Show and I masqueraded as an Angel for 2 days - the first doing White Glove duty in the Show area answering questions, showing the backs of quilts and making sure no-one bought in food or drink.  The second day was working as a Tutor's Angel with Gloria Loughman, an Australian Landscape Quilt Artist.  Both days were fantastic and I will definitely do it again.

After all of this, next week I'm off on holiday - flying to the US with DS1, DDIL and granddaughter.  We're going to NY, Chicago and Boston AND Disneyland!!!!!  Can't wait to experience this with a 4 yo who firmly believes the 'real Cinderella and the real Snow White' live there.  Not the pretend ones!  The real ones!

Hope to post again before I leave as there has been lots of other things happening around here.  I have even finished a couple more UFOs, but still have to take the photos.

Take care,
Joy