Ryland Gardens at the Australian Quilt Convention

I'm very excited because tomorrow the AQC opens in Melbourne and Ryland Gardens will hang at Threadbear's stand on offer as a new Block of the Month. My gorgeous friend Margaret of Quilt Station, Elphinstone has done a great job on the machine quilting. I'm so pleased with the finished quilt. I hope other quilters will like it too!

Ryland Gardens - Launched at Australian Quilt Convention, Melbourne

So here are a few more photos of the finished quilt.

February meeting of Central Victoria Chapter of the Applique Society

One week to the day after fires started burning all over the state, 38 quilters travelled to Castlemaine for the third meeting of The Applique Society here in Australia. Many of our members have been directly threatened by the fires, and some could not come on Saturday as their homes were still under some threat. But in the great australian spirit, others of us rallied together and took the opportunity to raise some much needed money for the Bushfire survivors.

Thanks to generous donations from Threadbear and Kerri Walton Quilting (both members) we were able to raffle prizes totalling $400.00. Members dug deep and raised a total of $505.00 which has been donated to the Red Cross Bushfire Appeal.

Our guest quilter was Jenny Bacon who shared with us her terrific photos from her recent trip to Japan and the Yokohama Quilt Show! After lunch we were treated to a fabulous Show and Tell from members.


The first quilt shown here was made by Judy from a Primarily Patchwork pattern. The second is an original design by Irene Blanc. The last photo is of a central block I am working on at the moment, reproducing a quilt from 1782.

After starting the day sobbing uncontrollably in my car on the way to the meeting - the result of a week listening to tragic gut wrenching reports of bushfire - I finished the day feeling stronger and more bouyant. It reminded of the healing power of being connected to a social group women with a common love of creating something lovely out of fabric.

Fatal Victorian inferno

Many of you overseas may not have lived with the threat of bushfire every summer. Here in Victoria we are still in the midst of our worst drought and now have temperatures reaching record highs. On Saturday 7 February it reached 49 degrees celsius at our place here in Castlemaine. The hot dry winds blustered all day and fires broke out all over the State. The worst fires did not pose a direct threat to Castlemaine, but things were hairy for a while late Saturday with a one large fire 30 km to the north of us and another fire 20 kms to the south east. The fires are still burning and a horrifying 181 people are reported dead - so far. Every one has been shocked by the ferocity of these fires as we watch the unfolding horror.

I can't seem to settle to any quilting even though there are jobs to do to get Ryland Gardens ready to launch at the Australian Quilt Convention at the end of this month. I just keep looking out at my garden and the surrounding bush and feeling very very vulnerable and sad.

Fatal Victorian inferno
Click on the above link to view extraordinary photos of our State's worst bushfires on record.

Summer holidays

February already??? How did that happen? Well, I survived the summer holidays - 6 weeks with the children at home is about 5 weeks too long! - with two short breaks to the beach. First a few nights before Christmas at Warnambool which was fabulous with a quick visit to Fragrant Cottage for a patchwork and fabric fix. If you're ever in Warnambool, Annette's gorgeous shop is a must.
Then in January we had a week at Phillip Island - off the south coast. I've been going there since I was a kid and I never tire of watching the pelicans being fed every morning at 11.30am. They are so lovely to watch. And no trip to the island is complete without a visit to watch the fairy penguins coming in at night to feed their chicks - even if it is the 13th time you've been!

Then back home for a record breaking heat wave with 6 days over 40 degrees Celsius - 48 degrees here in Castlemaine last week! While we survived the heat, sadly my son's guinea pigs did not so there I was out in the sweltering heat digging a guinea-pig double grave! Gotta love the Australian summer - NOT!

Still, with the aid of air-conditioning, the local swimming pool, pay-TV and some face painting, I managed to get all three kids back to school yesterday in one piece. And happily, I am back at work at Threadbear helping Corliss and Ruth prepare for the coming Australian Quilt Convention in Melbourne at the end of the month.

Have I shown you these...?

I am ashamed to say, I know nothing about these nor doI remember where I found the pictures. But they are wonderful applique quilts. I especially like the balance of colours in these quilts. Colour is always one of those daunting and tricky elements in quilt design. But my theory is the more quilts you look at and ponder over, and the more you immerse yourself in the fabulous fabrics we have available to us, the more confident you will become to take the plunge and experiment with colour. These quiltmakers certainly had an eye for colour.

Antique sewing items

You know me - I love finding gorgeous things like these on ebay and just drooling over them. I never buy any - but it's interesting to read the descriptions, study the details of the design and see what people pay for vintage and antique sewing items. I just think that the detail and workmanship on some of these items is breathtaking. So - I thought you might like to look at them too!

Valley Forge 1860-1880

I'm a sucker for a gorgeous floral and when I saw these tonight my mind started racing with new design ideas. Valley Forge comes to us from Nancy Gere forWindham Fabrics. There are a few good reproduction medium florals teamed with several smaller scale prints in great colours. I'm looking forward to seeing this range when it arrives.

Grand Teint c1880

This lushious range from Windham Fabrics has been out a little while but is finally making its way to Threadbear in coming weeks. This print on red is fantastic but there are five in all and each is really something!

It's almost Ryland Gardens

It's almost finished - when will I get the last inch-and-a-half border on this quilt? Then it's going to my dear friend Margaret Mew of Quilt Station for machine quilting. Corliss and I have been squirrelling away fabrics for this new block-of-the-month which Threadbear will offer at the Australian Quilt Convention in Melbourne Fenruary 2009. I hope you like it and would love to hear what you think.

Tinker, Tailor......

It's Cherry season and time to bottle the next year's supply - so today Gracie and I bottled 11kg of beautiful dark red locally grown Harcourt cherries. It took all afternoon and the final batch is currently in the Fowlers vacola preserver but now I have 24 bottles of delicious cherries to indulge in throughout the year. Tomorrow it's apricot jam - oh joy! My jam never sets or if it does, it resembles reinforced concrete. Never mind - I'm prepared to try again because I LOOOVE apricot jam!

Inspired by Di Ford - again

I have not sewed a stitch for several weeks - most unlike me. But today I saw Di Ford (Primarily Patchwork fame) and she showed me some of the pieces in progress for her current project. Di is well known for her quality patterns reproducing and interpreting antique quilts. She is currently working on her own version of the Phoebe Warner coverlet 1803. Her applique, piecing and colours are to die for. Well that was all the inspiration I needed. I have come home enthused and excited once again about working with these wonderful reproduction fabrics.

Time to hit the needle and thread and finish off another project - or maybe, perhaps I could just sort of start a new quilt - perhaps, possibly, ....