Strathdale Quilters "Parade of Quilts"

I think most of you know that I was without a computer for the past month+ as my laptop unceremoniously died after installing a Windows Update.  Well the fabby guys at the computer tech store have fixed it and thankfully resurrected all of my files.  Now the fun job of trying to catch up...

 

On Monday 6 April 2015, Mum & I went to the Strathdale Quilters "Parade of Quilts" quilt expo at St Andrew's Hall in Bendigo. The entrance fee was only $5 per person and it was money well spent.

 

Here are some photos of some of my favourites:

"Whirling Twirling" by June Danger.  June did this quilt in a class at Honeysuckle and the tutor was Margaret McDonald.  Machine pieced & machine quilted by June.

 

"Hooley Dooley Village Patch" by Jenny Simpson.  Jenny saw the quilt at an exhibition in Melbourne and was impressed and decided to do her version of it.  It took many years to complete.  From the book of patterns by Suzanne Gray.  Hand appliqued and machine pieced.  Machine quilted by Jenny.

 

"Memories of Mother and Daughter" by Kerrie Anderson.  A patient from Castlemaine gave Kerrie a box of fabric with two blocks completed which she started with her daughter prior to her daughter dying.  Kerrie added two extra fabrics to border and circles.  Hand machine pieced by Kerrie.  Machine quilted by Alison Bacon of Canterbury Quilts.

"Life is Beautiful" by Barb Krause.  Block of the month seen in a magazine.  Pattern by Hugs'n'Kisses.  Hand embroidered, machine pieced, machine quilted by Barb.

 

Close up of "Life is Beautiful" by Barb Krause.

Close up of "Life is Beautiful" by Barb Krause.

"Australian Wildflowers" by Phyllis Mills.  Phyllis saw this quilt in a magazine and fell in love with it.  A Jenny Rofe design.  Hand appliqued, machine pieced and machine quilted by Phyllis.

"Celtic Garden" by Alice Proudfoot.  This was Alice's latest challenge.  Designed by Dianne Johnston who gave her the pattern.  Hand stitched applique and machine pieced.  Quilted by MA Lewis - Long Arm Machine Quilting.

Close up of "Celtic Garden" by Alice Proudfoot

"Wind in the Whiskas" by Bev Coates.  Design and colour were the inspiration for this quilt by McKenna Ryan when Bev saw it at a trade show and she knew it was a quilt that she wanted to make.  Raw edged machine applique and machine pieced.  Custom quilted by Geoff Coates - Mulberry Lane.

"Botswana Safari" by Carol Carmody.  Carol made this quilt after a camping trip through Botswana in 2013 where she had the most amazing animal encounters.  The names on the quilt are those of the national parks she camped in.  Machine pieced, machine embroidered - designs by Petro.  Custom quilted by Wilma Ladiges of Deep Creek Quilting.

Close up of "Botswana Safari" by Carol Carmody

Close up of "Botswana Safari" by Carol Carmody

Close up of "Botswana Safari" by Carol Carmody

 

"Firebirds" by Barbara Dellar.  Centre design by Jane Spolar, Sauk Rapids, MN, USA.  Quilt layout inspired by magazine photo.  Barbara loves applique and worked the centre while on a cruise from Canada to Sydney.  Needleturn applique, machine pieced.  Hand quilted by Barbara.

 

"Licorice Allsorts" by Frances McCulloch.  Based on Suzanne Lyle's pattern, "Memories of Japan".  Frances made this for her daughter's friend, Kate, who chose her own material and colour scheme.  Machine pieced.  Machine quilted by Lee Conforti.

"Simple Things" by Barbara Gross.  This quilt is adapted from a Leanne's House design.  When Barbara saw this design she loved the combination of embroidery, applique and piecing.  She enjoyed making it and it now hangs on the wall in the guest bedroom.  Hand embroidered, hand appliqued, machine pieced.  Hand quilted by Barbara.

 

Close up of "Simple Things" by Barbara Gross.

"Birds on a Wire" by Dianne Brown.  Dianne really loves Wendy Williams' work.  She loves working with material and felt and hand sewing.  Machine and hand pieced.  Machine quilted by Stacey Rodgers.

Believe it or not this is just a small selection of the many many wonderful quilts that were part of the exhibition. 

For further information please contact Strathdale Quilters

My Date With A Dinosaur!

Today I had a date with a dinosaur! Yep, I saw online that Bendigo Marketplace had hired a Baby T-Rex from the "Walking With Dinosaurs" fame to make some special guest appearances during school holidays for the children. 

I messaged the management to check if a 43-year old "child" would be permitted to have a photo taken with the dinosaur and they said yes. Although the competition was only for children under the age of 16, I could still meet "Fluffy" &have  my photo taken. Yes, "Fluffy" is the name of the Baby T-Rex!

Here are my photos:

These are the official photos taken by Bendigo Marketplace; however one of the staff members kindly took some using my iPhone:

Look at the smile on my face!!!

"who's a pwiddy dinosaur hey?" Fluffy enjoyed having his snout rubbed and he started to purr, then I gave him a tickle under the chin...

Well, you know how excited a dog or cat gets when you scratch them in that favourite spot of theirs? Fluffy was no different. He started to get a bit frisky & rubbed his head up against me (nearly knocking me off balance) and wiggled his tail excitedly. We all started to laugh! It must've been a nice break from all the kiddies poking him and screaming in fear.

I tried to get some full length photos of Fluffy without people's children in the photo, it wasn't easy to do as there was a big crowd and Fluffy was so large.

Seriously the "puppet" is so lifelike and yes there is a man inside the suit operating all of the animatronics. The suit is VERY heavy and very hot - the outer skin is a rubbery material - so the operator needed to take a break every 20-minutes. I had to wait in the queue for quite a while but I didn't mind. I made some new friends in the queue and helped to calm & encourage some timid kiddies. 

I cannot thank Bendigo Marketplace enough for allowing a Big Kid's dream to come true. I have always loved dinosaurs and to "meet" one up close was such a privilege! 

Fluffy is doing limited appearances until Wednesday 8 May 2015 between 1-4pm. Contact Bendigo Marketplace for further information.

Technical Difficulties

Hi everyone, I've had major issues with my laptop and somehow my hard drive has been erased including all of my files, photos, emails, email addresses, quilt patterns, yep EVERYTHING!

I have limited files and contacts on my iPhone & am now too scared to plug it into the laptop in case I lose those too.

The annoying thing is that I had a whole lot of photos taken of work to be blogged about, including all of the items that I have made for the Downton Swap, Kitten Mini Quilt Swap, Aussie Hoop Swap, Aussie Swag Bag Swap, Rainbow Swap, plus everything else that I have made in the past few months.

Plus all the correspondence for all my past and future quilt swaps & quilting bees has gone. Thankfully I had printed some off, but since I am also a Swap Mama in one of the swaps this is going to be a right royal pain!

Yes my laptop was password protected and yes my anti virus software was up to date so I have no idea what has happened or how.

Anyway, this was quickly typed up on my iPhone, it might be a while before my blog is up and running whilst I try to sort out this mess.

My accident & introducing "Madge"

Hi there, sorry I haven't posted in a few days. If you follow me on Instagram you would have seen that I badly burnt both of my hands on the hot glue gun. It was pretty nasty and left me out of action for a number of days, but my wounds are healing nicely and I now have full use of both hands again.

My left hand.

My right hand. 

Just as I started to catch up on lost sewing time my 43-year old Elna Supermatic sewing machine died. Mum very generously lent me hers for a few days but it didn't like me very much.

This morning my brand-new-to-me Janome arrived by courier - SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!! It is a gift from a VERY special friend who has recently upgraded her own machine so this one was now surplus to her and was needing a loving home. I can't tell you who she is but I think some of my closest friends will guess who my fairy godmother is - actually she's more of an angel than a fairy and I cannot thank her enough for her loving generosity! 

I've decided to name the Janome "Madge". 😃

This is Madge - a Janome Memory Craft 6500. 

I haven't had a chance to play with Madge yet as I need to earn my Janome degree & I admit I am feeling rather nervous as she's so modern & computerised! But I am also very excited & am looking forward to learning how to use her.  She has a automatic thread cutter!!! SQUEEEEEE!!!!!!!!! And a needle down button! (Hey, my Elna is 43-years old, these luxuries were not invented back then!).

I have so many blog posts to catch up on but first I need to catch up on my sewing as I have a number of deadlines approaching fast. 

I also wanted to say thank you to everyone for your well wishes following my accident! I received so many sweet messages via Instagram that I couldn't keep up with them all. I feel so very blessed to have so many wonderful friends - I'm tearing up as I type this - ok, I'll end here as I'm getting quite emotional. It's been a HUGE day for me but I wanted to say THANK YOU & a very special HUMUNGOUS THANK YOU to my beautiful Fairy Godmother - you know who you are & I am forever indebted to you ❤️

Double Goosed Kaffe Style

 

It all started with this lovely piece of Kaffe Fassett fabric called "Purple Big Leaf" from his 2014 Fall collection.  I wanted to send a special gift to a dear friend of mine overseas but had been undecided what to make for her.  When I posted a photo of this purchase on Instagram, she commented how much she loved this print.  I knew then and there that I would use this print for her gift.  I know that my friend especially loved the teal and the purple in this print so I wanted to make a feature out of both of these colours.   I spoke to the squirrels and we selected a pattern - "Double Goosed" by Jeliquilts.

 

My friend had no idea what the squirrels & I were planning, but she did get taunted with the following photos which I tagged her in on Instagram...

 

Snowy the Squirrel cranked up the Bollywood music and danced in his Sari whilst we sewed





I couldn't work out why I had such a hard time removing the papers after I had pieced it - later I realised that I had forgotten to change my needle.  Instead of a 90/14 I was still using a 70/10.

Binding - purple & teal.

The parcel decided to take the slow boat to America, but after 4-weeks of anxious waiting (and stalking of my friend's Instagram feed) it finally arrived YAY!!!! Now that I know that she has her parcel, I can share the rest of these photos with you...

 

Completed top with border number 1 attached.

The completed mini.  I decided to use teal binding to enhance the centre circle of teal geese.

 

  

Click on the logo above to access Jeliquilts' pattern shop.

My Schnitzel & Boo "Parcel of Awesomeness" has arrived!

 

Last week I posted about the Schnitzel and Boo Mini Quilt Swap and showed you the parcel of awesomeness that I sent to my swap buddy - Fiona Tchan.  Today it gives me great pleasure sharing with you the amazing parcel of awesomeness that I recently received from the super wonderful Filomena Parbery @so_filomena from New South Wales.

 

Firstly these are the inspiration mosaics that I posted for this swap featuring a mixture of different techniques with a preference for lime green & teal:

 

 

 

I knew from the moment that the parcel delivery guy handed me the parcel that something special had arrived - just look at how the parcel was addressed!

 

But before I show you what was IN the parcel, these are the teasers that she had posted on Instagram.  I had seen most of these posts and I must admit, I did wonder if those gorgeous hedgehogs were headed to Bendigo... (Instagram photos reproduced with Filomena's permission)

 

 

 

 

 So, back to the parcel... this was written on the envelope:



I was getting good vibes about this parcel!

 

I'm not going to share what was written inside the card but it brought tears to my eyes!  Such beautiful words!!!

 

And here is the beautiful Hazel the Hedgehog quilt that Filomena made.  I love the pinky red nose on the top one!!  The quilting on this is just extraordinary!

 


I was thoroughly spoilt!  My favourites - Cadbury Peppermint chocolate & Nutella.  Also some peppermint tea and coffee.

 


One of my favourite Australian fabric & stitcherie designers is Rosalie Quinlan, and Filomena generously included 3 fat quarters of Rosalie's fabrics together with some buttons and two skeins of Cosmo Pearl 5

 


These are absolutely adorable.  Filomena has crochetted these coasters herself and they will go beautifully in my kitchen.



A packet of green Ruffle Elastic

 


This is absolutely gorgeous - it is a Tea Bag Holder with a tea bag design foundation paper pieced on the front.  The fabrics are just gorgeous, especially the red text used on the inside.

 


The tea bag holder opened up and showing the contents - herbal tea bags & coffee bags.

 


A close up of the inside.  I love this red fabric! 

 

This really brought a tear to my eye - not only did Filomena spoil me rotten, but she also thought of my little purr baby Gemma and included a treat for her as well!

 


Gemma says thank you Filomena for the Love Hearts! xoxo

 

I really am just totally overwhelmed by the awesomeness in this parcel!  Obviously Filomena has had a lot of fun stalking me and researching my preferences. 

 

One of the hashtags for this swap was #makeaquiltmakeafriend and that is so true.  Through this swap I have got to know two new quilty friends - Fiona and Filomena.  I have also enjoyed watching Fiona create some wonderfulness for her swap partner; and watching Filomena's swap buddy make the gorgeous mini that she sent to Filomena.  Feel the quilty love!  There are so many talented quilters out there!  To view more wonderful creations look up #schnitzelandboominiquiltswap on Instagram.