What Do You Do When It's Too Hot To Do Anything?

I pulled out my box of Klosjes (It's amazing what you find when you clean out the cupboard) and joined them all together.  I will put a couple of borders around it and call it finished.

I pieced some blocks together for Hertfordshire.  This will be the next border on from the little hexagons.

Start a new quilt, this one is called Stonefields by Susan Smith.  A very large quilt with lots and lots of beautiful handpieced and appliqued  blocks and hexagon flowers.

Of course, why start one new quilt when you can start two!  The Chapman Coverlet, based on the original at the V & A Exhibition in Brisbane, also by Susan Smith.  

This is the centre for the Chapman Coverlet, an antique piece of fabric I bought at Quilts in the Barn last year.

I haven't actually started a third quilt yet, but I am amassing quite a large pile of fabric for a particular quilt which I am going to try and NOT START until I finish something else! 

Of course, when you are amassing fabric, there are always other pieces of fabric that have to come home with you - these are from Threadbear yesterday.  We had our first CAG meeting for the year.  Unfortunately there are no photos today as most of Show & Tell will be on display here:

If you can get to this exhibition, I'm sure you will not be disappointed.  There will be lots and lots of beautiful appliqued quilts for you to feast your eyes upon.

Beautiful little Evie coped just fine throughout our worst summer that I can remember.  Nothing like a full belly to relax our little cherub.

Thankfully it has been a little cooler this week and hopefully we have seen the last of the extreme heat.  Now all we need is some rain please.

Sue-Anne xxx

(Lesley - took me all afternoon to try and remember how to change my header photo, hope you like it xxx)

Australia Day

Happy Australia Day everyone, hope you get to spend the day relaxing with family and friends.

Sue-Anne xxx

Who Likes 1930's

Remember this quilt?  At the beginning of the year, our Saturday Sewing Group set a challenge - to complete a 1930's quilt by our Christmas break-up day.  

The Challenge was on.  There was lots of bantering and a few people (who shall remain nameless) showed their competitive side, some vocally, others silently.......... It did make for a fun year and lots of inspiration to get a top finished and the final Sow & Tell was a beauty.  Here follows some of the quilts.

Bridget's Clamshells

Christine's Baskets

Christine's 2nd quilt

Joy's Dresden Plates

Sheryl's 9 patch, please note that it is quilted and bound......

Jenny's 1st quilt

Jenny's 2nd quilt

Jenny's 3rd quilt

The next two are Christine's original 1930's quilts brought back from New York 

Of course no Christmas lunch is complete with lots of sweet treats!

My latest photo of Evie and,

Just had to share this one taken by a professional photographer when she was just 10 days old.  I can't wait to see all the others that were taken.

Keep cool everyone, we are in for a heat wave and are bunkering down with four days over 40oC here this week!

Sue-Anne xxx

Farewell 2013 - What a Year!

What a year our family has had this year.  It has been a year full of excitement and extreme anxiety, amazing joy and terrible sadness and I think I have had enough and am happy to welcome in a new year.

The most joyful event happened on the 19th December, two weeks earlier than planned.  I would like to introduce you all to our precious little granddaughter, Evie.  She is perfect in every way and we have fallen instantly in love and are totally besotted by her.  She weighed just 2.65kg (5lb 8oz).

 Evie two days old

 Evie sound asleep on her back today

A friend sent me this pic she found on the internet.  I can now show you the whole quilt that I made prior to Evie's arrival.

 The front

The back

Today has been a very sad day as we said goodbye to our Grand Doggy Lucy.  She has been Chris & Amy's baby for 7 years and holds a special place in our hearts.  A beautiful loyal companion and friend and we will all miss her terribly.

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year with lots of health, wealth and happiness for 2014!!!

Sue-Anne xxx

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I cannot believe how fast this year has gone and in just a few short weeks, we will be welcoming our first precious little grandchild into our family.  We are on the home stretch now and I CANNOT wait!

I have finished the first quilt, something to take to the hospital to use straight away.

It is hand quilted and I even did a little appliqué on the back.  

I have finished my tulip quilt.  

I have also finished the next frame of Hertfordshire, 48 little hexagons.  I miss doing them now they are all done......

I have also made a little bit more progress on St Neots, finishing all the hexagons.  I think I will tackle the appliqué that runs across the top of the quilt next.

I'm off to CAG tomorrow so I'm sure I will have lots of Show & Tell pics to show next post.  I have started playing with Instagram, I am loving it.  If you want, you can follow me on there.  Just click on the button on my sidebar.

One final thing, I have prepared this post on my iPad using the Blogger app, so fingers crossed it works ok????

Sue-Anne xxx

Rememberance Day 2013

From Flanders Fields to the poppy fields of Afghanistan, we honour the fallen, who have made the ultimate sacrifice so that we can be safe and live free without fear.  Lest We Forget.

Quilts in the Barn 2013

We had a fantastic day on Friday at Quilts In The Barn!  It was so much fun catching up with quilting friends and once again Linda and her fabulous helpers did a fantastic job.  The theme this year was "All About Chintz".  The quilts were magnificent and included quilts from the Quiltmania book "Promenade in a Dutch Garden".  There were also some beautiful antique quilts but unfortunately no photos were allowed.  On the shopping front,  Mary Koval was there, Leonie from the Quilted Crow and Di & Megan were in charge of all the beautiful fabrics available from Petra Prins.  So sit back and I hope you enjoy some of the photos that I took on the day.

I was particularly interested in how spectacular the border fabrics looked and also how the chintz mixed beautifully with the reproduction fabrics that we all have in our stashes.

 This was the section of the barn where Mary Koval was selling her wares - very popular!!!

This was one of the quilts Mary had for sale and it was lovely.  You can see all the antique tops for sale on the table below.  There were lots of individual blocks for sale and the most exquisite fabrics.

 I came home with this piece of fabric, dated 1870.  The red in it is gorgeous and I have a plan for it too.

I am planning to use it as a central panel in a quilt.

I also came home with this applique block, dated 1850.  It is 12 inches square and is going in a frame and then will be hung on the wall in my sewing room.  

This is the dutch fabric I bought and I think I am going to have lots of fun with it, the colours are gorgeous!

After the Barn, we made our way across the suburbs of Melbourne visiting quilt shops along the way and the following is the result of that shopping.  I actually got a bit of a shock when I saw how much I came home with.

Sue-Anne xxx