October challenge

Here is my October Sew Cal Gal challenge, an experment with pencils and irridescent textile medium, of course quilted first.
The pencils make a big difference, this is not a show piece, but a sample of my attempt to colour and shade  a little.
Ok so I did not read the instructions properly, I started it at home then did some at the craft fair, playing on a brand new Bernina 710, it was fun. 

 Of course the background fabric does make  the pencil colour a bit different, and my shading is woeful, but you have to start somewhere! A better brush for blending is the answer, and of course not black but blue or brown might be a  better chice!

 What is interesting is the flat effect from the plain textile medium in the orange swirls.  An interesting thing to note is that I can't get away from feathers!

It is not quite finished yet, but I have a long list of things to do before I go to be as I am on night shift tonight.
The list is dwindling, but is still long enoughto be troublesome

Ribbons galore

Here I am with my new ribbons! a little excited, there is strong competition in the professional category, so I am pleased to have come home with something.

I have also purchased some new paints and pencils and some irridescent textile medium to play with- such fun, this is my Sew Cal Gal challenge piece, almost finished.

Now to get next years pieces on the way to getting finished, I do have some quilts in progress that need to be finished!- so they are the first to be worked on when I have tidied the sewing room and done some paid employment!

A little win

This week is the Queensland Quilters Inc annual show, I have put in 4 entries , one a collaboration with a friend- that quilt did not win a prize but the other 3 won 4 prizes in all. I am really thrilled to have won in such good company.
This quilt won First  Art Techniques and was a fun quilt made after being inspired by Jane Sassaman, an original design of large spiky flowers ?weeds! heavily machine quilted in a variety of threads over the top, with some sparkly iron on sequins to shine, my heated appiicator broke, so I ironed them on - seemed to do the trick. The spotty fabric I won a number of years ago in a quilt show in Tasmania, it has served me well and is a great fabric to use.

One Rogue Seed

 The theme this year was Nine Patch, this is a baisc curved nine patch in a larger nine patch, appliqued original floral designs in the centre and round the border, heavily machine quilted. The centre flowers are trapuntoed, maybe doesn't show as well, but I wanted to try it. The border quilting is both pink and green thread in my favourite feathers, all free motion with only the spines drawn on as I went so it is really original. This quilt won Second Pprofessional Applique and the Theme quilt.

Floral Nine

 The mandala I started  briefly in a class with Kim Bradley, I used a drawing from a childrens website of copyright free mandalas designs as a skeleton, then contiuned to draw and expand the idea. It is one piece of Lisa Walton hand dyed fabric, stitched on my beloved Bernina (which is overdue for a service), then coloured with Faber Castell watercolour pencils dipped in fabric medium. There are better pencils and pens for this job, my aim is to do some research over the next few months and find out all about fabric painting etc. Trouble cropping this one, but have to go to work so cannot linger on a silly computer program! This quilt won Ffirst Small Quilt.



Mandala

To see all the winners and some wonderful quilts, head on down to the Convention Centre Brisbane, or check out the QQ website.http://www.qldquilters.com





Nine patch revisited

This week is the annual craft and quilt fair, I am going tomorow to help set up, then Wednesday to do a demonstration on the Queensland Quilters Art Quilt table.
I have been looking for small and easy things to do, if the other  person demonstrating wants to use the sewing machine I will be a bit lost, but maybe not!
I am going to deconsruct and reconstruct a few nine patch blocks that I started for this years theme quilt- then abandoned...

this is one of my favourite blocks

green and pink- ready to be deconstructed

hmmmm, not sure about his one, but it may be the star of the show soon!

Using some fun bright fabrics and a random freeform cutting method I hope to create another quilt with these orphan blocks.
Will wait and see if I have won any prizes, then I can show my quilts!

Amazing

I am so clever, for many weeks now I have been doing an online cryptic crossword puzzle, sometimes I use the clues and get it finished, sometimes I need lots of clues. Using less than 5 clues gets you a ranking for the day.
Today, well it was yesterday, I got home from a very busy night at work, extremely busy, no room at the inn type, and thought I should give it a go as it was just past midnight and a new puzzle would be ready, I did the whole thing, no clues, all done, my ranking today is 11 out of 32, so I am very happy! not that I will make a habit of it this late often, but I am so pleased with myself!

I also got my exhibtion quilts in on time, waiting patiently to see the rest of the works submitted and who got prizes and if I did too!

No pictures as it is way past my bedtime