Works in progress

I have been madly quilting! some pieces on a deadline for the October QQ show. Well at least thats what keeps me sewing at a frenetic pace at the moment!
Several pieces at different stages of completion.

 some fun with different machine quilting styles, and below




enchanted sea- a response to a paint chip challenge, that evoked some amazingly different and thoughtful responses! In fact mine was the boringest!

Some serious sewing needing to be done, but a deadline is good as it makes me work harder.
Number one son went overseas today for 3 months, so the house will be different, the food bill smaller and the laundry less!

State of the Art

Today marks the launch of the 2013  Queensland Quilters State of the Art Quilt exhibiton at Gallery 159, The Gap, this is a juried exhibition, juried by Lisa Walton this year.
There were many quilts entered from all over Queensland.
 I was lucky enough to have mine selected this year. It is called Organic Triadic, it is a real unadulterated quilt, bright colours and amoebic like shapes that are really organic. The background fabric is by Lorriane Carthew, and I have free motion machine quilted the whole quilt. It was fun to make and appeals to the simplicity of quilt design.
There are many other quilts, check out the SOTA and 2QAQ ( Queensland Quilters Art Quilts ) link http://www.qldquilters.com/groups.html for a list of exhibition venues around the state.

close up

Worth the effort

I have been making a Where is the Green Sheep quilt for a friends son. It is based on the book by Mem Fox and is  a delightful read, as are all of her childrens books.
It stared with some rough sketches and turned into a fun and lively quilt. My husband and children all enjoyed looking at it and making suggestions- I am only sorry that we couldn't put all the sheep in the book on the quilt.

It is just as easy to make a good quality quilt as a poor quality quilt. Seams must meet, corners square and threads finished off securely.
This quilt was an absolute delight to make, and the recipient will surely enjoy it. I know his father was a little touched at 5am his morning when I presented it to him! (we were at work).

clown sheep

Moon sheep- this is the label on the back

The whole quilt, minus the kite for the wind sheep, it did go on straight after the picture was taken! if you get the opportunity, have  a read of this fun book.

My little win!

Each year Queensland Quilters hosts a quilt challange, a fat quarter of fabric is purchased, the size is 50 cm x 70 cm. There is no theme usually. So it sometimes is a real challenge to make an interesing piece. I had been 'reading' - well looking at pictures of Egyptian vases and came up with a quilting idea, then all it needed was a vase. The fabric was all gold background and leaves of various sizes and coloours- a real challenge!
There are 2 categories this year- Professional- thats me and Amateur.
I was very pleased to have won the Professional category, a little tough competition with some fantastic pieces have been made. They have been on show at the Brisbane Stitches and Craft Show atthe Convention Centre this weekend, and will tour around Queensland for the next year.

 This is me, all bright and fresh. Below is  a close up of the quilt.

I started to quilt that background after fusing the vase on, then decided that the whole background needed to be quilted before any more fusing was done, so much easier.
Now onto the next quilts, so many to make before the October show.
I get such a thrill out of exhibiting- and of course winning along the way sometimes helps in my joy!

Time lost then found

Life has been busy and I have been slow to blog these past few weeks. I have been to Tasmania for 10 days. Absolutley fantastic all round, friends to see, food and wine to share, family to visit, some golf for my husband. The beach to walk on.

A school reunion that was just wonderful.

A little bit sad to come back to wet Brisbane, although today it did not rain-  4 night shifts in a row make it easy for me to get out much in daylight as I usually sleep really well, and do not get out of bed till about 6pm every day.

 

I have many quilts on my to do list for this year - about 9- some leftover from last year. My plan is to get 4 at least finished  for the October quilt show- the one below is amost ready to be quilted.

So I have lost the way a little, but now am back ready to quilt and get motivated to enjoy life as a parent without children at school- Uni doesn't count.

Funny how life changes when you least expect it to.

 

Must plan to get out more and enjoy autumn in Brisbane! There are many places to go and see and explore

 

 Fabrics waiting to be made into a wedding quilt.

 A quilt top finsihed,- at last - this is the Queenland Quilters Row by Row challenge, just needs to be quilted.

A sneak preview of the art quilt that was juried into the QQ State of The Art 2013 exhibition. Hooray.

Ticking off the list

I have a list of quilts that are half finished, or not started yet - I am in the proces of ticking one more off as being finished.
A small quilt for the QQ challenge, a real challenging fabric. I can't show it yet but as soom as it is judged for the Quendland Quilters challenge it will be on show at the upcoming craft fair , then it will be revealed.
A small un/happy bonus is that I sprained my ankle- the right again! on Sunday so as well as having yesterday as a rostered day off I have today to rest up, then 3 days at work then a weeks holiday- hooray! Time to rest, and I can sew, although last time I machined with my left foot I sewed over my finger!
Must remember to stay inside when it is raining and always wear shoes as my ankle sems a bit unstable barefoot on uneven wet grass.

 The planning for the holiday later in the year- a little light reading.

 The remnants of my fat quarter of fabric for the QQ challenge- yes I used almost every bit!

Finished these socks yesterday, so many things you can do while confined to a chair.

Works in progress

 

There are  many works in progress in my sewing room, this is the remnants one of them, it is a Row by Row challenge for Queensland Quilters night group. Slowly but surely yesterday I made 4 rows! hooray, all my holiday sewing done in a day- but wait I didn't have holidays (except for 4 weeks late November/early December). So I can't show it till later on in the year. It is a modern quilt.

Yummy thread I won at the quilt show. Waiting to be used...

 Mummy's little helper, in the background - a postcard using some of Lisa Wlaton's funky coloured stuff - Colour web I think, interesting stuff to use.....

A bag of fabric justbegging to be used, i do have some projects in my mind, just need to finish what is started.

A lovely day yesterday sewing and chatting with my friend M, just forgot to play scrabble - what a sin.