A busy day ahead for the mad quilter

 

This week we have decided to paint our beige bedroom- to a much more exciting Antique White, yes I would prefer colour, but I have been over ruled. A nice bright print or quilt might suffice, its strange to see the room bare. Hopefully it will be heaps lovelier  not beige! what possessed these people to paint every and I mean every surface beige!

 

soon to be white and crisp

 

I have been madly quilting my Row by Row quilt for Queensland Quilters,  just a bit of added sparkle needed now in the form of a bit of funky coloured quilting in a few places. This is the back, I have been experimenting with colour and quilting designs for this one- on the front!- - the feathers are because I just had to have some! it has been a fun journey, however twice I have found myself undoing the backing where it has been caught in the quilting, luckily only a small bit of undoing.

almost done! if you look closely enough there is a small bit of unpicking required
 

I attended the Mad Quilters Gathering in Brisbane yesterday, as the original mad quilter, I was a little disappointed, no exhibition except for some lovely antique sewing machines. Lots of shops, some old, some new, some unnamed, most maybe internet or maybe country Qld or NSW. the new look Down Under Quilts and the team were there,  I have some pictures of my work in the new one  and will hopefully have a quilt project in the next one.
I made a block with the lovely Coorparoo Quilters at their stand- some charity quilts in the making, which is what they do very well.
Ran into a few friends, then had to make a runner to pick up my daughter- and buy her some new shoes- black boots- plain and boring not like my sexy new ones!
Looked for the Modern Quilt Guild stand, but they weren't there.
Overall I am not really sure who the MQG is aimed at, or what the purpose is, exposure for some new or smaller shops maybe?


Postman

The postman came at 7:30 am today- with a much welcomed parcel.
I ordered these books several weeks ago, a discounted day at C&T publishing, shuold have ordered more really.
A nice day to sit and read and just absorb some new ideas, that is after I have done 2 hours of on line training for work- yuk, and you need 100% pass on some of the tests! no fun with some and no luck with one, oh dear, back to the sewing machine to unscramble my brain.
I am really happy with the machine quilting on my row by row quilt, yay!

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.