First Frenzied flaunt for 2010

Here is the first official Frenzied Flaunt for 2010.... I don't have a massive amount to show as yet, as I have spent a large proportion of the holidays preparing projects to just pick up and 'do' during the year.

Firstly, I'll show you a couple of the Peace Quilt blocks I have completed. I plan to always have one or two blocks with me so I can complete the hand piecing anywhere, anytime.... maybe I should log the various places I end up sewing them??!!

Next, I can show you my progress with my "Friends for Christmas" quilt.... I prepared it all for blanket stitching last January, and it has languished ever since. That was until a very clever QDU'er named Rosemary posed a challenge to complete one Christmas decoration or block a month... I'm ahead of time so far, as I have completed TWO! (Don't worry... it probably won't continue!) Here they are:

I'm hanging off with the beaks at the moment because I haven't decided on the best colours to use (and also because I can't find the *&#@$* book to trace them off... SHHH!)

The bits hanging off such as the rest of the tree branches and the RH penquin in the other picture can't be completed until the blocks are sewn together, so hopefully by July you'll see the whole top together. The RH peguin will then be holding its little star, rather than looking a little empty handed!

The next project is a quilt 4 of us are making for a friend of my lovely mate Judy.... Maree is going to let us use her holiday house down by the sea for a sewing weekend in early winter, so we decided to make her a quilt to say thanks. It is a pattern called "Hanging Gardens" that I bought a couple of months ago.

On Saturday, in between lunching and sipping bubbly, we selected and cut out fabrics for the 13 blocks required for the throw size.

Cyn, Judy and I will sew them up and then get together to work out the rest of the top layout. Stay tuned for progress pictures.

Heaven on Earth! (Part One)

Steven and I have arrived back from our postponed 25th anniversary holiday to Tasmania

….. the most beautiful place in the world, we think!

We were blessed with perfect weather, magnificent accommodation and sumptuous food

– it’s hard to know what to leave out, so get a drink, relax and enjoy!

The photo above shows part of the track to Liffey Falls, a beautiful waterfall which is well worth visiting if you are in the area. We spent quite a while relaxing here, just soaking up the atmosphere.

The first night, we stayed at Lemonthyme Lodge, near Cradle Mountain. It is tucked away on a gravel road in western Tasmania. The lodge is surrounded by forest and has several walks you can undertake. The evening meal was inspirational….

Much to Lana’s disgust, I selected …

“Tender and succulent char-grilled wallaby rump dusted in Moroccan seasoning

and placed on a vegetable frittata, topped with Chef’s tomato relish

and seasoned with red wine vinegar and sumac dressed salad”

The photo doesn’t do the meal justice – it was mood lighting in the restaurant! Steven had Crispy skinned grilled Chicken Breast which he thoroughly enjoyed.

Dessert? We shared a cheese platter and a platter of mini sized desserts that were heavenly!

The next morning, after a relaxing walk to the fern glade on Lemonthyme, we headed for Cradle Mountain. We had managed a flying visit on our postponed honeymoon nearly 26 years ago, but had more time on this trip. Neither of us were sure how Steven would cope, but we chose the Dove Lake circuit, which was not in existence on our first trip. We walked about 8.5 km that day, but enjoyed every moment – this area is SOOO stunning, in so many ways!

We fell in love with this tree… it contained several beautiful burls, which Steven loves to work with…

After such strenuous activity, we desperately needed a rest…

this is what awaited us at Wheelhouse Apartments in Strahan..

This was one of the most stunning places you could ever hope to spend a few days.

After a luxurious spa bath, we settled in to watch the sunset with

fresh fish and chips and a bottle of Tassie bubbly… what more could you want?

What an amazing lady!

I have to boast (and feel very humbled at the same time) about a special parcel that arrived from Julie.

Inside was this mangnificent Spring time quilt....

It is a stunning piece of work, as the following photos will hopefully show....

I am totally amazed at the care taken with the fabric selection and applique placement, the precision of the machine applique and the intricacy of the stippling and border machine quilting..... I definitely got the better end of the deal, and feel a little guilty now!!

But wait, there's more! (no, not a free set of steak knives)

Julie somehow managed to become my Friendship Bag swapper, and this fantastic set that I had ogled with envy was sent to me also.....

Julie has become a special friend over the last couple of years, even though we have not met in person. She is a fellow member of Scquilers, and gave me some very useful advice when I was starting off my blog. She has been a fabulous ear over the last 12 months and has kept me grinning with emails and in awe of her projects - I'm an incredibly lucky person!

What a fantastic weekend!

I have had such a wonderful weekend....

here are some photos from the conference centre I escaped to - it is in the beautiful Dandenong Ranges

The centre was surrounded by gardens - several plants were in flower and looked stunning in the early morning light:

The staff were excellent, the food was magnificent and the company inspiring...

what more could a girl ask for?

I did TRUCKLOADS!!!

1. I sewed the quilt top for Rob's 21st together - here is a photo of the top mostly completed - I finished it and piecing the backing fabric together very late on Saturday night, so forgot to get the official "top's finished" photo. Sorry!

Chris has taken it for quilting - she plans to use a gold thread, similar to the one used in the corners of the sashing (that aren't in this picture!) in an oriental design - I can't wait to see it!

2. I made another two gift sewing bags.. if you look closely, you'll see that I still need to do the tidying up and thread the draw strings. One day, I'll make one for myself!

3. I started quilting Steven's quilt - the photo doesn't show the quilting super clearly, but you'll get the idea. Steven made me up a template for the spirals which makes them very efficient to mark.

I took a few items I no longer wanted and sold many of them. That meant I had money to spend on this fabulous new book!

The weather was calm and sunny, and the whole weekend sped by much too quickly!

I will look forward to next year.

A flaunt before I run away.....

I'm off for the weekend, on my quilting weekend (I missed it last year due to Steven's illness) so I thought I'd flaunt before I went. I have lots to show you

The quilt from Penny arrived. It is beautiful, and she has done such a lovely job of its construction and quilting - I need to match her quality of workmanship to finish it off, and then Liam is lucky enough to have been given it - such a wonderfully generous act on Penny's behalf.

• I posted my summertime quilt






• Completed Steven's quilt top - I'm hoping to get some of the quilting done this weekend
  





• Made a special bag for Karen based on Leesa Chandler's "Sip and Sew" kit









• Received the wonderful blue table topper from Sandie (more about her to follow!)











• Sent my friendship bag and a label to Claudia in Milan, Italy
  
  
  
  



• Made a proverb ATC - any guesses what the proverb is?
  
  

  
  

• and lastly (I think) made a couple of quick birthday cards..

OK - I'm off for a lovely weekend.... I hope yours is wonderful!

Late Flaunt - is it still Friday somewhere?

The last fortnight has flown by since my last flaunt, but I actually DO have some completed projects to show you, as well as some "in progress" ones.....

Firstly, here is Julie's completed quilt:

I took this photo very late at night - her photos are MUCH lovelier, so go and have a look. I really enjoy doing the 3D centres - they are SO easy, but add another dimension.

My "In the Good 'Ol Summertime" quilt is now winging its way to Pennsylvania - here it is below:

I have also made progress on Steven's quilt, and I must say, the Curve Master has proven its worth.... the blocks needed a little trimming (due to my dodginess!), but went together beautifully - I'm pleased with the almost continuous appearance of the rivers:

The ochre border has been added.....

but I plan to use Cinzia's suggestion, and am in the process of needleturning the rivers over this border. I will be finishing with a border of the blue, so I'm hoping it will look like all the rivers run into the border, if that makes sense.

I have a mountain of work to do, but want to get the top together by Monday so I can get it machine basted - I'm going to hand quilt using perle cottons. I am hoping to take it away with me on my quilting weekend in two weeks :-)

I also need to get Rob's top together so I can get it quilted. He (unknowingly!) helped me select the backing for it, now I have to prepare and post some labels for the Pommie rellies to write on to go on the back of the quilt. His cousin, Rowena is also now living in England, so I have to make sure they all get a chance to write on them and post them back to me.

Another dream for the holidays is to complete the landscape quilt I designed at my Gloria Loughman weekend in February - I'll see how I go.

Now, off to look at the other flaunters - have a lovely week, won't you!

First flaunt for a while

Sorry - I've been in limbo for the last few weeks, not able to get my head around anything much..... the last year has been so intense and stress filled that I think it is all now hitting me. In one more week, my year 12's will have submitted their major assessment (worth 40% of their final score) and I will be on two weeks 'holiday'..... :-)

I haven't had a chance to do much in recent weeks, and the few chances I've had I've squandered, not able to motivate myself properly, preferring to seep like an ever increasing blob into the couch.

I HAVE made 6 ATC's for my group's Haiku swap, as shown below.....

I've also made some progress on Julie's quilt..... I had planned to machine quilt it, but decided it may look more presentable if I hand quilted it.... don't look too closely at the stitching!

Here is a hint of what the front looks like - the sun was streaming through when Liam and I were photographing it...

I hope to post it next week, fingers crossed!

My plan for the holidays (apart from cross marking SATs, preparing revision work for my year 12's and catching up on corrections) is to get both Steven's and Rob's quilt tops together. I also need to complete the Summer mini quilt which will travel to USA and the friendship bag, which will fly to Italy. I'll keep you posted.

A punctual Friday Flaunt?

Yes, I know..... it's not usual for me to actually be able to show anything on the actual day, but this week - I've managed it!

The curve master arrived, and really IS worth the money - I managed to sew over 30 blocks in a fraction of the time I had expected, due mainly to the fact that you did not need to pin the blocks for them to turn out well.

We laid out most of Steven's quilt blocks in a variety of ways, as shown below. I still need to sew about another 15, which I'm hoping ot do this weekend, as I need some sanity time.

Which one do you prefer??

Layout 1

Layout 2

Layout 3

The five of us have voted here - leave a comment and give me your opinion please!

Friday flaunt and great news!

I can't wait - the first thing I want to share with you is that the PET scan Steven had was negative, meaning there was no evidence of cancer in it - the relief is massive, but I suppose we have to get used to this roller coaster of events, as we can no longer naively think that all is well - that is the unfortunate legacy of cancer......We want to get on with our lives, and after a year of Steven suffering massive pain and still suffering damage from the tumour and chemotherapy drugs, we need to refocus and start enjoying life! The oncologist still needs to clarify what is causing the symptoms Steven has been experiencing, but the clear scan is a great start.

This last week, I made a few cards - not sewing, but very therapeutic and more achievable than some other things at the moment. Work pressures combined with worrying about Steven have made it impossible for my brain to function properly, and I find that the card making doesn't cause as much brain strain as some other things.

I also finally managed to complete a few ATC's - the theme was 'something old, something new'...

the 'something old' was the hand dyed fabric. The 'something new' were the lovely white flowers I bought up at 'Patchwork Teahouse' a few weeks ago.

I have received the circle foot, so hope to spend some time getting used to it over the weekend and then doing some more of the blocks for Steven's quilt. I'll let you know how I go.

Un Friday update

(Well, if it is good enough for Pooh Bear to have unbirthdays, doesn’t that mean I can have Un Fridays??)
I wanted to show you what I have started:

I have become increasingly disturbed that I have not ever made a quilt for Steven….. somehow, it had never happened. If he has to endure more chemotherapy, I want him to have something made specially for him there when he has the treatments, as he is usually in hospital for at least one day each time.
He had admired “Summer Palace” done in aboriginal fabric at the Point Nepean Quilt Show earlier in the year, when he made his first day trip after his chemotherapy. This was what led me to organise Rob’s quilt (posted about recently.)
So, last Saturday, we went to Lilly Patches in Boronia – they have the most wonderful range of aboriginal fabric, and were really patient and helpful.
Steven discovered a really interesting pattern called “Murrumbidgee Dreaming” and selected all the fabrics himself – the lapis blue Jinny Beyer fabric is to be the river running through the blocks, as well as the main border. The deep ochre Jinny Beyer fabric will be the inner border and possibly the binding.
I have attempted four blocks so far – the original pattern needs 25 blocks, but we decided to make it larger. I have cut out about 50 blocks, and am planning to use 48, so there is room for flexibility.

I am not convinced they are as good as I can get them, even though they seem to match up well when laid out together………..so I have ordered a special foot that it is claimed will make curved piecing a breeze. As soon as it arrives, I will try some more and let you know the result.

An update on Steven – he had his PET scan on Thursday, now we wait until next Thursday to get the verdict from the oncologist.
Have a lovely week, and try to make the most of every day!