Retro-astic!

After weeeeks of quilting and general family busy-ness it was time to have a sewing day! Yeah :)

One thing that hasn't been shared on my blog, is my fondness for "retro" fabrics....there is a "small" collection of fabrics from the sixties and seventies taking up space in my cupboard, so today I decided it was time to have some fun with them! Firstly some strips were cut, with scissors, improv style to make this little  cute thing...Check out these lovely little prints....I really love the green....

 And what about this lovely lime rose...

It was fun combining all these different scale prints....

The size of the top is about 40", not sure what border will be put on, but I am thinking about lots of the lights at the moment...I had a bag of "dull" homespuns I was going to send to the second shop, but they found their way into this project...

Did you have some sewing fun today?

Loads of quilts - Part 2!

As per my previous post, there were many lovely quilts in our Territory Quilts Exhibition, so I thought I would show the rest of the quilts from the ladies in my friendship group "The Bay Babes", and a few extras that caught my eye.

Introducing Lillian.... "Marvellous Day for Dancing" is Lillian's original design, using hand dyed red fabrics.

Det Nua Fortress - pattern by Esterita Austen is the bottom quilt in the photo below....

Introducing Alison ..... who had so much spare time she made One Fish, Two Fish (72.5 x 59cm) (top quilt in photo above) as a part of Helen Godden work shop, and then made a miniature ( 31.5 x 22.5 cm) below ...

This is one of my favourites from Alison....Morning Glorified... she bought the blocks in Pine Lake Mountain, a small town at the entrance to the Yosemite Nation Park, California in 1996. The blocks were made in 1951. 

Doesn't it look great with all this perl thread quilting.....

Kimberly Camping, another lovely piece from Alison with hand dyed silks....

and loads of perl thread stitching and beading.

Memories of Crete - Highly Commended Art Quilt

We are nearly done now....check out the next  quilts that  caught my eye, firstly Jane Price's Hexagon  Garden (208 x 188cm), quite large and very attractive with loads of Kaffe Fassett fabrics

Jane had her quilt commercially quilted Denyse Bold of "Bold Quilting" and the colourful variegated thread has come up a treat on the black.

This quilt was inspired by photos of the red and white quilt exhibition "Infinite Variety". The shades of red come up beautifully in this photo, in the centre of the squares were lovely red work embroidery motifs. This is a group quilt by The Piecemakers from Alice Springs (244 x 183 cm).

Last, but certainly not least, is this lovely quilt by Elizabeth McCallum of Alice Springs. This quilt "My Roses in Broderie Perse" (260 x 230cm) won a Highly Commended in Professional Traditional quilts section.

Beautiful machine quilting...

Lovely machine applique...

That's all for Territory Quilts 2013...hope you enjoyed...and as they say "What's next?"

Loads of quilts - part 1!

As promised some photos of the exhibition.....

The winner of Territory Quilts 2013 was Chris Knights with her quilt "When I am feeling blue - I quilt!" A lovely quilt with lots of details, and unfortunately a blurry photo...grrr hate it when that happens.

A more detailed shots of the lovely appliqué and beautiful stippling.

There was over a 100 entries in the exhibition obviously I can't show them all, so I decided to share photos from the friendship group "The Bay Babe's" that I am a part of....firstly let me introduce you to Doreen...

"Special Reminder" 180 x 180cm Doreen loves using aboriginal fabrics and earthy colours.

The owl fabric was printed in the Northern Territory at Nomad art.

"A Long Way" 197 cm x 182cm, fabric was purchased in Intercourse, Pennsylvania U.S.A and looks great in this Cherry House design "City Tracks"

"St Columbia Falls in March" 56.5 x56.5, started in Lisa Walton workshop that explored fabric painting, foil rubbing, and beading....wish I had taken a better close up so you could see the lovely quilting....This quilt was a winner in the Art Category

Now meet Annie...."Spring Time in Tuscany" 252 x 252 cm

.....check out Annie's minature Japanese Girls this is 33 x 32.5 ( approx. 12" square) !

Introducing Mary...."Toddler's Trail" 164 x 133 cm....Mary found these hexagons at the op shop.....when I go to second hand shops I never seem to find the good stuff! Mary's quilt won "Best Use of Colour"

"Inca Rheas, Patagonian Prancer" 45 x 45cm, a batik souvenir purchased in Southern Argentina, embellished with free motion quilting and Lumiere fabric paint.

Introducing Shelley....some of the ladies in the group have been having a lot of fun with organic dying, when we get together there is usually a hot pot on the go, full of one or more of the following... rusty anything, onion skins, purple carrots, native plants leaves and flowers....and who ever wants to dye throws in their silks. Shelley's quilt is made from hand dyed fabrics, and is embellished with gold machine embroidery....the black background is also silk...very lovely.

"Rivers of Gold" 225 x 225 cm

"Oriental Dreams" Miniature 49 x 37 cm

Now, I do have more to show...so I will be back in a night or two with some more....but as you can everyone is doing some different, and we all like lots of colour !

Can you believe it!

On Thursday night I attended the Darwin Patchworkers and Quilters Exhibition opening....and guess what? My Peppermint Sparkle (pattern from Applique Outside the Lines - Piece O' Cake Designs) won a Highly Commended prize...

...quite surprised, but very happy....especially since it languished in the cupboard unquilted for a couple of years....just goes to show what can happen when you dust off those UFO's!

Speaking of UFO's....after Mum and I saw the V&A exhibition, Mum decided she really needed to finish this quilt....it only needed the binding...the pattern for this quilt is in Kaffe Fassett's V&A Quilts. This quilt is huge, 109" x 110".

And guess whose bed that goes on? Yes, that's right, me! Wooot woot.

My other entry in the exhibition was my Bonnie Hunter Scrappy Trip (find pattern here), which people were quite interested in...mainly because all those colours pack a  punch.

Mum's second quilt in the exhibition...a pattern from Flying Fish Kits....I really love all those japanese naomi fabrics...

And aren't these 1/2 hexagon so sweet....Mum is very nifty with the needle and especially with appliqué....so she is able to whip through binding like butter...I think she got 18 metres of binding (two quilts) done in less than a week!

I have more photos to share, but the house is waking up, so I think I might go an make brekky for everyone....scrambled eggs with chives might the order of the morning :)

Since we last spoke.....

Since we last spoke....

I have packed up two quilts for the 2013 Darwin Quilters Exhibition...this weekend!!

Done loads of hours quilting and binding....I also discovered a new form of RSI, which I am calling "Quilter's Leg" which is what you get when you sew with your foot on that pedal for 8 hours straight.

Been to the Hunter Valley in New South Wales and stayed in an awesome "French Villa" and drank way too much champagne, and ate way too much food.

Found a yarn bombed tree....I love this sort of public art...

...maybe I should knit up a couple of these for my palm trees :)

Hubby had a birthday....

...and my frangipanni tree grown from a friend's cutting has flowered for the first time.

So Darwin Patchworkers and Quilter's exhibition opening is tomorrow night....woo hoo....cant wait to see what everyone has been doing....and cant wait to get back to Mrs Billings, and what other project takes my fancy....wooo hooo :)

And if you are in Darwin this weekend head on down to Stokes Hill Wharf, and the exhibition is open for viewing from 10am Friday to 4pm Sunday.