Quilting on the Downs

I've been holding off posting - hoping to share my "Circles of Fun", started in a class with Sue Ross at Quilting on the Downs in 2010 but I'm not quite ready and...
I've just had an email from Lisa Zimmerman of Precious Time in Toowoomba confirming that I'm booked into 2 classes for this year.  Lisa says sadly that she is struggling to get sufficient numbers for a few of the class to go ahead.  How sad - she has an exciting list of classes available with absolutely wonderful instructors, which I can attest to, so I thought I'd write a quick post to spread the word.  Here's a link to the website where you can download the classes by clicking on the Classes tab - http://www.welcometoprecioustime.com.au/.  The phone number is 07 46334748 if you'd like any more information about the classes!

I'm excited - I've booked into the Wendy Williams class "Growing Up" and in Sue Ross' "Pickle Dish" class (I've wanted to make one of these quilts since seeing the one on the cover of  Kaffe Fassetts book -  Quilt Romance.  It's lovely).  Photos of the quilts for both classes are on Lisa's blog  - http://precioustime.typepad.com/my_weblog/  so have a look, I can highly recommend both Lisa's shop and the classes she arranges and visiting Toowoomba during the Carnival of Flowers just tops it all off beautifully!

I'll share my Circles tomorrow - I promise.

Bev

What Makes Me Smile

Clivias - flowering just beautifully at this time.  This pot sits at my front door, being terribly neglected and ignored for 11 months of the year, and then reminds me in this spectacular fashion that I must give it more attention. 

This is Louie, who thinks he's the boss of me.  You ought to see him run when I pick up a set a keys and he thinks he's going somewhere, then you ought to see the sad look on his face when I tell him he can't come this time!

Having time to play!

Hope you have a lovely day!

Short and Long of it...

It's been a lovely week.  On Tuesday I drove to the little town of Sapphire, most people go there to look for sapphires, but I went there to learn a little about Sashiko - here's my first attempt -

Still have to do the remaining two sections, but I will get there.  Repeating to myself short, long, short, long did help, but I've quite a way to go to get my stitches even.  I think it looks great, and I'm sure I'll do some more in the future but I've too many other things I'm working on for now.

I did manage to get a photo of the runner I showed a little of in an earlier post.  You'll see I use lots of old doilies that have stains, tears and all sorts of wear marks on them.  They are still beautiful and I can't throw them out, so by quilting them madly in this way they can still be used and admired and then thrown into the washing machine when it's time for a wash - not to mention it's a great way to practise free motion quilting!

It's a beautiful day here today, so I'm off for a long walk before it gets too hot.  Hope you day is just as lovely,

Bev

Sew Many Things...

I have a lot of works in progress and don't get a lot of time for sewing.  I've been slowly working at these blocks  (I want to make 16 of them), that I started in a workshop with the wonderfully talented and patient Margaret McDonald (www.margaretmcdonald.com.au) at AQC in Melbourne earlier this year.  The pattern is Margaret's own and is called Whirling Twirling.  I now have most of the blocks cut out and four more inner circles sewn, waiting for me to add the borders.

I needed a distraction, so I've taken a couple of days away from it and quilted a table runner that I'm making for a friend's 50th (as always I'm late, I will have it ready for Edwina's 51st!).  Here's some of the quilting, it's now in the washing machine washing off the Solvy so I'll show the actual runner next time I post.