Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year to all of my blog readers!

I hope 2015 will be a great year and will see the fulfillment of all of your dreams!

I have some very big plans for 2015 including two overseas trips.  I am leaving for New Zealand in two weeks time to teach at the Palmerston North Quilt Symposium.

This is a huge event and I am very excited to be a part of it.

It is also only nine months until I travel to the United Kingdom with some gorgeous friends to tour around all the sites associated with Jane Austen and antique quilts, thanks to Whitecroft Traditional Tours.  Yay!

Here is a progress shot of my new red and white quilt - one block done, eleven to go!

Next post will be written next year!

A New Year Approaches

It is always great to reflect on what you have achieved in the past twelve months as the year comes to an end!

I have very much enjoyed the company of my students again this year. Many of you have become close friends as we have indulged in our favourite hobby.  

So far I have completed one major project this holiday season - a major quilt for a future edition of Quilters' Companion magazine.

Now I am on to the next quilt - my entry in the red and white challenge for the Quilters' Guild of NSW Annual Quilt Show.

Just a bit of tracing and cutting....

And a small peek...

Happy stitching everyone!

Four NSW Members of Textiles Across the Tasman Get Together

At last I had a free day to catch up with the other three New South Wales members of Textiles Across the Tasman! 

 

L to R: me, Amanda Daly, Kay Haerland and Pam Furniss

I have tried several times during the year to have a day with the other ladies but have always been working.

Yesterday we had a delightful lunch at Amanda Daly's lovely home in a bushland setting.  Now I know why she is so inspired by our native flora and fauna!

This was the first time that our first four challenge quilts were all together.  We could not resist making our own little display on Amanda's dining room wall.

Here they are: Pattern, Reflections, Knowledge and Seed.

We have displayed each set in the following order:

Pam Furniss, Amanda Daly, Katrina Hadjimichael and Kay Haerland.

   

Don't they look great together?  They are all so different.

I have really enjoyed the challenge of trying something different - you never know where your thought process will take the design.

Our next challenge is "Journey".

For more information about our group, click here.

My Students are So Clever

A big thank you to all my students from classes held throughout 2014.  I have had a very big year and met lots of wonderful quilters from all over Australia.  I hope you have enjoyed our time together and have been able to create some beautiful quilts from my classes.

It is such a thrill to see quilts that have been completed after classes are finished.  Please keep the photos coming as I love to see your work and share it with others via my blog.

Thank you also for the lovely cards and gifts I have received recently.  They mean a lot to me.

Here are a couple of beautiful hand made cards I received today.  Gorgeous.

Check out the magnificent pavlova Iain made for our last Monday class Christmas party at The Stitchers' Cupboard.  It was really yummy!

I am very much looking forward to even bigger and better things for 2015.  I have lots of exciting plans which will be revealed in due course!!!?

Holiday Projects

It will be great to have a break from teaching for a couple of weeks.  That does not mean I will be taking it easy!  

It is this time of year that I try to get heaps of sewing done and catch up on all the notes I need to write for the new classes I will be teaching in the new year. It never stops.

At the moment I am busy putting together a major quilt project for Quilters Companion magazine to be published next year.  I am really enjoying using the brand new Penny Rose fabric lines of Civil War Miniatures and Civil War Times distributed here in Australia by Sue Daley.

Love the colours and the look of the crisp shirting for the background fabric.  Here is a little peek.

I am also working very hard on hand applique blocks for the next quilt in the Jane Austen Quilt Collection called "Lambton".  Lucky I have plenty of DVDs to watch while stitching - thanks Kerrie for Downtown Abbey!!

I have started a new quilt for the exciting "red and white challenge" for the 2015 NSW Quilters' Guild 2015 Sydney Quilt Show which has heaps of machine applique.

Then there is a new cushion to be made in all the yummy felted wool from The Stitchers' Cupboard and the next Textiles Across the Tasman challenge quilt with the theme of "journey".

All the notes need to be written for "Meryton", "Henrietta", Pickled Paisley", "Autumn Lily" etc.

Wow, I better get to work.....  what are you working on these holidays???

2015 Teaching Schedule

I have just written a major update of all my teaching commitments for next year.

You will find it on the 2015 Teaching Schedule tab at the top of the blog home page.

If you do not find a class that suits you, please let me know.

I am very much looking forward to new challenges and meeting lots of new ladies next year as well as continuing all the friendships I have made in classes this year.

Hobbysew Kings Park FInal Class for the Year

Had my final class at Kings Park yesterday.  Thanks for a great year ladies.

Here is Anna's "Ashbourne Mill" - nearly finished, just some more flying geese and final border to go.  Looks great, Anna, really soft blues and browns.

Some of the other ladies were working on their "Heartstrings" quilts using jelly roll strips.  Here is Caroline's in pinks and golds.  Wow!  We used one of my patterns for the 1904 Star block in the centre.

This is Michelle's version in shades of blue with a Pinwheel Star block in the centre.  Awesome!

Hey Jill, how did I miss taking a photo of your Pennsylvania?

Hobbysew class will resume on 11 February, 2015.

Don't forget about Summer School.  The first two dates are booked out but there are spots available for 28 and 29 January, 2015.  Phone the shop on 96797623 to book in.

Robin's Magnificent Quilts

Robin has definitely been in "finishing mode"!  She has just completed two major quilts in class with me.

Here is her beautiful version of "Pennsylvania", quilted by Veronica Appleyard.

This is one of my favourite designs as it incorporates lots of small pieced blocks and is a great stash buster.  Lots of fun!!

Then we added the final borders to Robin's amazing "Spikes and Specks".  The three mitred borders add so much colour and finish the quilt off beautifully.  There is a lot of work in this quilt but I think you will agree it looks awesome.

Finally, here is a look at Judy's great apple core cushion coming together with the ric rac.  Cool. Love the colours.

Monday Class at The Stitchers' Cupboard

Here is some show and tell from today's class.

Maria has been very quick to add her half dresden flower border to her beautiful "Pemberley" centre.  Wow, she has done a fabulous job and worked very hard on it.

Natalie has made a lot of progress on her centre hexagon piece for "Meryton".  I love the deep teal green around the star.

Lots of hexagons are fussy cut.  Lovely!

Richmond Stitchers at Mulgoa

I had a busy class today with the ladies of the Richmond Stitchers.  Every few months we have a retreat at "Winbourne", the Edmund Rice Convention Centre.

The grounds are always beautiful and I love the historic sandstone buildings.  We heard kookaburras and bell birds between showers of rain.

Kim finished her beautiful Australian wildflower version of my whack and stack Le Moyne star quilt design:

Di also had show and tell with her soft pastel version of the same quilt, which has been quilted in a flowing feather design.  It has pride of place on her own bed.

Di also brought her delightful bed topper to show me.  She made this in class from my X-blocks quilt design:  looks great also in soft colours.

Karol completed piecing her cushion of small paper foundation pieced pineapple blocks in stunning brown, pink and red.  Her final outside border will become a flange on her cushion.

We also had lots of fun laying out Judy's fan blocks for her version of my whack and stack "Marrakesh" quilt.  This quilt consists of sixteen fan blocks, each one 14 inches square.  I sashed my blocks and laid them out in four large circles. Here is my original design:

Here are Judy's sixteen blocks laid out in as many ways as we could think of.  Which do you like best??

Wow, it is hard to decide which way to go.

Thanks for the fun and the Kris Kringle presents ladies.

Great Class at Kim Bradley Creations

Wow, look at the work my clever ladies are doing at Kim's in my monthly class at Castle Hill.

Carla has been making the most spectacular version of my whack and stack "Marrakesh" design.

Take a look:

So cool.

Here is Cindy's "Ashbourne Mill" with a few more pumpkin seeds applqiued on.  Fabulous.

Here are some of Wendy's blocks for her "Marrakesh" in soft blues, greens and black. So different to Carla's, so lovely.

Here is Lesley's Beautiful "Fragrant Flowers" nearly finished.  Oops, sorry it is sideways.  It looks great.

Thanks ladies, see you next year on the first Wednesday of the month, 4 February.

Kerrie's "Rosings" and Jan's "Pemberley"

I have received some more emails enclosing photographs of some more gorgeous completed quilts.

Most of my major quilts have been custom quilted because they are displayed in shops and exhibitions and undergo quite a lot of scrutiny! Ladies often ask me if it is necessary to have their Jane Austen quilts custom quilted, which can be expensive and include a long delay while waiting for the quilter to reach your turn in the queue.

A number of ladies have opted to have their Jane Austen's quilted in an edge to edge quilting design.  They look fantastic.  I think it is a very viable option.  Make sure you choose a quilting design that has an old fashioned appearance such as continuous baptist fans or clam shells or a decorative pattern that has fairly even and consistently sized quilting shapes over the whole surface.  This will not detract from all of your applique.

Here is Kerrie's "Rosings" which was quilted in an edge to edge pattern by Leanne Valiukas of LoVe It Quilting.  Looks so sensational.  Leanne has quilted a continuous feather design on the quilt.

Here is a photograph of Jan's completed "Pemberley" which she is pin basting ready for quilting.  Looks gorgeous,

Thanks for sharing ladies.  Congratulations on your beautiful quilts.