Exhibition 2010

Well....its been a busy and exciting 2 weeks, I finally finished and got back my star quilt, rushed the binding on, spent 2 days home with a sick child which allowed me time to sew it down, and then delivered it off for the Goldfields Quilters Exhibition.


Last night was our opening night...members were all invited to attend for wine and nibbles (awesome) and the winners were announced.

Congratulations to my friends Lynn, and Lyn, Heather and Alison.....all were well deserving award winners.

Lynne won "Best use of Color" for her Tree of Life,
Lyn won "Best of Show" with The Morrell Quilt...a pattern by the wonderful Di Ford
Heather won "the Judges Commendation" for her Betsy's Bouquet, pattern by Ruth Bowman
and Alison won "Best Small Quilt" for Liams Quilt.... a crib quilt made for her latest grandson, all done in red and white...looked fantastic.

and I am happy to say I won a prize also....."Best First Time Entrant" for my quilt "When North meets South"
to say I was shocked and overjoyed would be an understatement..... gobsmacked was more like it.....and it made it all the more special as our guest judge was Margaret McDonald, a wonderful quilt designer I have had the luck to be able to have as a teacher in a few classes I have done at Threadbear Quilting.


I also entered another 2 quilts, and was very proud to see them hanging along side work of the very highest of quality.

Congratulations to Heather and the rest of the exhbition committee, you all have done a wonderful job.



now fingers crossed I win the raffle quilt xoxoox


Rach

When North meets South............

Hi,


I have been waiting til I have had something exciting to post, and today is the day!!

Today, my much loved star quilt is finished........it has been a design of my own, after being shown some Native American Star Blanket Designs......and of course, for those that know me...its BLUE.

I picked up my quilt from Margaret at the Quilt Station today....she has done a FANTASTIC JOB..... I LOVE IT.

What is in the photo is just the top....but as soon as I can get it hanging somewhere I will take more pics so you can see the fabulous quilting on it.

I have named it "When North meets South" for a reason, the idea came from Canada, and I am in Australia....can 2 countries get further apart??

It has been nearly 12 months in the making.....at times I put it away, and just didnt have the motivation to get it finished....FINALLY its done :)

ok...time for binding and rod pocket, ready for exhibition in 2 weeks :)

Have fun, Rach xo

More unfinished works..............

2 new photos for you to check out, one is the nearly finished star quilt, since taking the photo, I have done a little more, so next update may be the finished quilt. (I hope)
The center of the star has been all hand pieced, and I set it into the center square by hand also, only using the machine to put the outer borders on.Has been a long time getting this far, I seemed to lose enthusiasm for a while, but I am now eager to get it finished for the Goldfields Quilters exhibition in October.

The other photo was my work, done today at The Farm. Once every 3 months a group of us quilters meet in Woodend for a special day of a little quilt history and a little sewing, a little gossip, a little show and tell and a little fun. The day is run by the wonderful Robyn Falloon and Jan Baker www.bonbondesigns.com
Part of the day is receiving exclusive patterns from Robyn, of which I have taken some and started a new quilt.....not sure how this might work yet, all blocks are different sizes, and different colors. I think it may be a challenge to piece it all together when finished, but I am looking forward to that part of the challenge also.

I have completed 3 blocks, the 4th is ready and another larger one glued and ready to go. I really enjoy the days, and love to listen about the quilt history, as I am a new quilter these are things I am yet to learn. Jan is a wealth of knowledge about quilt history, and I find I learn a lot on these days.

Anyway, must dash,

Rach xo

In love with Stars...............

I am currently having a love affair with stars, specifically 8 pointed stars. I recently began hand piecing a large 8 pointed star, and last Sunday did a class at Threadbear in Castlemaine with the talented and wonderful quilter Margaret McDonald.

The class was called "Touch" and was a pattern of Margaret's, which has 9 stars set into a solid background, the appeal for me was to learn how to machine piece the 8 pointed star, as the hand piecing was going so very slowly........

The aim of the day was to have one diamond (1 point of the 8) finished before lunch, which I managed with not too much difficulty. After lunch we were to do a couple more and learn how to put them together. I managed 7 out of 8 points for the day...nearly one whole star done :) :)

The use of mirrors, for those who are thinking a star might be for them, are worth their weight in gold....being able to see a finished star, having only laid out one point, assists greatly in your color placement.

I used a range of fabrics from Moda, called Fig and Plum.....I was trying not to have to think too hard about what color went where. I find if I don't try too hard, the colors come naturally, I know what I like and what I don't like, everything else just falls into place after that.
I had a wonderful day as usual, I have never done a class where I haven't learned a LOT and had a wonderful day. If you ever get a chance to do one of Margaret's classes I highly recommend them, she is a wonderful teacher and very easy to learn from.

Its now time for me to get on with it and get some more done, but first, I have to finish the hand pieced one, the centre block is almost finished, and should only take another week or so to get the rest done, of course it will be a busy week next week, having the Victorian Quilters Exhibition on at Jeff's Shed in Melbourne, so possibly the quilt might get done the week after, unless something else pops up in the meantime :)

Finally an update

Hi All,

Sorry its been so long, have had quite a busy time here lately, but winter has set in, which means more time inside for sewing :)

I have a few new projects on the go....a Star Quilt, inspired by my friend Adrian, who sent me a few links to look at, and of course I said....thats the next quilt. I am paper piecing an 8 pointed star in various hand dyed blues (of course its blue) and as soon as the star is finished I will post a photo.

Our local quilters guild held a workshop last weekend, which resulted in about 20 blocks finished towards a new quilt, photos can be seen on the Goldfields Quilters blog, which I have listed, hope you enjoy having a look at the work we do :) We had a great day, wonderful lunch, lots of laughter of course, and I am hanging out for the next day, I seem to get so much more done with others around to inspire me.


My friend Margaret has her blog up and running, and of course hers will have updates more regularly than mine.... :) Well worth a look at the wonderful work she does.
You can find the link at the side of my page. Quilt Station, check out her VERY organised work area... I am very jealous. :)


Well, must be off, I have no kids today, so lots of sewing is in order while I have peace and quiet. xoxo Rach

A New Quilter in the making.......

Hi all,

Haven't done a lot of sewing lately...so no new photos to post....just a little story to tell. Its school holidays here at the moment, and although I have sent my son on a holiday to his grandfathers, I still have a child at home, and today I had 2 more as well........Total of 3 girls!!

I decided since 2 out of the 3 girls are both only 3, they could amuse themselves with the coloring books, trampoline and the cubby house.......the older one...now she is a different matter...what to do??

A-Ha...an idea.....she is quite a crafty girl, so lets get her quilting!!

A trip to the local favorite shop..Threadbare Quilting, and we had a small stash of fabric for her and a roll of vliesofix. Came home...applied the vliesofix to the back of the fabric and she proceeded to cut out butterflies and flowers..a basket and some stems.
We had bought a large piece of calico, so we have started her off designing an applique quilt...she did a FANTASTIC job!! What an eye for placement...some of her butterflies were too big...so she set her mind to a few smaller ones...End result for the day was a great start to what will be her very own quilt.

We have decided before we iron any down..she is going to take it home and have a play and when its just right...I will pack up the machine and take it to her for her to stitch down her applique.

She was very pleased with the result she had achieved and she had blown me away with how quickly she had picked this up....I think I may have created a monster!!!
Anyway, we had a great day and when its getting closer to finished I shall post a pic so you can all see what a fantastic job she has done.
Best be off now...Hubby is taking me out for tea for my birthday...Chat soon, Rach

A little more done........

Hi All.....sorry it has been so long since the last post...we have been busy with the kids and have had a holiday in Perth, Western Australia. Awesome place to go...lots to do.


Have done a little more towards Anns Legacy.....Center Panel now completed....border and all. My quilty friend Lynn and I are doing this quilt at the same time....great for a little motivation...I push her...she pushes me. We decided to use the same 1st border fabric even though our backgrounds and other fabrics are different, but it is a different fabric from the one used by Di Ford in her quilt....which of course meant we had to adjust the curves and corners to suit our fabric.....hard work!!!!
Luckily Lynn's talented husband helped us work out our curves and Voila...its done!!
Took it away for the weekend and got it all sewn down......Fussy cut hexagons on and now put aside til the borders are completed.
They are next....just as soon as I manage to find some glue from somewhere........fabric glue is in short supply here at the moment!!
Happy sewing til next time.

Ann's Legacy by Di Ford.....my version anyway

Here is a photo of the nearly completed centre block for Di Ford's 'Ann's Legacy Quilt' available of course to buy from my favourite quilt shop Threadbear!!!
Only 4 hexagons to do in the 4 corners and then on to the appliqued borders....please bear in mind while looking at this photo that this is my first attempt at needle turn applique, I know its not 100% but I have decided I can live with the bits that are not great. Also note that all the colors chosen are my own and not the originals from Di's quilt. I like blue as you can see and Di's quilt had some blue but not enough for my bedroom!!!!

Friendship block done

Friendship Block got done and I made it to our Local quilters gathering....with time to spare!! Obviously you all can tell I tend to leave things til the last minute! I try really hard not too but its just the way I am.

Got 2 and a half birds sewn on my nearly complete centre block of Di Ford's Ann's Legacy...what an effort this is. This is my first needle turn quilt....and I think I have dropped myself in the deep end in a major way. Things are going well so far and photos to follow. 4 flowers of hexagons and another bird and a half and it will be ready for the border of solid fabric. The whole time I am sewing this quilt I am feeling guilty because I am supposed to be piecing Nearly Insane......I am supposed to have Nearly Insane finished by April....lots of dedicated sewing time ahead of me to make that deadline I think. The kids will be living on Peanut Butter sandwiches..HA HA


Above is a photo of one months blocks of nearly insane ...we do 6 a month and pay a penalty of a block of chocolate if they are not done, I am adding to the chocolate pile every month let me tell you. Mine are the ones on the left of the photo, in the row from top to bottom, we made the agreement that we would pin them all up to compare how every ones looked and differed depending on the colors we had chosen, as you can see mine are all blues with one cream....not easy to decide which blue to put where let me tell you!!! Anyway better get back to making a Peanut Butter sandwich for the kids and sewing these birds on!

Welcome! This is my first foray into blogging, so please be patient with me as I may make many mistakes and I will slowly get the hang of it!
I am a 'young' quilter as they tell me and consider myself to be a beginner at most techniques associated with quilting!
I welcome any and all quilty friends to join and hope that you enjoy my site!


This is a photo of a quilt top done by me in ONE weekend at a quilt retreat. It was a mystery quilt so I had no idea what the finished quilt would look like...all we knew was we needed to pick 3 contrasting colors and have it all pre-cut before we went so enable us to get a "head start"...let me tell you the machine was humming along!
We all had a great time and not all the weekend was spent quilting, we have a fancy dress dinner and great food, couple of beverages and lots of laughter!


I think this might be enough for my first post and I need to get off the computer and onto the sewing machine to get my block done for the friendship quilt some of our local quilt group girls are doing! Its to be handed in tonight so I better get my butt into gear!!!