Christmas and end of year wrap up.

 This year I have been dedicating my time to finishing off some UFO’s. I am quite proud of my achievements and now only have four quilts to finish. So I will be also going into 2018 completing these quilts s as well.
Even though I have finished quite a few of my UFO’s, I have also made and completed a couple of quilts as well as doing some small projects in between.

As I have mentioned before, I make a journal cover for my diary every year, below is my diary cover for 2018.

Where has the time gone, it is now April and we are about to fly out for our big trip O/S, we will be away for 7 weeks, the countries we will vist are Seoul, South Korea, Prague,Czech Republic, Poland, Lithuania, Lativas, Estonia, Finland and Russia.

A few finishes for this year.

My Tessalation quilt is all done, now in the process of hand quilting it.

I picked up an old grandmothers powder chair, that was pretty shoddy for $10 and covered it, I am pretty pleased with the result.

This year there are a few O birthdays dedicated to family and friends, so I have been quite busy making a few new quilts as well, the first being one made for my little sister who turned 50 in February. I purchased some orphan blocks from the Springwood quilt show, done by Oatchwork fun a few years ago and made them into a quilt, called "Web of Dreams"

My friend VIv also turned 70 in March so in collaboration with our sewing group, I made this quilt for her, I used Kaffe Fassat fabrics in the front and an Alexander Henry fabric for the back, design was from Modern quilt Studio. VIv has recently just completed chem and her cancer is in remission, so I called this quilt "Longevity"

The front.

The back.

Recently my DIL finished her PHD and was awarded the status of Dr and was successful in gaining  a position as senior lecturer at The Canterbury University in Christchurch NZ, this move has meant that my youngest son will also be relocating to NZ as well. THey have recently purchased a house, so with a new house, come a new quilt, as my DIL asked for greys, I called this quilt "Shades of Grey"

January, this year we travelled to NZ with our son to spend a week with them both, look at houses to be bought and familiarise ourselves with Christchurch again, as we will now be regular visitors across the ditch. We also caught up with friends made on our travels, spent some time in Rakai and Blenheim.

Whilst in Christchurch our DIL purchased tickets for the beer festival and the Comedy festival.

Fun was had by all and we got to meet these two amazing comedians from Biriminham, a great 2 hours of entertainment.

We also visited Akaroa and I was fortunate to spend a few enjoyable hours at The Giants house, never before have I seen so many mosaics in one place. All done by one lady who was a sculptor, after buying the house, found many broken china pieces when transforming the garden, so decided to use them, 20years later, a masterpiece and like no other that I have seen before.

The front page f the house

Even a grand piano has been covered.

These statues are all through the garden, too many photos to post, I recommend a visit.

I attended a quilt guild meeting in March,hosted by the Blue mountain quilters and had the opportunity to attend a talk by Jenny Kee, who I showed my La Pascaglia quilt too, very inspirational lady.

The next day, I ticked off one from my bucket list by doing a workshop with Marg Sampson George, dare I say that I have commenced another hand sewing EPP quilt, Mrs Peach.

Needless to say it is only April and I have already completed three quilts and in my spare time, I have been going to dressmaking classes and have completed a lightweight jacket, I am pleased with the result.

The front

The back, next is a dress!

My other exciting Nes is that we are going to be grandparents to identical twin girls, my DIL, is now 26weeks, although there has been a few challenges with the pregnancy we are costing along nicely and we are hoping for a good delivery and no more complications. Two little sisters for our little grandson, Logan, such a bundle of energy.

 

Our twin granddaughters, via U/S.

That's a wrap, will be posting from our trip away, take care.

Quilt tour highlights, peek look at goodies bought.

I thought that I would share a few favourite photos and what goodies made it home with me, here I am thinking that I was good, but after unpacking it appears that I was not, but fun was had!

Some great fabric, moda, Tokyo milk etc

I picked up this yard of Henry Miller fabric, circa 2002 from an antique shop.

More goodies, cotton and Steel, charm packs, Milfore and Cardinal fabric.

Kaffe also made it home with me.

A little bit of Amish that I could not resist, a log cabin pattern will happen here.

Some echino and reproduction fabric.

Wool, sloth and owls

Tula Pink new fabric line, "Spirit animals had to show up, also some mesh fabric for bags.

Flannel and bunny fabric from Denmark, also some cork to make bags.

Frida also had to make an appearance, with some Frida fabric all the way from Brazil.

Other bits and pieces.

I might add, there was no excess luggage, DH suitcase on departure from Australia was 11kg due to having an extra bag inside and mine was 10kg. 

 On return home, a different story, mine was just under 23kg and DH was also about that with 7 kg in extra case. 

Our allowance was two suitcases each, but we managed again to get away with what is our standard, one each with an extra duffel bag. 

DH always worries about excess luggage, never happens, because we pack light before we leave for our trip.

This was just one of the many quilt shops in Hamilton, owned by Missouri Star.

On this trip we visited Kansas City, Cameron, Hamilton, Chillicothe, Indendence, St Joseph, Kokomo, St Louis, Shipshewana, Chicago and Houston. This tour has added to our states that we have covered in the USA, over 42 states, only eight to go!

Until our next adventure, keep safe.

La Grange, Texas Quilt Museum and The Astros win!

Thursday and Friday was quilt show and shopping, on Saturday, a good part of the group went on a two hour drive to La Grange. The reason for going to La Grange was to visit the Texas quilt museum.

On arrival into La Grange we got to explore the town, whilst the first group visited the museum, there were a lot of shops surrounded by a town square. I scoured the antique shops hoping to find a vintage quilt, that might have been able to come home with me, no quilts but a few other goodies travelled back to Australia with me.

La Grange

Murals painted on the side of the building.

DH viewing the quilts on display.

We were lucky enough to visit the museum, when they had a Susan Shie exhibition. I have seen photos of Susan's quilts in magazines but to see them in real life was wonderful. Susan is legally blind and all her quilts are air brushed and very political.

Susan wants her quilts to be photographed, so her message is sent out to the world.

I get the feeling that she liked Obama, but not Hilary.

The museum also has a lovely garden at the side.

After our visit and lunch we made our way back to the hotel and a group dinner, Italian themed was planned for our meal, our last night, for tomorrow we fly home.

Being in Houston, when their baseball team wins their first game ever, was not fun. When

 trying to get back to the hotel after  walking around the quilt show for 7 hours, I decided to catch a cab back to the hotel, not a good idea in hindsight. 1 1/2 hours later and $32 of going no where, I got out of the cab and still had to walk the 10 blocks back to the hotel. Not happy Jan......

There was a parade at 2pm and most of the streets were closed and traffic was chaos, not fun.

Astro supporters, even the kids got a day off school.

Good on them for winning, but I would have preferred not to be anywhere near the crowds.

This concludes our great quilting tour.

DH held his own with 37 other mad quilters, entertained the women and still had a smile on his face. 

I feel blessed to have shared this experience with him, but I have also promised  him, no more international quilt shows, as my bucket list has been filled.

Until our next adventure, adios!