End of year wrap up, Part 2

After a week in Toowoomba and some quilting lessons for my sister who I am trying to convert, I flew home and onto finishing some more UFO's.

My sisters completed table runner, a small quilting lesson in cutting, stitch in the ditch, binding and a little hand quilting, not a bad job sister dear.

October...I had my cabin built which I hope to use as a quilting room, actually It was built to hold all my fabric! And I hope to be able to quilt as well in the cabin.

It took 1 month to be painted, as it was raw timber,  and needed 3 coats each of undercoat and top coat.

Now for the electrician.....waiting....waiting.

I painted the inside a soft blue.

I also completed my version of the Springwood quilt show 2012  raffle quilt, "Homage".

I have called mine " Heathton" named after our house and the name is derived from the combination of mine and DH names.

I found this little treasure at a flea market, when I pulled the seat apart to recover it, I found newspapers from 1936. The stuffing was kapok.

A nice read and very interesting furniture.

Nearly completed, being restored, I now need to find a tassel fringe to complete the basket.

I also dabbled with some garden art, from some great op shop finds.

November, I completed this quilt as a gift for my sisters 60th

The label.

Completed a few diary covers

I painted a sign for my daughter in law, added a sketch of their puppy "Knuckles"

December

I Gave my oldest sister Jenny a 60th birthday party, with the help of my sister Esme and brother Peter on the 5th December, a great time was had by all and the perfect opportunity to catch up with some relatives, not seen for awhile.

Memories

And by the look on my sisters face, she was pleased with the quilt

A time to bid farewell to a very busy year, here's to a healthy and happy new year and I cannot wait to see what the new year has in store me.

Great aunt Esme with little Logan, not a bad backdrop either!

My gorgeous grandson Logan who is now 4 months old, time is passing so quickly

Farewell 2015 welcome in 2016.

Toowoomba Visit

When  I visit Toowoomba, my agenda is to visit a quilt shop or four. In Highfields Village there Is a collection  of shops very close to where my sister lives. In this collection of shops there is the Chocolate Cottage Cafe,  Shoe shop, home living store and of course The patchwork shop called The Quilting Angel. The particular day that I chose to visit was a Tuesday and little did I know that for the last 18 years, this collection of shops in the village has been closed on a Tuesday. I missed having a look at this patchwork shop as it was closed. My sister and I left to drive to Brisbane for the quilt exhibition in South Brisbane early wednesday morning. I still got my  quilt shop fix and visited a few shops, first one was a new fabric store just opened, which had a range of different fabrics as well as patchwork fabric, I managed to buy 3 metres of a light coloured fabric with a dot design, I will use this for my Texas Wheel quilt. The next shop was called Quilt Craft, I bought 1/2 metre of reproduction fabric, also visited the shop in a blue cottage, no money spent in this shop, but a nice shop to visit. On the opposite Side of the road from Highfields village shops is a nice collection of shops and one of the shops called " Precious Time" had a nice collection of fabric, so bought some birdy fabric, great for a border on a bag or a pencil case, will have to see what I will use it for.

Not sure of the name of this shop in Toowoomba.

Shops near Highfields Village in Abbey Lane

The Quilters Angel... Closed.

The Village green shops in Highfields.

Shop where I bought the birdy fabric. Precious Time in  Abbey Lane.

Abbey Lane

The Chocolate  Cottage Cafe

A very nice setup with collectables etc in the gardens of  Abbey Lane, Highfields.

The fabric that I purchased. The Bird fabric also comes in red.

V & A quilt exhibition Brisbane July 2013 and a sister fix

Monday the 29th July saw me fly to Brisbane being picked up by my sister and then drive to Toowoomba, where I spent a couple of days with my sister and her family. We also celebrated my nieces 23 rd birthday. On Wednesday my sister and I traveled to Brisbane to Visit, Quilts 1700-1945. The reason for traveling to Queensland was to get a sister fix and also to see the famous Rajah Quilt which is in this particular exhibition from the V& A in London.  The Rajah quilt, 1845, was the inspiration of Elizabeth Fry. Elizabeth thought that setting a task for the convict women on this long voyage, would help the women to cope. Elizabeth Fry gathered the fabrics and gave it to the  convict women who were being shipped to Van Diemen  Land on the Convict ship "Rajah". This is how the quilt got it's name. The quilt when made, was to be a gift to the wife of the  governor of Van Diemans land. After getting lost in Brisbane because some bright spark put in the wrong address in the Tomtom, we finally arrived at our destination, a hotel very close to the Queensland Art Gallery in South Brisbane, we parked the car and rushed to the gallery to make the 1.15 pm tour. We actually arrived at 12.55 pm and made the 1 pm tour, which I highly recommend, although the tour guide was very informative about the historical aspects of the quilts, she had no idea about quilting, such as windmills, tumbling blocks, six pointed stars and the type of embroidery stitches used. My sister who does not quilt was amazed at the detailed workmanship in the quilts, embroidery and curtains displayed. After our tour we purchased the patchwork platter lunch in the cafe, then went back into the exhibition for a more thorough look. No photo's were allowed to be taken, not for the want of trying..but had to suffice with some shots of our lunch and the entry to the exhibition. Also on display was a collection of quilts from Ruth Stoneley, photo's were allowed to be taken in this exhibition but no flash. Overall the exhibition is well worth a visit.

Entry to the exhibition

Patchwork platter lunch.

Ruth Stoneley collection of quilts

Reds and blacks seem to be her favourite colours, as well as crazy patchwork.

A stunning evening dress

Work by Ruth Stoneley in blacks and reds.