September happenings

What a busy month September has proven to be, DH and I are busy planning our big adventure for next year, where Paducah, Kentucy will be  another thing ticked of my bucket list. I am busy attending quilts shows, flower festivals and finishing a number of UFO's. Enough to keep me out of mischief.

At present in Sydney, there are a couple of quilt exhibitions on at present, one in the Manly regional Gallery and another in Gymea,in the Hazelhurst Gallery, both are great and well worth a look. Manly has an exhibition of quilts from the collection of Annette Gero, this is a great collection of wartime quilts, mainly made from military uniforms, lapels, wool and intricate hand work. Photos were allowed to be taken for personal use only and not for social media.

Manly Regional Gallery

 Hazlehurst Gallery has a great collection of early Australian made quilts, no photos were allowed to be taken, I did manage to purchase the book, called "Labours of Love", which has photos of the quilts exhibited. Hazlehurst gallery is a great place to visit and have lunch. The quilts mainly from late 1800's were hand pieced or EPP. I have just completed one similar to one of the quilts on display, a quilt made with fussy cut shapes to make a hexagon.The quilt made by Fredriricka Mary Josephine was the inspiration for the Springwood quilt show raffle quilt in 2012, varied slightly with a centre reproduction panel, The quilt was called "Homage"

My finished version of FMJ quilt.

Another quite large quilt, measuring 2.97 mrts by 2.47mtrs. 

Entrance to Hazelhurst Gallery

Cafe and eating area.

 The year 2015 has proven to be a very productive year for me in finishing UFO's and making a couple of quick quilts for gifts to give to family. I have also dabbled into some Zen doodling, which has proven to be quiet therapeutic and created some cushions. Adult colouring books are quite the rage these days, a wonderful way to bring a little calm into very stressed lives.

I am in the midst of setting up a sewing area, rearranging my fabrics so that it can be a bit easier to find my fabrics when commencing another project, as I have so much fabric, I have set myself an amazing task. Whilst doing some tidying up, it is time to purge and get rid of some fabric as well. Windsor Downs annual garage sale is on the 14 th November, so the perfect opportunity arose to have a big clean up.

In the middle ofSeptember, 

 I took the opportunity to fly to Toowoomba to visit my sister and enjoy the festivities with "Carnival of flowers". The carnival celebrates a whole week of flowers, garden competitions, quilt shows, teapot extravaganza, clivia shows and craft demonstrations. My sister and I had a great time attending all the events that the carnival f flowers had to offer.

I will share with you a couple of quilts from the three shows we visited.

Aptly named "Cathederal Windows" all hexagons.

Susan Smith design" Stonefield"

 I had a wonderful time with my sister, touring gardens, visiting three quilt shows, teapot display and arts and craft at Geham.

The Geeham school hall where the arts and crafts display was held.

Me in the grand champion garden in Twoowoomba

My sister Esme, being a wonderful companion and holding her sisters purchases, interesting, seeing I bought a lot of plants and will be flying home .

Well this post has been in the making for awhile, got kinda busy with spring cleaning etc, now we are well into October, time to get a move on.

I will leave you with a photo of my adorable grandson.

First time entrant in a quilt show/ Springwood Quilt show

Held this weekend was the Springwood quilt show, this event has been running for 9 years and has always been one of my favourite quilt shows along with the Camden show, which is held in August. With encouragement from Chris Jurd I entered two of my quilts that I had recently completed. This was a first for me, as I have never entered any of my quilts into a show. I must say I felt immense pride when I saw my quilts hanging in the hall and was also privy to a few comments from people about my quilts, especially "Lucy's Crosses". 

The show opened on Friday, Anzac Day at 11 am and I was surprised at the turnout by people visiting the show, it was packed, a testament of just how popular the Springwood quilt show can be. I had a great day catching up with friends and meeting new ones, purchased some bargains and fabric for fussy cutting. My experience from doing "Patchwork of the Crosses" is looking at fabric in various ways for fussy cutting and I am finding it difficult to stop buying fabric to use this way, there is always some hexagon or shape waiting to be covered.

Below is some eye candy, starting with two of my quilts.

"Texas Wheel" designed by Chris Jurd, inspired by a 1840 quilt made by Grace Slater, England.

Nice and easy, completed in 3 months, hand sewn over 400 1inch hexagons.

Lucy's Crosses, "Patchwork of the Crosses "Lucy Boston, England. This quilt took me 19 months to complete the 56 blocks and 6 solid weeks of sewing the 1inch squares, to bring the quilt together.

Now for some of the quilts on display, some amazing works of art, featured below.

Crazy by Barabara Thomas

The Fall by Rachael Caruana

A close up look at the tie, individual cut leaves

Women of Courage by Vicki Allen

The Civil Dahalia by Pamela Westmacott.

 Civil War Quilt by Leonie Weatherly

Pocketful of Posies by Rachael Daisy, what fun this quilt is and great to meet up with you Rachael!

http://bluemountaindaisy.blogspot.com.au 

Check out Rachael's blog!

Scrappyluscious Stars by Rachael Daisy

Each little Rose by Louise Hume

The R and wick Appliqué quilt by Laurelle Krebs

A close up of one of the blocks

At  Last by Diane  Tramontana

Check out the amazing quilting in the centre block!

Geese in th Garden by Bronwyn English 

Civil War Bride quilt by Gabrielle Russell

My Town by Judy Lyell

Octopus Garden by Rachael Daisy

Liquorice Yellow sorts by Helen Cooper

Scrappy Windmills by Chris Jurd

Savannah by Jeanette McKechnie

Woodland Whispers by Beth Glass

A close up of the centre

The quilt below reminded me of my husband and his love of all things science fiction, a great use of a novelty fabric , "Contact" by Rose Addison.

Ferris wheel by Chris Jurd

The featured quilter was Ann Langley, 

Ann Murrays William Morris

Treasures of Japan by Lorraine Titcume

Deco Revival by Susan Dellas

Mariners Garden by S andra McConnell

That's all folks , I hoped that you enjoyed the tour and got the opportunity to visit the Springwood Quilt show over the last few days, a great event not to be missed. Time for sleep to tackle night duty.

Rewards and Birthdays.

My reward for going to visit my mother- Inlaw in a Belmont nursing home with DH, was on the proviso that DH takes me to a quilt shop and quilt show on the way home. The Fairholme Quilt show was on in Thornleigh. The quilt shop was the Craft depot in Pennant Hills. I feel that I must have a lot of fabric, because my purchases were very minimal.

Just to share a few photos of the quilts on display.

What stood out at this quilt show was a number of Chris  Jurd Designs.

A Grace Slater inspired quilt

Margaret Sampson with the Anne Levens hexagons

Just a few others...

That's all the quilts folks, except for a miniature Anne Levens hexagons

Happy Birthday.

The 4th of April is also my baby boy's birthday and we had a great family night out. Alex was very spoilt and made by his wife Cara was a birthday cake! very apt as he is a salesman for Bobcat.

"Happy 29th birthday my darling boy.