Exhaustion and Night Duty.

What do you do after working 14 hours night duty and feeling exhausted!!, go to a quilt show, no less. my excuse was.....at least it is on the way home! The annual airing of the quilts, presented by The Caring Hearts Quilt Group held in conjunction with The Arms of Australia Museum in Emu Plains. The quilts made by this group are donated to worthy causes, eg oncology patients and local hospitals in the Hawkesbury, Penrith and Blue Mountains area. 25 of the quilts will also be donated to brushfire victims as well. This was my first visit to this show as I am usually working days and unable to get to go. What was interesting at this quilt show this year was a display of vintage quilts from the private collection of Kaye and Bruce Brown. A very impressive collection as well.  I have compiled some photos of the vintage quilts on display below.

Most of the quilts are  late 1800's to the 1930's.

A gorgeous red work quilt, made in 1925.

I just love the colour of this one.

Appliqué and hand quilting!

Baskets!

I also purchased some great books and some liberty fabric, off home to bed to tackle another night.

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.

Mittagong, Bowral, Moss Vale and friends.

What a fantastic day to end a very busy week of sewing, three UFO's completed and now the fourth soon to be sent to the quilters after another border has been added. More photo's will be posted shortly of the completed quilts,  I seem to have been on a roll since late January, completing my UFO's, out of seven, only three more to go!!!!, not counting the ones that I am working on at present. Today I drove down to  Mittagong to visit an old friend! Di, we have had a friendship that has lasted for over 35 years and a friendship that is greatly valued.  On arrival into Mittagong, we drove to Moss Vale, a neighbouring town to vist a reviva recycling centre at the " tip", let me share with you, what we got for free! quilting magazines and some great books, photos below! After spending a good hour at the tip, we then drove to Berrima, which is another historical town in the Southern Highlands to have morning tea and visit the Berrima patchwork shop, of course fabric was purchased. We then drove back to Mittagong  for lunch and retail therapy, as well as a visit to the Village quilt shop. Mittagong is a quaint little village in the Southern Highllands which holds a lot of charm as well as spending the day with Dianne, I took the opportunity to catch up with another friend,  Jessica, who lives in Willowvale, a suburb close to Mittagong. What a delightful afternoon with lots of show and tell, cake, tea and loads of fun.

Jessica is making the "Fun Girls Quilt by Bronwyn Hayes! very similar to the Polka Dot girls quilt that I have just completed, back from the quilters and putting the binding on at present.

 The reviva centre at the tip in Moss. Vale and below, just some of the books that were free!

Berrima patchwork shop.

Mittagong Village Quilt shop.

Jessica, cake, tea, show and tell, what a great afternoon, below the "Fun Girls "Quilt that Jessica is making? just love it and well done to Jessica!

My Polka Dot girls, before being sent to the quilter.  I resisted the urge to make it bigger, small in comparison to my other quilts only 71 inches square. I am very happy with the quilting, hearts and roses, will show more photos when binding is completed.

One more border to be added to my appliqué quilt and then off to the quilters, this quilt has been a combination of Chris Jurd, centre, Kim Mcleans appliqué and my borders with the  bird appliqués. By adding extra borders, this quilt is another large one.

"Batik Beauty" completed with quilting and binding, made for my neice, Rhiannon.

In a very happy place with my completed quilts, cannot wait to start other projects that I have in mind,  oh so much to do and so little time!

Salvation Army Quilt appeal for fire victims.

The Salvation Army of Winmalee put out an appeal asking for quilts to be donated. The quilts were for the recent fire victims in the Blue Mountains. This appeal was very successful and the Salvation Army collected over 1,038 quilts, sewing accessories and magazines. These goods were donated from all over Australia and New Zealand. The display of quilts were opened for public viewing in Falcounbridge last week. The Salvation Army displays the quilts for one day only prior to the going to their new home.  The generosity of people donating the quilts were awe inspiring and demonstrates how generous and giving quilters are.

One of the sheds filled with quilts.

Believe it or not this was a cheats appliqué, made stunning by creative machine quilting.

A great number of the quilts donated were hand quilted.

Well done to the quilters of Australia and New Zealand, a quilt made and donated with love and friendship.

UFO's and the end of a journey.

After Lucy's crosses were completed and sent to the quilters I decided to get into my sewing room and tidy things up a bit. Aamazing the amount of fabric that I found in crates, that I  even forgot I  had. How many of us are like that. After my little discovery tour with the fabric,  it was next onto looking to see what UFO's that I have to complete. There is just so much that I want to do and eager to move onto the next project, there is not enough hours in the day. But with some determination  and good intentions I will also finish what I have started. My Incompleted projects are, 1 x Christmas quilt, looked at and was not happy so pulled it apart and will redo it from the beginning, but only have a third of the patern so looks like it may be up to me to complete the last third. One 5 inch hexagon quilt, all hexagons are cut, but not covered, may change the idea of this one, so some thoughts needed, before it is completed. A quilt with hearts, that have all been embroided in burgundy, I have  embroidered  a total of 22 hearts, no pattern as such, so this quilt will also need drafting up. Noodle box is a WIP, steady as you go, not worried about this one. Dear Jane, only has 3 rows to go, to complete Dear Jane would be a bit like Lucy, my other UFO's will be completed more readily and without as much time so she will have to be on the back burner for awhile, my intention was to get her finished in 2013 for the 150th anniversary of the civil war. I saw Dear Jane in Vermont at the Bennington museum in 2012 and this was a highlight for me, we also visited Gettysburg which I would highly recommended.

 The tradegy is that I only have 3 rows to go, but to make one square 5 inches in all, takes about 4-6 hours and I do not have the energy or commitment at the moment! I am thinking about it.

Below is the original Dear Jane, housed in the Bennington museum in Vermont.

Gettysburg bus, a tour highly recommended.

Cannon's housed in the Gettysburg museum.

Gettysburg Battle fields.

Oops !!! got a bit lost in reminiscing there for a moment, this holiday, a total of 4 weeks, travelling west to east in America, was an amazing time with our very dear friends, Sandy and Steve.

Back to unfinished projects.

On my discovery tour of unfinished projects, I also uncovered the embroideries that were completed a few years ago for a quilt designed by Bronwyn Hayes, "Polka Dot Girls"I am pleased to share with you! one days work on Monday! This quilt is on the way to completion, this is what I have done so far.

Another block will be completed today hopefully, prep has been completed. My daughter- Inlaw "Cara " was pleasantly surprised by pretty,  I Usually do civil war or reproductions quilts. Maybe this will inspire me to do The Gingham girls also by Bronwyn Hayes, a present bought by the family a few years back.

I also uncovered quite a few embroideries for bags, sewing kits and needle keeps, not much work needed to complete these, small achievable projects, so in between doing hexagons for the Anne Levens quilt by Margaret Sampson, these will be completed.

With the help of the lovey Anne Murray in a class with Chris Jurd last week, I completed the Stable bag, thank you Chris Jurd for doing the stippling on the bag.

As well as my own  UFO's I have bought quite a lot of UFO's from other quilters as well, I Unearthed 1 x mini quilt with a 1930's vintage check and a completed quilt top from Chris Jurd, bought from the Springwood quilt show last year. I will be busy completing these as well. In the past my first stop at the Springwood quilt show has been Alexandra's table and then onto Chris and Co's table as there is always lots of bargains available.

Talking about the Springwood Community Quilt show and unfinished projects,!! Lucy's Crosses has been returned to me from the quilters, looks great, binding is on,hopefully it will be selected and entered into the Springwood quilt show, so you will all need to attend to view my quilt,  as well as many others, always a popular event.

Springwood Community Show held on the 25, 26 and 27th April