Ready, Steady, Go

Had fun this week with our little Inspector! He just loves his tucker and won't leave the kitchen when he hears the microwave ping! He reckons it's all about him (we think he's got that right)! This time he had a little problem with the left over pasta - must have taken him at least a minute to clean up his plate!

READY !

STEADY!
Still finds it a bit of a struggle to be patient! Here he is on a 'wait' command! Don't let those doggy eyes deceive you, though!

GO !

Yep! I reckon a minute did it - would have been quicker if I'd cut up the pasta!!

Our lovely Coral keeping her fingers busy! You can see that our weather is beginning to cool down - the girls are pulling out their winter scarfes!

Jenny's mum popped in to spend the day with us. She is an avid and talented knitter and quietly sits and enjoys her visits with us. Jenny would be in BIG trouble if 'Mum' was not brought along when up here on her family visitations!
Lyn is one of our Quiet Achievers! Whilst many of us embarked on 'Leanne's House' she was one of the group to complete it! Judy Davidson from Furball Farm Quilting dropped it in last week and although Lyn was not able to attend the group session that week, the rest of us thoroughly enjoyed displaying it! Hope you're feeling better, Lyn

Here's a close up of a couple of the blocks.

Margret O came in with her ironing! If I had realized I would have brought mine along!

A clever example of using black fabric, leaves and a spray bottle of bleach! After putting out in the sun to dry Margret appliqued leaves partially over the stenciled leaves and added the borders. What a great idea for a quilt!
Judy also dropped in one of my Phd's! As I had no idea what to do with these blocks, and the colours were pretty much in my face, I decided to join them with screaming pink and hand it over to be quilted. Another quilt ready to be bound and as you can see, Trixie must have thought it was OK as she settled down happily for her nap, much to our amusement!

Times of Change

When Frederica Josephson made her quilt some 150 years ago, she must have sat for hours and hours on end painstakingly cutting and measuring templates, and working in the sunlight as she meticulously sewed her pieces of fabric together into hexagons!! She would never in her wildest dreams have imagined that a quilt could be made in any other manner!

A Section of my version of the Quilt

I probably would not have embarked on this particular journey either, had I not realised the potential of printing the template designs onto fabric! With a husband who is computer literate (and inclined to embark on complicated reasons as to the why's and how's when asked for help) I quickly grasped the concept of using Inklingo as an accurate method of piecing without his assistance

Have taken a leaf out of Frederica's book and put in the occasional full hexagon block to add a little variety. The bird block is repeated a few times in the quilt as they are so pretty and in keeping with the prints of the 1800's

A couple of close up shots of some of the blocks

With thanks to the inventors of Panadol who understand that patch workers sometimes need a break and realised that paracetamol and a cup of tea gets them back on task in a jiffy! Poor old Frederica!

My Frederica Josephson's Quilt aka Candied Hexagons

A little piece of my Candied Hexagon Quilt. Pieced using the Inklingo method - I am so totally hooked! Had to put it on the back burner for a while whilst I worked on my Grandmother's Diamonds, finished at last!

Frederica Mary Josephson was the wife of Emmanuel Josephson, the son of convict silversmith Jacob Josephson. She was born in 1833 and died in 1907. Her quilt, made c 1850 in Sydney, measured 94 x 102 inches!
(Information from my book Fabric of Society - Australia's Quilt Heritage from Convict Times to 1960 by Annette Gero)


Took clumps of it into the hall on Wednesday! Needed to put two tables together to fit the bits and pieces together.







I had it pinned onto a piece of batting which made it quite portable. Earlier I had hung the batting onto a rail to use as pin wall. In keeping with the era that Frederica made her quilt, I am using Reproduction fabrics and it's surprising how the bright ones marry in nicely with the somewhat dour prints - I had thought that some of the blocks would not really 'go' but find that they work quite well when put together and placed randomly!




Well Sandy! Were you a demo lady in a past life? These threads were on our wish list for a while and now Keepsake Quilting has an order and Sandy is thinking about asking them for a job! You do a good job, Sandy, and I'm sure Keepsake Quilting think so too!



















Above: Just a little quilt that Margret whipped up recently. Think it was done on a weekend - the colours are actually much prettier than the photo shows!


My sister Catherine ventured up to the Coast for a bit of a break from the Melbourne weather! Another quilter, she is always a welcome guest to our group.


This is Catherine's hand pieced hexagon quilt - she is using half inch hexagon templates but is interested in learning more about using Inklingo. We just seem to run out of time when she visits - so much to see and do and talk about! The colours are beautiful - a lovely blue with happy bright orange stars tucked in around the first border.




Having quiet time at home! We never really just sit and do nothing and Cathy's quilt is very portable












Goodbyes can be very sad! Cathy was determined to take the Inspector home with her!!! She even had his bag packed ...er...him in her bag ...packed!




Did she really think that she could sneek him out in that!!! Actually, yes!!!!!

Eventually we prised him out of the bag before he disappeared into it completely!

The Inspector suffering the indignity of wearing pink!!! Well, what's wrong with that? He looked very cute but eventually grew tired of it and chewed the corners!

Ooooooh! Mays Birthday's in April!

We celebrated May's Birthday a little earlier this year as the lucky girl is soon heading to the UK for bit of a family catch up! Hope you remember to visit a few Patchwork shops on the way, May

COLOURS of AUTUMN

This beautiful Quilt has just been completed by Sandy in time for her sisters birthday! The leaves were appliqued into the background and then quilted beautifully by Judy Davidson of Furball Farm Quilting

We are all looking forward to Lyn's return from her holiday in Paris. She won't be allowed to leave until she has told us all about her trip and of course the numerous shopping excursions she will have undertaken! I'd be very surprised if she doesn't have some blue and/or white fabric in her bag, too! See Lyn, we know you so well!

The Easter Bunny was very busy last Wednesday - and it was Annie's Birthday. Sadly, my camera was sitting at home on my desk, but perhaps some photos might turn up later

A CRUISE ABOARD THE PACIFIC DAWN

Enjoyed a weeks cruise to Vanuatu

This was a special "Unlock the Past' package, designed for genealogists to spend hours and hours of talking, learning and meeting with others of similar bent! Lot's of speakers on varying topics, although by the time it was finished I think a few of us were ready for a proper holiday! There were a few notable highlights - the taxi driver in Port Villa springs to mind

We enjoyed coffee at Port Villa in a lovely little coffee shop overlooking the harbour

Some of the local ladies put on a song and dance to welcome the ship and it's load of passengers Their dresses were colourful to the eye. Some of the other residents were standing around with their own cars, (they called them taxi's) and were ready to take people wherever they wanted to go. There didn't seem to be a fee structure, so it was a case of barter and take pot luck!

Our Taxi!!! The driver, 'Johnny' was innovative to say the least. The rusty old car (wreck) was tarted up with contact adhesive, possibly to make us feel more secure! I'm sure it helped to hold it all together! The front passenger door wouldn't close properly - flew open a couple of times, but it was the back seat that caused hysteria! Road rules seem to be invented along the way and as we had no seat belts (no need, assured Johnny) we flew over the numerous bumps (crevisses actually) and the back of the rear seat kept collapsing backwards.




I took the car photos for Norm - he just wouldn't believe my description otherwise!

Johnny took us to the Waterfall - turned out to be a tourist venture and once again none of us felt that we needed to pay the $20 per head to go in. Johnny was a bit upset - his brothers, uncles and cousins all seemed to be there, and they were all waiting for their percentage of the takings I think. His revenge was sweet, though, as he charged us $50 apiece for the tour! Probably worth it, I guess!!!

Who would believe it!!! Jenny - take a deep breath and relax. We found 'The Pink Shop'! Think it had material of some kind but we didn't go in











We were fascinated with the skill
of sand drawing. The artist drew a couple and as he did so he recited the cultural stories associated with them

We are into the third month of the year already! Who ever coined the phrase 'time flies' certainly hit the nail on the head! Or are we just getting a wee bit older....

Jenny brought in her Abstract Circles quilt to show us!


The pictures hardly do it justice, although I must confess I call it Jenny's Distracted Quilt - so many circles - it is beautiful, Jenny!









Here's another Quilt - Maureen's "Box in a Box"

Difficult to tell which are her favourite colours, but I guess it's safe to say that she likes mauve!

C'mon Annie! Are you there yet?

She's Back! Monika has finally arrived for her much anticipated holiday! She is 'Our Girl In Switzerland' and although now living back there permanently, is still very much a member of the group! A very skilled patchworker, Monika also has her own group at home and teaches classes there fortnightly!

A piece of Monika's Celtic appplique - Guess how many miles of bias is in that!!!

Lyn brought along this amazing quilt! She purposely went out and bought the ugliest piece of fabric that she could see - (what on earth were you thinking, Lyn)?



Then ..... she 'Magic'd this up!!!
Who would have thought that some thing so beautiful could be made from a single piece of fabric! We just love it, Lyn!

QUEEN of APPLIQUE

Our Judy is Queen of Applique. This is something that we just all accept. One moment she's cutting out tiny scraps of fabric - then with a swish and a shake she flings down another quilt!!!!!

The colours are always stunning and the result spectacular!

A Happy Snap of the girls enjoying the day!

Sometimes we have four legged visitors! Here's Jayne with her daughters little dog.