part 3

The rest of the photos of the back!

part 2!!

Blogger wouldn't let me add any more photos to the last post. Why? Who knows! Anyway here are a few more feather photos.

Just worked it out - I can only add 5 photos at a time. At least now I know.

A new post at last...

Wow, the last few weeks have flown past. Settlement day on the sale of our old house and the purchase of the new house was February 9. We rented our old house from the new owners for 3 weeks so that we could get some jobs done at the new house while it was still empty. The carpet has gone and a floating timber floor laid. The painter finished this morning so the house will look a lot lighter inside. It was painted bright blue in some parts and a sort of mid-orange in other parts. Some of the ceilings are timber cathedral ceilings and the others were painted a dark yellow. It looked very dark inside. We've had the yellow ceilings painted white and the walls painted vanilla frost which is a warm cream colour. Maybe a bit bland but I have lots of bright quilts to hang on the walls. Our furniture and 'stuff' will be moved on Wednesday so we have today and tomorrow to finish packing. On Tuesday we have to go to Launceston as I have 2 appointments there - one at 9.30am and one at 4pm, which means the whole day is a write-off.

Murray and I have just been to Melbourne for a few days so that I could go the the Australasian Quilt Convention which is held each February. We stopped at a hotel which shares foyer space with the convention centre. It was wonderful! I didn't do any classes but went to a couple of lectures which were very interesting. One was by Jenny Bowker ane one was by Ruth McDowell. The highlight for me was a display of work by some Egyptian tent makers from Cairo. It was the most amazing applique work. We bought 2 pieces but they are being mailed at the end of the convention. When I get them I will post some photos.

On the quilting front, I have been practicing quilting feathers. I've really enjoyed it and think I might be ready to try it on a real quilt LOL. I'll add some photos in here so you can see what I've been doing. Let me know what you think.

where does the time go?

It is January 16 already. I must have blinked and missed the last week - I don't think I slept through it?

If all goes well we will be moving house at the end of February, hooray! I can't wait to move into the new place. We have lived in the old house for 14 years and have been happy here, but it's time for a change (and a bigger sewing studio). Looks like the next few months will be busy ones. We are travelling to Melbourne for a few days in February so I can go to the Australian Quilt Convention. The Tasmanian Quilt Exhibition is on in Hobart at the end of March. Then the BIG one - we fly to Chicago mid-April to the International Quilt Festival! I still can't believe I'll actually be there - maybe it's a dream and I'll wake up soon...

I had planned to post some more photos of quilts. I just looked at them and found that I had missed the end of one when I took the photo and the other one was a bit dark so I'll take some more today.

The last week has been interesting. My 10 year old nephew has been staying down here with my mother for a week. Murray and I visited with them the evening he arrived. He said "Auntie Cat, can I come over to your place tomorrow and sew something?" "err, okay." So he came over 4 days running and we sewed... We Made a cushion with roads and hot rod cars and monster trucks. Then we made another one with tropical fish. On the last day with one and half hours to go before he went back to Mum's house, he decided he wanted to make a handbag for his mother, and it had to be triangle shaped! We made the quickest bag ever but it turned out okay. Took about 2 hours from the first idea to the finished bag. I think his 9 year old sister is coming down for a few days soon - I'll have to think of something for her to make, I guess. Any ideas?

Don't know what happened with the photos in the last post. When you clicked on them, nothing happened. I'll try again! You can tell I'm a blogger novice, but I'm learning as I go.

mctavishing

On Monday morning I was feeling a bit uninspired. Sat around looking at books for a while before deciding to finish off a UFO. The one I chose was a top I made in 2001 as a class sample but had never finished. So....I thought I would try free form feathers and mctavishing. I have been drooling over a book called Mastering the Art of McTavishing by Karen McTavish.

Here a some photos of my first attempts. The photos aren't as good as they could be, sorry. I'm now debating whether I need to do some micro stippling around the feathers to make them stand out. What do you think?

I don't know if I will be motivated to finish more UFO's - there is a 'little' stack of them. Quite a few of them are traditional-style quilts, and my focus at the moment is more contemporary in nature - but you never know. After looking through Karen McTavish's books, I'm sort of tempted to start a wholecloth quilt - or maybe a wholecloth table runner?

Walking in the garden - part 2

The large pink single flower is from our banana passionfruit. I've forgotten the real name but it starts with a 't'. It is a very prolific grower - in fact if we left it for a year I think it would cover the whole house. (Maybe it's real name is 'triffid'.) The others are some of the geraniums that are still flowering.

Murray and I went to a local picnic area for lunch today. It is on the banks of the Mersey River near Latrobe. There were about a dozen people fishing for bream on the river banks and more people just enjoying the sun. I took the camera and got some interesting shots of bark and leaves and rocks, but will leave those photos for another day.