wrapping up last year

December came about very quickly. During the year we had a challenge with our sewing group. We had brought in fabric from our stash, anything, any size. Christine and I sorted it out and put it into unmarked paper bags. We were allowed to use 2m of one fabric to complete a quilt.
The results were pretty fantastic.

Lucy made this quilt with a jelly roll she had bought ages ago

Julieann's "pies and tarts" was gorgeous

Beth made this from her bag of stash fabric. This is the quilt that impressed me the most!So much work!

and I hope it is correct in saying this was Bridgette's quilt- not quite certain how Bridgette found a minute or two to sew this. The back looked just as nice as the front.

this is just the beginning of our December show and tell. It went on all day! More to come

and then came June

In June, I was contacted by the art director of a movie to be filmed in New Zealand and Ireland re buying or hiring some of my quilts and perhaps making a new one. When up in Sydney, I met with a representative and discussed options. The project sounded exciting, but lots of work.
Having done work for movies before, I insisted on having direct contact with the art director, so this has been happening for the past six months. Hundreds of emails have been flying back and forth of photographs of beautiful old quilts, photographs of the beautiful old home in Ireland, and we have decided what quilts of mine will be used, and what I have to make.

My quilt is called "Stonefields" and I started a month ago and I am loving working on it. It is to be a big quilt 96" square.

Meanwhile I have made a new quilt "Sweet William" which is an adaptation of a quilt that appears in the book "A Treasury of American Quilts". The original quilt is in pink, and a few extra baskets to mine.

I will release the pattern of this quilt in the next few weeks, I just need to catch up on a bit of work first.

our daughter has finally finished medical school, so this was a big occasion ( she has been at university forever) and the graduation was in early December. She is now working as an intern on her first rotation  in accident and emergency and loving it.

going back to April

It has been so long since I wrote on the blog, I had to search where to write, it has all changed.
I sort of had a bit of a year off from quilting last year.
I did no sewing until August when I had to force myself out of rest and recreation, away from the knitting needles, and sew a quilt for summer school in the Blue Mountains.
I fell in love with sewing again, so this year will be the year of the quilt and as I have lots of projects in mind, I promise myself to keep the blog up to date.

I thought I would head back to April and play catch up.
April we went to London and then to France, and visited our former housemate Jean-Baptiste.

My favourite place to shop in Paris, right across the road from the apartment where we stayed

a rare moment of sunshine in paris

The quilt show at Nante, such a gorgeous city

and beautiful Toulouse

The trip was wonderful, the weather dreadful but I managed to fit in lots of shopping, and fill my head with things I would like to see again, to make and explore a little further.

What I did do for winter was knit! Lots of knitting for new beautiful baby Mabel, a friend's grand daughter born on Bastille day, and a few things for myself
 I was lucky enough to know this special baby was a little girl and had a lovely time shopping for her in France.

I am going to play catch up all week!