New Year, New quilts

Last year I think I only sewed. I certainly didnt knit, crochet or make anything other than quilts. I had far too many trips away from home but still had an enjoyable year.
My sister has finished all her treatment and is now doing pretty well, we have our first great nephew or niece on the way and everyone is well.
I have almost finished my Stonefields quilt. It has to be completed and off to Ireland by the end of next month, so a busy month ahead of me.
Summer school is over, and I have a little bit of finishing off on my Florence Peto quilt, and then I think I will do some knitting!
I have had lots of enquiries about my Stonefields quilt. Today I have put the pattern details here http://patchworkonstonleigh.typepad.com/patchwork-on-stonleigh/2014/01/stonefields.html

It has been such a lovely project to do, and I have really had such wonderful feedback.
Later in the year I am teaching this quilt in Sweden. How exciting!

I have also added another quilt pattern today "Something about Florence"
http://patchworkonstonleigh.typepad.com/patchwork-on-stonleigh/2014/01/something-about-florence.html

This is an adaptation of the Florence Peto quilt "Hearts and Flowers. I was quite amazed when I made this quilt how really beautiful it is. I have the outside border to applique, and I am hoping to have it and a few other quilts ready by Easter. Fortunately Easter is not until late April.

We had to say goodbye to our lovely old dog Dougie last week. He was a few weeks off 17years old, and left us with lots of lovely memories. We still have his two babies, Bob and Hazel, but he was our house dog, and it is very quiet without him.

I have been having fun since summer school on Instagram. Its as though summer school has not finished. I can keep tabs on the girls finishing off their quilts and see oh so many really beautiful quilts and projects, and lots that has nothing to do with anything at all!. Follow me on
@notjuzahuswife
happy sewing, Susan

Back home

I have been tripping around the past week. Last week I went to Sydney and then on the weekend up to Toowomba to "Precious Time" teaching.
The girls were working on a variety of things, but a large group were commencing my BOM quilt"Stonefields"
I am nearing the end of it, a few blocks left to applique,two borders of the flying geese to make and a few more hexagons to make. All going well it should be ready to send off to Ireland at the end of February as planned.
I am borrowing a few photos from Lisa's blog at Precious Time

Lisa had a brand new design wall, so we christened it with the Stonefields blocks

Trish brought along her Ann Daggs. I had quilt envy as I have a few days of applique to finish mine. This was a quilt I did as a BOM several years ago.

I arrived home with finishitis so decided I will finish my "Little Sparrow" quilt for summer school. I have just a few pieces left to applique so I am planning on having it appliqued and quilted by January for our show and tell.

Meanwhile I am making my two quilts for summer school.
After a year of nothing but quilting, I am looking forward to a year when I can do a bit of knitting and crochet again next year. There are some beautiful knitting patterns around for children so the little girls I knit for, Mabel,Clemence, Imogen and Audrey might all have something special next year.

a year's work

I have been a busy sewer this year. I have had so many trips away, more trips to Sydney and Melbourne than I wish to count, and I knew time would be short with lots of work to be done. I made the decision when I accepted the commission to make a quilt for a movie, that I would have a year of no knitting, crocheting or lace making, but just concentrate on my sewing.
So my "Stonefields" quilt is nearing completion, one of my summer school quilts is currently in Sydney  being photographed for "Homespun" magazine and I will be starting my other two quilts this week.

I have deviated from my"work" quilt to make two other quilts for my daughter. One for her for her bed when she is working at the hospital in the country and one for her friend's new baby.
I was in Toowoomba a few weeks ago teaching and did a little bit of shopping with the intention of making my daughter a happy quilt. so came home and got right into it.

my daughter's quilt

a quilt for a new baby girl

a border of Stonefields ready to applique

and a little bit of my linen quilt 

now back to sewing

Sweet William

The year is skipping by very quickly. I hope somewhere I find an extra month or so.
I am playing catch up today, Mother's day. I spent Friday afternoon with my darling daughter, my mother is visiting next week, so today is a quiet day on our homefront.

First job to do today was to get my new quilt online. I have had the patterns here for months, so with that job done, here is the link  to Sweet William to purchase patterns

I loved making this quilt, and it is leaving my home tomorrow to go to Toowoomba, where I will be teaching it in August.

My other quilt I am very busy working on, is my quilt Stonefields, my Block of the Month quilt. Its growing and I hope to have the centre all cut out and the hand pieced blocks done, by the end of this month. Then just a bit of applique ( well actually a lot of applique) and the centre will be done

Two weekends ago we had a sewing weekend in Wodonga, and this is where I am up to with Stonefields. The battery was almost dead on my camera, so no flash was working, but for those of you busily making this quilt, its something! It is a lovely project for me to work on, so I am very happy everyone sewing it, is enjoying it too. I have about 40 of the 121 centre blocks to make.

our next quilting weekend in Wodonga, will be the first weekend in October, so by then I should be finished the centre and almost have the borders completed (I hope)

I have decided to have my summer school back in Wodonga next year. It will be early as we need to use the school when there are no trades people working, from Saturday January 4th to Wednesday January 8th, with gorgeous new quilts and sit and sew.  

last but not least, over past years many people who share my love for little dachshund dogs, have asked for the pattern of my sausage dog quilt. Finally I agreed to publish it and this month it is inside and on the front cover of Homespun magazine. It has been presented really nicely in the new revamped Homespun. So a special thankyou to Homespun.

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!

catching up after a break

I promised myself at some stage I would take six months off from sewing, blogging etc  and I have done that. In that time I have travelled to England and France, lots of trips to Sydney and Melbourne and done lots of knitting and cooking. I have loved the break and come back to sewing recently with an  a new enthusiasm. And now I have lots to catch up on!
Summer school in January in the Blue Mountains is looming and Karen Cunningham sent out the emails over the weekend. If you havent received one and wanted it, let me know and I will forward it on to you.

I am doing two new quilts for summer school. One is entirely in a bag at the moment but the basket quilt is well underway and I love it. I enjoy hand piecing and the appliques will be fun little things too. I can sit down of an evening and cut out and piece a basket block and then cut out the appliques, very relaxing and achievable and from a basket of scraps. Has this made any difference to my stash? Unfortunately no.

This has been very soothing while I worked out the maths for the other quilt and paper pieces made. With the hard part done, I should have something up to show you soon.

a weekend of quilting

Last weekend, we had a lovely weekend catching up with lots of friends for a weekend of quilting at our old venue in Wodonga.

Show and tell at lunchtime was fantastic. I was a bit late getting my camera out so I missed some of the gorgeous quilts, but here a few favourites.

Christine with her Nancy Horsfall's baby quilt ( a pattern from Karen Cunningham)

Simone's Duck Hill Farm, made from a pattern from me. This is the quilt that was photographed for the French magazine "Quiltmania"

Carolyn's gorgeous tumbler quilt made for her daughter, Sophie.

And another gorgeous quilt from Simone, her version of the "St Neot Band Sampler"

.... to be continued

trip to Melbourne

I have just been to Melbourne for a week, went in the heat and came home to flooding rain. The weather has been more than unusual this summer.
First stop was to order some more templates to be cut, more on that later. Next stop out to dinner with Lucy and then to the ballet on Saturday evening. It was the first performance for the year of the Australian ballet, a triple bill.
I came away with mixed feelings about this bill, as it seemed most of the audience did also. Two out of the three were not really ballet, but dance so I was a little disappointed, but the music and the last bill were gorgeous.

Next day, I taught a class of the clamshell quilt. Lovely girls and a nice escape from the heat. And of course a bit of fabric shopping as always.

The next two days I went to patisserie school. My husband gave me this a gift for Christmas. Loved it!!!!
It was so full on I was brain dead by lunch time, but hopefully when I go to cook it will all come back to me.

There was such a wonderful mix of students, from pastry chefs from all over the world to a couple of people like me, where cooking is just a hobby.

And lots of very sweet petit gateaux to take home. My daughter took a fancy morning tea to the hospital for two days in a row, she was the favourite medical student of the day.

So when Christine and I are asked are we enjoying retirement from the shop, the answer is a simple yes.

new pattern release

I am finally catching up with all the things I need to get done.

I have listed my new pattern for sale "The St Neot Band Sampler"here

http://patchworkonstonleigh.typepad.com/patchwork-on-stonleigh/2012/02/the-st-neot-band-sampler.html

Now I just need to start quilting it.

Saturday Stitching

Most Saturdays, many of the girls who attended classes at our shop, meet at the Aspect school in Albury. Saturday was our first day back for the year and there was standing room only.
We have two challenges this year, first is to finish the top of a major UFO, and second to bring along a 2kg bag of fabric from our stash( anything and any size) and we would pool it, sort it out and then we will each get back a 2kg bag of fabric.
The fabric will be hidden in a brown paper bag, and once we open it, we can swap the entire bag with someone else's bag, but we cannot swap individual fabrics. All we are allowed to add is up to 2 metres of one other fabric. At the end of the year we have to bring back a finished quilt top, but not show anyone through the year.

So on Saturday we had bags and bags of fabric, and yesterday Christine and I sorted it out. We had one pile for donation to the girls who make quilts for the orphanage in Nepal , and we packed the rest into 2kg lots, sorting it out to useable lots. Tomorrow will be the beginning of the great challenge, when we start handing them out.

Last Saturday, we saw what most girls were finishing in the UFO challenge

Beth is finishing her Trundle quilt. This is a major project, a quilt designed by Karen Cunningham, with tiny little sampler blocks all around.

Christine and Bridget and Bridgitte looking gobsmacked as Beth holds up her UFO.

Christine is completing her machine pieced, very complicated frame quilt "Remember Me". This is a quilt I taught many years ago. It is a reproduction of the Charlotte Gambold quilt from Everton. Everton is about 1/2 hour from where I live, and my husband's grandparents are both from that area. The original quilt appears in the book on Australian quilts by Margaret Rolfe.

There are a few Swan Lake aka"Dancing Dollies" quilts to be completed this year

and a few "Little Garden" quilts, another quilt designed by Karen.

and a few Irish Circles quilts.

A few of the girls have grandchildren on the way, our first baby of the year was born this week. Ruby Matilda arrived on Tuesday. So it will be a happy but busy year.

And I think these two stories are more than worthy of a mention. Sarah completed her hand quilted quilt for her son Alexander. She was having nightmares that she would die and he would be the only child without his quilt. Alexander is 16 years old, and Sarah finished the quilt. Fortunately it has been a cool summer! 

Joy completed her embroidered baby blanket for her daughter Emma. Emma is now 14 years old, and loved getting her blanket, whereas if she had it when she was a baby, she couldn't have cared less, and as Joy said, probably would have just been sick on it.

summer school and new year's resolutions

Its been so long since I posted, but life has ben more than a little hectic. My daughter has kept me busy having some surgery, Christmas, a few trips to Sydney and most of all getting ready for summer school.

Summer school in the Blue Mountains this year, was terrific. It was especially wonderful not having to organise it! Lots of girls who attended our summer school at patchwork on Stonleigh came back ( so nice to catch up with you), lots of girls from fabric club ( so nice to put a face to a name) and lots of new girls, from all over Australia. Everyone had a great time, so next year we will be back.

The Blue mountains is such a lovely place. The last time I had been there was for my brother's first birthday and he is now 46 years old, so quite some time ago!

Each day at lunchtime we had show and tell. Some beautiful quilts, antique and new were on display each day, sooo much beautiful work to be seen and inspire everyone to go home and finish a few more projects this year. I just loved this antique sampler quilt from the 1930's.

Classes each day were busy busy, and a few great shops from Sydney came with lots of gorgeous fabric. Unfortunately I found a few new pieces of fabric I needed to take home.

I came away from summer school, tired, but inspired to get into my sewing.

So my quilting resolutions for this year, are to finish the applique, quilt and bind  my Ann Daggs quilt. This photo was before the final border was attached.
I want to complete the quilt top of Irish Circles ( so much to do this might be impossible!!!) but I will give it a try. First I need to find the box of blocks I have already started, and hope it has been busy growing inside without my help.

I want to hand quilt my St Neot Band Sampler

and finish my little sparrow quilt. I wasnt happy I didnt quite get this done before summer school.

I have a few other quilts to complete the top- my sparrows nest

and of course two new quilts for summer school next year. At least this year I have decided what I will make, so the worst part is already done.

I hope this year is uneventful!!!

road trips

This time of year is a really busy time for me, it's ballet season, birthday season ( we have seven birthdays in August in our family and extended family), summer school quilting underway plus a few roadtrips to Melbourne for doctor's visits and a few trips to Sydney for work. Somehow everything gets done and I enjoy the time to myself in the car, to ponder over what I am planning to make over the next few months.
I make many quilts in my head, few ever happen!

However, I am zooming along with my summer school quilt "The St. Neot Band Sampler". I am totally enjoying making it. I hope to have it almost completed when I go to Essendon Quilter's quilt in in two weeks time- Saturday 3rd September. I am the guest speaker and looking forward to it.

When I was in Sydney a few weeks ago, I said to Karen Cunningham, I was a bit stressed about getting two new quilts completed for summer school, but at this stage, I think its possible, so I hope to get started on the other one in about two weeks time. It will be just handpieced, no applique.

Meanwhile, Pleas, Christine's sister from New Zealand has emailed a picture of her finished "Little Sparrow Quilt". I have not touched mine since summer school. I'm jealous!