clamshells and slugs

How am I going with all the quilts I have to get done? So far so good, I am calm at this stage.
 Christine's sister in New Zealand is helping me out with Duck Hill Farm and the Browne Sister's ( they are the two I am panicking about!) and the summer school quilts bar 1 are almost done.
Last night I finished quilting the clamshell quilt. I wasnt going to quilt it, but rather leave it as a coverlet but then in the end decided to put some quilting on it. I am pleased with the result, so tonight I will bind it.
I also have only about three evenings of applique left to do on the "Bird on a Wire" and that is done, and on the weekend I will back my "Swan Lake"  quilt and bind it. It has to go to Melbourne by the end of next week to travel across to San Francisco for an exhibition. Deadlines make you do things. Then its onto the "Little Sparrow" as I have sooo much work left on that one, but I am looking forward it.

Yesterday Christine and I had a gorgeous and inspirational outing to one of our local primary schools, Wodonga West primary school, to see a quilt display in the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden. The garden was the real star of the show. It was absolutely fantastic. We grow all our own vegetables at home but this was the garden I would love, so it had me thinking all the way around the garden. The children were so happy working away, learning life skills, running slugs down to the chook yard for a happy hen's lunch, digging away in the compost. What very lucky children to have such a wonderful thing at their school, and then there was the kitchen!

My favorite quilt was made by Jan from our shop( Jan's grandsons attend the school).It captured the happy feeling in the garden.

Happy stitching, Susan 

a little civil war quilt

I have eleven quilts I have to have completed by March. ( some just to gluing stage thank goodness),
so it was with great relief I completely finished the first one this week and popped it into a bag to Sydney to Quilter's Companion.

 Next year, as it is the 150th anniversary of the commencement of the Civil War, Quilter's Companion magazine are doing a feature and this little quilt will be one of their projects.
I remember about thirteen or fourteen years ago when I made the first Civil War quilt how I excited I was with the new fabrics released by Judie Rothermel. Now there have been more collections than I could remember, so finding fabrics to make this quilt was not difficult. Watch out for the pattern in the magazine next year.
Friday morning is a great delivery day at the shop. A few gorgeous fabrics came into the shop this morning. I loved these three- the brown with blue and pink flowers, the red and pink serpentine and the pretty pale pink. I needed all of them!

Now back to my clamshell quilt. I am hoping to complete it this coming week along with the summer school quilt.
Happy sewing, Susan x

nothing to do with sewing but....

Christine has been in Dubai the past two weeks, visiting her daughter and granddaughter. She had a wonderful time, loved seeing their life and where they live. Today was first day back to the grindstone.
I have been busy sewing a baby civil war quilt due to Quilters Companion magazine by the end of the week, and working away on my clamshell quilt. They are both almost done.

And in between I have been trying to get rid of mess around the house. I was very pleased to get rid of three more bags to Vinnies this morning. I have been telling Christine it still looks no better, but she is like a training partner, giving me encouragement. She told me today eventually it will be done, so I hope so! I have found a few treasures so that is always encouraging.

Yesterday morning my husband and I went to a gorgeous place in Wodonga, Sumsion Gardens, where Michael goes for a walk each lunchtime. He has been watching a pair of swans nesting for weeks and on Friday saw their new babies for the first time. So armed with my camera I found the darling family on the lake and just had to take some photos.

the lakes are also full of long necked turtles and yesterday they were sunning themselves on logs while the swans were playing in the water. The little cygnets were swimming between their parents and when they tired they would hop up on the mother's back and nestle between her feathers. It was beautiful to watch.

happy sewing. Susan

after the storm

The past few weeks have been chaos. I have been trying to get as much done of the summer school quilts as I could ready for the mailout and then the mailout happens. The phone runs hot, as does the email, and its easy to forget about everything else.
Our house has fabric scraps and template scraps all over our family room, Christine ate lunch about 3.00pm, and then I discovered there had been a delivery today of a box of gorgeous things.......

Boxes by Kaffe Fassett and Amy Butler each filled with 9 reels of beautiful threads, and some gorgeous new Liberty art fabrics.

I wish they had arrived before I finished cutting out my Bird on a Wire

I am off to Melbourne tomorrow for a quiet weekend, to go to the ballet "The Nutcracker" and for a doctor's appointment, breakfast with my daughter on Sunday and maybe a bit of shopping on Sunday afternoon, home Tuesday.
No phone and no email. Bliss!
Susan x

... and a second peek

Just a quick post to put a photo up of "Bird on a Wire". I love it , it is just so whimsical. This is the second little quilt for summer school. The pattern will be available from next week.
the quilt is a reproduction of the centre of an English quilt.

sneak peek at summer school

It is September and this week we are posting our summer school details and enrollment ( probably Thursday). Karen Cunningham sent everything to me the last week of August but I still had nothing much to photograph as I have been busy handpiecing some little darlings for the centre of my new quilt "Little Sparrow". So the past week I have buried myself in fabric and paper and have been cutting out and gluing.
I have decided to call a stop to the cutting out of this quilt today ( I keep making mistakes!) and took a photos as I think it is becoming obvious as to what the quilt will be like.
Christine is off to Dubai in less than two weeks to visit her daughter so we need to have things sorted out beforehand.

I still have the four corner blocks to go, all the little birds, the butterflies and the rabbits, plus other detailing. ....and some more of the little darlings in the centre and a sawtooth border, but its only mid September.

Happy sewing, Susan

the Fabric of Society pt 2 and a hectic two weeks

I have had the busiest past two weeks! A few hours after writing the last blog post, I packed the car and travelled up to Canberra. That night had dinner with my friend Joc, and Sue Spargo and co from Addiction to Fabric. Next day saw Joc and I off to class with Sue Spargo. Joc had been at class all weekend and was right in the wool embroidery, applique frame of mind. I took a little while to be overwhelmed and then excited by all this. The projects and Sue's work were all gorgeous, and I happily played with ribbons, linens and thought about what I would do for my applique when I got back.
I finished my Greta needleroll all bar the important bits- the applique and embroidery so hopefully as soon as I get a few summer school projects to the stage of being photographed, in the next few weeks, I will return.
In the meantime I have been working away in the kitchen on what I should be doing, and dyeing up and felting wool, beside me, in readiness for the next few weeks. I love dying wool, and found a great use for an old cashmere and wool blanket I will never finish embroidering. I cut off little bits from my dyeing for Jan to take to Melbourne for her Sue Spargo class, so I am eagerly waiting to see what she and Sue-Anne have made.
After class on the Monday with Sue, Joc and I came home and as usual decided we would make several more of the needlerolls.( I am dreaming!!) I must check in with Joc to see how she is going with hers!

Joc loves wool embroidery and made me a little pincushion for my birthday she had made with a little dachshund on it. I just love it! We have the kits at the shop and Joc changed the dog in the kit to a little dachshund.
I had grown up with smooth haired dachshunds until I met Joc many years ago. We got our first long haired dachshund from Joc (Wilfred, the naughtiest dog we have ever owned) and if you have ever owned a dachshund you will know how naughty they can be.

Joc has a new addition to her family, Tilly. Our three at home are getting old now, and it easy to forget just how lively a puppy is. This is Tilly in a rare moment of peace and quiet. Like our dog Bob, Tilly's hobby is gardening.

At the class is was wonderful and inspiring to see Sue Spargo's work in the flesh. It is always motivating to go a class with an international tutor. I just loved the covered buttons

It was also great to see how I can recycle or find a use for all those embroidery threads and ribbons and trims I have.

The next day we all went to the National Museum to the Canning Stock Route art exhibition. This is wow! For someone who like me, who just loves indigenous art, this was an art exhibition I have been looking forward to for the past few years when I first heard it was being assembled. I loved it so much, my husband and I will head to Canberra again before it closes late January.

Here are the girls in the entrance to the exhibition

And the next day, a drive back home which had me thinking and planning quilts all the way.

Now back to where I was two weeks ago!!!

The Fabric of Society pt 2.

Annette Gero, came to Wagga Wagga primarily to talk about wagga quilts. She described how the name had come about as they originally had been made using the Wagga Lily flour bags as a backing. One of the men at the lecture had brought along the original printing die for the flour bags. He collected memorabilia related to Wagga Wagga and owned the cast, purchased from the mill when it closed.
Annette had wonderful stories re the waggas, about how they had contained stories from the depression, the war, and where she finds them.. from under dogs in dog kennels, to being given them and then discovering they are lined with a lifetime of family baby cardigans and little children's outgrown jumpers.

this quilt was brought along, backed with hessian and rescued just in time. It was decaying as we looked at it!

Now back to my sewing. I have Duck Hill BOM to finish by tonight.

Susan x