Table up and running

This week my prize from the NSW Quilters Guild of NSW Quilt show when I won excellence in Domestic Machine Quilting YAHHH......arrived from HORN AUSTRALIA. Thank You Horn Australia for your support of the NSW Quilters guild . This is the 3 rd  time I have had the honor of winning this catagory ...the thrill gets more entense as I feel the standard of Machine quilting is world standard herein  Australia.  talented quilters emerge more and more all the time. Pushing the standards to new limits all the time. 

Next year 2015 I started quilting 25 years  ago . my goodness it has flown by so fast. I clearly remember pushing Sam my first child around in the pram to see my first guild show . It was held at the Overseas terminal at Circular quay, I remembver walking around that show in complete awe at the quilts. Knowing in my heart that is what I want to do ... make quilts.... I remember seeing a quilt by Lee Cleeland and loving every single stitch she quilted all on her domestioc machine. Right there and then I knew that's what I wanted to do . So I worked hard the first 5 years or so trying lots of techniques some I was okay at and some were disasters... I call this my apprenticeship,  learning what felt right, what I really enjoyed . I came very quickly to the conclusion that hand stitching was not my speciality. 

I could no matter how hard i tried and even to this day can not hand stitch elegantly. I so admire people that have those skills....

I read about machine quilting and started. i loved i straight away. And now .... who knows whats in stall for any of us ...  back to the table .......sorry for the diversion ....

The table arrived in 4 boxes.    With John's skills of construction he installed it the other evening after dinner without fuss at all. All instructions were clear and precise. All parts were there. As I have carpet we decided not to use the coasters. With some rearranging of my sewing room , Im really happy with the set up. The table is huge with storage both sides and more  than enough room for my large cutting mat and my large ironing platform.

Actually I took advantage of the time and rearranged and sorted though my fabric stash. 

I like to be organised when I can , and when your selecting fabrics ,  to go to a draw and know that all the oranges are in one place is a huge time saver I believe. This way if all the oranges are grouped you can see firstly what tint or shade of orange  at a glance you need OR if the oragne draw is getting low, well then either shopping is required or dyeing fabric is needed.

So I have a draws for the colour prints yellow through to black...... yes prints are seperated from the plains and dyes.... quite impotrant to me anway.....

The draws for yellow to grey in plains and dyed 

 All organised and ready for action. 

Yes I know .....I cant help it Im a VIRGO.........

I have had the last 2 weeks off at home really just enjoying the break, catching up with sewing bits and pieces and making more free form small quilts and quilting a few as well..

This is one below  made up of 12 small blocks , everyone is  different , so enjoyable. I love the movement the free form cutting achieves. I get a thrill from balancing out the shapes, lines and contrasts of colour. This piece is just staright line quilted to give a more linea texture and movement of the piece. Enjoying not having to produce a story quilt or traditional quilt just let the colour and shape take palce before me... very rewarding.....no precieved idea of what I will produce at the end of the day feels terrific..... more later

 Im off to south Australia to Burra teaching next week 

Thanks for listening 

Happy Quilting 

x Deb