Tuesday 15 May 2018

May Joy and happy times.

Happy May to you. 
This month I am mostly having time off teaching. My son Sam is getting married to the most wonderful young woman Lisa. They are so in love and happy. Taking time to enjoy their wedding preparations, help out where we can. As they live in Darwin now its wonderful to have them here if only for a short time. Today is hair day for me , getting foils etc , got a new dress, shoes ( which I’m in training for ,so not used to heels any more). The earrings   are vintage crystal drop style a gift from my Mother in Law.  Its a lovely 50’s neckline dress. That’s an adventure trying to find a suitable dress, but I took myself off to the City went to Myer and luckily had a few to choose from that would suit me.Tried on this one and knew it was THE one. Funny how you know when something is right... A lot of quilters I find don’t trust that inner voice , please listen to it, you know what suits you, you know what you like. I don’t do a lot of me glamour time really, so I am enjoying it all. Holding on to these special moments and lock them away as a very special memory time. 
Enough  about all of that....

Now Quilting news
 
 
The close up above and below is of a new piece named Dads Dahlia.  The first in a series of large decorative stitched flower cushions and wall hangings. The book for this is 3/4 written and will be available to face to face students first , with new face to face class in 2019 with it. Then it will go on my web site. The wall hanging version see a small section of it 2nd  photo below and the background is divided into more quilted petals and a pebble background filler quilted with my 1/2 grid mesh stencil.  The grid stencils are fabulous and I have 3 sizes 1/2 inch, 1 inch and a 3 inch diamond all grids with a book Quilting Between the Lines with step by step photos and diagrams to guide you. I’m very thrilled with the response. 


Quilting between the lines book and 3 stencils 


This small wall quilt will be hanging at Quilt NSW  quilt show at Darling Harbour June 20-24 th 2018. This event is always a huge success and with over 410 quilts this year sure to be worth the travel.  I love to help out with the set up day, a perfect time to see the quilts close up. Climbing ladders, seeing the huge space empty at the start of the day and by days end a wonderful colourful spectacular. Perhaps we might see each other please come up and say Hi if you see me.


I will walk you through the process of the back ground quilting. As you can see below I have used the 1/2 inch square grid stencil, with a white quilt pounce pad. You lightly pounce the fabric with the pad and grid in small sections , then the enormity of quilting a huge area has gone and you look at one small square to fill at a time. One square to have a small pebble or 4 squares for a larger pebble. I used occasionally taken 9 squares for a very large pebble.  I cant help myself I always add spirals inside the pebbles, just for fun and a fluid cute look. 
I have used a shiny 100% polyester royal blue thread in the needle and the bobbin.  A brand new 80 quilting needle and a well oiled clean machine.This is free motion quilted on my BERNINA 770 with a  #24 open toe  free motion foot. I have my machine to 3/4 speed and my foot on the foot pedal to the floor. This is a good way to achieve regular stitch length. Set the speed of the needle to suit your hands, to suit you, your in charge of the machine. Do not let the machine run away too fast and have you feeling out of control stressed, not breathing kind of feeling. You control the work. Your quilt your way. 

Book and grids available from my web site



Early this moth 5-6 th May I had the most wonderful 2 days teaching at my own hosted workshop at Carinya Studio at Phesants Nest. This is near Bargo off the M5  after Camden. A beautiful studio  owned by Lynne and John in a rural location complete with sheep dogs, sheep and a quite county setting. The studio has amazing space, it is brand new, can easily be comfortable for 20 but I keep my classes to 15 then everyone has plenary of room. 
There is a seperate dining area where we indulge in delicious morning teas and lunches next to the class room.

This class was Daisy Paths and look at the results below.... the photo speaks for its self. The cushion tops are spectacular..... A great 2 days was had by all of us. I had 2 wonderful friends help each day Denise and Kylie they did a day each and to them THANK YOU so much for your help. A few photos now of the room and the surroundings. 



Out the front of Carinya studio 


Cushion tops on the design wall at the end of the 2 days 



Light filled , air conditioned brand new studio


A lovely friendly doggy ready for a pat and cuddle anytime , but not allowed in the studio. And he knew it too. 

John ,  Lynne’s hubby giving a few of the ladies a chat about the sheep on the property, I liked that personnel touch very much. 

I have another workshop on August 19th a Sunday at Carinya  “Quilting Between the Lines “ a 1 day free motion quilting class.  12 out of the 15 ladies from Daisy Paths have rebooked in so I have not advertised this class as I have just 2 spaces left. Class runs 9:30 - 5 pm, included is tutoring , morning tea, lunch, coffee, tea, 1 Quilting between the lines book and the 3 grid stencils. Suitable for all levels of free motion quilting.  If you are interested please email me asap.
More weekend workshops are booked in 2019 . 





Inside the book Quilting between the lines 



Just a few of the designs in the book. 

I do also have this class available soon at 
My Sewing Supplies at Kirrawee 18th July  please call the store on  9542 3513 to book 
and Hobby Sew kings Park  14 th September  9621 4000  to book 
contact the shops for more details 

My teaching schedule is on my web site

Now I would like to share with you some spectacular recent students work. 


A secret garden runner  by Namatra 


 How wonderful is this so colourful... beautiful work..


A secret garden cushion  by Diane 



Daisy Paths Runners    Simply perfect.



Daisy Paths cushions by Chris 



Daisy Paths the quilt medallion centre by Robyn



Daisy Paths top 


I am a member of a small group of 9 Quilters, called Whispered Threads. Annually we have a show of our challenge work. Only the first person gets a peek of the original design idea. They have a month to make their 50 cms square piece inspired by that art work. Their quilt only goes to number 2 quilter to get inspiration and away they gpo. This happens for 9 months till we all get a month each. Whispers, the original idea usually is a mile away from the last quilt. That is the fun of it all. This challenge we also had a line elements to connect the small quilts to each other . Here is a photo of the 9 at a recent reveal day. This day we get to see all the quilts together . 

The order of the quilts is top  row left to right, second row right to left, then bottom row left to right.   Can you see mine ? 

Enjoy your stitching time.
Happy Quilting 
X Deb 












2 comments:

Lee B said...

Wow Deb this is a huge post with so much information. I hopefully your son’s wedding went really well and you could relax and enjoy it. I loved your choice of dress and shoes. Your one inch grid quilting looks amazing and I look forward to seeing more of it. I’m guessing your block is the first one on the left on the second row - it would have been the sixth block in the series. I love your blog. Always inspirational
Warm wishes
Lee

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