I did Promise a Quilting story

 I have done some sewing, not much quilting though. I have been steadily working on the Judy Niemeyer pieces during my downtime from work in Bundy. I have 4 rows of 14 joined together. No photos yet as the rest is still pinned together.
We welcomed grandchild number 4 in September, a beautiful little boy. Now not so little as he is growing very well. September was baby month for some of our woodchopping friends so I have stitched up some more of these colour cubes. Great for using scraps but it does not make much of a dent in the pile.

 

 

I have been inspired by the quilts of Ann Brauer ( her use of colour is extraordinary) and decided to make a small wall hanging to go with my newly painted walls in the hallway. I used some of my batiks. I started off with the idea of a 1600 quilt but ended up with this. It is waiting to be quilted ( along with a few others)

 

I have enrolled in a workshop at Fibre Arts Australia in Ballarat in July 2016. A masterclass with Lisa Call from USA/New Zealand on working in a series for art quilts. I honestly think I will be pushed way out of my comfort zone but I am looking forward to the challenge. I also will struggle with the weather ( Ballarat VIC in the middle of winter!) I struggle with our 6-8 weeks of cooler weather here in QLD. It will be an excuse to update my sadly lacking winter clothes. A friend has enrolled in a workshop there also so we will be driving down looking at this wide land of ours. Neither of us have driven that way before so we are quite looking forward to the drive.

I hopped on a bus from Murgon and travelled to the Qld Craft and Quilt Show Saturday Oct 10th. Bought a few things, saw a few quilts, got some inspiration but was still quite tired from a block of night shifts, so probably missed a few bits, but otherwise had a good time. I bought some template rulers from Westalee Rulers to use with a ruler foot. My ruler foot for the Pfaff Grand Quilter is still coming in the mail from them, it was interesting to watch them using the rulers. The foot is similar to the hopping foot on the Nolting but does not hop, but has much better visibility than the standard foot for quilting on a DSM. I also caught up with Hans (the Nolting Man) and got some supplies.

Lisa from Quick Quilts at Tiaro came for a weekend in September and I dyed some fabric, she did some quilting and serviced my Nolting for me. Amazing what she knows about machines and is not afraid to pull them apart. My experience with laboratory analysers about pulling them apart is "it is better to leave that for someone else" I always struggle to put them back together correctly. I do however seem to manage if I REALLY HAVE to.

 

Back to the upcoming  Ballarat workshop, I need 2-3 ideas for working in a series. I am considering continuing on with my colour connector series ( I think I can call it one). I did the batik one earlier this year. I feel it doesn't work as well as my hand dyed ones. I have had these pieces pinned onto a sheet for quite a few years leftover from about 2009. So I got them out, rearranged them again, and am now waiting to find some spare time to stitch.

 So the time spent not sewing/quilting has been my research time. Thanks to the quilter who enlightened me on that score.
Quick update on the house: I have now only got 3 panels left of the dining area ceiling to strip. The goal is to do 1 a month for this year, 12 in total. Maybe next weekend I can start again, the paid job always seems to get in the way. I will show you the progress next time.

September Painting Update

In July I started work on the hallway, large lounge room section, finishing with the small lounge section. Ceilings and walls. I filled all of the tongue and groove with No More Gaps weatherboard, approx. 27 tubes of the stuff. Taubmans Cotton Sheet colour for the ceiling, Taubmans Winterhaven for the walls, Bristol Exterior White for the door/window trims, and after much discussion and trial and error, Resene Ivanhoe colour for the arch trim. I wanted a darker Resene colour Cloud Burst but had to compromise( was going to dilute it down , and at the paint shop found the Ivanhoe colour which was nearly the same formula as my diluted Cloud Burst ) so decided to use Resene Ivanhoe for the Ivanhoe House. It is hard to get a decent photo of the whole area in one, please excuse the furniture in the background but I tried to work around it. I finished it all on September 30th, the flooring is booked for November 9th. The plumber, electrician have yet to come to shift the woodheater out (temporarily) and the TV cables currently come up through the floor and we will then direct them through the only double wall in the house interior.

View looking up at arches into hallway and small lounge area before painting. In this photo the hallway ceiling and walls were painted but not the door trims. I painted the smallest area first.

Before painting, the 2 replaced boards eaten by termites in the large lounge area. The flooring was eaten by termites here.

 The corner in large lounge area for the woodheater before painting. The red floor is being replaced.
 This should give you an idea of the size of the 3 rooms.
.

Unwashed walls/ceilings in small lounge area.

Unwashed front wall in small lounge area.

 

 

 

Side view of large lounge area showing new colour to the left of the doorway

 

Work in progress on arches.

 

View from kitchen doorway into lounge/hallway.

 

View from front door down hallway.

 

Finished view from kitchen area doorway. I have now rearranged the furniture in the small lounge area to hide the clutter. The quilt shelf rack is to go back on the wall yet.

View down hallway from kitchen doorway. The desk is no longer sitting out in the hallway either. I have purchased another quilt shelf rack for the hallway so I can hang a quilt there of course.
I have also managed to re home most of my quilting stuff to my downstairs quilting room.
In all of this we had great excitement when Levi Charles arrived on September 16th, our 4th grandchild. He is doing very well, and much loved by the family.
I have been sewing when I get a chance, but not as much as I would like. I will do another blog post shortly as to my sewing exploits as I set myself the painting goals for August and September. Now back to the dreaded ceiling out in the large eating area in the back section of the house. I am only 2 months behind in the stripping and sanding schedule. Have to keep setting the goals though.