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.