Sewing Again BUT still painting

Doesn't this look different. One coat of undercoat that took 2 hrs to paint after a few DAYS of sanding. Good news today before the rain was supposed to start I managed to get these 2 panels topcoated with one coat. I even got the top half of the stairs done before I decided not to push my luck with the rain too far.

The other good news is I am off to Coolwaters to teach kaleidoscopes and hollow boxes in January. So out of necessity I have sewed something. I went to patchwork in Mt Perry yesterday and caught up with the girls and actually sewed these three boxes. I have even finished the draft of the requirements list for the convenor and sent it off to her. The wonders of modern technology , I feel sorry for the generation who missed out on learning to use these things. Mind you my dad is giving it a very good go, but it certainly raises his frustration levels at times and involves some long phone conversations to me to try to make his computer work.

Think I might make a collection of these in blue to make a table topper for our dining table in its new blue/white abode. Am off to Sunshine Coast next week to be a cook and washer upper for the Uni student. Maybe when she is busy studying I can hit the shops. Hopefully her knowledge of anatomy and physiology will surpass mine by the end of the week. She starts prac at the end of November so please don't require an ambulance near Buderim as I certainly don't want her to see you there.

Monthly Report

Yes I know I'm a bit late for the beginning of the month. How do you deal with some quiet moments? I'm beginning to think my upcoming forced venture into night shifts might give me some of those. Hopefully there are not too many dramas every night in the early hours of the morning at the hospital when I will be trying to stay awake and I may catch a few moments of being idle.

The past few weeks have been fun with patchwork and quilting. The M t Perry and Mundubbera girls enjoyed being guinea pigs for our strips n curves workshop. We did a bit of fabric dyeing along the way. Had a sleepover and pub tea on the Sat night and ing eneral had a busy weekend. I went to work to recover. The photo is of Trish's handiwork. She was the first one to get hers sewn together. Still needs a border treatment yet.

I have also been playing with a foundation pattern called congregation of Poppies from QNM .

I have started the second one today. It sure is exciting starting something new and a bit different to what I have been playing with for the last few years.

I am also constructing a workshop using the 60 degree ruler. Probably have a one block wonder plus my triangular log cabin plus these.

Am not sure which colour scheme to use yet.

Here is a close up of the free motion quilting feathers I did on zinnia fizz. I used Glide thread . That centre square is 2' in size.

Do you think I should feel like I have been busy???? I have also nearly finished all of the requirements lists and procedure sheets for Jan 2010. I'm off to alter a graduation dress. That is one thing I would really like to be able to sew well. Formal clothes, I reckon you could do well doing that type of sewing. Quilts are more fun though because you get at least 3 different stages of sewing work from one of them. See you next month.

Workshops

More workshops are in the planning stage. We are having an overnight retreat in Mt Perry soon. We will be doing the strips and curves pattern by Louisa Smith. I have made a poppies quilt and a hand dyed version in pinks and purples as class samples. The photo shows the pattern pieces quite well in the hand dyed fabric.

The girls are all having fun collecting their fabrics. We will be dyeing some fabric over the weekend as well. It certainly seems full steam along. This is a practice session for my workshop at Yeppoon in 2010.

I have finished quilting the Citrus Fizz quilt from this years Yeppoon workshop. I used Glide polyester thread available from Fil-Tec in USA and found this to be a wonderful polyester thread to use. I have even stocked up supplies of this thread as the dollar keeps rising. I can get 5 times the amount of a better quality thread for the same price as a less superior thread including the high postage cost. It really is amazing what you can learn and source via the internet. I have also sourced another book ( yes I know I vowed to declutter) which has some wonderful ideas for leftover strata from strips and curves. That is for a future project.

Colour Connecting Workshop

I am teaching a Connecting with Colour Workshop in Bundaberg for my group The Bundaberg Quilters. I had hoped to have my quilt back from The Australian Quilt Show but this was not to be. Luckily I had some strips left over when making this quilt. They are still actually pinned to my de facto design wall, so I can take this as a demonstration model. I will have my collection of connector quilts anyway to hopefully inspire them.

I have been playing around with the dye pots again for the first time in 2 years. I have organised myself this time and have faithfully recorded all the dyes used, what amounts of dye and have made a laminated colour chart from all pieces. I will repeat this again with another 2 dyes of each primary colour. I seem to like 4 dyes of each red, yellow and blue.

I really felt like I had reached "home" when I was out measuring dye in cups on the verandah last week. It's been 2 years since I last had a really long dyeing stint. Now the challenge will be on to USE the fabric again.