Sewing At Last

I went along to our Mt Perry patchwork day on February 18th before leaving early for another trip to Bundaberg and did the real patching. I mended work clothes so I could indulge in some creative sewing without feeling guilty. Why do semi professionals and non professionals feel that creative sewing is laden with guilt feelings?
I purchased a quilt kit of modern large prints on our shopping trip to Toowoomba in January and I 'm pleased to say I have it cut and sewed except for the final rows and borders. I wanted to try using these prints but I can honestly say that I still prefer my hand dyed fabrics for their colours. I will show a photo when it is completed. I'm also dreaming about a special wall hanging for someone who is approaching 50 yrs of age in August.
After just completing 3 nights of stressful laboratory work I'm in great need of a good rest and some sewing time.

February Notes

Aagh!!! February is nearly as bad as January and the rest of last year for achieving much sewing wise. I seem to have all of these things I'd like to do and something else impinges on my "spare time" preventing me from sewing.

The workshop went well and I hope I have inspired some ladies to break out of their traditional comfort zone and try some new techniques. I have literally done no creative sewing since. I went to my patchwork day last week and did the clothes patching for the 2 men in my life. Now that my son is the same size as his father , they wear each others work clothes and fight over the newer items. The mending pile had been growing so to ease my conscience I decided to do that job, so next week I hope for some creative sewing.

The quilt pictured is one I made 12 years ago using a bias strip applique method.

I have also been asked to pick up one extra shift for work each week during March. That might help with the car payments but cuts my recreation time. Oh for a good balance of things in life.

January Notes

This photo is Hot Green Mosiac, a quilt using all hand dyed fabric in geens. I had lots of greens left over from another class kits so I have used them up here. It is not quilted yet.
This class is for traditional quilters starting to work in a contemporary manner.
The QCWA class is nearly here. I have finally prepared all my sewing pieces and patterns that I have time for. I have also dyed 15m homespun for participants to purchase to augment their own supplies.


As always I have a few people who cannot understand their requirements. Mind you I left out two small letters OR in the list and that meant a huge difference to some people.





Never mind. All I have to do now is print patterns after PDF conversion and I will load them all onto a CD for purchase as they will only use 1 per session that is included in their class fee.
I wish the days would slow a bit.

More Class Planning

The end of 2008 and is near and wow it's certainly a long time since I found some spare minutes to write a blogpost.

I have been busy sewing and writing patterns for my intro to using hand dyed fabric in a contemporary manner class at Yeppoon for QCWA in January 2009.

This is called Citrus Fizz and is all hand dyed fabric.

This is Zinnia Fizz using the same pattern using a commercial print with different hand dyed fabrics. This demonstrates the different effects of fabric and the use of the same block with different sizes.

I will be using my blog as a record to help me survuve this teaching stint. Oh to have sufficient time for organisation.

Class Planning

Wow , does anyone really know how much preparation time is involved in designing a workshop. Now I understand why some tutors like teaching the same thing MANY TIMES.

I have finished the Art Banners for Gin Gin. The participants did some really lovely work.

So now I have been playing with my hand dyed fabrics and this time because I do not want to provide kits as you can never please everybody, I have incorporated using bright prints as well.

The first view is of a small table runner using a simple block with a coordinating strip of hand dyed fabric. Pretty simple to begin with.

The next view is Jungle Jazz where I have mixed shades of green into the simple block.

The last view is all hand dyed fabric. These are the first in my class samples. I intend to cover 4 areas in 2 days. Simple straight insertions, foundation piecing, curved blocks and improvisational piecing. Table runners are the items we will be playing with.

Well, back to the sewing machine.

Another Blogging Break

Yes I know it has been nearly a month. Sometimes I would like to know how the days just speed by. A lot of the time I spend sleeping during the day. My work roster involves working at night and the lasting fatigue from those efforts requires a few days of rest and relaxation.


I have been planning our QCWA workshop for Jan 09 as well as working on a banner project for Gin Gin and District Fine Arts Society. I am conducting an applique workshop on October 23 and 24 to make a 2m x 90cm banner depicting something about Gin Gin.


I chose to make mine about the Kolan Swimming Club.

Our family has been involved in the club for approx 10 years. After studying the photo the letters for club could possibly have been a bit more to the right BUT they are stitched in place now. The concentric lines are actually blue with a black line up the middle. The swimmers are easily recognisable ( thank goodness) as swimmers. The bird is the club mascot and their colours are black and white. Not too bad for an amateur at this graphic work.

I will be back with the next projects for QCWA next time. I have to finish one thing at a time these days.

Life Rolls On ( or does it)

Well I'm back after a short break. The 21st quilt was well received at the party. She even admitted that she knew she was getting a quilt. Unfortunately the good photo I took of it before hand was deleted off the camera and I have not taken another photo yet.

This is the centre panel which I think I have shown before. I promise a photo of the whole quilt when it comes home again.

I have started planning the contemporary workshop for January 2009 for the QCWA ladies. At patchwork in Mt Perry last Friday one lady commented about making a quilted tablecloth for her outside table so the wind does not blow it around. So my table runner workshop will also involve tablecloths using hand dyed fabrics and changing traditional blocks to a more contemporary version. I love the new book Skinny Quilts and Table Runners as it has the work of several different quilters in it.

I have even started planning my applique banner for the street of Gin Gin and the hockey finals have been and gone for another 5 months so maybe some housework and sewing can be done.

I had a distressing weekend at work for 3 nights. 3 trauma cases in one evening ending up with the deaths of 2 young teenagers casts a shadow over a hospital. Plus there seems to be more medical emergencies than ever in Bundaberg. It has taken me 2 days to get over 2 15 hr stints and 1 normal late shift. I arrived home at 1 o'clock on Tuesday morning. Yesterday I managed to work on a small table runner of floral scraps for the Mt Perry Quilters girls night in on October 3rd. This is a fundraiser and information evening for cancer and we are raffling our log cabin quilt. I was amazed at how pieces seem to jump out of my stash and work together nicely.

So yes life is busy, but I think we should be thankful for that. It is distressing as a parent to know there are now 2 families doing it very tough as a result of an accident.

I'll leave you with a pic of another small outback quilt. It always lifts my spirits to see lots of colour.