Class Projects for Term 3

The classes are finished for this term. Next term we are making some Christmas projects with the afternoon girls and the night girls might finish these or work on the new Nancy Halverson Christmas book. I hope to make some of those lovely projects too!

This is the Country St Nicholas Hanging.

This is the stamped nativity stitchery. I will stamp it onto some homespun for the ladies. It is very small!

This is a fairly bad picture of the Santa swag. Looks better in person!

Here is the Joyful Nativity which is one of my favourite projects. Ths simple stitcheries are stiffened and baked!

Wednesday class finishes and a new project

Rhonda has started coming to classes this term and she has just finished her lovely bag from a Bareroots pattern. She did all the quilting herself which was something new for her. The colours go so well together and it is a great bag with plenty of pockets.

Linda has just finished this beautiful quilt from Anni Downes' book "Simple Pleasures". It is going to leave Australia and fly to England as a gift for Linda's aunt. What a lovely niece she is! We all wanted to make it too!

Here is a little glimpse of the Santa I am appliqueing for the stitching day in September. I was hoping to get all the projects made in June. Oh dear, only a few days left. The other 2 projects are drawn and planned but not started!

Wednesday morning social stitching

Some of the girls from Wednesday morning have been very busy and had some show and tell this week. Jan is making this lovely quilt for a friend and we were discussing the fabrics last week. She has done a fabulous job and the fabrics go so well together.

Marilyn has been away for a few weeks but she has been busy. She has been working on this beautiful embroidered blanket.

Marilyn also bought this great little bag/container at a market and it holds some thread, pins and needles. Just perfect for bringing to stitching.

Christmas BOM giveaway by Helen Stubbings

Check out this lovely Christmas Block of the Month by Helen of Hugs 'n Kisses. She is having a giveaway at the moment. Go to her blog to make a comment to be in the draw.

Beautiful pattern and dessert

My friend Paddy is back in Canberra for a short visit from India, where she is living for a few years. It is so lovely to chat and see her again in real life instead of just by email! She showed me this gorgeous quilt pattern that she is planning to make. Lots and lots of needleturn but such a lovely result. Very tempting. Such a shame I have so many other things to finish and so many other patterns!

Couldn't resist taking a picture of my dessert on Friday night! The main meals were small but this dessert was unbelievable. It had 5 profiteroles for just me! I didn't eat them all and took some home to share with hubby. We were out celebrating a friend's birthday and had a lovely evening.

Some of the girls had tiramasu (not sure of the spelling) and that looked good too.

Birthday gift

My friends and I, from the Bay, have a special person each year to buy a birthday gift for. Di was my person this year and her birthday is next week. I bought her some gifts but wanted to give her something to stitch. Years ago we saw and liked this Chook Shed Christmas pattern and so I pieced the background and fused the pieces on and gave her some threads to start blanket stitching the quilt. I wasn't sure if she would like it but she was really pleased. She received her gift early as we were all in Sydney to celebrate Fiona's birthday so we did Di's as well.

After the gifts, we all went to a wonderful Spanish restaurant together. I had a sleep over in Sydney in the apartment and then we had breakfast together. It was a very nice end to a very busy but fun weekend.

Engagement Brunch

Last weekend was very busy. Not only did I go to the craft show but there was an engagement brunch for my nephew James and his fiance, Sarah. It was a wonderful time and the food was fantastic. Both sets of parents did a great job catering for so many guests. Thankfully the weather was good enough for it to be outside. Here are some of the guests enjoying egg and bacon rolls and lots of other goodies.

Here are Sarah's grandmother and my parents in law (James' grandparents), Pa and Ma.

James' sister Avril is in the US at the moment being a nanny so she joined us via skype! Here she is with Ma.

And lastly, here are James and Sarah, the happy couple.

It was a lovely chance to catch up with all the family. In the afternoon we also had a cake for Emma, James' sister, sho turned 21 last week. What a busy week for them.

Quilt Show and Shopping

It was very interesting to see these antique quilts and to read their stories at the Quilt show.

Here are some of my purchases. As I went to the felting class, I had to buy some coloured wool to practise with. The other bits are from my kit from the class. My project isn't finished as last week ended up being much busier than usual with teaching school on Thursday and Friday.

I also bought some copies of the Down Under Quilts magazine and a foot that makes sewing curves easier! I haven't really ever sewn curves but the demonstration made it look so easy. It is called a Curvemaster but it also sews 1/4" seams easily too. Had a little try with it this morning and seems good. The wooden roller is for pressing the seams instead of ironing. The other thing is a Sewslip mat which helps you move your fabric easily when free motion quilting.

I visited my favourite shop, Hatched and patched, and bought the little Christmas bag and mats, some felt and a kit for the lovely bag from "The world as it should be" book by Anni Downes. I also bought another pattern for some decorations! I really like making Christmas things.

I did buy a few little pieces of fabric, of course!

More quilts

Here is another quilt by Helen Godden.

I found this quilt interesting as it is embroidered. It was a very interesting technique with fabric pieces appliqued onto the background and then heavily embroidered.

This is another section of the same quilt.

This tiny quilt is blurry but the little hexagons were smaller than 1/2" across. I liked the way they were embroidered in the centre to create little flowers.

Sydney Quilt Show

Took a few photos of some of the amazing quilts at the Sydney quilt show which was on in conjunction with the craft fair. I only spent a short time looking as there was so much shopping to do!
These quilts below are some of Helen Godden's amazing quilts. Helen teaches classes at Hobbysew and regularly wins prizes all over the world with her innovative quilts/works of art! She was the guest quilter at the show this year.

Aren't they wonderful?

Two other blocks in the baby quilt

Here are the other 2 blocks.

Baby quilt

My daughter, Lyndal, and I stitched these lovely blocks from the cute book "All Creatures Great and Small" for Lyndal's friends, Jo and Fergus' new baby. Little Charlotte arrived last week and it was lucky we had finished the quilt. It was great fun to stitch. The little book has 16 animal pictures in it and quite a few projects. It is designed by Natalie Bird. Hobbysew has the book in stock now.

I'll post the other 2 pictures we stitched soon. If you want to see the baby, go to Lyndal's blog.

Felting demonstration and lovely quilt

Here is the Annie Huntley from Room for Threads demonstrating felting at the craft show. She also taught the class we went to earlier in the day.

Annie had on the loveliest vest made from felt. It is a shame she is in Queensland as it would be lovely to go to her classes.

This beautiful quilt was on the Down Under Quilts stall and is in issue 132. It was very effective and uses the new foot that makes curves easy (looked easy when it was demonstrated) that I just HAD to buy!

Felting continued

Here is the felting demonstration.

Penny and I went to a class and had a go at wet felting. Very interesting and good exercise for the hands and wrists.

Here we are having a go!

You use very simple materials. The other ladies used bubble wrap instead of the cane mat. What a lovely snake I have produced!

Felting

There were quite a few stalls and displays of felting at the craft show. I will need a few posts to show the pictures. The pieces were amazing and the methods seemed quite easy though time consuming. This one was a lovely piece.

This lady was demonstrating and was wearing a great felt hat or 2! A bit blurry but shows some of the lovely things made with the felt.

Here are 2 more large pieces.