A Finish and a Show and Tell

IT'S FINISHED -  I have named it "Dotty about Kaffe" because I am totally mad for Kaffe Fassett's designs and fabrics etc. and also almost each small square is surrounded by a KF dot. 
Designed by Kaffe Fassett from his book "Quilts in the Sun".
  The hanging sleeve is sewn on and the quilt is ready to hang at the club's exhibition, after which it will hang on our bed  :-)  Big Smiles!!
 I am reasonable happy with it, but, I have found with every quilt there is always something you might do differently.  It sure brightens up the room.

 This magnificent quilt is the work of a fellow club member and friend, Judy.  Judy doesn't have a blog, but you can read about the quilt and see some more photos at Toowoomba Quilters Club blog.
Judy is one talented lady and she has passed the artistic genes on to her daughter, Nikki Tervo.  You can view Nikki's fabulous hand made buttons, patterns etc HERE.  Judy suffers terribly with crippling arthritis, but she still manages to churn out some marvellous quilts.  She is an inspiration.

Call me Crazy

Call me crazy - that's okay.  Most people who know me are already thinking it anyway!


These are what I call my found objects.  I started collecting them when I decided to try my hand at textile art. Well, not much has happened on the textile art front as yet, but on retirement I should have more than enough found objects.  In fact, like all my ventures in life, it seems to have become a bit of obsession and I cant throw these little blighters out.  OCC -  Obsessive Compulsive Collecting perhaps? 

I enjoy collecting buttons, especially glass ones, (another obsession) and when I get my hands on a bottle or tin of buttons I don't know what excites me more - the discovery of all the little 'found objects' or a sparkling glass button.  

 Lilian is helping Grandad dig some dirt in the garden.  Her favourite place to be.

Our Baby is 26

Our little girl is 26 years old today.  We spent the past weekend with her, and on Sunday took a drive to Wynnum.  Here she is with her very proud Dad.
 As you can see the tide was out, but it is truly a beautiful part of the world.

This is a tidal swimming pool, but at the present time is under maintenance and closed.  The children are just enjoying running and playing on the expanse of sand.

A walk along the pier, some fish and chips, some perfect winter weather imitating springtime - a very enjoyable day.

Paddington

 
After reading Teresa's post about visiting the antique shop in Paddington, I got the opportunity to visit with DH on the weekend.  He must have moved just as I took this photo of the stalls and the stage area.  It is an old picture theatre, and DH was far more interested in the history of the building than he was in it's contents.
Having him around helped me to rein in the spending tho.  :-) 

This lovely flowering tree was growing on the footpath.  It was nice to see something so contrasting to the hustle and bustle of the roadway, pedestrian traffic etc.  Does anyone know what it is?

Binding

 
The hand quilting is finished and the quilt is ready for the binding to be sewn down.  This is the binding fabric, Kaffe Fassett of course!  It is going to give a nice effect around the edge.
 Binding is the part of the quilt making I love the best.  It heralds the finish and in this case it has been quite a while getting there. 

Our renovations are nearing completion too.  Here is the before and after photos of the outside pathways and patio concreting.

 
DH and I still can't decide whether to close in the area or not.  I am in favour - he is against.  So, for the time being it will remain like this until we reach agreement. 

Fabric of Society - Re-visited

 The Fabric of Society quilts are still being exhibited at the Ipswich Art Gallery, so a couple of friends and I went back for another look.  These quilts from our early days are so inspiring.  When you think that when most of these quilts were made  they would not even have had electricity, and did everything by hand.  
My favourite quilt from the exhibition would have to be 'Auntie Green's Coverlet'.  It is on page 38 in the beautiful book "The Fabric of Society"  produced by Annette Gero for our enjoyment.  If you want a wonderful coffee table book  grab a copy of this one.  Lots of interesting information on the quilts and their makers as well.

After the walk through the exhibition we had THE best flat white we had all had in a long time, and a scrumptious turkish sandwich at the Cactus Cafe on Brisbane St.  A short walk down the road and we found 'Handmade Heaven' in the lovely old flour mill building.   They have the most beautiful handcrafted items and we all made a purchase.  I bought Lili these pj's for next year.  They are a Size 1 but our little Lili is just that - little!  They will fit her next year - maybe.  Also bought one of Bubba Chenille's eco cloths.  It was so soft, I think it will be lovely for cleansing after make up removal.








We then found out that Ipswich closes down at 2.00 pm on a Saturday,  and many of our other planned stops on the itinerary were, by this stage, CLOSED.  We did find one quilt shop open on the road home, so made a quick pit stop there - no dollars spent though.  We then decided another day out at Ipswich is required - another stop at the Cactus for a hot delicious coffee  - another day - a week day!

Hand Stitching

 
This is how the morning started out.  We had a HUGE frost.  Because I slept in til 7.15 I missed out on the 'full Monty' as most of it had melted.  

 
This afternoon after I had completed the monthly newsletter for the quilt group, I sat and treated myself to some hand stitching.  In my mind there is nothing more therapeutic than picking up a needle and thread and doing some hand piecing.  The 2011 raffle quilt for Toowoomba Quilters next year is this gorgeous dresden plate scrappy quilt. 
Firstly, I love, love, love scrap quilts and secondly I have always wanted to do a Dresden Plate.  This is the second lot of petals I have put together for the quilt, and have thoroughly enjoyed doing it.  The group is yet to decide on the background fabric and the centre circle.


Now.....back to the hand quilting on the KF quilt on another chilly night.

A week flies by

This past week has flown by and not given me a chance to blog about the fabulous couple of days we had in Brisbane last Thursday and Friday.


Bec, our older daughter, along with baby Lilian  and  I, drove straight to Ikea on Thursday morning from Toowoomba.  First stop, of course, was the cafeteria where Nana had to get her cappucino hit and baby had to have her milk and snack.  It is an amazing store and we didn't spend a lot of dollars, just took in all the decorating possibilities.  We spent the evening with younger daughter, Bonnie, and her partner and partook of some yummy Thai take-away.


Friday morning we hit the Textile Art Festival at the convention centre.  We had so much fun looking at all the fibres and works by talented artisans.  A few of my friends had work at the show and it was great to see it in real life.  Here is Bec choosing some goodies to take home and play with.

We were at the "Unique Stitching" stand where we found some goodies.

We purchased a black silk scarf, some hand dyed wool tops, some angelina fibre (to give it glitz) and some lovely soft felt.  We intend doing some needle felting and embellishing (if you didn't already guess it!).  Bec was fascinated with the needle felting machines, but at this time in our lives, neither one of us has the time to justify spending the money on one.  We are going to do some by hand - another long-term project? :-)