An Online Class

I've just done an online class with Cindy Needham (Wholecloth Linen Quilts) through Craftsy. It was an excellent class to take and I can fully recommend it. In this set, Design It, Quilt It, there were 11 lessons, all videos ranging in length from 10 minutes to 47 minutes. Plus Cindy answers your questions, as well as a class platform, where everyone in the class gets to ask or shoe their work.
With some advice from Cindy, I have just finished re-working one of my Celebration Challenge quilts. I wasn't entirely happy with the whole-cloth quilted one, especially 3 of the borders. But I practiced, changed my sewing foot, and now it is completed!

Yay!!

Day Two

Today was the second day of Gloria's workshop. I did a bit of homework last night in order to start quilting this morning. That meant I had to add more tiles to the sky including cutting more (much more) fabric.
So this is where I was at just before lunch:

Just 2 lines of stitching on each tile - take took at least 2.5 hours!
It doesn't look as if I did much in the afternoon either!

Hills have been added, after I painted the fabric. I'm not sure if you can see, but the little hill on the left has some hand stitching (french knots). It was on a piece that didn't make it into another project - but the colour was good and it adds a bit of interest.
I still have the foreground and points of interest to do - hopefully in the not too distant future!
I finished my sewing group (Quilty Pleasures) quilt challenge. We are having a reveal on Sunday afternoon over tea and cakes.
I can only show you the block. Each piece of fabric was cut at 6.5" x 3.5", so all you needed was a 10" square to get the 4 pieces.

The Entries Are On Their Way

Phew! It was touch and go for the last challenge entry, but I had finished it enough to get it photographed and sent with the others (that's 4 I've sent in). Here's a teaser (clue: it's title is Lest We Forget and it's about New Zealand war memorials):

The finished quilt bears about 25% resemblance to the original design I had. Still, I'm pretty happy with it. Just have to 'bind' it, add the label and the hanging sleeve.

Taking Some Sheep Time

It was such a good evening we went up to the paddocks and spent some time with the flock and Beauty. These are a couple of my favourite photos:

Rosie and friends

Derrick and Beauty

Rosie is hoping that we have some treats and Beauty knows we have treats AND cuddles!
Back at work today after the Christmas break. It's our busiest day with returns and shelving and with people coming in to resupply their reading fodder.
Here at home, I'm desperately trying to finish another challenge quilt for Symposium this year. Photos and entry forms have to be in Queenstown by Friday, which means I have to have them posted at the latest by Wednesday. Just a little bit more to do, so it can be photographed - at least I can finish it properly in slower time (which really means by the end of the week, because there are other things waiting).

Birthdays and Rainbows

Sunday was my birthday - yes, I know I kept quiet about that, but ONLY because I've been busy, truly!
Sunday was also spring forward New Zealand daylight saving changeover, [groan]. Don't get me wrong, I love changing to daylight saving and this year was earlier and has worked out well - it's just that it takes about a week to catch up sleep-wise.
So Sunday, we loose an hour's sleep, and I was getting up early so that my friend Pam and I could go to Wellington. We had tickets to the 5:00pm session of WoW (World of Wearable Art), the STAR package no less, so we had some munchies from Ruth Pretty's kitchen, a small bottle of bubbly, programme and vouchers. I still have to vote for my favourite, but it's a hard decision this year, just so many beautiful costumes.
Why did we have to leave so early for an evening session? Because the Italian community in Wellington was having a festival at the Westpac Trust Stadium! Food, gelato and opera! What more could you want on a Sunday? Heaps of people, but we went at a good time, had space for a rest before heading to WoW. Afterwards, we met up with Sarah (she had been a dresser for one of the WoW models), Derrick and Andy and had a lovely Malaysian dinner. Sarah had baked a lovely carrot cake so that was dessert later.
Into bed just after midnight, phew!
Rainbows
Last night was the September meeting for Rose City Quilters. I very rarely buy raffle tickets, mostly because I'm busy before the meeting and I forget, but last night I bought 3 and won a prize. I had been envying the thread box prizes for ages and even though my ticket was the last one drawn, my choice (not!) was this:

Also, my very talented art quilter friend, Rhonda Ellery, gave me her Celebration of Quilts Challenge entry, which is this:

She has used different fabrics for texture, painted, stamped and just played, as she does. I so love it. Thank you Rhonda, you are so generous!

A Peek at Another Challenge Quilt

I've always wanted to make a poppy quilt, have even gathered beautiful fabric towards making one, but not really found a pattern that inspired me. So, I designed one for myself. Now this is not your everyday kind of quilt - it's 3-D for a start, then I've 'painted' cotton batting to make the poppies, and they have a range of different centres.
This is all you are going to see. It's for Queenstown Quilt Symposium 2011, so I had better not show you anymore - but of course, if it doesn't get accepted, you'll see all of it!