Happy New Year

Happy New Year

In a few more hours we (in New Zealand) will begin the countdown to the new year. 2009 is going to be a year of new beginnings, lots of art quilting, a new job and a new me. This year has been a sabbatical in which I have managed to do lots of sewing. I have 2 more stamp challenges for the Wellington Symposium at Easter finished. Here is a small close-up of both of them:
this is inspired by a 1960 issue 3d pictorial, and this one is from the same series but the 4d stamp.

The middle colour is actually teal, not green. I will need to take the photos with natural light for it to show well.

Something to Share

I have been able to enjoy the Pohutukawas (New Zealand Christmas tree) coming into flower the last few weeks on my daily walk, so today I took the camera to share these photos with you.
This is the flower unfurling:

In all it's glory:

Here is a tree (a very young one) with more flowers opened - just in time for Christmas!

And here is a yellow one, which I haven't seen before. It doesn't look as dramatic as the red, but still pretty.

The New Machine is Finally Here

WooHoo! today I went into the store to find out where my prize winning sewing machine was - and they had one to give me - it doesn't have a plaque on it, as you would expect after all these weeks, but it has that new smell and lots of things for me to try out. For example, I've not used a knee lifter before, and I'll HAVE to read the manual, even before turning it on.
So, see you around!!
:-)

A Retirement Quilt

My friend Gendie turned 60 this last September and retires from her workplace after 15+ years. I figured that she deserved a quilt especially for such a significant birthday. So I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself that I have made this lap quilt in a week and that I can present it to her at the 'retirement afternoon tea'. It's called Sudoku and measures 49.5 inches square (126 cm).

Another Competition Entry

This is a portion of my entry into the inaugural quilt competition by APQ (Australian Patchwork and Quilting) magazine. The theme was "Fantasy" and I chose to do a wholecloth quilt with Icarus as the central image. I 'painted' his body and the wings with tea and the shadows are emphasised with coffee. Over the top of the wings, which are stitched in the feather stitch, I glued glitter - unfortunately it shows up here as blue, but that is the shine from the flash. It is hours of quilting but I have the entry posted off in plenty of time, thank goodness! Now to the next project.

A Quilting Bee

This last Saturday some of my quilting group got together at my place for a quilting bee. We were helping out my friend Marjorie who wanted to make a wedding quilt for a niece, but this was a too much for her to manage especially as she is fighting cancer on 2 fronts.
Marjorie was having complete bed rest in hospital so couldn't join us.
But, we started with the fabric (New Zealand fabrics) and a picture ...

Pam, Jenny, Sue and I had our 4 sewing machines going while Biddy cut and ironed fabric.

Pam doing push-ups to get up off the floor and an almost completed top.
8.5 hours later we had finished the top, almost finished piecing a backing, eaten great food and had a lovely day working together.

From left: Pam, Jenny, Sue, me, and Biddy.
Well done ladies!

A Prize Winner!!

This was my entry into the Spotlight Quilt Challenge and today I got a phone call from Australia to say that I was the GRAND PRIZE WINNER! I had just about given up hearing from them and was deciding whether I should enter it anywhere else. You just never know - they loved it!! The prize is a Brother NX-400 sewing machine - I was just hoping that I could win some money to spend in the store and didn't bother too much about the machine!! WooHoo!
Watch this space!