Cathy at Studio 28

2012-02-21T18:38:00.000+10:00

We had a almighty thunder storm hit this afternoon, I don't know about anyone else around here but we also had two lots of hail. I measured about 75mls in the rain gauge, not bad for and hour and a half. No damage at our place.

The creek at the back of our property was dry the other day, you can see from the photos how far it has risen in such a short time, it will subside just as quickly too. Lucky

Well, we have had such a busy time the last week, with the Termite Dr and his crew here last Wednesday. Our next visit from them will be in one month, just to check on things. Bit of luck we will get the all clear.

In the last two and a half months our family has grown. My sister Christine....who passed away last April...(from complications from Type 1 diabetes )......her son and his wife had a baby girl. Isabelle E Louise.....still waiting for photos. Isabelle is a beautiful girl, nearly 10lb and doing very well. My other sister who lives closer than Jens and I have just visited for the weekend, and said that you can spend hours just watching her. Another sister and her partner have also become grannies, young Bradley ( no photos either) was born on Sunday and was 9lb14oz. There must have been something in the water way back in April/May last year, for such big babies.

So as for Jens and I we also have a little one in our family, her name is Matilda....but we call her Tilly.

This is Koda's niece........she arrived on Friday and oh boy do we have our hands full. It has been over ten years since we have had a puppy in the house hold...and is she ruling ours.......

Tilly has her own quilts

Isn't she cute........Koda does not think so, although they did play together yesterday

amazing that a puppy is gnawing on this chicken carcass and then buried it for later

The third Saturday of the month is our get together in the Studio....a small group this time ....but very productive...

Karen is working on a UFO from 1999/2000

Kaylene is working on a New York Beauty quilt from Karen Stone's book

This is Kaylene's quilt, Kaylene is from Behind the Seams quilting

At the Christmas party 2010 we had a challenge game, it was called rip those ugly's up. Everyone was to bring 1m of their ugliest fabric and it sort of goes like musical chairs. Firstly you pass your fabric to the person next to you, and then when the music stops you rip your fabric in half. and then continue. This way you end up with lots of different fabric at different sizes, and the challenge is to make something from them.

such beautiful work from Heather with her challenge

So.... I have been thinking of painting the Studio.........

When we built the studio these colours were fashionable but they are a bit dated now.

I'm thinking the new colour scheme will be white with black trim. Jens has three old doubled ended hand cross cut saws that have been painted black that will go along the front of the studio and also thinking of putting a red barn star above them. Anyone have any ideas where I can buy a red barn star in SEQ. The reason behind the red barn star is when we were in the Amish town of Bird in Hand, across from where we were staying the barns had stars on them.

As there is always plenty of colour around the yard and near the studio. At the moment the ornament ginger has a beautiful orange flower that is popping up and the yellow flowers from the watermelon is giving the garden a happy and relaxed feeling....... what do you think......let me know it is always nice to hear you thoughts......

Cheers.............Cathy

2012-02-15T11:37:00.000+10:00

Well I'm stuck in the house all day, the guys from the Termite Doctor are here to do a preventive barrier around the house so that no more termites can invade our house. Even though we have not had any problem before we decided to do the whole outside of the house because we have a timber kitchen and bathroom and then there are also the cupboards in the bedrooms. The rumpus room is the biggest job as there have to drill into the concrete floor between each tile to injects the poison. So it's very busy and very noisy here today. On the up side the cupboards under the sink and the kitchen window have been cleaned. Along with some ornaments that usually just sit there and collect dust, the sink has been scrubbed and I have had a chance to catch up with emails and blogging.

Friends often ask me what I have been up to......my usual answer is sewing, gardening and sewing.....and a class on Thursdays. So last weekend our garden project was for Jens to build a small block wall against the old fence at the side of the house.

This area is where I'm going to grow some climbing Jasmine and also hope to plant some native raspberry. So, before I can plant anything we have to fill the area in with cardboard and old newspapers and any other plain paper and then mulch it all.

We bought extra wheelie bins years ago to keep our gardening stuff in

The tree had to be cut back so that I could get the wheel burrow down into the garden easily. Well that's my job, cutting back the tree branches was the easy task......

how long did this take......this is 4hrs of work and I have run out of papers and only did 7 loads of mulch, with the big wheel burrow.

And yes I was exhausted afterwards, I'm not know for my fitness.....so after a shower and something to eat it was time to head down to the studio.

I have been working on a project for a friend for a number of years, it is very time consuming and intense. The pattern is a Maggie Walker design and all the chooks are needle turn appliqued.

I have just about finished all the pieces and I think I burnt myself out working on these and have not done any work on them for a long while now. I started doing the center panel and there are over 200 pieces in it.

I started doing the center panel and there are over 200 pieces in it. There is a large rooster to go in the middle of this panel...

In the pattern they used a piece of dyed/painted fabric but I have appliqued the pieces of this part of the background

A bit daunting, but I feel as though I'm ready to tackle it again, it's one of those projects were I get them out, press them, and look at all the work and them fold them back up again and put them back into the cupboard, until later and yesterday I actually took photos of some of the blocks. I hope you like them....

When I started the chooks I gave it a ten year project (plan), we joked about it then but it's over five years since I started them, so I need to a little more work on them soon.

I love doing needle turn applique, so between the intense projects I have a more carefree and brighter project to work on.

On Thursdays I teach a class at Kimz Sewing at Kawana and a couple of the ladies are also working on the same project, although they are a lot further ahead than me.....If you hop on to my other blog http://itchintwostitch.blogspot.com.au/ and have a look at older posts you can see their variations of Kim McLean's quilt.

A present from my chooky friend....it sit on the kitchen window......with other presents from my friends.......

Friends are the flowers in the garden of life........

Cathy

What a busy week......

2012-02-11T20:52:00.000+10:00

It has been a week since we sailed back into Brisbane......so much has happened.

When we got home we discovered that we had little mounds of dried mud above our sliding door in the back room. We called a pest control team and were told that we have termites. Oh crap.....on the flip side they have only moved in recently, about three months so the damage is small but still expensive, to eradicate and then termite proof the rest of the house. We have to re-sheet the wall above the door and under the windows, very lucky we found them now as I was told it would have been only a few weeks for them to destroy the whole wall. The termite doctor was back on Wednesday for the first treatment and will be here again next Wednesday for the second round......

On a brighter note I went to the textile group on Monday afternoon. It was our first meeting for 2012 and what a turn out, 23 ladies there to have some input for outings and projects for the next few months. We are heading out to a park in Caloundra on the 23 Feb to collect bits and pieces for Eco dyeing and a new member is taking us on a creative visual excursion at the park also.

One of the new ladies of the group is Barb, who I have met a couple of times, it is nice to see that she is joining our little group. Anyway Barb, myself and Sandra did a workshop at Caloundra Quilters along with 12 other ladies in 2010. The tutor was Gloria Loughman......wow, what a great weekend.....I had heard through the grapevine that Barb had finished her piece last year and bought it in on Monday to show me........Thanks Barb, you wall hanging is just amazing.............

Sandra and I also finished ours pieces also.......enjoy the photos......

Barb's beautiful seahorse

Sandra's piece called Jellyfish Jive

this is my piece.....

All three pieces are so different and we all really enjoyed the workshop with Gloria......

Garden news.....Jens and I got stuck into the yard this morning......I mowed and Jens built another garden bed from the old sheets of roofing iron that Dad and his mate Jim found for us last year....we are putting the tin around our fruit trees, and only another 5 or so trees to go.........

Koda had a hair cut also, which is a horrible task this time of the year as the hair sticks to you when your sweaty, so after tidying up we both have a quick wash under the hose. Koda's coat is so dark and shining......she looks so sleek and beautiful afterwards.

sorry about the blurry photo

I have been doing a little stitching on the longarm........it's like starting all over again......it's going to take a long time to master this beast.....I popped a baby's panel on to practice with and I can't even follow on the line.....the nice fluffy white clouds have points all over them. So while I keep practicing I hope everyone is having a great weekend......

Cathy

A short break away

2012-02-04T20:05:00.000+10:00

Jens and I have just returned from a short break away. We arrived home this morning from our cruise out from Brisbane to the south side of New Zealand and back to Brisbane. What a great two weeks on the Pacific Dawn, seeing Milford Sounds, Dunedin, Wellington, Napier, Auckland, Tauranga and my favourite place of all was Akaroa.

Sandra came down to pick us up this morning, which made it so easy. That way we didn't have to store our car anywhere in Brisbane, It is so green and lush around here, we heard that there was a lot of rain on the Coast and in SW Qld. The yard and house survived ok but we have no internet or phone connection, so I don't know how long that has been out for. I'm doing a quick post via mobile internet so that I can update the blog a little, as I have not replied to a few people who commented on my last post. We also had a few problems with me trying to post while away. I was locked out of the blog somehow??????

I will post photos at a later date as they are all down loaded on a different hard drive. That means that I need my technician aka 'Jens' to sort them all out. We had a fabulous time and met some great people and enjoyed some delicious meals on board. Today has been a jolt into reality, I had to go shopping to stock the fridge mainly for the weekend. and cook dinner tonight, then clean and wash up. Ugh.

....anyway I'm back home now and I will catch up soon.

Cheers Cathy

January 20 already.........

2012-01-20T19:54:00.003+10:00

Where has the time gone.....it is already past the middle of January......I know I'm a bit late but I do hope that everyone had a lovely break over Christmas and New year......it is a bitter sweet time for me and my family as it was this time 9 years ago that my brother passed away....so we celebrate this time with mixed feelings.

Jens and I drove out to Central Queensland visit my sister Caroline and her hubby Sparkie and their families for Xmas.

We picked up Mum and Dad on the way through as they live just over two hours north of us. Dad is not into driving these days. I have some great photos of our trip out west but they are still on the other computer. I will upload these photos at a later date, when I get a little time to spare. The two following photo's are taken near Dysart.....along the way.

This dragline is at Peak Downs

This coal train has about 70 - 76 carriages and 4 loco's....

We all certainly did enjoy our family gathering, there were 15 of us in a 3 bedroom house with one bathroom, and a camper van. Caroline put on a lavish spread for us, there was the usual aussie fare of mudcrabs, prawns, reef fish, home made spring rolls (yum), ham, potato salad. and so much more. Oh yeah the mangoes there were bags and bags of fresh Bowen mangoes..... We feasted for 4 days and then drove home again. Mind you the drive took nearly 10 hours......just to Mum and Dads place where we camped for the night.....then drove home the next day.

What a great day, everyone was having a lot of fun.....mind you it was about 36 degrees...the younger ones had good sun protection for the blow up pool.........

After a big day and quite a few Mia Tia's

I have finally got myself organized in the Studio, there is still some more tidying to do. The longarm machine is in......it took a bit to get there, I had to get a technician to come and look at the machine as it did not sound the best when we started it up. All is good now.....purring like a kitten....just have to get some practice in. It sure is a bit daunting when you go from a normal sewing machine to a 30" longarm. I don't think there will be a problem finding enough quilts to practice on. I have about 10 of my own and I have been offered a few from friends.


We have about 200 bunches of grapes ready to be picked and they now taste delicious, and hardly anyone took any home. Oh well the water dragons and chooks enjoy them. Dad and I picked about 5kg and you couldn't tell where we had been.....I frozen the ones I picked to make jam later on......

I invited the Thursday ladies to come out to visit last Saturday. They are often asking about my Studio and the garden. So after class on Saturday they came for afternoon tea and we had a show and tell between the two groups.

This is Margaret's quilt. it is so bright and colourful

A good time had by all I think. There were other quilt during the afternoon, but I was so busy that I forgot to take photo's. I also offered everyone the chance to grab anything they wanted from the two tables I had piled with all my stuff, that I do not want anymore.

And they could help themselves to picking some grapes. Now I'm left with 3 boxes of books and a very large bag of scraps still. I am going to take the fabric to the Neighbourhood Centre and offer a class in English paper piecing in March. There must be enough fabric to make at least five queen sized quilts, but the ladies will be making a table runner.

Now that I look at this photo I see some orphan log cabin blocks that I might send down to Jan-Maree at http://aussieheroquilts.blogspot.com.au/......

This is my favourite scrappy hexagon quilts

Anyway enough for today...until next time......happy stitching and don't forget to take thyme to smell the roses.

Cathy

A new look for 2012

2011-12-21T07:50:00.000+10:00

I have been tackling the enormous task of cleaning out my Studio...to make room for the longarm. I know I have been a bit of a collect of fabric, but I'm thinking it's borderline hoarding. Not only fabric but books and magazines and other stuff....

two shelves done, three to go

what can I do with Macaw feathers and a half stuffed bear that I started making in 2003


pennies and earrings,

finding space to tackle the cupboard behind

at least I managed to clear the cork board

So far this week I have given away nearly every copy of Patchwork and Quilting from the very first issue. I have about 5 magazine left. I still have 6 and a half boxes of books and other magazines to give away.

and a doll

magazines, books, plaid fabric and quilts

I am inviting the Thursday girls out for the NY's party, as most of them are beginners and they might enjoy finding projects and stories in these magazines. I have also gone through my quilts and decided to give away some of my old sampler quilts, to anyone who wants them.

Not sure what I'm going to do with these little quilts........

this block is from the Postcard patterns

this applique was designed by Heather, photo from the previous post

I have also put aside quilts from my cupboard to give to all my nieces and nephew. They can choose which one they like.......

this quilt I made for Christine when she was still in hospital I am now giving it too her son as they are expecting a baby girl any day now

I think it will take me the next two weeks to sort and clean and change around the tables and get ready in the studio........

The big sewing table was screwed to the floor and power boxes were put on the 4 legs.....I have got as far as having the electrician around to disconnect the table.....easier to do now than next week......forward thinking.......

Anyway....If you don't hear from me for a couple of weeks you know where I will be.........

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas, happy holiday and safe travel......

See you in 2012

Cathy

Out for Lunch

2011-12-21T06:05:00.000+10:00

We had no class this month as Jens and our neighbour had planned to do a bit of work under the Studio, so we decided to go out for lunch instead.

We had a yummy lunch at the Upfront Club, sorry no photos to busy eating, then we checked out the patchwork shops of Maleny....

Here we are at Ann's shop..... Quiltopia designs

Ann with Janet and Sandra

then we headed out to see Bev at Maleny Magic.

Bev and Lorraine

Kaylene and Bev

We then headed back into Maleny to have ice cream at Colin James in Maple St.....

Usually we all bring a plate to share and have a little party. Last year we played silly word games, and played pass the ugly fabric around, think of musical chairs. If you wanted to participate you had to bring along 1m of your ugliest fabric. Each time the music stopped the fabric was cut in half....so after a while you have all these different size pieces of fabric. The challenge is to then make something out of these fabrics and have it for this years party. The challenge is to only use those fabrics, you can paint, dye, print or stamp whatever. Then you could use anything you liked to embellish. The girls have made some great pieces. Mine on the other hand is still pinned to the design wall waiting for inspiration. I will post a photo of the fabrics next time....

This is part of Heathers challenge

So to give myself a little more time I decided that in January we will have a New Years party instead of a Christmas party. The last two weeks have been such a social time...with going away to Sydney for a weekend and Xmas lunches, dinner and bus trips it's starting to catch up with me.

I had Christmas lunch earlier this month with Heather, Allan, Margaret and Lyn last week and here are the girls showing their finished projects from the year..

Heather showing off the bed throw that she made

Margaret with a quilt for her latest grandchild...so bright and colourful

I hope everyone is enjoying spending time with their friends celebrating Christmas......

Cathy

2011-12-14T13:25:00.000+10:00

Well... the quilt top is finished.....

Blue Sunflowers

It just has to be quilted now, will leave it until 2012, as I'm in the process of getting the big machine sorted and moved into the studio in January...I have started going though stuff....(and there is plenty of it), to make room. I have a large sewing table in the Studio. When we bought the table 7yrs ago we decided to have power switches installed on each of the legs so that there were no cords all over the place. It was a great idea, until now when we have to move the table. Oh well...I have just had the electrician around this morning disconnecting the wiring on the legs....it's all done now and I can keep on cleaning.....I hope you enjoyed seeing my quilt, it is made with Kaffe and friends fabrics.....the Sunflowers are my own design........the other blocks are traditional blocks that I drafted with pencil and paper into 15" blocks.......I enjoyed the challenge and very pleased with the result.......

Happy stitching

Cathy

A day out in Brisbane

2011-12-07T08:09:00.000+10:00

On Monday the T.A.F.A group and friends hired a small bus to have a day trip to Brisbane. On our agenda was a visit to the Reverse Garbage........

they certainly do have some interesting stuff here......

So after a little shopping it was off to GOMA to have a look at the Matisse exhibition.

Jenny and I decided that we would break away from the group and visit the Yayoi Kusama display.....OMG.... she has made the most amazing flowers...they are huge and bright and spotty...just loved them.....

Then Jenny and I found the kids room full of spots....... we were given a sheet of dots to place anywhere in this room, so along with other adults and kids we laughed and giggled and put our dots all over the place......

can you see the piano

we had so much fun........

Then we went to ......

such beautiful quilts......

Jenny and I then walked across to the Art Gallery to have a look around....

We all had a great day....hope everyone in the group has a very happy and safe Xmas and we will see you in 2012........

A few photos of our weekend......

2011-12-06T18:51:00.000+10:00

I had a surprise e-ticket from Jens to go to Sydney last Friday for the weekend. As Jens was already working just north of Sydney all week. So I asked Hanno and Rhonda to look after Koda, and Sandra to feed the chooks....and off I went......


			Breakfast....love the background

After breakfast we checked out the information center and bought a Day Pass. With this pass we could use the trains, buses and ferries all day.........

We also caught the ferry to Drummoyne and walked around to find this little shop.....it would have been much easier to catch the bus, but we eventually got there.....

Just before I left home I checked my emails and blogs. I checked out MO website to find the address and found out that they were having a Swap Day that Saturday.....

Trisha and I

I was having a rummage around in one of the swap containers and when I looked up, and there was Trisha. Trisha is Rhonda's ( down-to-earth) sister. I knew that Trisha went to MO with her group, but I never to expected to see her while I was there. It was great to catch up with her.....

It was a bright sunny day to have so many beautiful quilt on display outside.....

I love the way they blend their colours and fabrics together........

Love this quilt

This lady very kindly let me take a photo of her and her quilt

I spent an hour at MO saw so much, and of course I bought some fabric.

Jens and I then caught the bus back to the city and we went to the Apple shop, and then we walked down to catch the ferry to Manly for lunch........

Lunch at Manly Beach

Dinner at the Rocks and a stroll around to the Opera House

On Sunday it was very overcast and started raining while we were walking around the markets.....after a light lunch we decided to catch the train to the airport.

We both had a great weekend...... Thanks Jens xxx

What happened to November

2011-12-01T06:15:00.000+10:00

Where has the time gone, November has just about finished, I'm still trying to catch up with projects from September well... maybe October..... Well I'm a bit late in posting this......It is now the 1 December and we had great rain yesterday...........

I finally have the nine blocks of the Sampler quilt together. I have machined appliqued one of the corners of border. It is coming together nicely.... even if I say so myself. I will post a photo of the completed quilt top after it has been on display for the Xmas party at Kimz Sewing Center next week.

I had a get together with the girls the other weekend and forgot to take photo's.... I got caught up with teaching and didn't think of it. This year we are having lunch out for our Xmas breakup. We opted to have lunch at one of the Cafe's in Maleny....can't complain about that....and after lunch we decided that we should visit Ann at Quiltopia and Bev at Maleny Magic....looking forward to that.

This is Patsy's quilt from my class at Kimz. Check out my other blog form the shop.. http://itchintwostitch.blogspot.com.... It's such a stunning quilt.....I just had to show you

Jens and I went to Brisbane for a Xmas party and we decided to stay for the night. We meet up with some friends old and new, who were from out of town also, at the Bavarian Bar to catch up before getting ready to go out. It was so nice sitting a the bar looking out over the river and catching up with everyone. As we walked back to our Motel we saw marking along the buildings that showed the levels of the floods in January. Oh boy it would have been really scarey to be there then. It's incredible how quickly they cleaned up and reopened. One restaurant the Jellyfish has a story on their glass door about the flood. It said that the waters reached the ceiling. The restaurant looks great now and well supported by locals....

View from our balcony at the Median

Sunday morning we decided to check out the new markets at the old Boggo Rd jail. The jail was closed many years ago. They had a Guide talking about the history of the jail but it was not easy to hear everything he was saying so.....

The art work on the wall was unreal

I don't know what has been happening there since.... but the markets weren't bad... it was extremely hot and there was not a lot of shade...I think we will go back there in winter time...bought some delicious sour dough bread there..... and garlic Turkish bread...yummy!!!

On our way home we decided we would have a look at Pinkinbah and Donnybrook. They are two places that you see all the time and never have time to visit.. Well, Pinkinbah is well, what can I say, not a lot going on there on a Sunday and Donnybrook, a very, very sleepy fishing village. When we got home at lunch time and I picked some cucumber, tomatoes to have with the sour dough bread and mango smoothies whilst relaxing and watching old cowboy movies on telly...my kind of afternoon....Jens had a snooze in his recliner chair...

I have not been doing too much in the garden lately. I did mulch with hay a couple of weeks ago, and I think that is keeping the plants going at the moment. It has warmed up lately and had no good rain for weeks so everything is struggling...

I don't know how these capsicum are surviving there is hardly any decent foliage but the fruit looks great and is nice and tasty.

The chives and tomatoes growing between the butterfly flowers and they are doing very well.

This area is starting to look really good now... the turf that I laid has taken off... nice and always green, loves that sun and shade.

I have some Rosella's and lettuce growing here... so far they are doing really well..... lots of flowers an the Rosella. I will try drying them for Rosella tea.. and maybe some jam......

Hey..... we actually have apples on our tree this year, they look great.... but unfortunately the fruit fly will have attacked then...... so they chooks will enjoy them....

I'm off to the shop today, I have a class and then a visit to the dentist.........I had a filling fall out on the weekend......lucky it is not hurting..

I hope everyone has a great weekend, I will be........I will post photos next week..

Happy stitching

Cathy

3-6-9

2011-11-22T15:14:00.000+10:00

I have been asked by a couple of ladies to explain the 3-6-9 block/quilt again. These number add up to 15 in some way, 9 + 6 =15, 5 x 3 = 15, 3 x 3 + 6 = 15.

I suggest that you have a large variety of fabrics I use about 10 - 15. This should be enough make a quilt about 60'sq then all you need to do is add a border if you wish. I cut up a fat 1/4 into 1 x 91/2' sq, 2 x 61/2'sq and the remaining into 31/2'sq's. I have found that sometimes one fabric will look fantastic in the stash but when you use it in the quilt it may overtake all your other fabrics. If you have a look at Slendour I have used a blue with white spot. I only used the 3" and 6" blocks because the 9" block was way to strong.

Select a combination of fabrics for your blocks and place onto the table or design wall to make up 15" blocks. Spread your fabric so that the same fabric don't get sewn together. Make up 16 blocks and join. I have made a quilt from my scrap basket and it look good, but the quilt above looks scrappy but, these fabric were critiqued throughout the whole process. I hope this helps. Send me some photos when you make your quilt and I will put them on my blog.

Happy Stitching - - - - - Cathy

What a weekend

2011-11-14T21:15:00.000+10:00

Well it all started on Friday morning, I decided to wash Koda so that I could give her a clip in the afternoon as it is really starting to warm up and has been very humid lately

hates having a bath

After that I got stuck into the kitchen and got some food cooked for the weekend and then, we mowed the lawn.

looks a bit too healthy

straight out of the oven, yummmm!!!

What's next, can you guess

Our favourites Anzacs

Plenty of food for snacking while working in the yard.

here I am TA for the day

A while ago I decided that we should cover part of the fence between our neighbors and us. There use to be a beautiful yellow Alamanda covering the whole fence. When the neighbors did the extension on their house and driveway everything need to be taken down. This was a couple of years ago. So I thought it was time to do something about covering it up again. We do get on well with our neighbors, it just the bare fence that I don't like. So with a little help from my Dad aka Curly we bought about 100 sheets of old roofing iron, from the Refuse Reuse at Hervey Bay. The price was cheaper to buy it in bulk and last weekend we borrowed the trailer from the neighbors so that we could bring the roofing iron back home.

all done .... looks good...yeah in about 3/6 months

I plan to full this area with some good mulch let it sit for a while then plant out yellow raspberries again and blueberries for next year. We have had great success with the raspberries before. I will also be planting white flowering vines along the fence, so in time it should look great.....

Jens and I were invited to Hanno and Rhonda's for morning tea on Sunday.... hot scones with homemade strawberry jam and coffee......

I got to see Rhonda's new book that is to be released in March 2012 ...... very nice book

congratulations Rhonda.

http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/

My dad Curly arrived on the train on Sunday to stay with us for a couple of days. When we were at Hervey Bay I was talking about a project for the backyard, because we have so much roofing iron. I had designed said project and Jens was going to make it for me, but was very unsure how it was going to go together. It has been challenging to built new gardens and has taken a couple of years to collect things like retaining wall blocks, cappers, garden beds. Jens is over it at times, but things are starting to take shape and Jens is getting use to the my arty farty ideas.

I think the redback will look good with a wire cobweb

Anyway, I was telling Curly about it, and low and behold he has had it all cut out and ready to go and Jens was grateful about this. So can you tell what it is that Curly and Jens are making..........here are a couple of clues

How would you be, not too many backyards have an eight sided garden bed.....Lucky me....

Great job fellas....

Cheers....

The photographer of the day Sandra went next door onto their veranda to take some photos of the yard....

http://calametyscapers.blogspot.com/

This is my Studio in the background that Curly and Jens built for me a few yeas ago

Look at the grape vine now, looks different from above

Happy times at the end of the day....... Enjoy all your special times together.....

Cathy

Another busy week

2011-11-12T05:00:00.006+10:00

Thank you to all that have taken the time to look at my blog and then sent me comments. It is so nice to hear what you think of my ramblings of our life, the garden and quilts. My friends all love my quilts, and tell me that they are great... but to hear it from strangers, from across the seas and around Australia is very encouraging. So thank you again.

Last timed I posted I was telling you that my friends Margret, Jenny, and Jane were coming over for a night of sewing. As we all have busy lives and work, so it gives us a chance to catch up, and we did solve a few problems in the world, and Margret needs more brights in her African paper piecing project, and where Jenny could buy a nice bright backing fabric.

Jane listening intently

Margret waiting to see what Jenny is going to do

Jenny ready to attack the chocolate cake

A good night had by all....

On Sunday morning I went to Cotton Tree Beach Park to walk with the JDRF.

This walk was a fundraising event to raise awareness and money to find a cure for Type 1 Diabetes.

Cotton Tree is such a beautiful place...

Not sure how the fishing was

The TAFA Textile and Fiber Arts group is having a little challenge, Margie W and Joan decided tocut up 2 different copies of Hassanwasser's prints,( http://www.leninimports.com/hundertwasser_bio.html#topop) for 2 groups. We could recreate our part of the image in our favourite medium. A you can see they are all very different, one is felted, one is painted, one is appliqued and stitched and one is corded and stitched. Don't they look great. Oh and one is missing, Molly is unable to do hers, so I am now doing it for her, and I'm putting them together. I will post photos when complete....

I have my Court house steps quilt hanging in the Kim's shop now, it has caught the attention of a few ladies.

I have another photo of a different quilt with the same pattern as Splendour. This is Coleus Garden in Jane Sassaman fabrics with some purple Krystal fabric. I made this quilt a while ago for class at the shop. It has been very popular, because it is so easy to make.

Our upcoming weekend will be busy for us trying to catch up with jobs in the yard. I am hoping to do some work done on the fence panels on one side of our yard, order some mulch, weed the gardens and mow. Jens and I will both get stuck into all these jobs, although one of us does not like weeding. So that will be my job, and we share the mowing I do all the flat areas and Jens get to do the dusty hilly back section. We have to dip and worm the chooks. I need to clean out their coop again, it is job that I do regularly, and as it has not rained for a couple of weeks it will be a very dusty dirty job. My chooks... my job. Today I need to bake so that it is easy to grab some food when we are working outside. I think a zucchini slice, vege soup and a date and lemon slice and maybe some Anzac biscuits. That should try us over for lunches, and smoko.

My Dad gave me some Dehlia bulbs many years ago and they come up every year, with very little attention

I hope everyone has a great weekend.......

Cathy

Another quilt finished.....

2011-11-02T13:45:00.001+10:00

I finally finished my quilt. I am so pleased with it, love the colours. Coming up with a name or a title for a quilt I find really hard. So out with the dictionary, I found a word meaning brilliant or gorgeous appearance, colouring. This certainly describes my quilt. So the title is Splendour, I hope you like it as much as I do.

The pattern I call 3-6-9, I wrote a post earlier this year on how to make it. It is such an easy top to make, it's the quilting that is time consuming.

In the last six months I have started to travel a very different path with my patchwork and quilting and I love it. My favourite colour way for many years was soft country which I still love, but I have this urge to just work with brighter fabrics at the moment. I feel like I have been pushed/shoved out of my comfort zone.....What does the future hold.....for my creative path.

This quilt I made last year I still think it's a lovely quilt. It's the same pattern as Splendour but looks so different in soft florals.

I have been out in the yard for a few hours this morning planting more lettuce, beetroot, more herbs and Asian veges, oh and of course more flower seedlings.

Jenny, Jane and Margret are coming around tonight for a get together. We try to meet once a month, but this year we have been a little slack. We do very little stitching but we solve many of the worlds problems, with a glass of wine and some cake later. I'm making chocolate cup cakes with raspberries and for an extra boost chocolate bits mixed together. It's quick and easy and they don't take long to bake, and then I think I will serve it with pink cream.

I hope you all have a great night with your family and friends.....

Cathy

We got caught out last night

2011-11-01T06:03:00.001+10:00

We have lived in this house for 11yrs now and last night was the first time we have had kids come around for Halloween. I don't keep lollies but I like a bit of chocolate and lucky I hadn't eaten all the Twirls I bought last week. So we had 7 girls and 1 boy visit and only 7 Twirls left, so Mr J raided the fridge and found a chocolate that we brought back from our holiday in Switzerland. It was shaped like a Swiss army knife and the wrapping was red with the logo on it. The lad thought it was pretty cool. The kids looked fantastic, they were all dress up in black and one teenage girls had these awesome orange bat wings on. I was so shocked that they knocked on our door...and guess what I didn't take a photo.....

Look what can happen in 24 hrs

2011-10-30T15:09:00.001+10:00

I have been blogging since April and yesterday when I was checked my page I noticed that I had 798 visitors. It got me thinking I wonder how long it will take to reach 1000.

Our garden in Spring time

Then about lunch time I had an email from Rhonda saying that she was kindly linking me to her blog list. Thanks Rhonda.. http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/.. Well, since then I am amazed at how many people from all over the world have had a look at my blog. Thank you to everyone who visited me... I just checked my counter and I have had 1501 visitors... amazing......

A bag I made to take to Classes

I hope you enjoyed what I have written over the last couple of months. Before I started blogging I never ready did a lot of writing, birthday and Xmas cards only ever had To .... and From Cathy in them. I have to say I do enjoy writing and leaving messages and posts for all to read.

The first couple of posts I got my husband to read them first and he would edit them for me. It has taken a little while to get use to it all, and to always having my camera with me to take interesting photos. My husband urged/pushed me into the blogging. I never really knew what to write about, I just started out writing about what was happening in the Studio and my friends would tell me enjoyed reading the posts. I then started to write about my other interests, and things have progressed from that.

A quilt I made for my Dad

Ann from http://annfergusonquiltopiadesign.blogspot.com/ also gave me some good advice, to help me find interesting sites and become a follower. I have encouraged my friends to also blog, and we are now having blogging nights. It a chance for us all to get together and help each other.

Still working on this quilt, hopefully I will have it finished this week

I hardly read any patchwork and quilting magazine in the morning now while having breakfast. My routine in the morning now is turn the laptop on, put the kettle on, turn the radio on, make the coffee and start looking at the other peoples blog posts. Some days the time just fly's, there are so many interesting people writing about their patchwork/quilting, cooking, gardening, travels and personal life.

Thanks again for visiting I hope you all have had a great weekend, and maybe you will visit again....

Cathy

A night out

2011-10-29T08:35:00.000+10:00

A night out at with friends to celebrate Jenny's birthday.......

Hope you all have a great weekend, we had a drizzly day yesterday so it's in the garden for me today.

Cathy

Hanging out with Helen

2011-10-28T07:01:00.000+10:00

I have been very lucky in the last couple of years when it come to getting into workshop with Australian and International tutors. Many years ago I saw a quilt called Mekong Gold by Helen Godden, and was just amazed at the creativity and beauty. Over the years I have followed Helen's creative path, I just love the Three Sister quilt, it is just so beautiful.

Anyway a couple of weeks ago I found out the Helen was teaching at Sew This n That in Morayfield. I put my name and Sandra's name on the waiting list, and we both got in to do the workshop. We had so much fun and I enjoyed listening to Helen chatting about her life, ideas and future plans. We also got to see some of her other quilts.

We worked on the 5 x 5 grid on black home spun, I can't wait to get stuck into finishing it now....

I love doing feathers

My own design

Oh yeah that's right I have to do the shopping, a little cleaning, play in the garden and catch up with blogging. The quilting may have to wait until next week.

Happy stitching

Cathy

Brisbane Quilt Show

2011-10-23T16:30:00.000+10:00

Well, what a day we had a the Queensland Quilt Show. My friends (Sandra and Margret) and I caught the train down to Brissy very early in the morning, and got to the Convention Center about a half an hour after it opened. After a quick pit stop and coffee we headed for the quilt display, 3hrs later still looking at all the beautiful quilts, it was time for lunch break. We then took off into the retail therapy area and blew and few bob (spent lots of money). I had to get some rulers and parts for the longarm, so that was my budget gone. Mind you I did buy a little fabric also. I found some fabric that has skulls and roses on it, so nice and so unusual.

Margret was after monkey fabric for her soon to be grandson's quilt and Sandra bought fabric, a book and threads. We had to recharge at about 4pm for another coffee before a final dash around the stalls before leaving.

We headed out to South Bank and went for a walk on the boardwalk while waiting for Mr J to drive down from the Coast. We had arranged to have dinner at Ahmets a Turkish Restaurant. The food is delicious.

To finish the evening we had ice cream while strolling the pathways in the park before driving back home. What a great day.

I hope you all had a great weekend,

Cathy

2011-10-23T15:18:00.000+10:00

It's been a while since I have blogged, but life is busy. The garden is blooming and zucchinis are growing out of proportion. Lettuce is bolting and the grape vine is just going crazy. I didn't get a chance to cut back the vine again this year and now there be about 300 baby bunches of fruit.

This lettuce was so tasty it only took us a few days to eat it..yum....

This is the grape vine canopy two weeks ago

The canopy last Sunday

We have also be eating snow peas, cherry tomatoes, beans and lettuce nearly everyday. I tend to have a little taste when I'm watering in the afternoons. Eating a baby carrot just picked is (after it has been washed) what it's all about. I'm still learning the gardening process and I have found that we will short on salads soon, as I have not replanted early enough. We have lost a couple of the iceberg lettuce because of the heavy rainstorms that we have had lately. It's all trial and error.

I finally got to the Permacultue Eudlo meeting earlier this month, what a great little group. This Sunday we are going to visit a member's garden, that we be interesting to see how they work their backyard. I got a couple of cutting and a bottle of worm casting liquid. We have our own worm farm but when Charlie was staying with us he drank all the liquid. I bought a box of garden light and set them around the vege plot, it looks a little like a fairyland at night time.

Pathway for possum's at night

News from the Studio, I have nearly finished doing the 3-6-9 quilt, for a 60"sq quilt I have gone overboard and used over 500m of thread in the top for machine quilting. I have also pieced half of the friendship basket blocks using a 3/4" nine patch with a mustard center as posts, it's looking good. My last post has photos of the blocks, post new photo's soon.

I have finished the log cabin quilt with a twist. The finished block is 20"sq, and the strip are 2" wide. I decided to do add school house quilting down the middle of each strip, and around the center block. It made for a lot of extra work, but I like it.

Last Sunday I was the gofer (morning tea and lunch lady) at the Textile Group in Caloundra; they were doing a machine-felting workshop with Felicity Clark from Brisbane. Oh boy is her work is incredible.............

Photos of the girls doing the felting workshop

At our last meeting we started a small challenge. We have two groups of six, and our leader Margie W from (craftygranma@blogspot.com) and Joan M cut up a picture for each group, so that everyone received a small piece that we have to enlarge and recreate in any textile medium we choose. I'm sure my picture has the most pieces in it. Anyway, it could be interesting...........

Not sure they were talking about textiles

This Fiona showing off her last piece fionajacksondesigns.com.au

Ellen's felted bag

Mollie's beautiful book cover

I hope you enjoy the photos in my blog.

Until next time,

Happy stitching Cathy

A quick trip, project half done and roses

2011-09-28T20:03:00.000+10:00

I have just been to visit my Mum for her birthday. I don't usually jump in the car and drive for 2.5 hours to deliver a bunch roses from our garden. It was a lovely surprise for Mum and Dad. Dad sister Betty was there also, coming up from Victoria for a weeks holiday. We spent the afternoon with granddaughter and great grand kids, daughters, sisters and brothers. We sang happy birthday three times and had lots of chocolate cupcakes and many cups of tea. What a lovely afternoon we had together. I am so pleased I went up.

Roses for Mum

A trip home and a sewing get together with Heather and Margaret, boiled eggs for tea tonight and quite time in front of the TV working on Ufo's. I found a few blocks from a friendship swap that a group of us did in 2005. I would always look at these blocks and wonder what I was going to do to finish them off. When I laid the out on Monday I knew straight away how the quilt was going to be finished, even right down to how I am going to machine quilt it. Bit of a shock to think it all came to me just like that. Still amazed. Now to find some time to do it.

Friendship flower baskets

This weekend is the right time to plant leafy greens in the moon phase. Mr J and I are going to the Brisbane Organic Fair this Sunday to learn more about growing our vegetables and herbs. I am looking forward to

Caroline checking out Foleys water tanks

seeing what they will have available.

My sister Caroline and I went to the Nambour Garden Show in July and had a great time checking out all the stall and workshops. We went and listened to Sonya Wallace talk about worm farms and composting. We also listened to Leonie Shanahan talk about make a no dig garden.

Leonie and I

Since then I have made a no dig garden and have two zucchini plants that are producing very well.

I have had some help with the garden planning, out the front of our place is a large common area that has a few native trees. The trees are becoming rather tall and spindly, so I asked Simon form Go Green Nursery if he could advise us on what to plant under the older trees. So far I have planted nearly 20 natives, and plan to plant about 10 more this weekend. So that's the weekend taken care of.

New plants

Grasses for the birds

The front garden is just lovely at the moment all the roses are in full bloom and the perfume is amazing.

So this weekend, if you can, take "thyme to smell the roses" and let the love grow...................<3

I have my fabric

2011-09-22T18:16:00.002+10:00

Just a quick note to let you know that a friend has found some of the spot fabric for me. A little patchwork shop in Bunbury in WesternAustralia called Craft Collections has saved the day..... I will be able to finish the blocks for the sampler quilt that I'm teaching at Kimz Sewing Center next year.

From the garden how beautiful is this yellow rose.......

Textile and Sample quilts

2011-09-21T18:33:00.000+10:00

I made it to the textile group on Monday late of course and had to leave early. It was great to see so many ladies there. Margaret W is doing a fantastic job for the group, she has organized so many visitors to come and advise, critique, encourage and take us out of our comfort zone. At the last meeting Margie P came along to talk to the girls about their work, to help us with future projects, and Noel is going to show us composition and colour in up coming classes.

The girls have been working on a colour challenge/project. We could choose from Earth, Wind, Water, and then each month we repeat our blocks in split complimentary, monochromatic, shades of grey, complimentary. analogous, triadic. The challenge started in July, I am way out of my comfort zone, so I am still procrastinating over what I'm going to do. When I see the pieces that the ladies have done, I find even harder to start.

Junee, what can I say this is unreal

Just amazing

This is Jo's work but not part of the challenge

What do I need to do get going with this challenge!!

I have so many half done projects and now the new/old machine. I feel as though I'm sinking in a sea of stuff. My way of dealing with all this is to go and play in the garden. Well there is my answer, finish half done projects and get rid of useless stuff.

Some of the completed blocks

Anyway talking about half done projects, I have been working on a sample quilt for up coming classes. Most of the blocks are done, now I have decided to do an applique border and I change one of the fabric using the red fabric in the block.

I have searched high, low, locally, interstate and afar to no avail. So I'm hoping someone may have seen this fabric in a store. I only need a half a meter/yard.

Help ............where can I find this fabric.


I just love this pin cushion...........

This pincushion is my type of challenge, I had so much fun doing the free motion stitching..............

A new old machine

2011-09-18T09:25:00.000+10:00

It has been a while since my last post, there has been so much happening in the garden and my studio. This year I had my 50th birthday and had the choice of a trip to New York and the Grand Canyon or a Longarm (who's a lucky girl). The holiday was my first choice, of course. It was a fantastic holiday and I can't wait to go back.

At Monument Valley what an amazing place.......

On Brooklyn Bridge

Over the years I have been to Quilting Festival to do workshops and workshops by Sharon Schamber in Brisbane. In Sharon's class recently she mentioned that I would have a longarm soon. I brushed that remark away, but 2 weeks later a old machine was up for sale and I had first option. My friend Sandra works at a curtain and soft furnishing business and they had the longarm there that was not being used and decided to sell it. We did a little homework and contacted Nolting in America, they said the machine is 20yrs old. It may be old but she goes and is solid as a rock. So I bought it and then we realised that it would not fit in the Studio. So after talking to Kim at work we have set the machine up in the shop. It is so big, the table is 4.3m long and the arm is 30" wide. I am in the process of changing the wheels, I don't think they have been replaced since the machine came off the production line. Also the hand grips need to be updated and starter switch is a little sluggish. I can't wait to get her going and start quilting.

Machine and table loaded up and ready to go to the shop

Unloading at the shop

Mr J, Sandra and Nic

Sandra is always there for support

Stacey helping out also.

Sandra and myself

Kim checking out the machine

So before the machine came into my life I have been busy in the vegetable garden. I have all the garden beds ready to go and I planted out about 200 seedlings mixing flowers and vegetable seedling through all the gardens, and everything is growing really well. I have already picked spinach, lettuce, zucchinis and celery for our meals. We are enjoying been able to be a little self sufficient by growing some of our food and having chooks in the backyard. When you can pick and eat it within an hour, the flavour and taste of the food is incredible. It makes all the hard work worthwhile.

I had a get together yesterday in the Studio. Sandra has finished her Sample quilt and stitched some hexagons and Lorraine started the Pickle dish quilt from one Kaffe's book and bought along her finished wall hangings, they look great.

I raided the scrap basket to try out a new template that I bought from Kimz shop. I have also finished the top of a couple of quilts so that I can practice on the longarm. I think I have about 5 tops ready now, I have been offered many tops to practice on by friends too.

Lorraine's wall hanging

Lorraine version of Dianne Johnson pattern

I have nearly finished this quilt

I hope you enjoy the photos from our garden

Cheers Cathy

Birthdays

2011-08-25T18:17:00.000+10:00

Thinking of you Christine......love you, miss you.......

A weekend of workshops

2011-08-16T08:48:00.000+10:00

It's been a while since my last post. I have been playing in the garden and trying to finish my long list of UFO's. I will post some photos from the garden later.

Last weekend I had a great two days in Manly doing workshops with Sharon Schamber and a group of lovely ladies. Sharon is such an inspiring and a very sharing person. Sharon workshop of designing wholecloth is just amazing. The second day we watched Sharon stitch some beautiful feathers, and her fillers OMG.....

2011-07-05T16:10:00.000+10:00

Last Sunday I decided I needed to make a different version of the Coleus Garden Quilt.This quilt is hanging at shop Kimz Sewing Center. This time I have used my very small collection of funky modern fabrics. It includes fat 1/4's of Love by Amy Butler, Spirographix, Oz by Sanae, Snippets by American Jane. Also a stray blue with white dot, an odd scrap of orange and yellow and a couple of other fabrics. To my surprise they have all come together, and I think the quilt top looks great. Can't wait to get the borders of red and orange on. I hope to have a photo for you next week when it is quilted and finished. It is such a simple block/pattern to make. I have made this in a couple of different combinations. My first size blocks were 21/2"sq + 5"sq +71/2"sq, plus seam allowance. A combination of blocks are joined to make a 15"square. Three 15" blocks across x three down with a 5" border makes a quick lap quilt. This time I'm making 3" + 6" + 9". Another combination is 4" + 8" + 12", or for a real challenge try 2" + 4" + 6" or even smaller try, 1" + 2" + 3". Have a go it's fun. I have taught this class to lots of ladies and they love it. It is also a great way to use many leftover scraps.

Mr J and I have also been working in the yard over the last couple of Saturdays. Slowly, very slowly the block wall is starting to take shape. The deal was Mr J build the wall and my job was to bring the retaining wall block to the backyard. Because I can only lift the wheelbarrow with three blocks at once, it has been a long process. My tuckshop arms aren't so flabby this week, and boy am I wrecked. During the week I ordered a couple of rainwater tank garden beds from Foley's in Nambour. We borrowed the trailer from FIL to collect them on Saturday. The tank beds have changed the look of the garden so quickly. Now I just have to mulch the beds up and plant seedling in the next couple of weeks. By the time the grass covers the path everything should have settled and is fruiting and flowering.

I try to have something baked and cooked on Fridays if we are working in the yard over the weekend. Last week I made a Zucchini Bread loaf for smoko's (morning and afternoon tea) and Ratatouille to have with steak and potato bake for dinner. It's a great comfort food to have after a big day in the yard working.

We are looking after my FIL's dog Alice also for a couple of days. There is a bit of tension in the yard at the moment. I have to feed Alice with Charlie in his house and Koda in the laundry. Alice is have her yard time with Charlie in the laundry. Poor Alice she is so frail and only visiting for a couple of days so I don't want to stress her with a young snappy Charlie. Here is Koda who doesn't give a dam until there is food around. Now Charlie is barking because a possum has just run across the roof of the house, and made a heap of noise.

Koda

Koda watching Mr J

Charlie

Anyway, I had a lovely afternoon today at the TAFA in Caloundra. The girls were having a Free Motion Quilting class with Fiona. It was nice to catch up with everyone, old and some new members. If you go to CACA website http://caloundraartsandcrafts.org.au, you will see their Fish Challenge from the CACA Fair. The girls have done a fantastic jobs with their fish, They look great.

In the following photo are my friends who where pointing out their favorite piece from the Buderim Textile group's challenge. It was part of the Quilt Show from last weekend. The theme for the show was Forrest. There were some great pieces of work. The girls are amazingly talented.

Well, the Pumpkin soup is nearly ready for tonight dinner, so I will sign off, until next time.

Happy stitching

Cathy H

What are we going to do now

2011-06-28T16:59:00.000+10:00

Well I have just about finished the center of Mary's quilt. I need to talk to Mary to find out what we are going to do now.

The quilt pattern is called Roses, Roses, Roses. There are a couple of traditional blocks and new designs of mine in this quilt. I have been teaching the pattern for a few years now, using needleturn applique. It is not the easiest technique so Mary opted for machine applique. Overall not a bad attempt. So now we have to add borders to make it 80" x 80"sq. I'm thinking checkerboard in 2"sq's using the remaining fabrics or ???????? Will have to think about it.

Cathy

Time flys

2011-06-26T09:16:00.000+10:00

Time fly's, its seems so long since I have posted anything, but so much has been happening. I was in the Studio the other day feeling as though I am back to before we went on holiday. I have a huge list of UFO's listed on the whiteboard. Which is embarrassing! The list seemed endless it was blocking my creative energy and I felt drained and depressed. So I cleaned the whiteboard! I know I have to make 4 baby quilts, one baby already born and two due in the next fortnight/month, and one early next year. So I"m tackling the important jobs first. Top of my unwritten list is a quilt that I 'm doing for a student Mary. Mary has knitted a Cardie/ Sweater and vest for me, just in time for our very cold winter this year. (So far we have had overnight lows of 3 to highs of 22 during the day). My next a project is for teaching and I hope to have another quit finished for the Caloundra Quilt Show in July.

We are having to remodel our vegie gardens a little so that has been taking up a lot of time on Saturdays. Now that we are back from our holiday in the USA. We have to fix up a few problems that were caused by all the rain earlier this year. Mr J is building a retaining wall around the raised garden beds as so much of the base has washed away. I also ordered more garden beds to go around our citrus trees, hopefully this will stop the weeds growing around their base. Then I can plant some flower and herb seedlings to help control the bugs. I went to a Pest Management talk by Sonya Wallace on Monday, to learn more about Permaculture for the backyard. The talk was sponsored by Sunshine Coast Council and held at the Maleny Neighbourhood Centre. After the talk I walked up Maple St to the local IGA Supermarket and to window shop. This town is so unique sitting outside the local newsagent was Nina and her guide/owner, isn't she beautiful. Her coat is just so soft and I could not resist patting her.


Nina and owner

I hope to catch up with my friend Sandra tomorrow, it was her birthday on the 12 June and I have not seen her since we got back from holidays, as she has had the flu and was house bound for a week. I have been eating heaps of garlic in most of my meals. I am lucky enough to be able to pick fresh citrus every morning for breakfast. And so far touch wood, I have been lucky not to get a cold or the flu.

I had a P'n'Q class last Saturday afternoon. The girls have also been busy finishing UFO's projects, Lorraine's Lily quilt looks great and Heather has made 75 Hexagon flowers for her quilt. Janet has been too busy painting her new house to get any quilting done. Margret is hand piecing a rose for her placemat challenge for the Caloundra Quilt Show. Lyn was quilting/tying a quilt with buttons not sure who that quilt was for but was talking about making lap quilts for the elderly at the retirement village in Maleny.

I met up with some of the girls from the class at Kimz today and we went to the movies to see Bridesmaid. What a funny movie, it's not a movie for everyone but we did enjoy it. The last movie we all went to together was Black Swan and we all decided on comedy films only after that. It was a good movie but very dark.

I want to say a hello to Lucine and Joanne, who live in the east of USA were on the Insight Tour of the Grand Canyon with us . I hope they are well and happy and following my blog. Also a hello to Tina whom Mr J was talking to at the Trading Post, somewhere in Arizona where we had lunch one day. The tour we were on was great, but it's hard to have lunch, shop and chat to people in 1 hour. I would have loved to stay all day and talked to Tina about patchwork and quilting. I could go back there again tomorrow. There is still so much to see and do.

Well, I have babbled on enough, until next time.

Cathy

I'm back home

2011-06-15T20:33:00.001+10:00

We arrived back last Sunday got home about 1am, I was just so tired for two days afterwards. I suffer from jet-lag really badly, Mr J can't understand why he never has any trouble. If you saw any of our travel blog you will see we had a fantastic holiday. It's great to be home to see family and catch up with friends. So Monday and Tuesday was the washing and ironing. I had a call from Spotlight to work stocktake in furnishings on Wednesday and then a class on Thursday at Kimz. So busy....... The house is a mess and my Studio looks like a bomb has gone off in there. I did a workshop in Brisbane with Hollis Chatelain before going away and unpacked everything but nothing got put away. After the disappointment of my quilt Featherwood Forest at the Maleny Quota Quit show I just looked at the mess and didn't know where to start, so I have been cooking instead. The house work and Studio can wait until next week. I baked Sour Cherry tarts with home made short pastry, Yum!!! and also made a Moroccan Vegetable soup. I also made a Korma curry for dinner tonight. I'm heading down to Brisbane today to the Textile Show with my friend Helen K, and I'm driving so that's going to be fun. Thank you to all for your cards and messages regarding my sister Christine. We had a phone call on Wednesday night from Christine's son Michael to say that his wife Nicole has just found out that they are having a baby, it will great to have a new baby in the family again I know Christine would be very happy too. Life goes on.

That's about all my news this week.

Delicious Sour Cherry Tarts

An update after my short absence...........

2011-05-31T15:05:00.000+10:00

Well, it has been an interesting month since my last post. My sister Christine passed away after complications with Kidney and other organ failure due to Type1 Diabetes. It was a very sad and stressful time for my family as Mr J and I were getting ready to go on holidays. There was a lot of organizing to have the funeral before we left on the Friday, and mixed emotions when we caught the plane on Sunday morning (Mothers day).
Mr J and I flew to New York to start our months holiday, what a fantastic city. We had a hotel booked in 49th Street just around the corner of Time Square. You can have a look at our Travel blog (link on this Blog page) for more info and photos and posts .
We caught a train to Lancaster to spend 4 days at Intercourse also known as Crossed Keys. I have a couple of photos of some Patchwork and Quilting Shops to tease you. All the shops are within 8km of each other.

Will catch up with more photos when we return home.

Just sitting at the Las Vegas airport waiting to catch a plane to San Francisco.
Until then Cathy

My Quilt Shop Crawl at Intercourse & Bird in Hand.

Quota Quilt Show

2011-05-01T12:20:00.002+10:00

I went to the quilt show yesterday with Sandra yesterday, it was nice to catch up with friends and see all the beautiful quilts on display. I was very disappointed to see my quilt Featherwood Forest just folded over a chair. A couple of friends said they had walked around the hall looking for my quilt. It just proves that what I thought looked pretty good was very ordinary to others. I didn't even take a photo of my quilt.

Happy Birthday to me

2011-04-26T21:12:00.000+10:00

Well, I have had a great week and weekend to celebrate my 50th birthday. I went to Hervey Bay to visit my parents to celebrate with my family. I caught the train back home on Thursday and Mr J had the car packed and we were heading off to Byron Bay for the Bluesfest. "Wow" what a fantastic weekend.

The first day we saw BB King and the Blind Boys, followed by Grace Jones (?), Xavier Rudd, Tim Robbins, Jack Thompson, Saltwater a great Australian Indigenous band, Los Lobos, Raul Malo, Wagon, Rockwiz, Bob Abbott ( our local Mayor), Eric Bibb and the most outstanding was Trombone Shorty. What a weekend!!!!

Byron Bay is such a beautiful place to visit. Mr J was lucky enough to get some accommodation for us near the center of town, so it was easy to catch a bus to the BluesFest.

We saw my favourite busker Juzzy Smith on Saturday morning playing his version of Waltzing Matilda.

On our way home on Monday we called in and had lunch with our extended family. It was great to catch up with them and to see baby Jamie again, he has grown so much and now weighs 3.6kgs.

I also received another present for my birthday that you will hear about in a couple of weeks. Keep posted, it's exciting......

I have finished Featherwood Forest, It may never win any competitions but I'm happy with it. I took it around to Kim this afternoon, who is taking the quilt to the Maleny Quota Quilt Show for me this weekend. Maleny is the place to be this weekend with the Art and Craft Fair and also Woodies - http://www.malenywoodexpo.com.au is on at the Show Grounds.

I'm off tomorrow to Brisbane to do the workshop with Hollis Chatelain for three days, it is a little daunting. I still can not decide what image I am going to do. I have a few ideas ready and will decide once the workshop start. I will have a posting for you to see my work in stages next weekend.

Until then I hope you all have a creative week. Cathy

An afternoon being inspired....

2011-04-19T10:15:00.000+10:00

I have been madly quilting to finish the Featherwood Forest, but took the afternoon off to catch up with friends at the Textile and Fibre Art group in Caloundra http://caloundraartsandcrafts.org.au. We have been making a banner to display at the upcoming fair in June.

The girls are getting all the blocks ready but the 'L' is still a work in progress.

Show 'n' Tell

We have also been making some badges for the Fair to sell.

Margaret is showing us the work that has done on her challenge which is from another group she belongs to in Buderim.

Eileen has been busy making a beautiful felted hat and basket.

The book cover belongs to the very creative Mollie.

Our group gets together the 1st and 3rd Monday afternoon. It is always inspiring, we have some very talented ladies who are very willing to share knowledge and experience.

A great afternoon with friends

2011-04-18T17:32:00.000+10:00

We had a great get together yesterday with six ladies coming along, for an afternoon of sewing.
Lorraine is up to the quilting stage of a Dianne Johnstone pattern. I suggested a spiderweb pattern across the background using a white metallic thread.

I can't wait to see it finished.

Margaret and Lyn are working on a their quilt tops. Margret R came along for a social outing after just spending the morning with her grandkids and Janet is finishing off her star quilt.

Heather is still making Grandma flower garden flowers, last count she has 75 made. Heather also made a yummy orange poppy seed cake for me for my birthday. Isn't she lovely.

When we first started meeting many years age we only had a packet of biscuits for our coffee, these days it is a smorgasbord of cakes, chocolates, dips, cheeses and a little wine to finish off the afternoon. A good afternoon had by all.

The Creation of Featherwood Forrest

2011-04-10T07:55:00.000+10:00

Drawing and drafting the pattern.

The first stitching lines to divide the sections

The first feather stitched.

This is the design that was drawn on the sheet. The finished feather is not quite the same. I find that being creative freemotion, once the spine has been stitched the feather can take on a whole new style, to my original idea.

My first blog

2011-04-09T20:35:00.001+10:00

Where do I start? Well, I am currently working on a piece for the Maleny Quota Quilt Show in May. It is called Featherwood Forrest, as the name suggest there are many feathers in this small quilt. The hand-dyed background fabric I purchased from Karyll Butler last year at the same show. It has beautiful shades of green and I have divided the fabric up into sections and sewed a running stitch around each one to separate them. In the sections I am quilting a variety of white feathers with different background in green thread. It is starting to take shape, I will post some pictures soon. I have a class next Saturday, it will be great to catch up with the girls and see what they have been up to. We have been working on reducing our scrap fabric stash by making a variety of quilt-as-you-go quilts. They are a little addictive, finish one and you want to start another, and it has not reduce my little pile of strips, I keep cutting up fabric that is a little tired looking or over 15years old . I have to get in and finish the baby/toddle quilt I started for B-I-L Kerry and his partner Sunni, they had little Jamie Kim last week. so cute and tiny. Will post photos when we see them again at Easter.