It's been a while since I've written about the TAFA in Caloundra.......at the moment we are doing some challenges......we are having a monthly and bi-annual challenge.......the monthly challenge for August is WORDS.......everyone who was at the meeting had to write one word on  a piece of paper and they were all folded in put into a bucket...then passed around and we had to pick one out...hopefully not your own......so my words for August is "obsession".......OK what am I going to do for this.......well I thought about it and decided to narrow it down to an obsession with textiles....that makes sense....friends were saying I could make something about chocolate....sex....drugs......as these are things that people have obsessions about.......noooo...... textiles sound more interesting to work with....so my obsession at the moment is circles.....when I am machine quilting and have to fill in backgrounds I just love doing pebbles or pearls as some people call them....I think of them as circles.......so this is where I am going to start with my challenge.....my obsession with circles using applique.....stamping.....freemotion quilting.......so I don't have very long to make my piece......as it is due on the 20 Aug and at the moment the painters have the Studio wrapped up and have started painting......by the time they finish I will be able to hobble down to catch up with my projects.......

The TAFA group had a felting class with Jo and they made hats.......here are a couple of photo of their finished pieces.......

The other photos are of Liz who makes beautiful clothing.......

from hand dyed the silk fabric and has hand stitches the whole piece.......I think it looks great......but Liz is a little unsure about wearing it herself.......

Happy Stitching - - - - -

Cathy

Well I'm up and about.....slowly does it........off the crutches and limping around.......last Friday I had a knee operation........they were just going to have a look but decided to fix it up the best they could.....because next time it will be a knee replacement.........after I heard the Doctor say that they scraped the underneath of my knee cap I didn't hear anything else he said........got home early Friday afternoon and pretty well stayed in bed until Tuesday afternoon......they only time I was out of bed was to go to the loo and have a sponge bath......Jens and I ate breakfast, lunch and dinner in bed the whole weekend...... Jens did a great job looking after me, considering he had the worst case of gout in his left knee.......we were both full of pain killers for a couple of days...lucky Jens could get out of bed to cook and make cups of coffee for me and bring me anything else I wanted.......I had a couple of falls on the crutches....lucky I was near the bed when I fell....the other time was not so bad.......have been doing my exercises and can lift my leg straight and up and hold it for 20 seconds......still can't bend it very much though.......after I see the Doctor in 2 weeks I will be able to start physio....yesterday after helping change the sheets I spent spent the rest of the day in front of telly doing some applique and I cooked some rissoles for dinner....Jens did the veges and served.......I might have over done it a bit as I slept for 9 hrs last night........I'm taking it much easier today.....went out side to catch a little sunshine and have a look at the gardens.....the weather is beautiful here at the moment.....bright sunny days and cool overnight temps around 7 - 21.......can't complain about that........so much has happened in the last 2 weeks....will tell you about it all over the next few posts.......until then....happy stitching.......Cathy

A big thank you to my friends for such a great day

Just after Easter, I thought that it would be a good idea to have a Xmas in July party just for something different........as there are just so many party in December........I had also organized to have the outside of the Studio painted in June and it would be nice fresh and clean........well... we have had so much rain the painter is about 2 months behind in his work and I am about the same.......the idea of digging around looking for Xmas decorations was not so appealing at the beginning of this month....so I sent out a email saying how disorganized I was and we would have a social day instead.......the ladies came along and we all had a lovely day even the sun came out for a little while

Joan, Barb, Ellen and myself

Margaret

 all the ladies bought a small plate of food to share....we had home made Sushi, meat ball, chicken salad sandwiches, homemade cakes, slices and quiche and a little vino...it was a little feast

some of the yummy food for lunch

Lynne and June

Pat and Patsy

Margret

Heather and Margaret

and the ladies bought along some show and tell.......

 

Patsy showing her cushion top to Barb

June, Lynne and myself showing off our applique

   

Lynne's thangle star quilt top

this a the backing for Lynne's star quilt

Barb's wall hanging of her beautiful Geisha Girl there are so many different techniques in this piece

Patsy showing her Bargello table runner

 

Margaret showing her convergence quilt with the under water scene and mermaids

Sandra with her ( wip) wall hanging from the Helen Godden workshop....this piece is called Princess Sea-anna

Joan showing her beautiful work

Ellen bought along her felting to show us....

Margret and Joan looking at another piece of Joan's work.....

Ladies looking Sandra's piece with the African animals on it

Kaylene checking out her photos

Jens set up a small table for the ladies to have a go at doing a jigsaw that I bought last year when we were on holidays in the USA......a couple of the ladies were hooked...it was amazing how much they did........there are 1000 pieces and finished it is 16" x 11"........

The day was also a way of starting another challenge for those who wanted to........it is a silly game that we played.....it like musical chairs.....but you have a piece of ugly fabric......and everyone's idea of ugly is different....anyway.....we stand in a circle and when the music starts you pass your fabric around until the music stops..........then we snip the fabric and then rip it in half........you then keep one piece and get ready to pass the other piece around...and keep repeating this so that you end up with 7 different pieces of fabric ranging from a half meter to a square about 4''sq....... we then have 12 months to make something with these fabrics.....where you can add one more piece of fabric......you can dye, paint, stamp your fabric and add as much embellishment to it as you like..... 

these are the fabrics for our new challenge.......they are not as scary as last time....

Heather's piece from the Xmas 2010 challenge

Sandra's piece from the 2010 Xmas challenge

these are some of the challenge fabric from 2010

I hope everyone has had a great weekend with their family and friends

Cathy xo

Ric rac, buttons and fabric.....

A bit of ric rac, a couple of buttons and a piece of hand dyed fabric.......along with some machine embroidery, hand embroidery and freemotion stitching and this is what I ended up with........I must admit that I was inspired by a photo I saw in a Quilting Arts magazine from earlier this year....but I don't think my bag looks anything like her work........sorry will post ladies name later.......I have tried to keep it very individual and unique.........

I really enjoyed making this bag......my machine only does about 25 embroidery stitches and four of them are for the button hole.....so I did a little hand embroidery with different threads to fill in a few spaces.......the last strip I was going to do some heavy freemotion stiching around these circles but decided I like it as is.......it's a bit rough and ready......but that's ok......

I showed the ladies at work the other day and they have started their own panels........so check out what they have been doing at...... http://itchintwostitch.blogspot.com.au/.........

I have been quilting a little panel for my great niece...Isabelle....it has been a lot of fun..........I have to fix the threads and then do the binding...hope to get it in the post on Monday........

I will post a photo when it finished......

Hello.....what are you doin.......

I have planted out the new shrubs and vines that I bought at the Expo on the weekend.......

I follow the moon guide planting system so I had 2 days to get them in the ground......and since then we have had a couple of good heavy showers.....so they are off to a good start......

over the last two weeks I have been painting two of the small fences white.....they are so bright and clean it makes the rest of the house look grubby........when it fines up again will have start scrubbing the house and studio down to get them ready for a tidy up too.......

You can see part of the big fence in the background.....it has been undercoated and is ready waiting for me to paint......it is about 12m long so it's going to be a big job..........have to wait for good weather now....

Matilda is getting a little better........you can see how big she is these days...

always on the go......does not leave Koda along......

Until next time....happy stitching -----------Cathy

I went to the Garden Expo yesterday with my friend Sandra..........we headed up to Nambour on the back roads through Eudlo and Palmwoods.......to get away from the traffic on the highway.......and spent the most of the day in the Kitchen Garden.......

listen to a couple of talks on growing garlic and potatoes........

we also spent an hour with Costa (with 200 other people) when he spoke about Why Food Matters.....

 There were some great displays, I really enjoyed looking at the natives gardens also.....

The colours in the native flowers are just beautiful...

Check out these Macaws......they were so cheeky.......one lady was talking to them and the Macaw on the left started posing and opening his wing up to show off....I could have watched them for ages......

We went back to the Kitchen Garden, not so many people around then and I managed to get a photo with Costa.........

Sandra and I were so inspired by some of the Garden Clay Art that we enrolled in a pottery class at Eudlo in August......something a little different, I'm looking forward to that.......

I about to get out into the garden to plant the vines and shrubs that I bought yesterday..........I feel all inspired again and have a few new ideas for our garden.......

until next time......Cathy