Threadbear

A few people have asked about the Ryland Manor block of the month I showed last post. When finished it will measure 78 1/2" square. In Australia, the Pattern and Fabric Pack is $45.00 per month including postage and the Pattern Only is available for $13.50. Threadbear does not have a website so here is the address if you are interested.

Threadbear

58 Hargraves St,
Castlemaine,
Victoria,
3450

Telephone - 54721881
Fax - 54721881
email: tbear@castlemaine.net

Hope this is helpful. It really is a beautiful quilt.

Sadly, I've been too busy or tired to do much stitching this week. Hanging out for the weekend when I plan to stay home and sew and catch up on some blogs.
Here is another of the superb quilts I was lucky enough to see in Melbourne last Friday. It is Judy Day's Prince's Feather and was adapted from a quilt made in Ohio in 1845.

The hand quilting is just amazing. This lady does 3 or 4 stitches to my one!

As this picture shows the quilt features corded and stuffed leaves and grapes.

I'm sure you're not surprised that this quilt won prizes at both Paducah and the Sydney Quilt Show. Bye for now.

Quilt Convention

I can't believe it's nearly a week since my last post. We had a great weekend in Melbourne - ate and spent far too much! Shout was great - very cool to see Aussie music icons like Glenn Shorrock, Colleen Hewitt, John Paul Young and Mark Holden. We sat three rows behind Alan Brough from Spicks and Specks. (Australian music trivia TV show)

The expo at the Quilt Convention was amazing. Along with hundreds of others, we arrived before the doors opened at 10.00 am on Friday. There was so much to see. It was nice to catch up with Gail at the Foothills Fabric and Threads stand and also Leonie and Deidre from The Quilted Crow.

About five years ago I went on a quilt shop hop through country Victoria with my Dad and we visited a lovely store in Castlemaine called Threadbear. At the expo, they had a new block of the month quilt on display called Ryland Manor. Having never done a block of the month I've been keen to start one for a while now. As soon as I saw this quilt I knew it was going to be this one. It has so many things I love - gorgeous reproduction fabrics including lots of shirtings, a house block, applique and medallion style borders. The lady below is Megan who designed the quilt.

It was hard to get a really good picture. Hopefully I'll have time to start on the centre block this weekend.

Downstairs there was a Quilt Show. My favourites were the quilts of award winning Australian quilter Judy Day. You were allowed to take photos so I will share some of these in each of my next few posts. I was in absolute awe at the tinyness of the hand quilting stitches.

This quilt is called Medallion Love Affair. The dahlia style block in the centre was inspired by a quilt made in Yorkshire, England about 1840 - 1860. The quilt features Broderie Perse and hexagons made over paper.

More from the Creative Women Workshop

Tonight I've been packing to go to Melbourne tomorrow. I will be working till lunchtime then driving to Launceston to catch the plane. It's about a 90 minute drive but worth it when you can fly for $30. Jetstar had a 1c sale for one hour last night. Unbelievable - the snag was you could only take cabin luggage. (Okay for a day trip I guess, but not much use for a longer stay. I couldn't get onto the website anyway.)

As I won't be home again until Sunday night I thought I'd show a few more pics from the Creative Women Workshop. Anne Ida flies home to Norway tomorrow night. Here she is with the stitchery she worked on for Rose's table runner.

This is a little tin I got on sale at Spotlight recently. It was just the right size to carry my scissors, cutter, threads, etc.

Natalie and Gail seem to be enjoying themselves.

Some pattern samples from Cinderberry Stitches. I love the fabrics in this bag - Chocolate from Moda, I think.

Samples from Rosalie Quinlan Designs and Melly and Me.

Isn't this elephant adorable?



This is the Family Values quilt designed by Rose from Threadbare Creations. Definitely on my list of projects to make sometime.



You can see some of the blocks from the quilt more clearly in this cushion.



Rose is also teaching her sampler quilt on Saturdays at The Country Quilter.

It was so exciting to be able to see close up designs featured in magazines and on blogs. That will have to do for tonight as I'm nearly falling asleep. On Friday I'm going to the Quilt Show and Shopping Expo at the Australasian Quilt Convention, so hopefully there will be something inspiring to show next week.

PS. Don't tell my sister, but tonight I booked us 2 tickets for Shout! this Friday night. A very early birthday present.

What's in the Bag?

A few people have been asking what was in the bag I showed last post. As I said each designer created some new designs especially for the workshop so the bag contained the patterns for each of these. It was really cool being able to see the actual samples the girls had stitched. I will show you some of the photos I took of the samples - I'm sure there are better pictures on the blogs of each designer so make sure you pop over for a look. They will probably also have information about you can purchase these lovely new patterns for yourselves.

Gail Pan from Gail Pan Designs had two very nice projects to share. Firstly, this quilt called Summer's Bouquet.

The little stitcheries are appliqued using needleturn applique. (I learnt to do this at the weekend - but more on that in a future post.)

I really like the chain stitch scallops around the stitcheries. Gail said she was thinking of old-fashioned cameo brooches and necklaces when she added this. Very effective, I think.

Gail's other project was a bag called Saturday Morning.

Here you can see the detail of the applique. After Gail showing me how she does needleturn applique, I am confident to have a go at this one.

Local Tasmanian designer, Rose Johnston from Threadbare Creations designed this beautiful project called Summer Garden Tablerunner. Sorry it's not a very good photo - Rose has some much better ones on her blog.

Here is a close-up of one of the blocks. Anne Ida worked on this project and finished one of the stitcheries. As you will see in a later post, I didn't actually do that much stitching - too busy talking and taking photos!

Natalie Lymer from Cinderberry Stitches designed this gorgeous bag called Blossom and Bloom. I just love the fabric - check Natalie's blog if you want to know the name of the range.

Natalie also shared this very sweet quilt called Fresh Breeze. Again, the photos don't do it justice so check Natalie's own photos on her blog. She is definitely one of the best blog photographers around.

Isn't this cute?

The final designer for the weekend was Rosalie Quinlan from Rosalie Quinlan Designs. Rosie is also the 'me part' of Melly and Me. She designed two lovely cushions called Summer Garden Cushions and a very cute dolly called Sally.

When I've had a bit more practice at needleturn applique I'd love to have a go at these cushions.

Here is Sally who lots of people (including me) had a go at making. Rosalie had lots of tips for us about doll-making and showed us how she paints the faces on her creations.

I hope you like all the eye candy. It's taken quite a long time to do this post but it was fun seeing all the lovely projects again.

P.S. Blogger won't let me have spaces between my text and photos tonight. Does anyone know how to fix this? It's so annoying!

Summer Garden with Creative Women

Hello everyone. Tonight I returned from an amazing weekend in Launceston at the Summer Garden with Creative Women workshop. The presenters were all as lovely as their designs and very inspiring. It was nice to meet quite a few fellow bloggers. From the left are Rose, Sally, Gail, Natalie, Rosie and Anne Ida. I didn't notice till I was looking through my photos but red, white and black seem very popular colours for workshop attire! Gail and Natalie were also wearing their famous (and very nice) red shoes!



When we arrived each person received this nice bag containing all the patterns the designers had designed especially for this weekend. (I will share more about them next post except to say we were extremely spoilt for choice.) We also got a very cute pouchy thing. I'm embarrassed to say, I'm not sure what it's for! (I'm sure someone will enlighten me) but I like it very much.



Here's what it looked like opened up on the front -



.... and the back. Aren't the cupcakes cute?



If you've been following my blog you'll know that Anne Ida was the postman for May Britt. For winning her WISP challenge she sent me this gorgeous hanging heart in one of my favourite colour combinations - red and white. Also a very cute stitchery pattern of two little trolls. It is by a Norweigan designer so very new to me. Thank you so much May Britt.



Miss Marple is about to start so I'll finish with this nice photo of Anne Ida. It was lovely to meet her and I hope she enjoys the rest of her stay.

A Very Unquilty Post

I'm disappointed to report that there's been little happening on the stitching front this week. Because I'll be in Launceston this weekend and Melbourne next, I've spent the evenings doing school preparation - I don't want to be stressing about it while I'm away.

Thought I'd share some pictures of Molly and my niece and nephew taken at the dog beach earlier this week. When I'm not stitching, the beach is my favourite place to be. Molly absolutely loves it. As these photos reveal, she enjoys a range of beach activities:

Diving for Rocks

Retrieving Sticks from the Water

Playing with the Kids

I promise to have some stitchy things to share next time. Until then,