Spring at last

The weather is finally warmer I have sat outside to eat my lunch twice this week, so tired of the cold it has been a very long winter.
Thank you to all the girls who emailed me last week asking how I was my medical procedure is over and I am much better nothing serious or scary just annoying as the cyst on my back was in such an awkward spot and large I didn't mind not being able to do housework but not able to sew was the pits!
I was home a week and unable to do my homework for class, but today I made a start here's the proof.

 

My sewing room.

Block six of The Marriage Quilt is on the way.
Fabrics in the foreground have been chosen for next major works inspired by daffodils, tulips and other spring flowers.
I am loving all the old brights that are available at the moment Rhonda from Post Office Patchwork Glenbrook gave me a bundle of Pomegranate by The Rock Mountain Quilt Museum 1800-1850 by Bluehill fabrics just delicious.
Glenbrook was my first classes after my week off so here are the girls and their homework.

 

First two quilts are Ruth's.

Lucy Boston.



French Mosaic

Liz just needs to finish her mitred corners on French Mosaic.

 

Pru didn't want a Cream Tea so here is her Green Tea.

Just love it!

My Summer School samples are almost ready just need a few bits and pieces to organise and your emails will be sent.

I will see the girls at Quiltsmith tomorrow and then on to Miranda for Thursday Friday so look forward to catching up.

I will be keeping up with my blog now!

Stay safe everyone

Karen x



New Quilt

Hi everyone great news I finished a new quilt today!
An Irish Medallion "County Kilkenny" All ready for quilting I can almost hear you all asking what fabric to buy so you will need a lovely border always nice to find a stripe and  a smaller print fabric to go with it. Alright 3 mtrs of border and 1 mtr of matching small print, my quilt is c1800s my border is a copy of an 1820's fabric.
I had my border fabric for about seven years you know the fabric you cant cut up well I had five yards and I used all of it the width of each stripe was fourteen inches and I could only cut three down the length so a little drama today as I didn't have enough to mitre but I found a solution.
You will also need fabric suitable for broderie perse: birds, baskets and flowers.
This is not a replica of an old quilt so Mr google wont find it.
This will be one of the quilts for Summer School.

There is other exciting news Michelle did her homework!
Such a shock she even received a star, such a busy girl its wonderful when we get time to just sew.

Michelle

Here are more high achievers.

Jan is behind her blue Nottingham quilt.

Bev and Sue with their Hidcote Garden's.

Karen with her Nottingham Quilt.

Chris with the centre of Miss Austen's Garden.

Here is a lesson for you all this is my mum and dad unpicking machine quilting she had done on her Irish circles quilt.

Make sure you choose a quilting pattern you like have a look at the samples on display or study quilting on other quilts to better judge what would suit your quilt.

Such a cute photo but in reality it took a week to unpick threads everywhere even the bathroom!







Here is Denise an outstanding student from Port Maquarie yes I only see her once a year and look what she gets done. Plus every year when I teach in Port it falls on Denise's birthday so she comes to class as part of the celebration I am always so happy to see all the girls each year.

Jester Quilt



New England fall.

Anna

I just cant make out who was behind this beautiful Anna Quilt but another Port Maquarie girl.

Let me know who it is!

I had afternoon tea in Port at the lovely Tea rooms.

Well it is time for bed its 10.30 and I am in Sydney for the next three days with a lovely evening planned at the Camden Quilt shows opening night on Friday.

One of my favourite shows just love the atmosphere and lovely quilts to view.

I will leave you with a photo from my trip to America this is the children's garden in the beautiful Longwood gardens PA

Goodnight all,

Karen x









Catch up

Block four "The Marriage Quilt"

I know its been a while since my last blog but since I arrived home from America I have had three of my children's birthdays a road trip to the country for two weeks, which was fantastic and lots of sewing to prepare for Summer School and class.

Thank you to all the girls who worried about me I am well perhaps a little frazzled but now I am feeling like I just might catch up!

I have had a few emails asking for my patterns at the moment I don't have any for sale  correspondence school will start again next year in February.

I have been looking to hire a graphic designer to perhaps make my patterns easier to print and more cost efficient just haven't found the right person yet. I know it is something I can no longer do on my own so that is a step forward as being a Taurus I think I can do everything myself.

I will be posting again soon I just thought I would quickly catch up today and get back to block five of the Marriage Quilt and add the next borders to Plain and Fancy so I can get the next correspondence posted.

Hope you are all well and stitching away,

Karen x



Home.

Hi Everyone, I am only now feeling back to normal, it is so hard to get your sleeping habits back on track only the last few days I have been able to stay awake all day.
Anyway I am going steadily through my emails and requests for patterns so please be patient if I haven't  got back to you all.
The correspondence school will be a little late my daughter did a great job of keeping track of payments I just need to have a day to get it all straight in my head.
The trip was fantastic a combination of good company great weather and amazing days of sight seeing and textiles galore.
The quilts we saw in the museums: DAR, Smithsonian, Winterthur and The folk art Museum were outstanding one of my favourites was the Harriet Powers Bible Quilt I have loved that quilt for so long to see it was amazing. of course I can't show photo's of these quilts we were lucky we could take photos with the flash off but as with most museums these are for personal use only, all the girls in class can have a look at my photos.
So let us start at the beginning of the tour at Paducah my favourite show to date.
The whole town welcomes the quilters with stores set up all over town with fabrics and antique quilts.
The National Quilt Museum had a lovely display of quilts some basket quilts I would love to make one had baskets only 3 inches so adorable.
And the show was beautiful so many lovely quilts I bought the disc so I can sit and look at them close up whenever I like. So many great vendors just wonderful to see how creative the stalls were.
I am so glad we did all five days we were busy every day the shuttles dropped you off at Hancocks or any stop you liked and were back in an hour to take you to the next stop fantastic would love to go to this show again!
A few in my group visited The Metropolitan Hotel in Paducah which used to be the only hotel African Americans could stay in so a lot of very famous musicians stayed there. We had a fish fry, cat fish, white beans, slaw and corn bread very delicious and viewed quilts by the late Pearl Smith.
At three we attended a lecture by Dr Pearlie Johnson the topic:The intra-diasporic connections between African and African American quilts and the ways in which African American quilters reinterpret African cultural features in their works of art.
Such a great talk one of the highlights of my trip, you know how I love birds in my quilts and my favourite colour is blue well Dr Pearlie told us that the colour blue is a symbol of birds.

Dr Pearlie Johnson in the middle.

We did a walking tour of the lovely historic homes.

Here are a few of the shops.

There was an antique quilt with my name on it in Finkel's pity the bank account disagreed.

We thought we would try the local roadhouse it said welcome and it was half price Margarita  night.

Didn't know they came in a bowl.

I did have a few more photos to download but my computer will not do it something about space left so I will have to do some work on that.

Next time we will move on to The Shaker Village and some show and tell from class as I return tomorrow.

Thank you to all the quilters in the U.S for being so friendly I hope some of you come to Australia so we can reciprocate your hospitality.

See you all in class,

Karen x

April news.

I thought I had better have a last blog before I head off to the U.S
 My packing is going to be organised today seems like the weather is as changeable as ours so layering clothes will be my best bet, always hard to know what to pack especially when you have to take into consideration my very own internal heat waves.
Here are two of my friends Susie and Anne getting hexagons ready for the trip.
I have never seen them work in class this diligently.

On Monday I had my last class at Killara Village Quilts very sad as I have been working there for about eight years. You get to know all the locals when you are in an area that long so I will miss going. The girls in class have all been able to squeeze into classes in Sydney so thankfully I didn't have to say goodbye to them as well.

I will be in Mittagong tomorrow so I had better post last months pictures, sorry it has taken me so long to blog but I needed to get all the correspondence school sorted for two months which was a huge work load but I couldn't go away with May missing, typical mother everything has to be done before I go.

The applique is of block one of The Marriage Quilt.

A blast from the past Megs Lemon and Lime.

Karen with her Bumble Bee and First block.

Here are my blocks so far.

ONE.

TWO

THREE.

Love making this quilt I have read such interesting things about this quilt, the debate on is it African American or not very interesting.

I have drawn a few English quilts and I find drawing this quilt is very unique experience.

Further reading: Signs and Symbols. African Images in African quilts Author Maude Wahlman.

Hart Cottage Quilts: really great reading.

Whille we are reading Barbara Brackmans Blog has some lovely photos of the quilt Irish Circles was based on in the Cheltenham Museum England.

Well back to class this time Cottage Quilt Works.

Two very different starts to French Mosaic.

Ruth and Helen with the centre of Miss Austens Garden.

I am making a quilt with the lovely John Hewson Centre, just love it.

Gina used her beautiful Dutch Chintz fabrics to make her version of the V&A quilt.

Finally Patchwork Plus Miranda, the big news here is that Michelle did her homework!

Robyn is hiding behind her Plain and Fancy.

Michell's version of Bluebell.

Vicky with her version of The Folk Art quilt.

This month I also visited The Camden Guild, I was the guest speaker at the meeting and held a workshop the next day.

Such a great group the meeting was very interactive with everyone participating.

The raffle quilt for 2012 Camden show is a beautiful hexagon quilt so I hope I win that.

Well I best look through some clothes and dust off my bag but first a cup of tea is in order.

I will not be blogging whille away but when I get back I will pick the best bits for you, hope to meet lot's of quilting friends in the U.S

My grandson is doing well and has put on lot's of weight.

Such a shame I had to cuddle him for ages the other night whille his mother had dinner in peace, fantastic.

Take care everyone, all the girls coming on the tour, see you at the airport!

Karen x









My Grandson has arrived!

Hi everyone my beautiful grandson Saxon was born on the 12th of March healthy and the most beautiful baby in the hospital obviously the best one there.
Such a wonderful experience seeing my son so happy and Kara such a doting new mum, one of the best weeks for my family and now I can officially have a Nanna nap.

We had our meeting for the tour to America the chatter and excitement was excellent. I will now have to check out all the baby outlets what fun. I am now ready to go I had to get my permanent residents visa updated as I have a British passport so I need the visa to get back in, wonder where they would send me if I just had my passport... not really worth finding out.

Let us have a look at some fantastic show and tell.

Megan has finished Hidcote garden, love the colours Blue a favourite of mine.

Wendy has her Antique Applique back from the quilters.

Jan has done so much homework she is the highest achiever this month and she volunteers for The Sydney Guild!

Her cream tea is one of my absolute favourites she has added more rows and made this a very large quilt the colours were meticulously chosen, great work Jan.

My two block of the months on the design wall behind her.

Devine.

Just about finished her Sampler.

This is Jan's adaptation of English Autumn.

Now to Jan at Miranda.

This is her adaptation of this years French Mosaic I love how Jan get's things done  by changing the work load, thinking outside the square or should that be inside the square in this case.

Another star for Plain and Fancy, gorgeous.

This is Birds of a Feather a very old pattern Sharon tells me this was about 12 years in the making, is that what realism means?

And lastly Chris made this quilt a few years ago my little garden quilt is tiny but with the help of a photocopier Chris made a giant version looks fantastic.

Thank you for all the emails asking for information for Summer Scholl next year I will keep all of your contact details and will forward information when organised. 

I am going back to the hospital tonight so best get ready I am sure he looks forward to seeing me.

Take care,

Karen x