Dare to Differ Exhibition

I was thrilled to have my little Umbelliferae quilt accepted into the Dare to Differ exhibition which is on display at Gallery M in the Marion Cultural Centre here in South Australia until 23 Oct 2011. Entry is free and it's well worth a visit. I went to the opening night with a group of friends and we had a wonderful time, in addition to seeing all the interesting and creative quilts we had a nice meal whilst listening to live music by two entertainers who sang in beautiful harmony.
Here at last is a photo of my Umbelliferae quilt.
Regards Elizabeth.

NEW block of the month Spring Evening

Finally I have almost finished my new block of the month design depicting a spring evening in Japan. It is a 9 month program and will soon be available exclusively from Patchwork by Sea. The Kanji Characters on the quilt mean 'spring evening' hence the name.
Regards Elizabeth.

Quilt Encounter

last week I had a wonderful time at quilt encounter catching up with old friends and doing two very exciting workshops. The first was 'Handbags' with Olga Walters, which was a very freeing class by an entertaining teacher with a lovely relaxed anything goes approach, she made the class so much fun and we used different and interesting techniques. I was very pleased with my effort.
The second workshop was two days with Jacqui Karl making 'Layered Leaves'. Jacqui is from New Zealand and it was very enjoyable to hear the familiar accent and mannerisms of my home country. Her workshop was very interesting teaching several different ways to make 3D leaves using some techniques I had not tried up till now. Again I was very pleased with the results.
Regards Elizabeth.

A workshop with Mariya Waters

Mariya's workshop at The Sewing Sanctuary was very inspiring and I learnt some very exciting new techniques. I enjoyed it so much that I continued with the project when I went on a weekend retreat with friends immediately following the workshop. I have almost finished the project and will certainly use the technique in future quilts. Mariya gave us some very useful tips as well and I am looking forward to her return visit next year.
Next on my agenda which I am also very much looking forward to is a few days at Quilt encounter to learn some more new techniques.
Regards Elizabeth.

Trip to Sydney

I have just returned from a wonderful few days in Sydney which nearly didn't happen because of the ash cloud. I missed the first day of the quilt show and the awards ceremony because of it and arrived Wednesday evening so was able to attend the exhibition on the Thursday. I had a lovely time looking at all the beautiful quilts, some of them were simply stunning. It was such a thrill to be awarded two 2nd places with my entries "Baby Rose of Sharon" in the miniature category and "Fantasy Seed Pods" in the Art Quilt category. You will find photos of both these quilts already on my blog. I had an enjoyable few days with friends at the show and also sightseeing around Sydney with beautiful fine days adding to our enjoyment. On Friday evening I attended the dinner put on by the NSW Guild and had a lovely time catching up with friends from past quilting occasions and meeting new people. Now it's time to come back down to earth and get back into work routine.
Regards Elizabeth.

umbelliferae

This is the name of my latest small wall hanging. It is based on the queen Anne's lace flower from the umbelliferae plant family. Umbelliferae are plants with stalks nearly equal in length springing from a common centre and together forming a flat or curved surface, for example parsley fennel, and dill. I had a lovely piece of fabric from McKenna Ryan's range with these flower heads on it and was inspired to develop my quilt on this theme with this fabric as the background. I have embellished it with interesting things like macrame rope, hessian, embroidery and jig-saw puzzles. I will show you a photo when it is finished.
Regards Elizabeth

Mitre Peak landscape quilt

At quilt encounter 2009 I enrolled in a painted landscape class with Gloria Loughman. My project was based on a photo of Mitre Peak which is in Milford Sound, New Zealand. It is a much photographed NZ scene and one I have always admired so when the opportunity arose to do this workshop I chose this for my landscape. The sky and water were composed of painted, cut and pieced fabric. The lupins in the foreground were very bright so I covered the bottom part of the quilt up to the water with mauve colored net to give a subdued effect more suited to go with the evening sky. I have called this quilt "Mitre Peak at Dusk".
Regards Elizabeth.

Baby Quilts

I have recently finished the 'Nursery Friends' quilt from Michele's new book as a sample for the shop where I work. Thank you Michele it was a delightful project to work on.
I have made several baby quilts, usually made in a hurry as a special request so they are quite simple designs. One of the brightest ones was at my daughters request for her teachers new baby. Unfortunately I don't have a photo of that one but I do have photos of two others made at various times in the past.
Regards Elizabeth.

Spring Evening in Japan

I have just collected the fabrics for this new Block of the Month. I have had the design ready to make for several months now and am keen to get started on it. The colors are clear and fresh with a soft misty look about them reminiscent of a spring evening, hence the name. This quilt is the forth BOM I  have designed exclusively for Patchwork by Sea and they are proving to be very popular. If you are a patchwork retailer and would like the advantage of exclusive rights to a BOM design why not contact me so that I can design one especially for you.
Regards Elizabeth.

Doodles

At guild this week we were fortunate to have Bonnie McCaffery as the speaker, she showed us slides of her quilts from the beginning of her quilting journey up to the present day. One of the workshops she teaches is 'doodleszendotz' which starts off with a doodle. Doodles are such fun to work with, several of my prizewinning quilts were started as a doodle namely 'mollusc' and 'gourd', you will find photos and closeups of these quilts on my blog.
Bonnie's talk also prompted me to show you a new photo of one of my earlier quilts 'nostalgic roses' which won an award back in 2004.
Regards Elizabeth.

A wonderful retreat

This weekend I went on a quilting retreat which I have attended yearly for the past 9 years. It was wonderful. I always look forward to this retreat, a chance to catch up with friends, sit sewing all weekend without any other responsibilities and delicious meals I don't have to prepare myself - a quilters heaven.
 I spent the time working on my flower meadow quilt and achieved my goal to finish the applique of all the dresden flowers using needle-turn. The next stage of this quilt is to design some flowers to add by embroidery and sashiko but this coming week will be quite busy so I don't know when that will happen.
Karen says I should put some more photos up to show you, maybe next week I will have more time to do that.
Regards Elizabeth. 

Barossa day trip

Yesterday we went on a lovely drive through the Adelaide hills to visit quilt exhibitions in the Barossa valley. It was a beautiful day and all the autumn foliage was in full color. Our first stop was Jenny's sewing centre in the main street of Angaston where there were some beautiful quilts. Several of these had exquisite machine embroidery. Needless to say the shop had some fabulous fabric that I couldn't resist. Further down the street we visited the Vine Patch Quilters exhibition where we had delicious tea and scones after viewing the quilts. This time quite a few of the quilts had hand embroidery in the blocks. The next stop was the beautiful display of quilts at the Barossa Quilt Cottage. I enjoyed seeing so many of Michele Hill's quilts together in one place and also some of Lorraine Cocker's recent work. I particularly liked Lorraine's "Little Speckled Bird" quilt, the applique blocks were just lovely.
All together we had an enjoyable quilty day out.
Regards Elizabeth.

Flower meadow

This is what I am calling my new quilt in Mckenna Ryan fabrics. I have finished the dresden plate flowers and have made a start appliquing them by  needleturn which I have chosen for portability so I can take the project with me on a retreat which is comming up soon. I am really pleased with how it is looking and because I am excited about it I spend every spare moment on it and so it grows quickly.
Another thing I did this week was to make myself a proper design wall. You'd think I would have something so vital to designing but no, I have been accustomed to pinning pieces to a quilt which hangs in my workroom, that worked OK but was far from ideal. Last weekend I taught a workshop where there was designwalls for all the students and it was fantastic so this has prompted me to finally make a proper one for myself. All it took was a piece of light plywood, a piece of batting, a staplegun and a small amount of time, well worth the effort.
Regards Elizabeth.

Nursery Quilts

This week I've added some photos of nursery quilts to the gallery page. These are both small wallhangings that I've made years ago. The cat & the fiddle is from a very old childrens picture-book that I no longer have and I made it for my daughter when she was small. The Crooked Man is my own interpretation of the nursery rhyme of the same name. Also new this week are a close-up of Roses N Cream on the patterns page and Flower Gems which won an award in 2008 on the home page. I hope you enjoy them.
Regards Elizabeth.

A new quilt for myself

A few weeks ago I showed a friend the lovely McKenna Ryan fabrics in the shop and I just couldn't get them out of my mind. I've always loved the beautiful soft blends of color that McKenna designs and I finally succumbed to the temptation to use them in a quilt. I have decided on large blocks to show the fabrics to advantage and am making a king size quilt broken down into quilt as you go sections for easier quilting.  It will have appliqued flowers scattered all over in a random manner. this quilt and the  labyrinth quilt are both at the forefront of my mind at the moment so it will be interesting to see which gets finished first. Of course they are both competing with other quilts I am working on for patterns. Life is always full and interesting with so many quilts to make isn't it.
Regards Elizabeth.

close up photos on gallery and block of the month pages

Check out the new photos I have added this week. I've also found a photo of my assistant putting her paw of approval on the quilt I made for my niece a few years ago so here she is.
regards Elizabeth.

Labyrinth

I've made a start at last on a new project I am calling Labyrinth. The difference between a maze and a labyrinth is that a maze has a choice of different paths to take some of which have dead ends whilst a labyrinth has only one path leading to the centre. I love to incorporate circular motifs and curving rhythms in my quilts, mollusc and gourd are good examples of this, so it was probably inevitable that I would eventually make a labyrinth quilt. Labyrinths go back thousands of years BC and researching them has been fascinating. I have chosen to use needleturn applique instead of the faster machine applique method so it may be quite some time in the making because of all the small brick wall and crazy path pieces, but I am enjoying the process.
Regards Elizabeth.

Another busy week

This latest week has been full on again. On Monday our McLaren Vale group were invited to visit Myponga Mudlark Quilters and when we arrived we found that several other groups around the district had also been invited, in fact the Mudlarks were expecting about 90 guests. As you can imagine we had the most wonderful day catching up with quilting friends. A very interesting talk about antique quilts and in particular Armish quilts was given by Lyn Uppill from Riverlea Quilts and she had wonderful old quilts to show us. The quilts hung about the hall and show and tell from visitors was also very inspiring and the Mudlarks unveiled their new banner. One of my quilts 'Carrousel' elicited a very good response which promises well for future workshops with this quilt.
Tuesday was spent with the girls I teach at the Seaford/Moana Neighbourhood centre and as always was a delightful day of interesting conversation intermingled with patchwork and quilting.
On Wednesday I spent a very busy but interesting day working in Karen's shop 'The Sewing Sanctuary' where I am employed on a casual basis.
Thursday was a welcome day at home relaxing with a new sewing project.
Friday I was back at the Sewing Sanctuary teaching my 'Tessellated Flowers' workshop. As a teacher it's wonderful to see the different fabric choices of students and the completely different look this has for their quilts, they were all lovely.
Saturday was of course Country Forum put on by our South Australian Quilters Guild and with such a crowd of eager patchworkers from all around the state our group again met up with distant friends. On the program were very interesting talks and presentations. Rachelle Denenny talked about her win in Huston which was just as interesting as when she spoke at Guild, we all shared in the excitement of her win with her.
Lyn Uppill spoke again this time about Japanese antique fabrics and sashiko stitching which is of special interest to me as it is one of the workshops I teach. Lyn was on the same tour of Japan I went on in 2005.
Last but not least was a very informative talk by Pam Holland about embellishing quilts. Pam is a very entertaining and accomplished speaker and we are lucky to have her as a member of our Guild.
I am looking forward to a quieter week next and hope to make some progress on my new quilt.
Regards Elizabeth.

New Photos

In spite of a busy week I,ve finally had a chance to retake photos of my most recent award quilts to show you, so now "Fantasy Seed Pods" and the miniature "Baby Rose of Sharon" are here for you to see with some close ups also on the gallery page. Those of you lucky enough to be going to the Australasian Quilt Convention in Melbourne at the end of April will be able to see "Fantasy seed pods" in real life becausing it's going to be there in the selection from South Australia. I am also looking forward to a lovely day at our South Australia guilds Country Forum on 12th March and am taking my award quilts along for show and tell. Any quilt related outing is very enjoyable and tomorrow is another such day with my local group, we are visiting a neighbouring group for a fun day of socializing.
Regards Elizabeth.

Visiting Exhibitions

On sunday we visited Port Elliot to see a quilt exhibition which was lovely, included in the display were about 15 quilts made from the block of the month "Red Delicious" designed by Esther Aliu, the quilts were very varied in the color choices made by each quilter and it was interesting to see how this changed the look of each quilt. Right next door was an embroidery exhibition, some of the pieces were exquisite and I was especially taken with a knot garden stitchery. All together a lovely day out.
Regards Elizabeth.

fantasy seed pods photo

I still havn't found time to retake photos of my most recent work to show you however A P & Q Vol 20 No1 have a feature on our South Australian 2010 Festival of Quilts with some lovely photos. Of course they will also be on our Guilds website but I think it's nice to see them in print don't you. I notice the same magazine has an add featuring my "Beautiful Geisha" quilt and my friend Pennys quilt "Pictures from the East" also advertized really caught my eye.
Regards Elizabeth.

my valued assistant

Here is my constant companion Katie Cat. Whenever I sit down she climbs into my lap, whenever I'm at my desk she comes to butt heads & sit on my drawings and whenever I spread a quilt on the floor to evaluate it she comes and rolls around on it. Here she is putting her paw of approval on a quilt made from odd left over  blocks from other projects. This quilt was sent to orphans in Africa several years ago. Regards Elizabeth.

Trials and tribulations with photos

Some of you observant visitors to my blog may have noticed that there are no photos of my most recent awards. I did have photos but they're lost. I have a teenage daughter who borrowed my camera. She took out my sim-card (with the photos on) so she could use her own sim-card and mine was "put in a safe place". Well you know the thing about safe places, one tends to forget where they are. If you know anything about the state of teenagers bedrooms you'll realize the monumental task finding anything in there would be. My sim-card will no doubt be found eventually, meanwhile I'll have to find the time to take new photos to show you - so keep watching.
You will also notice I am having trouble getting photos to "fit" properly on my blog. I am trying to organise them into pages and it's taking me some time to work it all out. Just between you and me I'd far rather be designing new patterns and making new quilts.
Regards Elizabeth.

A week to look forward to.

The beginning of a new term and I'm looking forward to seeing my Tuesday Group again after the holiday break. Every Tuesday morning during the school term I teach a beginners patchwork group at the local neighbourhood centre. It's the beginning of our 4th year so some of the girls are no longer beginners but it's such a nice happy group they keep comming as much for social reasons as learning new techniques.
Later in the week I'm teaching a workshop at Karens lovely shop and It's also the first Guild meeting of the year. Rachelle Denneny will be telling us all about the fun she had in Houston where her beautiful quilt won a major prize. - All together a wonderful week to come.
Regards Elizabeth.

Getting Started

Hullo quilting friends, I am starting the new year with a Blog, well at least I am trying to. I havn't had much internet experience yet so you will have to be patient and hopefully in time something interesting will appear on my blog.
Karen from The Sewing Sanctuary very kindly helped me start up my blog which is why the BOM that I designed exclusively for her shop has successfully appeared as my first posting. With a bit of luck I will soon have more of my designs to show you, until then keep watching.
 Regards Elizabeth.

The Three Friends of Winter

According to Japanese tradition the pine tree, bamboo and plum blossom are referred to as "The Three Friends of Winter" and are often depicted together in Japanese Art.

This is a Block of the Month design exclusive to
The Sewing Sanctuary. Click on this link to find out more.