ANOTHER BIG 'O' BOOK

Another of the big "O" books...this one for Dot who turned 70 on 23rd December, 09. I decided to do the cover as I did as Dot loves beads and embroidery. I chose the monochromatic idea purely for the hec of it! I started out with the embroidery and really didn't have a plan in mind and it all just happened as I went along.

Once again I think I've got the pics all topsy turvy but it will be obvious which ones are the cover and the close-up of the beaded/embroidered section. The beautiful silk ribbon and flower beads page is Judy's. The blue page is Liddy's - wonderful old buttons and Liddy is a blue girl hence the choice of fabrics. The crazypatch style landscape is Robyn's -she actually started that piece in a workshop with Judith Montano when she (Judith) was out here in Australia a while back. The hand-dyed lace and embroidery bouquet is Carole's..Carole does the most exquisite embroidery with fine, silk thread. I turn 60 this year so I'm hoping I'll still get MY book! lol

I've also learned that if you click on each image it will enlarge. You will see that I stitched a small "reef" section in the bottom left hand corner using real shells and I also had to add the moon and the stars up the top. The beaded section was reverse appliqued into the cover and I added small amounts of embroidery and beading to soften the hard edges. I'd like to work a larger piece with the same idea in mind sometime in the future.....time consuming though!

Happy stitching!

Jan

NEW BAGS

Here's some of my newer bags. I never seem to be able to get the text in the right place for the pics so I'll just describe and, hopefully you will work it out! lol The Rust/Navy/Green one with the stitched inserts is called Take Me Shopping - a very roomy bag with loops at the top of the gusset to enable it to be opened out if you have shopped big time!

The Green/Bone one is Tablelands Tote and I had fun designing and making it. Just loved the new round handles and that was the basis for the design. The semi-circle is scrunched fabric with a bit of beading and I "squared" the base by having the triangle on the outside held with a large button - just for something different!

The Black one is Black Magic...fairly simple but a very usable bag once again using the new round handles.

The yellow one is Casual Chic and it's "soft" with heaps of room too. I used the Studio Mio leather handles but any sort could be used or even fabric ones as well.

I've got more designed and one already half made but have lots of other projects I have to work on as well so bags might have to take a back seat for a while. Who am I kidding!!! I really enjoy designing and making them and one day will have a huge sale!

Looking at a 38C day today so maybe won't do much sewing and probably have LOTS of cold showers! Hope your day is a good one! Cheers,

Jan - do you think this is a COOL colour? :-)

MOVING SOUTH!

This is the house we left behind in Atherton, Far North Queensland....after 20 years with the last 18 months or so being rather stressful as the Queensland Governement (in their infinite "wisdom") closed Kairi Research Station. This left Ross virtually without a job. Luckily, because of enterprise bargaining he was not made redundant. However, he had to find a job "somewhere" in Queensland, within the department. Luckily a job became available in Gatton, SE Qld. The big move happened on the 17th November...almost 20 years, to the day, that we moved from Laidley (only 5 mins from where we are living now) north to Atherton. It has been so difficult to leave behind the strong friendships formed over 20 years, plus it's where our children grew up (being 7 and 5 when we moved) but it was a case of having to. No government house like the one you see here and it's much, much, MUCH smaller!!! We're finally relatively "settled" in the house and have had to convert the 2nd bedroom into my sewing studio and the 3rd bedroom into my office. Where visitors are going to sleep we have yet to work out! It's quite a nice little house though and the lounge area is very liveable now that we've taken over the 3rd bedroom for the office. I haven't taken a pic of the house as yet but have of the lovely view we have from the side verandah (verandahs all around which is lovely). We have some "neighbours" - 4 horses and a flock of geese as well as human neighbours as well. The rather aggresive frilled neck lizard was a random visitor! :) 1/2 acre of land which is rather dry but we're hoping to green it up a little. No town water but we DO have a grey water tank so here's hoping. I never seem to be able to get the pics to sit where I want them to but they're pretty self explanatory. The house is the one we had in Atherton and the views are from our new home here in Plainland. A terribly hot day here today with temps reaching around the 37C. It's been a bit lonely since we got here as all the quilt groups etc have closed for the holiday season but I'm sure things will improve as the year progresses. I'm hoping to do a bit of teaching - perhaps from home here as it's very pleasant on the side verandah...time will tell. Until tomorrow, Cheers and Happy Stitching,

Jan

2010!

It's the 16th January already and I DO apologise for being so bad in keeping up to date. Mainly because of all the major happenings since I last posted. After many months of uncertainty we finally had direction in our lives! A job became available within the department for Ross but it meant a major move of many kilometres. I'll tell more about all of that in the following days. I'm going to make a concentrated effort to write each day over the next week or so to catch-up up with all the happenings. The major one for this month is my dear Mum's 95th birthday. We travelled up to her place on 8th January to celebrate the big day on the 13th. Matt was to come too but he caught a terrible virus when he returned to Newcastle on Boxing Day and couldn't even start work when he was due. He's improving now but the doctor says he'll be very tired for quite some time. Not sure of the virus (very long name!) but something similar to glandular fever. My Mum is pretty amazing for her age and whilst her eyes and ears are letting her down a bit the rest is spot on! She still lives in her own home and generally takes care of herself with help from the local community care and meals on wheels. We had a great time with her and she celebrated a couple of times. My friends from when I was a teenager (I've never lost contact with them) came down to the beach for a get together on the Saturday evening and Mum was still firing at 10.30!! Even though she had said earlier she might have to excuse herself to go to bed...LOL My Aunt (Mum's sole remaining sibling out of 11 children) Connie arrived the morning of her birthday on the train from Mackay and we had a full day of shopping and visitors plus a special family dinner in the evening. My brother Ian was there too so she was surrounded by family. Ian lives closeby and visits her every day which is a big relief to me. Another night where she didn't go to bed until very late! The two photos are of two new outfits - the blue set Aunt Connie bought her for her birthday and she bought the other outfit herself - just because she felt like it! :) We travelled home on Friday 15th and I'm now back into finally getting my sewing room (aka the 2nd bedroom) sorted in the new TINY house - but more of that later! It's been such a horrendous job moving into a much smaller home as well as leaving all my friends behind in Atherton but it had to be done. Catch up with all the news as each day passes...hoping everyone is well and had a wonderful Christmas season with family and friends. Cheers,

Jan

ALMOST FINISHED!!!

I was like a "woman on a mission" with the quilting and after the some 17 years between applique/embroidery etc for the quilt top it's a good thing. I finished the hand quilting probably almost a week ago but projects/instructions for the magazines and other thing got in the way and I've only just sewn the binding on just now. I had to take a pic of the whole quilt for one of my students who needs to collect her "bits & pieces" for it so thought I'd share. WILL take some close-ups of the individual blocks that I haven't shown yet and post them through the week. We're off, out to the lake tomorrow to have a BBQ lunch with Ross's Dad before he leaves for home on Tuesday so will take it and do the hand stitching. The men will be "man talking" so I'll enjoy the lovely day and sew! I will try to remember to take the camera so you can see how lovely it is out there. Ross is VERY lucky to actually have his office with lake views and where Dad is camped is the picnic spot for the Research Station where Ross has worked for the last, almost 20 years. The state government has decided to close down the research station which is a very sad thing so we're not too sure where our future will be. It's the most beautiful piece of real estate and has been the research centre for almost 75 years. Sad times!!!

I hope everyone else is enjoying a great weekend and maybe stitching as well. :)

Jan

MORE BLOCKS FROM VINTAGE VIGNETTES

I've had such a passion to complete this quilt I'm now quilting the outside border! Hand quilting is like that to me though - very addictive! It's; "I'll just complete this block" OR "Just one more length of thread" and I must admit, I've rather "sat" at it since I basted it and it's given me so

much pleasure as it's been quite a number of years since I've hand quilted a reasonable size project. This particular block utilises the old-fashioned, crocheted crinolean ladies that were often put into the corner of a ladies handkerchief. I added the lace under the skirt and when the quilt is complete AND washed I will stiffen the lace somehow so that the skirt stands out. As I've been quilting I've realised JUST how dirty it is! I guess being handled so much over the years in teaching the blocks etc it has to have become quite dirty.

I will photograph the remaining blocks and post them each day, all going well. I designed quite a number of blocks using this motif for all of the students - leaning against a wishing well; under an archway; in an arbour and walking down a path. They all looked wonderful and it was great to give that personal touch to each person's individual quilt.

The "delphiniums" each took me around 40 hours to complete! The are made-up of countless colonial knots with just 2 strands of a hand dyed silk thread. I let the thread give me the colour graduation.

Amidst all this hand quilting I've had a rush visit on Saturday afternoon to see the eye specialist as I had developed a "floater" plus flashes in my right eye. At this stage, all is well but I see him again this coming Thursday to double check that there is no tear in the retina. Apparantly the floater AND the flashes is relatively normal for "a woman of my age"!!! :)

I also have started my bag workshop at the shop in Mossman again and had a lovely time last Wednesday night with the ladies working on a range of different bags. Silly me forgot to take my camera! An unexpected pleasure on the Thursday was, a traveller arriving to show the girls his range of buttons and fabrics. I could have spent a fortune if it were me ordering but, thankfully, I had no say! lol I would go bankrupt very quickly if I owned my own store!

I must get back to my quilting - hope this finds you all well and happy and until next time; happ stitching!

Jan

"ALMOST FINISHED" UFO!!!

Waaaaay back in 1992 I had this idea to create a quilt - initially to be monochromatic but this changed! I was telling my students about the idea and, of course, they wanted to start NEXT WEEK PLEASE! Naturally I said yes and immediately created the first block. The idea was to work through all the possabilities with applique - as many techniques as possible and we started. I was only ever one week ahead of them and by the end (because the majority of them wanted to make a queen size quilt!) of the some 20 blocks I had gone from the monochromatic idea to bringing in "some" colour as the blocks progressed into more detailed ones.

The cottage above is one of the more heavily worked blocks and I'm ashamed to say that it's taken me this long to almost finishing a small number of the blocks. I've had the six 12in blocks plus three 6in x 12in. blocks put together into a quilt top probably since around 1993 but have never quilted it!!! As I progress through quilting the blocks I'll share with you the rest of them. The other blocks (ones that relate to our marriage and such) are to be put together into another wall quilt although I may turn them into pages for a fabric book now. Don't know what I'm doing with the remainder! :)

The other pics are details of the embroidered garden - a range of silk ribbon plus normal thread techniques were used - the rose vine over the roof and the tiny "Alissium" are some of the wonderful hand-dyed threads available. I used one of those newish propelling chalk pencils (which are wonderful by the way!) to mark the grid lines for quilting but not worried as it will have to be washed when I've finished it. It's been floating around for so long that it's really quite filthy!

When I taught the class quite a lot of students completed their quilts and it's now having a resurgence as more people see it. I'm starting another class, after all these years, next month but only the blocks on this particular quilt - NOT the full selection!

I definately find hand quilting very addictive and just could never contemplate machine quilting a quilt such as this. All the handwork in it deserves hand quilting I feel. Sore fingers though as haven't done a lot of fine hand quilting lately! I tend to make a larger stitch than what the traditionalists would do as I like to actually "see" the quilting rather than get caught up in so many stitches to the inch!!!

I have promised myself to post more often in this last half of the year so let's see how I go. I have been rather prolific over the past few months but mostly projects for the mags so can't really show them here yet. HAVE been working on some pieces for my Artistic Licence group's exhibit in the regional gallery next year so will take some pics and show them too. Until next time, happy stitching and stay safe everyone.

Jan