Sisters

I've just had a great 2 weeks with my sister Evelyn. She lives 1200 miles away and we don't see each other often so it was a special holiday for both of us.
To finish it off well, for me that is, we both drew a picture of each other and made up a portrait which I kindly let her take home. I can make my own later.

Evelyn doesn't sew or draw and surprised herself with her finished piece. She had always wanted to draw a Giraffe which is the only reason I have one on my head.

This is my picture of Evelyn, the elephant collector.

A flower & butterfly to remember the time spent in my garden and hers when I visit her.

Hearts for love and the Sun for warmth and hope.

Fabric Bowls

Had somefun making fabric bowls. This is one of my favourites.
It looks good inside out too. Its now full of favourite buttons and tyvek beads.

'Beach to Country'

This is my entry to 'Down Under Quilts' magazines 1st calendar competition. I am pleased to tell you that I won the competition and my quilt is on the front cover of the 2006 calendar.
All the quilts in the calendar will be on show in Mittagong NSW Australia during 'Quilt Indulgence' from the 7th - 11th Sept 2005.
This is the first competition I've entered and I was thrilled to win. It encouraged me to enter another quilt in Dyanne Cevaal next touring exhibition 'Across Australia' and that quilt and others from the exhibition will also be on show in Mittagong in September.

My how time flies, can't believe how long it's been since I last did this.

A couple of small quilty bits to share.

I've made some Artist Trading Cards to swap with the Aus_NZArtquilters list. Looking forward to getting my swap to touch and look at some wonderful techniques. These were great fun to make

What I did.

I scrunched up fabric and them ironed it to a stabaliser then free motion stitched all over it with a Rayon thread.

I then ironed loose threads to fusible webbing then ironed them to the front of my pieces. I overstitched them a little just to be sure they stay on.

Some have thicker yarn on them which I've couched down. All of them have a gum leaf

made using painted tyvek which I'd painted and heat shrunk. Fun process and I'm ready for the next swap

My self portrait done after reading the article in Quilting Arts magazine.

I used some left over pieces from the last quilt I was working on.

Friends have commented that I look Sad, might have to do another one and see if I can look a bit happier. I

personally think I'm looking pensive. Who knows.

'In a Twist'

This is a piece that started as a doodle while I was chatting on the phone. I really liked the shapes and decided to make up a small one.

I'm enjoying working with smaller pieces, it lets me play with colour without wasting too much fabric. If I don't like the way one colour looks it's easy to change it for another.

I played with 2 threads in the bobbin. The pale pink in the lower centre was thick thread in the bobbin and sewn from the back. I wish I'd used a darker thread for that but again I played and learnt something at the same time. Don't rush in, stop and check occasionally and think about whats unfolding.

This is my latest work and I'm trying to decide if the borders are necessary. I made up an A4 size one first and that has no borders. Now I can't decide if borders are ok, should perhaps be a different colour, or leave them off???? The one with borders is pinned ready to start quilting but I'm still unsure.
Any suggestions welcome.

Spent a day with two friends last week playing with wool and tried some felting.

This was my effort made from dyed pieces I'd collected from a spinner. I lost the middle of one of my flowers but that's easily corrected.

I need to try this again with already felted yarn and cut out shapes and felt them onto a larger background. Interesting process and we did have fun playing.

This is the quilt as it is pinned to the design wall, I'm not sure if I'm going to add leaves or tree tops as yet, still looking at it and trying to make a decision.
Feel free to leave a comment on what you think should happen next.



My backyard on a misty morning and the sun is just coming up. I loved this photo and decided to make a quilt using the photo as inspiration.

After making the book for friends birthday, the pages of which are 5 1/2"x 7", I thought I would try the technique and make small needle cases. These are the first couple and I'm getting ready to try different colours and sizes. I've used this scrunching and stitching on fabric for bags and had some left over pieces. I'm happy with the needle cases.

My first post on my blog and I may be a bit slow but this is something new and it will take time to get it organised.

These are photos of a Memory Book I made for a friends birthday.
A group of friends have a weekend away every 2nd month. At Christmas time we select 1 person to make a Birthday present for, this way we celebrate all birthdays in June and everyone gets 1 good present instead of lots of bits and pieces.

This yr I was lucky enough to get someone who really likes my dyed fabrics and who likes art quilts and being playful .

I decided to make her a memory book based on our friends and our weekends away and I had the best time doing it
and playing with fabrics, threads, beads and photos gathered over the last year.

The present was recieved with the joy that was intended in the making and now I'm ready to make a book for myself.
Enjoy the pictures of the book.

This picture of the 2nd and 3rd pages shows an all important aspect of our weekend, tea, coffee and cake. I should have added a wine glass or two, isn't hindsight a wonderful thing? And the lovely recipient of the book, 'Gorgeous' is one of those words she and I have had discussion about??



This is the 4th and 5th pages and shows some of the fun we have around the Christmas season. We are usually away the first weekend of December and we have a wonderful time decorating the house we stay in, putting up a tree and decorating it. Then one by one the presents arrive under the tree and we all become increasingly excited. Some of us more than others.




Page 6 celebrates the odd times we've dressed up for our Christmas celebrations. We've been Formally dressed with Tiaras, Angels, Santa's Helpers and the last time we had to do a party piece and dress accordingly. We do have great fun and lots of laughs and page 7 shows us all around the table really having a great time.

Our Angel weekend caused a bit of a scandal.
Where we go for our weekends is out in the country on a large acreage block that overlooks a dam and there are two houses on the block reasonably close together.
The 2nd house was rented out that weekend by a sking club who were using the dam to ski on.

A week or two after our weekend one of our group was at work and listening to a conversation about a skiers weekend away. Someones brother had been on this trip and told here the other house where they'd stayed had been occupied by Nuns or a strange Cult with people dressed in white doing odd things with candles. Now we do have a candle or 3 on the table at dinner time but the strangest thing that was done was myself pretending to be an angel - flying (or at least leaping) past the open doors out on the verandah. If a friend hadn't been there during the story telling who knows what might have continued to be told.




Page 8 - the back of the book is a big sunflower which is my way of describing just what its like going away with these wonderful friends and having a blooming great time.

In the Centre of the flower is me sitting on Santa's lap. Santa is one of our friends who dressed up in Santa gear to make our Christmas weekend really entertaining.