I (We) made it there (to the Sydney Quilt Show)

Today was a lovely sunny Sunday, the last day of 2014 Sydney Quilt Show. My Sunshine and I made it there, to Glebe Island, where the Show was held. It was a fun 'mother and son' day out. :-) We enjoyed the ferry rides from and to Darling Harbour.... I missed seeing my quilt at the Show when I first entered it back in 2011 as I was away in France. So, I try to be there to see my quilt when I'm home. I was very pleased to see my quilt hung at the Show this year.

It must be hidden! - Label of My 2014 Show Quilt

I handed my quilt to the organiser of the Sydney Quilt Show this afternoon. It's a kind of log cabin quilt. This year, the quilt label must be covered or the quilt will be ineligible for judging. I'm obliged to comply although I don't think my quilt is a winning kind. I make a quilt for practical use, and not so much for keeping or to be put away as a precious item.!

(Details of the quilt label are blocked out in this photo)

.... I used 60 strips from 2 sets of the same pre-cut 2 1/2 inch strip batik fabric range (Tonga Treats by Timeless Treasures) for the quilt. The log cabin pattern was drawn up with my own calculation based on the amount of the pre-cut fabrics and their colours. In this day and age, it's probably less common, but I enjoy working out quilt patterns by hand using mental arithmetic as I find it relaxing, truely. :-) [I do have EQ7 but rarely use it] I have chosen shades of rainbow as the colour scheme for the quilt and have decided on a grey background (instead of white or cream) in an attempt to tone down the contrast. The quilt pattern has a lot of corners. To soften up the angular feature of the quilt, I used the swirl and circle quilting pattern named 'modern snails' by Anita Shackelford for the quilting. I used different colours of the same printed pattern fabrics for the binding, and some of left over fabrics from the binding for the quilt label. I like and am pleased with the finished quilt. I hope that I will be able to see it hung at the Show, but I will see....

I have been to places

I feel fortunate to have opportunities to travel to places as part of my work on the study related to global health. This is the latest trip I have just returned from....

I have had a wonderful time away. It was a productive trip work-wise, and there were also many fun-filled activities during trip. I visited a few patchwork shops along the way, and bought some fabrics and other sewing related items, naturally. :-) I also had opportunities to view a few art exhibitions at the museums, including my favourite Master painter, Vincent van Gogh. But the trip did come with a price tag - I have been kept very busy at work, with all the things to be done leading up to the trip. I'm by no mean a superwoman, so, am falling behind with updating my blog - an excuse, I know, but it's a good one, I think. :-)

I have been very busy working on the binding of my Show quilt for the Sydney Quilt Show this year since I got back as it must be handed in this week.!! Next update, I will have a couple of finished projects to share, and photos of the quilts that I quilted uploaded. I hope it will be before a draft for book chapter and a manuscript are done, but I will see.!!

Ultramod Mercerie opens Monday to Friday, and I was there on Saturday.!! .... Something to look forward to when I return to Paris next year.

It took a while to locate Moline Mercerie on 'Rue Livingstone' because the one street 'Rue D'Orsel' has its name changed halfway through to 'Rue Livingstone' (see below), but the map shows the street as 'Rue D'Orsel' all the way.

In Amsterdam, I breezed past Den Haan & Wagenmakers this time as I haven't yet finished the quilt being made using fabrics bought from the shop last time I was there, and that was a couple of years ago.!! I did returned to Birdblocks to buy some more modern Dutch theme fabrics. I would have like to buy a few extra pieces but I didn't have capacity to bring everything I wanted back home with me. So, again, something to look forward to when I return to The Netherlands next year.

 This cute little doll and her craft case was in the toy section in Galeries Lafayette.

The rest of the photos tells stories by themselves. :-)

A Jelly Roll Quilt

Keeping up with the trend...., kind of.! And, here is my version of jelly roll quilt with extra bits thrown in. It was fun to make. The binding actually took a lot longer to finish than the piecing for this quilt. I chose the quilting pattern named 'meanderinghearts' by Willow Leaf Studio for the quilt. It stitched very well, and I think the quilted quilt looks lovely and delightful.

Baby Cloth Book - Learn to Count .... Australia

It seems a long time ago since I last updated my blog, and yes, it has been quite some time.!! A beach holiday at the end of January was wonderful. Then, school started back, and the rest.... But this doesn't mean that my hands (and fingers) aren't keeping busy. They are, in fact, very busy, too busy, perhaps... My quilt top for this year Sydney Quilt Show is done and waiting to be quilted, in between other lovely quilt tops of my clients that I'm quilting for them. I have also finished a few unfinished projects that were left half-done since last year. They are, again, waiting to be photographed before they can be uploaded on the blog. I, however, manged to find some time to make this baby cloth book last night, just in time to be packed, as a gift, in a suitcase bound for LA, USA. No, I'm not going to America, just the book.!! The panel was from Craft Depot. It was fun to make and I got it done in about 2 hours.

Blue and White Square in Square Quilt

Like many others, I'm a time-poor kind of person, but.... I received a request to make a cot size quilt for a baby boy at the end of November 2013. It has to be a blue and white modern kind of quilt. The request was a special one as the quilt will be a gift for the first grandchild of one of my previous (and wonderful) bosses. So, I made myself available to make the quilt. I like the simple and effective look of square in square quilt, so decided on the pattern. It wasn't hard to put together the fabrics as there are so many lovely matching designs available on the market. I quilted the quilt using the pattern named 'zoobrdr' by TJ Speiser. The quilt will be on its way to the US in the very near future.

  

 

Something delicious!

Happy New Year 2014

My 'Sunshine' made this cute Christmas tree as part of the craft class at the end of his last term before the year finished. It's a lovely decoration for our house during the festive season.

.... I love to cook (as much as to sew and quilt), so I thought I would share a couple of photos of something delicious that I made for our lunch on Christmas day last month. One was the fruit salad that we often have for breakfast in summer time. Marijke, my dear friend, introduced me to this creation and idea (of having mixed fruit for breakfast). The other was Toblerone cheesecake that I got the recipe from one of those supermarket brochures (junk mail!) we received weekly in our letterbox. It's my first attempt to make a cheesecake, and it's was a hit. :-)