Friday 23 November 2012

This week

Below is a photo of Jennifer's quilt, which was posted off to her early in the week. Jennifer loves needleturn applique, and making dresdens, and has left lots of lovely space in between for me to be creative with the quilting. The centres of the dresdens are doileys. What a good idea, as I have a lot of those from my grandmother.



Since I finished this quilt, I have been missing from home and spent time in Adelaide having surgery for repair of hiatus hernia. Have put this off for quite a while now. I am now home to recover and "veg" out for a bit. DD3 has taken time off from her work to be here with me. My diet for the next 4 weeks is very soft mushy food. So far, so good, but might be looking for some crunch by the end of a month!     So I will be doing a bit of sitting around, have got lots of books to read, and computer stuff I can do, and maybe a bit of sewing time for me will happen.
Thanks to those who phoned, checked up on me, and visited me in hospital. Great to see you Michele, and Faye!! And thanks to my family for the lovely flowers.
Then back to the quilts again.
Enjoy you day, whatever you are doing,
Blessings,
From Jude
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Monday 19 November 2012

More quilts

Thought I would share a few more quilt photos while I was already at the computer.
Below is Linda’s quilt.
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This is Lona’s, made for a Richmond supporter.
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And another from Marcia, who has not been quilting long, but doing a great job.
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And sorry this is turned the wrong was, but another quilt from Linda.                                                  A quilt pattern from Lessa Seigele.
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And last, but not least, Jeans tablerunners, the first is her design from Michele Hill’s workshop earlier in the year, at The Sanctuary. Well done Jean.
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And another tablerunner from Jean, I think she might like purple!
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Enjoy your day,
Blessings
From Jude

More Colour Therapy with Marie

Just a few more photos from the weekend retreat. All participants had a great time trying different techniques, including Ice dyeing, marbling, Gel printing, shiva sticks, stencils, stamping, screen printing, salt dyeing, shaving cream printing and sun printing. Now it will be exciting to see just what they do with all these little sample pieces of fabric!
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They worked in the shed in the mornings, where they could make a mess, and inside in the afternoons, with plastic over the sewing tables.
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Vickis pleased with her shiva sticks and rubbing plates piece.
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I think this was sun dyeing in the process.
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Everyone was eyeing Jocelyn’s ice dyeing fabric, but Jocelyn was making sure that these went home with her, but though her granddaughter might just want to use them too.
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Above and below shiva flowers happening.
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And its always hard to get a group photo with everyone smiling, this is the closest I could get out of 4 photos.
Thankyou girls for coming and making another great weekend at The Sanctuary.

Blessings,
From Jude

Saturday 17 November 2012

Todays progress

Photos of todays retreat "More Colour Therapy" with Marie Holly
in The Shed at The Sanctuary. Leanne is concentrating on putting her colours in the tray for marbling fabric.


Then she used a stick to swirl it around.


And this is what she achieved on the fabric!! They are all pretty excited with their results.  
 

So thats just a quick update, better get back there with some dinner for them, as the glasses of wine are just being poured. More photos hopefully tomorrow.

Blessings
From Jude
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In the garden

Below is a photo of the bouganvillea at my house that is in flower at the moment. Don't think I have ever seen so many flowers on it, its very showy. Am trying to grow one at The Sanctuary also, but its very slow to get going, although its in a more exposed position and the soil is a more clay. I shall be patient.




And this is a photo of what I call Jill's rose, which is really a Pierre de Ronsard climbing rose.
It is planted at the bottom of monkey bars, a childrens playground equipment, and Jill recommended that I plant this rose to climb up and grow over the top. And its very fitting that it is flowering at the moment as next week will be one year from when Jill died. It is one year since this was planted and every time I walk past I remember her, and miss our conversations and visits. I look forward to seeing this rose grow and climb further up and over.


I have 8 ladies staying over the road at The Sanctuary this weekend. Marie is teaching Colour Therapy, so look forward to seeing what they make.
It was a house of laughter last night when I left to come home, lots of sharing about their lives since last meeting each other, and some meeting for the first time. I think that it will not just be Colour Therapy, but also Therapy for each other, and timeout from the daily grind of life for them all. Just to take time and not think about what's for the next meal and be waited on is great.

This morning I need to finish a custom quilt before I go back with sustenance for their day.

Enjoy you weekend, whatever you are doing,
Blessings,
From Jude
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Thursday 15 November 2012

Another update

As the week is almost over, better make another posting, or I will have people asking if I am ok.

Welcome home to Helen after being a grey nomad for 3 months, travelling this great country of Australia.

This is a photo of 2 of my grandsons, taken a couple of weeks ago when I had a quick visit from them. They had spent the day on their uncles farm and looked just like little farm boys, and smelled like dirt and grease as well. Soon after this they had a wash and put their pj’s on for the 3 plus hour trip home, by which time they were asleep. But they really enjoyed their day out on the farm. My children all grew up on a farm, and my grandchildren don’t get that experience as we no longer have the land. So its a bit sad, that all those farm things are not part of their everyday experiences.

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Another Bedford mystery quilt finished by Kath!

Below are 3 of Di’s quilts, all edge to edge patterns. The brown one is quilted with a chocolates!

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Below is a photo of Kay’s quilt, that she designed after a workshop with Michele Hill at The Sanctuary last May. Entered into Adelaide Quilt show last weekend and won a second place ribbon!                 Well done Kay! Sorry I forgot to take my camera to the show or I would have put up a photo with the ribbon.

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Well, time for bed, have had a busy week, finished some quilts, and preparing The Sanctuary for this weekend’s retreat, Colour Therapy with Marie.  Today I have been shopping and cooking.

Has also been a sad week, with the death of 2 friends, one a fellow quilter and the other, our neighbour from our farm days.      Back then, I could never have imagined that years later I would be quilting for others and running a quilting retreat!  Farming seems like a whole lifetime ago.

Well that’s enough, be back soon with a report of the weekend.

Blessings,

From Jude                                                                             

Monday 12 November 2012

Early morning wakeup call

Just a little update for you this morning, have lots to blog about, but will just post these photos for now.

Have been away for a few days, trip to the city for our State quilt show and family stuff.             

One morning while I was blissfully sleeping just before 4am I heard a loud noise and woke up. Below is what happened. A car with 3 youths came flying over the retaining wall, and landed as you can see. I was asleep in a bed just inside the window that you can see!!

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The car came off the road and through the 2 trees you can see in front of the firetruck, and came flying through the fence at the back of the house. Amazing that they did not hit the trees.

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This is the car wedged in the narrow space behind the house, probably a 12 foot drop to the ground. Did not hit the roof. Could have crashed through the brick wall!!!

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It was a rather eventful morning, and the car was taken out soon after this photo.

When you think about all the what-ifs, it is just mind boggling that there was not more damage and the 3 guys crawled out with hardly a scratch.

I must admit that it wasn’t until I arrived home last night and downloaded the photos, that I really stopped and thought about what happened, and got a bit shaky. The fire and police all said that I should buy a lottery ticket, it was my lucky day, but I prefer to think that God has more plans for me yet, and it was not just “luck”.

So after tha,t I better get to the shower and start my day, which will be rather busy, but will blog more about all the rest of the weeks happenings later. And there’s lots more quilt photos to show too.

Have a great day,

Blessings, From Jude

Sunday 4 November 2012

More October quilts

Have just arrived home after going to church this morning, and then to visit a friend in hospital, and then out for a quick lunch with another friend.

Looking back I have found quite a few October quilting jobs that I have not yet shown. So while I am procrastinating a cleaning and sorting job in my bedroom, I shall spend time sitting at this computer. Shall post more October quilts later in the week.

Below is another school house quilt made by Prue, her grandchildren are receiving these, made in their favourite colours.

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A mystery quilt made by Lyn, with feature dog print in the squares and border.

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Row by row with cats by Teresa.

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Another quilt made by Lyn, quilted with a daisy pattern. I am normally a “blending thread” kind of quilter, so that the piecing shines, and the quilting does not take over, and when Lyn wanted an olive green thread on this I was a bit worried, but I think it turned out OK.

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This quilt was made by Linda for her daughter. Sarah chose the pattern. This was a very large quilt,(114” square), and the cost for custom was rather high, but the pattern fills the large white spaces quite nicely. I was a bit worried about doing this pattern over all that ‘space’, but was pleasantly surprised with the outcome. Sometimes it is good for the customer to take me out of my comfort zone! Seems to be happening a bit lately!

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A custom quilting job for Sue, loved the bears and her applique was beautifully done.

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Just look at the stitching on the shoelaces, it just looks as though you could undo the laces!

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Baskets of Flowers quilt for Jennifer. Lots of SID in this quilt, so hard to see the actual quilting, except in the border.

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Well, better not put off the inevitable and go start sorting. A long overdue job awaits, as my bedroom cupboards need going through, and '”stuff”  needs to be thrown out, so that I can fit what I do wear in the space. Had a busy day with allover quilts yesterday, and have a candlewicked quilt to load tomorrow.

The weather has turned very warm today, with a hot wind blowing. The garden will need a good water tonight, but the temps should go from 34 back to 24 in a couple days. I am not looking forward to summer, the heat and I don’t get on very well.

Enjoy your day, whatever you are doing,

Blessings, From Jude

Friday 2 November 2012

November quilts

My blog title is November quilts and today is only the 2nd of November, so not too bad I think. Still have lots of quilts to show from October, seems like I have not put up any quilts for awhile, but that doesn’t mean I have not done any.

Below is a quilt made by Susan for a wedding gift. Very pretty.

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Below is Kaye’s quilt, pretty in pinks and greens. And Kaye wanted less quilting, hope I have restrained myself enough!

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And this is a teaser photo for Faye, her Cat in the Hat quilt, quilted with the cat in the hat edge to edge pattern. I had intended to finish this last night, but did not manage to keep my eyes open long enough. So “Max” (my machine) is busy doing the last row while I type this. Hope the thread colour choice is ok Faye, its a grey.

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Yesterday a few of us took a trip to Kaniva, to see a unique collection of “Ag Art”. I am sad that I forgot to take my camera, the work was amazing. Nola Wallis’ collection of wearable outfits all made with ‘stuff’ from the farm. Her imagination is amazing. THe use of washers, shadecloth, bearings, beans, copper wire, tyre valves, plastic, animal bones, string, and heaps of things I cant remember. Threading beans together, with tyre valves attached to each one for a necklace! And bones cut with an angle grinder and joined for a bodice.

Well that’s enough, Max has finished Faye’s quilt, now to get the next one on, am on a mission to churn them out, I have 18 days before I am having some time “off”.

Bye for now,

Blessings, From Jude