Got the blues!

The ferris wheels are finished! Well the top at least.....

 

For some reason unknown my computer has decided that all these pictures will be portrait not landscape today so my apologies for that.

My friend's cat, Bandit, helping with the finishing touches.

This is another quilt called a Twisting Twenty that I finished a while ago.

Its a very simple quilt but I think it looks very effective.

And now for the start of something new..... I really quite like blues and greens together. They look so fresh.

Again with the portrait orientation???????

This is going to be a little 'Plus Quilt'. Looks like fun. I will have to get some more fabric of course! Just to make sure I have the mix right.

 

Ferris Wheels

My ferris wheels quilt is coming along nicely. I first started this project at Quilt Camp with Chris Jurd about 2 years ago. I decided to make my version larger than the camp project and it has ended up having nine ferris wheels rather than five. I have used lots of my blue scraps but still the pile doesn't seem to go down.....

I have incorporated some lovely embroidered motifs from a set of place mats and serviettes that I found at a garage sale some years ago. They are exquisitely hand embroidered even down to the delicate stitching around the edges. I will have to find another project to use these edges as I cant bear to think of someone, probably poorly rewarded, stitching all those edges only for them to be tossed away.

I am still to decide whether to turn this into a tablecloth or a quilt and how I will do the edges due to the points and curves. Decisions, decisions......

My latest is learning how to make a stained glass window which is very different to patchwork. Using a glass cutter with a set square is similar to using a rotary cutter with a ruler but that's about where the similarity ends, however choosing the glass to use is almost as difficult as choosing fabric. I am going to keep this project under wraps until its finished, which is some way off yet!

We have a beautiful stained glass window in our house. Inspiration for the future perhaps!

Linen and a Lighthouse

I have been getting out and about lately. A trip to Bathurst with two of my sewing buddies was a great day. We visited two patchwork shops, a few op shops and had a great lunch. It was a fun day. A visit to a retro store revealed these treasures for only $5 each!

They are all new and in perfect condition. This one is my favourite.

The orange one is so cute!

 One is a souvenir from Forster, which we visited last weekend...

and the last one is just lovely... beautiful parrots.

 As mentioned above, we visited Forster. We thought it time to take a break from painting and take the caravan away to have a change of scene. We took the 'scenic' route through Singleton and Gloucester which was very pretty but it was a long long way around. The weather was pretty cold and windy at times but not too bad. We had some lovely sunny mornings.

The bridge between Forster and Tuncurry.

Its a lovely place and the coastline down to Seal Rocks was very rugged but beautiful.

 We visited the Lighthouse at Sugarloaf Point, Seal Rocks.

This shows the lighthouse keepers residence which is available for holiday stays.

The view of the beach from the top of the lighthouse. It was very windy!

One cold husband!

 And finally, we saw lots of pelicans, my favourite birds!

On the way home we stopped at Karuah which is a beautiful spot about 4km off the freeway. What a classic scene!