Yuletide piecing

Ah yes, I found time to complete the latest step in Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt, from www.quiltville.com
There was lots of cutting, stitching and pressing, but I managed to squeeze in some sewing time!
Roll on New Year's Eve!

Threesies with the brown quarter-square triangles added.

Yellows replace neutrals, purples replace reds in this project.

Life is Beautiful

It's almost Christmas and life is good. Step 5 of Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt is in full swing in the sewing room, see www.quiltville.com. I substituted neutrals for yellows and red for purple, and the 600 HST are almost complete. Coincidentally, Bonnie's inspiration for this mystery project is her Star Struck quilt - which is the quilt I've just finished sewing the binding on and put on my daughter's bed in anticipation of her homecoming tomorrow. Our home is looking festive, so pretty that I've including a photo of our dining table.

600 half-square triangles piling up at the back of the sewing machine!

Purple replaces red, yellow replaces neutrals for this mystery.

My version of Bonnie's Star Struck.

Life is Beautiful at Christmastime.

Merry Christmas to all.

Oh so easy - step 4

Step four of Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll - with leftover bits too!

Happy to report that the Step 4 piecing of Bonnie Hunter's Christmas mystery is now complete - they were easy compared to step 3, but when there are other projects in progress too, that's quite OK! This mystery quilt from www.quiltville.com is great fun.

Piecing progress!

Step 3 of the www.quiltville.com mystery quilt is done. Bonnie was right! There were lots of fabrics used in the string-pieced blocks, and I chose not neutral prints, but yellows. Did it deplete the stash? Well, no, but it used lots of scraps, which was great. And, had a ripping time removing the papers!
Plus, the leader and ender project is now assembled!

60 string pieced blocks - and some of the paper removed.

Lots and lots of yellows used in these.

The leader and ender project is assembled, awaiting border.

Double nine patch - detail.

Part two of mystery now complete

120 pink and brown 3in half-square triangle units

Part two of Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt is finished - visit: www.quiltville.com for more information.Oh, and I've finished quilting my Delectable Mountains quilt on the machine. Made with 10in squares from the Somerset Patchwork & Quilting fabric club, visit: somersetpatchwork.com.au, I'm thrilled with how it turned out - and the back's good too!

Delectable Mountains quilted and bound

125, 3in Nine Patch blocks - part of the leader and ender project!

The pieced backing of the Delectable Mountains quilt

Piecer's paradise

Part One of Mystery Quilt 'Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll' has been posted by Bonnie Hunter: http://quiltville.blogspot.com
and my 172 units are done! Plus, I'm making a Double Nine Patch leader and ender project in blues and neutrals.
Roll on part two I say!

172 stripsets for Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll part one.

1 1/2in strips in blues and neutrals plus 3 1/2in neutral squares for Double Nine Patch leader and ender project.

Inspiration and aspiration

While currently working on a LeMoyne star quilt, I rediscovered this simply glorious vintage quilt from Houston 2009. When I make a Lone Star, it'll be strongly inspired by this one! Happy quilting.

This Lone Star quilt was the symbol of the event.

Detail of this wonderful piece.

Quilts and cats

The character - the eyes have it!

The sopisticated one

The perennial conundrum about cats and quilts goes on. Looking at the followers' images of my blog, I came across an  image of two very familiar cats. One looking sophisticated and the other - well, less-composed. It ain't sibling rivalry, but one feline always makes sure she's noticed!

When too much craft is never enough

Here are some great action shots from today at the Adelaide Craft & Quilt Fair.

Jo from Izzii - standing - teaching liquid patchwork techniques.

Happy and soapy hands at the Wendy Bailye Felt Studio.

Journal cover-making action at the Brother Sew-in Space.

Hands-on classes at Izzii Studio, Brother Sew-in Space and Wendy Bailye's Felt Studio are filling fast.

Doing the happy dance

 Here's a great pic from the Craft & Quilt Fair that opens in Adelaide today. It's the morning dance - starts 10 minutes before opening time every day - and you can see the $30 craft kit prize on the floor in front of the exhibitors dancing. It's a great day out, so if you're in Adelaide, come along and join in the fun!

The Bernina Sew & Go area at the fair

At the Festival of Quilts 2010 display

Free seminar-style workshop with Gai Taylor of Just Patchwork

Visit: www.craftfair.com.au for more details.

Sewing day

Had a great day on Saturday, it was a sewing day!

Poinsettias by Pam Bono Designs

Robert Bono, my DH, Pam Bono, me

I had the pleasure of meeting my dear friend Pam Bono in August. Can you see the Poinsettia kit under my arm in this photo? Well, it all came together on the weekend. Pam's designs are beautiful and accurate and the kit included backing fabric too. It was a joy to put together. And you can see the results - in plenty of time for Christmas. Visit her website: www.pambonodesigns.com for this and other great patterns and kits.

Brisbane Craft & Quilt Fair

Jody from Quilt Block of the Month Club with a few of hundreds of the Breast Cancer Bags left at her stand.

Gracevale by Joanne Johnson won Best Hand-quilting and the AP&Q Retaining the Tradition Awards

At the entrance to the Fair

The Brisbane Craft & Quilt Fair held last week was a ton of fun - it finished yesterday. With the glorious quilt display by Queensland Quilters, other features and around 150 exhibitors, there was lots to see and do. Here are just a couple of happy snaps from the event. Visit: www.qldquilters.com to see more of the quilt show.

The breast cancer bags are a design by Jody and in the weeks leading up to the show, there was a story in the Craft Fair Friend preview magazine, and Jody had many enquiries from generous craft enthusiasts about them. Then at the Fair, she was amazed to see hundreds, yes hundreds, of bags left with her for distribution to hospitals Australia-wide. There were bags of all styles, including some blokey ones as men too, suffer from this insidious illness. Quilters and craft lovers alike have proven themselves again to be very generous.

The next Craft & Quilt Fair is in Adelaide at the end of next week - from Thursday November 4 to Sunday November 7, 2010.

Double Delight

Here is a glimpse of my latest machine-pieced quilt top made from scraps. It's a design by Bonnie Hunter of www.quiltville.com
DD was a holiday mystery quilt on Bonnie's blog a couple of years ago, but I'll bet it'll be a scrap quilt-lovers favourite for a very long time. Her designs are always fun to make and as usual, the impact on my stash is negligible!

Detail of Double Delight, design by Bonnie Hunter

There will be a new mystery quilt by Bonnie next month, Roll Roll Cotton Boll and my stash is now under scrutiny once more. She recommended brown, red, pink, green and neutral sounds perfect to me, so I'm up for the challenge!

Novocastrian Quilters

Pushing Up Daisies by Jann Sturdy is a Pam Bono design

 The Novocastrian Quilters annual exhibition was on the weekend. It was an excellent display, with lots of different sizes, styles and techniques on show. The challenge was great too!

Challenge quilt 'Spring Carnival' by Christine Butler

Joyce Taylor's creation - the blocks started with Nine Patches

By Wendy Scott

Displays like this were all around

Melbourne CraftExpo - now on

Here are some great shots from Craft Expo Melbourne. It started yesterday (Thursday) and ends this Sunday October 10.
From the top:
The girls at Anna Stretton's Stitch n Bitch,
The gorgeous gowns at the Chinese Han Couture display
A step back in time with Blue Willow Cottage
Looking up at Craft Expo at the Royal Exhibition Building, Carlton Gardens.
A glimpse of Catharina's Country Collection stand - it's oh so pretty.

Inspiration

 I'm working on several projects at the moment. The top quilt, Panel Beater's Daughter is complete, but I'm using the same colour scheme for a current
starry pieced top. The centre image is of an applique quilt at the Pink Palace museum in Memphis, TN.
It's a gorgeous old red and green applique
quilt - I've been drafting the design this week.
The last image is of nine blocks which became a quilt displayed
at this year's Sydney Quilt Show - Aster Garden - it's a favourite.

Work in Progress

Hand-piecing is always enjoyable. Here is one of my current hand-pieced projects which you may recognise from some gift-wrapping paper currently on the market. It's all scrappy, using reproduction prints, even the background pieces are from scraps. There will be 30 units, five by six and it's a perfect portable project!