Its begining to look alot like Christmas

T

Jingle Bells

a very old Christmas project!

 a UFO finished and hung!

This year's Christmas project at Maria's,

which led to another little tree done.

The cookies were made and the crackers are ready.

May this guy visit and I hope that your Christmas is fun!

Merry Christmas , Karen

From Quilt Shop to Quilt In

Yesterday was a busy but inspirational day.  Eureka Patchwork ( http://eurekapatchwork.com.au/ hosted Leesa Chandler (http://www.leesachandlerdesigns.com/) who gave a great talk about how, why, when, where and who of her adventures into the world of fabric design for Robert Kaufman.  Not only did we see  some of her stunning quilts and bags, but we were treated to a sneak peak of her new culture club fabric range 'Anastasia'  which will be presented to the Australian quilt market this week.

 Above is Leesa showing part of the process involved in designing Under the Australian Sun, and below is a bed runner made from the fabrics.  The runner incorporates some of Leesa's beautiful 3 dimensional applique.

 This is another pattern from  using her new fabric range...sshhh!

More sneak peeks of what is to come....

I cannot wait to start buying and using this!  Fabric and patterns will be available for pre-ordering next week at both Leesa's shop and Eureka Patchwork.  But I'm first in the queue.....right!
  Then it was over to Brown Hill Hall for my local quilt groups Quilt in

 Megan Carroll was the guest speaker , here she is waiting for the microphone, the quilt displayed is our raffle quilt for the event.

 Megan was a very generous speaker in showing and telling us about her life and quilting experiences.  Below is Ryland manor front....

and back

 and she also showed us what didn't make it !  I learnt so much today.

 But of course there were the quilts that turned up as show and tell......here are a few.

I hope you were inspired, I definitely was. regards karen

Progress Report

 Machine cleaned, oiled, new needle and 4 bobbins wound ready to go!

I decided to do this Christmas quilt as a "quilt as you go"  the blocks are 21 inches so here is the first block quilted.

 Below is the current reproduction scrap quilt that I am working on leader and ender style, this is the first block on the design wall.

 This is last terms Maria workshop.....I'm trying to decide whether to leave this one as is..a wall hanging..or make a few more blocks so that it is a lap quilt ..or add some pieced borders.. or a plain border?

This is my Hof for Lucy in the UK with some extra scraps ( trimmings) to celebrate her new granddaughter.
Hope you enjoyed seeing what I was up to this week, Karen

TAH DAH The winner is

Morning All,
Drum roll please......
And the Winner is Judy!
Judy please contact me so that I can forward your prize to you!
Thank you to everybody.

Giveaway for turning 50

Morning All,
My 50th post snuck up on me and passed me by.....but I still want to share!
I have a $50AUD gift voucher for Gail's Patchwork emporium to giveaway.

Gail's home and shop burnt down earlier this year, and she and her husband have been very busy rebuilding and using their 'shed' as a temporary home for the shop.  They hope to re-open the shop the first week of October in the refurbished building.  Gail is a local Ballarat resident and business owner, and my giveaway is a way of helping her.  Her website is http://www.gailspatchwork.com.au

if you would like to win this....
please leave a comment telling me which post you liked the most..  Winner will be announced on Monday the 3rd of September 2012. So you have all week to enter.
Best of luck, Karen

Jelly Roll Racing

Warm up
Made a lottery block for Ellen as the winner of the August TB Lovers lottery

Then more pre race preparation.
I chose to use strips cut from a swap I participated in a few years ago and went from pink right through the colour wheel and back to pink to finish. Just to see what would happen.

Then the race was on!
First lap had a few crashes and took 50 minutes, due to tangles, bobbin run out and discovering that I had sewn the initial long strip not right sides together.

Second lap, was faster once I upped the sewing machine speed from slow to full throttle. But still had a few tangles at the end. Time of 20 minutes.

Third lap uneventful 12 minutes.

Fourth lap 7 minutes and another 3 minutes when I realised that the bobbin had emptied again.

Fifth and final lap 3 minutes.

Final time of 95 minutes!
link to site is below
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bEJLnaZQOU
Love Karen

Sunday Drive

Last Sunday we went for a Sunday drive to Castlemaine...

saw some lovely ladies, in their Sunday best.

Didn't find what I wanted at the Restorer's Barn. But I did get what I needed, and something that needed me at Threadbear Patchwork.

Had a coffee before heading to a new shop in Castlemaine that I hadn't been before.

This is what I found at Haberdashery! love Karen

Back to work!

I'm back at work in my studio, but I saw this today and it got me thinking!

More work done on my dolls quilts, I finished the log cabin quilt top from Kathleen Tracy's book, "Prairie Children and their Quilts"

Sunday is now designated scrap days. I sorted almost one tote box of scraps and then started sewing, can you guess which book I got at the Craft show last week?

This is where I saw the birds on my walk this morning!

have a great day Love Karen