New Threads

Something new for me.  I was teaching one of my regular Saturday classes at Mallee Country Crafts, at McLaren Flat, and one of the girls, Julie,  had this bobbin saver with all the beautiful threads in it.  I had seen them before, but thought of them mostly for machine work.

However, the thread in this bobbin is Masterpiece - which is the 100% 50 weight cotton - perfect for hand applique.  I lusted after it a bit, and found that they come in another colour group

in this lilac bobbin saver.  I wanted them for myself - has anyone seen my thread case?  It is a disgrace!  I wondered if I might get neat if I used one of these. Miracles do happen.

So I bought them for myself, and while I was at it bought some for resale.  They are now listed on my website for $50, which includes postage within Australia.

Now all I have to do is find a project which requires more colours than red and green, and I will be in seventh heaven.  I have been working on red and green quilts for so long, and I need a little more colour in my life. 

Last Days of Autumn

We have had some rainy overcast days this month and it really makes me feel miserable.  I don't do winter at all well.  Today I walked through the front garden inspecting weeds, and noticed how pretty it was looking.  We have to have the rain, or we don;t get the flowers - fact! 

There are some plants that keep colour in the garden all year around - mine are Salvias.  There are hundreds of varieties, and some of my clever gardening friends will tell me the names of all of them.  You have to cut them back when they finish flowering in summer, and then you get this for the rest of autumn and into winter.  People describe my garden as "cottage garden" style.  Really, it has no style - if it lives it stays, if it dies it goes.  We just keep re-planting things that survive our harsh summers.

I picked a few of the pretties and brought them inside for the kitchen window.  It looks like a spring 
bouquet!

the very last of the red glory vines leaves.  This is like an ornamental grape vine.  We have it all over the outside of the house, and there are just a few pretty red leaves left.  Winter will be here next week.

Quilt Encounter

Back in November I went to a meeting to form a new committee for the annual Quilt Encounter, as part of the Quilters Guild of South Australia.  When no one volunteered, I put my hand up to be the co-ordinator.  I thought it would be ok, as I have had lots of experience in my past working life, looking after staff while in the work force.  There were a few ups and down during the 6 months, and I was getting really stressed about my ability to keep it all together.

I am putting this all down, so that anyone from SA who reads it will know my real reasons, and not some gossip, which does happen.

My health seemed to be affected, as I was loosing sleep over it, having anxiety attacks, and heart palpitations.  I got out of bed on Monday morning, and talked with my husband and my daughter about it.  My DH said that I was as stressed as I was when I was at work, and this is why I left.  My daughter said "it's only quilting, Mum".  And that really did put it all in perspective.

I contacted the President of the Guild, and tendered my resignation. I feel really bad about leaving the group, but we still have a few months before actually taking the reins, and I know that they will pull together on it.

Good luck!

Amongst the comments this week was one from Cyndi  from Busy Thimble, about the quilt which is the background for my blog.  This is a little cot quilt I made from left over bits of fabrics about .....hmmm...3 or 4 years ago.

I saw one similar, but in large scale, in a book on scrap quilts.  My plan was to make lots more blocks, and kind of float them across the quilt in coloured rows.  Of course I ran out of enthusiasm, and finished it off as a cot quilt.  The borders are a brown polka dot, which I love, and a large pink print on brown print.  It was published ages ago in Australian Country Craft and Decorating Magazine.  The blocks are about 4".

When I was looking for something to put into the background of my blog, which was not too intrusive, I found the photo on my computer, cropped it, and it worked ok. I also used this image on my latest batch of business cards.

I have lots of little quilts like this, perhaps I can show you one from time to time.

Do you love new gadgets?  I must admit I am a bit of a "gadget girl" and love to hear about things that might make my sewing life easier.

My friend Maureen told me about these Cutting Edge Rulers, and asked if I was going to stock them.  I had never heard about them, so started the research about how they work, and where I get them from.  Lucky for me that I could source them from the manufacturer who have an office in Australia.  The way they work is that every time you use them to cut, they sharpen your rotary cutter.  Right now, just about every time I use my rotary cutter, I seem to take a nick out of the ruler.  These have a diamond powdered edge that does the sharpening.  Rotary Cutter blades are expensive to buy, and I seem to use a lot of them.  They are a little more expensive than your conventional rulers, but if they do the job as they are suppose to, then it is worth it.

They come in several sizes, but I just bought in a few to see how they go, before I lash out on heaps.  The concept of very new and was created by Pat Sloan, quilter and author.  You can see a little YouTube demo here.

 I must apologise to all those poor people who subscribe to my website mailing list.  I wanted to tell everyone about these rulers, and I had real gremlins in the works.  With the mailing list, I can only send 200 emails at a time, as the server wants to prevent me from using  this for spam, so I accidentally told it more than 200.  Ooops!  I got heaps of emails rejected, about 95 back into my inbox, and I did  not know if people were going to get them eventually or not.  What to do?  I have to wait 70 minutes before I can do it again (spam prevention) and now, I am not sure who got them and who did not........anyway it was a nightmare.  Some people got 5 emails, some 2, and some lucky people only 1.

Something worked, and I sold out of some sizes, but I had a new shipment arrive today.  All ready to go again.

This last weekend I went to Kadina, in the Northern part of the York Peninsular, to do a workshop organised by Sue at Country Chix.  I met Sue last year between Christmas and New Year when I called in after having spent a few days staying in the lower part of the YP.  About the first thing I noticed was her lovely shop full of treasures, and then how friendly she was.  Lucky for me she asked me if I did classes as she was working on her class list for the new year.  We had a few back and forth emails, and settled on 2 days - one day doing applique and one day of English Paper Piecing.  I had a ball - and hopefully the others did too.  They were very friendly and welcoming.

Country Chix

Kadina is a very old mining town, and part of the "Copper Triangle" of Kadina, Moonta and Wallaroo.  This is where copper mining was carried out in the mid 1800's.  You can still see the beautiful old buildings from that time when the are was very wealthy.

 We had the workshop at the old Ascot Theatre, which is a treasure on its own.  It use to be a real theatre, and now it is used as an art gallery and community centre.

Ascot Theatre

We started at 9.30 am on the Saturday with hand applique, and I was able to show them something new, when we did "back-basting" applique.  They are all converted!  Hooray!

All set up - ready for action!

Hard at work

 Second Day  was English paper piecing.  This has been around for centuries, but we are now modernising it with new fabrics, and simplified techniques.

This is Sue, on RHS, who made it all possible with her organisation and hard work.

This is for the Kadina girls who said they would never rmember what it is all suppose to look like. 

Treasures in the mail box

and I could not wait to get the box open.  A friend told me she was "downsizing" and had a heap of fabrics to get rid of, and did I know anyone who might be interested in buying them from her.  They were Smithsonian fabrics.  Yes, please, I would love them!  I already have a project in mind.  The box arrived with four packs inside.

 Some of these are my all-time favourite fabrics.  Never thought I would see them again.

 This large print is interesting and will go into my "borders collection"

Some of these greens I have been eeking out here and there so that I could have just a little bit in some recent works.   Now I can be a little more carefree with them.  Some I am not all that crazy about, but still love them for what they are.

Now that put a little smile on my face, and now all I need is the appropriate project.  I am making the Maltaville Quilt, and Margaret has used mostly Smithsonian fabrics in hers, so I will be using many of them there.