A big week in quilting

Last Thursday after dropping Flowers for Alison at the Adelaide Show Grounds for judging the Royal Adelaide Show Quilt Show I headed to the city to attend the AMQF and join in a class on a Sweet Sixteen.

The class was with Helen Godden, it was hands on and a great afternoon of just stitching on the machine.  It was probably a bad idea because it has made me want a Sweet Sixteen even more but DH tells me NO, personally I don't see the problem in a little more debt.  Here is a picture of finished product.  All I can think of is how easy it would have been to quilt Flowers for Alison on the Sweet Sixteen, but then again with the thin batting and voile backing the sandwich wasn't that heavy but it would make quilting lot easier.  Oh well I'll keep dreaming, just have to sell a lot more patterns and one day I might be able to get one.

I headed back to AMQF to the Vendor's Mall to make a few purchases.  Aurifil thread was 50% off for participants so I purchased a nice bundle of colours for appliqué and piecing.  I also purchased a saddle chair for my sewing room.

Judging for the Royal Adelaide Show Quilt Section was conducted on Saturday and results were released yesterday on the website and Flowers for Alison received 3rd place in the Machine and Hand pieced quilt Machine Quilted section.

I have been stitching the first Celtic Knot block for the current BOM.  There is a hell of a lot of stitching to do but it will be done in plenty of time.

Maestro had another specialist appointment about his elbow this morning after having an MRI on the weekend.  The bad news is that there is damage to the joint from his break and there may be debris in the joint as well.  The Orthopaedic Specialist said we have 2 options to wait and see if things improve or to have an arthroscope of the joint straight away.  He said it was up to Maestro about what he wanted to do.  There is a chance that the surgery could cause stiffening of the joint, and therefore Maestro has decided to wait and see and return to his sports and monitor how much pain there is and if he can put up with it and revisit the surgery down the track.  Personally I would have done the surgery straight away as there is a chance they can fix the joint when they go in and it was only a small chance that the surgery could cause problems to the joint but it isn't my body and he can put up with the pain.  We have another appointment in 3 months.  Not the news we were hoping for but at least we have answers to why he is still having pain.
  

A Note about Block 2 Celtic Tree of Life

Initially I was going to try and use an 18mm Clover Bias Maker for this block.  I tried it out on the weekend and it just was too hard to curve it round the knots.

To tell the truth I never have had much luck with the larger bias makers usually I struggle to get a nice bias but I thought that if I used some starch I would get it to sit right.  The bias came out ok but it was just too hard to make the acute bends that the knot work required.  The good news is that if you made my quilt last year you will have the 12mm bias maker in your stash which I am currently using.

I am going to have to work on the template more and may have to resort to hand drawing it to get it done for you, but that's my headache.  Now back to the ironing board to get the knot in place.

Home Again after a Short Break

We headed to Melbourne on the weekend.  The boys went to an AFL game at the end of the Season apparently the worst game they could have picked for the round oh well.  We did the Victoria Markets and the DFO, checked out Luna Park at St Kilda and some more markets by the seaside there.  Then on Monday we headed to the Aquarium and some more shopping with the boys at the DFO.

On Sunday I needed a bit of a break from all the family togetherness and headed to Making the Australian Quilt Exhibition.  It was interesting to see the different styles on display.   Many of the quilts were very naive, though the crazy patchwork were probably my favourite for the embroidery.  The quilt below was truly amazing and the satin stitch looked like it was done on a machine.

I'd like to thank all the new people who have found my blog and are downloading my new BOM I hope you enjoy.  

I'm Early Lets hope this continues for this BOM

As we are have a bit of a short holiday this weekend I was worrying about getting the first block up in time.  So I've sat down this afternoon and got all my shit together and written the pattern early for you.

Block 1 of the Celtic Tree of Life is up ready to download.  So head to the page and get your hands on the patten.

I haven't done any more design work on the rest of the quilt yet but hopefully I should be able to get back to that over the next few weeks and you will get more of an idea of what the centre of the quilt will look like.

If you need advice or want to ask questions just leave a comment and I'll get back to you next week.  I hope you enjoy the first instalment.

Details of 2015 and 2014 BOM can be found here  these patterns are available to purchase from my shop at www.seabreezequilts.com.au.

Block 1 is coming together nicely

I'm in the final stages of stitching Block 1 of the Celtic Tree of Life.  There was a bit of fussy cutting for the butterfly wings which I'm really loving.   

I haven't been happy with some of the placements of the pieces, throughout and I have found that it is best to continue needle turning the whole templates.  Press the appliqué and then unpick.   This means that you don't need to needle turn the piece again and stops the wear and tear on the edges.  An already turned and pressed piece is supper quick to reposition and stitch.  

The day for release is officially the 15th but it will be the 16th as we are going away that weekend.  

In other news Maestro broke his elbow back in March and he returned to Karate after the Drs gave him the all clear and has been going to a physio every week for about 2 months to get the strength back but he has been complaining that it wasn't getting any better Physio told him to have a break from Karate to see if it improved it didn't.  So physio sent him for X-rays and the news is the break hasn't healed.  We kinda don't know where to go to from here and we are just in holding pattern at the moment.  

Block 3 Bee Inspired is up

Head over to Bee Inspired Page to download.