Lorraine's Holiday Quilts

Before the Christmas break, we all saw Lorraine busily beavering away on quilts for her new hideaway in Tassie.
Lorraine promised to send pics of home and quilts and here, with excerpts from her e-mail, are some great pics for us to drool over......such wonderful seaside themed quilts in keeping with a house by the sea.

'My beach house is inside a National Park, on the north west coast of Tasmania.  The weather has been blissfully cool with no humidity.  We even have had to light the fire a few times at night!  When I first arrived, I got out all the quilts I have made for the house, and had a "Quilt Airing day" with all the quilts out on the deck in the breeze'.

 The many beautiful quilts made by Lorraine for her Holiday Home.

 

Fabulous views from Lorraine's Home

 

 'I was luck to receive a great pre-Loved Janome machine for Christmas, and i have just acquired a second-hand Horn sewing cabinet - so now I am making quilt tops whenever i get the chance.  I have set up my sewing room with a marvellous view, so I am just the happiest quilter in town!'

'I go for a lovely long walk along the beach in the morning, and another long walk through the National Park in the late afternoon - the walking tracks in the Park start just across the road from my house'.

 Pics of the Interior of Lorraine's Home

'So, all in all, I am having a wonderful summer what with lots of friends and family visiting, and quilting in between! Still, I so miss the friendly Patchwork group, and look forward to catching up with you all when I return'.

"Under the Sea" free BOM

Cheryl from Willowberry Designs, who gave us the lovely 'Veranda Views' free stitcheries last year has done it again with "Under the Sea" a 10 month series of delightful stitcheries.

First stitchery to be collected is the very cute Josephine Jellyfish, download her here, along with block sizing and fabric requirements.
Cheryl also very generously shares her fabric shading technique using watercolour pencils, with a step by step tutorial. Just scroll down the page for all the instructions. 

Cheryl sent me a sneak peak of block 2, due out 1st February, and I gotta tell you, it is the cutest...................
so cute in fact that i cannot wait to start on this wonderful free project.  Just click on the 'Under the Sea' button featuring Josephine in the sidebar after 1st Feb to down load .......  .... .  

Oh and by the way, what to do with all those Mangoes we all seem to have??...........Check out Cheryl's Mango and Ginger Chutney.........major Yum.  So happy stitching, colouring and cooking, a three in one blog  for you to enjoy.

'Flirting with Flowers' free BOM

There is a plethora of new free BOM's on offer from the ever generous designers out there in blogland, and as I come across them I will post a button in the sidebar.

This little beauty is block one of six of 'Flirting With Flowers' designed by Vicki from Tozz's Corner

 Vicki  will be offering her free designs on the first of each month, next one due 1st February, but if by any chance you miss a month then all is not lost, the pattern will be available for purchase from Vicki's Etsy shop.
Vicki is working on the layout and will soon be letting us know of the fabric requirements for the project.

'Flippy Daisy', pictured above, is now available for download here, and for those of us who are not fond of the idea of needle turn, Vicki suggests blanket stitch applique. 

A wonderful new BOM from Jenny of ELEFANTZ

Well, its been awhile folks, you know that crummy saying 'life gets in the way', well it did!  Not to dwell, there has been a lot happening out there in blog land and a lot of catching up to be done...........lots of freebies to let you know about and lots of news...........

 'BOUQUET'  Jenny's free Block of the Month

Jenny of Elefantz has 'Bouquet', a beautiful new 6 month BOM to offer us, each block is free on her site for 1 month, changing on the 7th of each month.  Block one can be found here, hurry along to get your copy before the change over on 6th Feb.  but if you do miss out all is not lost, you can purchase this months BOM from Jenny's Etsy shop....... how easy peasy is that!....

Jenny is a thoughtful lass and to make sure that your will just love, love, love her beautiful quilt, with no surprises, she has given us a pic of the finished 'Bouquet' quilt and a link to where to buy the lovely fabrics used in 'Bouquet'

Jenny is also running a 'Tea Towel Challenge'...........no, not gonna tell, go find it on Jenny's blog, and while you are there, being amazed.........she made that from a tea towel??!!........scroll down to Jenny's latest quilt pattern 'Snail Trails', just the sweetest baby quilt.

Talent runs in this families veins, Jenny's daughter, who she fondly refers to as Blossom in the blog is also a designer........yep, this young lass has had her first project published in the January issue (Issue10/8) of Patchwork and Stitching..........now that is a WOW moment!   Congratulations Blossom/Eli - well done.
If any of our overseas readers are unable to purchase the Mag, just pop over to this page and scroll down and there you can purchase the stitchery along with sewing machine cover instructions for $4.95.............

Joyful Patterns from Joy

The wonderfully talented and vivacious Joy visited with us at our Christmas Fair and promised to send some of her patterns for our Group's Library, Thank you so much Joy for being so generous and supportive of our Group.

Well they arrived.........5 of them..........can you imagine! ohh so yummy patterns all of them

A pattern for a Binder Carry-All, this little beauty fits an A4 ring binder, there are pockets galore, to carry your stitchery or blocks, scissors, needles, threads and even a place for your pattern.

Plenty of scope to use those little scraps that you cannot bear to throw away, there is even pattern sheets..........yes sheets, in country and script to embroider roses and your name on the spine.

I can see a whole series of these for each embroidery and patchwork project........should I colour code them do you think?
or go for the eclectic look?












 

Then there is this fabulous Box Bag,  it has 3 inner pockets, one with a closing flap and 2 smaller open pockets for your phone and ipod, a large front pocket and best of all it folds flat, so a super second bag to take along when shopping.

Isn't this the best? beautiful grub roses in sprays on the corners and yes, there is a pattern for the embroidery and great directions on the assembly and placement of the grub roses................o.k., yeah, I did peek, but only because I had to take the patterns out of their envelopes for photography purposes...........really!, honest! I will be waiting until they are checked into the Library before I start stitchin' until I bust.
This large sewing tote open up flat, lots of pockets so that everything is at your fingertips.  Nice long handles to go over the shoulder - great pattern.

Well, didn't Grandie number 2 think he would like one of these quilties, Ohh, sweetie, stand in line, what a wonderful fresh and innovative pattern, straight cut blocks on the front and angled cut blocks for the back, quilt as you go for a fun reversible quilt with 2 very different looks.

And the last pattern I will show you is this wonderful beauty, a recent pattern of Joys......'Under Lock and Key' is a large tote, just perfect for taking your patchwork blocks along to class or group meetings, it has the cutest ruffle front and back.                          The front has a sweet little embroidered heart featuring an applique lock centered in a patchwork block. The tote unfolds to lay flat - just perfect to keep your blocks clean and wrinkle free.

How lucky are we, to receive all these fab patterns from Joy.!!

Anyone not able to wait until end of January for a pattern,.............lets meet for coffee and a little bribery.

Thank you so much Joy, these patterns will be much loved and used by the Group.

What is it they say  in the newspaper world?.......'Hold the Presses',
I really feel like yelping out those words or something similar..........just popped over to see what Joy has been up to and after reading her post on her wonderful family, down at the bottom, in Red No Less, is the most amazing news, Joy is putting a daily special in her sidebar for Christmas, one of her PDF patterns for only $5.00   That is less than half price  

The first pattern being offered is "Dragonflight", a beautiful quilt of 5 sashed rows with a dragonfly appliqued in flight formation to each row.

Go on Girls, pop over and have a drool, and if you don't have pay-pal or find it difficult to order,  give me a tingle on the phone, I will organise it for you and you can pay me when Patchwork starts back, this offer is too good to miss and it would be lovely to support such a prolific and wonderful Aussie designer.  Go knock yourselves out.

Andrea

O.K. really gotta go now, have some shopping to do...........yay, dontch just love the internet?!!     

Fran's Christmas Lunch

Fran missed the Patchwork Christmas Lunch again this year, one of the drawbacks to being such a busy and popular Lady, so she gathered up a group of us and off we trotted to the Buderim Tavern for a lovely lunch.

Wendy spent some time creating - well, untangling the loop- on this delightful bauble to replace one of Fran's earrings that had dropped off between home and the Tavern - she had a cute little christmas tree on the other side.

Unfortunately (or for the views, fortunately) we were seated by the windows, with the sunshine and light streaming in, it was delightful for the luncheon but a disaster for the piccies..........however, a couple are retreivable, luckily this one of Heather showing us all the wonderful prizes that she received when "Blue and Gold Baltimore Beauty" won at the Queensland Quilt Show (just scroll down to section 7 if you need a reminder of how beautiful that quilt is)

Heather got some beautiful fabric from Dayview Textiles and of course there was a lot of chatter and thought on just what pattern could be used for this wonderful range of colours.

Marcia rather coyly mentioned that she has discovered a new and interesting quilt block, she then offered to teach it to anyone interested at the Cottage next year............gosh that sounds so far away, but its just a couple of weeks actually.  (eeekkk, another year bites the dust).

Problem is, Heather will not be with us for the first half of next year, nope, off again, this time to Perth for 6 months.  She and the Darling will be living the life of Riley in a 10th floor apartment overlooking the Swan River, beautiful, beautiful views across the wide expanse of green to the river.  The sad part of all this for Heather (sad for us is no Heather for 6 months.......sigh & sob) but for Heather, there is a decision to be made, take her machine or buy a new one over there?! Yeah, real sad decision that!

Heather also won a quilting voucher from Tricia Simpson of 'Cut From The Same Cloth' in Mango Hill.  Tricia can be contacted on 07 3886 4993 or email her  triciags2000 (at) yahoo (dot) com (dot) au.
Tricia has also offered a discount to you if you mention the connection, how very kind and giving of her.

So eventually, after lots of chatter and giggles, the girls went off to order, leaving the hubbies behind to chat about travel and motor mechanics..........well that's what I overheard when returning to the table

And this is a glimpse of what was ordered..........Yum, missed the Wagayu Burger, they were enormous, and delicious.........he he he.

Then more chatter and merriement

and so off home, clutching goodies of beautiful machine embroidered pin cushions, ta Wendy, and a barrel of Fran's beautiful biccies,...........which the Grandies discoverd in no time flat the next day and tucked in with a will.

An update on Totally Patchwork in Palmwoods,  not there anymore..........nope packed up and moved to Gympie............