The African Room

We are finally working on dressing up the computer/guest room. We hung these handmade raku tiles today. They are by Nancy Cannon, who is a Michigan based ceramic artist. You can find her at www.allearthtiles.com She is a really nice person and makes wonderful art tiles.

These tiles gave me the inspiration to make this room into an African themed room. My next project will be to make a curtain to cover the closet mirrors. There are huge mirrors on one side of the room which is the closet. Unfortunately they are there and NEED to be covered up. Who in the world ever thought it would a good idea to be in a small room with a gigantic mirror? You would have to be very vain to even tolerate it for a short time. So, I ordered some brown batik fabrics today to make a curtain. It will be exciting to see if I can make one that looks nice.

Well Happy New Year, we are breaking out the champagne tonight!

Picket Fences Finished

I finished Picket Fences and now am keeping it on the table as shown in the picture. Now I have to make some cushions for the benches. We bought some foam for the cushions and I am now working on covering them in a plain muslin. Once they are covered, I will make another covering from the Picket Fences fabric that I will be able to zip on and off. Since I plan to make more than one table covering, I would like to have the ability to zip on and off which ever I would like to have on with some ease. I must admit it's a bit difficult to get my head around the sewing part since I have never actually sewn anything in a three dimensional way. Getting an exact fit seems harder than it looks...

The second picture here is my Christmas treat to myself. They are a mixture of fabrics by Judie Rothermel called Charleston III as well as fabrics from Moda called Dominique. I plan to make them into a log cabin quilt but I haven't decided on the center color yet. I'm leaning towards a peachy pink at the moment, but if I could find a decent red or orange I might consider it.

New Year's Eve is going to be a quiet one at home this year. A year ago I was racing around at the last minute trying to get ready to move here. I am so glad that I have a place to call home that it will be a relief to just relax.

Christmas

Merry Christmas! Here are a few pictures... The first picture is of a quilt I made back in August. It was inspired by the book, "Focus on Batiks" by Jan Bode Smiley called "Bean Soup."
I made this one for my mom, but I still haven't gotten it quilted yet. I'm contemplating doing the quilting myself by hand or waiting to get it done by a long arm quilting machine. I haven't decided yet.

The second picture is of the Christmas presents I received this year from my mom and aunt. Too bad I didn't have a tree up this year but now I am inspired to have one next year. They are very beautiful, the picture doesn't do justice to how they sparkle in the light.

The next picture is dh taking a picture of me early in the morning as I was quilting Picket Fences. I was trying to hide but he got me anyway. I am wearing the jumper I knitted this last winter, it's one of my favorites for around the house.

The last two pictures are pictures dh took of the Snow Gums in front of our house which are having an exceptional bloom this year.

Picket Fences Pieced

We're back from a short visit to the coast. It felt great to finally get away from the farm for a couple of days, especially since the air is full of smoke from the fires in Victoria. I sure hope we have some rain soon.

I finished the top of Picket Fences. I am now in the process of quilting it (stitching in the ditch) and should have it done soon?

EQ6 finally arrived and I am having fun playing with it and learning how it works. I wish I had a scanner so I could scan in all my fabrics for project possibilities...

Picket Fences Progress

I am making some progress with my Picket Fences tablecloth. The top is about half done now and I find that it looks a lot more festive than I had originally imagined it to be. I think I will use this table cover close to Christmas time when cherries and such fruit are in season. It might look too much like a candy cane the rest of the year.

It's been hard to blog as my computer is kaput. Now I have to start all over again on my husband's old computer, but hopefully I will have mine up and running again in the near future?

Picket Fences

I decided to follow the same pattern as Modern Mayhem for my table cloth with the Picket Fences fabrics. It was just easier to figure out the size I need to cover my table and I am too anxious to wait for my EQ6 to arrive. It's taking a long time in getting here, but mostly, I suspect, due to the quality of the seller on ebay which I purchased it from. Oh well, I'll keep this progress short as I just got back from my first meeting at book club today and am now off to night tennis finals.

Gridlock Progress and Picket Fences

I am making more progress on Gridlock, 20 down--60 to go! Although, I think I will set it aside for a bit so that I can work on a tablecloth. I will use the fabrics in the picture above which are by Moda called Picket Fences. I really love these fabrics as they remind me of life growing up at the cottage on Lake Huron. I don't know why, maybe because they are fabrics from the 40's or maybe because they depict summer fruits or 4th of July colors? Whatever the reason, they will be going on my table to remind me of cottage days...

Modern Mayhem

These are pictures of the first quilt I ever pieced and quilted myself. It is from the book, "Batik Beauties" by Laurie J. Shifrin called Modern Mayhem. I made my version in blues instead of the earthy brown/oranges of the original. It measures 50" x 64" and was quilted by stitching in the ditch. I really love the simplicity of this pattern and the ease with which it went together. I am a bit sad when I look at it now that I only used medium toned blues. I didn't really know at the time how to use a variance of light through to dark fabric. Oh well, I still like it, but it will probably never be a favorite.

Succulent Garden

Today my mother-in-law, Myra, helped me pot some succulents and cacti from her garden into the pots I just got back from firing at pottery. Here is a picture of them outside on our deck. I started doing pottery at about the same time I started quilting. Since I've come to Australia I've joined the local pottery guild and decided to make plant pots as a start. I figure plant pots are an easy thing to make as no one looks too closely at them. When I get better I will move on to other things, but in the meantime I will work on building up our garden! I love working on the wheel and the many steps it takes to finish a piece of pottery. In a way it is a lot like quilting, except that your hands start to dry out when you do too much!

Glimpse of the Past

This is a photo of one of my favorite quilts done by my friend Mo. The pattern is from the book Batik Beauties by Laurie J. Shifrin called Glimpse of the Past. Mo changed a couple of things in her version to that in the book and used Moda's Vienna Nights fabric instead of batiks. I love the way the creams and red fabrics make the blues really stand out. Well, I happen to like this so much that I plan to make a similar quilt for my dining table cover. I have a Jarrah table so the reds and blues will go really well with the wood. I plan on customizing the pattern to my table size as soon as my new EQ6 comes in the mail! Soon.... I am hoping.