UFO Weekend and Blog Giveaway

Russellee’s UFO Retreat last weekend a great weekend despite several misshapes preventing some from coming.  All in all a lot of sewing was achieved. 

We had a lovely lady, Lois; from Sydney join us for the weekend.  Her main project was a very colourful basket weave quilt.  Lots of ‘Y’ seams but the end result was stunning.

 

One of our regulars from Canberra did a Shop Hop Road trip in California last January.  She brought along a lot of the goodies that she purchased while she was there.  Her project for the weekend was a beautiful Peacock Quilt that she purchased as a kit from one of the shops.

Roz continued on her UFO from our last retreat as her life has been so busy that finding time to sew has been difficult.  When she started to lay out her blocks she found that she had gone overboard and will probably have enough to make two very large quilts.

On Sunday Anne came out for lunch with us.  She had a fall in her backyard  the day before the Retreat.  She fell onto some rocks and was in a bit of a mess.  Very lucky as it could have been a lot worse.

I actually started another project.  Have a heap of UFOs but I am hoping to have this one finished for a display in April.  We will see as our Quilting Cruise is next week and when we arrive home the next two weekends are booked with a Scrapbooking Retreat followed by a group of 10 ladies coming from Canberra for a Retreat of their own.

 

Russellee’s next UFO Retreat is the 13-15 June.  I am running a blog giveaway for the Retreat.  Leave a comment and you could join us with two nights’ accommodation and meals at this Retreat in Tumut.  You have until the end of our Quilting Cruise to leave a comment.

I shall keep you posted on how our Quilting Cruise progresses.

Until then

Dorothy

Jean's Quilt Finished

On our 2^nd Australian Quilting Cruise, conducted earlier this year, we had a remarkable lady, Jean Brown, cruise and quilt with us. This is the second time Jean has attended our Quilting Cruises.  Jean has reached the wonderful age of 84.  She travelled to Sydney on the XPT train the day before the cruise and had all her bags and sewing machine with her.  She stayed the night at the CWA hostel and got herself to the ship next morning.  Jean takes everything in her stride and does not find fault in any one.  She has a remarkable outlook on life and finds beauty where ever she looks.

We had three workshops on the cruise.  Jean chose to do just one.  She has been quilting for many years but has only ever done small hand and machine projects.  The work shop that she chose was the Pinwheel Folly with the embroidered panels.   Her cruise ambition in 2013 being to tackle a bigger project.

Jean obtained the embroidery patterns before the cruise and had her six embroideries completed prior to departure. She arrived onboard with all fabrics to complete the quilt, most from her home cupboard; we were able to supply a fabric on the ship to complete the requirements as she was one short.

Jean did not have much experience with a rotary cutter and arrived with a brand new cutter and board, after a few pointers she mastered the new purchases.  She was on her way to making her quilt.

Her quilt centre was completed on the ship. After she arrived home another lovely lady Roz Sephton who was also on the cruise, helped her with the borders and got her in touch with a lady to quilt it for her.

Below I have a photo story of the making of this quilt.  The story finishes with her completed quilt.  Her quilt became much larger then the workshop version.  In fact it became a large double quilt.  It finally was finished last week to become a present for her daughter-in-law.  Her pride in finishing a much larger project than she had ever tackled before was wonderful to see.

Got two done

 

Progressing

 

 

 

 

Da Da blocks are finished

 

Finished at last

 

 

 

 

Quilting Cruise workshop

I have been working on four different versions of my second workshop on the 2nd Australian Quilting Cruise next January.  My workshop is titled Bali Treasures.  I will be going to Bali on a fabric and cultural tour with a group of Canberra Quilters next September.  I will be looking for batiks to put together as kits for this workshop.

The second version is adding turned applique machined onto the background using monofil thread.  They could also be needle turned.

This design does not have to be done with batiks.  My third version was made using 9 fabrics from the Essentials Too Damask collection.  These colours were not colours that I would usually use.  It is good to get out of your square sometimes.

I collect cat fabrics and had a piece with 3" squares with cats and a matching allover fabric for quite awile in my stash not knowing what to do with them. The 3" squares were perfect for this design.  Needless to say I did not use the coordinating fabric from my stash but took the fabric to 'Simply Stitches' in Wagga and chose eight matching fabrics to complete the project. I was happy with the resulting quilt.

Bookings are going well on our 2nd Australian Quilting Cruise.  Our adds in Quilters Companion and DUO Quilts came out this month. However, the group price freeze that we have for the cabins on the ship is ending on Monday.  The cabin prices for any future booking on our cruise will unfortunatly go up then.  If you are interested in this cruise if you book befor then you will get the old price.  The deposit of $450 is fully refundable until the 15th October.  If you book now you have until then to change you mind if necessary.

If you are interested in coming on this fabulous cruise with myself and Amand Daly contact our booking guru, Lorelle, by email. lorelle@thecruisecrew.com Alternatly you can contact me at russeldr@bigpond.com

A Quilting Retreat at Sea is a great way to combine your passion for Patchwork and a pampered holiday together. 

Until next time

Dorothy

Australian Quilting Cruise 2013 Workshop News

On the last cruise the ladies put forward suggestions for workshops on the January 2013 quilting cruise.  I have put together a quilt that can incorporate some of these ideas.  A larger quilt was suggested. This quilt is designed to use a cutting corner ruler but this is not necessary.  The quilt has 12 main blocks of 12" square.  I have incorporated a 6" or 8" centre panel into these blocks.  Six of these panels can be done in one of several techniques.  I have focused on three of these.

The colours in these photos are not the best. 

One being hand embroidery.  I am not a hand sewer and this took a bit of procrastinating on my part.  It is good sometimes to get out of the square that you work in.  My passion is free machine embroidery.  Once I came up with a theme the designs did come.  I would draw one then embroider it.  I had 'Shakespears Flowers' as the main fabric.  The embroiders fitted in with this theme.

Close up of two of the embroidered panels

I also have this fabric in a butter colourway and am doing another version of this quilt using the lovely 3" panels that is part of the range.  I have not finished this as yet.  This photo is put together in Photoshop to give you a bit of an idea.  The pink and sage is not as dark as shown here.

One of the other requests made on the last cruise was foundation piecing.  I have Incorporated six foundation pieced blocks in this quilt.  The fabric is Michelle Hill's 'Morris Meadows'.  I love the rich colours in these fabrics.  The colours are totally different to the 'Shakespear Flowers' fabric. I have this in a black and pink colourway as well.

Fussy cutting also goes well with this quilt design.  This version of the quilt is using 'Bouquet Gallery' which has a wide boarder fabric.  All the fabric in this quilt come from this range.

Fabric with 6" panels also work well with this design.This quilt has 6" flower panels with little verses. 

I am putting together a bright quilt using 6" cat panels.  This is the centre only still has to have the borders added.

The finished size of the quilt is about 60" x 70" depending on the width of the outside border.  Again the colours in the photos are not very good.  They look better in real life.

This pattern can work with a wide range of fabrics.  Blocks could also be machined embroidered.  I have a limited number of kits for all of these versions.  However, I will be providing a fabric list for those who would like to use fabric from their stash or to use something different.  If you want any further information on these please email me.

Hopefully I will have all these quilted before the cruise.

Dorothy

May UFO Retreat

The May UFO retreat was a great success.  Twelve lovely ladies attended from Campbeltown, the Southen Highlands, Swan Hill, Boorowa, Canberra and the local area.  This was the first retreat at Russellee several of the ladies had attended.  Lots of hand sewing, machine sewing and sharing of ideas made for a very enjoyable weekend.

Busy Sewers

Time Out for the Cook

The weekend was full of laughter and companionship as well as achieving a lot of UFO progress.  There was a great diverse range of patchwork completed during the weekend.

Bernadette's finished quilt top

Our next UFO Retreat in October is almost at capacity.  We are happy to organise another one before the end of the year if there is enough interest.  Contact me for any details.

The 2nd Australian Quilting Cruise next January is also receving bookings.  If you are interested in this it is best to book sooner rather than later as the ship is filling up.

Larraine and I have almost got the samples for one of the workshpos finished.  I hope to have photos of these up on the blog very soon.

Until next time happy quilting.

Dorothy

Quilting Cruise 2013

Preparations are well on the way for our 2nd Australian Quilting Cruise January 2013.

Thirty four wonderful ladies attended our Quilting Cruise earlier this year.  We put forward some different iteneries for our next one. This time they voted for a longer cruise of 14 days. The cruise goes to Noumea, Fiji and three ports in New Zealand.

As there are eight days at sea and plenty of sewing time. Amanda Daly, a NSW Quilting Guild teacher, is coming with us and is doing two of the workshops.  Amanda is a contemporary quilter who loves raw edge appliqué and a little three dimensional quilting and enjoys traditional quilt making as well. See her profile below.

Amanda's profile

I'm a Patchwork Quilter / Textile Artist / Teacher and I've been passionately working with fabric for more than 20 years.

I would describe my work as contemporary, though I also cling to some of the more traditional techniques and increasingly I'd have to describe some of my creative pursuits as a bit arty. I enjoy it all.

I teach classes and workshops in and around Sydney as well as in far flung places in country NSW and interstate. I really enjoy meeting other quilters and sharing my passion for quilting..

I spend as much time as possible in my studio, blissfully detached from the rest of the world dabbling in this and that. I work towards deadlines for shows, challenges and exhibitions, create original quilts and write patterns both for sale and publication. I also find time to create quilts purely for my own enjoyment because that's what I feel driven to do. I feel the need to spend some time being creative every day, there is just never ever enough time.

To find out more about me and to view some of my quilts, visit www.amandaspatch.blogspot.com www1.tpg.com.au/thedalys/quilts

I have arranged visits to Quilting Shops in New Zealand.  One of the shops has also offered to do a demonstation for us. Two of my workshops will be of a more traditional nature.  One will provide a choice of technique for the main block.  These techniques were suggested by the ladies on the last cruise.  I shall be posting photos of one of  these workshops very soon.

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The bookings are being done by Crafting Cruises, an American Company coordinated by Lorelle Hardt and her husband.  Lorelle is an Australian and her parents live in Melbourne.  Next year apart from this cruise she is running the Fourth Australian Scrapbooking Cruise in conjunction with the quilting cruise. The ship has two large conference rooms that we have booked (no need to pack up each day) and the Quilting and Scrapbooking will be run separately. We have ladies who have scrapbooking friends and they are sharing a cabin.

The cruise is leaving from Sydney on the Royal Caribbean ship ‘Voyager of the Seas’ on the 13^th January.  A link to more information and costings is below.

http://www.craftingcruises.com/cruisepdf/QuiltCruise2013.pdf

We have a limited number of sewing machines for hire for ladies that are travelling long distance and who are unable to bring their own machine. However most ladies on the last cruise did bring their own machine and we did not have any problems with them.

 If you require any more information please do not hesitate to contact. Email  russeldr@bigpond.com or phone 02 69474216.

Until next time

Dorothy