Holidays are Almost Over

With the holidays drawing to an end, I am looking around me and seeing so many plans still unfulfilled. I'm not complaining though because I have had the most quiet, relaxing, easy holiday in a long time. Being a teacher, I get lots of holidays, unlike when I was in the retail world. I appreciate them totally. These holidays saw knitting projects finished,  and quilts started, finished and in the middle of, and a few other bits and pieces. I had my first yoga class (and found it really hard - BUT I AM NOT GIVING UP!), walked on the beach and around the local parks, met friends, drank coffee, spent time with my family, did the crossword every day, worked a little, cleaned a lot, got accepted into university to study my Masters part time (am I crazy?), bought some great bargains, cleaned out the back veranda (and found a red back spider), read books, tried new recipes and generally did whatever I wanted whenever I felt like it and it was so relaxing and regenerating. 

I guess I am now ready to enter the world of reality and go back to work. 19 new students to get to know, 19 new sets of parents to meet and remember their names. Organised chaos, here we come!

One of my last two projects stitched on the machine has been these oven gloves.

My son wants to take them back to Sydney as a present for his girl friend's family.

I like them now that they are finished but they were a pain to make!

The other one has been quilting the Keiko Goke improv quilt I started with Gwen Marston.

I have just made up the stitching as I have gone along and it has been lots of fun.

I think I know what the binding will be, but I am not 100% so I will leave it for a while and have another look with fresh eyes in my next term break.

Play time for me is over.

Decisions Made

Liberated quilting is all very well but if you get too liberated and free, your fabric starts to ripple and warp which does not bode well for a flat piece of fabric to quilt. So after adding on a couple more borders, the patchwork I began in the Gwen Marston class has had to stop growing. 

My second decision, after months of procrastinating, was to join these blocks

into a 4 x 4 centrepiece

The Quilts in the Barn show inspired me to join these guys up and then add a series of borders.

I'm not sure what the borders will be.

Maybe flying ducks.

I have quite a few extra blocks made, each one different, that will also go on as a border.

It has been hard to get myself moving with my quilting these days.

The main thing is that I am beginning to use up some of my fabric.

A Blues Weekend

After much procrastination I got stuck into the back of my husband's recycled shirt quilt.

This is the front, completed months ago.

 And here is the back so far.

The problem is that I like the back as it is, so I am contemplating making it into a new quilt.

The second problem with it is that if I keep it as a back for the original quilt, I will have to make it into a rectangle and I am not sure how I will add to it.

I guess that means another few months of thinking ahead of me!

Another job done this weekend has the been the final stitching of the binding onto the Parson Gray Quilt I made ages ago.

I loved the Denyse Schmidt backing, I used it for the binding as well. It is so sharp!

Gwen Marston Class

While this is all fresh in my head, I am going to try to post everybody's work from our class today.
Amitie hosted Gwen Marston to come and teach a very lucky group of people about how to be a 'liberated quilter'. We learned that there are no rules, mistakes, formulas to making a quilt. Gwen, over many years of research found that quilters of the past did not always follow patterns. In fact, they would chop corners off, cut triangles in half, add extra strips etc to make their borders fit and lo and behold, those very unformulated quilts are what major museums show as masterpieces. we were shown a few simple techniques she uses as well as some gorgeous quilts which are featured in her books.
So, in an endeavour to get this all up before I start cooking dinner...

 Marie - Quilts with Personality

 Debra from My Patchwork Palace

Heather

 Barb

Jenny

 Chris

 Leanne

 Raelene

Sorry, I missed your name!

 Nelly from Pumpkin Mamas

Natasha also from Pumpkin Mamas

 Wendy

 Lisa

Gina

 Kerry

Leanne - who used fabric from her first ball gown as the centrepiece of her medallion quilt

And finally Pat's mini masterpiece all stitched on this little antique Singer sewing machine.

As for what I made, well, it is bright and not fit for your eyes just yet.
I do hope I got everyone's name correct. Some of the people holding the quilts aren't the makers, just the person closest to the piece at the time.
Gwen is a fabulous teacher, very relaxed and encouraging.
I believe she will no longer be teaching at her retreat on Beaver Island in the States but the retreat is being taken over by some other ladies; Sue Nickels and Pat Holly so all is not lost.