Happiness Is Having Time To Applique.

 After working a week of night shifts I really need to catch up on sleep. I also had a quiet day today to rest up and recover which made it an ideal day to do some needle turn applique. This is the first block I've completed of my Flowers From My Garden quilt kit. I've been meaning to make this quilt for ages so it's lovely to finally have time to start it.

 This is the 4th block (on the top right hand side) and I think I'll tackle to 15th block next. I do love Lori Smith's designs and this one will go together quickly as the pattern has been made into a kit and having all the background fabrics provided makes it quick to get the blocks started. I've also completed another block for my Chester County Criswell quilt so I am catching up.

 

 

We are moving my Dad into assisted living accommodation tomorrow so I expect that I will need to do some more relaxing stitching when time allows.
  Hugs, Jan Mac
 

Quilt Without Guilt.

 I've been wanting to make this applique pattern< Flowers from My Garden" by Lori Smith for some time. It has 16 blocks which are 9 inches in size and will be a lovely quilt for me to practice on with my free motion quilting. I bought a kit on Monday and have almost finished the first block, after starting it yesterday.

I'm also making good progress on my half inch hexagon project too. I've been called back to work again tonight so not much stitching will happen now for a little while but it was lovely to just relax and stitch today.
I know I probably shouldn't have started another project but I have a few stressful things I'm dealing with at the moment so I decided to allow myself to just enjoy stitching without guilt. There will be time enough to finish off some more UFOs in the future. In the meantime the relaxing action of stitching is very soothing.
  Have a great weekend everyone. I won't be able to get to the AQC this year due to work and family commitments but there is always next year.
Hugs, Jan Mac
 

New Beginnings.

 I have started a couple of new projects, even though the number of works in progress are still fairly high, because I'm auditioning projects that I will be able to take on our travels to Europe. I have been wanting to make a reproduction of Susan McCord's Trailing Vines quilt and I have the book, Quilts From Henry Ford, so started by tracing the leaves and vines. Then I realized that it made more sense for me to free-hand cut the leaves from scraps as that would be what was done by the original quilter. You can see my progress from just a few hours and I think this will be a good project to take as it doesn't take up much room and involves fairly intense amounts of stitching without needing a lot of precision  in placement of the leaves.

 I am also working with half inch hexagons and have made some good progress with the hexagon flowers as well as the random hexagons for the border of the quilt. This is another good project to take on our travels as they are small and won't take up much room in my luggage. We'll have some waiting time for trains and planes so some stitching may be done as a change from reading.
 In the meantime I'm enjoying working on some new things but I still have a couple of quilt tops ready to quilt so I should probably put in some time on them as well. I plan on having some more to show very soon and it maybe some new projects or some older ones finished. It will just depend on how I'm feeling at the time.

Hugs, Jan Mac

Some Delicious Quilty Goodness.

 While I recover from working nights I thought I'd share some of the fabulous quilts on display at the Australian Quilter's Association (AQA) exhibition held in Melbourne at the weekend. The first quilt by Dorothy Ramage won viewer's choice and it is a stunning applique quilt.

 This is one of the 21 Elizabeth's Legacy quilts and has followed the original pattern faithfully. It's a very large quilt.

 I love the use of hexagons with some applique on the borders.

This quilt by Heather Bingham won the Irving Green award for best use of colour. Her quilt is made from batiks and looks lovely.
 I've been doing a little bit of hand stitching so hope to share that progress tomorrow.
Love, Jan Mac

My Quilts At The AQA Exhibition

 This is a very quick post as I am home from Melbourne and off to work nights again. It was lovely to see my quilts finished and hanging at the AQA Exhibition and DH was very impressed with them which was a bonus. The first one is my "Mrs Williams and I" quilt which is a reproduction of a mid 1800s quilt. The pattern is called "A Tribute to Mrs Williams" and it is still available at Threadbear and is by Corliss Searcy.

 This quilt is my version of Elizabeth's Legacy and our group was given permission to reproduce the quilt which was started by an 8 year old girl, Elizabeth Smith, as she started her new life in Australia, living by the Yarra River in Melbourne. My version is quite different to the others presented as I used modern fabrics and it was lovely to see how everyone had made their own versions of this quilt. I'll show close-ups of this one as soon as I have time.

This last quilt I named "Hexagon Charm" and was made from the squares of fabric I swapped with quilters around the world to celebrate the Millennium. I included this one as hexagons are undergoing a revival and hopefully it's one of those quilts that might encourage some "new to quilting" ladies to start their own quilting journey.
 I was thrilled to hear from one of our award winning quilters who told me my machine quilting was good and I shouldn't be worried about whether or not it was good enough for an exhibition. That was so lovely to hear as I know I need to practice more but will try to quilt more and worry less with future quilts.
  Thanks for stopping by and it was lovely to meet up with Pam as well as Kate at the Exhibition.
 Hugs, Jan Mac

Applique On The Go.

 I took a break from stitching hexagons today to work on some more of my Chester County Criswell quilt. I completed the block of tulips and decided to make the flowers yellow to add some colour to the top, other than red and green.

 I've completed 11 blocks so far and I'm slowly catching up with the blocks that Sharon has posted so far. I will be behind again as we are leaving on another trip very soon but they don't take long so I can always play catch up again when we return.

 I may have prepped another hand applique project to work on and may take it with me on our travels. More to come soon.

I've also started my first block of the BOM from Sentimental Stitches, called Scrap Savers Baltimore Applique. I couldn't resist it as I love, love, love Baltimore Applique quilts and it was only $5 per month for the digital download.
 Hopefully I haven't just started more UFOs but as there is no time pressure for these new projects, and as I have just finished 2 large quilts, I'm going to enjoy the hand stitching process. Tomorrow I'm off to Melbourne for my group's Exhibition at the Box Hill Town Hall so plewase say hello if you see me there. I'll update my blog with lots of photos afterwards.
Thanks for stopping by.
Hugs, Jan Mac

Some More Appliqued Quilts from the Castlemaine Exhibition 2014.

 I thought I'd share some more fabulous quilts from our recent Applique Group's Exhibition. I was there but there were so many lovely quilts to see that it was hard to take them all in. I will be revisiting my photos quite a bit to ensure I remember and appreciate all of them.

 I hopw you enjoy them too.
Hugs, Jan Mac