Wonderful News

Received news yesterday that not only did my quilt Raconteur - The Storyteller's Collection (that name is too l - o - n - g) win first prize in the bed quilt category but it also won Viewer's Choice.

Yes there is a smile going from one ear to the other. It is now my most successful quilt ever exhibited.
NSW Quilt Show - Viewers' Choice
SA Festival of Quilts - Second Place Traditional  &       SA Festival of Quilts - Retaining the Tradition
WA Quiltwest - First Place Traditional
Canberra Quilt Show - First Place Bed Quilts and Canberra Quilt Show - Viewers' Choice.

Someone once told me to write the quilt name on the back of a ribbon when I won it. I couldn't figure how hard it would be to work out which quilt belonged to which ribbon when I only had one ribbon. for the first time I can see a reason.... old age forgetfulness :)

Collection 4 - Where Did That Name Come From?

The title Your Decision comes from the fact that the curve in this block is a basic one from mathematics. It is known as either a sine cure or a cosine curve, the only difference between the two is where they start. While making the block I couldn't decide which fabric would be the feature and which the background. The decision decides the border fabric - your decision.	C4 Green With Envy	Green With Envy is a simple block made when I was practicing making very small strips and then trying a bargello idea. The name came purely from the fabrics which were two beautiful Japanese florals - bet you wouldn't have guessed that.
C4 Your Decision	The fine strips in Rainbow Semaphore suggested the flags waving about when people used flags on a pole for semaphore... or what I think they looked like.	C4 Rainbow Semaphore
Do you remember the lovely floral frocks you wore as a child on a Summer's Day.. well if you were born in the 50s or early 60s that is..before the advent of stretch wear.	C4 Summer's Day	New Beginnings was made as a reminder to the start of a new life for my sister and her son when they moved into their own place.

C4 Birds at the Window	I was visiting my brother-in-law one day and as we sat having coffee and cake, non-fattening almost, there were a couple of Birds protesting at the Window. My BIL feeds many of the birds in the area and they felt it was time for their snack too.	C4 New Beginnings
Oh the freedom when you ventured out to the paddocks with just your bucket, wearing shorts and T-shirts to pick the sweet blackberries.... such fun.. and even though you returned home scratched all over from the thorns, did you remember to dress more appropriately next time? Not me... Blackberry Freedom	C4 Blackberry Freedom	Which is your favourite block?

What I learnt from Robbi

many smiles abounded after fun class	Well here you have proof that 1. I did do a class 2. I did produce something. Yes I realise that last night's photos of quilts in progress look a lot more impressive than my little drawings in this post BUT I can do these drawings in a matter of hours now. Yes I realise that hours doesn't sound that quick but previously it was a matter of days and anyway those hours are decreasing:) In these photos you see the development of my design. Ok being truthful I wouldn't use them in this way but I simply wanted to try everything NOW....sounds a bit like a child in a lolly shop doesn't it.	Gears - central part of the design. Ok so designwise that white spot shouldn't be there but other than that it looks super!
Next ring out - this is made much the same way as the centre but I added a circle to it.  this is really easy to draw!	Scroll - now doesn't it look something else and you wouldn't believe how easy this is to draw...NOW. Previously I have spent days trying to draw something like this and it never flowed. Robbi's method is just so easy.	Theses are the green pineapple heads in the final layout, I only need to place all of the other stuff over the centre to hide it.
Greek Keys - I am going to use the skills I learnt in this part in particular for my next major project. Can't wait to start.	If you spread these flower petals out you will see the final ring	Viola - here you have two days worth..and I don't have any more work to do at home to finish it. Now wasn't this a class worth doing?

Student Quilts from Robbi Eclow class

Well what do you think of these? And isn't it amazing to think that no one had done any designing or quilt making like this before? All of these quilts have at least two or three more rings to be added but it was just so great to get so far in a class. Not only did we learn how to design our own quilts but everyone else even took home a project which was well on the way to being together.		In the class Robbie showed us how to design using pen and paper. She gave everyone a sheet of basic shapes that could be combined in a variety of ways and these are what everyone used to fill their rings. She also showed us how to work out our own basic rings, both in sizes and number of wedges/parts that were to be contained. I learnt how to do this on the computer and I am pleased as punch with my results, which will star in my next post.

New Zealand yet again - Robbi Eclow

Robbi Eclow, who is also known as the Queen of the Last Minute, was the teacher for my second class ..and what a great teacher. These are her own samples which many of the students used to form the basis of their own work. They are all very vibrant and full of life. If you ever get the chance to do a class with Robbi take it.		I again failed the test and didn't make it as teacher's pet here either. When I enrolled in Robbi's class I thought it was a two day design class, but alas it turned out to be half day of design and one and a half of actually making a quilt. I contacted Robbi before the class and asked if she minded if I simply designed for the two days on the computer. She agreed and boy did I learn a lot... unfortunately I didn't learn how to change an Illustrator design into a jpeg for uploading here but will try to photograph it tomorrow.

New Zealand Symposium - Chris Kenna class

Day 1	A few weeks ago, it actually feels just like last week as I have been so busy, I went to New Zealand and attended the Taupo Quilting Symposium. I had hoped to do two classes, the first by Gwen Marston and the second with Robbi Eclow. Unfortunately Gwen was super popular and her class filled well before they managed to process my application. I also missed out on my second and third choices but managed to get into a class by Chris Kenna doing the New York Beauty.
Day 1 everyone, well except for me, made a 7in blocks, and an edge block. As I wasn't going to be making a complete quilt I only wanted to make two blocks and wanted these to be the same size and so I made a 10in block from Day 2's patterns. It is the block in the bottom left that doesn't fit in, in the photo above. There were some real beauties.	Day 1 & Day 2 -  7in blocks
Day 2 - 10in blocks	Day 2 People had the choice of making more 7in blocks or trying more advanced 10in blocks. I made my second 10in block and even managed to join them together. This time they are the two top left hand ones. Aren't some of the colours exquisite. When I came home my two blocks were joined together and then I designed a border for them and joined them all together and made a pram cover for my niece who recently had a baby girl, Annabelle. I posted the quilt off on Tuesday and can't find the photo of it around but if I find it I will upload it... I think it looked gorgeous.

Collection 6 - Where did that name come from?

 This collection contains one of my favourite blocks Crystal Dreams, the fabrics do nothing to showcase the design but I still love it.

Short Changed was one of the first blocks that were based on a smaller grid with an extra border. The original aim was to leave space for highlighting quilting, but my skills were too poor, atrocious is a more apt description for my machine quilting. Anyway due to my level of quilting skills I  ended up leaving the area still plain.. Would like to see someone do something with their skills.	C6 Short Changed	Crystal Dreams was designed to show some flowers in a crystal vase. The diamond cut that is common on many of the crystal vases inspired the design. Isn't it surprising that two fabrics that looked good together in strips don't come up so well when sewn...and then top it off with my being too lazy to resew the block...viola!
C6 Disappearing Hope	Disappearing Hope was made at a time when things were going pretty badly within my family after an argument with my father. Many things weren't too good at that time, but the block still looks good.	C6 Crystal Dreams
Fake Hands was made around the same time as Disappearing Hope. People pretend to care but spite and jealousy cause a lot of harm..and then they walk away, leaving much damage.	C6 Fake hands	Enter With Care - my eldest son worked for a while at Lucas Heights nuclear reactor and he would joke about consequences of a nuclear mishap. Youth knows no fear.
C6 With Care	The title With Care came from the fact that care needed to be taken when fussy cutting this block.	C6 Enter With Care
Strung Out was made about the same time as Disappearing Hope and Fake Hands. Gorgeous blocks for not such a nice time:)	C6 Strung Out	Links Links to blocks by Carol -  Short Changed,  Crystal Dreams, Disappearing Hope, Strung Out, Enter With Care and Fake Hands, With Care

So where are your photos?

Unbelievable but there is no U Scatterday post here

Life has been so hectic that it struck me this afternoon that Saturday had already arrived and alas I haven't written a post for this week. Will have to be next time. Missing only one all year isn't bad:(

Scatterday H

Don't you just love the floral H and I am sure you will also enjoyt the categories this week.
# Sticky
# Wearable
# Breakfast
# Hiding Place

posting date 17th August

Snippets from Delma

C2 I Love Lucy

Earlier this year I had the opportunity to teach at the South Coast Quilters Retreat, which is held biannually at Cobargo. Delma was one of the ladies in my class and a short while ago she brought the blocks which she had finished to our sewing day at Nowra Quilters. Don't you just love her fabrics?

C3 Burning Bright

Delma usually prefers applique or machine piecing but decided to try the miniature Raconteur blocks. She has now finished the five hand pieced blocks and only has left the two foundation pieced blocks.

In the class we did a collection that I call Snippets as it is a taste of the different techniques and structures that are used throughout Raconteur. The seven blocks are taken from different collections and slowly build from easy to rather difficult. Unfortunately after having made so many of the blocks my idea of simple/easy and a beginner's idea of this are vastly different. It was one of the women at this retreat who first prompted me to enlarge the blocks and showed me what a difference this small change can make to not only the final number of blocks that someone needs for a quilt, but also to the success that different people can achieve.
Teaching is a great opportunity for people to learn from others, not just for the students but also the teacher.

C6 Crystal Dreams

C4 BlackBerry Freedom

C6 Enter With Care