Quilting Owl

I was pleased to have the opportunity for a brief visit to the Queen Victoria Building, Sydney's premier shopping centre and a must visit attraction. For many years this amazing building was used as office space and at one stage there was talk of demolition to make way for a city car park.  Luckily the building was restored to and is now an architectural and commercial success.  You can read more about it here Standing under the centre dome Beautiful leadlight windows above the centre doors An inspiring floor tile Till next time Frances

We took advantage of the magnificent weather in Sydney to get out and about in any free time we had.  The temperature was a little cooler than we are used to in the tropics but we had sunshine and blue skies for 9 out of the 10 days we were there. We enjoyed our walk through Hyde Park and I took a moment to enjoy the sun sitting at the base of the Captain Cook statue - We stayed  at Darling Harbour and walked around there as much as possible - and we also fitted in a brief visit to the Sydney Museum where Peter couldn't resist taking a photo of me with these stuffed owls - I always find time to do some stitching and the odd train trip presented a good opportunity - Till next time Frances

While we were at the Sydney Quilt Show, Peter took a photo of me doing a stint with the "white gloves" in front of the "Best of Australia" winning quilt.  It was great to get up close and personal with some of these outstanding quilts When Peter put on the white gloves he was kept busy showing the back of the amazing "Royal Amethyst" quilt by Rachelle Denneny. Four of my sisters who all live in Sydney (only 1 of us missing) met me at the Show and we had a great day catching up - there was lots to talk about!! Last year I only managed to round up 3 of my sisters and Peter photographed us in front of the quilt I exhibited "Quest for Gold" (unfortunately the sun made it difficult to get a good photo). Till next time Frances

We have just got home from a truly amazing 10 day visit to Sydney where we once again spent 3 days saturated in quilts at the Sydney Quilt Show 2010.  This fabulous exhibition is put on by The Quilters' Guild of NSW every June. Kay Haerland's spectacular quilt "Under the Canopy" took out the "Best of Show" award and here is Kay explaining different aspects of the quilt to enthusiastic onlookers - It was nice to catch up with Rachelle Denneny again and here we are standing next to her beautiful quilt "Royal Amethyst" which won 1st Prize in the Professional Predominantly Applique category and the award for Excellence in Domestic Machine Quilting - The Amateur Predominantly Applique category was won by Rose Lewis and she very kindly let me take a photo of her in front of her beautiful quilt "A Caterpillar's Dream".  This amazing quilt also won the Amateur Home Domestic Machine Quilting Award - I was very pleased to meet Meg Orr an...

Peter has been shopping again and look at some of the wonderful treasure that arrived in the mail to add to my thimble collection - the one with the owl on top is really cute. I have been involved with Baltimore style applique lately and Peter thought these would be useful additions to our quilting library - another collection that seems to breed every time we turn the lights out!  I have been talking about looking out for these Elly Sienkiewicz books for some time and when Peter located them he didn't let on but kept it as a surprise for me. Till next time Frances

There were lots of emerging projects on show at Cairns Craft Centre last weekend. Pris and Kay with their own interpretation of my sampler quilt "Quilting a Pieceful Journey" - Kathy is progressing well with her Baltimore quilt using invisible machine applique - Thora's Baltimore block look wonderful and I love the fabric she has used for the vase - Jenny had a new project using Australiana fabrics and a completed kid's alphabet quilt - another one to cross off her UFO list - Heather is enjoying the fun of hexagons - Till next time Frances

There is a website that lists bizarre, wacky and unique holidays  and I noticed that one of the holidays listed is "National Yo-Yo Day".  In my early days of patchwork and quilting I was introduced to making yo-yo's and still have a UFO box full of them.  I am not sure now what I originally intended to do with them when I started making them about 16 years ago but maybe one day a window will present itself and they will be made into some sort of quilt.  Meanwhile they will continue to live in their neatly labelled box on a shelf in the Studio. Till next time Frances

Now that the rainy weather has just about disappeared in my region I have been able to resume my regular 6 to 7 km afternoon walks and again soak up all the wonderful scenery.  Although it is winter the weather is still warm and balmy and it is great to be able to spend more time outdoors instead of being cooped up with airconditioning. I have noticed some new scultures on the latest part of the Esplanade Redevelopment and thought what interesting shapes they make.   This seat has recently appeared outside our newest library - interest to look at but I wonder how comfortable it is to sit on. Till next time Frances