Quilting Owl

Sometimes you just have to come out in the open and own up - I am a magazine junkie!  While doing the big sort out I am finding magazines piled up in every corner and I still can't believe that our little house actually has that many corners and still I keep finding more. The magazines used to all live in this bookcase neatly filed in order but then I started running out of space and was too busy doing other things to start sorting. Well the problem just compounded and at the moment the worktable in the studio is covered with ever growing piles.  This photo was taken early in the day and believe me the heaps have grown. I am not a minimalist and really love my magazines so a lot of these will be kept and put into archive boxes at least for the foreseeable future.  My love of quilting and all my inspiration has generated from these publications and my earlier quilts all began as magazine projects so they have become part of my quilting life.  I just wis...

Yesterday we had a good turnout at the first Mini Quilt Class for 2013 at Cairns Craft Centre where everyone worked on this cute little "Kimonos" quilt. "Kimonos" by Frances Leate Then it was home to begin the big sort out in the Studio where I managed to set up one area with some of my owls hanging on a tree-like structure.  This collection got a big boost from some lovely gifts I received over Christmas. Now we come to chaos that I need to sort out - lots of paper, magazines and projects.  We moved around a lot of furniture and added some new shelves so everything ended up on the work table to be gone through and either discarded or a new home found in the studio.  Peter often wonders what the plastic box industry would do without me but when you live in the tropics it is the only way to keep everything clean and they stack under tables.  After all this is sorted the serious fun can commence! Till next time Frances

I thought I would start off the "Show and Tell" for the year with some quilts made by Adrian, a very talented artist, who works for Peter at Cairns Craft Centre.  Using the Bulurru fabric range he has stitched this lovely applique quilt featuring Australian wildlife.  I just love the way he has featured this Japanese panel with the surrounding blocks and another appliqued quilt made from a favourite pattern by McKenna Ryan. The Sunday Stitchers met last Sunday for the first time this year and Jenny very proudly showed off her finished "All Points"  which she has now machine quilted.  "All Points" was a mini quilt workshop which I gave at Cairns Craft Center in 2012. Sonjia had her new runner to share with us which she made up from the Christmas mystery quilt project.  Meanwhile back in the studio I am slowly working my way through a heap of completed tops to turn them into finished quilts for future class projects. Ti...