Quilting Owl

While it is still the calm before the storm, or I should say Cyclone Ita, I thought I would share some of the latest quilt happenings. My third sister, Anne, has been having a very rough time healthwise of late so I made a quilt to celebrate her 70th birthday.  It is often difficult choosing colours for other people so I opted for somthing bright and cheerful and was pleased to hear from her and her daughter how delighted she was with her present. "To Anne with Love" by Frances Leate Meanwhile I am still keeping on track with Barbara's Brackman's BOM "Threads of Memory" and here is Block 3.  The next temptation is to start on her Jane Austen Album quilt. "New Garden Star" Block 3, Threads of Memory Pauline has now layered her version of my "Night Owl" quilt and I am looking forward to seeing the finished quilt. Currently it is still calm outside the studio with just the odd shower of rain and I am now just waiting ...

As the end of the first quarter of the year approaches we are very thankful in the Far North for a reasonably mild Summer unlike other parts of the country which have experienced floods, bush fires and heatwaves.  We always expect our norther summers to be hot, wet and humid so it was good to be able to get out and enjoy some blue skies the other day to walk on the Esplanade. Back in the studio I have been busy raiding my stash and scrap basket to make these blocks and have been having so much fun that I think I will make this quilt larger than first planned. I have also caught the hexagon bug - it must be because of seeing all the lovely work Shirley has been creating over at  Stitcherydo  - and these will be incorporated into a new hand pieced and appliqued medallion design which I am currently working on. Talking of medallion quilts, Lesleigh has been creating her own version of my new quilt, "To the Manor Born" and is doing a wonderful job.  A...

I was up bright and early this morning to watch a very exciting event, a total solar eclipse.  Cairns was ideally situated for this event although the weather has not been the best for the last few days and we were worried that there would be nothing to see particularly as the town is full of visitors from far and wide.  Luckily the clouds cleared just in time and armed with special glasses we watched from our front garden.  These are just some photos we took with a simple point and shoot auto camera and I am sure the medial will be showing the specactular ones.           Till next time Frances      

Cairns has enjoyed perfect weather for the Queen's Birthday holiday long weekend and we really enjoyed getting outside to lap it up.  It makes the wet and high humidity of the summer all worthwhile when winter comes with such wonderfully warm and sunny days. I did manage to drag myself into the studio to have some fun with the Farmers Wife project and finished six more blocks to take the count to 50.  The blocks are getting very scrappy and so far I haven't repeated the fabrics in more than one block.  I have really enjoyed digging deep into the stash and so many of the fabrics bring back happy memories of earlier quilt projects.  The centre floral fabric in the bottom right-hand corner block features in the quilt I will be sleeping under tonight - yes it does get cold enough in the tropics for quilts.  Sorry about my poor photography skills and I should have waited till tomorrow to take the photos in a stronger light. Earlier in the wee...

The last few weeks have been quite busy though there is not a lot that I can show you.  Autumn has finally come to tropical Cairns and there is now actually sunshine between the odd shower of rain.  The grass is still leaping out of the ground needing to be cut at least once a week and the temperature usually hovers around 30 degreesC with the humidity often around about 60 percent.  Peter has started a massive clean up in the garden to get it all nice for the winter months which is the best time of year here and sees us all come out of hibernation. In the studio the design wall has been stripped bare and is gradually being filled with the latest design commission.  I just love a blank canvas to create with.  Lots of different fabrics have been taken off shelves and out of storage boxes, played with and often put back while I decide on a colour pallette to work with.  This is the best part of my job and I just love it. While all this has b...

At last, the house is clean, the presents are all wrapped and some last minute decorations have been hung so its time to sit down and wish everyone a Merry Christmas!  I would like to take this opportunity to thank all my loyal followers and everyone who takes the time to read this blog and hope you all have a very happy festive season. This morning while having breakfast we got the rare opportunity to watch a Blue Ullysses butterfly hover in this red bush outside the window for a quite a long time.  Usually these vivid blue butterflies just do a very quick flit through the garden and disappear before I can get out the camera, but today we had lots of time to fully appreciate its beauty. It has truly been a lovely day and we decided to have lunch in town on the Marina Boardwalk at a favourite spot.  It was quite novel the way they served the fish and chips in what looked like newspaper. As it was a balmy tropical night  we enjoyed a ...

Today was a wonderful day because I got to welcome to the Far North for the first time my niece, Maree, and her daughter, Nicole, who sailed into Cairns on the P&O cruise ship the "Pacific Sun".  This was the first of many visits from family and friends that we are looking forward to over the next 3 weeks.  Their ship docked at the city's new Cruise Liner Terminal very centrally located right in town and we took in some of the local sight on a steamy and tropical day.  Nicole and Maree at Cairns Craft Centre Maree with me at Palm Cove Till next time Frances

Once a year the Cairns Show comes to town so I took some time out today to go and have a look at some of the local arts and crafts.  I was delighted to see that Kathy, a Sunday Stitcher, took out 1st Prize in her section for her lovely Baltimore style wall quilt.  Kathy started this quilt in a machine applique class at Cairns Craft Centre and then let her own creativity take over to produce this fabulous quilt. There was a lovely display of quilts to enjoy and a small red and white quilt which really caught my attention. I spent some time chatting to Louise and Jenny who were busy in the demonstration area making charity quilts.  They have received fabric and half square triangles from all over the world and have now made 19 quilts which have been donated to specially chosen victims of cyclone Yasi and to other good causes.  Well done girls - a fantastic effort! When I moved around into the cake decorating area I found some more prize winners - Sue,...

I was sorting through some photos tonight and came across a few that feature my favourite colour.  As a child I received a Christmas pressent which was a lovely doll that my mother had dressed in a beautiful yellow outfit and I think this is what started my love of all things "yellow".  This is another Christmas present I received some years ago from a dear old friend and customer who loved to crochet and I just adore this beautiful doily - and I would be lost without my little "buzzy bee" to get out and about in - My favourite rotary cutter and rulers and squares also happen to be yellow - and I always enjoy this tree with yellow flowers beside the local shopping centre carpark.  I might add that it is not all that long ago since this very spot was a canefield and often flooded in the wet season. Queensland would not be the "sunshine state" without its pineapples and bananas and I noticed the other day we have another pineapple maturing in the garden...

It has truly been a lovely day here in Cairns and Peter and I took advantage of this beautiful Autumn weather by taking some time out to have lunch at Pescis on the Marina Boardwalk - beautiful seafood and a great view! Later we wandered around enjoying the sunshine and we couldn't resist a tempting gelato - the diet starts tomorrow!!! To finish off this wonderful day I have just spent the evening thoroughly enjoying the pomp and ceremony of The Royal Wedding.  I thought the bride looked beautiful and very elegant, the music superb and the camera shots in the Abbey were spectacular.  I particularly enjoyed all the people spotting and seeing what all the women were wearing even some of the bizarre hats or should I say fascinators. Till next time Frances

The Red and White quilt exhibition is currently on in New York and to show I am there in spirit if not in person I have started a new red and white project - just a fun little quilt.  The big exhibition in New York coordinated by the American Folk Art Museum is showing 651 red and white quilts belonging to Joanna S Rose and the exhibition is called "Infinite Variety: Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts". During the last week there has been a break in our weather and we have actually had a few fine afternoons and I have enjoyed some lovely long walks on the Esplanade.  Peaking through the clouds there was part of a rainbow visible in the photo below and I hope this is a good omen and that we will enjoy better weather than we have been experiencing for quite a long time now. Till next time Frances

Thank you so much to everyone who has sent us their thoughts and wishes over this difficult week - this has meant so much to us.  Minutes after I last posted we lost our power which has only just been restored to us over two days later so we have had no internet and much of the time no phone communication. While the cyclone blew its way through our home area I sat up in bed with earphones listening to the coverage on our local radio and believe it or not I was actually doing some hand piecing.  Things crashed on the roof and I could hear branches breaking but outside it was completely black so there was nothing to be seen.  Peter, as usual, slept through the whole wild night mainly because he was absolutely exhausted from all the preparation beforehand.  I don't know how many times he got up on the roof doing things like tying down whirlybirds, taking down the big sail over the courtyard and checking guttering. In the morning we surveyed the g...

It has been a long day!  The gale force winds and rain didn't eventuate during daylight hours so we had a lot more time to prepare things outside and around the grounds.  It was more difficult inside because we didn't know whether to move things away from windows in case they are blown in and if to put things up high because the roof may go and then there is always the storm surge and flooding to worry about after the cyclone.  By lunchtime we just gave up and as we still had power we turned on the airconditioning and the TV and watched the International one day cricket between England and Australia. The weather outside at the moment is wild and woolly and the last Cyclone Advice forecasted that Yasi would cross the coast near Innisfail just south of Cairns around midnight. Cairns has been battened down all day and it was strange to see no cars driving around.  Our power has just starting going off and on so that means we are about to go black and I don't kn...

At 2.00 pm on Tuesday afternoon when I took this photo of the garden outside the studio it was hard to believe that a severe tropical cyclone called "Yasi" is off our shores and heading straight for the Cairns area.  The latest bulletin has upgraded the severe cyclone to a category 4 and they have forecast that it will cross the coast just to the south of Cairns about 10.00 pm Wednesday so I don't think I will be doing a lot of sleeping in the next day or so. We have been given a lot of instructions and there are standard procedures to follow which we are all well informed about and we were all told to secure the outside of homes before dark on Tuesday because Wednesday will bring ever increasing wind and rain.  Peter spent the afternoon clearing our courtyard and dismantling the sail over the top of it (the first time it has come down since it was put up nearly 4 years ago).  I spent my time doing lots of things that needed power because there is no doubt that we will ...