Quilting Owl

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...

Since reorganising some fittings and adding lots of new shelves there has been some steady progress in the studio although I still have a large pile of paper and lots of fabric to sort through.  The pile of patterns to be written on the "to do" list is slowly (ever so slowly) diminishing and progress has been achieved on a number of current WIPs. I have just finished machine quilting "Buttons, Birds and Blooms", a medallion quilt with a panel centre I have shown in earlier posts, and made a couple of matching cushions with the other two small left-over panels.  Currently I am enjoying the process of hand stitching the binding after which the quilt can be photographed and the pattern completed.  This is a kit quilt commissioned by Peter to sell at Cairns Craft Centre. Till next time Frances

Since I started the mammoth job of sorting out things in the studio time has just evaporated which is probably not surprising in the heat of a Cairns' summer and a task turned into a career.  Well furniture has been moved around, shelves have been added for all the UFO project boxes, magazines have been filed or archived and I still have a heap or two of papers or fabrics to go through but that can wait till another day.  I have just been checking out the camera and found some lovely work made by my students in recent classes at Cairns Craft Centre. First up is Helen's lovely quilt which is the centre block of one of my new  medallion quilts "To the Manor Born" - and here is Jenny's version of this same quilt. Jenny has also completed the top for her stunning Kimonos Quilt - and lastly here are some great tablemats made in a class last year with a seminole braid trim. At the moment I am up to my ears in machine quilting and writing patte...

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...

As the year draws to a close I have been thinking about what I want to do in 2013 and I have decided that " Fun " is going to be the most important thing so that will be my word for the year.  I also believe that it will be a lucky year and I am going to go out of my way to make it so for me.   This year I have been focussing on finishing projects and while there are still a lot of unfinished ones in the studio I am pleased to say that I finished more than I started.  All of the projects I started in 2012 have been finished although some are tops waiting on quilting, like "Birds, Buttons and Blooms" which I designed around a panel. "Birds, Buttons and Blooms" by Frances Leate This hand pieced Double Wedding Ring, a long time UFO is now a bed runner and is in the quilting queue.   Some of the projects I made this year were mini quilts like "Petite Fours" and I had a lot of pleasure hand piecing this small one. "Petite Four...