Tropical Holiday

Finally - here are some photos of our holiday in Tropical North Queensland. We stayed at Yorkeys Knob, one of the beaches north of Cairns and a popular spot for kite surfers. I showed you the sign at the entrance to the beach on Wednesday!



We arrived on Friday and on Saturday we spent the day in Cairns, where I spotted this gorgeous butterfly on a wall. I thought the garbage bins were very cute:



The kids had a ball at Muddy's playground on the Esplanade. I love the fish-shaped fence:



Of course we had to visit the Botanic Gardens:





On Monday we drove up into the Atherton Tablelands where we visited a coffee plantation and had a lovely lunch in Djungaburra. Such a beautiful area!





Of course we had to visit the Great Barrier Reef, so on Wednesday we took a boat to Green Island.



There we did a little snorkeling and went on short trip with a semisubmersible. The boys loved it! (and so did I)





This is my favourite photo - taken from the pier on Green Island:



On Thursday we took the famous Sky Rail from Cairns to Kuranda. Unfortunately the weather wasn't very good that day:



We had a great day nevertheless. In Kuranda we visited the butterfly garden:



After a lovely lunch we took the train back to Cairns - on the Kuranda Scenic Railway. A great experience!











Finally, on Friday, we flew back to Brisbane.



An unforgettable holiday!

Wordless Wednesday

Antique quilts

The two antique quilts I bought online a while ago both arrived today - very exciting!



This Kite Quilt is so pretty - in a very good condition and so beautifully hand-quilted. My 8-year-old son just admired it and I told him that he can have it when he is grown up and has a baby - it will be a hundred years old then! (he was very impressed)



This one is also very beautiful.



It is machine quilted:



I'm very happy with my purchases and will keep my eye out for other small antique quilts. Have you ever bought an antique quilt?

Yes, it is a Lone Star!

We are back from a lovely holiday in Tropical North Queensland and I will be sharing some pics soon, but first I have to show you this. I have been sewing very hard this weekend (we came back on Friday) and I just finished the 8th block of my new quilt! Yes, it is a Lone Star - also known as Star of Bethlehem, Rising Star, Morning Star and Star of the East. It has always been one of my favourite quilt patterns and I suddenly had an irresistible urge to make one!

One block measures 36in/91 cm from point to point, so I think this quilt will end up on our bed. I know I said at some point I would never make another bed quilt... Never say never, hmmm?

Progress

Three blocks done, five more to go. Surely you know what I am making now?

The new quilt

Someone asked if I was doing an Irish Chain in red and white - it was possible, but no!
Here are the next few steps; I did have some time this morning when our guests were sleeping off their jet lag. Below is the first completed block - there was some unpicking involved, but I'm quite proud of the final product! Can you guess what it will be now?



It's so nice to have family visiting! (they're staying in an apartment close to us as our Queenslander isn't big enough to house another family) The boys are having a ball with their little cousins. Here they are all having diner together at their own table.

Vintage Quilts

Working as the editor of a quilting magazine has definitely rekindled my love of quilts. In the last few weeks I have found myself looking for affordable vintage quilts on Etsy and Ebay - and after the initial hesitation I decided to take the plunge and just buy one! Or two, actually - the first one was the lovely red and white quilt above, in a pattern known as Glorified Nine Patch. I found it on Etsy and kept going back to it. It's now on its way here - can't wait to see it IRL!



And today I managed to snap up this lovely baby quilt from the 1930s on Ebay. This pattern is known as the Kite or Arkansas Star. Very sweet, isn't it?



And no, I'm not just looking at and buying quilts, I also made one (but can't show it here yet, sorry) and bought fabric for the next one. Yes, I am going to make a traditional quilt in red and white!



What kind of quilt? I'm not saying yet, but I will share my progress here. I did some cutting: these are 2.5in strips. Any guesses?

I'm afraid I won't have much time to do more in the next two weeks, as tomorrow my sister-in-law and her family arrive in Brisbane and on Friday we are going to Cairns for a holiday in the tropics!

Wordless Wednesday

Tea Cosy

It's winter here in Oz and it can be quite cold in our Queenslander house. To warm up we often drink a nice cup of tea - and now that the boys all like a cuppa as well (with lots of milk and sugar) I needed a bigger teapot than the one from Zinnia Pea that I got for Mother's Day a few years ago. Unfortunately Zinnia Pea seems to be out of business, so I bought a cheap one at the op shop. It does its job, but is rather ugly... However, Spotlight had some lovely teapot fabric, so... I made a tea cosy!



The lining is a very sweet teacup fabric and in between is some Insul-Bright wadding. A quick and fun project!

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Up and Away

You may remember that I showed a sneak peek a while ago of a new quilt that I was making with cotton, silk and velvet from Dyed and Gone to Heaven. The quilt is finished now - I've called it Up and Away :-). It measures approx. 35 x 53 cm (14 x 21 in). I love the different textures of the fabrics, although they are hard to capture in a photo. Here is a close-up image:



This is a new way of working for me (abstract, and I have tried to let go of the straight edges). I have enjoyed it very much and plan to make at least one more quilt using cotton, silk and velvet.

Would love to hear what you think!

Wordless Wednesday

Blogger's Quilt Festival Spring 2013

Amy from Amy's Creative Side is hosting the Blogger's Quilt Festival and I have decided to enter my favourite quilt into the art quilt category.

Cycle of Life was made in 2010, part of my sports series. It is a whole-cloth quilt, the background fabric is a handdyed piece from Dyed and Gone to Heaven. The cyclists are screen printed and their shadows are stencilled with a Paintstick using freezer paper stencils. The quilt is machine quilted. The dimensions are 48 x 107 cm / 19 x 42 inch.



I used photos of my sons and my husband to make the first three images and the last one. I am especially fond of the third image: my middle son riding his bike without the trainer wheels for the first time (see here):



Cycle of Life was juried into the State of the Art quilt 11 in Brisbane, a finalist in the Fall Expo 2011 at the Infinity Art Gallery, and was exhibited at the SAQA/SDA Conference 2012 in Philadelphia, USA.

As I said, this is my favourite of all my quilts; it hangs in our living room above the piano!

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Cotton, silk and velvet

At the Stitches and Craft Show in March I bought a turquoise triple treat from Dyed and Gone to Heaven: three hand dyed fat quarters of Silk/Rayon Velvet, Silk Dupioni and crinkle Silk Chiffon. I combined the velvet and silk dupioni with turquoise and orange hand dyed cotton sateen, also from Dyed and Gone to Heaven, and pieced a quilt top (not knowing that you should use interfacing when using velvet and silk... I will definitely do that next time!) I've started quilting the top and am enjoying the way the different fabrics look when quilted. Here's a sneak peek - to be continued!

SAQA Benefit Auction 2013 quilt

This is my donation to the SAQA Benefit Auction 2013. As you see I have gone back to my black and white optical illusion quilts. My quilt is on page 3a on the SAQA site, along with a number of other quilts from SAQA Oceania members. Later in the year we will do a blog hop showing how we made our quilts.

Wordless Wednesday