Be still my heart

This is my latest valentine project for Issue 12 of Fatquarterly E-Zine. Made with the luscious Ruby Oakshott cottons, this easy quilt combines a simple pieced background and an appliqued heart design. I could not bring myself to cut-up the oakshotts so I let these gems radiate in a brick design. Using Aurifil   50wt thread in red (2265), I used a digital quilting design - Rapunzal (Anne Bright).

The long and the short of it

I try to hang all my rulers and templates on 3M hooks but some of my longer templates don't have holes for hooks and they are too long to fit in draws. So, to keep them from being broken or scratched, I place them in hanging pouches.

They are simple draw string pouches made to accommodate the different types of oversized templates.

Each bag has a little hand drawn label pinned to the outside, illustrating the contents.

This is another template pouch I am working on. I hope to make all sorts of shapes from circles to hexagons.

Zippered Back 

Still adding some bling.

Wild Queensland Weather

After a horrible heatwave and bush fires, the state has now been struck with cyclonic winds and torrential rain. Some towns have been badly affected by the torrent of water and are at risk of losing everything to the rising rivers and flood waters again.

This is what it looks like at our place. We lost power for 22 hours and spent our night with lanterns, candles and torches sharing all the food from our fridges with the neighbourhood. Thank goodness for gas BBQ's. It is amazing what you can cook on them.

As a consequence of the 135km wind gusts, we lost 4 large conifers on the boundary fence and we had water damage from a leaky window upstairs that has damaged the kitchen ceiling.

We back onto a river which is usually more of a stream but we have had so much water in 3 days it has turned into a raging river. I almost wanted to get out my raft and go whitewater rafting.

We live next door to an environmental centre which has a large lake. There was an incredible amount of excess water overflow which has caused our mini version of Niagara Falls.

The wind is subsiding and the rain easing but the airports are all closed. My relatives in Sydney have just called to say it is moving south and they are bracing for the storms tonight.

Stay safe everyone.

A little Celebration Giveaway

*** Competition Closed***

To celebrate 595 posts, and 4 followers shy of 1000, I will be giving one lucky blogger a chance to win a charm pack from the new collection - 'Happy Go Lucky' from Bonnie and Camille.

All you have to do is follow me (Stalk me. That is mandatory because I am desperate to reach 1000. It just seems like a really cool number to me.) and answer this question:

"Do you own anything Navy? If so, what is it?"

It seems Navy is the colour for 2013 and is slipping into a few designer collections. I am a big fan of Navy and am glad it has resurfaced. It will be the neutral for 2013.

Open to everyone. Winner will be announced 14th February 2013.

Moda Friendship QAL

Join the Moda Designers

 for a 

Friendship blog hop

 where they will be 

sharing friendship block patterns along with 

some fun stories.

Each day visit 3 moda designers' blogs as they share with you a 

9" friendship quilt block. Add these patterns 

to your block library. 

The last day a setting option will be

 supplied on the moda blog, the Cutting Table.

FEB 18th

Barbara Brackman
http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/

Basic Grey
http://blog.basicgrey.com/

Blackbird Designs

http://blackbird-designs.blogspot.com/


FEB 19th

Bonnie- Cotton Way
http://cottonway.blogspot.com/

Brigitte- Zen Chic

www.farbstoff-bridge.blogspot.com

Anne- Bunny Hill

http://bunnyhillblog.com/



FEB 20th

Camille- Thimbleblossoms
http://www.camilleroskelley.typepad.com/

Deb Strain

http://debstrain.blogspot.com/

Eric & Julie Comstock

http://cosmocricket.typepad.com/cosmo_cricket/



FEB 21st

Jan Patek
http://janpatek.blogspot.com/

Joanna-Fig Tree
http://figtreequilts.typepad.com/my_weblog/

Jenn Ski

http://jennskistudio.blogspot.com/

FEB 22nd

Kaari-French General
http://frenchgeneral.blogspot.com/

Lynne-Kansas Troubles
http://kansastroublesquilters-lynne.blogspot.com/

Kate Spain 
http://katespaindesigns.blogspot.com/
 You have the weekend to rest or sew these blocks.
 We hope you are having fun collecting all these quilt blocks.

FEB 25th
Kathy Schmitz 
http://kathyschmitzstudio.blogspot.com/ 

 
Edyta- Laundry Basket

http://www.laundrybasketquilts.com/blog/index.php 

Lauren & Jessi Jung 

http://laurenandjessiblog.com/

FEB 26th

Lisa- Primitive Gatherings

http://lisabongean.wordpress.com/ 

Malka Dubrawsky

http://stitchindye.blogspot.com/

Me & My Sister

http://meandmysisterdesigns.com/blog/

FEB 27th

Minick and Simpson

http://minickandsimpson.blogspot.com/

Pat Sloan 

http://blog.patsloan.com/ 

Sandy Gervais 

http://piecesfrommyheart-sgervais.blogspot.com/

 FEB 28th

Sweetwater

http://sweetwater.typepad.com/makelifesweet/ 

Stephanie Ryan

http://www.stephanieryandesignstudio.com/ 

Vanessa Christenson

http://www.vanessachristenson.com/

March 1st

The Cutting Tablehttp://modafabrics.blogspot.com/

Visit your local quilt store blog tour

January 24th is 'Visit your local quilt shop day'. Show some love for your local quilt shop and visit your favourite store this Thursday. My local store is Quiltessentials.

8 Bunya Park Drive, Eatons Hill QLD 4037

Nestled in the heart of Eatons Hill, Brisbane is Quiltessentials. Claudia U'Prichard is the owner of this delightful LQS and has supplied our community of quilters with beautiful fabrics, notions, classes and excellent advice for 10 years.

Claudia and her staff, Deb, Kim and Tanya are always on hand to help you select the perfect fabrics and tools to complete any project.

Their shelves are filled with the latest collections including:

An extensive range of batiks.

The wonderful colours and designs of Kaffe Fassett.

Japanese Fabrics and projects.

Blenders, Solids, William Morris, Minke, Childrens prints.

and our beloved Saffron Craig organic prints (Love the wombat panel in this collection).

Threads and embroidery cottons.

And all types of notions, batting and some wide backs.

A mountain of patterns, including an extensive range of the Millamac patterns and kits.

And my favourite, Kaufman Cotton/Silk blends. These luxurious fabrics are a Cotton 55% Silk %45 blend.

In addition to the fabulous fabrics, Claudia has been host to quilting celebrities such as Cathy Miller (singing quilter), Jane Mullen (Stargazey), Cynthia Morgan, Lorraine Carthew and Dianne Johnson.

The 2013 line-up of tutors include, Kim Boland, Hiroe Mogi and Tanya Sadie.

Tanya Sadie and her class

One thing I love about my LQS is that they are host to casual chat n sew afternoons and charity groups. Each week people gather to make quilts for charities such as the Women's Shelter and Kidney Kids. The shop made a mammoth effort during the Brisbane floods to provide quilts for families that had lost everything.

One charitable project that is close to my heart was the ManMade Quilt Project for Breast Cancer. 24 men made a block each, which was made into a quilt and raffled to raise money for this important cause.

Source

Quiltessentials is also part of the annual Quilters Trail. A month of fun filled adventure held April/June, hopping from one participating LQS to another. Last years theme was 'Around the World'. Get your passport stamped as you visit each shop and be in the draw for some wonderful prizes. 

Thank you Claudia and the staff of Quiltessentials for your wonderful service over the last 10 years.

If you have a local quilt shop you would like to tell the world about, write a post then visit Quilt Shop A Day blog and link your post.

Australia Day Sale

 Visit Want it Need it Quilt

What to do with those orphan blocks?

I had a stack of orphan blocks in the cupboard so I started making cushions.

One night on Twitter chatting with Katy from ImAGingerMonkey, I offered to quilt a few of her orphan blocks so she could make them into cushions.

A package soon arrived from England filled with familiar blocks I had seen on Katy's blog and extra Laurie Wisbrun panels. My little boy could pick his favourite so he chose the emu placing the star on a Christmas tree (so Australian).

Also included was a Quilt Blocks Layer Cake - one of my favourites.

I used 4 different digital designs in 4 different shades of Aurifil threads and Superior threads.

2805 50wt - Light Turquoise
2135 50wt - Golden Yellow
Highlights 792 - Pure White
So Fine 642 - Deep Rose Pink

What do you do with your orphan blocks?