The sky was blue – and our quilts were too!

 

Gillian created these three beautiful variations using the same cute-as-a-button fabrics.

 

 

Dale’s a friend of ours from Paddington Patchworkers who can’t come to our monthly Saturday workshops, but  generously made us a Blanket of Love to add to our growing collection. How’s this for sunshine and blue sky?

 

 

Moo knows that sometimes simple is best if you have the right fabrics, like these confetti dots and teddy bears.

 

And Barb’s been playing around with delicate blue florals from her stash to make her Disappearing 4 Patch with a difference.

 

Finally, doesn’t the green in this one by Gail D go well with the fresh greens in our garden at St Mark’s?

Yes, amazingly there is more work by our keen St Mark’s Quilters to share here. See you back tomorrow?

Di

One year on

This time last year I had just been woken by a phone call telling me that my darling father was no longer with us. He had slipped away during the night and was at peace with God.

It’s been a year of painful “firsts”.

First came his own birthday, then each of our birthdays.

Our first Christmas without him wearing a huge grin and a silly paper hat, laughing at everyone else’s jokes but no longer able to make the corny “Dad jokes” he was infamous for. 

Our first Easter at the Blue Mountains house, this time saying our fond good-byes as we scattered his ashes from a cliff overlooking the beautiful Megalong Valley. I’ll never forget cradling the box containing his ashes in my arms as we quietly made our way down the bush path to the clearing, and wishing I never had to let him go.

He’s in a better place now, where there’s no more confusion and bewilderment, and where at last the world makes sense to him again. While there isn’t a single day when I don’t think of him, I have wonderful memories of a loving father, I’m grateful we had him with us for so many years, and my tears are gradually becoming happy ones.

Di

Spring has sprung…

De grass is riz

I wonder where dem quilters is? [with apologies to Anonymous]

Dere dey is!!!! Enjoying lunch in the garden after a morning’s stitching.

Hi dere there, St Mark’s Quilters!

Some bright spark even suggested we should set up our machines and sew out there in the garden one day.

Imagine that…! (with very, very, very long extension cords )

Moo’s latest work-in-progress was appropriately full of sunshine.

And the sunshine just kept coming with this ducky little number from Di C.

And Di B’s and Michaela’s Disappearing 4 Patch quilts.

 

 

Di B, Gillian and Liz were in the pink with these three very girly Blankets of Love.

 

 

There’s far too much creative fun from this month’s St Mark’s Quilters workshop to share with you in a single blog post. Please pop by tomorrow (and maybe even the day after!) for more  

Di

Up….and down….up ….and down….

As we watched the boats at anchor in the bay outside Di B’s sewing room window bobbing up and down today, she and I sewed up and down on another secret squirrel project.

Tell you what they are?    Not. a. chance.

All will be revealed in a few weeks’ time.  I’m really very sorry to be such a tease.*

Di

* No I’m not

God the Quiltmaker

Have you ever stumbled upon a blog with an absolutely amazing name and thought “I wish I’d come up with that!”

It happens to me every week, except that my imagination would never stretch far enough to come up with some of the clever, cute or just plain hilarious blog names I’ve seen, and being just a wee bit curious in nature I often wonder how these bloggers have settled on them.

I’m not the only one. This week Dawn’s pondering blog names too, and has asked us to write a post about how we came up with them and to link back to her blog. So here goes …

By now you’ll have noticed a recurrent theme in the quilts you see here – they’re all scrappy! Yes, I love using lots and lots of different fabrics in my quilts, the more the merrier .

Not only are my quilts scrappy and filled with a variety of fabrics, but my life is full of endless variety, never dull, and always busy.

There are days of glorious sunshine and special relationships, days of contentment, and there are times when I feel bogged down in the humdrum, or challenged to the limit by something very un-pretty happening I my life.

But as time goes by and I look back I can see that “God the Quiltmaker” has been using these dark or uninteresting times, along with the beautiful moments, to make the special and unique creation that is My Life – just as there is a place in the best scrap quilts for the less attractive fabrics as well as those that grab the limelight..

“snippets ‘n’ Scraps” seemed appropriate for a blog that I hoped would contain posts about everything and anything in my life I decided to share.

You’ve watched me make quilts, sometimes with my quilting buddy Di B, you’ve said kind things about my cooking (the photos anyway!), you’ve come along on holidays with me, you’ve shared my joy and my sorrow as babies were born and our precious Chloe and my darling father passed away, and you’ve encouraged my talented but self-effacing quilting friends when I’ve blown their trumpets for them here.

Snippets ‘n’ Scraps indeed.

 

Now pop on over to Dawn’s blog to see the links to everyone else’s posts on this fascinating subject.

Di

Just a snippet before you go…

Anonymous left this comment today on my blog post “The quilt formerly known as Joseph’s Coat”.

Is there anywhere I could get this pattern? I know you have given us the book no. etc. but do you know of anyone who is willing to part with their magazine if they no longer need it? I would SO LOVE to do this quilt - the pieced way of course.    Irene

Not only can I not identify Irene because she has no blogger profile and has chosen to be Anonymous, but sadly she has her comments set to “No reply” so I can’t contact her even if I find a copy of the magazine she’s after.

Irene, I’m not ignoring you. Please contact me through my email (on my Profile page) so I can have your contact details.

And any of my readers who think I’m downright rude because I don’t reply to their lovely comments, please check your settings to be sure you’re not a “no reply” blogger. If you are, this tutorial from Jodie at Pleasant Home will show you what to do so we can enjoy our conversations

Busy hands

Gail’s and Rae’s quilts might have been the only finishes at our English Quilt group get-together last week, but on the other side of the room there were more works-in-progress.

Robbie was starting to knit the very nifty Alexandria cowl. I might just try one of these next winter – all the warmth of a scarf/shawl without having to continually stop it unraveling or slipping off my shoulders.

Lyn’s tea leaf blocks were coming together in a leisurely fashion (and isn’t that what its all about?), piece by piece using her chosen Aunt Grace fabrics in delicate pastels.

Anne’s Laurel’s Stars medallion quilt, a Lynne Alchin pattern, has gone from this…

…to this.

OK, she’s only added a few more stars, but Anne has been very busy with a brand new little granddaughter - as has Robbie!

Anne also brought along a very special “show and tell” - the christening gown she made for her firstborn daughter, which was also worn by the second, and has now become a family heirloom, worn by her each of grandchildren.

Plenty of creative inspiration in our past and present projects!

Di

Using up, and cheering up

After singing the praises of Gail D in my previous post, today it’s another Gail’s turn in the spotlight – my friend Gail O, who generously hosts our English Quilters’ monthly get-togethers (along with group mascot, Evie).

Gail loves to challenge herself in quilting, and has recently turned these 100% cotton curtain fabric samples into a spectacular modern quilt for her son.

 

Under normal circumstances the samples would have been tossed out, but Gail took the time to trim off the sticky labels and use up these otherwise perfectly good pieces in a very imaginative way.

I think the purple triangles between the rows, and the paisley borders, provide the deep, dramatic perfect foil for her colour-washed strips.

Rae’s another friend with an eye for colour in quilts.  At this week’s get-together she was putting the finishing touches to a more traditional quilt for a friend in need of a good quilty hug.

Rae is usually a hand quilter, but she had this one professionally machine quilted in the ditch to save time. Leaving the squares free of quilting means the quilt is still nice and soft.

Bound in bias stripes, Rae’s quilt is all ready to be sent to its new owner.

Can you imagine how touched she’s going to be when she opens her surprise package?

I predict happy tears…

Di