!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK...
Now some smarty pants think I have lost my marbles, playing in Second Life.
Well!
Today I received the 42 reels of Aurifil thread that I won at a quilt meeting on Second Life.
You should see them. They are so absolutely mouth-wateringly gorgeous!
And they came in a great sturdy case with a spot for everything, a handle and lids on two sides so I can get at them all. (Because there are too many to be got at from one side).
Lucky lucky me and clever Audrey!!!!!

News

Michael is coming home from hospital today!

Really such happy and sad news. So glad he is getting home with time to settle in before Christmas but just so enormously sad at what this year has done.

Mystery Block of the month for 2007 has its last night for one group tonight so I can put up the photo of the quilt that kept me so busy at the beginning of the year. Very difficult to photograph as my quilt holders are three years apart in age and in height so the quilt tended to be on an angle! LOL and dragging on the floor on one side! To square off the photos I have cropped it.. but I promise.. there are a few more inches worth of border and the quilt is square in real life.

On the other hand, in Second Life I can force my quilts to be square! LOL
Audrey has been building a treadle sewing machine and she attended a quilters meeting.

At her very first meeting, she won the draw and is being sent 48 reels of Aurofill!!!!!!!!!
Real Life ones!
Woohoo... way to go Audrey!

She entered her treadle in the Newbie Show and Tell at NCI (New Citizens Inc) where she mostly hangs out learning how to build in graphics. She got third place but I personally feel she was ripped off! LOL
Here are some piccies of Aud's Gorgeous house that she has built herself. She doesn't have any land, so when she finishes building, she has to pack it back into her inventory and save for another day.
She has a cutting table with mat, ruler and Olfa cutter. A small stash of bolts. What you don't see is all the mess I am sure she would make if I let her make a quilt from scratch!
See the fire place? The flame in the fire flickers semi realistically. And the treadle foot plate and needle go up and down in time with each other when you touch the machine!!!
Ok... if you don't know Second Life, this may no seem amazing... but to an old chook it is very exciting to be learning so many new things!

Why so few Blogs?

Ok... OK....
I know that I haven't been blogging so regularly.....
And I know why so I will tell you!
It's all Audrey's fault.

I met Audrey a month and half back and we have been playing together ever since. At first she was so awkward I wasn't sure if the friendship would survive, but I have discovered that Auds doesn't walk so well so we let her sit and the friendship has blossomed.
We spend most of our time chatting and creating. I guess that is why we get along so well. Our interests are almost identical. Auds doesn't sew, but she loves building in graphics. More recently she has been discovering scripting which allows graphics to move and do things.

And here is a photo of Auds and her bird. The bird tweets when it is touched.
I am hoping that eventually we have it looking a little less clunky and maybe even add a wing shuffle to it!
Audrey is thin, tall and an absolute idiot. She stumbles around, wears boxes on her head and all manner of foolishness. As I say, we are almost, but not quite identical......

Mo Vember

Progress Report!
Mo is looking good and Mick is looking better.

The date we are clinging to is 20th December- the most recent promised departure date. Is there a chance that we will have a home Christmas? Who knows? And even if he does get home, I can imagine Gabrielle will want to lock the doors and let their family have some time together. I know i would!

Movember

I have a special November request! As many of you know, my brother Michael Commins was hit from his bike in February and has spent the rest of the year in hospital. His recovery has been slow. This time last year he participated in the MS Sydney to the Gong ride. As Michael, who is now a paraplegic said, he is not ready to do that again... yet... So this year he is participating in Movember. If you can. please sponsor him by going to http://www.movember.com/au/donate, His code is 91927

Progress Report

One block down, three to go! I like it a lot so far... what do you think?

Something old, something new....

I have been lamenting. I felt like I had lost my spark. Too much on this year to have much past an ounce of creativity to light up my sewing.
What seems to have saved me was kind gift. DMIL gave me some birthday money and I let my hair down and bought a big bundle of fabric. With just a little bit of money that was mine to "waste" I felt free to just take a risk and buy it without a plan.

I took advantage of the long weekend and spent some time on the sofa with a pencil, rubber, lunch wrap and paper. Below is the drawing I ended up with and the start of the first block. The drawing is a bit hard to see but trust me! I am sure it is going to be gorgeous!

(Click on it and it will pop up larger)

OK- well maybe only a mother can love her baby the way it needs to be loved... but....I am planning to make it a giant 4-patch centre. This block is 20 inches so of course the pieces are all big and easy (as usual!). Fair bit of dot action. Start saving those 5 cent pieces.
I am planning to give the Mystery Class a rest next year. One of the Hobbysew ladies is going to do a piecing mystery and I will run this without the mystery element so that my ladies can just enjoy watching it grow without the sense of panic!
If you trust me and want to sign up for this now and make it with me, just let me know!

What Doing? Doing Beads!

When little Johnny was knee high he would look over those knees and say "What Doing?"
Well, being too tired to think straight after our craft fair, I started stringing beads to keep my hands busy at night when my brain wasn't in a fit state to be similarly occupied!
So I have been making lovely necklaces. The Dear Husband (DH) brought me one from the far north and I have now made about 4 more. It is about 1.2m of mixed beads on nylon, tied into a circle. You then fold it in half, twist the two strands together and then join them with a pearl clasp. So easy. It's like putting fruit loops on a string!
At the shop they say I should teach it, but how easy can it get????
Above I have shown the red beads I bought in honour of my birthday. I will make a Hobbysew Necklace.
Speaking of Hobbysew Belconnen....
Lissa asked me if I was going to be neglecting Lidlfish now that I have the
www.hobbysew.blogspot.com
to play in.
Maybe?
I'll try not to, but I thought I should try and separate the fish from the job just a little! VBG!

Amazing. Astonishing. Wonderful.

Wow! What amazing news!
After my month of quilting I actually have good news to report!
I have won "Best Professional Bed Quilt" at the Canberra Quilter's Exhibition.
I am astonished. This photo is a bit dodgy. The colours are much darker in real life. The applique is against a dark beige and black gingham. This quilt gave me some grey hairs. I had been showing to classes, demonstrating the use of tiny Catherine Wheels (they are the flowers). Unquilted. By the time I came to layer and bast it it was quite badly distorted. Let that be a lesson! The basting become a pivotal moment in history. I was close to chucking it in a corner and not entering it. Najelle came to the rescue and insisted on getting the quilt re-basted. I then quilted it on my Mega Quilter. Free motion. Stipples behind the applique and swirling flowers behind the charm squares.

This next quilt is "inferno" Not a prize winner but better quilting in my opinion.

Bright, eh?!
Finally is the collaborative effort. Mystery Medallion. This was commercially quilted and I have included a close up as the quilting is amazing! Terina went to so much trouble and spent so many hours on the quilting. Everyone has admired her work.
"Quilts with Attitude" is the name you need to remember.

Tidbinbila Blues and Safe Pastures

Saturday was the last day for a class we have been running since last year. The class featured two of my larger quilt designs-Tidbinbilla Blues and Safe Pastures.
Two of the ladies made Tidbinbilla Blues and the rest worked on Safe Pastures.
Gail is pictured here with her version of Safe Pastures. She has added a couple of her own ideas to the quilt which is wonderful. Her new border fabric looked like it might take over the quilt so she added a few heavier features to balance the quilt.


This next quilt is the Tidbinbilla Blues design, as made by Lynne, holding the left corner. I just love her blues and made a quick dash around the shop to see if I could locate myself some of that shade of blue!
Lynnes is now going to be on easy street with only two queen sized quilts to complete in my other classes!



This quilt is Marianne's, but she had to leave the quilt for me to photograph so I don't have a photo of her with her quilt.
Marianne was the lucky witness to serendipity! She chose all but the border fabric when she set out to make the quilt. With strong purples and touches of a gold (almost limey) green, it was going to be a bit of a fluke to find the perfect border fabric. However luck was on her side and we unpacked the perfect border fabric for her just that week and here it is finished!

Last, and not least is Patty's Pastures! Sylvia and I helped her with the fabric choices and so of course it is gorgeous! LOL



I love the way Patty has organised the "random" checkerboard corners into a pattern.

Strange Flowers

Hand-over day is here and once I finish this, I will head south to the drop off location.

The other quilts are too big to easily photograph so I will do that once they are hung at the show. Meanwhile, Strange Flowers is small enough to cope with and here it is.

In answer to Helen's (Tas) question, I have stitched in and back out of the swirls. As I am not a perfect sew-er, the lines are not planned to line up exactly.

I showed the quilt to Helen Godden (Goddess!!) today and she was at least impressed with my courage to quilt black onto white! LOL

The ultimate quilting challenge. Black thread on white homespun. Note:unpicker ready for action.
I have now unpicked the offending section and am ready to head back to the machine.
Progress Report on show entries:
Inferno-finished
Charming Catherine Wheels-finished
Strange Flowers- as shown....
Mystery Medallion-awaiting binding

Usual Frantic July

It's July and that means the same thing each year for me. Last minute quilting for the Canberra Quilter's exhibition.
Essentially it goes like this: Sometime in late May, a kind soul reminds me, I have to put in my entry form for the exhibition. At the very last minute I then complete the form and commit myself to finishing a ridiculous number of quilts in a month. I rush the form off and forget to enclose the fee.
This year I thought I would "up the ante" and enter 4 quilts. A collaborative, wall, bed and challenge quilt. To meet this commitment, I had three suitable tops. This left me with 2 to quilt, one to start and finish and one to beg Terina to quilt for me for the collaborative section. Nothing like sharing the stress!
As I have been teaching applique for some years, I find myself categorised as "professional" which is so depressing! You should see my machine quilting. Tragic.

So I am blogging. Of course! To escape from the machine where I have spent the rest of the day.
Here are the pictures of my work space. The dining room. I have opened up the dinning table which, when extended, fits 10 people at least.
In this picture you can see the stack of quilts and tops to the right. Hanging from the chair on the right is a bag with the fabric for my current applique project. Draped over the same chair is felt for the Embellisher which is my new friend.
Foreground: Threads, tools, cutter, mat, oil, and patterns for this month of the Mystery BOM. Rear left is the practice pieces I keep for trying out new in-fills and testing tension etc.
And next is my view. Not that you can really see it, but out through the windows is our local pond. The Government dug up a bend in our creek and turned it into a pond and reserve a couple of years ago. The drought had left it pretty shallow but it is now brimming with water. The water birds are back, the frogs are singing and all is well.
On the floor is my own personal private bolt collection, being used to raise the height of my foot controller. The table is obviously too high. By the time I raise the chair high enough to be quilting with my arms and shoulders happy, I can't reach the controller anymore!

PS Update on Michael. He continues with Rehab. Maybe a few more months to go? Continuing to meet the old staph infection that he picked up earlier. I don't get to see enough of him but when I do, he is always in good spirits. It was really good to see him out of bed when I was last down. The fact that this is a lifetime situation and not an accident that fades with memory keeps me from feeling I can say "good" when people ask how he is. Being in a wheelchair for life isn't "Good".

Red Letter Day

Still not sewing news... but much better!
He's out of bed at last!
And dressed. He looks pretty happy about it too!
Hopefully now he is upright, they can tempt him to find his lost kilos. ( I think I have found them here in Canberra)

a long time has passed....

Such a long time has passed. Busy months of waiting. Does that make any sense? The months vanished while we waited for progress. Michael finally made it out of intensive care and then began the long wait for his skin to heal. All this time he has been lying on his side or stomach, waiting for the skin to heal well enough to be able to sit.
Set back came in the form of having to regrow the skin after staff accidentally sheared off the newly healed skin while moving him.
This set back seem to go unlamented by him. He has been amazing with his graceful acceptance of the situation. I know I complain more each day and with less cause than he seems to in a week.

This week was a big one when he finally was able to start to sit. Who would have thought that was going to be something to get excited about back in February?

On the sewing front I have less to show-mainly because of the shroud of secrecy that must be maintained around the MBOM for 2007. It is finished, and if I do say so myself, it is fabulous. Just my opinion by the way!!! :)

This week I went to Gosford to learn all about the Husqvarna Viking machines we now stock. Boy do I love these machines! I learnt something. You can love to sew and that can mean getting a machine. Then you can love to use a great sewing machine and that means top end. To just sew, you can get by without spending a pile of money, but to have a really super time playing with the machine itself there is a strong case for spending a fortune! LOL Anyone got a spare fortune so I can have one to play with at home?????

As well as learning how the machines work I had to learn "ESS= Exclusive Sensor System" and "ESA= Exclusive Sewing Advisor" but the hardest lesson of all was that I have to call them "Hooskvarna Viking". Forget the add, "Husk as in corn". They tell me it is Hoosk as in....????? So Najelle and I call ourselves the Hoobysew Girls who went to Goosford to learn all about Hooskvarna Viking.

So much for an older chook to take in, but really it was fabulous. I wanted to fill my car up with samples to bring home!

At the shop we have a busy week ahead of us. On Thursday we are having the editors of Australian Patchwork and Quilting, Handmade and so on coming to show us the quilts that are starring in the current issues and talk about their magazines. We were worried that we wouldn't muster enough people to make it worth the trip for them but have been blown away by the fantastic support of the Canberra community who have put their names down to attend. It will be bigger than Ben Hurr!
Hooroo for now
Cathy

When words are not enough

On Saturday, 10th of Feb my beautiful brother Michael was hit from behind while riding his bicycle just a few kilometres outside Junee.
We've heard that the driver had been drinking the night before and did not even see Michael until he hit the windscreen of the car which was travelling at least 100km per hour. I don't know if we know the full or true story about the driver, but Michael has been seriously injured. We hope and pray for a good outcome for Michael.
I can't say in words how much this has affected us but would rather post some photos of a happier day.

The photos were taken at Mum and Dad's 40th wedding anniversary. In the photos are Michael Commins, Gay Commins, irreplacable mother, and Pip Schiffmann, my much loved sister.

Why it is over a month between bloggs......

I mentioned that finding time to sew can be a difficulty.... I'll start with the good news. Yes I got some sewing done in the holidays. Not a lot, but some!
So here is the first block of the 2007 Mystery Seasons Quilt. It is Summer. The colours are not reproduced faithfully, but you get the drift of it!

This year I have blanket stitched the sample to make it a bit easier for me. I am not sure that I save time in the actual stitching, but having it all assembled ready to stitch is more convenient than all the bits I am accustomed to carrying for needle turn.

However, That is not much to show for a month and half of silence on the blogging front!
What really kept me busy was packing up and moving a craft store. Boy oh boy. That is a job I don't want to do again as long as I live! However, it is all done to a basic level. Still room for some reorganising and improvement, but we all felt well satisfied when we got the new Belconnen store open.

So here we are.... New bright yellow front and yellow and orange interior. Corporate colours....bright and cheerful. A bit of a challenge to find quilts that will cooperate with an orange backdrop but we found some! It was also a bit of a challenge actually squeezing all the old stock, fittings and odds and ends into the new shop. Now to get all the staff and customers used to all the changes....