Knitting and.....

Designing for a wedding outfit. Now Melbourne in the middle of January is going to be hot, hot, hot.

But the weather is so unpredictable that I am taking precaution and I am making a stunning and very colourful long vest to go over my summer outfit.

It is a very nice pattern from a european magazine and is done in browns, it is a pretty basic stitch pattern but I am appreciating the ease of knitting so that I can concentrate more on the colour. I have hand spun and dyed my own fibre, and using some commercial spun silk that I have dyed as well. Bright blue, grey blue, yellow gold and pinks.

Love the racing community

Have to mention that I dislike the time spent at the drags but when help is needed it is a great community. Without fail someone or many step up to help. We have just recently had a new race motor built in USA, my hubby fitted this over several weekends into the race car shell, with mods to get the motor in and finally after a few false starts, running.

Two or three passes later the old gear box broke, it was sort of going to happen, it should have stood up to the new motor but as it is an old box it was inevitable that it would fail.
This only two days before the Nationals, so the boys pulled the gear box out and called in a few favours, which included busy people becoming even busier as last minute problems get fixed.

Today will see the new box fitted and hopefully we will get all the way down the track again, I am not expecting any wins, as we have so much more to do before the car is competative again but with the help of many friends, we will at least get a chance to gather the race data we need and gain the points for attending, which if consistent can lead to winning track champ again this year.

The Quilter's Stash Harden

I am home again after a fabulous weekend teaching at The Quilter's Stash in Harden NSW.
Thank you to Sue for her fabulous shop and for gathering together some lovely ladies to attend the much awaited Baltimore Beauties class.

The quilt itself looks fabulous hanging in the shop and I was able to get my hands on a completed top from one of my students, who went her own way entirely and created an amazing version of this quilt. (photo's to follow).

All the girls decided to hand needleturn the quilt, so it will be a true labour of love. If your in the area of Harden and would like to attend please get in touch with Sue Chesworth at The Quilters Stash you will get all the notes from this past workshop and extra help to catch up. With two months between each block some work at home is expected, but the results are very much worth it. Machine sewers are encouraged. You will be amazed how much you can achieve with this class.

Row by Row

My much loved and anticipated row by row

Piecing the borders

While I had the Baltimore Beauties quilt underway I also finished a long term project - my much loved row by row, this quilt started as a challenge quilt with my scquilters group. But I was the only one who took it up and ran with it, it has been in production for some years and has been a labour of love.

As I finish this quilt, with lots of water under the bridge, it brings back memories for me, so even tho it is a unique quilt in its own right it has proven to be a journey for me as well.

I have had many opportunities to bring this quilt out for show and tell on many occasions. Joyfully showing the detail off and always getting positive feedback. To the point that some dear ladies have shown enough interest for me to run this as a class.

So it will most likely be offered this year as an entire project or a choice of a row or two, this is entirely up to the participants. Stay tuned here for what shop in Sydney it will be offered.

And finally, here is a pic of my new filly, Rylo Park Pandora, my dear little girl, who is smart and

sassy and is going to be a whole lot of fun.

I feel so bad for not posting

New Year come and gone and I have not posted for so long. I have been fairly busy tho so I can start to share some of my creative pursuits here now.

One very exciting bit of news is that I have been booked to do the Baltimore Beauties workshop in Harden NSW, at the Quilters Stash. Proprietor Sue Chesworth was very enthusiastic about my Baltimore sampler quilt and could not wait to confirm the class for 2011.

I will post the dates and the class schedule here soon. The picture is a eq6 version of the quilt and a fair representation. I will have a pic of the actual quilt up soon, just have a few things to tweek on it and then it will be ready.