Fabrications and Latrobe Valley Workshop

I have just come back from a weekend in the Latrobe Valley in Victoria. Although threatened with freezing cold weather it was actually delightful and I had a great weekend teaching Fabrications. What a wonderful collection of Fantasy Fabrics the ladies made and we had a lots of fun and laughs.



Here is Heather playing with the layout of her blocks.

The food was supplied by a local group and was plentiful and luscious. I tried to be good but how caould you resist this sort of spread appearing at regular intervals.

Janet brought along her Breaking the Drought quilt which she had finished. The embellishments are terrific and she has done a wonderful job hasn't she?

Some Finished Quilts

At Rockhampton I was thrilled to be shown some of the quilts that had been made since I last was there.

Joan did my Fabrications workshop and created this wonderful quilt. Don't you love the dragonfly. She got it from Nancy Eha's great book.

Joyce had purchased kits from me over the last few years and brought them to show me. Here is her Delicious quilt and she was making my Power of Three (with the Atlantis we were doing in the workshop) at the Retreat.



Joyce was also responsible for this which appeared on the whiteboard overnight.

Mini Exhibition on the Gold Coast

Last year you may remember I taught Fabrications to the Gold Coast Quilters

and we had a brilliant time creating lots of Fantasy Fabrics.

Recently in conjunction with Craftfest at the Gold Coast the Gold Coast Quilters had an exhibition of their work and there was a whole section of quilts completed after the workshop.



I was thrilled to be sent photos of them.

There is also a version of Cutout Magic which snuck in as well.

I'm Back

Thanks mainly to the extremely kind comments sent to me both on the blog and personally I have returned to the blogging world. I have licked my wounds and decided that those that hurt me have more problems than I so here I am again.

I have just spent a week teaching in Queensland with some wonderful students. Their imagination and enthusiasm was a joy and I still can't believe that people actually pay me to have such fun.

Thanks so much to Queensland and Gold Coast Quilters for a great time.

Look at some of these happy faces and wonderful "Fantasy Fabrics"

Combination

My friend Rebekah has done my Fabrications and Beading workshops and has combined her skills into this wonderful quilt. It is now on it's way to friends in the UK but I managed to get a few shots before it went.
Sorry some of them are a bit out of focus.

Fabrications Handbag

One of my students on Sunday has also done my Fabrications course and decided to use the technique to make a bag.
She had bought a lovely shirt and wanted a bag to match so she created her Fantasy Fabric and made it the central point of the bag.

Doesn't it look perfect.


Thanks Lenice.

Rockhampton

I have just returned from a 5 day teaching trip to Rockhampton. This Retreat is held annually and draws woman from all over Queensland although anyone is welcome. There is a great variety of workshops and you live in a local boarding school where the food is plentiful, classrooms light and airy and gardens are beautiful. The only down side was that this year the usual sleeping quarters were unavailable so we had the girls boarding house and teenage girls don't seem to need as much room in their beds as mature women. My bottom is certainly larger than the average teenager's.

I taught my Fabrications workshop over 3 days (rather than the usual two) and all the students got their quilts to the completed top and basted stage which was wonderful. It was thrilling to see their excitement when we did show and tell and I expect that all of these will be completed very soon. Only one piece of Fantasy Fabric mysteriously disappeared while drying in the garden in the sun - I wonder if a bird has a new exotic nest liner now!






Some of the completed quilts (all in my hand dyed fabrics too!)

I also ran the two day creative beading class which was a lot calmer pace (which I think was appreciated by the students) and we had many laughs. One of my students was 83 years old and I have the most sincere admiration for her. She has the best sense of humour and not only kept up with those with younger eyes and hands - was full of hysterically funny stories.
Here are two of the completed Jewel Boxes which were completed in just one morning.



If you are interested in finding out more about this Retreat which will be running in the last week of September next year - just send an email to (rockyretreat@yahoo.com.au) and I am sure they would love to give you more info.
If you would like to find out where I am teaching these workshops they are listed on my website. I am also taking bookings for next year so feel free to contact me and I can send you some more information.

More Fabrications

Some more photos arrived today. Judy Sanday did my Fabrications quilt and she did a great job.

Detail with quilting by Ellie Neal




Still counting down to the Exhibition - one week to go. I wonder what I have forgotton?

Blue Fabrications

Louise has sent me a photo of the completed Fabrications quilt top. Doesn't it look wonderful? I love her use of our fabrics - especially the multicoloured piece used in the border.

Fabrications Variations

Here are three tops completed in a recent class at Idyll Pleasures in Sydney.
I love it how one simple design can result in such different quilts.

Jane

Lisa

Trish

Weekend Workshops

I had a busy weekend with two different workshops at two different stores. Such fun as they were both the second day of two day workshops and it was amazing to see what they had achieved in the period between classes.

The first one was at Pegs Pieces where we were doing Beading and creating the wonderful design of Nancy Eha's. These are the first stages and our youngest student Sarah seemed to enjoy it too! I will post a photo of a completed one soon.







Next day was at Pretty Parcels where the ladies brought along their Fabrications tops. It was so exciting to see what they had achieved.

Fabrications Underway

This week we started using the Fantasy Fabrics we created last time at Idyll Pleasures to make up into the blocks and then started to create the Fabrications quilt top. There was quite a bit of sharing happening as everyone looked at the results of last week's creativity.

Speedy hands creating the blocks. They are very fast to make up once you start chain piecing.

Jane deep in concentration





Here are some of the results - apart from the persistant heat we had a great time and the chocolate biscuits really helped






Next class we will be quilting and beading the masterpieces