I purchase some new pattern boards just before Christmas and have just had the perfect quilt to try one of the patterns on.

This is the Ripples pattern which goes really well with the 1930's fabrics on the top of this quilt. Almost centred on some of the embroidered blocks without trying too.

What is even better it was the perfect pattern for the quilt top that the customer wanted to use as the backing.  Log Cabins with fish and dolphins, so it looks a bit like the ocean.

I was very lucky the customer had pieced extra borders to the log cabin quilt so that I could line up the top on it easily, and I had plenty of room on the sides of the quilt to clamp it.

12 Months On

What a difference a year makes, it is 12 months since the devasting floods of January 2011.  Where we had more than 4 feet of water over the road crossing into our estate.

Today they are predicting temperatures of over 38C or 100F for us, we have not had any significant rain for over four weeks.

Where last year we had 6" of water running over the side yard I now have cracks in the ground almost 2" wide.

Ricky Tims is Coming to Australia

Ricky Tims from the USA is coming to Adelaide in Australia, September next year as a guest of the Australian Machine Quilting Festival.

I have some of his DVD's and books so it will be great to see him in person.  A whole day!  Just need to book my accommodation and work on a quilt to enter too.

More details are on the AMQ festival blog.

Macadamias

Our macadamia trees have now been in the garden for three years and have set nuts for the first time.  I decided to go looking for "the Bonk",  a nutcracker just for Macadamias.  It was in the bar area of our last home, so we went searching through the packing boxes looking for it.

Didn't find "the Bonk"  but have cleaned out the dry bar room,  Now for Les to store all his empty wooden wine cases somewhere other than the dining table. The carboard boxes will go in the recycling.

Also found the US road atlas, so can start planning my quilting road trip in earnest.

My husband googled nutcrackers and found another easy one for Macadamias, although I didn't appreciate the $85 price tag.  Beats hitting them with a hammer, while the nut is sitting in a hole in the concrete on the porch!

Weekend Purchase

My husband and I had a very pleasant drive to Yandina on the Sunshine Coast yesterday to pick up a coffee machine he had purchased on ebay.

What was even more enjoyable was the drive home through Mapleton, Montville and Maleny.  The views were fantastic.  I am sure I could live on that ridge with views to the coast.  The $$$$$ to do so are beyond me. 

Instead we have a great coffee machine adorning the bench.  Just for two flat whites each morning and cappucinos of a weekend.  It was a really good price!

Back from the South

I've just spent the last week visiting family in Dubbo, then more family in Sydney.  Spent a lovely day in the Blue Mountains helping answer a few question for a new Millenium owner.  Then had to drive home the long way. 
I usually break the trip to Sydney up by staying in Dubbo, on the way down and on the way home, but the flooding in Moree has closed the highway so I had to drive home via Tamworth.  Is actually shorter but it means I need to spend a night in a motel!
Fortunately I was able to keep in front of the storms over NSW and even arrived home before the storms hit SE Qld. 
Now it is back into the piecing and quilting. I have two tops I would like to finish piecing before Wednesday's Morning Tea.

Talking Fabric

As a longarmer we get to see many great tops and then try to treat each one individually.  For a while, when they are on our machines, they beome "ours".  Some quilts we struggle to choose a design for, We search extensive resource books and DVD's to find the right one.

Other quilt tops talk to us.  This quilt was one of those.  This customer uses many different

types of fabrics, her style is often simple piecing, and she only ever wants an Edge2 Edge design.

The fabric in this quilt  was a paisley so I started doodling a paisley on lined paper. 

Then I got out the whiteboard markers and doodled some more on the proper scaleon a perspex sheet.

When I switched on the machine after loading the quilt a better design came from the machine.  No it isn't computerised,  I just draw better with a machine than pencils or markers,  and I listen to what the quilt wants!

I also stitched some flowers in the plain blocks based on this one from the border fabric.