Black and white and zentangles

This weekend Jane Monk is coming all the way from Tasmania to hold a Zentangle weekend at our local school. We still have some spots available if anyone wants to come, just send me an email or give me a ring. Zentangle is an easy to learn method of creating beautiful images from repetative patterns. The picture above is one of Jane's - sorry it is sideways - and is an owl. Fabulous!! And you don't need to be able to draw, most of the patterns are really simple and done in small amounts so a whole page is not something to be scared of. It would be a shame to miss out on this opportunity, so come along. It is $160 for the 2 days, including lunches, munchies, tea, coffee, a starter kit and a certificate. Doesn't Di's quilt perfectly match the Zentangle theme?

It is all different black and white fabrics, and I have quilted it with a couple of alternating patterns - In the Moment Arch Block and Bounce Block - both by Anne Bright.

The inside spotty border was quilted using a pattern called Bouncing Border, and the outside black border used In the Moment Arch Border both by Anne Bright.

Don't forget the Zentangles,

Enjoy

Belinda

"Forever Spring"

I finished this beauty last week, and it went back to Wendy just in time for some of her family to see who will be visiting at the end of this month. It is a design by Trish Ostwald called "Forever Spring" and was in APQ Vol 10 No 12.



It is quilted with a combination of freehand and statler patterns. The centre of the pieced block has a design called Dragonfly Rose, with the triangles around it done using a Garden Bunnies p2p (2640) by One Song Needle Arts. The green borders and thin floral borders are just ditched.

The serpentine feather next to the vine in the alternate vertical rows was done freehand, and the vine was ditched too.

The very outside border (of which there appears to be no pics - slack, sorry) was done with a Welsh cable on the statler.

I had a little time to do something for myself, and this pretty pink cot quilt was the result. NO, there is no news there....thank goodness, I'm too old to go down that track again....but I have listed it for sale on my etsy shop

Enjoy

Belinda

A Gardener's Journal

This lovely was made by Dawn and is the Gardener's Journal design by Anni Downs of Hatched and Patched fame in Bathurst. Dawn has modified it a little though, to suit her gardening talents and there are all sorts of little surprises amongst the stitcheries.



It is quilted with freehand leaves and swirls around the stitcheries, some ditching in the stitcheries, and then a border design called Rambler in the outside border. I have quilted lots of these over the years and the lovely sentiments in the stitcheries never fails to inspire me.

On a different note, Haz went up to Scouts last week. This bridge crossing was symbolic of the transition from cubs to scouts. See the shirt in his right hand - he started the crossing wearing his cub shirt over his scout shirt and had to remove it half way over! The 3rd Orange group has been good for him, and its hard to believe he has been doing this now for 3 1/2 years. My Tuesdays won't be the same - just moved to Thursdays instead!!

Enjoy

Belinda

No quilting this weekend Neil Diamond instead... (lots of pics)

Its been 10 days since I last posted and its been flat chat the whole time. I have some pics which I have been waiting for permission and details for and will post them this week. BUT, this last weekend TJ and I tootled off to Singleton to see the Neil Diamond concert.

Never mind that there were multiple double bass events on or the Relay for Life, so we called in favours all over the place and went off for a weekend by outselves.

The top pic is the view out of the bus on the way to the Hope Winery in Pokolbin in the Hunter Valley where the concert was being held. We did take our wet weather gear, luckily because it did rain before the concert but not during thank goodness.

It was very organised with lots and lots of coaches bringing people into the venue, and then taking them home at the end.

There were 16742 people there, but we had seats relatively close to the front, so got a fab view. And, there were 2 empty seats right in front of us. How cool is that!! Mind you, most of our pics have heads in the bottom of them, sorry about that. I'm not tall enough to get over the heads and the people in front just wouldn't sit down for me to take the pics!!

We had a great night - well worth the 9 hours of driving to get there and back. He is 70 years old and still has the same fabulous voice. Lots of dancing and singing went on, I must dig out my CDs to put in the car. Haz will be so pleased - not....

Enjoy

Belinda

I love the colours...

What a striking set of colours - such a pleasure to quilt. And, funnily enough, a lot of the fabrics in this masterpiece also reside in my stash!! This quilt belongs to Jenny and was a class done with Michelle Marvig, and for the life of me I can't remember what the name of the quilt is but I will find out.




It is quilted on both machines, the green swirly designs were done freehand, the blades and the centre flower were also done freehand, and all the SID was done prior to taking it over to the Statler. This gave me some time to work out what I was going to put into all the blank spaces calling out for swirly feathery quilting designs.




OK. Working from the centre of the flower out -in the purple, the clams (1201 clam double) add another petal shape; then, again in the purple, I combined 2 designs (a single clam and a dahlia - dahlia 7 p2p - design) to make the outside petal.

In the gaps around the blocks I used 3671 Buttercup Feathers block by One Song Needle Arts in various sizes to fill the gaps.

In the outside border I reused the dahlia/clam combination in between the green spikes.



It sounds all very complicated but once it started coming together then it went very quickly. And the end result is yet another quilt which probably needs to go on my "to do" list.

On a different note, I have finished another couple of my Kim McLean blocks, started another BOM project and almost finished a whole quilt (except for the quilting of course) - I need to put on a few more leaves where I singed the block ironing it after it was washed where the reds ran.....

And, its a rainy day in Orange so Haz and I will probably go and see Gnomeo and Juliet at the movie before going to the recycling centre to look for accessories for his costume for book week...

Enjoy
Belinda

Jen's Birthday quilt

Check out this beauty!! It was made by Ann for her daughter Jen (who chose the colours) and hasn't she done a fab job.

It is quilted freehand with a circle template and wavy ruler for the outside border.

The quilt design is out of the Quilter's Companion Magazine, no 36 made by Jenny Thurling. I think Ann has changed her design a little bit, but that's where the inspiration came from.

And the back has white fabric with red and black threads which shows all the lovely quilting and piecing patterns. Scrummy.

Enjoy

Belinda

Morganne's quilt

I quilted this beauty for my friend Morgie - her mum made it as a birthday present for her and it has exquisitely stitched sewing machines all over it. The amount of work in each block is amazing and her stitching is perfect.



I quilted it using both the freehand and computerised machines - the outside border is a pattern by Keryn Emerson called Arabesque. The mustard border has freehand leaves, and the Irish chain blocks have line dancing and leaves in them - you can't see much as I have used black thread.

The stitchery blocks have a One Song Needle Arts Frame called Tea and Roses Block29 with just a simple circle inside. The machines have have SID around them.



These last two pics are Ann and I at the photographer's getting some quilt pics done professionally. Ann's DH took the pics with my camera.

It was interesting to see how someone who knows what he is doing work!

Enjoy

Belinda

A flower garden

I found these 2 floral pictures on my computer this morning looking for something else, and I had forgotten how much I like them. The first is a little dandelion (I think) and I remember getting up close and personal with it - and fighting off the dogs who wanted to get in amongst the picture too!

The second is the result of me playing with the light settings on my new camera. Love it!

Anyway, moving on to another type of garden, a hand pieced grandmother's flower garden quilt - the first quilt for Carol and it is just gorgeous.

It is a little large to lay out on my floor (!) so I got my dearly beloved to stand on the table and hold it up to get this picture. Each flower has a floral ring and then a plain ring. Just lovely.

I quilted it with continuous curves in the cream paths and then a feather wreath design by Keryn Emerson in the flowers. Simple and not overpowering to the simplicity of this design. It is now in the mail back to her for her monster task of binding....

This last pic is for Eleanor who has been asking for at least one pic of my blocks from the Kim McLean class last month. I have finished another one and have another 4 at different stages on the go, so I haven't been totally slack.

And what would a picture be without the lovely Indiana in it too.....

Enjoy

Belinda