The Last Piece

Teaching on Madeline Island

I will be teaching my Coming Home quilt in a five day class at Madeline Island, WI, USA in September 2021! I hope you’ll come along,

It will be a fun class in a beautiful setting. You can book here now. 

Glamp Stitchalot!

I travel to the USA a few times a year to teach and go to Quilt Market usually. I love being able to meet some of the peeps I know online in class! I love everywhere I teach but I love this particular announcement with extra big hugs, because not only to I get to meet the peeps but I get to teach with and for some of my absolute besties!

Brenda at Pink Castle Fabrics in Ann Arbor, Michigan is hosting this fab event and I will be there teaching with Tula Pink, Katy Jones, Alison Glass and Jeni Baker. Huzzah! 

You can find out more and book a ticket here at Brenda's website, the event takes place November 12-15 2015 and there are more details to come. 

While I'm on the subject of loving Pink Castle my fabrics came today from the Kawaii Club... I can never resist sharing coz they're so durn cute. 

Load of you have asked what I'm doing with all these cutsie Japanese wonders - I've decided to make a hexie quilt with them! I'm using one of Kim Bradley's 2" hexie peepers and I'm fussy cutting all the gorgeous prints to showcase them. Obviously I'll still have loads of fabric over for something else but this project can just grow by a few every time I get a parcel. How fun is that! I'm going to post a little tutorial and some info about the quilt tomorrow so watch this space. Stitch on peeps...

Excellent Mail

Wow well loads of things have happened in between but the time to blog has just not appeared... So many things to tell you about but today I'll show you the delicious Pink Castle Kawaii Club post that arried yesterday :) 

They're just so cute!! I can't decide what I'm going to do with them yet but I think a quilt that's all Japanese novelty may have to come into being. 

Like last mailing I have a for sure favrouite... I am not a cat girl, but these kitties are just killing me. 

I'm in the middle of packing to leave for the USA tomorrow... three weeks in the States and a very busy time of it too!! More about that tomorrow from the Qantas lounge. Today though I will say to all of you who have been asking about my birthday teacup quilt!! The blocks are all ready to be sewn together but between trying to get a new range of fabric, a thread collection and two new books ready, teaching on the cruise to New Zealand and almost getting pneumonia - there hasn't been a lot of time to sew them! It will be done though and it's going to look just FAB and I can't wait to show you all. I know I haven't done the prize drawing yet for everyone who sent cups, I thought I would wait until I have this new range of fabric in hand and do it when I come home from Quilt Market. So stay tuned! xx

Stitching at the Grand Hotel!

Bookings for the Needleart Seminar at the Grand Hotel in Michigan are NOW OPEN! Come and along to this amazing venue on Macinack Island and stitch with me and some other incredible teachers, we are going to have a BALL. It would be well worth travelling to come to this wonderful event, I have never seen anything like the hotel. So beautiful!

You can see all the classes here, both mine and the other teachers. I will be teaching hand quilting, my needleturn applique technique on quilts such as Whirligig and Hanging Lanterns, some foundation piecing and Step Down piecing and showing some of my quilts! Get in quick before the classes fill up.

Its a busy year this year - on this same trip I will also be teaching in California for the Beach City Quilters, and going to Spring Market in Pittsburg to launch my NEW FABRIC RANGE! I know, it's been a while since I had a patchwork shop only fabric line and it's coming soon to a shop near you - make sure to ask your LQS to look out for it at Market.

And I'm off on the Radiance of the Seas, cruising New Zealand in March with Michelle Marvig, Lynette Anderson and 80 lucky quilters. I have so many exciting this to tell you about this year I'm about to bust at the seams, but you're all going to have to wait a little longer :)

Meantime though, run over and book in to Macinack Island if you're in the US and I'll see you there!

Merry Christmas Everyone

Well it's that time of year.... I wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you to all of you - my students, the shops and businesses who work with me, host my classes, print my books and fabrics and are generally awesome in every way! To everyone who reads my blog and follows me on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. To everyone who reads my books and sews with my fabrics. You guys are just the absolute shiz, and I want to say to you all from the bottom of my heart - 

Happy holidays, Merry Christmas and huge love to all of your out there! I hope 2014 brings you and your families health and happiness, and many amazing stitching moments. I have so many fantastic things up my sleeve to show you next year I can hardly wait. 

Any now I'm taking two weeks off - if you want to place an order from the shop you will be able to, but please be aware that the orders won't be shipped until I return on January 10. 

Stay safe everyone and I hope Santa is kind! xxx

Classes at Mackinac Island, USA!

I'm coming to the USA early next year! I will be teaching for the Beach City Quilters in California, attending Spring Market in Pittsburgh and teaching at the Grand Hotel for the Needle Art Seminar! Save the date :)

Gwen Marston and Winter Escape

So the Gwen Marston train has left the station, and she is in Melbourne for Amitie tomorrow. She will be in Sydney in early July and there are still places for her night lecture, which I assure you will be well worth seeing for all quilters, and perhaps particularly interesting for "Modern" quilters. The lecture is called Abstract Quilts in Colour, she will have quilts to show and interesting things to tell you.

The lecture is on July 11 at 7pm for 7.30. It's at the auditorium at Mary MacKillop Place in North Sydney. There are loads of lovely places to go for dinner etc beforehand if you wanted to go with a group, and there will also be a light supper provided afterwards. Tickets are $50 and you can book through Cottage Quiltworks at 9997 4661. 

Don't miss this opportunity, Gwen is one of my all time favourite quilters. She has never been to Australia before and will likely never come again, so get in quick and see a real live Quilter talk about her craft. See you there!

Also during that week is the Cottage Quiltworks Winter Escape. I am teaching July 11 and 12, you can come along and make this quilt:

All That and the Hatter from Hand Quilted with Love, or this quilt:

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, which is so new it's not finished yet (don't judge, I had gastro last week). Don't worry it will be finished in time for class! It's an Aussie flag (obviously), but I am happy if you want to make a NZ flag, or indeed an Italian one or a French one or whatever! You can also make anything you like from any of my books, I'm not choosy. There are only a few spots left though so be quick and come along for two lovely days of stitching and chatting and being creative. Bookings also through Cottage Quiltworks.

Happy Thoughts

With Christmas just around the corner and sad things happening around the world, I thought I would take a moment to think of the things that make me so lucky and so happy every day.

* My beautiful, safe and healthy boys

* My happy and supportive marriage to my wonderful husband

* The year full of incredible opportunities and experiences I have had

* The people who surround me, from my family to my beautiful friends, my students to my blog readers, my twitter and my facebook friends, my publishers, my fabric distributors and my Craftsy team! You are all incredible and I'm so lucky to work and play with you all.

To that end, today I'm off to Cottage Quiltworks for a morning I organised to sit and sew with a bunch of people from near and far. No teaching, just chat, sewing and making new friends, and seeing some old ones. I'll let you know what we all get up to.

PS. Nearly 800 people in my Craftsy class! Give yourself a present this Christmas and find out what they're all enjoying :) Abd don't forget, purchase anything $20 and up in my webshop during December and receive 50% off my Craftsy class. 

AWOL Again and Giveaway Winners

Oh my poor old blog. You seem to really be getting the short end of the stick lately. I think my New Year's Resolution has to be to pay more attention to you. PLUS I so totally owe you all a winner of my giveaway!

Ths winner of my Quilt Market Swag is:

Hope from hopetn.blogspot.com.au! 

AND the winner of the free voucher for a Craftsy class is:

COLLEEN PERRY! I'm so excited Colleen has won because I know she's been wanting to take a class with me for while now, and now she can, online with Craftsy - my class goes life NEXT WEEK! Hoping to see you there :)

Yay for winners, please send me your addresses ladies so I can get your swag off to you. And stay tuned over the next weeks and months because there will be fabric announcements, giveaways of my new fabric range AND of my new book coming in the lead up to Christmas, and in the New Year. 

Leaving you to go and write my guest posts on Quilt Market for True Up - I will make sure and let you know when they're up so you can go and see what Amy and I found over there. Meantime there is awesome stuff to see about the new ranges being released soon on Kim's blog so go and have a look. 

In other news, I'm on the Aurifil Christmas Ornament Hop next week so buzz in for that! This week's ornaments are made by:

Victoria Findlay Wolfe http://www.bumblebeansinc.blogspot.com/

Lizzie B Creative dreamlaughcreate.blogspot.com

Pam Kitty Morning http://pamkittymorning.blogspot.com

There are some real cuties so make sure to check by and see them. 

So I bet you've been wondering what that beautiful quilt is above... it's one of the quilts I loved from Houston, it's a Japanese quilt made by Keiki Ohno, called A Temptation of Stripes. She used what she calls a "felt sheet with many holes" for the overlay, pieced her "stripes" together and then machined around the holes to quilt the layers together. I love the effect.

I promise by the end of this week to have blogged about the other quilts I saw that I enjoyed at Market, there are a lot! Last peek for today is from my friend Dan Rouse, this is his quilt Ripple which was hanging in the Moder Quilt Guild's section of the show. Dan always amazes me with the different way his eye sees a quilt, if you don't read his blog you should. Perhaps it's because he's a garden designer that he looks at fabric with a different eye. This is his take on a Drunkard's Path block.

My annual apologies for the lighting, it is so awful and yellow in the hall and it's almost impossible to get back far enough to take a good pic of any of the quilts.... I do my best :)

WIN My Quilt Market Swag!

Well I'm back from my whirlwind trip to Quilt Market in Houston, with of course a stop along the way to film classes at Craftsy. It was awesome to see everyone and I have loads of beautiful quilt pictures to share with you too. First up though, one of the cool things about Market is all the free stuff they throw at you. Feeling like I have had the trip and therefore the spoils, I thought I should share. 

I'm going to divide the spoils up among two lucky winners.

First prize will be the ticket to win a free Craftsy class - after all, they're worth between $30 and $50 usually and are totally awesome. Maybe if you win you might like to use to to take my group of 8 classes when they are online!

Second prize will win:

A copy of Jenean Morrison's Pattern and Design colouring book

A Liberty of London pencil and Stile Collection postcard

A sample of wool and wool threads from Sue Spargo

A Tsuru by Rashida Coleman-Hale pin from Cloud 9 Fabrics

A Modkid skirt pattern

An Anna Maria Horner needleworks notepad

A charm pack of Free Spirit Essentials

A Spoonflower 2013 calandar tea towel

Wowzers!! Lucky aren't you. First prize is open to anyone, anywhere in the world - and second prize is open to Australia and NZ only, sorry but the postage is a killer. 

To win, leave a comment telling me which is your favourite one of my quilts, AND what country you are in please, if you don't enter your country you will only be entered for the first prize draw. If you feel you would like to tweet or facebook the giveaway please do and I'm happy to give you an extra entry, but no pressure, I don't want to make you all jump through hoops! AND please make sure I have a way to contact you, if I draw a winner with no contact details I will just draw another one. Entries close Thursday, November 8, 5pm AEST.

Happy day all, I'm off to my studio for the first time in weeks and weeks :) xx