What will we get up to in 2014?

Tomorrow, New Year's Day, I'm going to work on my Shimmering Triangles Quilt.  I have some lovely new fabrics from Stitch to add in so it is about to grow. 

This will be a colourful way to start the year.

What have I been up to?

What have I been up to since I last blogged? 

Well I adopted a new cat... Tillie.

I went to the Quilt and Craft Fair held right here in Palmerston North for the first time and saw the 12 x 12 challenge ColourPlay quilts (which amazed me with their quality) and some fabulous merchant stalls:
 

I braved the cold on the Desert Road and went to Quilt Symposium in Taupo...

 ... where I saw Carole's beautiful quilt in the Tutor's exhibition

... and I went to a class in making Structured Fabrics with Dena Crain - I think the class was more structured than my fabric turned out to be but that's okay.  Here is a layout being auditioned.

I had loads of fun in a class with Jenny Bowker working on Shimmering Triangles with Kaffe Fassett fabrics.  Jenny is an incredible tutor who shares lots of inspiration, funny stories, knowledge and above all she rolls with the flow of where each different student is at.

This is one of Jenny's quilts that she brought along for inspiration.

 

The burst of sewing at Symposium left me realising that I have withdrawal symptoms.  I'm on my last paper now for my course and am really looking forward to getting the machine out when I finish at the end of November.

 

Who am I?

I've been away from my blog for such a long time that anyone reading might well be wondering who this person suddenly posting is.   Thanks for sticking with me.  The lure of study has been strong and I've had my head in the books for much of the last 18 months.  And it will continue for the next 6 months too, but my goal is to be finished by July, in time for Quilt Symposium in Taupo.  I have my fingers crossed that I'll get into a Gwen Marston class, and am very excited about the idea of that.

I have done some quilting over summer.   This is a quilt for friend who is having her third child soon.   The greens with a bit of blue are my attempt at neutral.  I bought the fabrics in Taupo during my Christmas holiday and they just glow against the white.  Big shout out to the Janome shop in Wanganui where I found the beautiful white - they have a great selection of fabrics and had three plain whites for me to choose from.

Adapted from a Moda Bakeshop pattern, ready to bind

The back is actually light blue, with left over squares - love the effect of the sunlight making the pinwheels come through.

And these are the colours of my next project, for a colleague who is having a baby girl. 

Keep dropping by, to see if I'm here, I can't be a boring swot forever.