Home again

after a wonderful Quilters Companion/Travelrite Quilting tour of Canada, USA and Japan. In all 5 weeks away. I have a multitude of photos, and I’m not sure how long its going to take me to sort them all out, so I’ll post photos as and when I can.

Our two tour leaders for the Canada and USA trip Michelle Maher and Michelle Marvig were excellent and on the Japan leg of the journey Michelle Marvig together with Kazuo Yanagawa our Japanese guide were absolutely excellent! Taking us to as many patchwork shops that our wallets would allow. :-)

After a 6 hour flight from Osaka to Singapore, a 3 hour layover then another nearly 10 hour flight to Auckland, I arrived home. Surprisingly I don’t seem to be suffering from jetlag, although after getting to bed at 2am I slept until nearly 12 noon!

I had a very happy event happen while I was away –
My quilt ‘ My Nearly Insane Journey’ won 1st place in the Traditional Bed Quilt made by more than one person. I had this quilt machine quilted by Judi Schon.  The show was the Auckland Festival of Quilts.

 
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 http://www.susannasquilts.blogspot.com

The Trip of a Lifetime

Hi everyone, for those who were hoping to see some photos on my blog, it hasn't been easy to do, so please check me out on Facebook to see the progress of our trip.Having a wonderful time, and have today arrived in New York.  It's a hugely diverse city and the traffic......we think Auckland bad - whew!
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 Sue















http://www.susannasquilts.blogspot.com

My Nearly Insane Journey is over!

I managed to take some quick photos at hand in day for the Festival of Quilts Show in Auckland.
The photos are not the best but I'm hoping some-one can take some better photos for me at the show.
I won't be at the show this year, for the first time in about 20 years as I'm going on a Quilt Tour to Canada, USA and Japan. I will be in Houston at their huge show, but am also a little disappointed I won't be seeing NI at our show after all that work.
I started piecing this quilt in June 2010 and finished it in July 2015 with a lot of down time in between.
A couple of the photos are a bit blurry I'm sorry to say!

'My Nearly Insane Journey'

Unfortunately the quilting doesn't show up in the photo, so I tried to take some closeups. I had to be quick, as they were photographing all the quilts for the show.

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http://www.susannasquilts.blogspot.com

Last weekend

I attended a class with Kathy Doughty, a very inspirational tutor from Material Obsession in Sydney. She was teaching her Modern Wedge class. 
Lots of fun, especially with the fussy cutting. Actually the decision on what fabric to use, and how to use it, takes the most time, as the blocks are very easy to sew.

Here are a few of the class wedges.

 The one above, is one that I would love to make. All scraps - I think this would be alot of fun!

 Below is my attempt and I must say I was pretty pleased with it. I just have to applique it down.

 I'm on the countdown now to my trip to canada, Houston and Japan, in October, so I'm making lists of things to do. Hand work to take, Food in freezer, food in freezer,,,,,,:-)

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http://www.susannasquilts.blogspot.com

I am so behind with....

my blogging. I seem to have sewn everyday for at least 3-4 hours, but don't have much to write about.
I have been on a finishing tangent this year, and am pleased that I have finished 2 quilt tops and 1 totally finished quilt. All of these are Queen size quilts. 
The quilt below was a BOM from Material Obsession 

The Blue and Tan quilt was made entirely from my stash.
 

At this stage I don't have a photo of my Nearly Insane Quilt as its too large for the floor space that I have, but I hope to get a photo in a couple of weeks at Quilt Guild where it will be hung for photographing for the Festival of Quilts in November.

 Along with that I have crocheted the last of my hexagons and half hexagons, but now have some ends to stitch in and a couple of rows to go around the top. 

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 http://www.susannasquilts.blogspot.com

Birthday Present and bread.

This past weekend I made yet another loaf of this wonderful bread. Its usually the only bread I make now, and is soooo simple. Its called No Knead Bread and can be found on Foodlovers.co.nz.
If you can't find it I can email the recipe.

 Sorry my photos are not so good as there was too much sun reflecting.

I also finished a bag for my Sister's birthday. She doesn't sew or blog, so I'm quite safe showing this.

This is the back of the bag. I used a strong bag pellon, which makes the bag stand up.

This was a free pattern from TeresaDownUnder. Sewn Up. 

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http://www.susannasquilts.blogspot.com

Another UFO to finish

Its been a busy couple of weeks – Grandchildren time, then out and about  Quilt fabric shopping for necessities( of course) in the last couple of days. Sharon and I had a lovely visit to The Country Yard 
where I spent some money, lunch then a visit to Leeanne’s house Quiltmekiwi to see her quilts and her longarm machine. All in all a lovely day out.

Below are the photos of my latest UFO to finish. They are all squared up now and I am about to join them up. Each block measures 181/2" so it will be a large quilt. ( So what else is new - haha)

I'll post again when I get the quilt top finished.
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Quilting Day

It was lovely to spend last Saturday with my local quilt group, sewing in the hall. I had plenty of room to lay out all 144 x 8" blocks for my Blue & Tan quilt. This also gave every-one half an hour or so of fun rearranging the blocks, so none of  the tans/browns were together. 

 Then they had to make sure none of the creams were together and also the blues. All in all it was  fun to watch them, while I sat back and ate my lunch! I left them to it!! :-)

Next job is sewing them altogether.
Have spent the last 2 days with DH sitting and watching the U.S. Open Golf Championship. I find it hard to sit and do nothing, so I got on with knitting the vest I started last winter. Maybe I'll get it finished this winter so I can wear it. 

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http://www.susannasquilts.blogspot.com

Revisiting my Blue Quilts

I decided it was time to change my header quilt. This is a quilt I made as a mystery quilt designed by Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville. It's still only a top as I can't decide on a border. One day it'll happen.
 
The next quilt was made for one of my grandsons, and was made using scraps. I pieced it using the strata method - sewing randomly cut strips together and making a piece of fabric. I think from memory I sewed the piece of fabric into about 9"in depth, then recut using my 45 degree triangle, turning the ruler one way then the other. Its a bit hard to explain with diagrams, but the quilt is in Australia now so I cant show any other photos.I quilted this one myself on my Pfaff.

Alexanders Quilt

The quilt above was made in 2005 for my sons 40th birthday. The white sashing was very crisp and all the squares were blue & white. Its now on a single bed in their home and still looks lovely. Sorry the photo is a little blurry. This quilt was professionally machine quilted. Its measure approx. 80" square.


 This quilt is entitled " T with Friends" after chatting with my quilting friends and getting lots of ideas regarding sashing, I made the cornerstones a ruby red the same as the first border.

I hand quilted this quilt using my most favourite pattern - Baptist fan.
 Now I must get back to my Blue & Tan quilt. I have made about 30 large blocks ( 4 x 4 )
Only 6 to go. Yipee as I am so bored with it, and have the next one ( to make) eating away at me. :-)

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 Thanks for dropping by 

 http://www.susannasquilts.blogspot.com