Honi and Lemon

Introducing Janie.

I just wanted to take a minute and start this post by introducing my lovely friend Jane.

Jane is an artist and teacher and an amazingly talented woman. Since we have been meeting as a group she has been working on a number of projects but my favorites are her gorgeous lamp shades. She hand and machine appliqué's the fabrics first then turns this into the shades.

Soon Jane will make a post and you can see for yourself just what I'm talking about!

The Australasian Quilt Convention & Expo

Now this post is a tad late I know, but I had such a nice time so I really want to mention the Quilt Expo in Melbourne.
My DMIL took me along to see the quilt show and we had a lot of fun while she showed me all the various designs and told me a little the types of techniques used. We were both really excited to see so many lovely Japanese fabrics as we have both recently visited Japan and are enjoying the subtle beauty of these designs and those beautiful grainy textures. This is me at the entrance of the exhibition.

Whilst we were there I had the opportunity to meet a very inspiring group of women. They are all working on a quilt design called the Civil War Bride quilt, which is a beautiful quilt but also a massive undertaking to commit to such a project. They are all bloggers too and were finally meeting up in real life to share samples of their work so far.

From left to right they are Lizzie, Debb, Natima (my mum in law), Ronnie(no blog), Kaly.

They are all fun women and seeing all their lovely work was really inspirational but also a little intimidating too as I began to realize just how much I have to learn!

This is a close up on of one of the quilts I found most interesting. It is made from many khaki woolen uniforms worn during the Second WW. Some of the pieces have holes in them and all of the pieces are a different shape. I liked to way it hangs too as it undulates like an aerial view of a landscape.

WW ll Army Uniform Crazy Quilt

So after a fun day out I got home to find an early mothers day gift waiting for me from my darling husband- he has given me a sewing machine!

This is my first sewing machine and I think we are going to have a lot of fun together.