Wednesday, June 26, 2013

A wonderful weekend!

Last weekend I had the pleasure of learning from and being inspired by about 20 other quilters.

Bev and Linda organised 2 days of fun, hand stitching, talk, yummy food, friendship, sharing and inspiration led by Marg Sampson-George from Sydney.

I have been drawn to the Jane Pizar quilt for some months now and when I heard it was one of the quilts Marg was offering I jumped at the opportunity! You can see a picture of the original Jane Pizar quilt here on Barbara Brackman's blog. I love the centre medallion, but also the huge variety of smaller blocks which surround it.

Both mornings the drive up to Linda's was beautiful with sunshine contrasted by frosty roadsides and fields. As I drove and the sun warmed the leaves of the overhanging gum trees small droplets of water fell on the car.

We were greeted by a spacious, well lit room with large tables and a cozy, warm fireplace. (which I managed to sit nice and close to!!)

Marg shared with us several of her stunning quilts and while talking about each of the quilts she dicussed their background history, colour and fabric selection and how they were constructed. All of Marg's quilts had an enormous variety of fabrics with different weaves and from different eras, but the fabrics all worked together.

As we chose a pattern and began selecting fabrics Marg came around and spent time helping each of us individually with our fabric choices. Everyone had bags, baskets or even small suitcases of fabric!!

Several times during each day we would walk around the room and admire what everyone was making. The variety of fabrics was enormous!

So far I have completed the inner circle of diamonds.

  


Once again I have chosen lots of French General fabrics, but there are also some Dargate fabrics and other repros. Although many people construct this section using English Paper Piecing I made templates and hand pieced.

Most of the fabrics have been selected for the 2nd round.


At the end of Sunday several people brought quilts from home for a show-and-tell.

Thank you Bev, Linda, Marg and everyone else who was there on the weekend! The best weekend in ages!!! :)



I have rarely used Google Reader in the past, but I have signed up for Bloglovin and claimed my blog (see previous post) There is a new button in my sidebar.
After reading Chookyblue's post I will probably use Feedly, just in case sometime goes awry with reading from my blog list or dashboard.

Back soon with lots more sewing. :)



13 comments:

  1. LOVE, LOVE your center medalion so far. The fabrics are gorgeous. I look forward to watching your progress :0)

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  2. It is a very beautiful quilt, Miriam. I'm sure it will bring you great pleasure.
    Hugs - Lurline!

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  3. Hi Mirim, it was lovely to spend the day with you!! Love your centre will keep an eye on how you are going...can't wait.Hope to see you again at another fun day xx

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  4. ahh sorry there was suppose to be an "a" in your name!! lucky I can sew better than I can type!

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  5. What a great way to spend two days. Your diamonds look gorgeous.

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  6. You are soooo lucky. What a wonderful weekend it must have been. Teeny bit jealous (especially the fire in the fireplace).

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  7. WOW! Oh my, that quilt is gorgeous and I LOVE your fabric selections -- I can't wait to see your progress on this quilt. Gosh, I need a clone -- I have SOOO many quilts I want to make now!

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  8. Just love that collection of fabrics you have chosen - will be beautiful! The background has a nice textured look too - maybe linen? A lovely start!
    Hilda

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  9. Wow! You're certainly not afraid of a little hard work, are you! I'm so impressed. I just use my dashboard to read blogs. I wonder if that will change, too?

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  10. I'm drooling over your fabrics! I think you Australians have the most beautiful eye for fabric!
    I need to go shopping with you.
    The funny thing is, back in 2000 we lived in Pyrmont and I had a hard time finding any fabric. Now I see shops everywhere!
    So I'm going to have to go back!

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  11. Lovely piecing! And I love your colours!

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  12. Happy Blog Anniversary and birthday. I have missed blogging for a while. Can't believe how much you have been stitching lately. The medallion quilts are beautiful and I love the French General prints you are using. Thanks for the link to Barbara Brackman Blog. Such amazing work.

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  13. What a lovely description of your weekend! Sounds marvelous and now you have the start of another beautiful quilt.

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