Quilt show and Trudy’s quilt

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We are having fun at the Boonah Quilt Show today and tomorrow. Hope you get a chance to visit because there are some beautiful quilts on display.

The nicest is of course ours shown here-
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We have finally received permission from the Blue Nurses to hold a raffle for this quilt, the whole proceeds of which will be donated to them.

For those who don’t know – Trudy, a good friend of ours passed away last year and we decided to make a group quilt in her memory and raffle it for her favourite charity (Blue Nurses). She loved flowers and her favourite colours were red and orange so that was the basis of the colour scheme.

Thirty two Apatchy Quilting girls worked on this quilt and thirty blocks make up the front with another used for the label on the back. The quilt is called “Flowers for Trudy”

The raffle will be drawn at our Christmas party on 6th December 2014. Tickets are $2 each or 3 for $5. Good luck!

Here are some more pictures from Boonah

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In case you’re wondering the last two photos were taken just now just before closing time. There’s no way I could have taken a photo this morning because it was packed!

We were rushed off our feet with a lot of quilt groups making a day of it here. We said hello to some girls from the Beenleigh Quilters, some from Stanthorpe and many more.

Jan was busy doing demos with the Kanzashi flower tools. It was standing room only.

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Come and say hello tomorrow if you’re in the area.

Ta-da! Block of the Month Revealed!

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Finally I am able to reveal to you the new Apatchy Block of the Month – and it’s a Fiesta!

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This award-winning quilt took out “Best in Show’ in 2013 Quilt Show in Paducah, USA. Designed by Karen Kay Buckley it features vibrant applique blocks that are reminiscent of our tropical lifestyle here in Brisbane, Australia. In fact this quilt was inspired by the designer’s travels in Mexico. Nevertheless it is at home anywhere you love bright, happy designs.

Some designs are very simple – some are more complex – all are a joy to work. You can use machine applique, buttonhole stitch or needleturn applique – whatever you choose this quilt will be amazing. The quilt measures 100″ x 80” when it is completed so it is quite a statement.

During the 12-month programme you will also receive fabrics and instructions to complete the quilt. A 20-page colour booklet also accompanies this project.
Here’s a sneak preview of that:
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And here’s a sneak preview of the patterns you receive:

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You can register at the website here – note the price shown is the monthly fee for 12 months.

We are going to be starting in the top right corner with this block
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Have you ever seen anything so sunshiny and happy before? Now you may say that it is different to the picture in the quilt above – that’s because I took the photo with the block upside down! It’s hard to get good help isn’t it?

Hope you like this quilt – we may well be the only ones in Australia releasing it so get with it and be in front of everyone else!

More news – the classes continue to roll along expertly presided over by Jan. She asked me to mention that the first Wednesday morning class of each month will be actually be held on a Thursday – now isn’t that interesting! Don’t say things are ho-hum at Apatchy Quilting – we even re-arrange the calendar. This means that the first Wednesday of March – that would be the 5th – well the morning class will be held on Thursday 6th March. Please note it in your calendars – also note that it is only the morning class that is affected. The evening class will still be held on Wednesday night.

Paradise Found

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ParadiseIsland

Welcome to Paradise Island. This beautiful range from Michael Miller includes exotic flowers printed on the cotton couture combed cotton basecloth. Team it with solids of olive, mermaid and azure for a stunning project.

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There is a free pattern for this fabric range and you can find it here. Maybe you don’t want another quilt (is that possible) but still love this fabric – how about a beautiful skirt?

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Speaking of paradise, here in Brisbane it has been wonderful weather – not too hot not too cold – great quilting weather (isn’t it always). Our classes started off the year last week and Jan hit the ground running. She asked me to remind you about our class times. As last year, classes are on Tuesday and Wednesdays – the morning class is 9.30am to 12.30 and the evening class is 6.00pm to 9.00pm. If you are new to quilting we recommend all but the Tuesday morning class as it is so popular it is difficult to fit a machine on the worktables! You will have better chance at tuition at one of the other classes. Make sure you phone if you are planning on starting beginner classes this year so we have everything ready for you.

Thanks for making Jan feel right at home and stay tuned to next week’s blog – we will be announcing our block of the month for the year and may even give you a sneak peek. It’s related to paradise too and quite tropical – no more hints. Until next week……

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes

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Welcome to 2014 at Apatchy Quilting! I guess everyone has taken Christmas down and the lights have been packed away for another year and those of us who have school-age children are organised for this week’s back-to-school. The weather everywhere has been quite erratic. The nice thing about it is – it’s a great time to turn on the air con (or heater if you’re in the northern hemisphere) and stay inside and sew.

I have a few projects on the go although I do have valid excuses for not producing much in the last month – firstly there was a wonderful month’s holiday including a tour of the Christmas markets in Germany, a week including Christmas in Paris, New Year’s Eve in New York (yes actually in Times Square – I was the one in the blue hat!) and a short trip to Vancouver and San Francisco. Quite a time. We travelled to the other side of the world for a white Christmas but everywhere we went was either experiencing an unusually warm winter or else it had snowed just last week (and again two days after we left). Did this mean we didn’t enjoy our holiday? No way! What you want isn’t always what you need. The break was wonderful and the places we visited strange and beautiful. It was an excellent opportunity to spend time with Luvvy and the resident teenager and we had a ball. As well as enjoying the time together we had an opportunity to reflect on our work life.

As a result of significant expansion in his company Luvvy has been in need of some management help for some time. Since (it seems in a former life) I am a qualified chartered accountant with an MBA the choice of who to help was not difficult. So for the next six months or so I have committed myself to helping him fulltime in the business. To quote Dumbledore from ‘Harry Potter’ “sometimes you have to make a choice between what is right and what is easy”.

What does this mean for Apatchy I hear you ask? Fear not I have not forsaken the world of patchwork and quilting nor you my loyal customers. While I was away in December the lovely Jan looked after the shop – and very capable she was too. She has very kindly agreed to retain the reins for a little longer and while I am toiling at the office, she will continue to run the classes as usual on Tuesday and Wednesday morning and evenings starting from Tuesday 4th February.

I will continue to oversee the computer side with email communication, the website and internet orders as well as the ordering and administration side and of course I will pop in to see you now and then to get my quilting ‘fix’ so I won’t be totally invisible. I would like to thank you in advance for giving Jan your support (and me too of course). We are looking forward to making 2014 a year of creativity and fun! There are new fabrics (of course) and other goodies to see so pop in next week and you can catch up with everyone you haven’t see over the holidays as well as seeing all that’s new.

Challenge revealed!

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The gathering we had yesterday is what Apatchy people call a Christmas party. To those of you who have never attended one of these parties it is more of a delight for the senses.

Yes each person brought a plate of delicacies for all to share and yes we mingled and chatted and exchanged gifts and laughed. Yes we even had ‘secret Santa’ – a time to be amazed at how ingenious our ladies are in being able to buy lovely things for just $10 or perhaps to be amused at the reaction of some as they opened their presents. The thrill of expectation is always exciting and here was no exception.

We even had a visit from the Christmas fairy – unfortunately our Apatchy Santa (the teenager-in-residence) has hung up his over-sized shirt and polyester beard and declared this year that he is too old for such nonsense. Fortunately another generation is available to carry on the tradition (in the form of Miss B) although she can only appear as Santa’s representative.

The highlight of the day was the display of the challenge quilts – 14 in all – not bad when you consider there were 34 people present – I’d say that’s as good a percentage as any quilt group can manage. And manage my clever people certainly did. What a wonderful display of quilts of all techniques, colours, sizes and shapes. Congratulations to Robyn for winning the judge’s prize and well done for being the most surprised winner ever. Congratulations to Elaine for her ‘highly commended’ award and to Cathy for her ‘Viewer’s Choice’ award.

Moreover, congratulations to all of you who were brave enough to enter your quilts so that we could experience such a wonderful treat. And thanks to my Apatchy ladies for being the best customers a quilt shop could have. Thanks for a wonderful day and a wonderful year.

Here are some photos of the day so those of you who couldn’t make it can see  what missed. Prepare to be dazzled………

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Unfortunately when you take photos of quilts hang on the wall they become somewhat skewed and you don’t see them as beautifully as you would have if you were at the show – but you can see the general idea. I’ll try to put each quilt and it’s creator on as an individual image on ‘Your Gallery’ over the next week. Here’s a great photo of the winners of the awards – talk about ‘winners are grinners!’ Well done Robyn Cathy and Elaine:

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Jingle and Mingle

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Look what Elaine brought into class today.

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This was made from plastic bottle caps – recycling meets cleverness.

It’s that time of year again and we are ready for our annual Christmas party/Challenge quilt extravaganza.

The event will be held this Saturday 30th November from 10am to 2pm at the Presbyterian Church Hall, Queens Road, Clayfield. As usual, if you would like to some, please bring a plate to share (for those of you not from here that means a plate with food to share) and, if you want to be in the secret Santa, please bring a gift to the value of $10.

Of course the event is also the unveiling of the challenge quilt competition and the prize-giving. The quilts are coming in and look fantastic. There is a prize based on the judge’s decision of how close the the theme the quilt looks as well as the popular ‘Viewers’ Choice’ prize.

Although I do not participate in the competition I like to do a quilt for the challenge too – just so you all know that I know what you’re going through! I’ve almost finished my entry – just have to finish the sleeve on the back and add a few more embellishments. Can you ever have too much embellishing? Sometimes not. Here’s a sneak peek of my quilt – all will be revealed on Saturday.

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I’m Back!

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Ok so it’s been a while since my last post. For the past week I have been working furiously on my challenge quilt. I hope to find a way to finish it by the due date although at this stage it will be a push. Do you always leave things to the last minute like me?

Apart from running around trying to do a three month job in three weeks we enjoyed a lovely morning last week for the Melbourne Cup. We had a wonderful spectacle with the annual parade of hats as we have the ‘Best Hat Competition’ judged, as usual, by the patriarch of the family. Luvvy made the pool area look very nice and placed my miniature roses along the path so it all looked very much like a famous racecourse – well done Luvvy!

Here’s some photos from the enclosure:

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And here’s Lesa – winner of the best hat – complete with the sewing embellishments (sorry about the picture quality – it must have been the excitement).

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Inspirational quilts

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Went to the craft show on Sunday here in Brisbane  – great day to go on Sunday because there aren’t as many people so you could wander around the stalls without having to battle the crowds. I managed to purchase a few items that I am planning to use in my challenge quilt. When I say ‘a few items’ what I actually mean is that I now have enough for a dozen challenge quilts – and when it comes to the building of it I’ll probably use very little. Oh well more in the stash. Don’t forget the challenge quilt is due in by 30th November and the theme is ‘Holiday’.

As usual there was a lot of inspiration at the show. We chatted with Loani Prior – the guru of tea cosy makers. She is such a friendly person and I told her how much I had enjoyed the photographic exhibition ‘Portrait of a Tea Cosy’ that I saw at Warwick Art Gallery in July for the ‘Jumpers and Jazz’ Festival. If you missed it have a look here. She certainly is inspirational – and her inspiration has extended to Apatchy – here’s a photo of our Chris with Loani at the show last Wednesday. Chris is no slouch at making tea cosies herself and has produced several beauties – you can see a couple in ‘Your Gallery’.

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Speaking of inspiration have a look at these few examples of the treasures we found at the show:

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You can see that I am following a theme here with many of the pictorial quilts. Actually I was very pleased to meet Barry Deans – the winner of the Apatchy Quilting prize at the Quilt Show – and have an interesting discussion about art and quilts. He raised the question of whether the quilts should be judged on technical merit and then artistic or the other way around – what do you think? He lives on the Gold Coast and it is his first time entering so he has certainly set the bar high. Here is his winning piece (you can tell he is an artist – just look at that perspective).

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At the same time the quilt show was on another show was on a little further along the building – the ‘Man Expo’ – featuring all things ‘blokey’ – beer-topia, bbq demos, billiards tables and the Bundaberg Rum ‘Distillatorium’. Rumour had it that there were bikini-clad girls as well . The menfolk in my family wandered along to it rather than come to the quilt show with me – can’t think why. I saw this group of guys waiting directly outside the quilt show doors. I suspect they hadn’t just come from the quilt show either – or am I being too stereotyped in my thinking?

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Stolen!

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The Queensland Quilt Show is currently on and there are lovely things to see there. Unfortunately security cameras did not see a clear picture of the person who stole this quilt on Wednesday during the prize ceremony.

Would you please sound the war drums and let everyone know about this. As the president of Qld Quilters said “maybe our collective eyes and the bush telegraph will get it returned to its rightful owner.” Here’s hoping.

Brenda Wood's quilt stolen from the Quilt Show

Brenda Wood’s quilt stolen from the Quilt Show

Wonderfil Thread

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For those of you who come to classes here in Brisbane – tomorrow morning the wonderful Barrie will be explaining all things thread- related. Barrie comes to us form Wonderfil Specialty Threads and, although she is busy setting up for the upcoming Quilt and Craft Show, she has kindly agreed to visit Apatchy Quilting. She will bring samples and advice for what-thread-to-use-when and where.

If you can make it tomorrow you’ll be very welcome. She will only have around 1/2 hour so don’t be late – 9.30am please.

For those who can’t make it have a look at the Wonderfil Video Library or at their YouTube channel to see what you can do.