Australia

Australia was fantastic, even in winter. But I have to say, Joe was right, it is just like Southern California only they talk funny. 

Us in front of Berrima Patchwork in the cute historic town of Berrima, NSW.

Thank you to Sue and Tamsin for inviting Joe and I to their 

first of many Quilting In the Highlands.

That's my Rain Drops quilt on the wall that Tamsin won at last years IQA silent auction in Houston.
Wait until you see what I am making for this year's auction.

After our long 16 hours of flying we got right in to the swing of things. Tamsin took us all on a tour of the  cute town of Berrima in New South Wales.  They are known for their notorious prison and the trials that were held there.

 

 Joe trying to break into the prison  Maybe to get away from all us girls?

 The old court house that we toured. It's haunted, you know!

 This is a quilt that was made by many of the quilters in the area and donated to the
court house in 2006 for the town's centennial.

Carol, Sherry, me, Sue and Joe (teacher's pet).

 Carol Doak and Joe goofing off. Again.

 I still don't know who this is characters is but Joe liked him right way.
Maybe it was the hat? 

Australia has lots of characters so Joe fit right in.

Lots of cute little shops and cafes filled this small quaint town.  Plus, they have a quilt shop.

Every night there was  beautiful sunset.

All the teachers love Bernina.  Lessa Chandler, Carol Doak, Michelle Hill, Sue Dennis, and me. 

Thanks to Bernina for the sewing machines.

 Learned a quicker, better, faster, technique for adding the center to the hibiscus. 

The food was wonderful I think it was the best retreat food I have ever had.

 Joe and his favorite girls, Sherry and Carol Doak. It seemed like all we did was eat.  And yes that little Sherry ate that whole big sandwich.

Display of some of the teacher's quilts. Carlo Doak's quilt on the wall
and Sue Dennis' quilts on the table.

Michelle Hill's beautiful quilt. She taught the William Morris Garden Workshop.  
She has written 2 books on William Morris and his designs.

 My first ever Waratah class. It took me a whole week to be able to properly pronounce Waratah right.

 Showing the Renegade Thread Play.

 Class rooms where great.

 Leesa Chandler showing her applique tricks and techniques.

Sue Dennis and I.  Her work is awesome. 

 Carol and I in a race to see who can sign their books the fastest. I won!

Only because she has way more books than me. Darn.

Teacher book table. Those are all of Carol's books on that table, except for my Cutting Garden Quilts. Which I'm  happy to say is being reprinted!

 Love this color of Hibiscus. Hope i can remember how to dye this colorway again.

 When the green leaves are added magic happened. Greens have a special power to make or break your flower quilt.

By the second day the students fingers where getting sore from all the cutting.
There always is a lot of cutting.  

So happy to see that my hand-dyed fabrics turned out so good.  It was great to see the flowers on very different backgrounds.

Thank you Berrima Patchwork and Quilting.  Check out the information about next years 2013 retreat.

OK, here is a pictures of "The Dress".

The Wedding!

photo by Justin Mina

Well, we did it. We married off my only child this last week in beautiful San Diego.

And wow, what a wonderful wedding it was. The best thing I did was get the wedding planner. She did a great job.  It really does save you money (and your piece of mind.)  julie@thebestweddingforyou.com

photos by Justin Mina

But the funniest thing that happened started out as the saddest thing and I almost lost it when it happened.  I wrote about finding just the right dress a few blogs back. Well, I though I was set but when we arrived in San Diego I thought I better try that dress on one more time before the wedding, just in case. I have been traveling a lot which means eating out more than I like.  So I squeezed into my super full body armor lovingly called Spanks, followed by the dress.  It felt a little tight at first.  Then I started to sweat.  This can’t be happening. I called to Joe for help in zipping me up.  He can’t get the zipper up.  I feel sweat dripping in my eyes or were those tears?  OMG, the dress is too tight.  I am now experiencing the mother of the groom’s worst nightmare.  My dress doesn’t fit.  I burst into tears.  Joe tries to calm me down.  Do you think it could be just a little water weight?  No, this is just plain fat. Its OK, he says, we will just go and find you another dress.  Mind you, he is exhausted by this point. I had woken him up out of a sound sleep at 4am this morning to drive 8 hours from Sacramento to San Diego so we could miss any LA traffic to the OC. Thank God we did because we arrived in plenty of time to look for a new dress.   We Google the nearest Macys and off we go.  I am still in my Spanks which I can’t take off because I am still sweating like a race horse and you can’t peel spanks off a sweaty body no matter how hard you try. You can only be cut out of them. I need the Jaws of Life by this point.

At the store I grab the first dress I see and run into the dressing room and my husband becomes Mr. Joey, my personal shopper.  He starts throwing dresses at me 2 at a time.  And, by the way, he has great taste.  I think he got that from his uncle Quentin and Aunt Russ.  I quickly model them for his approval.  He was like a mad man and I have never seen him like this. It was awesome now that I think about it.   He didn’t even look at the prices. Then he found it.  A beautiful blue dress that fit.  He said I looked hot but I thought he was just trying to make me stop feeling like a loser.   He then took me to the jewelry department and bought me a new necklace for this dress.  What a guy.

That night for dinner I had a light broth and carrot sticks. Yummy! 

The next morning I felt a little better and a little lighter. Could it be?  Joe was in the shower so I reached in the closet and pulled out the first dress.  I know I must be a masochist.  I didn’t even reach for the super Spanks. And guess what?  It fit.  It was water bloating.  So now I have 2 dresses, but I wore the blue dress because Mr. Joey bought it for me.

When I arrive at the wedding my sister Cindy said Is that a Ralph Lauren dress?  Wow! You look so good.  I said I don’t know what designer it was and tell her the story of the 2 dresses. Today I looked at the label and Mr. Joey had no idea but he just bought me a Ralph Laruen designer dress.  I think I will let him be surprised when the bill comes.  Thank God we only have one kid and 2 dresses. 

Do you see what that is? It's a boxing kangaroo light-up pen that was given to me by my Australian friends.  I will be there in July teaching at Quilting in the Highlands out side of Sydney. Joe was not so sure he wanted to go with me - he thinks that Australia is like Southern California but with a much cooler accent (and no in-laws).  So I had to promise (lie to) him that if he goes with me  he will see LOTS of boxing kangaroos and we will certainly meet the real Tasmanian Devil.  Now he wants to come with me.  In fact, he says I had him at LOTS of boxing kangaroos.   Welcome to my world.  I can't wait for Joe's disappointment when the Tasmanian Devil's father is not wearing a Hawaiian shirt. My life feels like a bad cartoon episode. 

Here is one of the flower quilt classes I will be teaching.  It's called the Waratah.  I have no idea how to pronounce it.  Hopefully, the Tasmanian Devil will help out.

 Today is Thread Play day and tomorrow I dye the fabrics for the kits.  I think it turned out really nice.

 But first things first - I have to find where the boxing kangaroos hang out.  Any ideas?

If it's going to rain in California, let it pour when you have a good quilting project in hand. Who cares if I am missing all the fun in the sun? The peaceful and content feeling you get with the rain tapping on the roof, snuggled up in your favorite sweater and a needle or scissors in one and working on a fun project.  Well, that's what it was like this last week while I was teaching at Empty Spools Seminars in Pacific Grove. I had 11 students in my class which I think was pretty good considering we all had to arrive on Easter Sunday.  But that didn’t stop the flow of beautiful flowers. So here are some of my girls and their beautiful flower quilts.  I won’t be teaching at Empty Spools next year - I am taking a break but I am having my retreat at Lake Tahoe in 2013 and will post more information  when I have a firm date.

Ann Shaw was the featured artist this session.

 Her table was bursting with color. 

Each day she would select the fabric of the day and they where some great fabrics. She is very talented and will be teaching there next year.

I got a little carried away with the tulip bouquet on her table.

This is Marie Brown's blue couscous. The blue/periwinkle color just took your breath way.

Above are the flower quilts that Nancy McCain made from some of my patterns last year.  This year she stepped out with her own flower photo. Her Husband, JD, is also a quilter and was there taking in another class. He likes to do pieced quilts but we love him, anyway.

This  colorful rose, made by Jo Anne Coss, just knocked our socks off.

When Trish Nicholson is not paddling her sailboat on the Potomac River, she will be finishing her beautiful Coneflowers that I suspect we will l see in a future show. I hope.

Sheila Cory made these delightful Orchids. After a few additions of the right pinks she just flew.  4 girls in class brought their iPads with beautiful color photos on them but when we tried to closely match the iPad photo we had a very hard time because of the brightness of the screen but using the iPad to enlarge was great. I know there is a way to use this great tool so stay tuned. But in the mean time we still have to print out photos.

It's fun when friends take your class. Melanie McFarland and I meet years ago in a Mary Lou Weidman class.  She and Mary Lou have written a book together called Out of the Box with Easy Blocks. She has a wonderfully creative eye for color.  She made a still life flower arrangement in a vintage green vase.   You can see her photo in the picture below.   I just love this color combination. WOW! 

Another great talent was Cheryl Malkowski. She also is an author of 5 books with C&T.  Wow - I got all the talent in my class.  Look at the photo she took.  Now look at her quilt.  It's great!  I can’t wait to see it finished.  She could easily match the colors using my ColorFinder technique. 

Jan Carte is a true Californian who loves the beach, California Poppies and the San Francisco Giants.  Her classmate, Sherie Bertelson, flew in all the way from Alaska. On a plane, of course.  She picture was of  a delicate blue flower that grows in Alaska in her backyard.  I called her Miss Alaska most of the retreat. Once we found the right colors she was off and running. I always take a field trip into town to Back Porch Fabrics.  It's a must when you visit Pacific Grove. 

It was pansies for Brigitte Red.  She was obsessed and I understood her passion.  It was like she couldn't stop.  It was so fun to watch her see more and more. I called her Miss Canada.  I love Canadians.

Last but not least, A rose by any other name is Kim McFarland, Mel's sister-in-law. This rose just flew out of her. She did her base shape in a medium hue and then added the dark shadows and, finally, the lighter shades.  That's not a plain black fabric she has laid it on. it’s a textured bark cloth with an Asian motif.  It give a very elegant look.  Check out her border fabric in the photo below. 

Mel and Kim working

Jan in the Zone. Ann Shaw quilts on stage.

Sherie,  who doesn't like her picture taken. Sorry - I got you.

Kim on her final pressing.

Brigitte with her scissors hat. Funny Canadian!

JD and Nancy with their big hearts!

Kim with the 2 Mels.