FNWF for November

Good Morning Everyone,

Friday Night With Friends is on again at Cheryl's place tomorrow night. You can go here to link up - Gone Stitchin'.

See you there :)

Cheers,
Tracy

Back to Bellagio, Italy

Here are a few more pics from our trip in April. Bellagio, on the banks of Lake Como, was probably our favourite holiday stop. DH and I both agreed that we could seriously consider retiring there.

You may have seen my earlier post (A Quiet Afternoon in Bellagio). The day after this post we went down into the town and criss-crossed Lake Como by ferry a couple of times. It was very cold but quite beautiful.

 

First stop on our ferry ride - Miss M loved the playground

Miss M was feeling the cold - thank goodness Daddy was warm and snuggly!

There was snow in those Swedish mountains

I didn't do much shopping in Bellagio but was fascinated by a small shop on the main shopping/waterfront strip, Maison Grandi. It had a selection of handmade lace from the early 1900s displayed in a stand-alone glass cabinet out the front of the shop. I was blown away by the beauty and intricacy of these pieces, and in awe of the makers.

Some of the pieces were for sale. If I remember correctly, even a small piece was worth about 600 Euros. I would have loved to have bought a piece but they were well out of my price range!

I did manage to buy some lovely pieces in Venice, but that's a story for another blog post.

Hope you have a great week.

Cheers,
Tracy

Backtracking a Little

Quite a while ago I promised you photos from our trip to the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Sorry it's taken so long to share them with you.

As you can see from these photos, there was plenty of inspiration to be found in the building structure and art works.

The Leaning Tower is actually part of the Campo Dei Miracoli cathedral
complex - a series of 4 buildings

The tower is actually the bell tower

There were quilting patterns to be found everywhere!

Mosaic pattern above an entry way - it incorporates stars and hexagons

Cathedral windows pattern in some of my favourite autumn colours

This 'star/sun' shaped image is surrounded by a circle of flying geese!

Amazing craftsmanship

The colours in this stained glass window are gorgeous - to be used in a future quilt perhaps?

The inside of the cathedral was covered in art work and
the roof was an incredible combination of gold and blue

Mosaic tiled floor in the cathedral - more quilt pattern/block inspiration

I made it to the top!

The beautiful old wrought iron bell at the top of the Tower

Looking down into the Tower stairwell

Seeing all the incredible craftsmanship in Italy, whether in woodwork, mosaics, ceramics, paint or fabrics, really inspires me to try and continue the tradition and mastery of handmade work that our forebears were so good at.

I hope you've enjoyed these pics. I do have more to show you from our trip and hopefully will get time to do so before the end of the year.

Happy stitching,
Cheers,
Tracy

WAQA 'Quilted' Exhibition

I visited the Ellenbrook Art Gallery in early September to see the WA Quilter's Association exhibition 'Quilted'. What a wonderful selection of quilts! Here are just a few.

Colour My World by Denise Mallon



Homage to an Unknown Quiltmaker by Rebecca Chandler

 

Detail of 'Homage to an Unknown Maker'

Wagga by Helen Pearlman

Detail of 'Wagga' - a tied quilt

Memories by Julie McAllister

Detail of appliqued central medallion in 'Memories'

Gwen by Elizabeth Humphreys

Detail of 'Gwen' - Amazing applique and quilting

More gorgeous applique

A wonderful display of miniature quilts

Close-up of one of the sweet miniatures

Close-up of a miniature feathered star - stunning!

This dolls house had mini miniature quilts inside!!

In the bedroom ...

... and the lounge room

12 Shades of Blue by Pat Forster

Detail of 12 Shades of Blue

Crazy Quilt by Hexagon/Crazy Club members

Detail of Crazy Quilt

More detail of Crazy Quilt

Durham Strippy by Phillipa Thomas

Detail of Durham Strippy - beautiful quilting

Our Logo by Di Mansfield

Detail of Our Logo

After all that inspiration I have now added to my list of things to try:

• Hexagons
• Crazy quilts
• Modern quilts
• Miniature quilts
• Medallion quilts
• Waggas - for those of you who don't know, these are a type of quilt made in Australia in our early years

We have some amazing quilters in WA. I hope you found their quilts inspirational as well.

Cheers,
Tracy

Multitasking for FNWF

I had a lovely evening stitching while listening to a podcast.

Thanks Cheryll for a bit of quiet time in my week, I needed it.

You can see what everyone else got up to on Cheryll's blog. Have a great week everyone.

Cheers,
Tracy

FNWF

It's been a while since I've been able to join in with FNFW (not for lack of trying!) so I'm very excited to be joining Cheryll and friends tomorrow night.

If you would like to join in too you can link up on Cheryll's blog, Gone Stitchin', here.

See you there :-)

Cheers,
Tracy

So Much to Share

I can't believe it has been almost 2.5 months since I last posted on my blog. I must apologise and my only excuse is that life got even more hectic than usual very quickly. However, amidst all the fast paced activity there were plenty of fun things going on and I'd love to share some of them with you. But where to start?...

I might as well start with this weekend as it's been quite an exciting, and frustrating, couple of days. After 3 weeks of being too busy to even look at the boxes stashed in the corner of my bedroom I was finally able to open and play with my new Bernina 880 sewing machine yesterday. Hooray!

It was very well packaged

Bernina 880 Sterling Edition

Miss M checks it out

Isn't she pretty? I managed to work out how to wind and load the bobbin, and load the thread. I'm starting with monofilament thread as I want to start quilting Ashleigh's birthday quilt. I know, I know ... I'm crazy and it has been a bit frustrating. I think I need to have a go at adjusting the tension on the bobbin as I am getting pretty large loops on the back of the work while stitching. Will see how I go after Miss M wakes up from her nap.

Speaking of Ashleigh's quilt, here are a few photos from the creation of the quilt top. It is now all pin basted. I haven't marked the quilting pattern on the fabric as I am a bit concerned after the marks didn't all come out of my last quilt, and this one is mostly cream to boot. But, I also don't want to stuff up the quilting as I am really pleased with how the top turned out.

Adding the sashing strips

Ready to add the borders

I think I need a whole week of playtime, not just a long weekend! Speaking of weekends, we managed a trip back to Karratha a couple of weeks ago. It was still beautiful weather and we were reminded just how much we miss 'home'. Maybe one day we'll move back there, you never know.

Looking out over Hampton Harbour, Dampier

This view brought back many happy memories of boating on the Dampier Archipelago

Red Dog

Gorgeous Sturt Desert Peas - one of my favourite flowers
 

More local flora

 

Hubby and Miss M enjoying a Pilbara sunset in Dampier

Well, that's probably enough for this post. Next post I'll share pics from one of WAQA's recent exhibitions. Until then, happy stitching!

Cheers,
Tracy