Quilting in the USA - Portland here we come

hi all, and Happy Mothers Day - belated for all Aussie Mums but today for those of us here in the US. We are cooking an Aussie pavlova for our Salt Lake City hosts for a Mothers Day dinner but I do miss my kids on this special day.
Whilst I have just a few hours to sort things before moving onto Portland tommorrow I thought I'd share some peeks at the final products you've been watching grow over the past few months. Ready to go this week are our fun and friendly Boobie Buttons and the Stitcher's Takeaways. I think they came out quite good and the quilters of Salt lake City HMQS show loved them. A huge thanks to Sarah for taking some great pics for me very quickly before I left Australia. And to Jo who had a week to make some great models for me which I'll show you later - she has some pics here.
Talk again soon, I'll show you some pics of our Tabernacle broadcast this morning soon.
hugs, Helen

Boobie Buttons is it!

Hermione, you win the prize... I am going with the Boobie Buttons after a resounding yes from all who were surveyed (which means my family and friends:) ) So I have chosen some other names at random also:

Cate

Janet Rice Bredin - you can pick yours up at market :)

Karen C

please send me your snail mails....

Much of the printing is done and the packaging has begun. I had some help from some wonderful friends and Miss Tessie all day yesterday to get me organised - well start to - for the big trip to market in just two weeks. The buttons are not back from the assembler yet but will go into these little bags at the front here. The stacks you can see at the back are sets of cards for the Nice People Nice Things BOW which I just cannot keep up with! It is so satisfying to know that so many of you are enjoying this project. I have put more pics over at the NPNT blog.

I had a lovely day at the Quilted Crow gathering on Saturday, some time out for myself sort of. I spent the day finishing the binding on the Diametrically Deduced quilt ready to ship it to the show. Not completely happy with it but out of time now. Hopefully after getting all of this stock packed to ship I can finally get back to some work on Neenies Garden.... You can see more pics of the great Autumn gathering here, here, here and I am sure soon will be here and here. A lovely day with likeminded passionate stitchers - what lovely sharing women stitcher's are.

hugs, Helen

Giveway winners - and another one

A quick one's a good one..... I have used the random number generator to get the following winners:

11 24 29 9

So sbonetsue , alda, Sharon-NZ and Sylvia please send me your snail mail addies so I can send you a yummy package...

Back to finishing my 'Diametrically Deduced' quilt binding, and spend hours with the tweezers picking batting from the back where my needle became blunt and pushed it through the black backing fabric.... arrgghhh

one more thing you may be able to help me out with. I have almost finished a new product which involves printed designs on fabric made into brooches or badges which you can colour in on using my Colourque method for a bit of fun.... my question is - do you think 'brooches' or 'badges' sounds better, more fun, fresh, appealing??? Okay, I'll send two out to two lucky people who help me out on this one... I'd show you a pic but I don't have any here....they are all at the badge makers.

hugs, Helen

New patterns

Well, we have survived yet another wet and windy Easter camping trip! a few hiccups with a blown tyre and late night doctor visits but all is well...

I am catching up here, trying to get my exhibition quilt finished - only 10 days til deadline, (will show you a pic soon) working on new BOM (will show you a pic of that too soon when I get time)and preparing for the exciting USA trip in only 5 weeks - yikes! Our Booth assignments have arrived and Lynette, Tracey and I are all in a row so it will truly be the Aussie Gals!

In the meantime I have released the last two gathering projects as patterns for all of you to join in the fun now. I know you have had to wait but it is only fair - its so much nicer going to a Gathering when the projects are fresh, new and never seen before. So here are some pics, order online or ask at your local now.

The pics above are on my new covers - what do you think? Not sure if I will still tweak them a little more but it was time to modernise and freshen up my look I thought. Now I just need a new website, blog artwork, about another 200 covers changed over etcetc....

Now my lovely friend and recent student Lorraine Hartley (long known as the Scquilters keeper of the badges) has phoned to say that she has found a great online supplier of the Presencia Finca#16 threads I love to use and have been showing you all recently. They can be purchased at www.stadia.com.au - the finca threads are here - note that the 16 doesnt come in all colours yet.

Also a great online supplier for the Derwent pencils in individual colours are Oxford Art Supplies in Sydney. You can buy tinned sets or individual colours to replace those used in your sets or for that exact colour I have used.

Sorry overseas ladies, although both these places will no doubt post overseas to you they are both in Australia. So for everyone who was desperate to get your hands on some Finca 16 threads and couldnt find them locally, shop shop shop...

Of course beg your local to get them in as they are such beautiful threads to use.

hugs for today, Helen