Missing in Action part two

Well after catching up with a few more old friends in Townsville it was on the plane to Brisbane and then a ride up to here in the beautiful green leafy Eumundi

now we thought we were spoilt with our rooms in Townsville but this was heaven... and the four lovely women who had been staying there on a stitching retreat for the previous two days agreed - what bliss - a retreat where you are spoilt rotten with the most exquisite food, waited on hand and foot, stitching peacefully in this setting, with likeminded passionate women, views and serenity, great tuition on hand and beautiful projects and inspiration all round...

This was my room...

This was waiting for me on my bed.... check out the quilting on the cushion, the theme was black and white obviously and there were little handmade 'things' everywhere in black and white..

This awaited us at breakfast, beautiful views, peaceful serenity.... and.....
the most delicious banana caramel pancakes!

I tried to get a photo of the front of the house but Sue used a photographer with a blimp to get the shot for the website so best to look here....

I know I always seem to take floral shots but gardening and flowers would have to be my second passion.... these were spotted amongst the lush tropical gardens of Kindred Spirits...actually between the studio/workroom and the main house... My Hosts Sue and Jim Daly are also the owners and designers of Patchwork with Busy Fingers - beautiful traditional paper piecing patterns and supplies.... Catch Sue on her blog here

Anyway, it wasnt all fun and lying around, I was brought here to work... I had a lovely room full of women on Tuesday night for a trunk show and slide show of Paducah quilt photos which always inspire... then on Wednesday it was a Colourque class on my Blessed Beauty wallhanging. In my class presentation I show the original pack of Derwent pencils that I saved up for about 30 years ago and still have... however I was pipped at the post here. One of the ladies had her original pack, we are not sure how old they were but had a batch no of 1924 - not sure if that means the year or not.. all of the colour names and numbers are still the same...

These were a few of the finished products - all ready to go home and begin the stitching...

Wednesday morning it was time to be delivered to Forest Glen to Penny's wonderful store the Patchwork Angel
Penny had made a lovely display of my patterns and samples which was a great inspiring start to the day.

A small but keen group spent the day colouring a pre quilted panel in the style of the Lace quilt. Below is Penny's mums wonderful effort. Jill is not a stitcher or quilter but quite enjoyed colouring in and I think she did a great job. I hope I have the spirit and energy of Jill when I am a Grandmother...

Alas, this saw the end of my teaching trip to Queensland... A lovely time was had by all, I hope I managed to share, inspire and impart some skills or knowledge or even just enthusiasm to the many wonderful women whom I met and chatted with.

so now, home again to my girls and DH, back to work and into my list of things to do to...

hugs

Helen

Teaser

teaser. Television Slang. a short scene or highlight shown at the beginning of a film or television show to attract the audience's attention.

If you havent already booked for When friends Gather, I think you had better click the link right now as it is nearly full. I am so excited to be going back to Townsville in March to visit old friends and stitchers.... and get to know Rosie and Janet more whilst having a lot of fun... see I am working - well sort of...

hugs

Helen

Advent Calendar

It is always so nice to see how others make up your patterns and I really like it when they put their own personal touch on things. Sarah has sent in a pic of her version of the Advent Calendar which was in the Christmas in July issue of Homespun last year. And she has just bought a new whizz bag sewing machine so I expect to see a lot more from her very soon.... thanks Sarah. Has anyone else made this one?

hugs

Helen

its in the mail!

Corinna, Mary Jo and Beth, watch for the postie who is bringing you a little suprise for Christmas!

I have received another pic of a finished skinny mini. This time from Esmes of Launceston. It uses the Moda Fresh Air fabrics and the free cut version of the quilt. Lilian has added her own applique design to it to finish.

I will have another giveway soon, when I get time to put it up. I need to clear out my office a little!

hugs

Helen

Jen's skinny mini

hi all, (yes I am still packing orders!)
I recently released my new 'Skinny Mini' pattern at Quilt market in Melbourne, carrots and all.... Now Jennifer and Terry Minchinton have just bought Patchwork by Sea in Brighton, South Australia - right on the beautiful Brighton beach (well a couple of stores around the corner) and are full of enthusiasm. Look at the wonderful sample Jen has already finished and sent me a pic of. I love to get pics of projects made by others in different fabrics etc. Jen has already kitted this in this green colourway, pinks or blues. The beauty of the 'Skinny Mini' is that it uses just skinny quarters and the top can easily be finished in an hour. These are the three versions I made for the booth in Melbourne. The blue one also doubled as a long overdue baby gift for 'Clancy' - hopefully he'll get it by Christmas.

hugs for today

Helen

back from market

Yes I am home and sorting through all the details of the events of another great Quilt market in Melbourne. For those of you wondering this is an annual trade show for stores to shop and view new fabrics, notions, patterns and all things quilty. I love catching up with my stores face to face and all the other wonderful designers and inpirational people in our industry. After setting up on Friday it was all systems go for Saturday and Sunday trading days. I finally met face to face Rosalie, Melly, Leanne, Gail and Leanne M, Di from Ricketty Stitches, Liz and David from Teddlywinks and caught up with old friends Lynette, Natalie, Brenda, Kerrie, and many others too many to mention. We enjoyed a lovley greek banquet on Saturday evening and shared experiences, life and the bubbles!
This was my floor mat made from Verandah Scraps and pieced by Tess for me - well she started piecing then took over the pressing whilst I finished it. I thought it would brighten up the floor of my booth and make it more inviting but do you think people would walk on it??? I insisted it was just scraps but they tip toed around the edges and almost fell over rather than stepping on it..

a few quick visits to spotlight (who still happen to have my credit card I am assuming now that it has been lost in action, presumed dead and cancelled) for some quick props - unfortunately living on an island I cannot bring beautiful furniture and lovely props across the seas to 'dress' my booth so I am restricted to what I can do in an hour when I arrive. There is a funny story about my curtain rod, perhaps I'll tell that one another day.

so now that market is over and Nice People Nice Things has been released to a flurry of excitement, it is ready for shipping. I have listed all of the stores who decided to order at market on the npnt blog on a new page called stores. All of the new releases are also now on my website.

So now its packing time.....

I am really happy with the boxes and everyone else seemed to like them....

So for all of you who were not at market I have a little giveaway for one of you. Three mystery patterns from the new releases to be winging their way somewhere across the seas. I'll draw a name from comments when I have all the orders processed and out. That could be Friday or a week from now!!

so its off to beddy bies for me tonight.

hugs

Helen - sleep tight

snugglybug rugs

Did you know that I have an email list of the most wonderful group of women who put their hand up whenever I ask. They are my snugglybug ladies who volunteer to make a block, assemble or quilt when a new request is made from the Royal Hobart Hospital. Above is a newly presented quilt for "Quinn" (not his real name) who is a 9 year old Carlton fan with two years of treatment ahead of him in hospitals, day treatments and surgeries. Many thanks to the nine blockmakers, to Kim for assembling and to Bronwyn of Esmes for quilting it.

Lilian - owner of Esmes in Launceston had a busy week for me also having Bronwyn quilt 'Sweet Charity' - the quilt made by all the ladies at the recent charity stitching day - Stitching in the Valley. This quilt is very large and would have been quite a challenge to get through my little Bernie... It will be raffled with proceeds funding backings for Snugglybug rugs for the next 12mths and then the rest donated to charity. I have also patterned this with a portion of sales going to charity each year. It does feel good to give something back when one can so this is my little contribution to the community I live in and to those less fortunate than me.

now I tried to upload a pic of it for you but it turned green??? will try again later - probably not until next week as I leave for Melbourne Quilt market at the crack of dawn Thursday. If any of you are attending please come say hello...My eldest daughter Molly is coming for the first time to help me out on the booth so say hi to her also to make her feel welcome..I am sure I am going to be very proud of her.

Im teaching two classes in Colourque at Michelles Sewing basket, they have been so excited and are so organised, I love to meet new stitching fanatics and see how they interpret my projects so will be a long but great day after a 4am start!

and before I go, did everyone see the gorgeous owl bunting on the Last Minute Christmas Gift blog - I just have to make them...they are by Alex Rasmussen of Moonstitches.

hugs

Helen

Christmas Gathering

I am all packed ready to head off to Campagnia ( a very little town outside of Hobart Tasmania) tomorrow for the Quilted Crows' Christmas Gathering. I am very excited to share a wonderful day with many like minded stitching enthusiasts. Case is packed, patterns and samples delivered, Colourque samples ready to go and family organised.
I know we are going to have the most wonderful day as I know a few of the treats and suprises Leonie and Deidre have organised.. Have my trusty new camera (yes another one as the last one died on day 15 so they have just replaced it) so will take lots of pics for you and post them after the event.

Its always a worry whether the ladies will like my projects, I sure hope they do....

hugs for tonight

Helen

drawing fun

I spent a lovely Sunday afternoon with the girls drawing in the sunshine pouring through our dining room windows. I love the drawing and designing process, I have so many ideas in my head and many of them already on paper, its just the time to then put them onto the fabric. Here is what I was playing with on Sunday. It is a design for my new Mini Lace workshop. So it is based on the Lace#2 quilt which we exhibited at Paducah this year. The design was done totally by my sister Tracey Browning and her inspiration came from an antique piece of German Lace by Anton Unger. She made the whole quilt as a wholecloth and then I spent about 80-100 hours colouring it to give the WOW factor to a magnificent design. I have taken bits from the pic of the original (as I dont have it here) ,freehand drew, turned, twisted, added new bits to fit a 20" square design for a class piece... Now its going to go off to the very talented Hermione to digitise, Tracey will then stitch them out for me with her Intelliquilter and machine so all you lucky girls can just have the fun of the colouring.... without the stress of the quilting! thats my type of quilting....

so I promise I'll show you more when I've coloured it.

Just a quickie note here girls, I have put some short time specials up on the website to try and rebalance my stock levels. Check here as its only for two weeks. I'd love to be sending packages all over the world to you all.... They are all of first quality, just some designs have built up more than others when they all get printed at once....

Leave a comment and at the end of the two weeks one lucky 'commenter' will receive a surprise pack of these patterns. Plus, being fairly new to blogging I am wondering how many people have found me here yet... maybe only two of you!! good chance of winning then....

hugs for today
Helen

my little helper

It is lovely to have help packing patterns and although I get a lot of folding done now I still do all the printing and fabric bits myself. However, Tillys help was done in a very generous spirit but unfortunately more staff training is needed before it's ready for debut in the big wide world!!
now mum will repress and refold, but thankyou very much for trying to help mummy!
hugs
Helen