Gum Valley Patchwork

An amazing day

Wednesday must rate right up there as one of the best days in my quilting life. There have been many highlights.......'Elenor Jean' winning Best in Show and then Best in Australia, her subsequent trip to the US and her stay in the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum. But I will never forget that 'Dear Prudence' was the start of it all. Right from the very first little flower that I stitched way back on the 11th April 2010. I have met and corresponded with descendants of Prudence Jeffery's, the original maker of the quilt and even just last week was emailed by another one of her great great grandsons, none of whom knew that the quilt ever existed, let alone how the lady who now owns the quilt fits into the family tree. So when I found out that Prudence's quilt was going to be part of the 'Making the Australian Quilt, 1800 - 1950' Exhibition at the NGV in Melbourne I knew that I just had to go.....and Wednesday was the day.....and I 'dragged' Russell along too!

As we walked through the door it was one of the first quilts that I saw.....but I resisted the urge to run over to it and slowly made my way through the first 5 quilts on display. I knew that the hexagons would be smaller than my 'just under 5/16" ' hexagons.......they were indeed about 1/4".........oh how I wished that I restarted my quilt in the 1/4" so that I could have finished the complete quilt.

And the colours were so different than those in the original photo that I had worked my quilt from.......mauve and purple fabrics were used.

The quilt was in excellent condition.

And of course I had to have one photo taken with me in it.

The quilt is now approximately 160 years old......I wonder if Prudence ever thought that her quilt would be hanging in a Gallery in 2016. I wonder where my 'Dear Prudence' will be in 2171?!

The exhibition runs until the 6th November and is a wonderful showcase of our Australian Quilting Heritage. I took more photos but will save those for another post.

Linda    :)

PS. Lenora at Elm Grove Patchwork is running a bus to Melbourne on Sunday 14th August and she has a couple of spare seats. Check out all of the details on her blog HERE.

TBT H

The past couple of months has been a difficult time for our family with lots of changes happening. Mum was ill and spent an extended amount of time in hospital (both Timboon and Warrnambool). We all realised that Mum wasn't able to live on her own anymore and she has moved into an aged care home. We have been so very lucky that Mum made this decision, and as hard as it is, she has embraced the change which is wonderful to see. She is certainly an inspiration to us all, and as we have all come together to support Mum during this new stage of her life I thought that it was time for another photo of all of the Goode kids......a then and now shot. The then photo was taken in the Fletcher Jones Gardens in Warrnambool (maybe in the late 1960's). I wonder how many other photos were taken of kids sitting on this tortoise.

And the now photo was take back in early April when we were all together celebrating Pete's 50th birthday.....I know that this one appeared in Pete's birthday blog post but I thought that it would be nice to show it again. And we are in the reverse order of the photo above!

So there you have it.....2 photos for the price of one in today's TBT.....great value if I do say so myself!

Linda     :)

Portage Lake

When you blog like I do, there aren't too many things that people don't know about you. I love being silly with my tbt photos; spending time in the garden; growing stuff to eat and cook with; stitching hexagons, hexagons and more hexagons; and Minick & Simpson fabric. When I saw this beautiful quilt at Spring Market I fell in love with it. 

And look what arrived last Friday.....the patterns!

I will be running it as a Block of the Month.......and once the new fabric.....'Grand Traverse Bay' arrives later this month (fingers crossed) I will be stitching up my sample ready for it to roll out later in the year. I am going to be using lots of different Minick & Simpson fabrics in my sample and can't wait to start! Places will be limited but I will let you all know the costs and details when I get them finalised.

Linda     :)

Garden Delights Block of the Month

I designed this Block of the Month last year when Gail Pan gifted me a fat eighth bundle of her 'Among the Flowers' fabric.

It has been very popular so much so that I ordered more panels and fabric and put together another 29 kits. There are now only 5 places left and once they are gone that is it.......finished....completed....no more! So if you to sign up you can do so by placing your order online here.....but don't dilly dally.....as I said there are only 5 places left.

It is a 6 part Block of the Month program and when you place your order, you make a commitment to purchase the full set of kits. The cost is $20 per month over the 6 months = $120. Postage is extra
Included in the price : patterns and fabric every month, with borders included in month 6. The finished quilt measures 48" x 50".

Linda    :)

Home again

This time last week we were at the Adelaide Showgrounds waiting for the start of Day 2 of the Sewing, Stitching and Handcraft Show. We had a fantastic 3 days, meeting lots of ladies & men....and of course selling lots of crafty things. We also squeezed in some sight seeing and decided to visit the Adelaide Zoo. This is the third time that I have been to the Zoo......Mum tells me that I went when I was very young, then again about 32 years ago with Russell....which he can't remember and all I can remember was that we went!....and then on Monday.

It was a beautiful sunny day and the otters thought so too.....

The Hippos were in for a swim

We met Fu Ni......she was happy to pose for some photos as her keeper told us all about her.

But the Lorikeets were not playing nice for the camera and ignoring me!

But my favourite for the day was Iris, the Veiled Chameleon.

just peeking over the top of the information sheet making sure that I was reading all about her!

We left Adelaide to tour around the Fleurieu Peninsula a little and checked out the Sealink Ferry at Cape Jervis.....on our bucket list to visit Kangaroo Island one day.....but when the weather is better! We had planned on staying in South Australia until Thursday, but the call of home (and work) was too strong so we arrived home on Wednesday afternoon instead. And a nice surprise greeted me....my Daphne is in full bloom! It has been trying hard for a few weeks now to flower and I have been picking a few odd blooms but now it is just beautiful.....and the smell is divine.

Oh and I almost forgot.....I have rebooked to return to the Sewing, Stitching & Handcraft Show in Adelaide next July, which I am told will be bigger and better than this year's!

Linda    :)

TBT.......G

It will be my Mum's birthday tomorrow, so for today's TBT I thought that I would pop one up that had Mum in it. Unfortunately it's not the best photo but it was the only one I have at the moment.

I will be digging through the box of photos in coming weeks so hopefully I will find some better ones of Mum and me......although she was often on the other side of the camera so it might prove difficult!

So Happy Birthday Mum!

Linda   :)

 

 

Sewing, Stitching & Handcraft Show

We are two thirds of our way through the 2016 Sewing, Stitching and Handcraft Show in Adelaide. We attended this event for the first time last year and decided to add it to our calendar, and we have had a great first two days. Set up was done in about 3.5 hours.......

The stand was chocka block full of stitching goodness and by the end of today we had sold out of quite a few things. I still have lots of things left for the last day of the Show tomorrow before we pack it all up ready for the trip home. We have decided to extend our stay in beautiful South Australia for an extra few days so the shop won't be open again until Friday 22nd July.

Linda     :)

TBT......F

This week's TBT features our family dog of many years.....Mac the Corgi. His proper name was MacTavish.....a good Scottish name for our Welsh Corgi.....lol!  I have lots of fond memories of Mac and he will feature in another couple of TBT in the future.

I do have one funny story that involved Mac that I wish I had a photo to go along with it. When I was growing up I loved chooks and it was my job to feed the chooks. My Grandfather had lots of Bantams, the Old English Game ones and I would help him when I holidayed with my grandparents in Cobden. Grandad gave me some Bantams to bring home and I would set eggs under clucky chooks and wait for them to hatch out.......I even set up a camp stool along with food and drink one day and sat by the chook waiting for the chickens to hatch out on their due date. Get the picture.......Yes I love chooks! One day we found a heap of feathers in the back yard and couldn't work out what had happened. An escapee Bantam must have come to grief but we could only find feathers. That was until about 3 days later when up popped 2 legs from the seed bed (this was a big bed of sand that Mum used to grow all of her flower seedlings for her garden in). Mac had caught, plucked, and then buried the Bantam in the seed bed......when rigamortis  set in, the legs stiffened and up they popped! I can still remember it.....lol!

Linda    :)

Adelaide......here we come!

The ute is almost packed up.........in between heavy wintery showers with strong winds. I just have some last minute things to do and once the list is finished I will be able to relax for the evening. We are heading to the Sewing, Stitching & Handcraft Show at the Goyder Pavillion, Adelaide Showgrounds for 3 days. We attended last year and decided to head back for a second year.......this year we are at Stand S35.

So while we are away the Shop will be closed (14th to 21st July), and will reopen on Friday 22nd July. Apologies for any inconvenience.......but as I take quite a lot of stock and all the samples with me, the Shop will be quite bare!

Linda     :)

Birdie Phone Pouch

Yesterday I talked about the clip-on bag handles that arrived in late April. Well in the same big box of stuff from China were also some corner purse frames. I have had an idea for quite a while to make a phone pouch using them......actually I was hoping to have had them for AQC but that didn't work out.......so yesterday I set to and made up my sample.

I used fabric from Gail Pan's 'Among the Flowers' fabric range and I am super pleased with the way it turned out. In the same 'big box of stuff' were some cute little wrist straps, so I decided to clip on a red one to the finished 'Birdie Phone Pouch'. I will be making up kits which will include the pattern, purse frame, wrist strap and fabric and they will be available for $17 each. Extra frames are available for $6.60 each and wrist straps (red, black or beige) are $5.50 each.

Linda   :)