Cow Paddocks Patchwork

Hannaford Workshop

Yes another fantastic weekend with creative ladies! This time is was doing a design workshop with some strip piecing techniques with just 3 colours!

Here are some pics of the "Trials"

Gwen's

Gwen's take 2

 

Fiona's

Sonia's

Sonia's take 2

Arlie's

Unfortunately a few of the photos that I took weren't overly clear but you will see from these the ladies did a wonderful job and all went home with completely different looks to their quilts.

We also were able to see a finished article from Karen who participated in a Beginners Landscape workshop with me last year at Hannaford. I'm sure you will agree how wonderful textile work looks framed as well as hung!

Thanks ladies for a great weekend in the Hannaford Township. We were also very fortunate to catch up with the lovely Kay!!!

Paisley Fabric/Oriental -soooo nice

More lovely fabric arriving every week

 

these are $21/m

In this print there is also a lighter cream and a black.

These are all $21/m and look so much better in the flesh!

Be quick they are selling out fast!

2012/13 Teaching Schedule

Yes life is never boring here and we love it that way! Here is the latest update on workshops that we have around Qld this year and next year! We would love to see you and look forward to lovely full classes, catching up with friends and making new ones!

2012

Feb - Theodore - Zig Zag Class

Mar - Bollon - Double Up

April - WHK Toomba Ladies Day/Craft in the Country

May - Hannaford - Double Up

May 19/20th- Moonie  - Shop Visit/Bev McClune Class

June 9/10 - Tambo - Converging

July 14/15 - Injune - Accucutting Stash Buster

August 18/19 - Moonie -  Funky Flower Appliques

End Aug/September - Bull Sales/School Hols/ Wallumbilla Campdraft/Dulacca Campdraft

October 7 - Solo Exhibition Quilpie Art Gallery

October 27/28 - Quilpie - Spring French Braid

November  10/11 - Blackall - TBA

November  24/25 - Tara - Zig Zag Quilt

December - School Hols/Xmas

2013

Jan - School Hols

Feb - Theodore - Cross Bred

Mar - Roma

April - Toomba Ladies Day

May - Hannaford

May - Injune

June - Tambo

July - Charleville

August - Moonie

September - Bull Sales/Hols/Campdrafts

October - TBA

Nov - TBA

Dec - School Hols

 

Thankyou for the wonderful support of our workshop programme. We have new classes starting all the time and new designs "in the process" so please contact us if you would like to book or would like further information.

More New Fabrics

Lovely Moda Papillon is all the talk at the moment with a soft feminine pallete.

This gorgeous "to die for" traditional rose border stripe

These lovely quality moda fabrics are all just $21/m, the jelly rolls are $39 each and of course we have the fat quarter bundles also available.

Newest Clover Club Member

Yes yesterday we had the chance of welcoming the newest (& youngest) member to our Clover Club Group. A BIG welcome to William Lucas Hughes. He is the now 7 week old son of Clover Club Member Anna (and her husband Lachlan) and is just too cute. He was the perfect visitor and enjoyed his cuddles from other Clover Club members and hardly made a peep!

It is great to see young mums join in on the fun at Clover Club! It was also great to catch up with the other girls and of course we enjoyed yummy goodies for morning tea including one of my favourites - homemade lemon butter!!!!!

OK Now it is official - I have been sent the badge to use on all of my social media sites - Woo Hoo! Let the fun begin!

Thankyou also to everyone for the lovely supporting emails and comments - I do greatly appreciate it.  (gee this is really big when it's posted)

I have been sitting on a bit of exciting news for a few days - as I must admit I was quite shocked (and a little flattered), BUT I am embracing it and going with it at full speed to enjoy the experience, learn new skills and meet inspiring people along the journey! I have been nominated for the QRRRWN Strong Women Leadership Awards!!!!!! Woo Hoo!

A lovely friend recently gave me a very special book as a gift which I am just loving and so I thought I would share some bits over time with you all! "Remember, Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, but she did it backwards and in high heels".... Faith Whittlesey.

WHK Toomba Ladies Day/Craft in the Country 2012

Yes it is now over for another year but what a day! We had just under 120 ladies attend - which was just fantastic! The Kindy had it's best year yet - thankyou ladies! The St Vincent's Pediatric Special Care Unit took around 80 quilts home - thankyou again ladies! There were stallholders with gorgeous shirts made from patchwork fabric (which 1 may have came home with me) , amazing silver jewellery (which some  have came home with me), Avon Breast Cancer Products (which some came home with me) Miche Bags - I was strong, Fudge & Relishges (which some came home with me)  - what can I say - I had to support them didn't I????

We have had lovely feedback about the day and as always endeavour to improve each year and iron out any little glitches that we find along the way. This year saw a few new elements added with Georgie Somerset (president QRRWN), stallholders with flair, an official handover to Jo Capp from St Vincent's hospital, garden talk, seating throughout the garden and more! Plus of course we had our ever popular show n tell, demos and games!

The weather turned out to be a beautiful day - a little warm and times but a glorious day! A huge thankyou to all of the lovely ladies that assisted us in every way - Ree, mum, of course Darling Husband, Hayley, Lochie, Vikki, Fiona, Margie, Lynette,  Neitta, Gwen, Pat, Kimberley, Debra, Karen & Nicole.

The stall holders - Yondale Designs - Bronte Harris' handstamped jewellery, Margie-Lee Madigan's Avon Products, Jen Geddes - What2Ware, Simon & Gail Kutasis - The Fudge Lady, Cindy Fogary's Miche Bags and of course the Cow Paddocks Shop!

Thankyou to our sponsors - WHK Accountants, Outback Computer World, Cheeky Girl, Mavis Bunt, South West Fuel Supplies & Ellies Range.

Thankyou to EVERYONE who came! We had a great day - unfortunately as I am the proverbial chook running around with my head cut off I am unable to chat much but it was great to see many new faces in the crows as well as well known ones!

Here are some pics - some I must say are quite incriminating  and tell a story all on their own!!!

Unfortunately we don't have many pics at this point so please send me some if you have any!

This is Lynette Hancock (nee Hams) myself Julie Latcham (nee Sheehan) & Margie Lee-Madigan (nee Lee) We have been friends since our early teens and Margie & Lynette go back even further. Our friendship is one that even though we don't catch up often - and the three of us haven' t been together for probably 12 years, we know that we can always just pick up the phone and have a chat! Margie & I hadn't met up for years and years until the Rosevale Bull Sale in September at David & Sonia Greenups and it was just like old times catching up again.

Margie & I used to show cattle around the place together and so we both have quite a few fond memories. Not to mention we were also involved in the local show as stewards and the like and Margie's family would donate cattle to the draft when we were starting off drafting at my first draft Nanango! So lots of fond memories!

It was so good to more or less pick up where we left off and we had a great time together - thankyou ladies for your assistance over the weekend. We didn't get a lot of time to chat but it was great the bit we had!

So now we have travelled down memory lane here are some more pics (and hopefully more to come) of the day. And YES we are already thinking about ways to "freshen up" the day again for next year! So stay tuned. I may just have to find a really great "pep pill" to keep me going!

Just part of the crowd on the day!

Lochie & Hayley's Sock Savers! And they sold out!

Myself, Jo Capp from St Vincent's Hospital & Lyn Croft WHK for the Quit of Love Handover

OK I am working on getting LOTS more photos to put on  here so again if you have any please send them to me - I am hoping to get a few more on also that I have seen but can't seem to get them to load as yet.

 

Thankyou again for your support of the day and we look forward to seeing those who attended plus many more in 2013!

Wandoan Ladies

And by the look on Lochie's face this is the best Chocolate biscuit he has ever tasted!

I'm sure Miss Hayley must be saying "But Dad, I really NEED to keep that piece of fabric - or was it that she wanted jewellery ..... or cake?"

Now that is a set of Heels!

And well Kimberley these are seriously wicked!

Jo Capp with just some of the quilts that were donated.

Some of the lovely selection of relishes from "the fudge lady" I can also highly recommend the butterscotch fudge! & the Strawberries in Champagne jam!

You said it costs how much???? (and by the way this was NOT in the cow paddock shop!) ha! ha!

mmm ok then - I'll have THAT one right there please! I know Sonia will take this well and she can have a giggle at me further down the page!

mmm I wonder what number Nancy thinks it is???

Look at the size of those bi-ceps - those muscles must be from carrying all of the fabric around - or riding the odd horse - That's what I'm going to say it is anyway!!!! Pure Muscle!!!

Georgie Somerset & Jo Capp  amongst some of the gorgeous Quilts of Love!

mmm big brother with the cheeky grin sitting while little sister is busy - you can just see trouble in that grin can't you?

Gorgeous quilts - 4 sectioned converging by Karen from a workshop with me.

Our Fantastic Guest Speaker Georgie Somerset - President QRRWN

 Jill Purcell & Barbara Clark relaxing in the garden in a shady spot!

That is all for now - Hopefully I will have some more pics for you over the next few days.! Thankyou to Megan McNicholl for all of these fantastic photos!

 

 

 

New bits & pieces plus some favourites

Yes we have lots of new bits coming in all the time and restocking of some favourites. So here they are :-

The New Beginnings Stitcheries by Melly & Me include preprinted handkercheif linen, pattern and cosmos thread! They are $33 each.

 

The gorgeous scissors that are so nippy and sharp are $4.40 for the 3 1/8" size (or 3 for $12) the 4" are $5 each. The tapes are $2.20 each for the colourful standard size in the tin and the $3.30 for the "quilter's length" of 3m in the yellow tins!

And of course the GORGEOUS batiks - love these fat quarter colour range packs - they are $79 each and provide great value!

Aren't they sooooooo nice. We do have limited numbers of these so be quick. We also have the latest range of the new bali pops in store now and they are sooo yummy I can't wait to make something from them.

 

Bollon Workshop

Unfortunately some of the photos were a little blurry and so didn't quite make it here.

 

 

 

 

March I was off to Bollon for the very first time - not only to teach but I had never actually visited Bollon town itself. I was taken care of very well by Jane and thankyou so much to her for looking after me. We even had to do as "the Roman's do" and have a beer at the local pub.

We had quite a few ladies from Bollon and district plus a few "ring ins" which was great to see the faces of some ladies I had taught before at St George. We also did a few hours doing craft at the school with the Accucutter shapes which they thoroughly enjoyed!

So this workshop was based upon strips and different angle cuts and designing from there! A great one to "play" with different designs and everyone ends up with something completely different!

 

 

Clover Club Delights

OK after a month of organising the WHK Toomba Ladies Day/Craft in the Country (posts to come on that yet!) I am back in blog land with some bits from recent clover club visits. Now these are from a couple of the groups and they have been busy as usually creating beautiful things!Now for some reason I am having trouble uploading photos so I will come back to this a little later and try again!

Ok back and the photos are uploading - this is Jo Beil's from Tara from the workshop there in November - so vibrant!

Karen from a Landscape workshop in Hannaford last year - hasn't she doen a fantastic job!

The shop was quite full this day with lots of visitors and bits - here is the cross bred quilt top finished - yeah! Now off to the quilter!

This is Jill's rich reproduction quilt.

Maibry's twist on the twisted bargello class I taught in Roma a little while ago - I loove it with the separation sashing through it!

This is debra's so soft and lovely quilt and she pieced the back too!

Much much more to come so stay tuned!

Rouenneries Deux

French General is one of my favourite designers and their latest Rouenneries Deux is another classic range. There is another yardage to come yet and it too is just lovely!

The Zig Zag in Theodore

I LOVE going to Theodore - they always make me feel so welcome and we have a variety of lovely ladies who attend. They span different ages and careers but are a very caring bunch. It was quite different heading there this time as the thought in the back of my mind on how the town had coped since the major flooding last year. While the town I must admit hardly looked any different which I found surprising and amazing, I am in no doubt that time is the only thing that will help somewhat in what is no doubt an ongoing struggle for those who were directly affected by the destructive force of mother nature. I honestly cannot imagine the heartache and our thoughts are still with those from last years and of course this years floods.

Now onto the workshop! I was very lucky to have my friend Vikki travel with me to Theodore and it always makes the trip so much shorter where every you go if you have someone else with you. While I do enjoy driving it is always nice to have a travelling companion - and the downside to Vikki's trip no doubt would be with helping with unloading & loading the car up again!

Again we had a good role up of ladies with absolutely delicious homemade goodies and lunch to keep us going! With a little sceptism as to how it was all going to work they dived in and we saw such lovely and varying work between them all.

Here are just some of the pics!

I look forward to seeing the lovely ladies in 2013.

On that note - if there are any clubs looking at booking a workshop for 2013 please contact me with your preferred months as I am already booked for 4 months! Thankyou again for your ongoing support!

 

 

Black & whites - Always a Classic

Now I think I have may have missed putting these fabrics on the blog - forgive me if you have seen them recently. They are just some of the MANY black & whites we now have in stock and as always - are a popular choice.

A Classic Meandering Quilting pattern - white on black!

Lots of different designs!

 

Positives & Negatives make fantastic quilts!

And while this one isn't black & white - it is actually black tonal with the lighter shade being a pearlescent effect which is just stunning.

All of these fabrics are $21/m

Fabric!!

Here is a few closeups of the gorgeous black & white fabrics that have graced us with their presence recently.

I really love it when you can purchase the positive and negative in each print. These are just $21/m.

Stay tuned for some gorgeous NEW WILLIAM MORRIS FABRICS!!!

Yummies from the Kitchen

Also while Claire was here we did a little playing in the kitchen and i remembered seeing this recipe somewhere and managed to remember the ingredients - well at least I THINK so.

It is basically a lemon butter/cream thing with berries & sponge fingers and YES IT WAS DIVINE!!!

It was great to catch up with LOTS of you over the holidays both at Injune, visitors here and running into people in obscure places! It is always great to see pics from past workshops of projects FINISHED - YAY!!!! So keep at it and hopefully we will see YOUR finished project for SHOW N TELL at WHK Craft in the Country 2012!!!

Xmas Break Catch ups

Well we did finally get our Xmas Clover Club break up happening - even if it was a little later than first planned. The girls as usually have been busy creating beautiful "things" and it was great to see each other again!

Here is a pic of the day as we were about to start cleaning up - what does it tell you about the Clover Club girls I wonder..........

One thing for sure it definatley isn't just about the sewing!!!!

We also spent time with my friend Cathy's daughter Claire who came out for a little visit and kep the cherubs busy giving me some time to parcel up some goodies and clean out the "magic cupboard" in the shop.

Now the kids & Claire made use of the wonderful Accucutter machine - as you can see here -

These are my scraps - and they made LOTS of things - funnily enough I don't seem to have pics - I will have to check on Miss H's camera (that she got for xmas - sooooo exciting I was told) but they made dragonflies, beetles, butterflies, flowers and soooo much more - Master L also got right into it making a butterfly with swords as features on the wings and a pirates skull.....mmmm..... not sure about his creativity - maybe it was after seeing Pirates of the Caribbean 4?????

Anyway as you can see they had LOTS of Fun and thankyou so much to Claire for keeping them amused!

 

 

Injune Christmas Frivolity & Friendship

Yet again - what can I say - the Injune ladies have a very unique group. They are a great mob of friends and quite a few are related to each other so they are quite intertwined in many ways. Not just by relationships and not just by quilting but many have other joint interests also. So it is with great pleasure and excitement that I travel to Injune for their Xmas breakup again this year. I must say that I feel quite special being invited into their special group and especially to their breakup. Without giving them a head swell that they are just "too good" it is not just how they look after me but the bond they have with each other and looking out for each other that make them what I consider a group to aspire to be like.  I am often quoted that its "Not just about the sewing" is so true with this group this is for some just about the only regular outlet they have to mix with other women and when the drought was on in earnest provided a place to share problems and have a chance to sometimes escape the reality for a little while. The Injune Creek Patchwork group epitomises what nearly all patchwork groups are about in the West - the companionship, sharing, looking out for each other and having some fun creating along the way.

So now that I have raved enough - hopefully not too many of them will read this and have their egos grown too much - ha! ha! 

So the xmas breakup - well this year the December was Vikki's month (they each have a month so they can organise what will happen on their day) and with this she organised a lovely luncheon at the hall with beautiful salads and ham from the Local Spar Supermarket, wine etc. We had a lovely lucky gift draw, show n tell of pledges from the year before, Super Yummy smokos provided by everyone and we SLEPT at the hall!!!

So we had 2 days of fun and sharing. The Cow Paddocks Shop was in attendance for any requirements and the girls started and pretty much completed a charity quilt top and then started on some Quilts of Love for the Toomba Ladies DAy/Craft in the Country - Quilt of Love Challenge!

It was great catching up with everyone and hopefully we will see you all again next time!

I hope to have some pics to share with you all shortly!

More Workshops

I was very fortunate to attend the Tara Patchwork group for the first time recently. Now I did have a couple of ladies that I had taught before in the class so it is always great to see some familiar faces and just as exciting to meet so many new people! Now the bargello is somewhat "different" and so while not "super super challenging" can pose a few little speed bumps along the way when you least expect it, The country version of mine was put together  a little while ago starting on one of my visits to Cathy Gormans (previously Cowbelles Patchwork) with her design insight you could see the quilt coming together but of course not an overnight quilt! What we both loved is there is so much variation in these quilts if you wish! Now the Tara participants were great - I gave them a few options to give them some input into their quilts and they went away with the start of their "whoops" so that they could then play with their design!

I think now they may also be as addicted as I to the Clover Fork Pins - which are the best pins in the world - when piecing in MY opinion - I just LOVE them!!!

So here a few pics and as always I am sooo excited to see how the different colour ways work in these quilts. Just magic really!

 

Now I think I am one or 2 pics short = my apologies but I will try and source them and get them on here. But don't they look fantastic - all different and all very striking! Thankyou ladies for having me and I look forward to catching up with you again.

By the way - the Tara Hotel does FANTASTIC Meals! I should also mention I was very fortunate to have a travelling - well we didn't exactly travel together but lets just say had a few liquid refreshments together - it was quite warm after all!!! Thankyou Jane for providing much laughter and frivolity during my stay. Jane drove literally I think nearly 4 hours to attend the workshop and she was also very grateful to the Tara ladies for making her feel so welcome!!! It was a great weekend and I hope to see some pics very soon of completed quilt tops - they will be stunning!