Some Allover Quilts for Customers

Since October last year I have started quilting for customers again.  I am only taking allover quilting at this stage.  

Even though I have moved to the Western side of Melbourne I have been flattered with how many of my regular customers have both waited for me to come back to work after my sabbatical, and were willing to mail their quilts to me, or to drive further to drop them off.  

When I happen to be in the Eastern suburbs, which is usually around once a month, I am doing car park drop offs and collections - swapping quilts between cars - and it has been wonderful to catch up for chats with customers that have become friends.

Below are some of the quilts I have completed recently - all with freehand allover patterns.  I only quilt freehand as I think it looks organic and beautiful as well as being fun and creative for me to do.

This quilt was made my Donna who tops my list for quilts given to me since October and who has been incredibly prolific in lockdown.  I love the colours in this quilt, and how simple but effective this pattern is.  Donna chose to have it quilted in an open loop pattern which is simple and modern. 

This quilt was made by Kay who is only just behind Donna for number of quilts given to me since October.  Kay always surprises me with how creative she is by using every last bit of fabric she has remaining from a project with the secondary quilts made using up this fabric. Kay chose to have it quilted with a pattern I call reflections as it looks to me like the ripples in water.

I snuck in a second quilt from Kay.  This is an example of a quilt she made with the left over fabrics from a large red quilt she made.  Kay chose to have a pointy leaf design on it and I like how the quilting shows in the cream blocks.

This final quilt is made by Sue.  It is a cute panel and is a present for young girl. Sue chose an allover heart and loop pattern for the quilting which I think looks sweet.

Brisbane Ranges National Park

The past three weekends we have gone hiking in different parts of the Brisbane Ranges National Park.

Our first walk was through Anakie Gorge.

A detour to Lower Stony Creek Dam.

Then we did a circuit with some lovely lookouts.

A couple of places along the hike had stations where you cleaned your boots to reduce the spread of fungus.

Our second walk was another circuit starting at the Steiglitz Courthouse.  The trail notes detailed that a couple of kilometres of this hike were off trail where you followed the creek.  

The trail notes said that in dry weather it would be easier to walk along the creek bed.  Given that it is the middle of summer I though it would be a relatively easy walk, but there was plenty of water in the creek and those two kilometres involved quite a bit of bush bashing and creek crossings.  

As the creek curved the outer side usually was cliff or steep rock so we would need to cross before this point.  

Mostly we rock hopped to cross, but one time we used a fallen log.  Paul didn't think that I would be able to make it, but I proved him wrong.  It was harder than it looked as there was movement in the log and it got narrower as you got to the other side with a broken branch sticking up to navigate around.

The third walk we did today.  It was in a more remote area of the National Park and we didn't see another hiker.  It was mostly along park management tracks, so fairly easy walking.

At times we were walking along the edge of the National Park next to farm land.  I took this photo of a couple of horses.  The sky is an amazing colour.  I have not altered the photos at all - this really is the colour it was.

The maps of the three walks in the order we did them in.  The first was in the middle of the park, and was the busiest with other hikers.  The second was in the southwest of the park, and the third was in the north and was much more isolated.

Quilt to Illinois

Today I mailed a quilt to a friend in Illinois.  She is not a quilter, and doesn't follow my blog, so this won't spoil the surprise.  She is a teacher, and as for many people, 2020 has been a tough year for her.

Last time I send a package to her instead of taking two weeks to arrive as it should have, it took nearly two months and we had given it up as lost.  So this time I don't intend to tell her that something is on its way.  Hopefully it won't take as long this time.

The quilt is another one of the Antelope Canyon design, you can see two others that I have made here.  I love pink and brown together.

I quilted it with an allover feather plume.

The back shows the quilting nicely.

Bells Beach to Torquay

Yesterday (Thursday) I knew my brother had the day off work.  Wednesday night I messaged him -  'I feel like a walk along the coast somewhere.'  He immediately messaged me back -  'City or regional.'  I responded - 'Maybe slight preference for regional.'  Within 15 minutes he had it all planned with where we were going and where to meet.  Lucky me - I have the best brother!

We had an amazing coastal walk from Bells Beach to Torquay and back which was about 15kms.  Both of us had not walked this stretch of the coast and we can't believe we haven't been here before as it was so beautiful.

This is Jan Juc Beach.  You can see the flags put up by the surf lifesaving which you are recommended to swim between.

As you can see the weather was perfect.  It wasn't too hot and there was a slight breeze.  Of course we both had lathered on the sunscreen before setting out.

We made the walk a little longer as we walked to each look out point to enjoy the views and when we got to Torquay we went to Woolies to buy a sandwich for lunch which we ate on the foreshore.  

Here is the map zoomed out so you can see where we were relative to Melbourne.  It was a bit of a drive to get there, but well worth it.

Perth Visit

With no COVID community transmission cases in Victoria for nearly two months and the border to Western Australia open after being closed for most of the year, we felt it was safe to visit our nephews in Perth.

Unfortunately after we had been in Perth for four days there was a community transmission in Victoria, and Western Australia put all Victorian visitors that had left Victoria after the 21st of December into fourteen day self quarantine.

Given that we would be allowed out of quarantine on the day we were scheduled to fly home, we didn't see the point in staying and brought our flights forward and came home yesterday.

At least we got four days.