Lorien Quilting

A quilt for me

Look what arrived in the post - a quilt just for me!

 

The first photo shows the colours how they are and the second photo shows all the lovely quilting:

Nancy (shrimp dip queen and winner of my first giveaway) made it for me and posted it all the way from Canada.

This is the first quilt anyone has ever made for me and I just love it - what a great pick-me-up! It's draped artfully over the back of my couch, ready to nap at a moments notice. Thank you, thank you, thank you Nancy. Big hugs for you :o) 

Twitter

I've got myself a Twitter account so you can follow along if you want. I'll have new Lorien Quilting updates on it (like when the new website is ready - hopefully this afternoon) and announcements, as well as what I'm currently doing and some giveaways.

There's a link on the left to follow my tweets.

Big hugs to you all,

Hermione.

I've been sick :o(

Hello Bloggie people!

I'm so sorry to have gone so long without a post. I've been sick - yuck. It's nothing life threatening (yay!) but I want to explain a little about it both because I am grateful to the people who have emailed and called to see if I'm okay and because I feel I owe an explanation of my absence to all of you who take the time to visit my blog.

I had been feeling more and more tired for about a year - getting slower and slower, weaker, finding normal tasks hard. Even lifting normal work parcels was getting harder - they seemed to be getting heavier all the time. It just got worse and worse but the progression was so slow that I didn't take much notice and put it down to being lazy, or too busy, or just generally not looking after myself.

By Christmas I was feeling really bad and not long after Christmas I started getting nauseous and feinting all over the place. I was so weak I couldn't sew (that's gotta be bad!) - couldn't change my clothes without having to sit down, couldn't walk from one end of the house to the other, couldn't even hold my arms up long enough to wash my hair in the shower. I went to the doctor and had lots of tests and stuff and the result of all the poking and prodding was a diagnosis of a chronic gastro-intestinal disease that I will have for the rest of my life. Gross! Don't worry, I'm not going into any more detail :o)

The disease had resulted in severe anaemia and that's why I couldn't do anything without falling in a heap. I've been able to take iron tablets for about six weeks now so there's no more feinting or nausea but recovery is taking a very long time. Soooooo long! 

So the good news is I know what's wrong, it's not life threatening and I have a specialist doctor who I like. The bad news is this disease increases the risk of cancer so lots of testing from now on, and while the anaemia is much better (almost gone) the doctor hasn't yet worked out a combination of medications that works for me so I'm still sick and we're still adjusting the doses.

But... I'm much better than I was and I managed to keep up with work the whole way through. Well, except for a couple of mishaps where I got a bit muddled - but nothing that I couldn't work out when the brain fog cleared.

If you are a Lorien Quilting customer don't be put off by this post - I'm still working, still loving it and still filling all the orders as soon as I get them. There's a new website on the way, a new pattern club featuring Patricia Ritters co-ordinating pattern sets and heaps of new patterns. It's all a bit behind schedule, but it's coming.

I had to make some choices about what I could keep up with and what would have to wait so that's why I haven't been blogging. I have also let my Quilters Show and Tell blog sit idle for a long time. I was able to keep at it for a while but then it all just became too much. Hopefully that will be back up and running again in the next few days.

I got a lovely get well card from my Cottontales friendship group (Hi girls!) and today a friend dropped by with a pile of magazines to cheer me up (Hi Sue!). I was embarrassed at the state of the house (housework was another thing I let go) but I'm going to enjoy the magazines before I sweep the floor :o) It would be rude to do anything else, right?

So that's the story. As I get better I'm sure I'll get more sewing done and then I'll be back to quilting and posting more often. Just writing to you all has perked me up a lot - maybe I could try a little hand piecing now...

Lucky Draw Winner

Thank you for your suggestions for fun things to do at a quilting bee. Husband has just done the lucky draw and the winner is...

Nancy in Canada!

Nancy was the one who gave us the recipe for shrimp dip which I will definitely be making. Does anyone know what the Aussie equivalent of Liquid Smoke is? If there isn't one, does anyone know where to buy it online? Gotta have shrimp dip!

Nancy, please email me your snail mail address so I can post your package off after Christmas. Do you like jelly rolls or layer cakes best?

Thank you all for reading and leaving comments on my blog this year. It has been a pleasure getting to know you all and I hope to see you all back here in the New Year.

We will be watching Carols by Candlelight on telly tonight, sitting by the tree.

I Need Some Ideas (Lucky Draw Bribe Included)

Hello bloggy friends!

I have missed you all very much while I have been working on my secret project. I still can't tell you what it is but here's a hint... it's not machine quilting related. Hmmm.

There are new patterns on my paper pattern website (for Aussie and New Zealand quilters) and new digital patterns on my digital pattern website so there is evidence that I have been working on the usual stuff too. And there are more to be uploaded next week.

It's also my birthday next week - yay! I love having my birthday in December because it's all tied in with Christmas decorating and the happiness that goes along with the holidays. The bad part is it's hard to get people together to have a party so I don't - I haven't had a party in years. But...

This year is a big birthday - I will be 30 - so I want to do something special. Long ago I lost interest in "parties" - I'm not a stay-up-late person and usually get sleepy and I don't like all the organising, cooking and cleaning - not the way I want to spend my birthday. I've been thinking about it for the last few months but I couldn't come up with an idea that was special enough so I haven't planned anything. I had a vague idea of doing something in the new year when the bustle of the holidays was over.

Then last night the big idea hit - I want to have a good-old-fashioned quilting bee! I'm going to make a quilt top and put it on a frame in the living room, put chairs all around the frame and friends can sit around the frame quilting and chatting and catching up with each others news. What a good idea! Just my kind of thing.

Of course, no quilting bee would be complete without all kinds of foody goodness but what sort of things would make a quilting bee special for the visitors? What sorts of food should I make? Should it be a stitching day where we work on our own projects as well? There must be goodie bags, but what do I put in them? I'm not sure where to start but it's so exciting!

Do you have any ideas? Maybe your stitching group did something special that made the day memorable. I need help! If you put your suggestions in the comments of this post I will put your name in a lucky draw to win a prize (fabric of course - either a jelly roll or a layer cake - I'll have to look in the cupboard). I will do the draw on Christmas Eve (that's one of my favourite days of the year) so put your thinking caps on.

We made it through the quilt show on the weekend and I even managed to take some photos (they're still on the camera but I'll retrieve them eventually). I think we raised quite a bit of money for the CFA. The only bad thing is I caught some virus thing and now I've got a sore throat, a case of the grumps and I'm really tired.

I love almost all the processes involved with patchwork and quilting (basting is the only one I dislike; and when I say "dislike" I mean "hate with the intensity of a thousand suns"). I especially like the preparation, the organising I do even before I choose a project to work on.

I am about to embark on a new stitching journey that will involve lots of projects so I have started getting ready. I'm not a good bag maker so new projects need new boxes. These ones look like books; not enough to be mistaken for real books, but enough to not look like boxes.

A pair of scissors for each:

And some new stitching slippers:

Slippers are a piece of quilting equipment aren't they? They are in this house ;o) This is only the second pair of slippers I have blogged about so you haven't seen the true measure of my slipperphilia. Let's just say I have a problem and leave it at that.

I'm a bit low on project photos but there are some coming, I promise. 

Goodies and a Quilt Show

My butterfly quilt has returned home safe and sound, and accompanied by a prize! It was awarded second place at HMQS and this is what was in the package when I opened it:

 

It's a sewing machine trolley with a big red bow on top and a bunch of quilting goodies! In all the years I've been quilting I somehow managed to miss out on getting all of these tools, except the pounce pad and I wanted another one of those so I can have a different colour chalk in each. Thanks to Carol's Viking Sewing Center for sponsoring the show and shipping the prize to my mother in law in Texas, and thanks to my mother in law Jill for shipping it on to me. I'm a very happy chappie.

As if that wasn't enough indulgence for my quilt-tooth, I have started replacing all my nasty quilting thread with my favourite 100% cotton Aurafil thread from Jenny Scott at Always Quilting. Lucky for me, and unlucky for my bank, Jenny lives within driving distance so I can visit her in person ;o)

Yeah! Take that, neutral thread stash!

As long as I was buying work-related products I thought I should get a new cutting mat. And as long as I was getting a new cutting mat, I thought I'd upgrade. And as long as I was upgrading, I thought I'd get the best cutting mat I could find and have my dream cutting mat.

It's enormous! I don't know how I went this long in my patchwork life without ever having a proper cutting mat. I have always had the cheap ones from the bargain shops and they wear out so quickly. My last one took several swipes with the cutter just to get through two layers of fabric - drove me nuts. When I got this new one I also put a new blade in the rotary cutter and now I'm a cutting fiend!

My mother in law is visiting from America and we've been relaxing (by relaxing I of course mean shopping) and doing lots of fun things so I have some more stuff to blog about but I will spread it over a few posts.

This weekend we will be having our friendship group's quilt show so if you're in the area you should pop in and say hi.

CottonTales Quilt Show

30th and 31st August 2008

10am to 4pm

Belgrave Heights Progress Hall

Colby Drive, Belgrave Heights VIC, Australia. MEL 84 F3

There will be lots of quilts as well as smaller projects on display and the CFA volunteers will be there in the kitchen, cooking up yummy snacks. Entry is $5 and that's going to the CFA too.

Should be fun!

New Patterns

I have been busy uploading new patterns to my paper pattern website (Australia and New Zealand only). They're not my designs but I love them!

Here are a few of my favourites...

Fall Foliage by Patricia Ritter:

and a matching block:

Fire Lilly Block that matches one of Patricia's earlier pantos:

Paisley Max by Jodi Beamish (comes in two sizes so that's handy):

and Feather Frond, also by Jodi:

I'm popping up to Queensland on Saturday for their machine quilters meeting and then I have some photos to share of some of my projects.

Thank you for being so patient while I have been otherwise engaged ;o)

I'm looking forward to more regular blogging and finishing some projects from the to-do pile. I have quilted one and there is another one on the machine right now with only one row of panto done. Still, progress is being made.

To be truly honest, I'm also looking forward to adding more tops to the to-do pile! Quilt one, add a couple more...

The To-Do Pile!

I hosted a machine quilters meeting here on Saturday. Those things are always more like parties than meetings but it was lots of fun and it was really great to see so many beginners.

As always happens when I meet with a bunch of quilters, I get inspired to get organised and quilt, quilt, quilt. So, in the spirit of finishing quilts, I decided to dig into the to-do pile and start reducing it. I took all the tops, found their backings, cut their batting and when I ran out of backs and batting I ordered more.

Of course, I found a way to cheat a bit. Three tops are getting other tops for backs so six has become three - an efficient way to make progress without actually doing anything, thereby fitting in very well with my schedule and current lifestyle ;o)

This is what the pile looks like now:

It's less of a pile, more like a parade.

I have finished a couple of quilts though. One will be featured tomorrow on Quilters Show and Tell so I won't double up here (it will show up here one day though) and I also finished this one:

It's not hanging very straight because I had it squashed in the cupboard. I quilted it with a panto called Twilight which was one of last month's new releases.

It's been a busy few weeks around here. There are a bunch of new patterns waiting for set-up and I'm heading up to Queensland soon for their machine quilting meeting. Should be fun!  

Machine Quilters Meeting

It's been go go go around here lately. I have entered two quilts in the edge to edge category of the Australian Machine Quilters Exhibition and, as usual, I didn't allow enough time to finish them comfortably by the submission date. Lots of late nights colouring in and I still wasn't thrilled with the result. I'll get you all a photo and explain more about them later - at the moment I don't want to see them or think about them for a while. I'm really glad they're finished!

Yesterday I dropped them off so now I have a bit of time to get ready for a gathering of machine quilters at my house next weekend. If you will be in town next Saturday (July 26th) and would like to meet some machine quilters, shop a little, eat a lot, you can attend too. Email me for details at hermione@lorienquilting.com or phone (03) 9754 4916.

Should be a fun day!

I want to say a big thank you to all of you who have made Quilters Show and Tell happen! We get about 230 visitors every day - twice now we've had more than 600 in just 24 hours - and it's been lots of fun. Thank you to everyone who has submitted a quilt already! I've been posting one quilt each day so now we're running low on submissions. I would love to keep doing one per day so if you were thinking about sending one in now would be a really good time ;o)