Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas Eve here, and the kidlets are all a tad excited.

I hope your preparations for tomorrow's festivities are winding up so that you can sit and enjoy your surrounds for a while.

Ready for decorations

For the first time in a few years I've managed to get all the wrapping done beforehand so I can enjoy a nice mango daiquiri in front of the carols.

Mango daiquiris - one good reason for Christmas in summertime. 

I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to waking up at 5am tomorrow (can't imagine the 4 yr old lasting much longer).

He ain't pretty, but I love him. 

I wish you all a safe and merry Christmas surrounded by the ones you love. And may your children all sleep in.

Love and best wishes,
K x

Craft and Quilt Fair, Brisbane 2013

Marg and I had a wild day out a few months ago when the Craft and Quilt Fair came to Brisbane.

Don't let the grey hair fool you - there were some hella-rough poker games going on at those tables down there.

I love wandering around the exhibition quilts and seeing all the clever ideas people have come up with.

A little retail therapy never hurts, either:

Following are various works that caught my eye - all have their creators listed below their photograph. If you are one of the artists and wish to have the photo of your work removed, please just email me and poof, it'll be gone.

Flying Colours: Budgies Uncaged by Brenda Gael Smith (with hand dyed cotton fabric)

My kind of nude, I could claim my wobbly bits were just stippling:

Free Beach by Elaine Sturmfels (with hand dyed whole cloth background)

Free: Soaring into Sunlight by Bob James

Liberated by Kathy Beilby

Coreopsis by Bernardine Hine

Brighten the Corner Where You Are by Robin Ginn

A masterpiece. If this was mine, red wine would be banned from my house:

Golden Ivory by Rachelle Denneny

The top of my head blows off when I think of how long this took to make. 

And this one. Amazing. Look how big it is. Half inch hexies. 3 years and 10 months to complete. I was in awe.

Hexagon Trellis Roses by Olive Claydon

I really love the shading on the trellis and how it changes across the quilt:

I loved many of the blocks in this sampler:

My Dear Jane by Elizabeth Rixon

Fun texture:

Untitled (that I could see) by Jan Scudamore

William Morris Sampler by Judith Carrow

Morning Mist by Lorraine Carthew

On the Wing by Pam Hill

I love the mustard and the quilted scallops. Mmmm, mustard scallops.

Charity by Shirley Chiu

Some lovely machine embroidery:

Polished Posies by Trish Taylor

Gorgeous free motion quilting:

Pink Silk Fun by Jane Rundle

It was really hard not to touch this one, the texture was fantastic:

The Best Things in Life are Free: Sunset Over the Ocean by Barbara McLennan

One of the guest exhibitors was an American quilt artist, Judy Coates Perez. She paints her artwork on fabric and quilts them with amazing designs and colour. Each quilt was filled with such incredible detail, I wanted to look at them all day. It was hard to move on to the next display. 

But Where are All the Martians? by Judy Coates Perez

But just as well we did move on or we'd have missed Loanie Prior's whimsical tea cosies. Aren't they just the best? 

(It was rather dark around Loanie's display - head over to her Ravelry page to see much better pictures of all her great pieces. They'll make you chuckle.) 

I hope you've seen something here that inspires you to sew (or make a tea cosy) this week!

A bientôt!