Coming Up for Breath

Sometimes I have to remind myself that I do all this for fun. What I had planned to complete at leisure (ha!) suddenly became a mad scramble to finish before the hanging day - eight days away. What you see below is a small section of a quilt which was going to be queen sized, but in the event will end up a cot sized quilt.

Yesterday I took time out to spend a large chunk of the day with good friends at our monthly gathering of Jems Quilt Sitters. Most of the girls proudly displayed their completed quilts which were simply beautiful. Those of us who still had a fair way to go could only stand back and gasp at the work before us.

This is not your usual quilt show. Jems Quilt Sitters are given a block at our Christmas lunch each year and in the past we had the luxury of not having to complete a quilt using that block until the following November. However, this year there were some changes. Instead of designing a quilt using one block, we were given three to play with, all related but a little different from each other. It was also decided to bring the event forward to July - not such a big deal - plenty of time to plan, design, construct and have the quilt ready to hang in the time allotted.

So what happened?

This happened. An emergency trip to Sydney when our pregnant daughter was rushed to hospital. Her waters broke at under 32 weeks and she was kept immobile in hospital for around 10 days, when it was decided it was time to bring Daniel into the world on 1 June, looking so frail and tiny, but oh so beautiful.

Now, after over a month in hospital, he is home, being carefully watched over by his big sister and brother. And yes, he is man enough to get away with a pink bib, as was his brother before him.

So why am I even worrying about something as simple as completing a quilt? Miracles happen and all is well in the world. The quilt will be finished.

I won't be in Brisbane for the exhibition, as Mr Fudge and I will be flying back to Sydney over that weekend. My brother had so kindly bought tickets for us to accompany him to a performance of the Michael Nyman Band at the Sydney Opera House, figuring in advance that we would be in town for the expected birth of our grandchild. Should I mention mice and men? We are really looking forward to staying with my brother, attending the concert and, of course, to getting in more grandchild hugs.

But if you are in Brisbane over the weekend 25-26 July, you can't do better than visit the Jems Quilt Sitters' Exhibition. It will be held at the historic Brookfield Hall, Brookfield Showgrounds, located where else but on Brookfield Road, Brookfield!

The hours are between 10.00am and 4.00pm and apart from the stunning quilts, there will be delicious home-made refreshments and a sales room full of beautiful goodies made by the quilters. Some of my Hot Fudge clothing will be for sale. It's a good idea to get to the show early, as the sales room is usually rushed and things can get pretty ugly.

Oh, and I just remembered. One of the quilts shown yesterday was a fabulous African themed number using fabric from my fellow BrisStylette Georgia of Ogekko's stash. Nicky, the quiltmaker, had admired the fabric used in Georgia's clothing on her Etsy shop and I was able to put her in touch with Georgia, with happy results. If you have seen Georgia's wonderful children's clothing, you can imagine how stunning this quilt is. Here's a sample of her work:

However, Sunday at Brookfield has the extra bonus of Stitched Up Jazz.

Buy yourself some delicious refreshments, sit out in picnic fashion and be swept away by the sounds of jazz. All this and a quilt show to boot - how can you lose?

Quilt Exhibition Time

Well, despite all the gremlins set in my path, I finished the quilt last night, just in time to take it to the set-up tomorrow. I'd love to show it to you, but it's a secret and if you saw it, I'd have to kill you. But I can show you some of the children's clothing I will be selling.

I am now frantically doing the hand-sewing on three new dresses and somehow I still have to make a label for the back of the quilt, sew it on, and make four pairs of baby shoes. Lots of deep breaths and one step at a time does it.

So if you will be in Brisbane over the weekend, a trip to beautiful semi-rural Brookfield will do you the world of good. The historic Brookfield Hall is so cute it looks like a Hollywood set. Add to that a fantastic quilt exhibition, oh-so-tempting things to buy in our sales room, scrumptious refreshments, and a great jazz band to entertain you at lunchtime, and you have the perfect day. Please say hello if you if you come - it'd love to meet you.

While we are talking about exhibitions, next weekend Reverse Garbage will be holding their popular annual end-of-year pre-Christmas exhibition. There will be some wonderful and innovative pieces of art and craft on display and better still, they will be available for sale. What’s particularly exciting is that three of the participating artists this year are fellow BrisStyle team members. Included in the “Renaissance: a rebirth of recycled materials” exhibition are Helen Berthold (ruby red studios and ruby 2 go-go), Ali Chisholm (jellygnite) and Rebecca Hollis (wheresbeckybean). For more information, please go to the Reverse Garbage link. Good luck, girls!

And finally, don't forget our BrisStyle fabulous give-away parcels - three gorgeous packages of goodies - each one valued at over US$100, and you know what that is in Aussie dollars! Time is running out, so don't delay.

Have a wonderful weekend everybody.