Remembering

Today is a special day - Remembrance Day where countries of the Commonwealth stand still at 11am on the 11th day of the 11th month to remember those lost during war. So in a few short minutes I too will have a minute of silence. Of course I always feel extra sentiment for my late father - a DFC recipient who served in Bomber Command and was a navigator in one of these grand Lancasters……..

 We have just watched the service in Canberra on the television and the Last Post and Ode has left me in tears once again……'we will always remember them'. And just aside it just so happens that Princes Charles and wife Camilla were among the guests this year.

This past week I also heard news of a family death so it is always a time of reflection and missing our parents and their siblings. Our quilt show was a great success and with so many volunteer helpers a rest is now required. Husbands like Larry also put in the hard yards and at times with frames and ladders it can be quite physical! I did not take my camera this year as we have rules about sharing images on the internet but to be honest I felt like I didn't have time, but you can see all the winners in the Gallery at this link: SA Quilters Festival of Quilts. I did not have my two entries judged this year but enjoyed sharing in the excitement of the winners instead. Thanks to Candy for sending me this image as I helped to hand over a huge gift on behalf of Lloyd Curzon to Kate Sykes (centre) as Runner-up to Best of Show……(On the left is our beautiful President Vicki)…...

 I will share the Best of Show quilt though as it will be all over the internet anyway. Lisa Davis was actually a student of mine 3 years ago and this is her version of my Arabesque pattern with added sashings and a scalloped border…….it is quite sumptuous and with two layers of batting some areas looked like trapunto. I was thrilled for her and chuffed that she called her quilt 'Meeting Michele'………….

So there are more busy times ahead as I make way through the Beatrix Potter projects. A little more of that here……

 I also need to sit at the machine and get some Christmas presents made for the little ones. I can't believe I used to have time to make our girls most of their clothes and that I've not done the same for Miss Maisie! But I did find some ladybird fabric at the show and a panel to make an animal book for her. Not sure about Beau yet - he did say he would like a Christmas quilt so I had better get cracking!

I received this photo from Angela in Queensland a few days ago……I know she won't mind me sharing as I've shared her work before. These are my William Morris cushion patterns in a different colourway…….well done Angela!

So to some final BIG news! While I was at our quilt show I met with Jean who happens to speak Japanese and in fact has a Japanese daughter-in-law. And the relevance of all this? Well Jean takes interested people to Japan each year for a couple of weeks and includes a visit to see the spectacular Tokyo International Quilt Festival. I have long admired Japanese quilts - their intricacy and hand work is amazing and I especially love the work of Yoko Saito…..I own three of her books just to look!  Well to my amazement Jean shared with me that this year there is to be two special exhibits - William Morris AND Beatrix Potter!! What an incredible coincidence and I bemoaned for two days that somehow I just had to go! Well Larry has dug into the super fund and we managed to find cheap flights so I am heading off in January for just four days! I feel very lucky and will think of it as an early 60th birthday present for next year. This is the quilt on the website made by Yoko combining William Morris's Daisy wallpaper design and of course Beatrix characters. Won't this be fun to blog about in just a couple of months?!