Spring Quilt Show - at Beaconsfield 13th September

This Saturday, 13th September, I will be attending as a Market Trader at the Beaconsfield Quilt Show, in O'Neill's Road, Beaconsfield - 10am to 4pm, only $5 entry, and with funds raised to go the CFA (Country Fire Authority)... a very worthy cause, given how close we are, again, to the summer bushfire season.  As our on-line business is becoming busier, I only attend one or two Markets per year - so it's exciting to be preparing for this one.   Also attending, among others, are Sarah from Sew Materialistic and Karen from Mrs Martin's Quilt Shop.  Hope to see you there!

It has certainly been a busy couple of months since our (short) holiday in July, with LOTS of Custom Acrylic Template orders.  This keeps  me busy 6 days out of 7, and often late into night (which is when I usually communicate with the international customers).  Heaps of thanks to all the new customers who have found us (via word of mouth), as well as a very warm "welcome back" to our "repeat customers" who just love using our Acrylic Templates to help with their quilt-making.

On 6th August I was invited to give a short presentation to the Southern Cross Quilters group at Carrum Downs (SQuilters) - thank for your warm welcome, and lovely flowers - it was great to meet you all.  

Several quilting teachers  and a Quilt Shop have approached me to make up Class Sets for their workshops - usually between 10 & 20 sets of Acrylic templates.  These are all reasonably priced (discounts apply for 10 or more sets), and using custom-made templates does speed up the fabric-cutting process for the participants, so that more class time can be spent on learning the actual sewing technique.

Once this upcoming quilt show is over, I'll be working on some new template design ideas - stay tuned.  In the meantime, I've recently added Acrylic Templates for the traditional block "Flowering Snowball" to my Etsy site - these are available for both a 9 inch and 6 inch finished block.

See you soon, and remember:  Happy Quilting!

Cheers,
Lisa.

Sunshine in Winter

Sailing, snorkeling, swimming, seaspray, sand, seafood buffet, sleeping in, spectacular sunsets, sauna, spa, serenity... These are the special ingredients for our short but  stunning mid-winter, Semester break, at Queensland's Daydream Island Resort.

It's been a huge, busy, successful six months to date, thanks to all our wonderful Etsy & website customers, past & repeat customers, and supportive members of my two Quilt Guilds: Bay Quilters, Mentone & P's & Q's Ivanhoe.

After a short spell of "R&R" we'll be back after 15th July 2014, with more template sets, photos & some new original Applique templates. Stay tuned!

Cheers,
Lisa

February - Happy Valentine's Day

This is an experiment with "pinks" - called "Raspberry Cones". Reminds me of gelati, and candy-stripes and girly doll's clothes. Not a colour I would usually work with, however I found a few metres of pink and white seersucker in my stash...and used this as the background.

Originally this fabric was bought 25 years ago, to make a frilly bassinet set for my darling baby daughter (and several romper suits...she was a gorgeous china-blue-eyed blonde with alabaster skin). 

I may have slightly over-estimated, and bought about 5 metres!  Still...lovely to find another use for it now.

Happy Quilting!

Cheers, Lisa

January - New Beginnings - New Acrylic Templates

 Well, it's a New Year.... and time for some new additions to my Etsy Store.  Yep: after a lovely, relaxing summer break, it's 'back to work' for the team at "Sunset Seams".

First up is  the "Snowdrift" template set, which matches your copy of this pattern from Weeks Ringle & Bill Kerr , at Modern Quilt Studio.

Thanks so much to my good friend Lorraine at "Sew Shells", for allowing me to photograph her beautifully sewn blocks.  The long gentle curves look so effective, and allow the blocks to come together quite quickly.

The large pieces are a perfect way to show off your favourite feature fabrics.

  

 The pattern is in "Modern Quilts Illustrated" #5, available here.

(We can even personalise by etching your first name or initials on the templates!)

Stay tuned for the next instalment...

Happy Quilting!

Cheers, Lisa.

Merry Christmas! - Christmas Placemats!

This Christmas, I decided to make a family heirloom (well, traditions have to start somewhere!).

So I designed and created the following 8 quilted placemats.  Each has a red central piece (from a larger Christmas panel), and the border fabrics are from the same jelly-roll, bought in December 2012.  The black and red iron-on fusible bias binding was from a Stitches and Craft show purchase about 8 years ago.... yes, it is worth keeping everything!  Did you notice that each placement is different?  The backing and binding are a cheerful apple green, with positive words printed, like 'Family Love, Strength, Home and Good Health'

The placements held pride of place at our 'early' Christmas Family Lunch on Sunday 15th December... and will stand us in good stead for the years to come.  They were greatly admired by my husband, adult daughter & son, and my two step-sons, and added a personal festive note to our special day.

Today is a low-key celebration with phone calls to interstate relatives this morning, and a quiet dinner with my step-children this evening.... so my wonderful husband and I are now off to have our own private Christmas lunch on the beach!

Merry Christmas, everyone!