Well, hi everyone, it’s Wednesday night here about 9:00pm and I’ve just arrived home after a very big day.

It was the opening day of our State Quilt Show and it was a day full of surprises. First of all I managed to catch up with many of my friends from around the state, who I have met over the years through quilting. What a lovely bunch of people I spoke with today. Mostly girls, all looking very well and happy and excited to be in “the big smoke” for the biggest quilt show of the year. Lots of chat about each others family and lives, the business of being a dedicated quilter, in between performing our daily duties of hearth and home. Some of the girls, I hadn’t seen for a few years, so it was all a buzz.

My excitement was blown sky high when my quilt “Taken Leaf of my Senses”, won 1st place in its category! I still can’t believe it. I loved making the quilt and this was the only one I entered this year. So it’s a very excited Judie all day today, didn’t even eat much lunch, my excitement carried me through!

I didn’t expect to be so successful with this quilt as it was one that had started as eight stars that tested my accuracy. They took about 3 months to complete. I then had a break from this quilt for about 12 months whilst I recovered from illness.

I then commenced to needle-turn over 780 leaves and 140 berries. All the fabric came from my stash, except for about 4 different greens, that I purchased. But every other fabric came from my stash. Even the background cream fabric was made up from 4” squares of different creams. Some creams I used the backs of, for a more subtle effect.

As I said before I loved making this quilt, and am getting ready to design another one- this next one will be in Blues & Whites (again from my stash). Not sure on the design yet, but it will be a combination of machine piecing and needle-turn appliqué.
I've posted some photos of my quilt. Here's the link to the photos of my quilt, hope you like it.
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art1321.asp

Anyway, enough of my day. Last Sunday I posted an article that is all about pincushions. I’ve surfed the web and found a bucket load of free pincushion patterns. Here’s the link: http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art1479.asp

I’ve had fun finding gifts for you for today. There are three and they are a little mixture of delights that I’ve come across.
Firstly are some delightful jar covers in cross stitch. We will be bottling over the next few weeks, so this seemed a timely gift idea. Here’s the link:
http://www.freepatterns.com/list.html?criteria=FP00465 Jar covers in cross stitch
The second gift is a lovely idea from Ninimakes, and it’s titled a Cheaters Patchwork tutorial. Very clever and quick gift idea. Here’s the link:
http://ninimakes.typepad.com/nini_makes/

Finally, a little gem I found – Of course it’s Japanese as they are very good at wrapping anything. It’s a table for using fabrics to wrap gifts. All sorts of sizes and shapes. Here’s the link: http://www.env.go.jp/en/focus/attach/060403-5.html .

Well, dear quilters, that’s about it from me this week. My head is still abuzz, and I can’t stop smiling – a lovely day. I do hope this newsletter finds you all well and busy busy busy with your hands. Take care, and I’ll speak with you next week.
Cheerio for now, and have fun quilting.

Judie Bellingham, Quilting Editor
http://Quilting.bellaonline.com

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