Hop-on-hop-off bus

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Today we had booked a tour of the city on the Hop-on-hop-off bus. Awesome day 28 degrees and sunny, perfect for riding on the top of this bus. First stop was Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia, totally mind blowing and unreal feeling to finally be in this majestic building, it is still under construction and is due to be completed around 2043.

This was a fantastic way to see the City of Barcelona although you definitely cannot do all three routes in one day, we prioritised what we wanted to see and went from there, although for those intending to visit Barcelona and doing this bus trip – don’t do it on a Sunday if you want to do any shopping of visit any of the museums, they are all closed!! But we still managed to see most of what we wanted to get around.

We are Here

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After a one hour delay circling around Brisbane Airport, waiting in the queue to land, we then proceeded to Dubai for a brief stop over and then on to Barcelona, a total of around 23 hours flying, phew.

We landed in Barcelona at 12noon and after a stroll through the luggage collection area we were out of the airport and to our Hotel.  Nice Hotel near centre of the city. When we got to our room, we suddenly remembered the size of hotel rooms in Europe!! Couldn’t open the door cos it hit the bed lol!! It has recently been updated and is quiet and clean.

We decided to go exploring and were soon amongst the hustle along La Rambla and the Catalunya, the streets are very wide here and there is a lot of open spaces. We stumbled across one of the many houses that Gaudi designed and had a look through: Casa Batllo – Amazing it has no straight lines.

Thoroughly enjoyed this and so glad we stumbled across it. Had a walk around the back streets behind our hotel and founds lots of nooks and crannies this ‘deli’ was interesting the meat was ‘aged’

Managed to stay awake until 8:30 then couldn’t stay awake any longer so had to get some sleep.

Remarkable Symposium 2011, Queenstown

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The following photos are for those who did not manage to get to symposium. These are some of the winning quilts, I’m sorry they are not in any order. All images are clickable to see more detail, enjoy!

Viewers Choice and Excellence in Machine Quilting Domestic
 – Kapiti – Chris Kenna

Jeanette Gillies – Merit

Tania Nyboer – Stroll in the Park – Amateur Traditional Excellence

Camilla Watson – Garden for a Minimalist Apartment Professional Art Excellence

Camilla Watson – Custard Square – Suitcase Award

Clare Smith – City Map – Suitcase and Merit Awards
Clare Smith – A change in the Weather – Merit Award

Alison Laurence, In A Flash – Merit

Rosemary Rush, Retro Razmatazz – Remarkable Use of Colour

Griet Lombard, Block-a-day Therapy – Excellence Professional Innovative

detail
Robin Halverson, Low Tide – Merit

Gael O’Donnell, Currahee – Excellence Bed Quilt

Ansa Breytenbach, Te Timatanga (The Beginning)
Best of Show

Detail
Helen Beaven, Painted Chocolate Blocks
Excellence Amateur Innovative

Liz McKenzie, Gondola Over Wakatipu – Suitcase
and Merit Awards

MaryAnn Georgiou, Herakles The Labours of a Quilter
Merit and 2nd Viewers Choice

Amanda Hasselman, For Freedom – Merit

reverse side

Juliet Fitness, Merino Muster, Dont forget the Dog – Merit

Natalie Murdoch, Pack up your troubles
in an old Kete – Winner ANZAC Challenge

Jean McLean, Spirit of the Gum – Suitcase Award

Lesley O’Rourke, Celtic Wave – Excellence in Machine
Quilting – Long Arm Computerised

Philip M Ward/ Quarryburn Quilting, And then came Colour
Excellence Commercially quilted – quilting
Mary Fletcher, Floral Boquets – Merit

Mary Fletcher, Sweet William – Professional Traditional Excellence

Debby Williams, Starlight Sonata Opus 8
Miniature Excellence

Debby Williams/Barbara Paton, Citrus Sorbet
Group/collaborative excellence

Barbara June Paton, Bushfire –
Excellence in Machine Quilting Long Arm Computerised 

Fyvie Murray, Baltimore Album VI with Stars – Merit
Wendy Ward, Michael’s Quilt – Merit Award

Wendy Ward, A Woman’s Place – Merit Award and Suitcase Award

Wendy Ward, The Raven, Winner Fibrelicious Challenge

Chris Tait, This is the Story of a Girl – Judges Award
Barbara Kaverman, Texas Depths of Field – Merit

Meryl Caudwell, Flowers from Ricky – Merit

Marge Hurst, In my Retirement – Best Traditional Quilt

Donna Cumming, Africa Excellence Comercially Quilted top/piecing Award

Barbara Bilyard – Merit

Heather McLean – Hellebore Sampler – Amateur Art Excellence

Lyn Ogle, A Day’s Catch – Best Non-Traditional Quilt
Ruth Wheeler – Winner Remarkables Challenge

Heather Harding, Welsh Traditions – Excellence in hand Quilting
Suzet Pont – Entwined – Merit

The following quilts were not prize winners but were stunning

Fyvie Murray, Balimore Album VII
Robyn Parkinson, Boned Corset
Janice Dowdeswell, Delphinium I
Merrilyn George – Two is Company, Three’s a Crowd
Heather Harding, Feathered Circles(Miniature) – Suitcase
Jenny Tayler Pink and Green

Chris Kenna Bronze Feathers
Jeanie O’Sullivan – Albert Picks Roses for Victoria

Griet Lombard, Sunset at Waitarere Beach
Alison Laurence – Journey South
Barbara Kaverman – Once in a Blue Moon
Jenny Tayler – Rainbow Starburst

Finishing Projects

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Gosh has it really been this long since I have posted eeekkk. The blogs I have been reading seem to be posting pictures of things they have recently completed, so who am I to buck the trend here are some recently completed pieces to  be exhibited at the Festival of Colour in Wanaka next week as part of the COOTS (Central Otago Outside the Square) group exhibition called “A Common Thread”. This series of work I call “Home and Soul Series’. The last one is very large and the photo has some glare on it. This next piece is my contribution to the raffle. We had to make something to go into a basket for a raffle prize. 


The pictures below are two recently completed projects, one a glasses case using Wessex embroidery taught by Gay Eaton at a workshop





And these are of my recently completed Hussif. I have been a stitcher and sewer for so long and have finally made this to carry all my necessary tools.

Outside

Inside

Partially closed

Fully closed (front)




Quilting Arts Padfolio

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I made the Decorative Fabric Portfolio from the Quilting Arts Gifts 2008/09 magazine. If I made this again I would either satin stitch the edges or use bias tape or some form of decorative edging as I wasn’t happy with the “roughness” of the edges just using zig-zag. I really enjoyed the dying, stamping, screen printing, painting process and cutting up the “made” fabric was exciting and it looked much better when reassembled than it did in one piece.

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I purchased this Amy Butler pattern and it says to use 2 and a half metres of fabric – I used this beautiful fabric

And after I laid out the pattern I discovered that 1.5 metres was more than ample fabric for this pattern this was using directional fabric – so if you were using a fabric that was not directional you would not need even 1.5 metres – as you can see I have
plenty of fabric to spare – to use on lovely things like
pin cushions etc. Will post a pic once I have completed the
top – don’t hold your breath!

Its been a while

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Well my foray into blogging has been sporadic, at best! So here is an update on what I have been doing lately:
I am working my way through Kelly Rae Roberts’ Book “Take Flight” and am doing the little projects in it – here is what I have done so far.

It is from the first chapter in which D J Pettitt’s work is featured. Not totally happy with it – but it is a start, the bits that are influenced by DJ Pettitt are not actually shown in this picture -they are little tags but not quite finished yet. Some of the projects from the book I will make as pages and tie them all together as a finished peice with the little tags.

This next piece is from the second chapter with Laurie Mika . Kelly Rae uses the contributing artists techniques rather than styles as elements in her own art. With Laurie Mika she used polymer clay. My adaptation of it is a little different – here it is


It is on a small 10x10cm canvas – on the side it says “Yes, I am a princess, can’t you see my crown”. And here is another one, on the side of this one it says “Queens Rule”