California Girl in Oz

As promised, here are some more of my eBay purchases from a few years ago. This Improved Nine Patch is in lovely soft colors. I think it will look lovely hand-quilted, don't you? Here's the entire top. It's double-bed sized now. I'm thinking I might add a couple of borders to bring it up to at least queen-size, but I'm worried about finding something that will have the right look. Not to worry, by the time I've actually learned to hand-quilt who knows WHAT wonderful fabrics will be available! This old top looks nicer in person than in the photo. I like the simple geometric shapes and the old fabrics are lovely and crisp. And I've always been a sucker for Shoo-Fly, so how could I resist this old one? Again, it's wrinkled because I'm afraid to iron it until I'm ready to work on it. The fabric is in good shape but it is very old. So, do you think I have enough old quilt tops to keep me busy learning to hand-quilt...hah! Wretched Excess

Does anybody know why my photos aren't enlargeable when I post them? I'm saving them as ordinary jpeg files, but for some reason they don't get bigger when you click on them. They used to do it, not sure why they won't now. Also, a big THANK YOU to everybody who responded about the Lady of the Lake quilt...I'm definitely going to go for the king size. Appreciate the little nudge I needed to make this decision.

Well, after reading Rian's post about purse sizes, I had to post a pic of my new purse. I agree that it's good to pare down, and after I had major problems with my left shoulder that ultimately required a cortisone shot (UGH!) to fix, I decided to use a smaller, lighter purse. Yes, I occasionally don't have room for everything, but I just chuck whatever won't fit into the center console of the car, and away I go! I'm definitely a convert. This little number has room for cash, ID, a couple of credit cards and an ATM card, one lipstick, one chapstick, a comb and tiny mirror, keys, and an open slot for either the cell phone or my little digital camera. Neat, huh? And, as promised, here are a couple of the antique quilt tops I bought on eBay several years ago. This one was from the estate of Tony Duquette, who was a production designer for Broadway and the movies. I love to think this quilt might have been onstage or onscreen in some production or other! It

As promised, I've been ratting through boxes and tubs to find the blocks I wanted to show you. This is a Lady of the Lake quilt I designed in EQ5 to fit my California King bed. However, as you'll see, there are eight zillion little HSTs in each block, and as I go forward, I keep thinking maybe I should scale back and just make it to fit the Queen bed we have now in Australia. But if we get a King again, I'll want to have the quilt on THAT bed...decisions, decisions. Hope I have the intestinal fortitude to keep on keepin' on with it! I started this quilt a few years ago, when we lived in the Sierra Nevada mountains in California. I'd been collecting those indigo blues and some Civil War blues and butternuts for a little while, and then one day found the great white windowpane plaid fabric, which I thought gave a nice crispness to the design. Discovered as I went along that with all those HSTs around the edge of each block, it helped to press the seams open, rather t

Hi, All, Hmmm, when I set myself up on Beta Blogger, apparently I didn't tick the box to allow my e-mail to show. Hopefully that's corrected now. Mysterious. I thought it would just transfer my settings as they were in regular Blogger. Could someone let me know if it's working correctly now? Thanks!

Well, Tanya rattled my cage (thanks, Tanya!) and got me off my duff long enough to post...sorry to be so quiet for so long. I'm settling in to Australia very well now and am beginning to feel human again. And best news of all...my DH arrived on Saturday, a full week ahead of schedule. Since I was posting, I decided to take the leap and move to Beta Blogger, too...seems to have worked. Now all I need is my sewing machine (Dec. 4th) and all will be well. There's so much to do to set my sewing room up, but I've been so lethargic I haven't done much yet. I think after the monumental push to get us this far, I've just needed some down time. Anyway, I've felt a little blue, but now I'm much better. Next post, I want to show you some other quilts that are in various stages of non-completion, and also a couple of antique quilt tops I got on eBay years ago that I plan to hand quilt at some stage (once I learn how to do it, that is...). Other bit of good news