Vineyard 28 Quilt Exhibition

Last week hubby and I drove to Bunbury to do some Christmas shopping.  As we got to Harvey I spotted this sign at the side of the road ...

... you can imagine my screeching voice in hubby's ear, and the white knuckle grip on his arm  "STTTOPPPPP".  He had no option but to turn left and take me to Vineyard 28 and see the exhibition.

 Its a lovely winery, about 3 kms down a limestone road off the main highway, in a lovely peaceful setting.

The first thing that greets you is an array of quilts hanging on lines, and displayed on tables, under the verandah.

Inside, holds a wonderful selection of quilts, paintings, and other arts and crafts by local artists.  The winery has a permanent display of quilts and crafts all year round, but this was a particular exhibition they were having.  Apologies for not getting the names of all the artists on display ... why not pop on down and check it out for yourself.

The "Hang Ten" quilt below was stunning.  Created by Yvonne Chapman for the 2014 Australasian Quilt Convention in Melbourne, and chosen as one of the 30 finalists for the "TEN" challenge.

 The detail in the quilt was beautiful with the sequins and beads all glistening in the surf.

The Grandmothers Hexagons quilt was created by Judy Mallet of Australind, WA. 

Judy also made the Hexagon Star Quilt, and the 16 Patch Square Scrap Quilt beneath it.

All the quilts were stunning, and hubby wanted to buy them all! 

We did, however, both fall in love with Yvonne Chapman's painting of the cattle in mist ...

and headed home with it proudly under one arm, and a carton of wine under the other.  A good day's shopping - even if they were all for us.  Who needs Santa?! 

Art a'Peel Christmas Lunch

Last Sunday was Art a'Peel's Christmas lunch wind up.

Lots of yummy food and a lovely way to catch up with everyone, including members who can't always make it to the monthly meetings.

Dixie's new hair colour was a delight and we look forward to seeing what she surprises us with next month.

It was a day of show and tell, sharing the things we've made during the year as well as sharing books to read and inspire us for the year ahead.

Jill R managed to complete her fabric flowers that we made with Elizabeth Morley and created a beautiful necklace with them.

And Jill L shared her gorgeous reindeer and elf dolls that she wonderfully makes.

We had a new member Marie Gallin, join us and share some of her amazing and inspiring textile work.  We're all looking forward to Marie joining our group. 

And we all shared our silver and white secret Santa gifts which all went down a treat and everyone was thrilled and delighted with the surprise gift they received.

We have a break now over the hottest month and regroup in February, looking forward to the year ahead.

Pixie Shoes

Art A'peel's Christmas lunch was coming up early December and we were given the task of creating a "secret Santa" present.  The only stipulation was that it had to be in silver and white.

I immediately thought of the lovely pixie shoes designed by Annette Emms and published in the Stitch magazine, issue 70. I'd been wanting to make these for a long time and now seemed the perfect opportunity.

I dithered for about a week or more wondering how to make them "Christmassy", then found the two lovely snowflake embellishments and it all flowed from there on. 

So, with some silver dupion silk, white felt, silver and white beads, scraps of white net and the snowflakes I set about making them.  They only took a couple of days, with some therapeutic hours in the evening hand stitching the beads around the top to resemble snow, and voila they were done!

I loved making them, and was so pleased with the end result that I was a bit loathed to part with them, but I eventually did - with the vow that I will definitely be making some more in the future.

They measure about 12cm in length and about 4cm in height - or, if you're not very good on measurements, they fit in the palm of my hand.

Check out Annette Emms website and blog to see more of her lovely designs.