Blog

Thursday 15th May

The rolling Green hills of Robertson are calling...
I have decided to sell the The Purple Patch and retire!

 

Wednesday April 23

Renovations complete. My bathroom has purple tiles of course!

 

 

 

 

Thursday March 27

Here is an update on my house/shop renovations...
As you can see, the back of the house is almost finished.

before

after

 

 

Thursday March 13

Now that we have traded our plastic shopping bags for re-usable bags, we thought it was time to elevate their status from boring to beautiful. Linda has cleverly transformed the ubiquitous re-usable shopping bag into a covetable accessory.

If you drop into the shop, we can show you how you can easily convert your own bag using half a metre of fabric and a few simple tricks.

 

Wednesday February  27

I took a photo of the new classroom showing one of Karen Cunningham's classes:

The feedback from Karen's class was very positive. The girls thought is was relaxing, fun and not stressful!

 

Thursday February 7

I have finally finished transforming our old classroom into our new 'Discounted Fabric' room and display area. What luxury it is to have the space for an antique bed to display some of our gorgeous quilts.

Here are the new shelves displaying our discounted fabric...

I had an idea to display some of our delicious new fabrics inside quilting hoops. I plan to update these every time we get a delivery of new fabric, every four weeks or so. Look for these hoops every time you visit our store.

 

Thursday January 17

On December 13, at our Open Day, the Stitching Hearts Group's Quilt was presented to our raffle winner. Congratulations!

All the money raised from the quilt raffle went to Claffy House Women's Refuge.

 

Thursday November 22

The Purple Patch Party last Saturday was a huge success, despite the heat. Hundreds of people turned up to take a look at the exhibition of quilts made by students and staff. It was also a good opportunity to meet next year's teachers.

The winners were:

Viewer's Choice: 1st prize - 'Wildflowers' by Julie Austen, (pattern by Val Moore)
Viewer's Choice: 2nd prize - Shirley Diepveen
Viewer's Choice: 3rd prize - Colleen Shuttleworth, 'Hearts and Flowers'

 Julie Austen's winning quilt 'Wildflowers'

Before the big event, we set up a marquee to display all of the quilts...

Here is Linda's latest quilt, not quite finished...

 

Thursday November 9

My trip to the US was fantastic! I am still on a high, so forgive me if I am talking a million miles an hour. The jet lag should kick in some time soon.

I took along my sister-in-law, Sylvia, and together we explored San Francisco and Houston. I have always wanted to visit San Francisco and my first impressions were just as I had hoped. Sylvia and I just kept pinching each other, we could hardly believe we were there.

We took a ride in a cable car. We had to stand in line for an hour, but I have never been so entertained waiting in line. Americans can be very animated and the volume is usually set to LOUD. Here is Sylvia in a cable car...

Our trip down Lombard Street in San Francisco was like being in Europe - lovely old buildings and gardens in windy, hilly streets. My calves were burning from all the walking.

Then we discovered Taffy Town confectionery. I was like a kid in a lollie shop!

 

The seafood at Fisherman's Wharf was outstanding. We ate well but walked it all off again. We visited all the trendy shops on Union Street and I spent $215 on buttons at Britex 4-storey fabric shop.

What amazed me most about San Francisco is that nobody goes out before 11am. The shops are open until 10 or 11 at night, so there is quite a fun and busy atmosphere in the evenings.

The Houston Trade Show was the main reason I went to the US and it didn't dissapoint. I listened to a series of lectures which lasted all day. The lectures and rooms changed every half hour to keep us on our toes. The lectures were mostly about new patchwork fabrics, books and products.

The trade show itself was inspiring and not what I expected. It was full of contemporary fabrics and quilts, trendy clothes patterns. Plain fabrics were popular. Lots of log cabin quilts.

The quilt exhibition was almost entirely made up of contemporary 'art' quilts. First prize was a picture quilt of Desmond Tutu.

Maria Walters from Australia was awarded second place.

In contrast, the public show was much more traditional and country-style. The fabrics and quilts were mostly reproductions in dark and muted colours.

You can't go to Houston without visiting NAASA. There we were joined by Helen, a teacher from Logans. Our last stop was a shopping trip to the factory outlets to buy some suitcases to carry home all our extra treasures we had collected along the way!

 

Wednesday, October 17

I'm beginning to get excited about my trip next week to Houston, USA. 'Houston' is the biggest patchwork trade and quilt festival in the world. I can't wait to bring back some new products and fabrics. Now, if I could only find my passport...

The 50th Anniversary of the Embroiderers' Guild was celebrated last week at Sydney Olympic Park. There was an inspiring range of courses, workshops and lectures held. This was how our stand looked at the show...

It's getting close to that time of year again - The Purple Patch Party time! It will be held in the shop on the 17th November. We have been preparing an exhibition of quilts made by students. Come and meet our teachers over coffee and cake. You will get a glimpse of the new quilt projects for next year, and there will be a 1 day only sale of 10% off everything in the store. See you there!

Now on display in the shop is a popular quilt which Julie has just finished for her father. Everyone drooled over it so much that we borrowed it from him. She has combined duck-egg blues with delicious chocolate and latte colours. The pattern and templates are available. All this talk of chocolate is making me hungry...

Thursday, July 19

What fun we had at the Sydney Quilt Show and what a fantastic response to our 'Purple Ladies and thier Pussycats' quilt we had displayed. Lots of mouths dropped when people realised that the characters in the quilt are based on real-life people. See if you can guess which one is me...

She is the short character with black hair. The quilt was designed by Tita Leach and is available as a 'Block of the Month'.

The builders have arrived this week to extend the back of our house. We used a large portion of our house for the new classroom, which is now finished and operational. What joy to finally have some more space to teach classes. Now we need some space to live!

Our new house extension

 

The new classroom

 

Thursday, June 7 

Linda turned 50 recently and we celebrated this milestone with a suprise party. Many of her past students and friends joined us. Campagne flowed and memories were shared.

Friends and past students also busied themselves, designing and piecing blocks to make Linda a birthday quilt. The finished quilt was presented to a very suprised and excited Linda.

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