Back from Sydney with inspiration

Hello crafty friends,

It was a wonderful trip with my husband. We saw all the wildlife (dead and alive) and had the pleasure of setting up my sister's sewing machine in her new sewing room. We got started on an Irish Chain quilt using a Kiwiana Toile that she picked up here in Auckland.  It was really fun showing her the cheats to making the quilt grow quickly.  She promises to send me a photo of it on the floor in her living room.

Another inspiration was something I found at Patchwork Addiction in Windsor (NW Sydney). They were crazed about the Dear Jane book by Brenda Papadakis.  It's based on a vintage quilt made in 1863 by Jane A. Stickle, featuring 225 patterns! The methods used are applique, foundation piecing, paper piecing, and good old fashioned traditional piecing. I bought the book and the rulers!  Since I was working on a sampler earlier, this quilt intrigued me... no delighted me!  I bought 3 meters of various cream tone-on-tone fabric to get me started.  I can't wait to get started but first I will have to translate some of the patterns into 12" blocks for my sampler quilt.