Hi Everyone,

Just a quick little note to tell you about my big win at the Victorian Quilters Showcase Quilt Show in Melbourne last week. I won Runner Up in the Mainly Applique - professional section for my "Hearts and Vines" quilt. The same quilt also won a Judges Commendation. I was so overjoyed as it is a state show and I didn't expect to even get a look in there. I won some beautiful prizes, too.

It is the second time I have entered a show and won prizes and I still find it hard to believe because there are so many divine quilts being made and entered.

The quilt that won Best of Show was staggeringly beautiful with such fine detail and gorgeous work. So often these days I am stunned speechless (no mean feat) by the scale of magnificent and spectacular creativity that is going on among women (and increasingly, men) around us everywhere in the quilting world.

It was also wonderful to see some many young people taking up quilting as well, and putting their work in the show.

It is still quite cold here and I am longing for the warmer weather, although it is still very dry as we seem to have had little rain this winter.

Til the next time,
Happy quilting,
Robyn

July 1st - Quilting

Hi Everyone,

Again, it is an age since I have done a blog post but here I am.

June was a very exciting month with the Australian Patchwork and Quilting magazine having my quilt, "Fuchsia fanfare" on the front cover and a profile of me inside. It was such an honour to be in the magazine, let alone have my first published quilt pattern on the front cover. I was elated.

I have recently completed another quilt that may go into the magazine and I have also just finished a small Jacobean wall hanging which was a lot of fun. One day I will work out how to put photos on my blog and will show you what I am on about.

We are in the middle of winter here and it has been very cold. I have just read in today's paper that we are having a colder winter than the previous couple of years and it really does feel that way. However, it is perfect quilting weather.

I have spent a lot of time in the garden of late, too, as it seems that winter in the garden is a very busy time; there always seems so much to do like pruning and preparation for spring. But even when it is cold it is still nice to be out there in the crisp air, if it isn't windy.

Til the next time, happy quilting.
Robyn

For The Love of Quilting

Hi Everyone,

It's a new year and already we are well on our way to Easter. Time really does fly, especially when we have lots of fun projects that we want to work on.

I wish to inform everyone that we now have a change in our PO Box number. We used to have our box in the city but when it came up for renewal we decided to get one close to home. So our new PO address is Robian Applique Designs,
PO Box 7545, Geelong West, Victoria, 3218 Australia.

I went off up to Bendigo early yesterday morning, to see my nephew play soccer and what a lovely little surprise, of the quilting variety, I had. Tom (nephew) didn't have his first game til after lunch so we had some free time. AND, what else does a quilter do when she/he has free time away from home, but go to the quilt fabric shops, of course.

I found a shop in Bendigo called Honeysuckle Stained Glass and Patchwork which, as an appliquer, had me salivating. Nicky stocks among the best, most beautiful and somewhat prolific range of tone on tone (among other things) fabrics that I have come across in this state. Her fabrics are to dye for (sorry) and she also stocks a full range of Fossil Fern Fabric. WOW - I was over the moon and will be telling everyone about it and returning to that shop again. If you love applique, as I do, you will be in applique paradise in this shop.

There are several other quilting stores in the beautiful city of Bendigo, also, so it is well worth a drive if you don't live in the area.

Tom played brilliantly in his two soccer games and kicked most of the team goals. They won their first match and had a draw in the second. I would have loved to have been there again today to see his other games but we were unable to find accommodation. But there will always be another time. I hope you have good matches again today, Tom. Congratulations on your fabulous playing.

I hope everyone rushed out and got their copy of Homespun magazine in January which had my pattern "Wattle Day" and profile in it. Also, I hope you all get Australian Patchwork and Quilting for February as some of my quilts were in that also, from when we had our Geelong Quilting Exhibition.

Til next time - happy quilting

Robyn

Thank goodness for Quilting

Hi Everyone,

It seems like such a long time since I have sat here at the computer and done my blog and Newsletter.

I have been away for quite a while up in Northern New South Wales with my sister Chris. I was with her when she passed away from this world into the next, in November, aged only 58 years. She died from lung cancer and it is just the most terrible way to die.

I feel that my world will never be the same without her in it and my heart goes out to Shane and Tim; Chris’s husband and 17 year old son. Thank you to my wonderful friends and family everywhere who have given me the most heartfelt support.

But life goes on. The sun will surely rise tomorrow and we left to grieve must, in some way, take care of ourselves and nurture each other when and where we can, so that we can survive this.

Thank goodness for quilting. I had never entered any of my quilts in an exhibition before this November. We had our biennial 3 day quilt show in Geelong in November. It is an exhibition of work of the Geelong Patchwork and Quilters Guild members. I put 3 quilts in and a small quilt in the challenge.

I won equal 3rd place in the challenge, Best of Show, Viewers Choice 1st and Viewers Choice 2nd. I am still in shock about this.

It just demonstrates how, during life, we can experience the most exhilarating highs and the most soul crunching lows in a very short space of time. I find it difficult to explain how one can feel shattered and heart broken whilst on cloud 9. But that is surely how I have felt for a while.

I have a small wall hanging pattern and profile in the January edition of Homespun magazine which has been something to look forward to. I have just completed another quilt to go into another fabulous Australian quilting magazine next year. But I will tell you more about that when it happens. It really is very exciting.

I hope you are all enjoying your quilting and/or other hobbies. I hope, too, that your Christmas is full of good news, good health, good friends and family. I wish you all the very best for the New year and, God willing, I will be back here in 2010.

Happy quilting,

Robyn

My Sister, Chris

I have been away from my blog and my website for a couple of weeks and going through a bit of a tough time this year.

My sister Chris, second of we 5 siblings and next in age to me, 15 months younger, at age 58, has lung cancer. I am shattered - one can only begin to imagne how it must be for her.

She lives in New South Wales near Maitland which is a long way from me. It is a one hour drive to the airport, a flight of an hour and a half and a drive of about half an hour to reach her.

She found out she had lung cancer in November last year and up until about 2 months ago wasn't doing too badly.

She contracted pneumonia in September and almost died; but she has rallied and is still in hospital. At that stage she wanted us all to be with her. I am the eldest, then Chris, another sister, a brother and another sister and our Mum. Our Dad died of lung and brain cancer in 1982.

Chrissy faces a battle and we all want to be there with her. But, like everyone, we have commitments of one sort or another and things we need to do, and we all live hours from each other. So I had to leave her last weekend and come home to do things. I am so torn because I want to be with her but need to be here too.

I will probably go back up to be with her and will be neglectful of my web site and blog posts. My beloved brother also had a partial removal of his prostate and a kidney removed with cancer earlier this year. As well, a nephew has had testicular cancer. So it has been a big year for this dreadful illness in our family.

I wanted to let people know so that there is some explanation for neglect of web things.

I hope you are all quilting to your hearts content and loving every (well, most anyway - maybe not the unpicking) minute of it.

Til next time,

Robyn

New Design - Dresden Diamonds

Hi Quilters,

Just a quick little note to tell you all that our new Dresden Diamonds pattern is now available in the store. The pattern contains all of the instructions and information you will need to make the quilt top and I hope people enjoy doing so. It is a full size pattern and there is no joining of pages, photocopying or enlarging.

I have just had two wonderful days with a friend who came down from Melbourne to stay. She, too, is a quilter, and we had a lovely time gallivanting around the countryside looking in fabric, quilting and patchwork stores, drinking coffee and eating cake etc. We are so lucky to be able to do these things.

I hope you out there are happy and well and feeling excited about starting a new project or finishing one off; or just enjoying being in the middle of one.

Til the next time
Happy quilting,

Robyn

The Relevance of a Blog

Hi Blog Readers,

When we set up our web site, my husband (the computer guru) told me that I needed to be "out there" and have my own blog. So I wrote a few things and posted a few blogs and then began to wonder what they were all about.
I know that people read them because Feedjit tells me they do but there are no comments or responses ......
As the web site provides information about our products and we have a Newsletter that goes out monthly, what is the purpose of a blog????
Can anyone tell me??
Can anyone tell me why they read them and what they want to read???? Do people who don't receive the Newsletter read them???
Should I be communicating what I am up to in my little room designing and making my quilts????? Are people interested in knowing those things???
Are people interested in our beautiful garden as my nectarine tree is bursting forth with pink blossoms??????
Please leave a comment and let us know these things or send an email from the web site because I would really like to know.

Happy Quilting,

Robyn