Fat Quarterly eZine - Windows and Frames Quilt

Fat Quarterly is a new e-magazine written by modern sewists for modern sewists - I can't wait to see the first issue which goes on sale tomorrow Tuesday April, 27th.

Kate from One Flew Over is one of the faces behind this new magazine and for the first issue she has contributed the 'Windows and Frames' Quilt.  Kate made 'Windows and Frames' by upcycling her husband's old business shirts. It is a simple and effective pattern of framed squares enhanced with a crisp white solid.  Kate asked me to quilt this quilt for her and I had a great time quilting it with spirals using the Quilt-EZ template.  Here is the final result:-

I love what the quilting has added to this quilt - the spirals on the squares seem to provide the perfect contrast for this quilt which is otherwise very geometric.  The quilting just kind of happened - initially I quilted spirals in the centre of all the squares.  Having quilted the entire quilt in this way I decided it wasn't quite enough and quilted a spiral on each point where the squares meet.

The quilting also looks great on Kate's pieced back.

I will be heading over to buy a copy of Fat Quarterly here - from what I have seen, it is bound to be a fabulous online magazine full of inspirational quilts.   I can't wait to see other versions of Kate's Windows and Frames Quilt.

Good luck with the magazine girls!

Girlfriends Galore Quilt

My customer Rebecca has recently made this beautiful Girlfriends Galore Quilt from the first Material Obsession Book by Kathy Doughty and Sarah Fielke.  It is a fabulous book and this quilt is a great example of the wonderful quilts in this book. 

This quilt is not about the quilting, but rather about the fabulous design and beautiful fabric choices.

I particularly love the central medallion of this quilt.

Rebecca's quilt was quilted with a design called Gothic Vine which shows up beautifully on the plain white backing fabric and has added a lovely texture to the quilt.

I know from Rebecca's blog that she has been busy putting on her binding - I hope you are enjoying your new quilt Rebecca.

Crop Circle Quilt - Quilted

 I decided to go with feathers in the background of my Crop Circle Quilt - although I did like the suggestion of cross-hatching.  I am thrilled with the end result - it was a fun little quilt to work on.

This quilt has now been added to my personal quilts which need to have the binding done - I seem to have issues with finishing quilts, especially when it comes to the binding.  I was thinking of including a solid coloured piping in white binding - what do you think?

It is back to customer quilts for me now!

Crop Circle Quilt - Work in Progress

With Easter and the school holidays, I have taken some time out to do some quilting for myself.  I have had this Crop Circle Quilt designing itself in my head for quite some time and these circles are the result.  The quilt is going to be a wallhanging and I have used white Kona Cotton quilted with Aurifil threads.

Here are some of my circles.

I am having a wonderful time quilting these, although, pebbling is not my favourite pastime.  Now, to fill that white space - feathers perhaps?

Wholecloth Design Course

I have been having a wonderful time participating in the Wholecloth Design & Execution Class being held online at MQ Resource.  The class is being run by Adam Chenevert who is an amazing and inspirational quilter - check out the link to see some of his amazing work or visit his blog.

The concept of the wholecloth design course if fairly simple - you design 1/8th, mirror this image which becomes 1/4 of your quilt.  Put the four quarters together and you have the basis for a whole quilt.  I have spent numerous hours in glorious Melbourne autumn weather drawing and re-drawing my design.  With the help of a computer savvy 13 year old I have even managed to mirror and flip my design in photoshop.

This is the 1/4 design of my wholecloth quilt.

The following is the complete design - there seems to be something quite magical about symmetry in quilting designs.

Adam also loves to quilt many different background designs on his quilts - I have included lots of pebbling, cross hatching and straight line quilting around the feather motifs.

I have ordered some Kaffe Fassett Shot Cottons to quilt this wholecloth design - whether or not I am up to that task is something I will find out in due course but I am certainly looking forward to the challenge.