Friday, December 23, 2011

Merry Christmas

I am going to finish this year with a final, very appropriate Christmas Quilt.  This cute little quilt was made by my customer Denise and quilted very simply with an all-over design of stars and loops.  I hope you are enjoying your quilt at the moment Denise.


I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, a wonderful festive season and a healthy and happy 2012.  Thank you to my readers for stopping by this year - it has been another wonderful year of quilting.  I am certainly looking forward to the quilts 2012 will bring.


Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Ricky Timms is coming to Australia

I was very excited to meet the extremely talented and very friendly Ricky Timms in Houston last month.  He was more than happy to pose for this photo together.  If you are not familiar with Ricky, go and check out some of his quilting and musical achievement on his website.


As I didn't take any classes with Ricky, I was thrilled to find that he will be coming to Australia next year.  Ricky is going to be teaching an all day class on Friday 28th September, 2012 at the Australian Machine Quilting Festival  at the Adelaide Convention Centre.  Registration for the Ricky Timms all day seminar "Ricky's Best Kept Secrets" opens on 15th December, 2011 through the AMQF website.  More information is also available through the AMQF Blog.



The AMQF is being run over 4 days from 28th September through to Monday 1st October, 2012.  The festival is catering for all machine quilters from Longarm quilters, Mid arm and domestic sewing machines.  If the 2010 AMQF was anything to go by, it will be another wonderful event and I am certainly looking forward to attending.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Life is a Celebration Quilt

I have just finished quilting the most amazingly detailed applique and stitchery quilt made by my customer Alison.  The quilt is a very pretty quilt in baby blues and pinks which will make a delightful quilt for a little girl.  The project was originally run through Australian Homespun as a Block of the Month raising money for research into Ovarian Cancer.


I have quilted Alison's quilt with lots of feathers, stitching around all the applique, a range of background fillers and continuous curves.  Here are a few samples of some of the wonderful blocks.




Alison has also included some beautiful hand embroidery in the quilt.  I particularly love the blue and white scrolled sashing with its delicate embroidered flowers.



The circle of flowers on the setting butterfly blocks is gorgeous too.


More photos of Alison's quilt can be found on my flickr account.

Thank you Alison - your quilt was a delight to work on and I hope you will be as thrilled with the result as I am.

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Vintage Quilts of Houston Quilt Festival

It is over a week now since Mandy and I returned from our trip to Houston.  We had a wonderful time - the events certainly lived up to their reputation.  The quilt exhibition was wonderful and the standard of quilts amazingly high.  We had some fabulous longarm machine quilting classes and the booths at Quilt Festival were endless...

I must admit, however, that my favourite part were the vintage and antique quilts.  Unfortunately, we don't see many vintage quilts in Australia - we just don't have the history.  I was pleasantly surprised that there were some 8 or so booths selling vintage quilts, quilt tops, fabrics, orphan blocks and sewing notions - by the end of Quilt Festival, several of the booth owners knew me by name.

Amongst the vintage quilt booths with their wonderful treasures were:-



I think my favourite purchase from Houston is the very green vintage 1930's Double Wedding Ring quilt top which I bought from Cindy's Vintage Quilts.  It is shown here by Cindy.  Eventually I intend to quilt this gorgeous quilt top.


The vintage applique quilt top below was bought by my friend Mandy, also from Cindy's Antique Quilts.


I did buy another vintage quilt top - a 1930's Eight Pointed Star Quilt shown here together with the Double Wedding Ring Quilt.


I spent the last day of Quilt Festival trying to shop with "fresh eyes" after Kathy from Patchwork House showed us some of her purchases.  Whilst I had been looking at the vintage quilts, I had completely overlooked the vintage sewing notions.  I managed to buy a lovely collection of spools, a Dutch retractable tape measure, a needle holder, thimble and needles - some great treasures.


It is back to the present and reality for now - working hard to finish numerous quilts before Christmas.

Monday, October 24, 2011

Houston International Quilt Market & Quilt Festival 2011

Only 4 more sleeps and I will be heading off to Houston with my quilting friend Mandy.  We will be going to both the International Quilt Market and Quilt Festival




My bags are mostly packed, everything is just about ready...  Neither of us have been to Houston before but we can't wait to see the amazing quilts, the huge number of vendors and to experience some of that famous Texas hospitality. We will also be undertaking Longarm Machine classes with tutors such as Jamie Wallen, Linda Taylor, Sue Patten and Irena Bluhm so should be coming back with lots of quilting inspiration.

I can't wait for the adventure to begin.  Is anyone else lucky enough to be going to Houston this year?

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Hexagon Stars Quilt

I have recently quilted a wonderful scrappy Hexagon Star Quilt for my customer Maree.  This absolutely stunning quilt was made by Maree's patchwork group for her as a present for a significant birthday.  The quilt is completely hand pieced and has an amazing array of fabrics in it which have come together beautifully.


I have quilted this quilt with continuous curves in all the diamonds, adding loops in the diamonds which form the setting hexagons.  The loops have created a secondary design with which I was really pleased.


Many of the diamonds forming the stars in this quilt were fussy cut.  I had a hard time deciding which stars were my favourites so have made a mosaic with a lovely selection.


Maree was absolutely delighted with her finished quilt.  I believe a further five members of Maree's patchwork group are making their own versions of this wonderful quilt - I can't wait to see them.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Star Quilt

My customer Marg has been patiently waiting for me to quilt her stunning Star Quilt.  Marg's quilt is made with nine small lone star blocks, set with purple background fabric, surrounded by a green sashing and a beautiful, large Amy Butler border.  I am sure you will agree it is a striking quilt.


Marg's quilt has been quilted with a narrow piano key border, continuous curves in the diamonds of the blocks, a scroll in the narrow sashing and lots of feathers elsewhere.


To draw your eye around the quilt, I quilted spinning feathers in the setting blocks.




Enjoy your quilt Marg, it was a pleasure to work on - I hope you are as thrilled with the end result as I am.

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Quilts in the Barn 2011

Quilts in the Barn 2011, organised by Linda of Quilts in the Barn is on again - the exhibition is being held from next Friday 2nd September through to Sunday 4th September, 2011.  The exhibition is a fundraiser for breast cancer research.


This year, the quilter being featured is Jo Morton.  Jo is a quiltmaker, author, teacher, lecturer, a designer for Andover Fabrics, Inc. of New York, and a student of ancestral quilt making.

Jo presents re-creations of antique quilts, imitating colors and styles of period pieces. Using an antique quilt's color and/or design as a source of inspiration, she creates an interpretation - a quilt that might have existed in the 19th Century. Her quilts are made in a lasting tradition, using new cotton fabrics, cotton batting and cotton quilting thread.

If you are a lover of vintage and reproductions quilts, then this year's Quilts in the Barn is an exhibition not to be missed.

I have recently quilted two quilts for Linda which have been made exclusively with Jo Morton fabrics.  The first quilt is a Strippy Nine-Patch Quilt.


The fabrics used are just beautiful - the quilt has been simply quilted with continuous curves, some in the ditch stitching and 1/4 inch outlining.


As described on her blog, Linda has been working hard on her Tumbler Quilt which is the second quilt I have just completed.  The Tumbler Quilt is huge - a massive 98 inches x 87 inches and an incredible 1,334 tumblers!  The quilt was too large for me to photograph in its entirety, however, here is a snippet.


In keeping with the traditional fabrics and design, the Tumbler Quilt has been quilted with Baptist Fans - one of my favourite designs for reproduction quilts.  I believe they have added some great movement to this quilt.


To see the above quilts as well as many of Jo's quilts from her personal collection, visit Quilts in the Barn.  Wishing you all the best Linda for a wonderful exhibition - may the sun shine this year!




Saturday, July 30, 2011

Purple Haze Quilt

My sister, Mum and I had a wonderful day on Thursday at the Melbourne Craft & Quilt Fair which is on until tomorrow, Sunday 31st July.   We had a great time viewing the many fabulous quilts on display, shopping, catching up with quilting friends and having lunch together.  The day became even more special when my quilt "Purple Haze" was been awarded a First Prize Ribbon in the Small Quilts Category - Professional of the 2011 VicQuilters Showcase.

Purple Haze is a quilt which I made as part of the Australian Machine Quilting Association's 2011 Challenge.  The challenge involved making an Amish style quilt with a pattern provided.  The instructions stipulated that the maker could use fabrics of their choice, provided that only the colours red, blue and purple were used.  Purple Haze was also awared a First Prize ribbon in this challenge.


I have quilted Purple Haze with a central floral design, surrounded by feathers in the purple border, flowers in the red setting triangles and hours and hours of pebbles in the background.




I found great inspiration for the quilting of Purple Haze in the quilting of Judi Madsen of Green Fairy Quilts.

Thanks for visiting - have a wonderful weekend.  If you get a chance, do go and seen the fabulous display of quilts at the Melbourne Quilt and Craft Fair.

Monday, June 6, 2011

Red & White Quilt

Linda from Quilts in the Barn recently travelled to New York City to the incredible exhibition Infinite Variety:  Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts.  This exhibition included 650 red and white American quilts which were on loan from the collection of Joanna S Rose. 

The exhibition inspired Linda to finish her own Red & White Quilt - Linda's quilt is a wonderful example of this traditional style of quilt.


Linda loves feathers and so feathers I quilted.  Each setting square has been feathered with a heart.  The setting triangles are feathered to flow around the quilt.




If you would like to see some more of the Red & White Quilts from the Infinity Variety Exhibition, have a look at some of Linda's Posts:-
  • Impressions - gives a great sense of scale to the exhibition
  • Texture - a series of individual Red & White Quilt photos
I think I may well have been inspired to make my very own Red & White Quilt.  Hopefully the Infinite Variety Exhibition will eventually travel the world so that we can all experience those incredible quilts.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Tree of Life Quilt

One of the things I love about quilting is that there is a different quilt and style for almost every quilter.  I particularly love the fact that there are different styles of quilts linked to different cultures.  The vast range of quilts which come to me to be quilted never ceases to amaze me and I was very excited to be able to quilt this Indian Tree of Life Quilt for Kate.

Kate gave me some background information on her purchased Tree of Life quilt top.  Kate was backpacking around India more than 10 years ago and saw some women working on one of the bedspreads in Jailsamer, Rajasthan.  As an impoverished traveller with very little room in her luggage she couldn't buy one, but always regretted it. Years later her parents went to India on a far more 5-star trip, and Kate's Mum was given very strict instructions to try and find a Tree of Life quilt.  Kate's Mum spent a whole day schlepping around the shops in Jailsamer and finally found one, which cost a lot more than the original quilt Kate had seen all those years ago.  Being a good mum, she bought it anyway, and the quilt has finally made it to me to be quilted.
 

This Tree of Life Quilt is large - some 88 x 104 inches.  The quilt has been entirely made using hand applique.  Each tree, including the large central tree, is made from one piece of fabric which has been appliqued using the needle turn method.  The central tree is about 50 inches tall.



In keeping with the simplicity of this two-toned quilt, I have quilted around all the applique, including all those leaves, and filled the background with swirls.  The outside border has been quilted with a freeform feather style design including more swirls.


While I spent quite a long time quilting this quilt, I couldn't help thinking how long the Indian quilters had spent working on this wonderful quilt top.

I hope you enjoy your quilt Kate - I am sure it will provide a wonderful memory of your travels.


Sunday, May 1, 2011

Easter in Ballarat

My family spent a delightful long weekend in Ballarat over the Easter break.  Of course no visit to Ballarat is complete without dropping in to the wonderful Ballarat Patchwork.  I was fortunate enough to visit on the day they reopened after renovating and they were celebrating with a 20% off all stock sale!

Ballarat Patchwork is a feast for the quilter.  I took the following photos which I was permitted to share by Emma from Ballarat Patchwork.  The shop has an amazing range of bright, modern fabrics, books and patterns all displayed beautifully.


I fell in love with their display of quilts.



And these softies took my fancy ...


Of course it was impossible to leave empty handed.  I bought some black Hanky Linen fabric to make the Amy Butler Liverpool Tunic - yes, an item of clothing, not a quilt!  We will see how I go - the idea of making button holes is scaring me - wish me luck.


Thursday, April 21, 2011

Ballerina Quilt

Kate from One Flew Over has recently made a Ballerina Quilt, the making of which she has outlined extensively on her blog.  It is a beautiful quilt made with some lovely vintage fabrics.


When Kate initially asked me to quilt this quilt with "straight wavy lines" I was a little concerned.  Straight wavy lines don't really go with my usual need for perfection - it was certainly a request outside my comfort zone.  Once I got started I had a great time quilting this quilt and I love the end result.





You can see Kate's quilt on her blog after washing and drying - perfectly crinkled.  Anyone else for straight wavy lines?