Piecing

I don't often seem to get the change to piece any quilts - most of the quilts I make tend to focus on the machine quilting and they are usually wholecloth quilts.  This week, I decided that a quilt needed to be made for an upcoming birthday present and so, I have been enjoying piecing.

As the quilt is for an 18th Birthday, I decided it needed to have a modern look.  The quilt only has two solid colours - a white and green.  I thought I would quickly whip up this  quilt, howevever, there is no way of quickly piecing and trimming back 540, 2 inch half square triangles.

 

 

Slowly, the half-square triangles have come together

 

 

Having finished the half-square triangles, now the quilt is starting to come together more quickly.

 

 

Back to sewing - the birthday is soon!

 

 

 

 

 

Quilt Mania Cover - Red Cross Quilt

I was thrilled to discover that the wonderful Red Cross Quilt I quilted for Linda from Quilts in the Barn is featured on the cover of the current issue of Quilt Mania.  Congratulations Linda, it looks fabulous and I am very excited to have been involved in the making of this quilt. 

 

 

For those who haven't seen this quilt before, please see my previous Red Cross Quilt post including close-ups of this gorgeous quilt.

 

I can't wait for this issue of Quilt Mania to drop into my letter box to discover other pictures of this quilt inside the magazine - it is going to make for some great quilt reading! 

 

Just think Linda, a quilt we have worked on featured on the cover of a magazine which will be on news stands in Paris!  Happy reading.

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Strippy Applique Spring Quilt

I can't believe another Blogger's Quilt Festival has come around yet again.  I have joined in quite a few Blogger's Quilt Festivals and thought I would again - thank you for organising Amy - I always enjoy visiting many of the other quilts.  I know it is the Fall Festival, however, I am sharing what is very much a Spring Quilt given that it is Spring in Australia.

I have recently quilted a very cheerful strippy spring quilt for my customer Karin.  Karin made this colourful quilt for one of her grand-daughters, alternating rows of stripped triangles with strips of appliqued birds.

As Karin's fabrics were very busy and the quilting on the strips of triangles would not show much, we decided to combine edge-to-edge and custom quilting.  The triangle strips are quilted with an all-over design called Daisies Galore.  The applique strips have been outlined around the applique and then quilted freehand with a back-ground fill.

I love the whimsical quilting around the birds.

I hope your Granddaughter is enjoying her beautiful quilt Karin.

Remember to go over to Amy's site and visit many of the other wonderful quilts in the Blogger's Quilt Festival - Fall 2012 - enjoy!

Quilts in the Barn 2012

Last Friday my 12 year old son and I went to the Exhibition at Quilts in the Barn.  This year's exhibition, "Infinite Variety Revisited" was a wonderful display of Red & White Quilts.  To my son's surprise, he too enjoyed the exhibition (especially with a stop at a lolly shop on the way home).

I will leave you with some of the highlights.

A slight bias towards this quilt - see some of my previous posts!

There were many small wallhangings, creating a great display.

A tiny little doll's quilt with matching pillow!

And lots of lovely quilting!

Thank you Linda for another wonderful exhibition at Quilts in the Barn.  Congratulations - I am sure you will have raised lots of much needed funds for breast cancer research.

Diamond Sawtooth Quilt

The following Diamond Sawtooth Quilt is the last in a series of stunning Red & White Quilts I have quilted for Linda Collins of Quilts in the Barn.  This quilt too will feature in the upcoming Quilts in the Barn Exhibition as detailed in my previous post.  As usual, Linda's piecing was incredibly accurate - on this occasion she had paper pieced the half-square triangles resulting in perfect points.

Linda gave me the freedom to quilt as desired, as long as it included feathers.  I spent quite some time designing the quilting elements, using the Divide and Design concepts outlined in Lisa Calle's DVD.  Each triangle was divided and the same element quilted into each triangle either once, twice or four times depending on the size of the triangle.

The border was quilted with a simple undulating feather with straight lines.  The straight lines were quilted using one of the Quilter's Groove Rulers which made the spacing of the lines straightforward.

All was going really well until I decided to remove some of my blue dividing lines with a spray of water.  Being a red and white quilt, I was being conscious of the possibility of bleeding.  I had used the blue wash out pen on the white fabric only and had used chalk on the red.  You can imagine my horror when on spraying the white fabric, being careful to avoid any red fabric, a pink stain appeared - the backing fabric had bled into the top fabric.  At 11pm on a Saturday evening, I took to the computer googling madly for solutions to this problem - I did take some comfort from other quilters who had experienced the same problem.  After a restless night, I rose early to finish quilting the quilt and visited the supermarket to buy some Colour Catchers.  I consulted Linda who confirmed that none of the fabrics had been pre-washed.  We agreed that I would was the quilt, hopefully rinsing out all the excess dye including the bleeding which had occurred.

I tested some off-cuts of the backing fabric in some warm water in the bath - it turned pink!  Eventually, the quilt went in with a whole packet of  Colour Catchers.  Again, the water turned pink.  After a second and third rinsing, all the colour appeared to be gone and fortunately, the stain had washed out as well.  I am not sure how the Colour Catchers work, but they do appear to be effective - each of the sheets started out white.

AMQF 2012

I am very excited to be heading off to Adelaide tomorrow for the second Australian Machine Quilting Festival.  I will be travelling over with two of my machine quilting friends, Mandy and Anita, for a long weekend of classes with Ricky Timms, Renae Haddadin, Sherry Rogers-Harrison and Myrna Ficken.

The 4 day event will also include a vendor mall (looking forward to some shopping) and the Australian Machine Quilting Association Quilt Show. I have entered two quilts in this exhibition and it is always fabulous to see your own quilts on display amongst a fabulous collection of quilts.

I am looking forward to 4 days of machine quilting and the company of like minded people.  Are you heading over?

Quilts in the Barn 2012

Quilts in the Barn 2012, organised by Linda of Quilts in the Barn is on again in a few weeks - the exhibition is being held from Friday 5th Octiber through to Sunday 7th October, 2012. The exhibition is a fundraiser for breast cancer research.

This year's exhibition was inspired by the Infinite Variety Exhibition:  Three Centuries of Red & White Quilts held in New York City in 2011.  Since travelling to the exhibition in NYC, Linda has developed an even greater love of Red & White Quilts as you may have seen on my blog, having quilted a number of Red & White Quilts for her.  For a preview of some of the Red & White Quilts which may be on exhibit at Quilts in the Barn 2012, remember the first Red & White Quilt, the beautiful Red Cross Quilt, and the stunning Red & White Quilt #2.  A range of vintage Red & White Quilts from the Mary Koval collection will be also be on display. 

The most recent Red & White quilt which I have quilted for Linda is the following beautiful traditional Signature Block Quilt made with reproduction fabrics.

In keeping with the traditional fabrics and design of this quilt, it has been quilted simply with Baptist Fans, one of my favourite designs for reproduction quilts.

I am certainly looking forward to this year's Quilts in the Barn Exhibition - best wishes Linda for what I am sure will be another wonderful exhibition.