Planning For The Week Ahead.
Posted on October 3, 2010 | 1 Comment
Lots of preparation needs to be done this week for a variety of projects to be started or continued.
I have reached the point with my Butterfly Garden blocks, (Leanne’s House), where all the embroidery is done but not the applique. I did start off by doing both the embroidery and the needleturn on each block and completed three that way.
Then I decided to change the way I was working and only did the embroidery. Now I need to cut out all the pieces for the applique so that I can finish the remaining six blocks. There is still a lot of work to do!
I need to piece these fabrics into a backing for a dresden plate quilt.
These beautiful Leesa Chandler fabrics, Under The Australian Sun, will be cut out ready to sew.
And these fabrics will be sewn into a fun play quilt.
Hopefully a busy and productive week ahead.
Paths and Curves
Posted on October 2, 2010 | 1 Comment
Another early effort with raw edge applique was this variation of drunkards path.
Doing it as raw edge applique made it quick to finish. The idea then was to machine wash and tumble dry the quilt so the raw edges would become fluffy. Maybe it is time for me to do that.


I also tried quilting this myself by following the curves. It makes me realise what progress I have made with my quilting skills and what a difference my new machine makes.

Sunshine.
Posted on September 29, 2010 | 3 Comments
The title of this post ends up being relevant in two ways today.
The first way relates to photography. I have some larger quilts and find them very difficult to manage when wanting to photograph them. Yesterday I noticed the sunshine streaming in the bedroom window and really showing up the quilting on this quilt.

I realised I was better off leaving the quilt on the bed and photographing it there while the light was so good.
The second connection with the title is that the fabric is Moda Sunshine.
The quilt ended up being king sized and was made using several jelly rolls and a dozen charm packs.

I had it professionally quilted with the baptist fan pattern. I really like the way it creates texture and movement in the quilt.
The pattern was simple and gave a wonderful scrappy look, but when it is set en pointe it creates a great look with the quilting.
Obviously, I am very happy with the end result.
Bright Birds.
Posted on September 27, 2010 | 2 Comments
Another lot of binding done and another quilt finished!
This quilt started out from a selection of fat quarters that I had collected. It meant that the quilt couldn’t grow too big and would just be a wall hanging size. That was fine.
I fussy cut the birds and then simply added mix and match borders around them. I did straight line quilting from edge to edge and also around each framed bird. I like the bright, cheeriness of the quilt. In hindsight, the only thing I would maybe change is that I would add in some plain white around the birds so it was not as busy. But now that it is finished it will stay as it is.
Red and White and Green.
Posted on September 26, 2010 | Comments Off on Red and White and Green.
Quilting done. Binding done. Always great to achieve a finish.
This pattern, Whirlgigs, has been around at various blog sites for a while now. I started working on this one last year and managed to finish the top, but then it joined a few others in the pile waiting to be sandwiched for quilting. It took a recent wet weekend to move me along and prepare several tops for quilting.
This has a mixture of fabrics, mostly ones I already had. I have quilted with an all over loopy pattern and bound it with a red pin-dot. It was a Summery feel to it – maybe it could be a picnic blanket!
Hearts.
Posted on September 24, 2010 | Comments Off on Hearts.
There are lots of lovely quilts around using a 9 patch design with hearts or stars. I was inspired to do one of my own using scraps collected from other quilts I had made. The borders were from fat quarters collected in my stash. The quilting is a gentle meandering pattern.
Continued Progress.
Posted on September 23, 2010 | Comments Off on Continued Progress.
I have been able to continue working on the tops I basted and have now quilted a second one. This one now is also waiting for binding. I have used a combination of fat quarters in this quilt and I think the colours have a Summer feel about them.
I have also been able to piece together the half square triangles of Winter Song. Borders are cut and ready to sew.
Sweet Victorian Angels.
Posted on September 22, 2010 | Comments Off on Sweet Victorian Angels.
A lot of the dolls I make are in the country style, but every now and then I like the challenge of something with finer detail.
These brooch pins are a pattern from Julie McCullough, of Magic Threads, and are only 6 inches in size. They actually were not too hard to make as Julie M had very good instructions. Because they are small they did take a while to make and I had to be patient when working with the smaller pieces. I’m not sure that I could do miniature dolls or bears – not quite that patient.
Spring Has Sprung.
Posted on September 21, 2010 | Comments Off on Spring Has Sprung.
This is the name for a little wall hanging by Anni Downs of Hatched and Patched. It is a small applique piece with a little patchwork and some embroidery. Ideal when you want something easy and quick to complete.
It seemed an appropriate choice with the arrival of Spring.
Catching Up.
Posted on September 20, 2010 | Comments Off on Catching Up.
I seem to have accumulated a few quilt tops and decided I needed to get some quilting done. Over the weekend I was able to baste 4 tops, mainly because none of them were too large.
I was even able to start quilting one of the smaller ones yesterday and then managed to finish it today. So now all this one needs is the binding done. I have the next one waiting next to the machine to start this evening.













