Favourite Quilt

Park City Girl is having an online quilt show...what a fabulous idea!! If you need any inspiration, head over to her blog, there are currently 590 favourite quilts listed there (I will be one of the last ones!).

My favourite would have to be the quilt I first blogged about, my version of Kaffe Fassetts Wheel of Fortune Quilt. I had so much fun making this one. It was paper pieced which was mainly done at night in front of the telly!


Then I quilted it in free motion quilting on my domestic sewing machine. I had fun changing the threads to match the colour of the block I was quilting. I've mainly used stipple, clamshell, circles and straight line stitching. This quilt gave me a lot of satisfaction to make.

On the back I used Kaffe's mosaic fabric. I could look at that design for days, there is so much gorgeous detail.

As quilters, we put a lot of effort into each quilt we make, but some quilts do become more of a favourite than others. This one is mine....do you have a favourite?

Gorgeous!

I won a giveaway on Linen and Raspberry's blog the other day. It arrived yesterday and is absolutely gorgeous, so I thought I'd show you what Jean has made for me. She sent me a beautiful journal cover (complete with journal inside), that Jean has made in a divine linen, with some Kaffe fabrics down the side and some very neat stitching. Also included was a cute little sewing bag (also in Kaffe fabrics!!), which will be so handy.... I'm thinking thimble, small scissors, embroidery threads etc.

When I turned the journal over I discovered this on the back:

How cute is that flower? Then I noticed there was a bookmark in the journal. When I opened to the bookmark, I discovered a fabulous recipe for Cupcakes with passionfruit icing...yum!!

Do you think that when we make things ourselves, it helps us appreciate even more something that someone else has made for us? We know the thoughts, the time, the effort, the pricked fingers! and the love that has gone into the making of them. I will certainly cherish these gifts made by you Jean...thank you.

Preparation

Does anyone else enjoy the preparation part of needleturn applique? I'm currently making the 5th block of Kim McLeans Flower Pots quilt and I'm just loving tracing the shapes, cutting out the freezer paper, ironing the shapes onto the fabric, etc!!! I feel as though I'm in kindergarten again. I enjoy it best when I know I'm going to have a couple of hours to myself, turn the radio on, get a cuppa, and trace and cut away to my hearts content.

The worst part about the preparation is cleaning up the sewing room once I've rummaged through my rather large Kaffe Fassett stash to find just the right fabrics for each shape! What a mess!!!

Easter Fun

Not long after I put up my last post, I noticed my sons had been playing around with their easter eggs and the camera. Over the last 16 years, for some strange reason, every now and again, we come across Josh with things in his eyes!! Either it's coins, or ipod earplugs, or peanuts, or...easter eggs. I don't know what strange compulsion comes over him, but there we find him, sitting quietly, with something balancing on his eyes!


Our younger son Isaac, has always had a fascination with colour, shapes and patterns (he could be a quilter, hey?!) Lately he taught himself how to solve the rubicks cube (by watching utube I might add).
So Easter was the perfect opportunity to not only re-solve his rubicks cube, but to also line up his easter eggs and take pretty photo's of them.

What did you and your easter eggs get up too?!!

Happy Easter

I came across a quilt competition recently with the theme 'circles'. I have wanted to make a circle quilt for a long time, so I decided to have a go. I came up with this quilt which I have called Eccentric Concentrics. I didn't end up with the quilt in the competition as didn't send it in in time, however I had a lot of fun creating it and appliqueing all those circles!I quilted it in stipple and swirls and circles all the while loving the Kaffe Fassett florals and spots, and the Amy Butler spots. Each fabric has a spot or circle on it somewhere.
I had so much fun with this quilt I decided to put some applique on the back of it too. Doesn't the Kaffe Fassett 'Targets' fabric jump out at you?Kaffe's 'Big Blooms' fabric makes lovely applique flowers. I love the look the quilting makes on the back of the quilt.I hope you have a wonderful Easter. My heart is always thankful as I remember what Jesus has done for me.

Tea Pot Clothes

The weather here in Melbourne is starting to get a little cooler, the skies a little gloomier as we move closer to winter. Nothing better than curling up with a good book and a hot cup of tea. I bought these Denby teapots last year and get a lot of enjoyment out of them. I looked around for ages wondering what sort of tea cosies I could dress them with. I debated knitting some cosies, but I am a fairly lazy knitter and most of the patterns seemed too complicated. I didn't want to buy a cosy, as I thought there has to be something I can make.


Eventually, after trolling through pages and pages of googled websites, I found a picture of a quilted cosy. The blue and white jugs fabric I had in my stash (a few years old, I can't even remember where it came from), came in very handy. Some blue check on the inside, cotton wadding in the middle, some simple straight quilting lines and a navy binding was all it took. Very quick and easy, done in an afternoon.


Now I can enjoy a cup of tea, knowing that my second cup of tea will be just as hot as the first!

On another note, I'm very excited...I just found out I won a giveaway from the beautiful Linen and Raspberry blog! When it arrives, I will show you all what I have won. Thank you Jean.

Quilts as Household Decoration

I love making quilts, partly because they are so useful. They are great to give away to friends who are getting married, having a birthday, or sick in hospital, they are great to make for your family to see them snuggled up at night under your creation. They are also great as household decoration. I love having some quilts around the house just to look at when I'm sittting have a quiet cup of coffee, or walking past as I'm cleaning, or just see out of the corner of my eye when I'm on the phone. The colours in contemporary fabrics never fail to amaze or delight me, and when chopped up, rearranged and put together again into a beautiful quilt, the colours become mouth watering and sometimes suprising. The quilt in these photo's was Morning Garden Quilt, another Kaffe Fassett quilt from his book Kaleidoscope of Quilts. I loved his use of colour so much in this quilt I bought the fabric kit and made it up as he had done.

And if I get sick of looking at this view, I simply turn it around, and display the back of the quilt for a while.

Needleturn is my therapy!

I just love needleturn applique...could say I'm addicted to it (just have to find more time!). So when Kim McLean's Flower Pots pattern came along...how could I say no?

I've made up 3 panels so far and almost finished the fourth. It's so nice to have something to do with my hands at night when I'm watching TV. It's suprising how quickly these come together (mind you, I started these last year!).

Unfortunately for me, I have since purchased Kim's Lollipops pattern, and now her Flower Basket Medallion pattern, so I had better get the needles flying!






A big THANK YOU to Mrs Schmenkman for sending over such lovely people to comment on my new blog...I appreciate everyone's kind words and encouragement.

All things Westminster

Here I go...a new blog. I'm starting this off more to keep me motivated than for any other reason. I'm an avid Kaffe Fassett fan (and anyone attached to that Westminster mob...Brandon, Amy, Philip, and now (yay) Kim McLean. I love their amazing use of colour and in particular the way they find vintage quilts and make them contemporary. Kim's quilt designs are full of applique and I will be posting pics of some of her quilts that I will be making. For now I will leave you with a look at a Kaffe pattern I used called Wheel of Fortune. I paper pieced this quilt, then machine quilted it. I was quite sad to finish it as the colours are very fun to work with.