Boxing Day Blocks

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas yesterday! All our family are two states away so we can't see them, we do miss them so much! But we had a lovely day with good friends instead. Before Christmas I received my beautiful Amitie stash in the mail...

I adore that blue elephant, might have to get a little more of that one! The Liberty stash from Amitie is always mouthwatering...

...the elysian liberty is one of my favourite prints but I didn't have it in this beautiful yellow colourway, yum!

But what am I working on at the moment? More wonderful Green Tea and Sweet Beans blocks. Some lovely, hand pieced pinwheels...

I do enjoy sitting in front of the cricket on a summers day with some light stitching to do. Fun applique.

This pattern is now available from Amitie here.

I've also discovered Instagram (thanks Jen), and am a little hooked on it (hoping they don't change their terms!), just thought I'd show a few of the photo's I have been taking over there!

 Gorgeous yarn bombing in Mornington

 Yachts at Hastings

Amazing twisted tree roots at Phillip Island

If you instagram let me know I will come and find you!! xo

Searching for Seaglass...

...is the name of my first ever magazine published quilt pattern, yay!

It was my birthday yesterday and the day was topped off by finding the Quilters Companion Modern Quilts issue in my letterbox. And when I unwrapped it I was gobsmacked to find my quilt had made it to the front cover (blushing now!).

I finished this quilt many months ago and before I sent it to be photographed for the magazine, I took it to the beach for a little photo shoot of my own! (click on photo's to see more detail).

Of course with a name like Searching for Seaglass, the quilt had to visit the beach!! The beach huts on the Mornington Peninsula make a great back drop for any quilt.

I didn't have quite enough of any one fabric for the back of the quilt (the pattern for the back is not included in the magazine) so I separated two different colours using the 60 degree triangles and turning them into flying geese.

For the quilting I used my domestic sewing machine and using the free motion method, quilted clamshells over each triangle. I was thrilled with how they turned out and no pre-marking needed.

It shows up beautifully from the back (I love that painted whale on the beach hut in the background!)...

I am feeling very humbled to be included in this wonderful magazine, alongside many other wonderful quilters and artisans. Charlotte (Lawson and Lotti) has a stunning quilt called Broken Arrows, you can see more of hers here.

This special edition of Quilters Companion magazine is available this month. I'm going to be buying a few, heehee! xo

Museum Medallion Quilt Top Finished...

Yay! It is always a wonderful feeling to finish a quilt top, but especially one where I have learnt a new skill (hand piecing), and had a little bit of time to work away at it.

It is not very easy to photograph as it has ended up a whopping 99 inches square (223 cms).

I have hand pieced a lot of the quilt, except for sewing on the long borders. All of those I did on my sewing machine. I'm thinking I may do the same for quilting this beast...some machine quilting and the rest done using perle threads by hand.

The last border had a couple of additions. It was supposed to be one colour, however none of the fabrics I auditioned were working for me. I then sewed on the orange and yellow and liked it, but wasn't totally happy with it. Once I sewed on the last green border, I knew it was done!

The binding will finish it off nicely in the gorgeous black with pink polka dots seen here in the middle circle.

For those who haven't seen this pattern before it is called Museum Medallion and it is designed by Judy Newman (her design is based on an antique quilt hanging in a London museum). I just love it. It's been fun to add little fussy cut pieces to it...like this gorgeous little sparrow (can you see him?)....

Or these hearts cut from Keiko Goke fabrics, or the apples and strawberries!

So I think it's going to take me a couple of years to quilt it, but I will enjoy the process none-the-less!!! Thank you to everyone who has encouraged me and given me comments on this quilt, I have appreciated every single one!

Couple of Blocks and a Sale

I do apologise for my slight hibernation at this time of the year. I find in the crazy season, I tend to lie low a little!! I do have a couple of my Kim McLean Flower Garden blocks to show...

and this one...

I have been using the needleturn method to applique these blocks and the many, many branches on this block proved an interesting challenge. In the end I decided to use the front basting method to applique these in place. I wrote a small tute for this over on the Glorious Applique blog a long time ago. The link for it is here if you are interested in seeing how this method works.

It made stitching around each branch very easy and I didn't need to juggle thousands of pins. They were also too teeny to glue, so the front basting method worked very well. I would love to know if anyone has a different method to tackle a piece like this?

These blocks are being made up with the majority of fabrics from Keiko Goke's ranges. I have purchased a lot of them from Liza over at Glorious Colour, and she has told me that she is having a sale for these beautiful fabrics. Keiko's fabrics are quite expensive, so coming down from $15.50 to $10 is a great time to grab them. Unfortunately these fabrics are becoming too expensive so this will be the last of them for Liza. Check them all out here.

My Museum Medallion quilt is coming along, a few more borders being added this weekend. It's getting so big I don't know how I will photograph it! This block is one of the corner stars, so sweet!

I will leave you with a photo of my funny Groodle, Millie, quietly pretending she is a cushion!

See you soon. xo