Windmills of Your Mind

This is my favourite quilt.  I finished piecing it in 2013 and quilted it the following year.  It is named Windmills of Your Mind after the song with the same title which I have always loved.

The design started with Michelle Yeo's Giant Dahlia, a quilt I have made a few times now as it is so easy to make with her templates.  One day when Michelle was dropping off a quilt I asked her if she could make me smaller sets of acrylic templates, which she kindly did for me.

I only added borders on two sides, partly because it was so large, but also because I wanted to offset the circles.  I also used two background fabrics to enhance the frame.

I quilted it with circles and straight lines.  The two borders were more formally quilted with half circles and feathers.

The lighter thread shows up nicely on the back with darker thread on the circles.

If you are interested in how I made the quilt, the first thing I did was make three full dahlias in the three sizes.  Then I lay them out in various configurations to see what appealed to me. I didn't like this straight line arrangement below at all.

You can see even small differences like the placement of the smallest dahlia either above or below the large dahlia make a difference to the look of the quilt.  The second photo below is the arrangement I liked the best.

I then pieced the largest dahlia into its frame on three sides, leaving one side open (this side is under the smaller dahlias in the picture below)  I also added part of the outer frame to the point where it will meet the smaller dahlias.

I pieced in the smaller dahlia first as I wanted it under the medium sized one.

I then pieced the medium sized dahlia.  To piece both of the smaller dahlias I lay them over the top until I was happy with the placement.  Then I marked the circle with erasable pen.  I also marked registration lines that I used to match up when I sewed them together.  I then carefully cut one quarter of an inch within this circle.  

I nearly had a disaster when I was cutting for the smaller dahlia.  I had a moment of inattention and started cutting one quarter of an inch outside the marked circle (instead of inside the circle).  This would have made the hole too big.  If you look at the picture below, imagine it with the cutting line outside the marked line - the hole would have been too big and I had cut into the large dahlia.  

Luckily I realised my mistake before I had cut more than about a third of the circle and was able to slightly move the placement of the small dahlia and mark a new circle.  If I had not realised when I did, the quilt may never have been finished because I would have either had to remake part of the large dahlia or completely change the layout I had chosen. I could have been so annoyed with myself I might have put the quilt in a cupboard and never gone back to it.  I am so glad that didn't happen.

Paul's Quilt

This is the third quilt I have made for my husband Paul, and the first one where he chose the pattern.

When we were in Alaska in 2019 we visited a number of quilt shops - of course.

We were in a little shop in Sitka and Paul found this pattern.  He has always like quilts with bright colours and black backgrounds, loved this pattern, and asked me to make it for him.  As this was the first time he had specifically asked me to make a quilt for him, I couldn't refuse.  Luckily I liked the pattern.

I send away for the fabric in the pattern so I could make it exactly the same.  This is the first time I have ever made a quilt precisely the same as the pattern as I usually like designing my own quilts, changing a pattern, or adding my own fabric choices.

While I was waiting for the fabric to arrive from the US, I made a practice version in greens for my friend, and her favourite colour is - you guessed it - green.

When the top was finished I asked Paul how he wanted it quilted - assuming he would choose and allover pattern.

I have obviously taught him too much about quilting as he said he wanted it ditch stitched with horizontal lines in the border the same width as the piecing.  For those long arm quilters reading this you will know that is not going to be much fun for me.  So I talked him into having it 1/4 inched in matching thread colour and vertical lines in the border after one line of horizontal quilting.

After moving in March, and getting my machine set up in my new studio, it was the first quilt I did.  This was during the first lockdown due to Covid-19.  And yes I know I have a lot of fabric in my stash - I miss my dedicated fabric cupboard that I had in my old house.

Checkered Stars

This is a quilt I completed a few years back.  The top was completed in 2011.  I started quilting it in 2012, got around 80% of it done, and then had to take it off the machine to work on customer’s quilts.  It took another two years before it got loaded again so get the last bit done.

I quilted it heavily with a combination of straight and curved lines and of course feathers. 

I entered it into Showcase - which is the main show for my state of Victoria in 2015, and was thrilled that it won first in its category.

Double Wedding Ring in Liberty Fabric

This quilt was made by Sue in gorgeous Liberty fabrics.

I quilted this quilt about a year ago, but forgot I had taken photos.  I found them late last year. 

Sue asked for more modern quilting and showed me some photos for inspiration.  But as the sizes of the rings on her quilt were different from the photos I needed to work out a design that worked best for her quilt.

I took a number of photos while the quilt was on the machine as I was trying to work out how I wanted to quilt the plain fabric in the centre of the rings and in the melons.  What I didn’t like I unpicked.

This photo show how I originally thought I would place the arcs inside the ring.  I didn’t like this arrangement as I felt the centre area was too small for the diagonal straight lines I planned to quilt.  I was also playing with the melons.  I didn’t like this design either as it looked like teeth to me.  So I unpicked all of this.

This photos shows that I made the centre area larger, but now I felt it was boring and too big.  I unpicked this. I had settled on the melon design as can be seen in this picture.

This photos shows the final design for the centre that I really liked. I felt the row of pebbles gave it more interest that the design in the previous photo.  The design in the melon was an early reject which was later unpicked. 

You can see in this photo the two potential designs side by side.  I know it comes down to preferences, but I much preferred the one on the left.

When I was quilting the diagonal straight lines in the centre I would start from the middle and work out to one side, then go back and do the other side.  This allowed me to get the lines at the correct angle if I did the longer lines first.  I also alternated the direction of the lines to create more interest.

Sue brought me a plain backing fabric so the quilting shows beautifully.

   

The Green Monster Quilt

This is my friend Bronwyn’s Quilt.  Bronwyn designed the quilt and showed me a copy of the design before the quilt was completed.  As a quilter, what I really liked about it was the interesting shapes that were the background, and I spent some time looking at the design drawing to work out how I should tackle quilting it.

As I have been quilting for Bronwyn for years I am comfortable having artistic freedom.  I decided to treat each three pronged area as a whole unit and designed a feather to fit this shape.  

I do not have a computerised machine so the entire quilt was done with rulers and the feathers are freehand.  I deliberately made the feathers all slightly different, and some have little curls in random places.

The centre star I emphasised with straight lines.

The little pieced stars around the centre star I emphasised with straight lines and a row of pebbles to make them stand out a little from the rest of the background.

This is a big quilt, and there is a lot of quilting.  Bronwyn called the quilt Chrysoberyl, which is a green gemstone.  But by the time I had finished this quilt I was calling it The Green Monster.

Bronwyn blocked the quilt at my house, as she didn’t have the available floor space.  I helped her, but all I did was hold the tape measure and Bronwyn was the one crawling around putting in all the pins.  Usually I am the one doing that, and my husband just holds the tape measure when I block a quilt, so it was nice to be just the helper for a change.

Bronwyn entered the quilt in the Victorian Quilters Showcase last year.  It received some lovely comments.