A New Project

I made the first block for a new project this weekend. 

I showed it to my husband Paul, and he told me that I needed to mitre the corners of the outer square.  Unfortunately he is right, I was just being lazy.

Paul knew nothing about quilting before I met him four years ago- maybe I have taught him too well. For example, we were having a disagreement once because he didn’t like the way I had my PC set up (he is in IT).  He said that to him it looked unattractive, like McTavishing with Cross Hatching over the top.

I first drafted this block several years back.  It is eight inches, so the pieces are quite small. 

I really liked the original eight inch block, but then I think I added too much that it lost some of it’s impact. So I always planned to make it again.

This was the final quilt.

On The Machine Today

This is Barb's quilt.

Scrappy and reproduction fabrics - yummy!

The First Block Swap

The first block swap I was involved in was in 2007. It had ten members and we all made the same block, (although due to fabric placement they all looked very different).  We decided on a very bright multi-coloured fabric for our inspiration.  After the blocks were swapped, how the quilt was put together was up to the individual.

Below are two quilts made from the same blocks, but put together in very different ways.

This one is Bronwyn’s quilt.  I love the way she creatively arranged the blocks.

I quilted it for her, and had a lot of fun doing so.

This one is mine, and I pieced it with alternative blocks and used lots of bright fabrics.

  

 

I quilted it with an allover freehand curl pattern as the quilt was so busy it didn’t need anything too fancy.

Chocolate Overdose

I made this quilt in 2006.  I fell in love with the main fabric in this quilt, and didn’t want to cut it into small pieces.   

Up until this point I usually made quilts with a limited number of carefully co-ordinated fabrics, so this was a challenge for me to incorporate so many fabrics into the four patches.

When it was finished, I felt there was too much of the brown fabric, which is why I called it Chocolate Overdose.

  

This is the back.

This Weekend

This is what I continued working on over the weekend.   I am making it as a gift, so these are not really the colours that I would normally choose to work with.  Because of this, I am finding it a bit of a challenge, but I am just starting to think it will turn out ok.  I think the person I am making it for will like it, so that is what matters.

I originally had three inch sashing around the centre blocks, so the dark blue was one inch thick.  This overwhelmed the star blocks, so a lot of unpicking later, I trimmed the dark blue on either side of the light blue back to half an inch to make two inch sashing, and it looked a lot more balanced.

It still needs an outer border, and I was thinking of a piano key border in both red and blue. By the way, the quilt was photgraphed on a red patterned rug, and the light blue border is the current edge of the quilt - although the rug doesn't look too bad as a border :)

One of Janet's Quilts

This is one of Janet Sansom’s quilts that I quilted for her in 2009.

Janet designs the most exquisite embroideries.

Autumn Flowers

This is a quick quilt top I finished last week.  I made it entirely from my stash, including the back which was very satisfying (although of course the stash doesn’t look any smaller). 

The only thing I bought was the batting.  I use Matilda’s Own wool/poly blend batting for most of my quilts, but thought I would use the Hobbs Polydown in this one for a change.

My new Cross Hatching Rulers from Accents in Design were at the Post Office today – very exciting.  Maybe I will have to have a play with them on this quilt.

I am not sure how I will quilt it, but want to incorporate the flower in the main fabric.  Stay tuned…..but the question is, when will I get the time……