Sneak Peek at Ruled by Chocolate

I finished quilting my quilt, Ruled by Chocolate at the end of April.  Since then it has been sitting in a calico bag.  It needs to be blocked, but I don’t have a lot of spare time at the moment.

I was showing my sister the quilt, and had it laid out on the floor.  My nephew was there at the time, and he took a liking to it, insisting on putting his toys on it and wanting to play on it.

I snapped a photo of him with his big yellow ball.  You can get a peek at the quilting, still with the chalk and blue pen markings on it.

Once I get it blocked and bound I will post some detailed photos.

I have been working on the My Projects page (click the link on the navigation bar above).  I hope to start regularly updating this page.

Hearts for a Granddaughter

This pretty quilt is Heather’s.  She chose an allover heart and loop pattern as the quilt was made with love for her granddaughter, Adelaide, who is turning seven.

 

Heather asked me not to quilt on the green squares made up of the four triangles because she plans to hand quilt this area herself.  As I quilt freehand, it is easy for me to go around areas on a quilt.  But because it was not appliqué or something really obvious, the hardest part was to remember.  So I placed some templates on each of the green squares to remind me to go around those areas as I quilted.

 

Heather pieced the back, and the quilting shows beautifully on the cream.

Binding done on Autumn Flowers

I have shown plenty of close ups of the quilting on this quilt, when I first quilted it. (for more pictures click here).  It was a while ago, and I have finally finished the binding.

A blog that I follow regularly is Kathy’s – TamarackShack.  Kathy lives in Canada beside a lake.  One of the things I like about Kathy’s blog (besides the beautiful quilts), is that she takes stunning photos of the quilts outdoors, showcasing the quilt’s beauty along with the beauty of nature.

I live in Melbourne, and I don’t live in such beautiful surrounds.  My house is on a smallish block of land, on a quiet suburban street with lots of houses all around me.  But inspired by Kathy I decided to take a photo of Autumn Flowers a little differently than my usual “flat on the floor” pictures.

As it was raining, I couldn’t go outside.  I took this photo looking out of my front window.  You can see my elm tree, a small part of my magnolia tree, the street and the house across the road.

Melbourne weather has become very cold over the last couple of weeks even though it is still autumn.  I took this photo a couple of weeks ago walking through the Carlton gardens next to the Exhibition Building.

Blocking Stars and Diamonds

If you read about the drama I had when I blocked my quilt Cherry Chocolate, you will understand that I had some trepidation about wetting Stars and Diamonds – especially as many of the same red fabrics were in this quilt. But it had blue pen all over it, so I had to wash it to get it all out.

In the past I have blocked quilts by pinning them into the carpet, which is undoubtedly not very good for the carpet. And because I am aware of what I am doing to the carpet, I don’t stretch the quilt as much as I probably should.

I came across a post at Margaret’s blog describing how she blocked her quilt. She bought sheets of interlocking styrofoam. I asked Paul if Bunnings might sell interlocking styrofoam, and he suggested I get kids’ play mats. What a great idea I thought, and I found some on sale at Bunnings.

I dunked the quilt in the bath, watching carefully for any red dye coming out. I didn’t leave it in the water for long and I didn’t put it in the spin cycle of the washing machine as I didn’t want any of the red fabrics touching any other fabrics in case the dye ran.

I laid it our on the matting, and dried it as much as possible with towels.

Using my rulers and tape measure, I pulled and tugged to get the quilt square, ensuring the sides measured the same and it was the same measurement diagonally. I had very wet knees and a very sore back by the time it was done.

I recently re-watched Karen McTavish’s DVD that came with her book ‘Quilting for Show', which describes how she blocks her quilts. It was fairly similar to what I did, only she has someone help her. The next time I block a quilt, I might try to rope Paul into helping me (honey if you are reading this - hint hint).

To view more pictures of my quilt Stars and Diamons click here.

Three Days in Perth

I have just returned to freezing cold Melbourne from beautifully warm Western Australia.  I flew back on the overnight flight, so am taking today to recover from lack of sleep and the time difference.  Then it will be back to work on the quilting machine tomorrow.

A break like this always invigorates me, and I know once I start quilting again tomorrow, it will be with renewed enthusiasm and energy.

I was very pleased to be able to catch up with Joan - Joan at Leschenault  while I was in WA.  Paul and I were staying in Rockingham, so we took the short hour’s drive to beautiful Leschenault where Joan lives.  She has an amazing studio with gorgeous views from her window.  It was great to see her beautiful work first hand. (And she makes an impressive pineapple fruit cake too).

After a delicious lunch (thanks Joan, Andrea and Emily) , we went to Gnomesville which was amazing.  Tens of thousands of gnomes from all over the world have been left at the corner of two country roads.

They just go on and on, seemingly forever down the path.

Give away winner drawn

Thank you to everyone who participated in the give away last week.  Paul being the computer wiz that he is, whipped up a couple of lines of code that would randomly select a number for me.  

So the winner of Karen McTavish’s book Quilting for Show is Jan Hutchinson.  Congratulations Jan!  Jan - please send me an e-mail with your address and I will post it to you.

Onto some other news, Linda from The Quilted Pineapple passed on a Versatile Quilter Award to me.  Thank you Linda.  Linda does beautiful long arm quilting, and like me, loves to quilt feathers - check out her blog for some lovely eye candy.

Stars and Diamonds - Bloggers Quilt Festival

Welcome to my Bloggers Quilt Festival Spring 2011 post.  I hope you enjoy - this is the first time I have participated in Amy's Bloggers Quilt Festival.

I really liked the quilting motif I did in the diamonds of Barb’s quilt (click here to see the post), but hadn’t had the opportunity to do them again since her quilt.  So I decided to make something for myself where that quilting motif would work.  

I started piecing this quilt late last year, finished the top in January and I quilted it in February this year. I have just finished the binding.

I still have the label and hanging sleave to do and then it will be finally finished.

I will be posting soon on how I blocked this quilt.