Mariner’s Compass in Purples and Reds

I love the colours in this quilt made by Irena.  She made almost the entire quilt out of her stash, and many of the fabrics have special meaning for her.  I think it has come together beautifully.

Irena didn’t want the quilting to dominate in her quilt, so I did a lot of ditch stitching.  I broke the large red setting triangles up with some straight lines as well as feathers to create a bit more interest, and I think the effect worked well.

Feeding the Kangaroos – Part 2

I don’t think this video of my nephew feeding a kangaroo is as cute as the one I posted a couple of months back (click here to view it).

But this still is pretty cute (yes I know I am a very biased Aunty).  I can see how much he has grown in the five months between the two videos - kids change so fast.  

He is having a sleep over with us this weekend.  I can’t wait. Hopefully the weather will be nice so we can go to the park, or maybe the zoo.

Queen Square Quilt

Anne-Marie made this gorgeous quilt for her mother.  The design is Sue Ambrose’s Queen Square Quilt.  Anne-Marie’s quilt is striking due to her fabric choices – I love the green background.

Anne-Marie didn’t want it too heavily quilted so that it would remain soft.  All the appliqué and seams are ditch stitched and outlined.  I used my curved cross hatching rulers to emphasise the curves of the appliqué, and I quilted some feathers in the shapes created.

Visit Sarah's Blog to see what other quilters have been up to this week.

Floral Embroidery

Once again, another of Janet Sansom’s beautiful embroidery quilts.  We decided on a simpler quilting design in the sashing than what was quilted on Janet’s black embroidery quilt because the embroidery was lighter on this quilt.

I have posted a number of Janet's quilts on my blog.  You can see them all by clicking on the Embroidery label, or click - here.

Visit Esther's Blog to see what other people are working on this Wednesday.

Celebration Cake

We had lunch on Sunday with Paul’s family.  My mother in law, Angela wanted to celebrate the success of my quilt Ruled by Chocolate at the quilt show.

This was the gorgeous cake she made.  She went to so much trouble to make the rosettes, and the lines of chocolate coated macadamia nuts symbolise the name of the quilt.  

I am so lucky to have married into such a caring family.

'Ruled by Chocolate' - won Best In Show

Today is the first day of the Melbourne Quilt Show, and the award ceremony was at midday.

I still am floating on cloud nine.

My quilt ‘Ruled by Chocolate’ won –

First in the Machine Quilters Category

Best Use of Colour

Excellence in Long Arm Quilting

And the biggest shock of all

Best In Show

It hasn’t sunk in.

Besides a peek of the quilt with my nephew sitting on it, I haven’t shown the quilt on my blog – so here it is.

This photo was taken today with my wonderful supportive husband Paul who is so proud of me.

Funny name for a quilt you might say, but several of my quilts have the word chocolate in their name and I call them my Chocolate Series (by the way this is number 7 in the Chocolate Series). 

This quilt was called Ruled by Chocolate for three reasons.  Firstly the colour.  Secondly, there was a lot of ruler work in this quilt.  Finally, I consumed a rather large amount of chocolate whilst quilting this quilt (or more accurately, the chocolate was being consumed while I was unpicking the bits I didn’t like).

While the piecing on the quilt is simple, the quilting is very detailed.  There is a combination of ruler work, freehand and stencil on this quilt.

I chose a deep red for the back as I knew I was going to use three shades of brown thread, and I wanted the quilting to show, but not with too much contrast.

Matilda’s Quilt

This gorgeous quilt was made by Emma, for her daughter Matilda who is eight.  Emma wanted it to be special, so she asked me to quilt lots of feathers on it.

Matilda chose the orange backing fabric, and I think it was a perfect choice, so I am showing lots of photos.  There were three thread colours used on the quilt – brown, green and cream.  All three show beautifully on the back.