BOM 34 - Follow Your Heart

This is one of the few applique blocks in Raconteur. The title and absence of many applique blocks reflects my attitude to this technique. I don't enjoy applique but adore piecing and so following my heart I do as little as possible. 

The star was reverse appliqued from the centre of the block to signify taking away rather than adding to.

Joy's Quilt

What a difference fabric can make. Joy, the woman with the bright red shoes, made this quilt for one of her grandson's and isn't it absolutely amazing. 

She'd had many plans but wanted to highlight the background fabric and her original plans would have meant a LOT of work and left little space for this fabric to feature. 

She had already made about 40 of the NYBs when she saw the Wedding Quilt layout and thought it would be the way to go and so asked me to design a central circle that could feature and allow her to us my layout. 

Viola not bad ... the quilt I mean. 

Won't her grandson be gobsmacked when he sees this!

One Man's Trash .....

Well I have been given a friend's unwanted scraps and boy what a monumental task it has been to organise them. I have been cutting for over two weeks and now have managed to clean up most of it but I was wondering this morning could I have done it better and after a bit of surfing have discovered that yes...... I could have completed it a lot more efficiently.

One site that I found is this one by Cindi Souder who gives some good suggestions on how to organise yourself for both better/cleaner cutting and more organised time management in the task of cutting fabric. Hopefully I remember it for next time but for now I have cut the following queen sized quilts from my friend's 'rubbish'

• Storm at Sea
• Kaleidoscope
• Penrose Tiles
• Three strippy quilts
• Two hexagon scrooge quilts

What makes it even more amazing is those were cut from her small scraps. There still remain larger pieces to be cut ... another day!

Hexagon Anyone?

Was just cleaning up my camera card and came across this photo. Would tell you the name of the maker but I just don't know it but there she is in the photo. 

She lives in Berry if that's any help :-)

Isn't it a great quilt! Looks simple enough too .... If you like fussy cutting and EPP neither of which am I into.

Robbie Eclow Class

I was recently cleaning up my photos and came across these delightful quilt photos from a class that I did a year or so ago with Robbie Eclow .... where did the time go? If you ever have the chance to do a class with Robbie jump at it. She is the most amazing teacher.
	All of these quilts were completed in just two days. As you can see there is just so much variety. Each is an original. Oh and why isn't mine here? Well because I had RSI and so was unable to cut fabric for two days so I designed for the entire time and learnt so many skills that I am now able to design a lot more intricate quilts of my own. Great teacher!

Look what I found!

Was attempting to clean up my sewing room... not a successful venture if one is honest but look what I found. I did a class several years ago with Jacqueline DeJonge and started this quilt. Learnt her technique but like all classes hit a snag after the class finished. That is one thing about doing classes the tricky bits are often at the end... well after the teacher has gone. I have actually finished all of the pieces but alas the circle appears to have too much in the inner section to fit the outer section.... another problem for another day.

Another Failure

Well one thing about tinkering too far is that you end up with a big fat blob!!! 

Can you believe that there is only minor changes between this border and the one I did last week? 

I was so happy as I was drawing this and fixing that and then I did the colour in and blah. All of the life has gone from it. 

Well wedding is only a month away and so this will be another late quilt. Then again PJ said he never thought it would be finished by then. He might not have expected it but at one stage I did.

Collection 32 - Where Did That Name Come From?

Collection 31	Do you remember those hot summer days and the unfortunate sunburn that often resulted from a day spent at the pool? How many of us didn't have a time or two that we closely resembled the sunburnt lobster?	C32 Sunburnt Traditions
Doesn't life feel like you're in a whirl when you fall head over heals in love with your new desire?	C32 Heart's Desire	I know the block is symmetrical and it's blue and the name Symmetry in Blue just came to me for no other reason.
C32 Kew Gardens	I don't know if Kew Gardens have a maze or not but the design suggested those hedges we see in the old fashioned gardens and as I was in England at the time it seemed appropriate.	C32 Symmetry in Blue
Well here you have the fashionable, and painful, Stilettos along side the grandma's version of less pointy and so less painful kitten heels. I prefer the kittens but that's probably because I don't have legs to complement the stilettos.	C32 Stilettos	The circling birds reminded me of a fact I believed as a child... 'birds fly south for the winter'.  Why, I always wondered, as it was colder going south? My childhood was filled with books written for a northern hemisphere child rather than an Australian child.
C32 Grandma's Apron	Doesn't the fabric remind you of the apron's worn by everyone's grandma and wasn't she the centre of your life when you were growing up?	C32 North for the Winter