| Oops Log Cabin Baskets is upside down. If you stand on your head you may be able to see the basket more clearly... or perhaps not:) |
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| The design for Argyle Sweaters was taken from a jumper I made many years ago. I must get back into knitting sometime it was such a relaxing pastime. |
| Winter Secrets is a miniaturised version of one of the blocks from my quilt Winter Secrets. This was a stitchery which I designed, reworking some of the blocks from Raconteur, for when I was travelling and not wanting to take too much stuff. | ||||
| The design for Norwegian Wind came from a jumper that my youngest son bought. He lives in Norway and so the name. Carol's version is here |
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| Maypole is made in an interesting manner. I made two identical blocks and then cut sections out from one of them and appliquéd them onto the other reversing the colours.. my appliqué skills were definitely improving although it was just a circle that had to be appliquéd so no points or tricky bits. For a TOTALLY different appearance check out Carol's two versions here. |
| Natures's Force was simply six arcs sewn together. If you check out Carol's block you will see though that it is also easily made using appliqué. | ||||
| Spinning Spokes was my first attempt at really tiny hexagons NOT made with English Paper Piecing and it was a success confirming that this was a method I could avoid for now and the future.... try it. You will be amazed. Carol again showed a total change with her colour choices here. |
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Friday
Collection 13 - Where Did That Name Come From?
Collection 12 - Where Did That Name Come From?
| Collection 12 contains mainly blocks that were designed and made early on in the quilt that became Raconteur. I hope you enjoy making them as much as I did. |
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| Watching was a very easy design to draw..but took several goes before I finally thought to resort to using a machine..at least for parts of it... to centre the white hexagons I had to sew MINUTE triangle to two sides. I finally worked out it was best to strip piece this section and then it was a piece of cake |
| Hidden Extras, look closely at this block and you will see a blue star in the centre. It appears to be 'made' by quilting lines but no I did actually sew those little triangles in separately. I had made a mistake when cutting the fabric and as I wasn't home when I sewed it I couldn't cut out more fabric. | ||||
| Doesn't Turnaround remind you of those artists who juggle sticks of fire. You can see them spinning and turning in the air. In Sparrow's Flight one can remember the little birds as they flit in and out from the bird feeders |
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| My youngest son has always participated in many charity fund raisers and Relay for Life was one of these. As part of their 'kit' everyone received a pair of lilac shoe laces. |
| There are few movies I remember from my youth and No Roses for Michael is one of those. It came out early on when drugs were becoming more common and was part of a government scare campaign. I always remembered the name and the poor fellow in the gutter at the end. It was probably one of the things that terrified me enough to keep me from experimenting in my youth. | ||||
| Lemon Souffle was for many years my favourite summer desert. It isn't your usual hot runny version but a cold desert. Light as the name suggests but held together with gelatine.... must make another one soon. |
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Collection 11 - Where Did That Name Come From?
| Well Collection 11 must be the most insane collection. This collection contains about 500 individual pieces! Yet it doesn't contain the block with the most pieces from the entire collections. these are gorgeous blocks but if you haven't paper pieced before then I strongly suggest you do the exercises in the tutorial I uploaded earlier. |
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| Don't you just love those little children who hold up an assortment of fingers declaring I'm Three and what could me more enjoyable than a Rose Garden... well a rose garden that is maintained by someone else. I live opposite a TAFE college which taught horticulture. The students practiced on my garden and I enjoyed the fruits of their labour. Carol's blocks I'm Three and Rose Garden |
| Mandola at Midnight - yes I did design this at midnight. I had received QNM just that day but being very busy didn't have the opportunity to read it until bedtime. This became another night of little sleep and so I decided I may as well get up and have a go at designing my own mandola as the directions seemed so easy :) To read more about this block and also to see Carol's block click here. | ||||
| Lynn Hewitt is a NSW quilter who teaches throughout the state. At one retreat I attended she taught sashiko and everyone in the class agreed it was a most relaxing pastime. |
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| Tall Ships was a variation on a block that I found in Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks. I can't remember which issue but it was an early one. The original block was an eight point star and didn't resemble ships at all... shows you how poor I am at trying to modify something... new block though |
| Hunter's Web was supposed to be a log cabin. If you found you way into this cabin you might not find your way out. Carol's block | ||||
| I know there is little Winter Sun apparent in this block but it is what I think the winter sun would be like in the cold northern hemisphere where the sun seldom shines in summer. Carol's block is a lot brighter. |
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Collection 10 - Where Did That Name Come From?
| Collection 10 contains mainly early blocks ... and how can I tell this? Well simply by the colours of the fabrics used. Raconteur was to be a pastel quilt. After about 100 blocks I discovered that I wasn't a pastel girl and if I didn't extend my palette then I would never finish. Funny to think that it took me so long to work out pastels weren't my thing ... I'd had to scrounge many of the fabrics for my early blocks from my friend Margaret :) |
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| Fiesta was obviously named because of the colour and pattern in the fabric, very similar to what one would expect to see when ribbons are twirling in the air at the parades of a South American party. I just had a thought I hope fiesta means party as I never bothered to look it up just thought it did. |
| As I said in my BOM post Twenty-One was named because that was the name that popped into my head at the time.... surprisingly it is also the number of pieces of feature fabric that was used... I only discovered this when writing the previous post. | |||||
| What do children in kindergarden spend an unbelievable amount of time doing? Rainbow Writing, writing words over the top of themselves using as many different colours as possible. Looks pretty ..takes time. |
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| I don't think there is actually an airport called US International but travelling through the USA it never ceased to amaze me how busy and full their airports always were. Few places of peace, or places to relax between flights. |
| September is spring and that is when the lavendar blossoms. I love when the lilac blosoms tumble to the ground... Sweet September | |||||
| Salmon Run, the young fish are washed into the sea andspread afar. Yet years later return to waters they never knew. Some make it back others are not so fortunate. Who didn't grow up watching The Mouscateers? I still remember the Xmas I received my own mouse ears hat. Never see them these days. Yes Mickey was My Hero. |
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Collection 9 - Where Did That Name Come From?
 | Collection 9 - moving along the second row of the quilt..only a few more rows to go:) Sports Day was made at the end of a long day at school. When I first started teaching I taught at a wonderful school which had these great sports days where there was an event for any child who wanted to participate. Many schools now still carry on this idea and I love the friendships that are displayed on these days in particular. This block was to represent the parachute activities that are common particularly when little children are involved. The children hold onto the edge and lift it up as high as they can and then run inside while a few strategically placed adults remain on the edge holding it out. Laughter always dominates these events. |
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| Childish Tube - do you remember that old tractor tyre that you would take to the local swimming hole. Everyone would hang onto it or then you would play King of the Castle and see who could stay on the longest. Wrapping your legs as tight as possible around the tube was your only chance of staying on. |
| Accepted Few is a reminder of the nastiness of schools and the groups, who is in and who is not. School isn't always a happy place for one and all. | ||||
| Rabbits in the Light yes I was a country kid and we did go rabbit hunting. When I was a child it was to provide food on the table and the way my mum prepared it was the best. Nothing as sweet as memories of childhood favourites. |
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| Denali is a mountain in Alaska and although it is quite high the day we visited there was so much cloud cover that all that could be seen were a couple of smallish hills |
| Portrait Pain we have all been there ..school photos.. stand straight look this way smile now..you all know the routine... My eldest always hated them and although he had the money to pay for the photos he would regularly skip out, particularly at high school. I think I only have two photos of him while there. | ||||
| When Two are One was made to represent how two people in love can develop as one each making the other complete. |
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Collection 8 - Where Did That Name Come From?
| Collection 8 - can you believe we have come so far already? This collection contains a few of my favourite blocks, many of which were made early on as can be told by the soft pastel fabrics that were used. |
| Spring Surprise was given its name because of the soft fabrics reminded me of the pansies that were blooming at the time. | ||||
| Too Many Thorns - Just like our roses so many points and so many thorns. Banana Custard - this must have been made in winter. With my sweet tooth banana custard is one of my many favourites. |
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| City Living - the tightness of this design suggested what I see as life in the city - Too much! Too close! The dream of distant open spaces. Rising Mist - Umbrellas within a sea of blue. What better name? |
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| Summer Picnic - Doesn't the floral fabric remind you of those frocks we all wore when we were younger. King of Versailles - yes this was made during one of our visits to our son who was studying in Paris at the time. A beautiful city and so suited to us. We loved the early morning walks where many streets were empty as the city didn't wake up until 10:00. |
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Collection 7 - Where Did That Name Come From?
Merry Margaret
This single block is one of the corner collections. The corner and side collections are made of extended hexagons to fill the spaces so the quilt is easy to finish off rather than being in and out as hexagonal quilts often are.
So who is Margaret?
She is a close friend of mine who I worked with for many years .... well really simply shared an office. Both of us worked with special needs children but in different areas of need. We were both itinerant teachers and so were based at one school for all of our administration but travelled to various schools to help the children on our caseloads. It was hoped with support from teachers such as ourselves that children with special needs could remain in a regular class in their local school. Both of us would visit three, four or sometimes more schools in a day.
Margaret took up patchwork when we worked together ... I seemed to have that effect on many coworkers introducing them to my obsession :-) She enjoyed traditional quilts and at one time took a particular like to the 1930s fabrics.
This fabric came from her stash and the heart at the bottom represents our mutual friendship and the star was added to give the block the appearance of a flower.
Collection 6 - Where did that name come from?
This collection contains one of my favourite blocks Crystal Dreams, the fabrics do nothing to showcase the design but I still love it.
| Short Changed was one of the first blocks that were based on a smaller grid with an extra border. The original aim was to leave space for highlighting quilting, but my skills were too poor, atrocious is a more apt description for my machine quilting. Anyway due to my level of quilting skills I ended up leaving the area still plain.. Would like to see someone do something with their skills. |
| Crystal Dreams was designed to show some flowers in a crystal vase. The diamond cut that is common on many of the crystal vases inspired the design. Isn't it surprising that two fabrics that looked good together in strips don't come up so well when sewn...and then top it off with my being too lazy to resew the block...viola! | ||||
| Disappearing Hope was made at a time when things were going pretty badly within my family after an argument with my father. Many things weren't too good at that time, but the block still looks good. |
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| Fake Hands was made around the same time as Disappearing Hope. People pretend to care but spite and jealousy cause a lot of harm..and then they walk away, leaving much damage. |
| Enter With Care - my eldest son worked for a while at Lucas Heights nuclear reactor and he would joke about consequences of a nuclear mishap. Youth knows no fear. | ||||
| The title With Care came from the fact that care needed to be taken when fussy cutting this block. |
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| Strung Out was made about the same time as Disappearing Hope and Fake Hands. Gorgeous blocks for not such a nice time:) |
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Links
Links to blocks by Carol -
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