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

BOM 32 - Kew Gardens

C32 Kew Gardens

Time for the next block of the month and for those people who enjoy hand work this is a perfect one for you. Kew Gardens needs a bit of care when placing the pieces but if you follow the step by step diagrams it should be a piece of cake.... albeit a small one. 

Oh and the block is straight. The camera wasn't!

PJ, my eldest son, lives in London and Kew Gardens are one of our favourite day outings. The array of plants plus the glass houses are quite amazing.

Terri's Treats

There is no greater thrill I think than seeing a quilt made by someone you don't know of a pattern you wrote and so I was really pleased when Jennie sent me this photo of her quilt.

The pattern, Terri's Treats, was published a few years ago in Australian Patchwork and Quilting. 

My colours were nowhere near as bright as Jennie's and her  border in particular is superb, don't you agree?

Yet Another Border

Well the designing continues, thankfully it is only a draw and colour exercise at this stage as this is the best out of about nine borders I have drawn up so far. 

Boy am I glad I did that class with Robbi Eclow as the skills she taught me about designing with Illustrator have been invaluable.

Although I think the edges look great I'm not keen at all on the corners so I suppose it is as they say back to the drawing board.

Judi Lawson

 One of the quilt groups that I am a member of is the Red Berries. They meet twice a month in Berry and at one of those meetings they usually have a guest speaker. Last month's speaker was a good friend of mine who as you can see from these gorgeous quilts is into reproduction, or reproduction style quilt. Don't you just love them. 

The blue star quilt is one that I hope to make at some time in the future while the hexagon with orange inserts is one that I have already made TWICE. Must take a photo of those quilts soon. Say when I finish quilting them... well that means it won't be soon.

Judi was interesting to hear. In her first few quilts, in an endeavour to more closely reproduce old style quilts she had used flannelette sheets rather than wadding. She said that this had been very difficult to hand quilt and actually resulted in damage being done to her thumb. I would have thought it would have been easy to hand quilt through the sheet. Live and learn.

Mary Prince Squared Off

Well I know it has been ages since I posted a photo of my hexagon quilt but here it is. I am yet to attach the triangular sections but you can see it is moving along. Should be ready for the NSW Quilt Show in Sydney ... 2016 that is. I have never been one to rush things and no point changing a system that works.

Carol is still at it.

Carol LeMaitre

Well isn't this a great block? You can tell that Carol is still into the hexagons and EPP. You would have thought she'd had enough of both having finished making Raconteur!

This is her block from Quiltmaker's 100 blocks. Isn't it great and of course she still insists on using those great prints. I just love how the star in the middle stands out. 

Oh in case you haven't already done it slip on over to here and enter Quiltmaker's competition you could win your own copy of the latest edition of 100 blocks or you may even win one of the other great prizes. These competitions are open to everyone world wide.

Quiltmaker Blog Hop Begins

Well today is the day. Quiltmakers 100 Blocks Volume 11 blog tour begins here. 

This is my block Tall Ships which developed from my Raconteur - The Storyteller's Collection quilt. Isn't it amazing the difference made with different colour/value selection. All that I have done is reverse the darks and the lights and the block looks fantastic now ... says she with a totally biased opinion. Don't you love the starburst in the middle of the block .. it is so much more alive now?

The actual plan for this block was to make it even slightly larger than what it is, but unfortunately I didn't realise that when I printed the foundation papers my settings were 'fit to page' rather than the usual 'do not scale'. This meant that it printed at 93% and explains why the points don't quite reach the end. We all live and learn

The original quilt was started in 2012 and consists of 363 miniature hexagonal blocks. I have been able to design many new quilts and blocks from that treasure trove. 

One thing I discovered making this block for Quiltmaker is that when you make something bigger it is a lot easier. The original block was 2 1/4in ... including the border. Quiltmaker blocks are 12in. That makes it a lot easier. In fact the Quiltmaker block took only a bit over an hour to make, whereas the Raconteur block took several hours. 

Today is my wedding anniversary ... what a coincidence. Paul and I have been married for thirty wonderful years.

If you would like to have a chance to win your own copy of the latest issue of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks simply leave your name and the year that you found someone special in the comments below. 

Make certain that there is a link to your email addy or there is some way that I am able to contact you as anonymous entries cannot win. Good luck. 

After leaving your name check back to Quilty Pleasures for links to other blogs where you may win.

Collection 31 - Where Did That Name Come From?

Collection 31	Sugar and Spice the colours suggested a little girl of yester years in a time when girls were described as being sugar and spice	C31 Sugar and Spice
Floating Star was such an obvious name at a time when I was definitely not feeling very creative :-)	C31 Floating Star	There were so many pieces in this blocks that is suggested the Tinkle of the Keys
C31 Luca	Luca was a young girl that brightened everyone's day whenever she crossed one's path.	C31 Tinkle of the Keys
I know that it looks nothing like the hammer and sickle but the asymmetric setting just reminded me of the Russian flag	C31 To Russia With Love	Absolutely no idea where South Street is nor what is so great about number 16 but it seemed like the perfect name when I thought of it.
C31 Lady Liberty	The Statue of Liberty has influenced many designs since its construction and this is yet another.	C31 16 South Street

BOM 31 - Exploding Star

This star was made at a time that a person special to me was venturing out into the world. Their world was going from a protected environment to one where others would start to see and perhaps evaluate them.

Oh he was successful, although still preferring a closer world.

New Wedding Quilt Border

Well have been working on the border of the wedding quilt again. Must say if nothing else my Illustrator skills have improved :-) it still needs more work but I think I am heading in the right direction.... well I like it and that's a start.

Hmmmmm ... wedding border sewn

Well I have now sewn three 'eggs' for the border of the wedding quilt and must say that I don't like it. I had sewn one of the eggs with the coloured sections being single pieces but it was a definite failure. This one took a few more blocks for me to make up my mind. Apart from the colour I don't like the fact that they won't flow. Rather they will be like eggs on a rock and that is definitely not the look I'm searching for. Oh well back to the drawing board.

100 Blocks Cover

Well doesn't the cover of the upcoming Quiltmaker 100 Blocks look great? I know it's not the clearest but trust me it will be a great magazine to have. 

From the past magazines I have made several of the blocks and even blew one of the designs up to full cot size and made a baby's quilt - from just one design. It was Gertie the goat by Sue Marsh from Whistle Pig Creek Productions and she has had a design in every edition of the magazine. Check out her designs here and you will understand why she is so popular.

Anyway if you want your own copy of the magazine check back here on 5th May and then join in the blog hop being run by Quiltmaker. Every blog you visit gives you a chance to win a copy of the magazine or one of many other wonderful prizes. Mind you make sure you have some time to spare as you will lose many hours checking out the blogs.

Photographing Your Quilt

I have been a bit slack today and not feeling like quilting at all so spent some time surfing the net. I thought it was about time that I improved on my photographing skills. I am able to crop etc quite well but figured that if I spent more time photographing correctly in the first place then I would need to spend less time cropping and fixing later. 

In case anyone else wants to improve their photography skills in regards to quilt photography not other types of photography here are some good places to start. Both of these blogs are for the average person using normal camera not whizz bang expensive can do anything type cameras. Hey there is even explanation on using a phone camera. 

So grab a coffee and off you go...

1. The first stop is Quilty Pleasures a blog run by staff from Quiltmaker. This post is by Shayla who loves to photograph quilts. Her tips are a perfect place for the beginner to start with.

2. Another fantastic blog is by Holly Knot on the blog Shoot That Quilt! Holly has been offering tips to quilters for many years now so check it out also. Holly covers everything you need to consider from camera, lighting, closeup and even a gallery of wrongs :-) 

You will also find links to some great resources.

Wedding Quilt Border

Have been designing the borders for the wedding quilt off and on   .. well more off than on in truth ... for a few weeks now. This doesn't look too bad. Must try making it up and see how it looks in real life. Mind you the corners aren't right yet but will work on that ... soon. 

I really  must get stuck into this. The wedding is in two months. I suppose the problem of deciding that I couldn't finish it in time is that now I don't see the urgency to get if finished but must get back on to it.

My Block is in Volume 11 of Quiltmakers 100 Blocks

It's hard to believe it but I just received an email telling me that my latest submission has been accepted into Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks series. Isn't that exciting. Looks like I will be receiving another mug. 

I can't remember what the block looks like, as it is so long ago that I sent it in, but if you want to win a copy of the magazine so that you can check it out yourself then stop back here on the 5th May as visitors on that day will have a chance to win their own copy.

Khanam's Surprise by Joy Cook

Khanam's Surprise by Joy Cook

An advantage of having so many friends who also quilt is there is usually someone who is willing to make up a quilt design. Khanam's Surprise is a block which I designed for Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks series. 

I made it but wasn't fussed on some of the colours I chose. Joy saw it in the magazine and wanted to try a new technique I have been encouraging my friends to try and so this was the perfect project to learn it on. The technique is where you print the sewing and cutting lines on the back of the fabric using your inkjet printer. After printing it is then a simple matter of cutting along the dotted lines and sewing along the solid lines. 

Joy had some difficulty with the method as we were unable to find the settings on her computer to set the printing for 100% but once we overcame that it was full steam ahead. 

If you like the look of this pattern it is available here. 

Collection 30 - Where Did That Name Come From?

Collection 30	We have all had to make that choice as to which path to follow as we progressed through life. Some Choices were good while others...well we all learn something from each situation.	C30 Choices
Isn't WinterGrass just so lush and soft on your feet?	C30 Winter Grass	When you don't know what to do, do you ever just wander along and listen to those voices speaking to you. Voices from your past and voices from your friends or even Voices in the Stars.
C30 Marmalade	There are many things that you and I remember but it is such a cruel world when we watch our loved ones succumbing to the ravages of dementia. I always thought if a person had to have some ailment inflict them that dementia would be the best. They don't suffer even though all those who love them do. After watching my mother in the earlier stages I now realise how wrong that belief was.	C30 Voices in the Stars
Marmalade, loved by one and all... even special bears.	C30 I Remember	The threat of nuclear war was ever there in the 70s and 80s and even now war threatens to explode in many places around the world and in times like this what do our politics do.... Increase the spin rather than action. Yes History Repeats.
C30 Story Entwinded	I just love a good book where you start out with one idea and it changes continuously as each Story (is) Entwined in the next.	C30 History Repeats