BOM 13 - Nature's Force

Driving to Canberra if you come from the north you may pass the Capital Wind Farm. This is the largest wind farm in NSW and has been in operation since late 2009. 

It cost about $300 million. 

The turbines are absolutely massive with the hub, or pivot point being 80 metres high and the diameter of the blades being 88 metres. 

Together, I think, they generate 140.7 Megawatts. It is a truely impressive site!

Great Minds Think Alike?

C31 16 Sixth Street	C31 16 Sixth Street
C36 Reunion	C36 Reunion

Aren't coincidences amazing? Carol sent in the above two photos a few weeks ago and it was just when I had been making the same blocks for my Nursery Rhymes quilt.  This has happened a few times but I have never managed to organise myself enough to photograph my blocks.
It is interesting to see what the blocks look like in different colours. Nursery Rhymes is the first quilt I have made for many, many years which uses one fabric for the background. I'm not sure that I like it as it appears rather bland in my mind even though it does have the advantage that all of the separate designs really stand out. Have to wait and see what the finished quilt will be like.
Nursery Rhymes was to be a cot quilt but due to a few design errors in the sashing it has now grown.. at the present rate it will probably be queen size:) oops! Have to think of a new name.

More from Collection 32

C32 Symmetry in Blue

C32 North for the Winter

Doesn't Carol choose delightful fabrics? I know I used a similar fabric to the background in Symmetry in Blue, although definitely not for that block:) and I do like the daisies in North for the Winter.

I think I will have to make a quilt using a lot more conversation prints but I have either made great quilts, in my opinion that is, or else they were horrid. I have a skill of using fabrics similar to Carol's in multi strip quilts like that one of Gill's a few posts ago. My skill however isn't that good at combining them in blocks such as Carol, where each fabric has a job to do rather than just be a busy background with many like fabrics.

so where did the block names come from.... Symmetry in Blue came from the colours, blue in the original block and the fact that the block was symmetrical. At the time I made that block I had been experimenting with asymmetrical designs, that is ones that weren't symmetrical. While my regular square/rectangular designs looked OK, some of my hexagonal ones weren't as pleasing and so I returned for a while to symmetrical designs again.

North for the Winter was made while I was watching some birds fly in formation around my home. I was discussing with Paul 'facts' from my childhood. One that always confused me was that birds flew south for the winter. I could never understand why they would go to Antarctica rather than the Equator in the colder months. Little did I realise that this fact was taken from a book set in the northern hemisphere. These days our children's reading books are set in our own wonderful country  reflecting our way of life and that of our own flora and fauna.

I hope you are all enjoying her results as much as I am.

Full steam Ahead

C41(almost) Dodgy Solutions

C41 Clean Solutions

 Carol was flying along a few days ago and with plenty of time on her hand set down cut out a block. Unfortunately it was, as the name suggests, a bit dodgy. The result was the block on the left Dodgy Solutions. Oh well another block for the quilt...lucky she always planned on making a king size quilt. Well in truth she initially wanted a queen size quilt but couldn't decide which collections to omit and so figured king was a better size.

After Dodgy Solutions she then figured it would help if one looked at the design when cutting fabric and so we have Clean Solutions, which does have equal sized borders but due to my cropping skills it appears slightly larger on one side.... isn't it great that we all have skills both to share and learn:)

The name Clean Solutions comes from the resemblance of this block to the symbol used for nuclear materials. Interesting isn't it that once we thought nuclear energy would be perfect with no waste products to pollute our world..we live and learn.

Wider Border Templates

A few months ago Margaret from Oak Flats gave the suggestion that people use 1/2in seam allowance on the borders rather than1/4in as this allowed them more juggling space in case their blocks were not quite right. To help anyone wanting these templates I have finally managed to find time and have now drawn them up. The link is here

http://tinyurl.com/WiderBorders

Carol's Gift to You

Original - Tribute
Carol made a table runner several years ago and just a few days ago she was inspired to create another block for Raconteur using it as inspiration. She has also graciously allowed me to share it with you all. At this stage the pattern contains the templates for miniature size, 141size and EPP templates for both sizes. No instructions are included at this stage but if you feel you would like them email me and I will add them. Many thanks to Carol for sharing this delightful pattern.	Click here for pattern http://tinyurl.com/TributeByCarol Please let me know if the link doesn't work as I am just learning how to share with google drive.
Original - Froggy Princess	Froggy Princess is another original block...in truth I had one the same originally but when I found I had over thirty blocks too many it was one that was culled. Mind you my fabric wasn't as nice as Carol's...but surprisingly it was a frog and the block was called Valiant Frog after my friend Val who had given me the fabric:) Great minds think alike.... (I won't continue that statement)

More Fruits from Xmas Downtime????

So where did I get the name for all of Carol's latest blocks?

All of these blocks were made whilst travelling through Asia. Temple Within, oops just realised that I uploaded it sideways. The figure 8, the temple, should be standing upright with its fortress walls also standing upright. If you tilt your head sideways you will see it. Chinese Checkers are one of the games I enjoy playing and they always have boards on the cruise ships.	C37 Temple Within
C38 Chinese Checkers	C38 Splendour of the Storm
C37 Twisting Maze	I adore watching storms, but not on a ship. Luckily the storm hit while we were sightseeing. It was amazing the strength in the wind as it tossed the tree branches around. Although we had arrived at the lunchtime venue no one ventured from the mini bus for over half an hour until it subsided. Twisting Maze, do you often suspect that your tour driver is taking you in circles or round and round a maze?

Xmas Prize Winner

C4 Blackberry Freedom

Just noticed today that I had forgotten to announce the winner of the Xmas draw for a free collection. Charlene from Harden was the lucky winner. She has just returned from a holiday in Qld and is yet to decide which collection she would like.

Congratulation Charlene. We look forward to seeing your next blocks.

For everyone else keep making blocks and sending in photos as there will be another draw in a couple of months once things settle here a bit.

Remember when you send in photos to please take them at the highest resolution of your camera and also if possible stand straight on to the block, placing it on a low table is probably the easiest ... especially if you have dodgy knees like everyone in this household and getting things off the floor is becoming more of a challenge:)

POP

POP - Pachyderms on Parade

Besides teaching Raconteur last year I had the pleasure of teaching a group of delightful women from the Bateman's Bay area. They choose to make what I call my Scrooge series of quilts. The name comes from the fact that all of the quilts, at least mine, were made from my scraps. I had many unwanted fabrics lying around and so cut them into strips and then proceeded to make a few quilts from these strips. 

POP, aka Pachyderms on Parade, was one of those quilts and here you can see Gill's finished quilt. It is amazing how your eyes try to follow the paths throughout. 

I had previously only made this with smaller blocks but unless we enlarged and modified the blocks Gill was going to be making blocks until next Xmas. Increasing the blocks meant we had to add an extra curve into several of the blocks but this sat beautifully with her design and colours. 

She likes it enough that it is a keeper.

Xmas Relaxation?

Even with 28 visitors over the Christmas break Carol managed to finish a few more blocks. I really can't wait to see her collections when she combines them. It is going to be a vibrant quilt that's for sure. I love how Carol uses fussy cut fabric in many of her blocks and the Australian wildflowers in Winter Blossoms, are my favourite flowers..apart from roses :)	C35 Reflections
C35 Winter Blossoms	Reflections is one of my favourite blocks. There are, from memory, four blocks in this series or set. I saw a block I really liked in Quiltmakers 100 Blocks series and modified it to make the blocks. This is he most dramatic of the four.

Hanging in There

I hope your Xmas was less hectic than mine. Xmas is a time for relaxing and enjoying the company of your friends and loved ones. This little fellow shows what a number of my days felt like over the past few weeks but from here I am positive it will go up.

Don't get me wrong, I had a top Xmas with my youngest son and his partner home from Norway. I also had delightful visitors who helped with the cleaning up, while Paul and my son did the majority of the cooking. It's just that I feel as though I have been chasing my tail all of the time. However things are now slowing down and so I hope to get back into my quilting...although I do have about ten pairs of pants to hem:) but I'm almost there.

Madeleine Loves Lucy...or perhaps not

C2 I love Lucy 

Madeleine has just finished her second block I Love Lucy from collection 2. She says it wasn't a fun block and from the description of her difficulties it strikes me as though these were similar to others. 

I selected this block when I taught at a retreat recently assuming that it would be reasonably easy. I thought it was a good choice because it would show the students some of the layout features they need to watch for. Well it did do that. Most of my students had the same problem that Madeleine had in trying to fit the outer two borders to the inner triangle. 

Once I explained how the outer sections 'twisted' around the triangle everyone was able to continue happily...well maybe not totally happily but they were heading there. 

Madeleine emailed me with the same problem that they and struck and so I could understand what she was asking. I forgot the little idiosyncrasies of the different blocks as I had made so many of them. It is good to have to rethink what I did first time around. anyway it looks good doesn't it?

Btw if anyone does experience any difficulties understanding the directions I am only an email away.

BOM 12 - Turnaround

Collection 12

The first BOM for 2014 is Turnaround, which is one of the easier blocks with only thirteen pieces. 

The choice of fabric reminds me of a firestorm in the wind blowing round and round with sparks flying out everywhere. 

Collection 2- Where Did That Name Come From?

Rice Pickers
Rice Pickers was made when Paul and I were travelling through Asia and we drove past these rice fields. I had never seen anything so lush and was amazed at where the rice could be grown. I always thought it had to be grown in large flat areas, as it needed constant, or regular flooding. You can tell by this comment that agriculture was not a subject I excelled at... or was awake for.
It appeared to be up the side of what had once been an almost vertical hillside.
The villagers had cut away at the sides of this small mountain/huge hill and terraced it entirely.
Although there were no rice pickers at the time the large triangles in this block reminded me of those old straw hats we saw being worn in old time TV shows and movies.


Crème de Chantilly
It was 2009 and we were visiting Paris to see our eldest son who was studying there. It had been 18 months since we had last seen him and it coincided with Paul's birthday. PJ bought a birthday cake complete with Chantilly cream, a favourite in Paris. The colours and design reflected the cake and its decorations. Our household has never worried about pink for girls and blue for boys.

A Merry Christmas
We have a star on our Christmas tree that we bought before children. Like us it is a little more worn at Christmas but still there in pride of place. Christmas has always been for Paul, aka the elf, the most special of times so I designed this block to reflect our Christmas star.

Flamboyance
I remember watching a news item about the Sydney Mardi Gras and seeing the floats pass by. I found the costumes and colours used amazing and so flamboyant. I tried to show the swirling and activity of those costumes in this block.

Cafe Crème
Our local cafe makes a very good cappuccino and I would go there every Saturday after my Pilates class with some of my classmates. This block was named after our regular outing.

Not Here Thanks
On the way to Sydney we pass through a suburb with a huge Nuclear Free Zone sign. One of our boys at the time said if there were bombs dropped would that mean they were not allowed to land here? Older child said how do they get the nuclear medicine to hospitals if they are not allowed to come through here.  Out of the mouths of babes as they as they say.
So the spaces on the block surrounding the nuclear symbol represent this attitude of ’Not here thanks.’

I Love Lucy
This was one of my favourite TV shows as a child. I always saw Lucille Ball as being surrounded by many people all of whom loved her.

What a Difference Colour/Fabric Makes

WOW doesn't the change in fabrics change the whole appearance. compare Carol's two blocks just below with the collection beside. OK I assume you can easily find my Stringing Away block in the collection to the left but being honest, how long did it take you to work out which of my blocks is Bamboozled. It took me a while. That's the thing with Raconteur a small change can result in quite a change.

C35 Bamboozled

C35 Stringing Away

	The blocks are easier to find this time round although I would still guess that it wasn't a walk in the park as they say. Carol has used an amazing selection of fabrics and it will be something to see when it is totally finished. I am sure that task also won't take her as long as it took me. she has only been working on Raconteur for twelve months and I am positive she is past the half way point.
C32 Kew Gardens	C32 Sunburnt Traditions

Don't You Just Love Points?

C31 Tinkle  of the Keys	Carol uses a large variety of colours in her blocks as well as conversation prints. I am always amused at the secondary idea one gets from the fabrics she uses. At the time of designing Tinkle of the Keys I enjoyed using incomplete shapes and so made the hearts in four sections. Here Carol uses a background of heart fabric making another play on the background theme.	row 1, cell 3
Must say Carol's English paper piecing method appears to have less bulk in the middle than I remember having with this block. Initially it was to have six of those fine pointed arrows coming to the middle but it had miles too much fabric in the seam allowance. The smaller arrows meant that I could make the middle sit easier.	C32 Stilletoes

The Way to your Heart

C32 Heart's Desire	Funny I never realised how many of my blocks were named after foods. I think I must be a male in disguise as the old saying 'a way to a man's heart is through his stomach' definitely applies to me.
Paul says he still remembers the first time I visited him at his place. We lived about five hours apart at the time and I arrived one Friday night. He had prepared a roast lamb and he said as he watched me devour the lot it reminded him of his father... who also was another example of a person who enjoyed his food:0	C31 Sugar & Spice
C30 Marmalade	I still love food particularly sweets and yesterday made a fantastic apple and ginger marmalade... I wonder which marmalade I had made when I named this block. Mind you the block must have been made around 2009 as that was the year I discovered when a person makes jam/marmalade there is no need to make 100+ jars of it. My mum only ever made plum or nectarine jam and never in quantities less than 100!!!

Scrapbox Wonders

Carol decided it was time for a clean up in her sewing room and found these three left overs from other projects. Perfect she figured for a few more of her blocks. Carol is making a king size Raconteur and her preferred layout needs three more collections than the original, so these definitely won't go astray. For other delightful original blocks by Carol simply click on the 'original' label on the right.. you will adore here angry bird :)

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Scatterday Y

Now isn't that a cute letter Y.  The categories for this week are
# bedroom
# winter
# hot
# and from the sewing room - yahoo!!!! Something that you were/are really pleased you finally finished.  Speaking of finished Y is the final Scatterday letter.
It has been a fun year and there has been some interesting reading in the fortnightly posts. I look forward to checking out the posts for our ultimate week.

Publication day is 7th December...oops better make that 21st December (thanks Vireya for letting me know - some days are just so hectic.. you all know the feeling) . I wonder how many people will be able to make it for this date... thanks everyone for participating .

Madeleine's First Block

C2 Flamboyance

Madeleine only started sewing her blocks last week and she has already completed Flamboyance. 

Initially she had difficulties because, of all of the blocks to choose to start with, she chose one which had somehow managed to sneak through my tester and unfortunately some of the diagrams needed to be reversed. So of course the pieces wouldn't fit... wouldn't you know it! 

Once she checked with me and I fixed up the diagrams she flew along. Although she  was all thumbs at the start it is obvious that she managed to overcome that. Great block.

BOM 11 - Sashiko Star

Sashiko Star  is a traditional sashiko design from rural Japan in the 18th century where women made garments for the family. The stitching was originally designed for strengthening a single layer of fabric or for patching worn clothing or quilting together several layers of indigo dyed fabric for warmth and durability. It was believed that the closer the stitches, the more durable the garment.

In the early days, clothes worn by the common people were made from homespun fabrics woven from the fibres of the paper mulberry, wisteria and hemp. Cotton was imported and went to the nobility.

Because it was time consuming and difficult to make fabric and garments, the people developed ways to recycle fabric and extend the life of their clothes. Once the Sunday best kimono showed signs of wear, it was worn as every day dress, later used as a sleeping gown or shortened to make a jacket. When further worn, the fabric was used as an apron or bag. Eventually, layers of scraps were sashiko quilted together into dust cloths. Another way of extending the life of a garment was to use running stitch to hold layers of patches in place, thereby preserving a well worn jacket or favourite garment. Socks, worn both inside and outside the house, wore out easily. Thus the bottom surface was strengthened with sashiko.

When cotton fabric, softer and easier to sew, became accessible to peasants, winter clothing was created by stitching together multiple layers of clothing with sashiko patterns and more intricate designs became possible. Thus the early geometric stitches which were purely functional now became valued for their decorative qualities and special names were given to the different designs which incorporated traditional Japanese patterns and motifs – pampas grass, hemp leaf, lighting, ocean waves.

By the 18th and 19th centuries, sashiko quilting began to be used for decorative purposes a - wall hangings, table centers, bags - and was no longer exclusively utilitarian. As in many other cultures, the value of a young woman as a bride was predicated upon her stitching expertise.

source http://www.embroiderersguildwa.org.au/

Charlene & Snippets

C2 I Love Lucy

Early last year I was fortunate to teach Raconteur at the South Coast biannual retreat. For this retreat I chose seven blocks from various collections and combined them into one collection, called Snippets. This was so that I could cover the different techniques in the one class and so cover what I felt might be some of the pitfalls people might encounter. 

C3 Burning Bright

Surprisingly, to me at least, after spending several years making Raconteur I had forgotten how long it actually took me to make those first few blocks. 

C4 Blackberry Freedom

These days I generally make a block in a couple of hours but when I first started it took me the better part of a day and for some blocks even longer. 
 I thought that the students would be able to finish a hand pieced block on the first day, perhaps two if they were experienced and two machine pieced on the second.... oops. 

C6 Crystal Dreams

Most of the students were similar to what I had been at the beginning and so finished one block the first day....because they were good students and went home and worked on it that night. 

C6 Enter With Care

I could definitely do with a few of those conscientious bones some days. Everyone found the second day a lot easier and finished at least one block. One student was even onto her third by the time we had to pack up. I found it a great bunch of students and learn a lot about teaching something so complicated... students will amaze. 
Charlene was in that class and has sent me photos of her finished blocks. She had not made miniatures before and hasn't she made some amazing blocks.

C2 The Rice Pickers

C5 Baby Blue