BOM 17 - Clover of Friendship

Collection 17

This block was made by my friend Merelyn Pearce, who, as most Australian quilters would know is the best at appliqué.

I have never enjoyed appliqué and this block was made in my attempt to have at least one sample of every technique included in Raconteur. 

Wouldn't you just love to be able to appliqué points and curves as well as she does. I am able to do this only with a machine but Merelyn can do such using needle turn ... and probably with her eyes shut :0

New Project

The pale background came from the left overs from a friend's quilt. Lucky the spikes weren't any wider or there wouldn't have been enough fabric.

Well there is a good reason why I haven't been doing much lately.  PJ and Khanam have announced their engagement and so I have been busy sewing some blocks for a possible wedding gift. I have always wanted to make a New York Beauty quilt but finding the time and getting stuck into one just wasn't getting anything happening. A wedding in the new year is definitely an impetus and so I thought I had better start.

This was the first block I made. The spikes were fun but deciding on what colour to make the arcs was a difficult choice.

This is an interesting photo in that the arcs appear to complement the spikes well but depending on the light this is not always the case in real life..... interesting.

Two years ago I won a F8 pack from Moda and thought I would base the quilt on those fabrics. I have since been given other fabrics and although I thought they would all go together when I put them to the test they didn't marry well...so a stash trawl was needed. Personally I love the brightness of these colours

Will be seeing them both in a few weeks and shall see what they think of the colours or if they would prefer a more subtle colour choice. As it is likely to be used and so would dominate their bedroom, I thought it should be made in their colour choice rather than my usual random selection of everything :)

Nursery Rhymes & Collection 4

Collection 4	Blackberry Freedom is another block that has been used in almost every variation of Raconteur so far. I just love the frame of alternating up and down triangles. New Beginnings...don't you just love the fabric. Unfortunately I only have a small square left of it and so will save it for someone special.
C4 Blackberry Freedom	C4 New Beginnings

Carol and Collection 47

Collection 47	Carol must be getting close to the end of her blocks. Can't wait to see how she combines them all
C47 Whirlpool	C47 Lightning Ridge	C47 Independence
C47 Stars in the Jungle	C47 The Vultures Circle	C47 Team Lindsay

Nursery Rhymes & Collection 3

Collection 3	Just as these blocks featured in early collections in Raconteur so they have been early blocks in the Nursery Rhymes quilt.
For Nursery Rhymes I wanted blocks with strong features and a good contrast so that they would show up well in a child's quilt.... although it now appears as though it will be too big for a child's quilt  ... such is life. Perhaps next time I will more of the layout rather than one block :)	C3 After the Showers
C3 Burning Bright	C3 Ketchiken Jewels

Carol and Collection 45

Collection 45	As one can guess from the title blue was Grandma's favourite colour. It did look good on her, but then so did most colours. I suppose it was of her happy disposition that she always looked good.	C45 Lights of Dwali
No idea where the title Fizzle came from. I just liked the block and liked the word.	C45 Grandma Wore Blue	I was working in a year 2 class when I made this block and they were studying the religions of the world. Amazing the information one can learn when you approach a new topic with an open mind.
C45 Fizzle	Did Carol choose these fabrics for Easter which often occurs in April?	C45 April Showers
You can see the reeds and plants of the pond so easily here.	block 5 C45 Chillies in the Pond	Can you pick which block is February in the original collection? Amazing how different a block looks with a change of fabric value.
C45 Dancing Flames	Doesn't the lively fabric in Carol's block suggest Dancing Flames in the campsite  fire.	C45 February

Carol and Collection 43

Collection 43	Again Carol's colours are so much brighter than the original quilt. I must say her points are fantastic which, according to Carol is easy with EPP...hmmm!	C43 Flying Free
C43 Love is Blind	C43 Round Two	Can you see the bee? C43 Just There
C43 Level One	C43 Ebony in Roses	C43 Bottled Lemons

BOM 16 - Playpen

C16 Playpen

Well I suppose at some stage I had to have an English Paper Piecing block in a quilt of hexagons. As many of you will already know I didn't make this using EPP but with regular piecing but have included the papers for people who like that method.

This block contains one of my favourite blocks, Yvonne's Mystery which is a miniature feathered star.  Cute isn't it?

Feathered Stars

	I have been having some fun lately working with the feathered star. The versions below are ones which I made in previous attempts but my latest is definitely my favourite. So much so that I have even cut out the fabric for six more. I have drawn up the foundation papers and when I buy some paper I will get stuck into printing the papers and that will only leave finding time to actually sew the pieces together.
Another project for when my attention refocuses here again Isn't it amazing what a different colour placement makes. All of these blocks are identical but for the different placement of the background fabric and the feature fabric.

Collection 42 and Carol

Collection 42	Well Carol has definitely been busy. Here we have the entire C42 and you couldn't ask for a prettier selection.  I have no idea why Bouquet for Mary was named as it was. The name just seemed appropriate .. even though I don't know a Mary :)	C42 Bouquet for Mary
The central star in Reaching Out looks like someone reaching out to others, like the children's game Blind Man's Bluff.	C42 Christabella	The blue fabric in the original block was a beautiful (bella) scrap from a friend Chris.
C42 Reaching Out	A star Within a star the name comes purely from the design.	C42 Within
Where would a garden be without glorious flowers. Alone nothing but together so vibrant and joyful... the Two of Us or the two of them ... really doesn't matter.	C42 The Two of Us	There are many gems but one of the prettiest has to be emerald green and Ruby Red.
C42 Twirling Dervish	Twirling Dervish  are traditional male dancers seen in the Istanbul, Turkey. You may see a video here of some of these amazing men in action.	C42 Ruby Red

Collection 2 revisited in Nursery Rhymes

Collection 2	Well here are a few more blocks from Nursery Rhymes. All of these come from Collection 2 and so I have included it here so you can compare. As you can see these fabrics still have a similar feeling to those from the original Raconteur. I again stayed with the pale or light background and the stronger colour for the feature.
This time around I am keeping the one fabric for the background throughout and I'm not too sure that I like it. Unfortunately I have cut and sewn too many blocks to go back and redo them. We will see what the finished quilt looks like.  I have added another border this time around  as I wanted to try a different kind of sashing.	C2 Cafe Creme block 2
C2 I Love Lucy	Although it looks like just another round of border that is only because of my poor photoshop skills. The outer colour border is in truth a set of whirling arms.  The idea was good but I am having difficulties with the layout and so am having to work another design.
The problem of the whirling arms was that the blocks end up sitting slightly off straight as I didn't guess the correct width to use for the sashing. I have been trying out different options on the computer but none have really excited me.	C2 Creme de Chantilly