Collection 5 - Where Did That Name Come From?

Collection 5 contains some of my favourite blocks and many were early blocks in the design and making of Raconteur. How can I tell this? By looking at the colours used. Raconteur was to be my first 'pastel' quilt. However as I progressed I decided that baby pastels were just not my style and although I attempted to still remain in the pastel range I ventured into the stronger pastels such as those used in Mums Among the Gold, Echoes and Behind Walls. So now for the origin of the names.

	Behind the Walls - doesn't each individual section remind you of someone sitting alone in a little room, locked in their own thoughts and own world. Are they all the same or just that little bit different? You will never know for certain.
	Pointing the Finger was named after a long day spent mainly in primary schools. One thing which I always found interesting when working with children from toddler stage to the end of high school was the different ways that problems were sorted. I understood little kids would cry, you ask, they tell the cause...easy peasy. High school they sort out a lot of things with their friends or by themselves. Primary school they dob... jealous about something... dob on the kid, angry with someone...dob, doing the wrong thing...dob on someone else.... the day is full of kids dobbing, which is a slang word meaning to tell on someone or point the finger.
	Gift Wrapped - don't the arrow heads remind you of that gorgeous ribbon bow that arrives upon parcels which are wrapped by someone who has a lot more skill than I do with curling ribbon. Every year at Xmas I attempt to master the curling ribbon with scissors trick... never does it look as beautiful as my expectations or someone else's effort... but I keep hoping.
	Echoes should have been called Ripples as it was named after the effect you see when dropping pebbles in the water but at the time the only word I could think of was echoes.
	Baby Blue was named because of the fabric colours. Did you realise that until recently blue wasn't always for boys and pink wasn't always for girls? The evolution of our preference for these colours for the particular sex has come about just since the first world war. Prior to that time both boys and girls wore the same crisp white dresses as girls until they were 6 or 7 years old. These colours were chosen for practicality since it was easiest to bleach everything. The bleaching rendered everything both clean and hygienic. Then pastel colours were introduced and babies were generally dressed in either. However around the time of World War I, there developed the fear that a child would grow up perverted if s/he were dressed in the 'wrong' coloured clothes and so the clothes became gender specific and with time these colours became set in stone. Research shows it could have quite easily gone the other way with pink being for boys and blue for girls. Men are gradually changing and wearing pink, particularly in Australia following the strong support from various male sporting teams for Breast Cancer Awareness, whose official colour is pink. However this has not been extended into baby's clothes.
	Mums Among the Gold - this one is a direct reference to the fabrics used. The bright pink reminded me of chrysanthemums and although not clear in the photo, the background fabric is a gold print on a white background.
	Taylor's World was named after a student that I taught and the title is from a book which her mum, Jenny, wrote about Taylor's first few years and the trials and tribulations in the family during those years. Taylor is a great kid and I enjoyed teaching her. She is someone who gives her best all of the time.

Collection 4 - Where Did That Name Come From?

The title Your Decision comes from the fact that the curve in this block is a basic one from mathematics. It is known as either a sine cure or a cosine curve, the only difference between the two is where they start.

While making the block I couldn't decide which fabric would be the feature and which the background. The decision decides the border fabric - your decision.

Green With Envy is a simple block made when I was practicing making very small strips and then trying a bargello idea. The name came purely from the fabrics which were two beautiful Japanese florals - bet you wouldn't have guessed that.

The fine strips in Rainbow Semaphore suggested the flags waving about when people used flags on a pole for semaphore... or what I think they looked like.

Do you remember the lovely floral frocks you wore as a child on a Summer's Day.. well if you were born in the 50s or early 60s that is..before the advent of stretch wear.

New Beginnings was made as a reminder to the start of a new life for my sister and her son when they moved into their own place.

I was visiting my brother-in-law one day and as we sat having coffee and cake, non-fattening almost, there were a couple of Birds protesting at the Window. My BIL feeds many of the birds in the area and they felt it was time for their snack too.

Oh the freedom when you ventured out to the paddocks with just your bucket, wearing shorts and T-shirts to pick the sweet blackberries.... such fun.. and even though you returned home scratched all over from the thorns, did you remember to dress more appropriately next time? Not me... Blackberry Freedom

The Storyteller's Sampler Quilt - C&T Post 2

This is my second post from the C&T blog ...

Hi again 

Cinzia again with my book, The Storyteller’s Sampler Quilt,  that has just been released by C&T. 

Today I just want to give you a couple of hints on how to organise yourself so that you too can enjoy making your own quilt.

The quilt, Raconteur - The Storyteller’s Collection, took six years to design and it was the perfect take anywhere project.

My sewing tin is just 3in square and it can hold three blocks plus sewing bits. So find something small and always keep the project with you for those few spare minutes you find.

The photographed project-in-progress, Yvonne’s Mystery, is perfect if you like miniature foundation piecing. In a block that barely covers your palm there are well over 100 pieces. 

In the book you have 359, mostly original, full size hexagon designs, each with step by step directions. Just check it out ….  there are over 2,000 step by step illustrations to show you how each block is constructed. I guess you can tell that I am as proud as punch about that fact I’m also the illustrator!

If you do decide to buy the hard copy you simply place a piece of freezer paper over the block and trace it to make your full sized templates. More detail about this is provided in the book.

If you decide to buy the e-copy then on my blog, https://cinziawhite.com you will find a post, How to Print on Freezer Paper with a Laser or Inkjet Printer. 

You should also check out the Tot 10 Tutes on Linda Franz’s blog, https://lindafranz.com/blog/ for instructions on ‘How to Print Custom Page Sizes’.  These two resources will make your task so much easier.

The Storyteller's Sampler Quilt - Inspiration

Today I thought I would upload my posts from the C&T blog.... as this is where I share my thoughts and many of you probably haven't checked out the C&T site.  

Here it is..

My name is Cinzia and my first book ever, The Storyteller’s Sampler Quilt, has just been released by C&T. 

Today I thought I would share the inspiration for the quilt title, Raconteur - The Storyteller’s Collection. 

The quilt is made of 49 collections each of which has 7 hexagons that are then arranged as a Grandmother’s Flower Garden.  My plan was that each hexagon would tell a story of someone or something significant in my life journey. 

The quilt design when first seen, would be from a distance and all you would see was a Grandmother’s Flower Garden with something sparkling in each large hexagon.  As you approached you would see more and more detail, until you stood directly in front and could see all the colours, fabrics and designs. Like seeing a person from afar and then getting to know them better the closer you become.

Great idea in theory and in real-life … but unfortunately not  great for photography. A king size quilt is made to be photographed standing back but a miniature is made to be photographed up close.  That’s why the cover shows a section of the quilt rather than the entire quilt … so you can see some of the details. 

Collection 30 contains a block I designed and stitched during the time of my mum’s alzheimers.  Prior to Mum’s demise with this disease I had no idea how devastating and soul destroying alzheimers could be.

But when I was there with Mum and watched the slow decline and her suffering you realise how horrid it really is. She knew she was losing her memories and with it her sense of who she was and where she belonged, and she suffered until finally she disappeared altogether with full blown alzheimers.

I changed my thread colour as I stitched, ever lightening to show the fading of the person.  The words I stitched are what I remember of her:

I remember Mum used to smile. She loved music, She loved knitting. But most of all she loved us. Sometimes she forgets.

I took from this sadness not to wait to show those around me, my love for them.

Working with The Storyteller's Sampler Quilt ebook

For ppl who may have purchased the ebook there are two sites which I recommend you check out.

The first is https://tinyurl.com/cucicucicoo

On this site you will learn how to print directly onto your freezer paper using either you inkjet printer or your laser printer. Inkjet is totally non-stress and laser is also IF you pay attention to a few little must do's that Lisa discusses. Read the entire post before diving in and printing.

If you buy freezer paper by the roll use your rotary cutter and ruler to ensure your cutting edge is straight or your printer may play up like mine did :-(

The second site is Linda Franz's site https://lindafranz.com/blog/top-ten-tutes/ where you will find lots of top tutorials and information. For this book her

tutorial 'How to Print Custom Sizes' is exactly what you need. Even if you didn't buy the ebook you may find some interesting information here so check it out.

Telling Tales goes to the show

Just received photo of Moya, a friend of mine, at a recent show standing in front of Tall Tales a quilt I made using blocks from The Storyteller's Sampler Quilt.

Great photo isn't it?

If you want to make a large block version of the original quilt using EPP check out Eppiflex as they are going to be running it as a BOM.

Or you could simply do as I did, scale the blocks up and hand piece them. Many of the blocks in this quilt are the more intricate since that was what I was looking for at the time. It is totally hand pieced, my favourite technique, but if you want to make your quilt by machine there are plenty of blocks to choose from.

Has anyone started their blocks yet?

Collection 3 - Where Did That Name Come From?

Yet another seven blocks completed. Raconteur was supposed to be my first pastel quilt.  About thirty blocks into it I discovered that I was not a pastel person and so although I tried to primarily work with pastels I ended up using many bright pastels.

So where did the names come from for these blocks?

Fox Pawed was named after I accidentally cut some of the fabrics from the wrong fabric and so had to work out a new design with the pieces. Friends of mine at uni had lived in a house they called Fox Paw Manor a play on the french faux pas and I have always remembered this and call errors fox paws with friends.

After the Showers was completed one afternoon as I relaxed at home watching the birds come to life and foraging for food after a long wet spell.  The bow ties resembled their wings and the central start their prey.

Burning Bright appeared to me like the explosions from the midnight fireworks of New Year's Eve.

On a trip to Alaska one year I purchase a few bags of coloured pebbles as I collect strange things at times. These small pebbles sparkle so and are used in one of our board games and so Ketchikan Jewels  was named.

One to the Left was named because it was another error and the outer blocks were supposed to be placed outside of the kite but as I didn't have the design with me when I was sewing it I put it where I thought it belonged but that was one spot to the left.

Paprika reminded of the spice of the same name, hot and sweet. 

And last but not least is Raspberry Swirl, why are so many of my blocks named after food... probably because I love food and sweets in particular:) 

These are definitely a gorgeous collection and should look great when finally sewn together into a full quilt.

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.

Tel Aviv to Aqaba

Paul and I are now travelling after having spent a couple of quiet days in Tel Aviv. We went out to see a movie one evening about some hippies in an Israeli settlement. It was interesting listening to their conversations about reasons for moving to the settlement and their feelings towards the Palestinians which were quite varied.

Day before yesterday  we traveled from Tel Aviv to Aqaba in Jordan. We were really pleased we weren't having to negotiate crossing the border ourselves as both sets of border control were very finicky.... and I didn't even have my camera in sight!

First up Richard drove up to the stop sign in Eliat, Israel. He was told to reverse about a car length back to the line on the road. There he had to open the boot of the car. With their car you simply press a button near the boot, you don't open from inside the vehicle. I went to open it. The customs agent was, 'You need to get back in the car. The driver must open the boot.' 

Took about half an hour to get through the four offices needed for processing our documents and then pass out of Israel. It was then almost an hour to go through Jordan's side. Between the two crossings you have two huge wire fences, like you see around prisons in movies, with barbed wire at the top and a  river of sand about 20m wide. I asked the Jordanian guards about the fence and they said it runs along the entire Israeli border but is wider in some places.

The crossings are just a series of small rooms in a couple of long weatherboard buildings, think of the old colonial buildings you would have seen in movies of Africa. Paul and I are yet to acclimatise as we were
wandering around in our lightweight trousers and summer tops while everyone else, including Richard and Hilde were wearing jumpers.
Temperature was about 14 to 16 ... their winter and everyone wears jumpers
in winter 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

We were very lucky that there was no one in front of us in the queue and that Richard and Hilde had a diplomatic car otherwise we would also have needed to change the car plates over and their documents would have taken longer to process. Seems as though the Israelis are so disliked in Jordan that cars with Israeli plates are quite likely to be vandalised. Their plates are diplomatic and don't state which country they are from.

One funny thing at the crossing was that quite a number of tourists fly in to Eilat, catch a cab to the border crossing, walk through the two checkpoints
and then catch a cab on the Jordanian side. There were about ten or more cabs waiting for walkers when we passed through. There were probably 30ppl being processed by the time we left and they were all walkers. Someone said they fly into Eilat as the cheap airlines do an £80 return ticket from the UK.

The scenery is amazing. I will post more photos when we find decent internet .... Possibly tomorrow night but if not, then after we return to Tel Aviv.

Travelling to Eliat we traveled through their equivalent of the Grand Canyon but in desert form. As I said to Paul it looks like an atomic bomb was detonated wiping out all vegetation. Next you had a number of years of winds blowing away the loose soil. Leaving barren rock as far as the eye can see. Many of the formations remind me of the majestic fjords of Norway, just without the vegetation or water. Very dramatic and awe inspiring. 

Unlike our previous trips here we have seen very few towns since leaving Tel Aviv. Two max over five hours of driving and one of those is the border crossing. We've seen a fair number of beduoin groups. That would be a very
hard life.

Richard said they are quite ingenious ... need to be to survive. We have seen NO water sources whilst travelling. All the river beds look like they haven't seen water in centuries ... Oh apart from when it floods will explain that later. Anyway the beduoin would dig a number of huge holes before the wet season ... that's when it floods ... They put large stones/rocks into the holes. The first rains fill the holes with dirty water. The rocks are removed and I assume the dirty water is also. When the next rains come the holes are again filled but this time the water is clean. These holes provide the beduoin with water until the next wet season. I assume they can't travel far as they need to return to the holes.

Unfortunately when the government wanted to clear them out at one stage the military was dumping old cars into these wells .... they must have been huge. 

To be continued......

Let the holiday begin

Well we're now sitting at the departure lounge at Sydney airport waiting to see if our flight will leave on time. There is a huge dust storm coming in from Dubbo and the sky is blanketed in a dirty brown haze.

We're already wondering if someone is trying to send us a message. Dust storm to start the trip, rockets in Israel, floods in Petra, Jordon, terrorist alert in London and four story high tidal waves in the Canary Islands. The only place that we plan to go to that doesn't have an event in the winds is Hong Kong and we only plan to be there for a four hour stop over.

BOM 56 - Child's Bouquet

C56 child's Bouquet

I just love the image of young children with bunches of flowers. You see some huge ones and many smaller ones, held out to a person they love... often their mum ;-)

BOM 51 - When I am King

C49 When I am King

Funny title and absolutely no idea where it came from. Could be that it is a simple block and the life of a king often seems so simple... 'Do what I say or off with one's head!

BOM 49 - Grandma's Garden

C49 Grandma's Garden

I am positive that everyone knows the origin of this block title. Raconteur is actually just a large version of the traditional Grandmother's Flower Garden ...with a few extra pieces thron in for excitement.

Detour Tassie Style

Well trip has been good so far apart from a three hour plus detour today. Our plan for today was a three to four hour drive from Pedder Wilderness Centre in Strathgordon to Queenstown. Via direct route this looked pretty good. As we were driving along we kept passing these tiny A3 or A2 size max signs saying the road will be closed for varying times on different days along the stretch. This didn't worry us as the first date was next week. Anyway we did a bit of sightseeing at a hydro power station along the way and then just after 1:00 Paul took over for his turn....

We then drove 45km to a spot about 2km before Derwent Bridge where we encountered a road closed sign with no indication of alternative route. backtracking short distance and then taking a left turn along a road we knew was wrong we found a sign telling us that the detour we needed was back the way we had just come, no indication of how far we needed to travel to reach the detour. So we returned looking for the indicated road, called 14 Mile Road. After more than 20km we figured we had made an error as we hadn't yet encountered any roads coming off our road, did another Ueee and headed back to the road closure. At that point we figured we would follow the wrong road and ask at the next town, 400m by signage but closer to 7km in actual fact.
At the town we were told yes we had to return to the hydro power station....45km back mind you....and then a few more kms beyond that where we would find 14 Mile Road. So back we go.... again!
At the hydro power station we again ask directions and are told to look for sign saying Laughing Jack Lagoon. Good thing too because the sign saying 14 Mile Road was just a normal street sign in the middle of nowhere! At least Laughing Jack Lagoon was a big sign. Oh and nothing to tell us that we needed to take this road as the main road was closed.

We are then heading along a one lane dirt road. Note this is the only detour road for the main highway. It is also the road that the loggers with HUGE trucks loaded to the top with logs are SPEEDING along in the opposite direction! 

Saw one fellow going in opposite direction in a tiny car pull over to allow some idiot in a 4WD to overtake then he slowly pulled out to follow. A few corners later was where we passed the logging truck flooring it heading in same direction as the tiny car. We were lucky we just stopped and waited for it to pass but that poor fellow would have scored the shock of his life when he saw it in his rear view mirror! He would have been sweating over the road closure for sure! Anyway we continued along the dirt road for another twenty or so minutes until we came out 7km beyond the road closure. We had travelled over 150km to cover that 7km stretch! Spoke to one guy about the lack of signage and he replied, 'it's Tasmania'
Seems as though they are working their way down our highway. We had just caught up to 'today's' stretch of road. You would think they would work on half the road but not in Tassie, particularly where there are no nearby alternatives! Hey even a sign bigger than a normal street name sign wouldn't hurt. They do get visitors down here!
Fingers crossed for no more detours.

Cinzia

Collection 42 - Where did that name come from?

C42 Bouquet for Mary	Would you believe that I don't actually know a Mary and so have never had a Bouquet for Mary, however when I made this block that was the name that appeared in my head and so it remained.	C42 The Two of Us
The colour of the fabric suggested Ruby Red for this block. All of the bits in the block looked like a pile of gems.	C42 Ruby Red	As each of the sections was made of two identical sections The Two of Us seemed the right name for this block. Funny isn't it sometimes there is no reason a name just seems to suit.
C42 Twirling Dervish	On one of our holidays we saw some dancers who are known as Twirling Dervish. It was wonderful how their 'dresses' swirled. I suppose I should have named a block that spun out with the points in the centre rather than one the edge as in my block
To me this block suggested someone playing that game where they are blindfolded and they try to find people with someone calling out 'warm', 'cold' or 'warmer'. Their arms are outstretched as they are Reaching Out trying to tip someone.	C42 Reaching Out	Within was named because you had a star within another star
C42 Christabella	Christabella came from the fact of the fabric being beautiful, so bella and Chris was a friend who gave the fabric to me.	C42 Within

BOM 42 - Christabella

C42 Christabella

The beautiful (bella) fabric for this block was given to me by Chris, one of my students several years ago and the name is simply the joining together of the two words.

Collection 41 - Where Did That Name Come From?

Collection 41	What a memory that invokes of those country fairs and the difficult decision selecting our own Fairy on a Stick.	C41 - Fairy on a Stick
Clean Solutions was based on those nuclear free zone signs where people don't think that a significant amount of our medical treatments are now nuclear :-)	C41 Twisted Bunting	I just love watching bunting as it twists and turns in the wind.
C41 Clean Solutions	I'm positive we all had a dress made of the Summer Frock fabric back in the 60s .. or perhaps you have one now as the fashions return to that era.	C41 Summer Frock
As a child I just loved making Mud Pies. Didn't you?	C41 Let Me Fly	The circling birds reminded me of vultures circling some unfortunate prey that simply wanted to be allowed to fly away.
C41 Mud Pies	Halloween  this month's BOM. Don't they look like spooky eyes?	C41 Halloween