QAYG

Quilt-as-you-go. I've used this technique, as found in a number of web sites.

This quilt is made of scraps left from a couple of recent quilts. It went together very quickly - certainly easy to do!

Long time UFO

Medallion Quilt

This quilt was started about 10 years ago, when I was a new quilter AND when blue & yellow bedrooms were the "in" colours. I really wanted to try Broderie Perse (appliquing pre-printed flowers) and just had to put the basket of flowers and the four surrounding posies together.

Then I knew I wanted to the do the square in a square border... but got stuck after that.

I had seen the ribbon border and wanted to do that further out, but how to increase the quilt to that size. And, oh no, I didn't have any more of the cream homespun. Spotlight didn't have any more of that colour and so I was a bit stuck. I put together the ribbon border and attached it after the square in a square border... yuk! Not what I'd pictured - it really needed a cream border in between.

The quilt sat for years, until I found more of the cream homespun. So on went the ribbon border.... then what. I dídn't have enough of any of the fabrics for an outside border... :-(

So it sat for another couple of years. Until earlier this year, there was a call for quilts after the Victorian bushfires. That 'fired'me up - I took the quilt top to a fabric shop and selected the outer border fabric, binding and backing. Now it is complete and I really like it. Though I can really see the change in workmanship over the years, particularly in the cut off points in the square in a square blocks. So now it's ready to go to Victoria - I hope it brings some happiness to someone.

Bushfire quilt

I've been busy quilting lately, but not taking photos or blogging. :-)

Early this week, I completed a wall-hanging, with the name "There was an eerie light in Marysville, after the fires".

This wall-hanging started as a hand-dyed Lisa Walton 'Aurora' kit (Dyed & gone to heaven).

http://www.dyedheaven.com/workshops/

The fabric in my kit was gorgeous - a dark pink, running into yellow-blue. The idea is to machine quilt all over and then use the supplied beads in whatever pattern you want. I didn't quite know what the fabric wanted me to do with it. There was a section in the yellow that reminded me of the clouds on Jupiter, so I borrowed several planets books from the library to see if that would inspire me.

I was quilting the piece in February - right when the bushfires were devastating Victoria, Australia. http://www.abc.net.au/news/events/bushfires/

You could not escape the images of burnt out homes and countryside. It was incredibly emotional to constantly see these images. While quilting, I kept seeing images of burnt houses and trees superimposed over my quilt. It got to the point where I had to find some black fabric and fusible web, draw up the trees and iron them to the quilt.

Then on to the beading. The supplied beads were mainly blues and gold. For the next few weeks, I was looking for silver, grey, black and red beads. Gradually I added more and more beads - some to represent burning embers in a stump, others smoke through the air, or flakes of debris blowing in the wind. Until finally, it was finished.

Close up of the smoke rising from the stump.

Making silk paper

I've joined a monthly art quilt program with http://www.uniquestitching.com.au/
Each month, I receive a package of arty items for experimenting with new techniques. It's a great program and you order in the colourway you like. Then all the things you make will work together (if that's what you want).

In December, I made silk paper from this program. It's really easy. I won't give the instructions as they were written up by Unique Stitching and I'd be breaking copyright if I gave them here!

You end up with this fabulous silk paper that can be used in all sorts of ways, including quilts, scrapbooking, etc. :-)

New York Beauty quilt - finished!

Here it is - my New York Beauty quilt that I estimate took around 150 hours to make, over a 2 year period. It's from a Karen K. Stone pattern. The fabrics are orientals, batiks and some hand dyes. I have named the quilt 'Oriental Beauty'.

I really enjoyed piecing all of the blocks. Each of the 30 blocks has a different background fabric and then fabrics for the arcs and spikes are matched with that background fabric. This involved sorting fabrics into colour and then by lights/mediums/darks. Each block needed contrast so that the spikes would stand out. What fun! And it also necessitated a lot of fabric shopping! :-)



The pattern came with foundations for the spiked arcs and
freezer paper arcs and backgrounds, so that the blocks would
go together accurately.

Here is a detail photo. There are a number of blocks that have
a little person peeking out. All of the people look towards the
centre of the quilt.

The outer border of the quilt was drawn up on greaseproof
paper, as per the directions in the pattern. It actually took a
lot of time to sew the borders. It would take an hour to go
15 cm (6 inches), as each spike was quite long and was vertical on the pattern.

A fortnight ago, I took 'Oriental Beauty' to my quilt group, Coorparoo Quilters, for show and tell. It was so nice to hear the 'oohs and ahhs'. :-) As I was going to quilt group after work, I also took the quilt to show everyone at work.

I'm really happy with this quilt. The pattern lived up to the dream I saw in it!

Playing with Paintstiks

One of my Christmas presents was a lovely pack of 15 iridescent mini-Paintstiks. They're solid oil paint in a crayon-like stick. Will be permanent and washable after being cured and heat-set.
I've been playing with rubbings - putting a patterned sheet under the fabric and rubbing with the paintstik to show the design.
I've decided on a design for the chair covers I dyed (ultraviolet - what a great colour!). :-)

End of 2008

2008 has been a milestone year, with 2 weddings (both of our daughters), 2 funerals (mother and mother-in-law), a tender and an overseas holiday.

Photos: left - Col & Vicki

right - Sharon, Tegan, Vicki

I'm looking forward to a less eventful 2009.