Out of the archives...

come a couple of small wallhangings.

This one I made for Warwick (DS3) who loves his fishing.  The idea was dictated by the material I found for the sky.  You just see the fish (a button) which is near the end of the fishing line.  It is the 'one that got away!!!'

This delightful little quilt is 'Winston' - who is not little (a Ridgeback), loves his bones and kennel and now lives in Metung, near Lakes Entrance in Victoria.  A big, softy, and loveable dog.

Mystery no more

The blocks of the mystery quilt I was doing are now all sewn together with borders.  This was such as easy one to do I am thinking of doing another (wont be a mystery!!) in some batiks I have, or maybe I may use some Japanese fabric I have,......or........???  Who knows what I will use - got to still make it a mystery!!  The quilt top will now go in my basket of tops waiting to be quilted.

I am one of those quilters who has a lot of tops, not many quilted or finished, but this year I am getting through some of them.  Some just need the binding - isn't it the way you get so far and then onto something else.  This year I decided (all by myself.....) to not purchase any more fabric, only what I absolutely require to finish an already started project.  So far I have been good.  Next year - will wait and see.

One completed star block

Yesterday I cut some white triangles to put around my star blocks.  Sewing the 'Y' seams wasn't too hard at all.  It's just the stopping and starting each seam that is a bother.  But I will keep going as I like what I see and having already sorted out more reds and blues from my stash to make a quilt (I think...)  The templates I sized from EQ6 all work together.  A bonus as I didn't want to draw them myself.

I love stars

Many of my quilts are based on stars of some type.  I love them.  I have been fiddling around with EQ6 lately and managed to work out how to draw up a 6 pointed star.  These are 5 that I have sewn up. I still have to add the set-in pieces to make them into a hexagon shaped block.  Not looking forward to that - I might like stars but not sewing set-in pieces.  This will test my maths skills and if EQ6 turns out a good block. 

A project for a quiet day I think.

While I'm on the subject..

of winning. 

Many years ago ( I entered two of my large embroidery works in the local Geelong Art & Agricultural Show. 

They are shown here - the Roses won 1st Prize in 'Surface Embroidery' and the Iris's received 2nd in the same category. 

Both these works hang on the wall above my bed.  I'm very proud of them as they were also my own design which I took off a couple of photos in a gardening book.

The best news.......

This weekend is the Melbourne Quilt & Craft Show at Jeff's Shed (Exhibition Centre).  I'm a member of my local Geelong Quilt Guild and also a little offshoot Art Play Group.  We only got together earlier this year to learn and try out new ideas in the Art Quilt area.  One of our group Lyn. thought it would be good to do a joint project and submit it for entry at the Show.  We did and not only was it accepted to be hung WE WON FIRST PRIZE in the Group Quilt Section.  How good is that!!!  I'm stoked!!

We made 12x12 inch quilts to the theme of 'circles'.  Mine is second from the right in the second row (bright pink background).  I used felt as the base and printed and discharged random circles then felted spirals and added some hand stitching and pearl buttons.

They were joined by using metal rings to continue the theme of circles and was named 'Circle Fabrication'.  I must thank Jenni S  of Jacaranda blog for these photos as I was not able to get to the show myself.   Her quilt is the first one in the second row.

Playing with the blocks

Yesterday I finished sewing the blocks for the mystery quilt I'm doing.  Today I started to play with them on my design wall.  Don't know what you think, but I'm quite pleased with how they turned out.  Just need to find the right orientation for the blocks.  This is one way, but there is another which I'm going with - you will have to wait and see when I've sewn them together.

Next Mystery Steps

Step 5 is where the shorter of the strips are sewn to one side of the blocks and then joined in rows.  I will then be sewing the longer strips in beween four of the blocks, thus making one quite large block.  With the very cold weather we're having here in Victoria I'm hoping to finish it off this weekend.

Step 6 is putting these large blocks together - borders and binding is your own choice.  Once I have them together will post the final stage before I decide on what to do for borders.

Whoo Hoo - I'm back

on line, that is.
Have been having heaps of problems with Blogger.  Hopefully all is well again.

In the meantime I have been busy, busy, busy.  I'm participating in a Mystery Quilt through my Monday night group.  It is from the Bedford Mystery series.  This series of mystery quilts began in South Aust by a couple of quilters as a means of raising money for a local charity.  It is also the first Mystery quilt I've done and am enjoying it heaps.

Unfortunately, in my haste to get started I didn't take early photographs of the first three steps - there are 6 in all.  Step 1 was the selection of fabrics - I chose to do mine in 'country colours' - safe.... Step 2 was to make 4-patch blocks and strips with 1/2 sq triangle on the end. These blocks are some of the ones finished up to Step 3.

This next photo is Step 4.  These strips are the same construction as part of Steps 1-3, but are longer.  Hopefully the latter bits will be finished very soon. 

A bit hard to see on my 'design wall' as I have used a cream for the light colour material and my design wall is made from a cream flannel sheet.

In the meantime I have also finished some ATCs that are due to be posted very soon.

More historical stuff

 I'm still going through my old photos of quilts that I have made in the past.

This first one is a small Baltimore quilt (the squares are 6" square).  I made this in a class at The German Quilthouse in Geelong, Vic (unfortunately it has been closed for some time now).

A pity you can't see the dimensional work, but there is a ruched flower, padded little rose buds, and free-form flowers used in the borders.

The whole quilt measures 36" x 36".

The next quilt (as you can see) is a kid's quilt.  I made it for my boss when his son Benjamin was born 6 years ago. 

I used pre-printed alphabet squares and stitched the animals, then added different size pieces of bright materials to the squares to add interest.

This last one is very special.  It is a signature quilt of my son's wedding.  I first did the applique and stitching and then we got the guests at the wedding to sign it.  It is finished to fit their dining table as a runner.

Hope you are enjoying my reminiscing as much as I am.