Bed Quilts Archives - Serendipity and the Art of the Quilt

Gay Marriage Equality Quilt Design

14 April 2013 12:27PM | Filed Under Bed Quilts, Modern Quilts, Teaching | 1 Comment

Before the gay marriage equality logo went viral on social media last month, it was already a familiar motif to me, albeit in a different context. Back in 2007-2008, when I was developing designs for my Power Stripping workshop, I made this quilt that I called “Power Points” because the motif recalled an electricity outlet or wall plug:
My quilt is made from a gay rainbow of colours but the pattern could be easily adapted to the reds and pinks of the marriage equality logo. Take a look at Kristin la Flamme’s Equality Wedding Quilt (made from her own pattern) to get an idea of how it might look.

Dimensions: 179cm x 179cm (70 1/2in x 70 1/2in)
A Power Stripping Design: A$10.00

Incidentally, my next Power Stripping Workshop is at Hobbysew,Erina on 21 June 2013. Contact Karen to book your place.

Looking Back on My First Quilt

28 June 2012 9:28AM | Filed Under Bed Quilts, Teaching | 8 Comments

In just a week, I will be off to Adelaide to teach Shibori Serendipity and Serendipity Circles at Quilt Encounter, the annual retreat of the Quilters’ Guild of South Australia.

While I am down that way, I will also be giving a presentation to the evening Guild meeting on Thursday, 5 July 2012 (7.15pm for 8pm at Burnside Community Centre, Portrush Road, Burnside). Come along if you can, I am sure that visitors are welcome.

I’ll be borrowing the infamous pink suitcase from the Beneath the Southern Sky travelling exhibition, so that I can share a bigger selection of my quilts “in the cloth”. Even then, I am constrained by luggage limits so I’m putting together a digital slideshow. I admit that my spreadsheet listing of projects is not quite up to date (ahem) but I do have a photographic record of every single one of the hundreds of quilts that I have made over the years. No retrospective would be complete without mentioning the very first quilt that I made over the 1984/85 summer holidays before I moved into my first university group house:

I am rather fond of this utilitarian quilt made from seersucker offcuts rescued from the local clothing factory. It was made without a rotary cutter or reference to any quilting resources. It is quilted with large basting stitches in the ditch through a dense sheet backing and it has survived decades of service relatively intact. I can only hope that my other bed quilts fare as well. Composition-wise, it is not so very far removed from some of the linear art quilts I make today.

I echo the sentiments on the Peppermint Patch Quilts Facebook page, where Tracey writes:

We all started somewhere. I’m never embarrassed by my old quilts. I had to make them and learn something so I could make this one and the next one…

How do you feel about your first quilt when you look back at it?

Ready for House Guests

31 March 2012 4:13PM | Filed Under Bed Quilts, My Surroundings | 2 Comments

With his closest living relatives arriving from the US any day now, the Laundry King has been undertaking a cleaning frenzy around Casa da Praia with a modicum of assistance on my part. Our guest room gets lots of morning sun so generally I leave a sacrificial Ken Done doona cover in place. However, the arrival of ~~guests~~ family is always a good reason to pull out the “quilt menu” (a la hotels”pillow menus”) from which I selected Synchronicity:

My studio, alas, remains a disaster zone. Let’s see how much I can clean up in one day.

Stepping Out with Quilters Companion 49

23 May 2011 6:54PM | Filed Under Bed Quilts, Classic Quilts, Published Projects | 1 Comment

It is the 10th anniversary of Quilters Companion magazine and inside Issue #49 you will find my classic quilt project Stepping Out. Based on a Victorian floor tile design, Stepping Out escapes from black and white into the glorious colour of Kaffe Fassett prints.

I confess that I do not have any photos of the completed quilt – something I’ll rectify when I get home. In the meantime, this work in progress shot gives you an idea of how this project turns out. Grab a copy at your newsagent today!

Power Stripping with Kaffe

21 January 2010 11:28AM | Filed Under Bed Quilts, Teaching | 1 Comment

The postal system has yet to deliver my complimentary/contributor copy of 500 Art Quilts but the mail box today yielded other treats including this “designer roll” of 48, 2 1/2in selvedge to selvedge strips of Kaffe Fassett fabrics:

As you can see, I purchased my roll from Hancocks of Paducah but they are widely available and perfect for my “Power Stripping” projects such as Kaffe Tapestry. Indeed, I am proposing to make up a new teaching sample for my Power Strippingworkshop using ONLY the strips. Fortunately, there’s a reasonable (60/40) mix of darker and lighter values and, with around 3 metres of fabric, there is plenty to make a fun quilt top:

By the way, I’m teaching a Power Stripping workshop at the Australasian Quilt Convention and there are just a couple of places left. Be quick!

Welcome to SFO

5 December 2009 1:11PM | Filed Under Bed Quilts, Twelve by Twelve | 2 Comments

When we arrived at our family accommodation at San Francisco, the guest bed was made up with a different quilt. Gone were the suffolk puffs from vintage scraps. In its place was a rose applique quilt with big stitch quilting made by one of the Laundry King’s aunts:

Here’s a close up:

One of my friends seems to think this may be a kit design from the 1950s. If you have any insights, please leave a comment. In the meantime, sleeping under a pink quilt helps me get into a pink groove for the first Twelve by Twelve Colourplay reveal on 12 December (US time) when our pink-inspired works will appear online.

Bordered & Basted

30 April 2009 3:32PM | Filed Under Bed Quilts | 1 Comment

It’s been a B&B (borders and basting) day. Somehow the fabric I printed last month with Prints Charming has turned into an 80x80in bed quilt. The border fabric wasn’t exactly what I had in mind but the colours work and, quite serendipitously, the repeat on the stripe fitted my centre perfectly so that could mitre the corners. I’m planning on hand quilting this one with some bright perle threads. An added bonus is that it will keep me warm while I’m quilting.

Scrap Kaleidoscope

17 February 2009 5:45PM | Filed Under Bed Quilts | 3 Comments

The studio clearance continues. One magazine that I will definitely be keeping is the February 2004 issue of American Patchwork & Quilting which features a modern interpretation of the moon over mountain block by Jean Wells that I used in making Taranaki Solstice:

The “mountain” parts are appliqued and I cut out the surplus backing fabric from behind. I found the 9″ scrap triangles yesterday and now they are on the design wall:

The colours make me happy and I’m planning on making a charity quilt for Quilt Camp where all contributions are donated to Ronald McDonald House.

Kaffe Tapestry: Quilted & Bound

2 May 2008 11:49AM | Filed Under Bed Quilts | 4 Comments

As promised, here is a photo of Kaffe Tapestry, bound and quilted, albeit with some thread tails still to be sewn in. (It is not hanging flat due the fish sculpture mounted on the wall but otherwise it seems to be square and reasonably evenly quilted. Not that you can discern the quilting in these photos.)

I don’t have any scales in the house (apart from the kitchen kind) but estimate that it weighs a few kilos. No wonder my body feels tired from handling it over the last couple of weeks.

Thoughts on quilting bed quilts

22 April 2008 7:41PM | Filed Under Bed Quilts, Technique:Quilting | 3 Comments

After 15+ hours quilting scroll vines on a 240cm x 240cm (94 x94″) bed quilt, I remember why I’ve always favoured more forgiving all-over motifs when quilting bigger quilts. I quilt with my Bernina 150QE which does not have a very generous harp/throat size. I also prefer using 60/40 poly wool batting which adds a lot of extra weight to the quilt. Bulky, heavy quilt + small throat + a vine motif involving long, smooth, sweeping movements makes for a challenging combination – especially in the middle sections. I’ve pretty much finished quilting the centre panels now but still have the 10″ borders to go. Being on the edge, they’ll be much easier to handle but there’s still a lot of area to cover. All I can say is that commercial machine quilters earn every cent they are paid!