Pending Inspiration

The strata quilt is assembled. Here’s a photo of it lying on the dining room floor before I basted it. I found a soft blue and pink print in my stash for the backing, one of my very first fabric purchases!, which is approximately the same width as the quilt. Now to work out how to quilt it quickly and effectively. I started out with a breezy daisy motif in a pale pink thread but I’m not sure about this…
  

Liftoff

Nathan’s geese are winging their way to Sacramento:

Ready for Flight

My flying goose units are now ready to be joined together

Flying High

Baby Nathan arrived on the scene at my friend’s place in Sacramento earlier in the month and he needs a quilt. I’ve made a start with some flying geese blocks:

Thanks to Photoshop, I know the quilt could end up looking something like this:

Fairy Wishes

I have a very distinct memory from when I was young (less than seven years old) of making a wish on a frothy mass of “fairy” thistle blossoms that my chores would be done while I went on a walk. Upon my return, I was disappointed but somehow not surprised that my chores awaited me. I am in a similar predicament now as I survey my studio and confront the reality that I have too much stuff for the storage space available to me. I could close my eyes and make a wish but I know it would still be there when I open my eyes. More drastic action is required.

Fortunately, there is a market day coming up at the next Guild meeting on 15 August so I’m doing some more culling and will endeavour to offload some of my magazines, knick knacks and surplus fabrics there.

Fairies do have their place. Some time ago, I designed Fairy Delight - a whimsical quilt would make an enchanting gift for the little fairy in your life.

Fairy Delight

Quilt Size: 104cm x 139cm

(40.5" x 54.5")

Pattern: A$15.00

If you are interested, I also have some leftover panels of the fairy fabric that form the top and bottom borders of the quilt. The panel measures approximately 1.9m wide x 40cm deep and includes a two and half “repeats” as shown in the photograph including a full 1.9 metre run of sitting fairies and a full run of standing fairies. The price for the fabric is A$20 + postage. (You can e-mail me.)

Kiele’s Quilt

Excuse me while I take this to the post office:

Pretty in pink (& purple & green)

A baby girl needs a quilt so I’ve raided my pinks, purples and greens. Here’s a start. I’ll probably end up using a different layout but I love the colour combination and I have the perfect backing fabric…

 

Quilt Camp Bound

Quilt Camp is coming up this weekend so I have been busily finishing off my charity quilt for Ronald McDonald House including free motion quilting and continuous mitred binding without bulges (see tutorial). This is not the greatest photograph of Quilt Camp Kaleidoscope (it doesn’t ripple like this at the top, honest) but I am very happy at how my batik scraps have come together.

As you read this, I will be immersed in a screen printing workshop with Kirsten and Cath at Prints Charming. And then I head off to Quilt Camp. I had hoped to prepare some posts to appear in my absence but it hasn’t worked out that way. I will have lots of photos to share when I next post. In the meantime, I have enabled comment moderation.

One step closer

Now I have all the triangles joined together, I can clear the design wall for something else and come back and quilt the kaleidoscope top later.

The Humble Half Square Triangle

My first quilts were made from half-square triangles.

When I was riding the escalators in the London Underground earlier in the month, I was intrigued by the promotional posters for the latest album by piano rock band Keane (no I had not heard of them before either). A most quilt-like design, I think you would agree!

I have been working on this scrap quilt today:
  
With the particular values drawn from my scrapbag, I favour the layout on the left where the pattern is more pronounced. According to Judy Hooworth and Margaret Rolfe in their excellent book Spectacular Scraps, there are no less than 256 ways that four HST units can be arranged to make different four-patch blocks. That gives me plenty of options!