Castlemaine applique quilt show - just a snippet

Over the Labour Day weekend I drove my mother and two friends to Castlemaine for their applique quilt show.

Lots of stunning quilts, loads of onlookers and a venue with wonderful natural light - but the latter two points made for limited room to take photos of the whole quilt and not so true colours in the photos. 

This beauty, "Phebe at Myrtle Bank" (pattern by Di Ford Hall) with all the tiny pieced borders was a marvel to enjoy, but one I will not be tackling any time soon!

 A close up of the centre, all hand appliqued.

The sign said it was hand and machine stitched by Dianne Rickard.  No mention of who quilted this one.

I still cannot image cutting all those little triangles and then getting the border to fit!!

 Corliss' Baskets, pattern by Corliss Searcey (proprietor of Threadbear), stitched by Sharon Ghalayini and machine quilted by Shirley Lokys.

The lovely basket blocks make up the centre on what is a very large quilt (rest of the quilt is folded underneath itself) .  As you know I love baskets, so this is on my one day list!

I lack courage to use different colours on each petal, but admire those who can and do, because it does work!  Sometimes I guess you just need to have faith.

I had to take a photo of the quilting pattern as I loved it so much. More importantly the pattern didn't distract from the applique but enhanced the overall quilt.

 A stunning red and white quilt, "Remembering Sarah", pattern inspired by Sue Gorman, sewn by Rose Piper and long arm quilted by Palm Beach Quilting.

 The applique was button hole stitched and I just loved the circle designs on the border,which was further enhanced by the change in quilting pattern.

 One day I might find the courage to make a feathered star.

 With sweet baskets appliqued on point

 and feathery plumes.

"Miss Porters Quilt" designed  and stitched by Di Ford Hall and machine quilted by Helen Hayes.

Happy quilting Sue.

Quilt Camp - Part 5

Phew, you finally made it to my work from  quilt camp!

I wanted to get this top sewn together, so started off sewing the backgrounds above the flowers and the sashings to join the columns. I was very lucky to get some neutral fabric donated to me, to enable a scrappy pieced background.

Alas once I was done we decided the quilt was plenty long enough but not wide enough!

Searching through the box I found plenty of left over blocks, but not necessarily in the colour I wanted.  So we fiddled and I made a few new blocks to make a sixth row.

I also wasted time making four patches for "dirt" at the bottom of the sprouts and then decided to not use them.  The Scrappy Sprouts quilt finished so much bigger then I expected (88x88") so I sent it off with my friendly long arm quilter.  It was also too big for a good floor photo!

I am really happy with this quilt and cannot wait to get it on my bed when winter arrives.

I couldn't come to a decision about sashing, none of the colours I had with me worked.  So I sewed all the Dresden blocks together and I am nowt contemplating what to do for a border instead.

These half square triangles needed an injection of red.  

But when I went shopping I came home with a red and orange

stripe and a blue and orange stripe instead.

I made triangles from the red/orange stripe and was happy with the extra colour.   Equally excited that I got all the blocks stitched together before I went home from camp!

Now just need to see if the blue/orange strip looks OK for a border : )

Happy quilting Sue.

Quilt Camp - Part 4

This kit came together in no time with a simple but sweet four patch design.

The hexagon pattern was so much fun.....

She made two of them - but not in one weekend! :)

This quilt top needed borders.

After which it needed pinning and quilting!

The quilting got started, but not finished...it is a very large quilt!

Happy quilting Sue.

Quilt Camp - Part 3

There were quite a few new projects commenced on Quilt Camp.

Some that had been hiding in cupboards and had been waiting to came out to play!

Many others started off as WIP with just a few blocks,,,

...but left as finished tops.

I am loving this pattern, the shapes are quite simple to cut and piece, but the blocks look complicated and like you spent a lot of time on them!

Happy quilting Sue.

Quilt Camp - Part 2

This pattern was very popular, two ladies, two very different quilts.

Large floral prints, mainly Kaffe Fassett I think.

 Star Wars fabric!  

The Star Wars came together really quickly!

The black sashing set it off really well and stopped the prints being too busy.

Happy quilting Sue.

Quilt Camp - part 1

I am going to share some photos of what we achieved on camp.

There are so many I will need to do this over a few posts!

This work in progress is a T Shirt quilt for a friends granddaughter.

She is an gymnast and some of the logos on her t shirts wrapped around from the front, over the side seam to the back of the top.  This made the cutting very tricky!

But the quilt came together slowly and surely over the weekend.  Still more to do, but the difficult bits were done!

Happy quilting Sue.

Travelling Iron Caddy and pressing mat

Before I went on camp I decided to make a ironing caddy, so I could keep my iron safe from damage on route, plus avoid having to take a travel ironing board. 

I didn't measure the placement of the buttons so the straps are looking a little wonky. It was so exciting to find two matching gorgeous buttons for this project, out of my vast collection!

However my iron is a tad too long, so doesn't fit as well as it should.  The pattern was excellent; well written with practical diagrams and photos to make it super easy to follow.  But I just assumed irons were a "one size fits all" type of equipment! 

Still I am super happy with the outcome and my iron is now safe for all future trips!

The pattern came from an USA company, Sisters Common Thread and is called "caddy pad".

I acquired my pattern from Ann at Periwinkle Patchwork if you want to buy one in Australia.

The pattern includes the reflective heat fabric so you get a better result when pressing.  I tried to buy this fabric locally and was unable to source it - as there are free patterns on the web - but this pattern was so well written I would highly recommend buying it!

Please note I am not getting paid for this endorsement - I just love it and wanted to pass that on to my readers.

Happy quilting Sue.

Where does time go?

Honestly I wonder where the days and weeks disappear to sometimes.  

It only seems like yesterday that I sat and sewed these Dresden plates with my Adelaide stitching friends at camp.  

 Then there was a great delay before I made the effort to shop for the background fabric and got them hand stitched down.

Another shopping trip was required to find the perfect red for the centres!  Finally they are all stitched on and I just have to stitch the blocks together....just in time to go sewing with my Adelaide friends again!

Do you think six projects will be enough to work on?!  I always over pack in my pre trip preparation and then on the morning of departure I cull down to a sensible size.  Well I try. This time I am not bothering to try, because four of these projects just need minimal work but maximum thinking/decision making to get the tops finished.   So I am hoping six heads are better then one, and therefore I might get several tops done! 

I like to be considered optimistic, but in reality I might be just unrealistic!

Happy quilting Sue.

Lego man quilt - its a finish

I don't think I previously mentioned that the Lego Man Quilt was a request from a Defence force member serving overseas, through Aussie Hero Quilts?

SEW I needed to make a laundry bag also, and of course carried on the theme.

I just covered up his initials.  It was only after I washed this bag that I realised I accidently used the wrong shade of yellow on top of his head :(  Funnily enough that would be the same yellow I made to use in the last Aussie Hero quilt...which was in AFL footy club Hawthorn colours!

So here is "the man" all washed and ready to go in the post!

I dont normally pre wash quilts before I give them away.  But I was not going to trust that red fabric!  However it was the blue that ran the most, thank heavens for Colour Catchers I say!

What is it the Amish say about nobody being perfect?  I made another small mistake in my hurry to make my deadline...sewed the label on the back of the quilt sideways!  To be fair to me, I was sewing it on while in a meeting and had the quilt scrunched up on my lap (it was a big meeting).  I left it that way, figured it was more important to pre wash the quilt in the time I had left (especially while it was stinking hot and it would dry quickly) then to be unpicking something that was perfectly readable!

I am up to my armpits in pears and apples from our orchard - thankfully we only have one of each fruit tree.  The coddling moths have infested half of our crop and I am destroying the infected fruit, to ensure future crops are pest free.  

However the watermelon patch also keeps pumping out fruit and as summer draws to an end so have the BIG watermelons.  Well so I thought until I started to pull up the vine and found another large "mothership" hiding under all the vine! 

Happy quilting Sue.