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Summer Knitting - Rock Island Shawl

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The summer holidays have meant that not a lot of quilting has taken place at QOB.  During our time away, however, I did manage to get some lovely knitting done.  This year, I took the Brooklyn Tweed pattern Rock Island Shawl along on our camping holiday to knit while driving, beside the pool and in our campsite - very relaxing. 

The shawl is knitted with lace yarn and I used Madeline Tosh Lace in a gorgeous red called Vermillion bought from Eat Sleep Knit.  While I found the edging an endlessly long knit, the rest of the shawl, including the lace section in the body of the shawl knitted up remarkably easily and quickly.  By the end of the holiday I was thrilled to have finished this beautiful, featherweight shawl.




For more pictures and all the details check out my Ravelrypage:







With the holidays now at an end, the kids back at school and everyone back at work, quilting has again commenced.  I will hopefully have some great quilts to show soon.  I hope everyone has had a great start to 2012 - my apologies for Happy New Year's wishes in February!

A Trio of Baby Quilts

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I have recently finished quilting a number of quilts which are going to be gifted to new-born babies.  I always find these little quilts rather special.

The three baby quilts I am sharing today have been made by my customers Hilary, Cath and Sharon.


Hilary has made a simple baby quilt, setting squares of beautiful fabric with white sashing. The quilt has been quilted with an all-over feather design which has given it a lovely texture.


The next photo shows the back of this quilt - I do love pieced backs!


The baby quilt made by Cath was her first effort at making a quilt and she has done a lovely job combining piecing and applique.


Cath's quilt has been custom quilted - swirls to go with the sea theme, straight lines in the borders, continuous curves in the sashing and blocks.


The central boat applique square has been quilted with the sun, clouds and water.


Sharon's quilt is a gorgeous quilt which is made almost entirely from the tiniest hand pieced hexagons.


This quilt has been quilted with continuous curves around each hexagon, a feathered heart border and some random hears inside some of the hexagons.


Each hexagon is just over 1 inch across - I do love the tiny hearts.


Hopefully by now, the babies for whom these quilts were made have safely arrived and have brought joy to both the recipients and the quilt makers.

Applique Medallion Quilt

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My customer Carolyn makes the most beautiful quilts and they usually have at least some wonderfully executed needle turn applique in them.  This time, Carolyn has made a medallion quilt with a stunning floral applique central block.


Carolyn's quilt has been quilted with a piano key border, lots of continuous curves and loops in the blocks and feathers in the morone triangles and sashing.


I do particularly love the central applique block.  This has been quilted with feathers around the perimeter and filled with pebbles.  I love the effect of pebbles for background quilting, even though it is rather time consuming.



Thanks for visiting - I hope you have enjoyed Carolyn's quilt.

Give Thanks Quilt

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I have recently quilted the beautiful Give Thanks Quilt for my customer Sue.  The Give Thanks Quilt is a Block of the Month Quilt pattern by Rosalie Quinlan Designs.

Sue has done a wonderful job of the piecing and applique and I love her fabric choices.


I loved the freedom this quilt gave me to fill it with whimsical quilting.  My favourite block is the large heart block which I have quilted with heart shaped feathers and swirls.


I have cross-hatched the blocks with embroidery, the house has quilted roof tiles and curtains in the windows, there are more feathers, continuous curves ...


The wings of the birds have been quilted with feathers.


With thanks Sue, I had a great time quilting this beautiful quilt.  I am sure this will become a treasured quilt.

Shadow Trapunto Samples

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Inspired by the incredibly talented award winning Longarm Quilter,  Karen McTavish I have been trying my hand at some trapunto.  I have been studying the wonderful designs by Karen McTavish in her books including "The Secrets of Elemental Quilting" and "Custom Curves".

Trapunto is a technique where quilt motifs are marked onto a quilt top and then quilted onto a layer of wadding with soluble thread.  The wadding is then carefully trimmed away around the motifs, leaving an extra layer of wadding behind the motifs.  The quilt is then layered with wadding and backing as usual and quilted.  Once the quilting is finished, the quilt is dunked in water to remove the water soluble pen markings and water soluble trapunto thread.

Shadow trapunto is similar to basic trapunto but uses different components.  The top layer of the quilt needs to be a sheer fabric, such as a batiste.  A bright piece of fabric is then layered behind the batiste which gives the effect of dyed batting in the background.

I have been experimenting with different fabrics for the top layer and the bright layer of fabric as well as the wadding.  My first sample used a design element called Rapture from Karen McTavish's book "Custom Curves".




The quilting design has been surrounded by my favourite background quilting design - pebbles.  Whilst I was happy with the result, I decided that the top fabric was not sheer enough as the bright red fabric which is layered behind the top fabric barely shows through. 

I managed to find some batiste fabric wide enough to eventually make a wholecloth quilt.  My second sample has been made using this as the top fabric.  Lisa from Dyed and Gone to Heaven has dyed a bright red wide cotton sateen fabric for me which has been used as the second layer in the following sample.  The feather in the sample was inspired by the Victorian Feathers in Karen McTavish's book "The Secrets of Elemental Quilting".




I was quite pleased with the results of the second sample - I like the subtle pink background colour which has been achieved and the contrast of the white feather motifs. 

I think I am ready to transfer these elements onto a larger shadow trapunto quilt.  I have really enjoyed making these sample pieces - I even enjoyed the quiet rhythm of hours of snipping the wadding away and managed to do so without snipping the top fabric.  Hopefully my eventual wholecloth quilt will be made with the same results - wish me luck!

Garden Fence Quilt

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I have recently quilted Penny's very pretty Garden Fence Quilt.  The quilt has been made using the instructions on Hyacinth Quilt Designs which shows a beautiful version in golds, greys, yellows and white.  Penny's quilt has been made using an array of pretty pinks, greens, white and the occasional splash of orange.


Penny's quilt has been quilted with one of my favourite all-over designs called Daisies Galore.


I love the way the quilted daisies stand out on the plain fabrics and tie in with the many floral fabrics in the quilt - a perfect match really!



Penny's quilt is being raffled to raise funds for her children's school - good luck Penny - the quilt is bound to  do really well.  I am sure the eventual winner will be thrilled to win such a gorgeous quilt. 

Liberty Circles Quilt

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Today's featured quilt is a hand pieced quilt made by my customer Penny.  Penny completed this quilt during classes at Patchwork on Central Park.  It is Penny's version of the amazing Liberty Circles Quilt designed by Angie of Patchwork on Central Park.  As the name suggest, the quilt includes an array of Liberty fabrics.


We decided to keep the quilting fairly simple with radiating lines being quilted from each of the circles.  The circles have been quilted with 1/4 inch outlines and continuous curves.  The stars in the sashing have received some continuous curves and the borders have been quilted with piano keys.


Following are some close-ups of a few of the blocks which certainly demonstrate the intricate piecing involved in this quilt.







Some more photos of this incredible quilt can be found on my flickr account.

Thanks Penny for yet again allowing me to quilt one of your wonderful quilts - enjoy!

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Red Cross Quilt

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I am once again participating in the Blogger's Quilt Festival organised by Amy of Amy's Creative Side from May 18 to June 1, 2012.  The Blogger's Quilt Festival is an online quilt festival where bloggers from around the world showcase a quilt.  Once you have had a look here, head on over and take some time viewing the other wonderful quilts. 

This time, I am sharing another of Linda's quilts.  Linda is from Quilts in the Barn and, after visiting the Infinite Variety Exhibition of red and white quilts in New York City last year, she has developed a love of red and white quilts.  Linda's quilt is the traditional Red Cross Quilt which was pieced to perfection.


Linda loves feathers, so feathers I quilted ...


As a contrast to the feathers, the red crosses and the red sashing have been quilted with simple continuous curves and cross-hatching.




This quilt will be exhibited as part of the Quilts in the Barn Exhibition
(a fundraiser for Breastcancer Research)  as follows:-
Quilts In The Barn 2012

Infinite Variety Revisited
An Exhibition of Red And White Quilts
5th, 6th, 7th October 2012
Also featuring Red And White Antique Quilts
by Mary Koval
Check Linda's Blog for further details

I hope you have enjoyed Linda's quilt - remember to head on over to see many of the other wonderful quilts in the Blogger's Quilt Festival - enjoy!


Nominated! Vote at Blogger's Quilt Festival

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I was thrilled to receive an email from Amy today to say that my customer Linda's Red Cross Quilt had been nominated for voting in 2 categories - Favorite 2 Colour Quilt and Favorite Professionaly Machine Quilted. 
Amy's Creative Side

Voting is open now and anyone can vote - so, head on over to Amy's Creative Side.  There are a number of categories to vote on with a wonderful selection of quilts.

Vale Pat - 1924 - 2012

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Today I went to the funeral of a fellow quilter and friend, Pat McArthur.  At 87 years of age, Pat was one of my dearest and kindest customers - over the last few years I quilted a number of quilts for Pat and I loved picking up and dropping off quilts at her house.  Pat certainly loved a chat and a quilt drop off would invariably last at least an hour.

I found Pat to be an inspirational woman and while I only knew her as a quilter, the church today was filled with mourners which is testament to the many areas of interest in her life.  Pat left instructions for her funeral including the request for no eulogy and no photos of her.  As a result, I won't eulogise too much here other than to say that I will miss catching up with Pat and hold dear the times I was able to spend with her.

I will leave you with a photo of a quilt Pat made which now hangs in her beloved St James Anglican Church in Thornbury - this quilt was completely hand pieced and quilted by Pat.  Pat also made the wonderful Pies and Tarts quilt I have previously blogged.


We Love Color

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I was thrilled to receive a copy of the recently released book We Love Color compiled by Susanne Woods.  We Love Color is a collaborative quilt book with contributions from 16 designers using Kona Solids.  I was given my book by my sister Rita from Red Pepper Quilts whose quilt Lady of the Lake features in the book.



Rita made the traditional Lady of the Lake quilt with a very modern twist.  She chose a green/blue palette for the larger half-square triangles and surrounded the blocks with array of colorful triangles.  I love the way the colors sparkle against the white background.


While Rita usually quilts her own quilts, on this occasion I was asked to quilt for her.  Rita's quilting usually involves straight lines or cross-hatching and she wanted the quilting on this quilt to be within keeping of her RPQ style.  We decided on diagonal lines through the larger blocks and simple continuous curves on the surrounding smaller triangles.


For more information on the other wonderful quilts  in We Love Color as well as some great give-aways, take a look at the We Love Color Blog Tour which is currently running through Robert Kaufman FabricsWe Love Color is available now through Amazon.

Australian Women's Signature Quilt

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We have just returned from a wonderful holiday in Central Australia and I am pleased to say that I have returned with a quilt story.

Whilst in Alice Springs, in the very centre of Australia, we visited the National Pioneer Women's Hall of Fame.  On display there is the Signature Quilt made in 2003 to celebrate International Women's Day.  The quilt is made up of calico squares, all signed by Australian women who have recorded firsts or those who have made significant achievements within their field, with alternate patches of patterned fabric, appropriate to the signatory's field. The quilt is representative of both a traditional women's craft of the 19th century as well as making visible women's achievements of the 20th and 21st centuries - a "Patchwork of Empowerment".

The completed quilt on display measures around 3m x 2.5m (10‘ x 8‘). It contains the signatures of 343 Australian women who have been first in a variety of fields (ranging from sport, law, medicine, politics, public service, adventure etc) within Australia, their State or Territory or their community.



The quilt has been signed by a range of exceptional women - a complete list of signatures is on the National Pioneer Women's Hall of Fame website.  The signatories include:


Evonne Goolagong Cawley - First Aboriginal woman to win the prestigious Wimbledon tennis singles title (1971)


Zali Steggall - First Australian woman to win a World Cup alpine event (1997: slalom, Park City, Utah, USA); first Australian to win an individual medal at a Winter Olympic Games (1998: slalom, Nagano); first alpine World Champion in Southern Hemisphere (1999: women’s slalom, World Skiing Championships).
 
Margaret Fulton - First and greatest of the Australian celebrity cookery writers, with 4 million cookbook sales over the past 40 years; credited with being one of first to bring international cuisine to the Australian table after WWII.
 

Joan Kirner - First woman to head VIC government (State Premier: 1992).

Lowitja O'Donoghue - First Aboriginal woman to receive Order of Australia (1976); founding Chairperson of ATSIC (1990); one of SA’s first trained Aboriginal nurses (1956).


Dawn Fraser - First and only swimmer in history of Olympic Games to have won an Olympic event (100m freestyle) 3 times in succession (achieved Tokyo: 1964).
 
On a personal note, I am very proud to say that the quilt also includes the signature of my sister, Jo Van Son.  Jo is the adventurer in our family and her signature was included in the quilt as she was one of a team of four women (with Robyn Fox, Georgia Le Plastrier - also a signatory to the quilt - and Jenny McKenzie) who made the first Australian all female descent of Canada’s Yukon River by canoe (1997), a journey across Alaska of 2000 miles (3200 kms).  It was fabulous to see her patch amongst such illustrious women.
 

I will leave you with this inspirational message by Josephine Tobias - First woman to own and operate cruise ship in Australia (weekly cruises, Cairns to Cape York: 1990); founder of Women at Work Australia, Brisbane (1994).

 
 

Red & White Quilt #2

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Linda and I had lots of wonderful feedback on the Red Cross Quilt I recently quilted for her.  Linda from Quilts in the Barn has done it again, making yet another beautiful Red & White Quilt to add to her growing collection.  Linda saw a version of this quilt during her travels to the USA and has drafted the pattern up herself.  As usual, the piecing was immaculate and the quilt a pleasure to work on.  I love the fact that this quilt is predominantly red, a reversal of the usual red and white quilts.


The quilt has been quilted with curved cross-hatching in the red setting areas, continuous curves and orange peel in the white stars.


As Linda loves feathers, the large border was quilted with whimsical, curly feathers.


I love the secondary patterns created by the quilting - the circular elements of the curved cross-hatching and the orange peel running diagonally across the entire quilt through the stars.


This quilt will be exhibited as part of the Quilts in the Barn Exhibition
(a fundraiser for Breastcancer Research) as follows:-

Quilts In The Barn 2012
Infinite Variety Revisited
An Exhibition of Red And White Quilts
5th, 6th, 7th October 2012
Also featuring Red And White Antique Quilts
by Mary Koval
Check Linda's Blog for further details

Best of Show!

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I have had the most incredibly exciting day today at the Melbourne Quilt & Craft Show.  The 2012 Victorian Quilters Inc Showcase is currently being held in conjunction with the Melbourne Quilt & Craft Fair.  My quilt, First Blush was entered in the Longarm Category.

First Blush is a wholecloth colour trapunto quilt which I recently made after making some sample pieces earlier in the year.  The quilt is made using techniques by Karen McTavish and involves cut-away trapunto.  The pink colour is created by placing a bright red fabric behind a sheer layer of basiste fabric.


I was thrilled to find that not only had First Blush won First Prize in the Longarm Category, the quilt also won Best of Show!  I have spent most of my day on cloud nine and am still buzzing!


Detail of the centre of First Blush - the background fill is pebbles, one of my favourites.


Corner section of First Blush with sweeping curved cross-hatching.


I will be going back to Quilt Showcase on Saturday to spend some more time with my quilt.  I would like to thank the committee of Vic Quilters for organising another fabulous quilt show, the judges for their time and what must be a difficult job and the volunteers for making the quilt show possible.  I would also like to thank all the sponsors and in particular Bernina for their generous sponsorship - I will look forward to receiving my prize, a Bernina 820 Quilter's Edition sewing machine.

Keep it Simple!

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I have recently quilted a number wonderful modern quilts.  The request for these quilts had been to keep the quilting simple and so I obliged.

The first quilt was made by Arlie and is a Denise Schmidt design called Stacking the Odds.


Arlie requested the signature figure 8 Denise Schmidt quilting design which has quilted up beautifully.



Arlie also made the following Strippy Quilt for her son Sammy with a collection of gorgeous fabrics.


With the busy prints, this quilt was not going to be about the quilting.  As a result, simple straight lines were quilted vertically troughout the quilt.  

Finally, two of my regular customers Tamsin and Bridie worked together to make the following Denise Schmidt quilt called What a Bunch of Squares as a gift for a friend's significant birthday.  I love the beautiful colour choices of this quilt.


I have quilted spiral squares 1" apart which has accentuated the straight lines of this quilt.


I hope you have enjoyed this selection of modern quilts - I have certainly enjoyed working on them.


Japanese Quilt

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Today I would like to share another of my customer Peney's wonderful quilts.  Peney has made a beautiful Japanese Quilt.  Peney's quilts are alway amazingly pieced and her eye for colour is fabulous. 


It took me considerable to work out how to quilt this quilt and Peney certainly waited patiently.  Once I started quilting and let the quilt speak to me, the designs just flowed.

I love the straight lines radiating from the fans, meeting in the centre of the quilt.


The lanterns have been quilted with orange-peel with small setting flowers in between.


The smaller lanterns have been outlined with straight lines and curved lines through the body.  I was also really pleased with the design for the sashing.


Detail of the kimono - very clever use of a prairie point.


Alternating floral designs on snow-ball blocks.


I hope you have enjoyed Peney's quilt - thanks again Peney for allowing me to work on your wonderful quilt. 

Anne's 7th Birthday Quilt

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I have just finished quilting a very pretty floral quilt made by my customer Kate.  Kate has made the quilt for her daughter Anne's birthday - Anne is turning 7 this weekend and she loves roses.  I am sure she is going to love this quilt - it is a simple design of floral squares sashed with a solid white fabric.


Anne's quilt has been quilted with one of my favourite designs, Daisies Galore to tie in with the floral theme.  I love the way the small daisies stand out on the white fabric.


Kate has also been very creative with the back of Anne's quilt.  Kate has four children and the hands of Dad, Mum, big brother, big sister, Anne and little sister have been appliqued across the back of the quilt - a very special and thoughtful touch!


Happy Birthday Anne - I am sure you will love your new quilt.

Quilts in the Barn 2012

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Quilts in the Barn 2012, organised by Linda of Quilts in the Barn is on again in a few weeks - the exhibition is being held from Friday 5th Octiber through to Sunday 7th October, 2012. The exhibition is a fundraiser for breast cancer research.

This year's exhibition was inspired by the Infinite Variety Exhibition:  Three Centuries of Red & White Quilts held in New York City in 2011.  Since travelling to the exhibition in NYC, Linda has developed an even greater love of Red & White Quilts as you may have seen on my blog, having quilted a number of Red & White Quilts for her.  For a preview of some of the Red & White Quilts which may be on exhibit at Quilts in the Barn 2012, remember the first Red & White Quilt, the beautiful Red Cross Quilt, and the stunning Red & White Quilt #2.  A range of vintage Red & White Quilts from the Mary Koval collection will be also be on display. 

The most recent Red & White quilt which I have quilted for Linda is the following beautiful traditional Signature Block Quilt made with reproduction fabrics.


In keeping with the traditional fabrics and design of this quilt, it has been quilted simply with Baptist Fans, one of my favourite designs for reproduction quilts.



I am certainly looking forward to this year's Quilts in the Barn Exhibition - best wishes Linda for what I am sure will be another wonderful exhibition.

AMQF 2012

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I am very excited to be heading off to Adelaide tomorrow for the second Australian Machine Quilting Festival.  I will be travelling over with two of my machine quilting friends, Mandy and Anita, for a long weekend of classes with Ricky Timms, Renae Haddadin, Sherry Rogers-Harrison and Myrna Ficken.

The 4 day event will also include a vendor mall (looking forward to some shopping) and the Australian Machine Quilting Association Quilt Show. I have entered two quilts in this exhibition and it is always fabulous to see your own quilts on display amongst a fabulous collection of quilts.

I am looking forward to 4 days of machine quilting and the company of like minded people.  Are you heading over?

Diamond Sawtooth Quilt

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The following Diamond Sawtooth Quilt is the last in a series of stunning Red & White Quilts I have quilted for Linda Collins of Quilts in the Barn.  This quilt too will feature in the upcoming Quilts in the Barn Exhibition as detailed in my previous post.  As usual, Linda's piecing was incredibly accurate - on this occasion she had paper pieced the half-square triangles resulting in perfect points.


Linda gave me the freedom to quilt as desired, as long as it included feathers.  I spent quite some time designing the quilting elements, using the Divide and Design concepts outlined in Lisa Calle's DVD.  Each triangle was divided and the same element quilted into each triangle either once, twice or four times depending on the size of the triangle.





The border was quilted with a simple undulating feather with straight lines.  The straight lines were quilted using one of the Quilter's Groove Rulers which made the spacing of the lines straightforward.



All was going really well until I decided to remove some of my blue dividing lines with a spray of water.  Being a red and white quilt, I was being conscious of the possibility of bleeding.  I had used the blue wash out pen on the white fabric only and had used chalk on the red.  You can imagine my horror when on spraying the white fabric, being careful to avoid any red fabric, a pink stain appeared - the backing fabric had bled into the top fabric.  At 11pm on a Saturday evening, I took to the computer googling madly for solutions to this problem - I did take some comfort from other quilters who had experienced the same problem.  After a restless night, I rose early to finish quilting the quilt and visited the supermarket to buy some Colour Catchers.  I consulted Linda who confirmed that none of the fabrics had been pre-washed.  We agreed that I would was the quilt, hopefully rinsing out all the excess dye including the bleeding which had occurred.

I tested some off-cuts of the backing fabric in some warm water in the bath - it turned pink!  Eventually, the quilt went in with a whole packet of  Colour Catchers.  Again, the water turned pink.  After a second and third rinsing, all the colour appeared to be gone and fortunately, the stain had washed out as well.  I am not sure how the Colour Catchers work, but they do appear to be effective - each of the sheets started out white.






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