Now, they’re not exciting quilts, they’re what I call Utility quilts.  Quilts to use everyday, that can be thrown into the washing machine and thrown over a clothes horse, let the cats sit on, etc…

I’ll post some photos of them when I get them back.   I’ve also organised the binding for a quilt I finished back in July and just folded up and put in the cupboard.

a rather crumpled quilt from being folded up for 6 months

It’s a lovely little quilt and when I took it off to Margaret to get quilted we noticed I’d left a petal off it so rather that take it home I said ‘just quilt it’ and so Margaret quilted in the lost petal.

I just love that quilted petal

The quilted-in petal is in the top left.  I need to sew on 4 little red circles as well as think of a name for this quilt.

Next is my red & white star quilt, the one in the header.  I’ve finished the centre and attached the setting squares and triangles a little while ago.

just a border to go

Yesterday I took it out again and decided I want to add a little border made up of the left over red diamonds cut into triangles.  I’ve already got the backing so I hope to get it finished by the end of the week and drop it off to Margaret.

Just about every quilt is at the machine piecing stage except for the borders of my Sunflowers & Willows quilt.  Here’s a look at one of the borders which still needs the frill around the circle to be done as well as the appliqued edge.  I’m sort of saving the applique for sewing under the air-conditioner when we finally get really hot weather, which we will!  February & March are always hot.

I'm missing my frilly bits!

Once I’ve got all these done I can start my new basket quilt in the Kaffe Fassett fabrics I bought back in December.  I’ve already cut out 16 baskets, prepped and ready to.

Well it’s time to stock up on some essential shopping and I leave you with a piccy of my very naughty cat, Charlie.

I couldn't find a quilt to sleep on

Oh what bliss! I gloated to friends who still had children at home, and less than seven days later his big brother turned up at the door, “Mum, you know how you said, if I really needed to, I could come home?…”  and since then its been busier and louder than ever.  My eldest comes and goes, his friends and girlfriend are often here, there’s music blaring, the phone rings,  there’s dishes in the sink and smelly boy socks everywhere.  I sometimes think the boys might be playing tag as the eldest goes to his girlfriends in Melbourne and I come out to the computer room only to find the youngest has appeared on the couch sometime during the early hours of the morning.

I know none of you were in the house when I went to bed!

I popped down to the supermarket this afternoon, only to see said boy outside instead of miles away in Melbourne, ” Hi Ma, just up for a party, might pop in later!”  Everyone told me I’d miss my boys when they left, but its not me that misses them.

We missed you!

Since last I posted back in November I’ve had a birthday and Margaret & Katherine took me out for a lovely day of quilting and eating at Mill Rose in Ballan, I was spoilt, got lots of quilt related pressies and fabric.  Less than two weeks later it was back to Mill Rose, this time with Irene joining us, for a lovely Christmas morning tea hosted by Sue.

Back in about October I decided to do a quick scrap quilt using only fabrics in my stash.  I wanted to try and use fabrics I didn’t like but of course more and more fabrics that I do like went in to it.  I joined fabric pieces if I needed to and am really pleased with how it turned out.  And I only bought fabric for the backing.

Raiding the stash

here’s the fabric that I picked up on Thursday at Darn Cheap Fabric, only $4 a metre, which here in Austraia is super cheap, a Lecien fabric and they had bolts of it and I’m starting to wish I’d bought a bolt.

Quilt backing

while I was there I also picked up a little bit more fabric, my stash really does need those lighter coloured fabrics, but I was very restrained, as I had already been to 2 or 3 other shops before this.

A little more Lecien fabric & some pretty reds

On Thursday I was a woman on mission, I’ve designed another quilt and have decided that I want to do a version of it in bright, bold Kaffe Fassett fabrics so with nowhere around here to buy such fabrics it was off to Melbourne in search of fabrics to seriously challenge me.  When I was purchasing these fabrics at GJS Discount Fabrics I kept asking the ladies, who were very friendly and helpful, “Do these fabrics go together?  Are you sure?”  They just looked at me, and I said, “I’m a Repro Girl, I don’t know about these fabrics.”

For my new quilt design

This project will have to be a machine applique project if I want to get it done as I’ve now got so many things either on the go or ‘on the drawingboard’ that it just wont see the light of day.  And I’m being very good and not starting it till I’ve got all the prep done for my new Sunflowers & Willows quilt.  Here’s a quick peek at it.  It’s already past this stage, as I’ve got about 70% of the borders prepared and reading to hand sew.  This has gone together very quickly and I’ve used a new technique to get the frills on those flowers.

Sunflowers & Willows

This was another, ‘I just want to use up some of those taupes I’m not so fond of.’  The result, I had to buy more and now I really like them.  I naturally prefer plain backgrounds so this was once again me trying to challenge myself to broaden my design ideas.

Yesterday I cut out lots of assorted red dogtooths for my Texas Flower Basket quilt and laid them on the work table to get an idea if they worked, and I fairly happy with them, although there’s one I might remove.  However I left the door to my studio open and Charlie my cat, who seems to have a thing for any fabric with green leaves on it, was found laying on the quilt top with an expression I can only say is belligerent.

It's got green leaves so it's my quilt!

So have a happy and safe new year and see you on the other side.

A few weeks ago I found it in a scrunched up ball sitting in a small paper waste bin and decided it was time to give it a purpose.

House quilt

That’s my eldest son, now 20+, holding up the quilt for me to take a quick piccy, and he used to use this top as part of his cubby building in the lounge.

So what to back it with?  I knew I wasn’t going to spend money buying backing fabric, so I dug out some fabrics I had decided to donate and pieced them into a backing.

When Margaret saw the backing, well, words failed her!  The back is made from fabric that nowadays I wouldn’t buy in a pink fit.  The scary thing was I had enough to actually make a backing.

Well so much for me being a Repro Girl!

But looking at the front of the quilt is fun.  I loved those Red Wagon Plaids, and recently used some to piece some Ohio Stars for my Chilli & Chocolate quilt.  This quilt is a little bit of a quilt fabric history tour of the mid 1990s.

So I’ll make a label with the quilts story, attach it and bind the quilt in a nice red I think.  And thankyou Margaret for quilting it and turning it into an actual quilt.

Jenn

ps WordPress just told me this is my 50th post!

Inner dogtooth borders

ciao

Jenn

About a month ago Margaret and I spent a lovely day at Mill Rose Cottage in Ballan where I found two greens and a red which I desperately needed and so I’ve manged to finish the centre blocks of this quilt and today have started the first row of dogtooth today.  I hadn’t attached to border yet as I was just checking I still liked it. Oh and I sneaked in a little bit of Smithsonian fabric!

First dogtooth border

Mill Rose is a fabulous new patchwork shop, with cafe attached, with the most friendly owner and staff you could hope to find.  Sue at Mill Rose has a sit and sew on Thursdays which if you live in Melbourne and have the opportunity you should definitely visit.

Oh and they have a lovely new blog courtesy of Lizzie, so just click the button below to visit, thru the red door.

thru the red door

Having said that I best go over and say hello myself, and then get back to sewing. 

Jenn

I travelled down from Castlemaine by train to ‘The Immigration Museum‘ where the two day symposium was held over the weekend.  I quickly lined up to sign in with many ladies and a gentleman or two, who had travelled from Queensland, NSW, WA and TAS as well as local attendees.

My fabric from the AQSG Symposium Luck Dip

The day started with an introduction and welcome by Janet O’Dell, Convenor, Quilt Study Group Victoria.  Janet spoke about a fabulous hexagon quilt from her collection which she refers to as the ‘The Braddyll Quilt’, but was originally called a ‘GRANDMOTHER’S FLOWER GARDEN’ QUILT‘ by Christies when it was listed for auction.  I was able to spend quite some time having a close look at this amazing quilt.  This quilt was made from many beautiful velvets and silks, which when examined closely showed tiny embroidered flowers on many of the centres.

This was followed by Margaret Rolfe stepping in for Dr Annette Gero, who was unable to attend at the last minute.  As part of the Annette Gero presentation several participants of the ‘Fabric of Society’ challenge brought along their quilts for us to get up close and look at.  Dear Prudence by Linda White was one.

After lunch Margaret Rolfe spoke about an applique quilt of Irish origin held in the NGV, as well as similar Irish quilts of the time and their common elements.

Lynette Nilaweera formerly from ‘The Wool Quilt Prize & Geelong Wool Museum’ spoke about her experiences curating the Prize.

Brownwyn Cosgrove, a senior textile conservator from the NGV spoke about and show a presentation on the conservation process they went through for ‘The 1840s Dickens Quilt’.

Cleaning the E Dickens quilt

and that was just day one.

Day Two was were we actually got to get up and personal with some quilts.  Alan Tremain presented a range of quilts which he was happy for us the examine and photograph.

Alan Tremain quilt

and a beautiful lone star quilt

1930s Lonestar quilt

and another

8 pointed star

a close up of one of the blocks

How bright are these colours?

and a closeup of one of the blocks, the fabrics that were put together left some of us speechless

a close up of one of the blocks

and a closeup of another block

and another

one more

the colours were just so bright and clear in these blocks

the next block was from a sweet redwork quilt

Redwork chickens

the next image is of some pre-printed cushion embroidery squares.  Alan spoke about how often before these patterns were printed in the newspapers, the male image artists would go over the designs putting in intricate detail that no embroiderer would actually put in their designs.

Looking at the redwork cushions sitting atop another gorgeous quilt

the above quilt, when examined closely was pieced from small diamonds.  Here’s a closeup

Close up of the piecing

and some machine foundation piecing circa 1916, maybe or at least that was a date we found on the paper.

Foundation piecing

and the back

Foundation piecing

I still have lots more to cover but I think its time to go and do some work so I’ll try an do another post in a day or two.

Jenn

Well I ran up some very simple blocks for a simple quilt but am yet to find Kona Expresso (a very dark brown) anywhere and of course that and only that is what I want for my setting squares & triangles.

Blocks for my Chilli & Chocolate Stars

The first flowers of spring Down Under have bloomed, you’ve seen them on other blogs, however I have a lovely Daphne bush at the front steps that just fills the house with its heavenly scent. Charlie the cat seemed quite happy about the advent of spring.

Charlie's favourite place to be when it blooms

I finally finished a few of my Maltaville blocks.

A few of my Maltaville blocks

I attended CAG and that was as always lots of fun with gorgeous quilts to see and inspiring quilters to catchup with.  The quilt below is by Chris Serong who is an amazing quilter, designer and teacher.  Even the borders are made up of hexagons.

Amazing hexagon quilt by Chris Serong

Margaret and I went to Melbourne for a day trip and while we were there we stopped at the Arts Centre.  Looking around the city at night gave me a renewed appreciation for Melbourne, which is currently holding the title of  “Worlds Most Liveable City”.

Victorian Arts Centre

On the ReproFabricLovers Yahoo list there was a discussion by some of us Aussies about the long time it takes for some items to arrive and this image below certaintly tells me why my fabric took five weeks to arrive.

By way of Sweden?

Sweden  I’m fairly certain isn’t really on the way to Australia from the US but hey maybe Geography has changed since I was at school.

Then came QITB and meeting up with some of the ReproFabricLovers girls, see the group photo on Linda’s blog, and many of the CAG ladies, as well as meeting the lovely Jo Morton & Russ.  We lunched with Maureen and Kirsten in Castlemaine a few days later.  QITB is always so much fun, thank-you Linda and crew, and I beat Margaret in finding some Smithsonian fabric in one of Jo’s older quilts.

a little Smithsonian fabric

We spent hours at QITB which really gave me plenty of time to really look at the quilts properly.  Often I find these events are so full of beautiful quilts, meeting new people and catching up with old friends that really getting to spend time looking at the quilts can almost become lost.  Not this time and every-time I looked at a quilt I saw something new and inspiring.

Beautiful detail in one of Jo's quilts

I really loved the colouring in this quilt.

Beautiful colouring in this quilt

and last but not least this gorgeous little snowball quilt.  I’ve never really liked the snowball block but just loved it in this size.

Inspiring little snowball quilt by Jo Morton

My next post will undoubtedly be about my adventures in tea dyeing!  I promise my next post wont be far away!

Jenn

My local quilting guild, Goldfield Quilters, was a group exhibitor at the Melbourne Craft Show just gone.  Both Margaret and Rachel exhibited in our group exhibition as well as the general exhibition.  Margaret exhibited her Nebraska Baskets quilt as well as another gorgeous quilt, a red Ohio Star which she whipped up and Rachel exhibited her When North meets South Lone Star quilt as well as another gorgeous quilt which she will hopefully put an image up of.

As you’ll notice there hasn’t been many photo’s of other peoples quilts lately.  Well both the major exhibitions lately have a No Photos policy I believe, so even if I do take photos I no longer post them without express permission of the quilt maker.  And we should all get into the habit of “watermarking” images of our quilts with our blog address.  End of rant!

Well back to. . .

I only bought one piece of fabric at the show, a fat quarter of Kim Diehl’s ‘Along the Fence’ in a lovely muddy browny purple.  I really need a couple of metres I’ve decided, but I’m on a budget now.

So on Saturday after saying goodbye to Rachel I headed off on the 112 Tram back Northcote where I’d parked my car at a friends place.  But before I got there I stopped off in Fitzroy and soaked up the atmosphere.  I really love Fitzroy and my favourite optometrist is there and they were having a sale so I’ve put away 3 pairs of frames, two for sunnies and one for actual spectacles.  I really loved being in the northern inner city suburbs.  They are so vibrant and it really energised me.

I’ve some friends, Catherine and Ralf, who live around the corner from the Black Cat Cafe, Ralf is a fabulous artist, so I had a lovely catch-up with them and then back out to Brunswick Street and back onto the tram and back to Northcote and my faithfully waiting little blue Barina.

In a little over a week it’s CAG time again on 13 August.  Hopefully I will remember to ask if I can post photo’s of the guest speaker, Carolyn Mellor’s, antique quilts that she is going to show us.

Next post will have, at least two quilt tops I’m trying to finish off, who knows maybe I’ll have three as they only need setting squares and triangles!

I promise photo’s in the next post.

ciao for now

Jenn

From a month ago…

It’s been a real whirlwind of quilty goodness lately.  Things are returning to normal thankfully or I don’t think I’d last much longer.

Margaret has posted about some of the lovely quilts we spent hours pouring over so be sure to have a look at the photo’s she’s been able to show.

Anyway here are some rough photos of the CAG event as well as some quick shots I took of some Boutis that I saw as I was leaving the Sydney quilt show.

Just some of the fabrics I picked up in Sydney

just some of the fabric I picked up in Sydney

Gorgeous Boutis

and another

and another absolutely gorgeous Boutis

and this next one is my favourite, unfortunately I didn’t find out where they came from or who made them

and this if my favourite Boutis

I’ve already starting drafting a pattern of this last one, as an appliqué of course.

CAG was fabulous and it’s alway a great opportunity to catch up with lots of lovely and amazingly talented quilters.

I wasn’t able to take very good photos at CAG as my camera isn’t up to it but here’s one quilt which is my favourite.  Bev’s quilt is my all-time favourite version that I’ve seen of Di Ford’s 19th Century Baskets quilt.  It’s not a good photo but the quilt is lovely.

Bev Bannards version of the Di Ford pattern 19th century baskets

And of course it was lovely to catch up with Mary and Joe again at CAG.

Mary, Joe and I

ciao
Jenn

Up before the crack of dawn for me on Friday as I left my place at 6.30am in the fog to get to Margaret’s.  I had to drive very slowly as its quite a windy and narrow road and of course the kangaroos are out and about at that time of the morning.  Margaret’s lovely husband, Lindsay, drove us to the airport and before we knew it we we’re coming in to land at Sydney airport.

Landing at Sydney gave both Margaret and I a new appreciation of why international visitors are impressed when they enter the country at Sydney.  The view was spectacular with the vista of the blue harbour and sandy beaches in the sun.

First off a fabulous luncheon with Margaret’s cousin Grant at Matthew’s Peacock Garden in Crows Nest.  If you ever get the chance to go there the food and service is beautiful and well worth the visit.

By 4.00pm we were finally on our way to the Show.  Here are a few photos of Margaret and I with just one of the many sculptures around Darling Harbour that Lindsay has cast.

Margaret at Darling Harbour

Sorry for the blurry photo’s but it was after our lovely lunch.

Me, happy to have something to rest against

We had a very quick visit to the show before it was time to chose a nice dinner restaurant for everyone.  Dinner was a very merry affair with Carol, Guy, Mary Lou and Isabelle from Quilt Mania, Petra & Nel from Den Haan & Wagenmakers and Joe & Mary Koval.

I’ll post again about the rest of the weekend in Sydney soon, with some photo’s, as well as tomorrow at CAG when they Carol, Petra & Nel and Joe and Mary come up to Castlemaine for the day.

ciao

Jenn