Margaret

Repro Fabrics Galore, Merry Stitching, and Happy Blogging in 2013

December 26, 2012 by Margaret

Oh dear this blog post was to be my pre-Christmas catch up ~ oooops

I think even if I squint it can’t still be the 25th somewhere in the world so I hope you all had a fabulous day yesterday with the ones you love.

My son is still here as his wife had to work today so he and his Dad are playing with boy toys in the shed and,

after a morning of putting the house back together, I am pottering/tidying in my studio after a perfect day yesterday with my nearest and dearest.

Life is good.

I have a list as long as my arm of things I want to do over January, so a clean and organised studio space is a must. But of course it doesn’t take long for me to mess it up again.

I still had sitting on the floor the bundles of fabric I bought in Houston, I want to show you them as there are some great fabrics for the repro afficionados amongst us.

I bought these at Cotton in the Cabin ‘s booth at Festival. Unfortunately the website doesn’t show these wonderful bundles,

labeled Walnut Root Dye circa 1850-1860

but they are worth a phone call or email I think if you were looking for early repro’s. I don’t know where in the States they are situated.

Here is the same bundle unrolled for a better look, I’m not sure if Walnut Root Dye circa 1850-1860 was the name of the range or if this is just a mix of era appropriate fabric prints/colours.

these only have Baum Textiles on the selvage

This next bundle is labeled Bannister Hall c 1830 and this was a range, called Bannister Hall Summerhouse by Xenia Cord for Freespirit.

I don’t recall seeing this range at all in Australia so would be interested to know if it came to our shores.

Bannister Hall Summerhouse by Xenia Cord

I already had those two fat quarters of one print from an earlier US shopping spree so was thrilled to get another fat quarter to play with.

Next up is American Beauty.

American Beauty by Mary Koval for Windham Fabrics

A few of the above I have in the stash already but am down to scarily small amounts so very pleased to have found some more

and the last bundle I bought, although I should’a, could’a, would’a bought many more was titled Koval and Friend,

just a gorgeous selection of 19th c prints

and is a nice selection of prints. I checked with Mary and she just laughed, she couldn’t remember who the friend was but two selvages hint at it being Bethany Fuller. In the absence of complete selvage info I am guessing these were all Windham fabrics. A few I had seen before but others were new to me.

From a different booth, I did take a card but can’t put my hand on it at the mo, I found an early piece which intrigued me.

In the picture below it is the base print I found, Discovery by Jinny Beyer for RJR fabrics,

Discovery by Jinny Beyer for RJR Fabrics. Commemorating Columbus's 1492 discovery of the Americas.

a commemorative range 1492-1992 of Christopher Columbus’s discovery of the Americas. The other four fabrics surfaced when my friend Sherry said “I’ve got some of that range” and there ensued a flurry of activity searching the shelves. A bit of swapping followed and now I have five pieces from the range.

During the same shelf search, these early Jinny Beyer Shirttails surfaced, and thanks to Sherry’s generosity these found their way home with me too.

Jinny Beyer Shirttails for RJR Fabrics

Trawling Sherry’s fabric stash ended up being a Jinny hunt and I have to show you this because I think it’s beautiful.

Jinny Beyer for RJR Fashion Fabrics, that's all the selvage says.

A bit of picotage, full blown flowers in that brilliant blue I love ~ it hints at being teal, brown and some Perkins Purple. Is this one of the best repro’s or what? To my mind it is and it’s from a time when we didn’t really buy repro’s cos we hadn’t coined that term yet.

From Cotton in the Cabin I also bought these two prints from South Africa, these are on the website.

Shweshwe quilting fabric, printed in South Africa by Da Gama Textiles

I think with some tea-dyeing these could pass for mid 19th c Prussian Blue repro’s. That’s on my list to do through January,

add to list ~ buy plain pack tea bags.

Well it’s nearly 2013 and I am reflecting on what an amazing 2012 I have had, I feel very, very fortunate.

I have had some wonderful opportunities arise and I am grateful I was able to grab them with gusto. I have met quite a few overseas blogging friends in person this year, you all know who you are and it has been brilliant to meet you all (and y’all). I have made closer friendships online with others even if we haven’t met up ~ yet… And I have met and made new friends so I am a lucky girl indeed.

Thank you for dropping by and being interested in what I am doing here in my little neck of the woods, I really appreciate the support and friendships I have made here.

But I’m not done yet

Let me tell you about a couple of blogs.

The first is called PinMoneyQuilts and belongs to a friend from Melbourne, Linda Bear.

Linda had a quilt accepted in to Houston this year and I was pleased to be able to see it and congratulate Linda on her acheivement.

This is the quilt titled Best of Friends, it’s all reverse applique and is stunning.

Best of Friends by Linda Bear, thank you Linda for letting me show it and congratulations.

The next blog belongs to another Kiwi lass, but unlike me Sharon still lives there.

I met Sharon at the Melbourne Quilt Market, she is the owner and creative force of Sharon Keightly Designs.

As soon as I saw Sharon’s quilts I had to chat with her and was amazed to learn that her applique is all done the invisible machine way, something that’s been on my mind to try for ages but is now on the tangible list for January.

For tonight though it’s the old fashioned needle-turn way as I start block number three of the Cannonsburg Quilt

I should be a bit further along but have not done any hand sewing for about two weeks !!! It’s been prepped and sitting by my chair but there’s just been too much to do in the lead up to Christmas, so a quiet night in with stitching sounds good to me.

Now that the studio is tidy I will have fun in here and hope you get the time to drop by to see my progress.

til soon

happy stitching

Margaret

10 Comments

Filed Under: 1800s Reproduction Fabrics, Applique, Design, Musings, Travel

Being a bit of a slow coach with this one

November 27, 2012 by Margaret

Applique block

But I’m pleased to say

“that’s one block down and eight to go”

Today I prepped another block in anticipation of something good on the telly tonight,

I haven’t checked, I’m just hoping there is :-0

In progress

Click on the picture for a better view, you’ll see that I don’t mark my background fabric at all,

but I do press the halfway marks, vertical/horizontal and diagonal.

I have a large light box (but even it isn’t quite large enough to fit these very large blocks)

and I prefer to just lay the background fabric over the pattern sheet.

The applique shapes are marked with the stitch line directly on to the right side of the fabric with whatever will show up.

In this case all the fabrics are marked with a white pen except the lighter blue which has been marked with a frixion pen (heat activated) so I have to remember not to iron that one.

I have finished this quilt below which you have seen snippets of

here

and it looks like this

Quilt previously known as Vintage

Okay I know, you can’t see that much of it but a girl’s got to keep the odd thing up her sleeve.

It does have a name now, it only had a working title of Vintage which either had to go or be extended somehow.

I have decided to call it Eastleigh after the town in Hampshire where my Grandmother was born. It rolls off the tongue easily.

I can tell you that this quilt is destined for Homespun magazine next year, about mid way through so don’t hold your breath just yet.

And I thought I’d just share with you that this elderly lady is still hanging in there despite a few scares this year

" I know I forget lots of things but I don't think I've eaten yet"

Rollo has just had her summer clip and is looking forward to Christmas, just around the corner now.

I’ll be back before then of course,

’til soon

Margaret

16 Comments

Filed Under: 1800s Reproduction Fabrics, Applique, Design, Eastleigh, Reproduction Quilts, Smithsonian Fabrics

Back home after a whirlwind visit to Texas

November 15, 2012 by Margaret

I’m not sure how to capture two busy and exciting weeks in a single blog post, but I’ll give it a go.

Jenn and I arrived in San Antonio in time for dinner on the Monday evening (the 22nd ), having left Sydney just prior to Monday lunchtime!

It’s always a pleasure spending time with our good friends Sherry and Darwin, their home has become quite the home away from home.

America was getting ready for Halloween (and Thanksgiving too going by the amount of pumpkins I saw), it was neat to see as we don’t celebrate that here in Australia.

Anyone for Pumpkin?

Of course the reason Jenn and I were there was to attend Quilt Market, arriving on the Friday morning to help set-up the booth.

We had to set off early in the morning from San Antonio to get to Houston, and because I am pathologically punctual we set off at 5.00am which allowed plenty of time.

On the road, it got light soon enough.

It was great to meet up with Marianne again and also to meet her ‘girl Friday’ Judy, we all hit it off really well and the time together just flew by.

First up was ‘Schoolhouse’ which I knew nothing about, but now I do know… 30 minutes (that’s 30 minutes, not 31) of manic activity showing attendees what you will be showcasing at Market. Marianne spoke and watched the clock ticking, Judy and I held up all the quilts and Jenn handed out flyers and photographed the whole affair with three cameras as of course we all wanted our own record!!

getting ready for the next quilt on the list

Harmony Rose being seen for the first time at Market. She got an "aaaah" moment.

Then it was racing back downstairs to start hanging the quilts in their places on the booth.

Judy and I did take turns up the ladder, and it sure was nice having someone taller than I for a change.

At Market there is always a well known face or name going past.

A spot of celebrity spotting, with Eleanor Burns.

The next day, we and the booth were READY.

Marianne Elizabeth for RJR, ready to roll.

We also caught up with quite a few friends at Market, dinner with Mary and Joe Koval, Petra Prins and the Quiltmania crew. We all went to Mama Ninfa’s which was fantastic. Really good Mexican food and with a wonderful vibe to the place.

Margaritas and munchies.

I had a couple of real highlights to this trip, the first was finally meeting a good blog friend in person. We had tried to meet up earlier this year but the gods were against us that time. But this time Michele from Betwixt the Betweens and I met up, along with another friend Gina (whom I always knew as Janet!!) and we had a super time together, as if we had known each other for years. We were so busy talking and laughing that we didn’t get photo’s sorry.

And there was a perfect deja vu moment on the streets of La Grange, just outside the Texas Quilt Museum, literally steps from where Irene and I had met Kathy in April…

Irene Blanck, quilter Kathy from California and Texas Quilt Museum staff member Julie, April 2012

… Kathy and I locked eyes and grinned like cheshire cats in November.

Fancy meeting you here

We were thinking “were we wearing the same clothes last time”? No, phew.

And a big, big thrill was seeing a Mid 19th C Star Quilt hanging in the European Championship section of the Houston Quilt show.

I can’t really describe how it felt, I guess the only thing better is having your own quilt hanging there.

Mid 19th c Star Quilt by Kea Gutker de Geus from Velserbroek, The Netherlands. Quilted by Elly Prins. Awarded first place ~ Traditional.

Kea has used beautiful Dutch Chintzes in her quilt, it is stunning.

I will be back with some other quilts to show.

Thanks for visiting,

til soon

Margaret

1 Comment

Filed Under: Musings, Quilt Patterns, Travel

Texas bound.

October 20, 2012 by Margaret

I’ve got to get a little more frequent with this blogging caper,

the second half of this year has flown by and many times in the last 4 or 5 months I’ve felt like a whirling dirvish.

I hinted last time about a new quilt to be introduced to you all in a fitting manner.

And I think Irene, Jennifer and I are as ready as we’ll ever be to introduce you to

Drum roll…

Harmony Rose

Harmony Rose

Harmony Rose showcases the newest fabric range Arabella Rose by

Marianne Elizabeth Classically Home

Jenn and I are super excited to be taking the quilt to Fall Market in Houston next week to release the pattern.

You can read more about Harmony Rose’s inception on our new web-blog

Turn Left for Harmony

and the beautiful fabrics we used for it can be seen here on Marianne’s site.

I’m sure you’ll be seeing them at a quilt shop near you soon.

Jenn and I will also visit Festival so maybe we’ll see you there

we sure hope so

til soon,

Margaret

4 Comments

Filed Under: Applique, Design, Travel

Time flies when you’re sewing.

September 20, 2012 by Margaret

I am astonished to see it’s a month (or so) since I posted last, but I take comfort noticing that some of my favourite bloggers are doing the same. Weeks and months are whizzing by in the blink of an eye.

Since May I’ve had an internal monologue of… “life will get a bit less manic, I just have to get through July and August”.

I think I started breathing again on the first of September.

Since I was here last I have…

been on a lovely weekend away with Linda, Bev, Jenn and Debbie to Sorrento.
been working steadily on the Vintage Quilt.
enjoyed a day with lots of other quilters and the Chester County Criswell Quilt at Linda Collin’s home.
finished the last bit of embroidery and finally started quilting the Maltaville Quilt.
finished a quilt for the US with Jenn and Irene (more about that later, we’ve had to keep it very quiet until recently)
been teaching at Patch n Quilt in Gisborne.
dragged out the Welsh Quilt for more hand quilting (the weather’s been miserable)
been quilting quilts for the Goldfields Quilters (my LQG) exhibition next month ~ all customers’ quilts done, just mine to do now phew.
finally made a start on reproducing one of the Antique Quilts I bought in Paducah, but I only started that today so does that count in this list? Oh what the heck, course it can count.

Pictures would be nice wouldn’t they.

Linda blogged ages ago here about the Sorrento Retreat but here’s a few more pics. It really was a super weekend

Now that's novel

I love this one of Linda,

soooo many circles

As well as other sewing, I sewed more circles on the Vintage quilt,

We watched a wonderful movie called The Help.

We all cried, ssshhh don’t tell anyone.

Do see it if you can.

And there were so many books to browse, not just sewing but also our other passion…

cooking.

And just take a look at the quilt on the floor and keep it in your mind.

Books galore

The Vintage Quilt is coming along nicely, I finally got my design wall up in the cottage.

That sure helped.

Progressing nicely

Just a couple more borders and it will be done.

The day at Linda’s enjoying the Chester County Criswell Quilt was fantastic.

Linda has blogged about it here

Many thanks to Sharon for making the quilt available for us all to enjoy, and to Linda and Bev for a fabulous day, so well organised.

The Maltaville Quilt went on the machine yesterday

I’m sooooo very happy to see this at the next and final stage.

Do you remember this Red and Green quilt, it was one I purchased in the US in April?

June Orr's 1849 applique quilt

I’ve been intending to recreate it as a pattern and I had drafted the blocks a little while ago.

But today, I finally got fabric happening.

The impetus?

I’m going on a retreat with my LQG this weekend and I needed some handwork ~ easy to transport, not too taxing.

But warning, it’s not Red and Green.

One of the large blocks

I think I must have trouble with two fabric quilts.

I love them~ I really do, but it’s just there are so many great fabrics that it’s hard to stop at two!

So now for the Irene’s, Jenn’s and my ‘secret’ quilt.

If you’re on Facebook you could take a little look at the link below then I’ll try and fill you in as best I can cos it’s a bit of a long story.

http://www.facebook.com/MarianneElizabethDesigns

Are you back? Did you see a quilt that looked like the one on Linda’s floor in Sorrento?

Crazy huh!

When Irene and I were away in the US we met fabric and quilt designer Marianne Elizabeth.

I could talk for an hour on the serendipity that brought the three of us together, but trust me, it was a fabulous bit of fate.

So, we chatted about fabric and quilts, then Marianne showed us some pieces from her newest fabric collection

Arabella Rose

and invited us to design a new quilt using them.

What a thrill.

So a big part of why I (and Jenn & Irene too if I can be so bold as to speak for them) have been a teeny bit quiet around blogland is that we have been sewing, and sewing and sewing and sew…

The quilt is called Harmony Rose and we want to introduce it to you properly ~ and in a special way ~ very soon.

You’ll just have to be patient a little bit longer, there’s just a bit more to do on the promotion.

And there’ll be a pattern of course.

I’m going to sign off for the night, it’s quite late oooh it’s suddenly tomorrow.

til soon

Margaret

1 Comment

Filed Under: 1800s Reproduction Fabrics, Antique Quilts, Applique, Design, Maltaville Album Quilt 1847, Quilt Patterns, Reproduction Quilts

A new antique quilt!!

August 15, 2012 by Margaret

Last week I had the very great pleasure of meeting a new antique quilt!!!

Is that an oxymoron?

I’m sure you know what I mean ~ an antique quilt not seen before, that makes it new right!

I also had the very great pleasure of meeting the owner, Melva who very kindly brought her quilt in for me to see.

Melva would love me to show you the quilt so it can be enjoyed by many.

So without further ado, please let me introduce you to the quilt known as Grandma Taylor’s Blue Quilt.

1833 Frame Quilt

Grandma Taylor is the great great grandmother of the previous owner, a relation of new owner Melva.

Grandma Taylor was from Westport,Pennsylvania, USA.

The fabrics in this quilt are a wonderful example of early 19th century fabrics, particularly those Prussian Blues I love soooo much.

There were the usual squeals of “oh look” “look at this one” “Look at that ombré” “how about that for a paisley”

I should put photo’s with those exclamations shouldn’t I?

So for all those fabricaholics, enjoy.

Paisley print on Ombre

Prussian Blue Ombre print

Surpentine Stripe

The quilt is in very good condition. Only a few of the fabrics have not fared well and the above is one that has perished. I could only find this particular fabric in two places but many others are repeated all over the quilt.

I was particularly interested with this fabric

Prussian blue and buff check

because it reminded me of this one

image of 1847 Maltaville Album Quilt detail

fabric detail from the Maltaville Album Quilt 1847

More Prussian Blue

Prussian Blue Ombre

Stripes and a very sweet little paisley in yellow, can you spot it?

Ombres, stripes and paisleys galore

And the back is very impressive too, a mid blue serpentine print

Backing fabric

Many many thanks to Melva for sharing Grandma Taylor’s quilt with us.

And many many thanks to Mary at Patch n Quilt (formerly Drapers of Mt Macedon) who suggested it and then made it happen

I would love to reproduce this, Melva has generously given me the OK. I have so many great Prussian blue repros left from the Maltaville, they need a new project and so do I, LOL.

Tomorrow Jenn and I are off to the beach for a few lovely days of friendship and sewing with Linda (thank you, thank you Linda for providing the digs), Bev (no blog) and Debbie (don’t think Debbie has a blog)

We are sooooo looking forward to it. I have packed the car already!!

We have heaps of work to do and hope to be able to show you what secret quilting business we have been up to very soon.

I will no doubt be dreaming of a certain blue medallion quilt.

til soon

Margaret

Vintage

August 4, 2012 by Margaret

That’s still the working title, not even Vintage Quilt or Vintage … anything. Just Vintage, it’s the best I could come up with.

I took it to Mill Rose Cottage last Thursday, it was nice to catch up with Sue and the regulars, though I have hardly been a regular, this was the first chance I had to get there since April.

A bit of Sewing and a bit of Shopping, happy days.

I grabbed a copy of the book History Repeated by Betsy Chutchian and Carol Staehle.

I love to read about a group of women getting together through a mutual love of quilts and it leading to such a wonderful project. And of course, amongst the Divas there are a couple of names I recognise

I have been over in the studio today as I really needed to have a tidy up. I confess that I do work in a bit of a mess, functioning quite well until I get fed up with myself and get more orderly.

I get sick of rifling through stuff

The templates were piling up so they needed to be put away once finished with.

Templates so far

And my working book was looking quite empty despite the centre being nearly complete.

That’s bad, I use this as the basis of my pattern writing so it’s important that I keep it up to date while it’s all fresh in my mind.

So I updated that with instructions and fabric samples.

Quilt Workbook, plus a pile of circles

I’ve sewn on the last of the leaves and then needed to make some more circles. I have a nice little pile there but I still need about 20 more.

But I got a bit bored and decided to come show you how it’s looking so far.

I haven’t got a design wall up in the studio yet, I kept rearranging the furniture so wasn’t sure where I wanted it for awhile. But now I have decided and yesterday went to Spotlight to get some cheap Polar Fleecy (at Jenn’s recommendation)

Design Wall Fleecy, awaiting a curtain rod and a tall man.

So for now I am making do with the back of the door

Vintage centre block in progress

You may have spotted some fabric changes from the last post.

Vintage Centre Block ~ early stages.

My quits tend to evolve. I actually don’t know how big this is going to be or anything. It’s just fun playing.

Well I better go back and make those last circles.

Happy stitching,

til soon

Margaret

11 Comments

Filed Under: 1800s Reproduction Fabrics, Applique, Design, Quilt Patterns

Melbourne Quilt Show

July 28, 2012 by Margaret

I’ve been away for a few days at the Melbourne Quilt Show.

This year I stayed down in Melbourne for three nights so it was a mini getaway. And very nice it was too

Winter in Melbourne, so pretty

Karen at Somerset Patchwork has Quilt Station’s Banyan Tree Medallion Quilt on her stand this year with the patterns for sale.

Banyan Tree Medallion Quilt

It looks great (if I do say so myself LOL) on her stand, it’s a while since I’ve seen it in the real as it belongs to my friend Brenda, Thank you Brenda for the loan again.

I really have to get on with my version two but I keep starting new things.

The Banyan Tree was my quilt design which my LQG The Goldfields Quilters made for our 2010 Exhibition.

Our newest quilt for our 2012 exhibition is called Entwined in Time and was designed and made by our members.

We were thrilled to see it get second place in the Group Quilt Category.

Entwined in Time by members of the Goldfields Quilters

Jennifer’s quilt Leannah, aka Texas Rose Baskets looked wonderful on display too.

Texas Rose Baskets ~ detail, by Jennifer Murray

I know that this has been a long project of Jenn’s so it’s fantastic to see it finished and hanging.

A quilt I quilted was awarded second place in the Two Person Traditonal Category (amateur/professional)

Pattie is also a member of my LQG and I was thrilled to see her get a prize, hehe I get a ribbon too

Pattie's version of Nearly Insane, called Persistence

One small quilt that absolutely blew me away is by Julie Adamson.

Detail of appliqued paisleys, silk and batiks by Julie Adamson.

The detail in this small quilt is incredible, I kept going back to look over and over. The work in it is very fine indeed.

Thank you Julie for allowing me to show it.

There really are some fabulous quilts on display, it’s still on for today and tomorrow.

Linda at Quilts in the Barn has some wonderful photo’s too so have a look here too.

I am just about to head off to teach a class in Gisborne so I will keep moving.

til soon

Margaret

Give-away winners

July 16, 2012 by Margaret

I decided to wait until at least Saturday night because it will still be the 13th July somewhere in the world when we’ve moved on to the 14th July here so yesterday I drew the winners for the give-away announced back here.

http://www.quiltstation.com.au/new-zealand-then-sydney-and-a-give-away

Well actually Jenn did it, she was at my place as we had some work to do, always there is work to do!!

I have to tell you, even something as simple as drawing a give-away was not without confusion :-0

But first I had fun choosing a couple of extra pieces of fabric to go with the John Hewson panels,

Large Urn, with warm brown and light blue for the first two names out

I wanted to give you something a little different to go with the panels, something other than a companion print

Birds, with a madder and an eccentric print for the 3rd and 4th names out.

So with that all done, it was time to write out the names and pop them in a container of some description.

The first thing I did was go on to the post page to see that there were 23 comments,

I had made two replies so that means there are 21 people in the draw, yeah.

Then I wrote down all the names on pieces of paper, and just to be sure I counted them.

There were only 20!

So I counted them again, making sure paper hadn’t got stuck together. Yeah there’s only 20.

So then I read out the names and Jenn checked all the pieces of paper.

Yes everybody is there, so why does the page tell me there are 23 comments?

So I went to my dashboard to check what is going on.

Haha, but not before checking with Jenn that, uummm 23 minus 2 is 21 isn’t it, I actually said that!

There was an extra (already approved) comment that for some reason had not appeared on the list, I have no idea why but rest assured your name went in the draw CMB

Alrighty, after all that hullabaloo we were ready to pull some names out.

Putting Jenn to work... again.

Looking at this photo I have to make clear, I am ~~somewhat~~ considerably taller than 5foot1Jennifer

and Jennifer could not see in to that box.

Drum Roll, first name out is…

Marianne from the Netherlands

Then Judy

Then Ady

Then Jennifer Carlyle Shelton

Congratulations to all of you,

I’ll email you for your postal addresses.

Ready to post

Thank you to everyone who sent in lovely comments.

You all know I had the pleasure of spending a day at the Winterthur Museum, Curator Linda Eaton was very generous with her time allowing Irene and me to enjoy the quilts in their collection.

Please also enjoy and be inspired by these few pics, an homage to John Hewson

Quilt c 1830-1850 using John Hewson fabrics. Maker unknown. In the collection of the Winterthur Museum, Wilmington, DE.

John Hewson birds, detail of the above quilt.

Applique Counterpane early 1800s. Birds cut from John Hewson fabrics. In the collection of the Winterthur Museum, Wilmington DE.

Detail of above with John Hewson butterfly

thanks for visiting.

Til soon

Margaret

5 Comments

Filed Under: 1800s Reproduction Fabrics, Antique Quilts, Applique, Broderie Perse

Getting my mojo back

July 11, 2012 by Margaret

I remember a while back I was going to show you my latest project.

I’m happy to show you, it’s just that I seem to have lost my way with it.

I started with gusto, mmmmm should’ve been alarmed right there, before I went to NZ in June ~ wanting/needing something to sew in the evenings.

I spent a day in the studio, firstly doing a paper cut of a tree.

It's easy to keep trimming away but go easy. A whisker at a time, you can't put it back.

I really got into papercutting shapes while doing the Maltaville Album Quilt blocks.

It’s a quick and easy way to create shapes, sometimes it’s easier to let the scissors do the work instead of the pencil.

Having already chosen my fabrics I started the marking and then glueing the tree to the background.

A bit fiddly.

Those stems were very flimsy and had a life of their own,

but I got there and took this to NZ for pleasant evenings of stitching whilst catching up with family.

Applique tree

I did get a lot of the sewing done while I was away

Under the gaze of my Grandmother, keep working.

and finished the last of it in Sydney the following week.

And then I just lost interest in it.

Backing up a bit, several months ago I was invited to create a new design for publication in a quilt magazine.

I won’t tell you which one because the publication date for the issue is soooo far away. Light years almost.

I’ll tell you closer to the time.

But of course the quilt will need to be done and delivered by end October

I think for some people, pressure spurs them on but for me ~ my creative drive just bombed

I had plenty of ideas but mostly they bombed as well before I could get going on them.

That tree quilt was one that I had thought would be a possibility for the magazine, but then …

as I say, it just sort of went nowhere.

I’ll probably resurrect it again, but it’s just been put on the back-burner for now.

But that’s not going to help me for this deadline is it.

It’s my first time for this magazine and I want to start with something that says ‘me’, I’m not sure what that is but I guess I felt that tree wasn’t it.

So today I took the day as a Design Day, up early, heater on over in the studio in advance so no excuses.

A couple of days ago I had assembled a few fabrics in readiness for an applique centre block.

Fabric choices

I love that Margo Krager Dargate Indigo at the bottom of the pile. I’ve managed to accumulate meterage of most of the range over recent months, even though the range is several years old now.

Some of the above fabrics are ones I picked up in the US, just Fat 1/4s of useful prints and colours.

I knew I wanted an urn, almost undersized for the height and spread of the foliage so as to give the block a naive style.

And I liked the idea of a rope or cable centre stem.

The stem in progress

Years ago I did a Celtic knot quilt class, LOL that over/under mantra is stuck in my head so that’s how I did this stem.

I haven’t really marked any of the background, only a tiny pencil mark where the bottom of the urn will sit and another where I want the top flower to start. I just decided to start weaving the rope stem to look reasonably even. It’s fusible bias stem so after each cable I ironed it in place.

I haven’t yet even got much of a pattern just a few reference points so that I don’t extend beyond 18″.

By late afternoon I was pleased with my progress. I didn’t agonise over the fabrics, but there were a couple of flowers that were discarded. And the flower shapes were paper cut and then trimmed if I felt the size was not quite right, so in that way I was able to work quite quickly.

A day's work

There’s plenty more flowers and leaves to go on of course but I’m ready to sew this lot down before adding more.

I’m kind of making it up as I go along.

The beauty of having my own space is that I can walk away at the end of the day and not worry about the mess, yay.

And just quickly, a very close friend is moving away next month. I’ll miss her big time but we know she’ll only be an email or skype call away.

But a little of her will remain in Central Victoria, she needed to off-load some surplus furniture and some of it has made its way in to my studio. Yippee

A tiered table now doing duty as my cutting station, perfect height.

My back (and I) thank you Jude

And her very gorgeous cupboard from her sewing studio, now filled with my fabric.

What fun I had filling this

The Fabric Cupboard

The studio is starting to look lived in.

Don’t forget the giveaway coming up at the end of this week, it’s from this blog post here

http://www.quiltstation.com.au/new-zealand-then-sydney-and-a-give-away

Leave a comment on the above blog post by Friday the 13th, there are currently only 14 contenders for four prizes.

And I’ll have a poke around in that fabric cupboard for a bit extra to go in too.

Repro Fabrics Galore, Merry Stitching, and Happy Blogging in 2013

Being a bit of a slow coach with this one

Back home after a whirlwind visit to Texas

Texas bound.

Time flies when you’re sewing.

A new antique quilt!!

Vintage

Melbourne Quilt Show

Give-away winners

Getting my mojo back

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