Gathering Dust…

November 22, 2011 by
image of Pine tree quilt blocks

Yes that’s what Jennifer said when she popped in yesterday,

“How’s that quilt coming along…it looks like it’s gathering dust?”

image of Pine tree quilt blocks

Pine tree blocks...still in progress!

It’s true I set the machine up on the end of the table so I would be able to sew the blocks in the evenings,

but it just hasn’t been happening.  No reason, just not in the mood.

The machine has been there longer than I care to remember now, has to be a month I’d say!!

Never mind, I’ll get to it eventually.

Today the postie brought two treasures

image of Quiltmania magazine

Quiltmania magazine

and some fabric.

I grabbed a bit more RJR Smithsonian fabric from Heart of Dixie and *filled the bag* with some oldies but goodies.

image of fabric

Fabric goodie bag

Heart of Dixie is a great spot for those fabrics which have long gone in Australia, our repro stuff gets snapped up so quickly.

I’ve also been busy drafting for the Maltaville Quilt and getting very good at paper cutting.

I remember asking my daughter a while back about the pronunciation of Scherenschnitte

(she spent some time in Germany and then Zurich in her late teens as an au pair and going to German language school)

The conversation went something like this.

“darling how is Scherenschnitte pronounced?”

“How is what pronounced!!”

“Scherenschnitte, how do I pronounce it?”

“Mumsie, I don’t know, what are you talking about? I don’t know what you mean”

“you must know, you would have done it with the kids…Paper Cutting”

“ohhh, Scherenschnitte” pronounced in a way I could never hope to repeat.

Anyway here is my effort at that activity, I’m better at doing it than saying it LOL

iamge of Drafting blocks

Scherenschnitte galore

the above has now resulted in this

image of pattern H4

H4

I find that the old fashioned paper cutting, like folded paper dolls,

is the best way to do some of these blocks and get them symmetrical (hopefully, though I’ve had a few rejects)

iamge of Pattern C3

C3

I should add that I’m sure my pronunciation is not too bad it’s just that where languages are concerned DD is a bit of a perfectionist.

Another nice thing that is happening is the arrival of  Spring and soon Summer.

One of my cousins in NZ has joined me up to her Facebook Garden Group so I have been photographing,

and therefore enjoying more,

my garden as well as hers.

So here’s a lovely rose to enjoy from my garden.

image of William Morris roses

William Morris Roses

Til soon :-)

7 Comments

Filed Under: 1800s Reproduction Fabrics, Design, Maltaville Album Quilt 1847, Reproduction Quilts, Smithsonian Fabrics  

Aren’t Birthdays Grand!!

November 13, 2011 by
image of House blocks

especially when you can string them out for a few more weeks hehe.

Last month I had a particularly special birthday and some of my friends made special things for me, I’m very lucky to have such fantastic women in my life.

I wish I had taken a photo when they presented me with a box of quilt blocks yesterday, it looked gorgeous all tied up with ribbon, but of course I forgot…

But I did photograph the blocks today as I was ‘playing’ with them.

image of House blocks

12 House blocks

Rose from my little Love and Friendship group organised the others to each make a block from the Le Rouvray free pattern.

A few of the members from my LQG also wanted to join in, and so yesterday I was given a dozen gorgeous blocks.

Big thanks (and hugs and kisses) to Rose (for planning it all) and to Lyn, Lynn, Denise, Irene,  Jean, Wendy and Tracey from Love and Friendship and Alison, Jennifer, Fay and Heather from GQ

To show you how much I love them…

Look

image of House Quilt

finished!!

This will be a great quilt for my new studio space, which DH is prepping while I’ve been sewing

Yes I know there’s something not really right about that scenario

image of studio

And how cute is this too!!

image of selvage quilt

gorgeous red fabrics and selvages...what fun!!

Bev made this especially for me :-)

Yes I am a lucky girl.

14 Comments

Filed Under: Design, Musings  

Prussian Blues, an almost wordless post!!

November 7, 2011 by
image of Prussian Blue and Buff fabric

Oh Boy, if only someone would reproduce these…please somebody, anybody!!

image of Prussian Blue and Buff fabric

Prussian Blue and Buff fabric detail

I’ve got about four or five photo’s to post here.  All these fabrics are from quilts in the collection of Janet O’Dell and I had the pleasure of looking at them over the weekend at the Quilt Study Group Australia Seminar ‘Unfolding Tradition‘.

These few quilts were only a taste of what we saw during Janet’s presentation

Traditional Quilt Turning of selected pre 1850 Quilts and Coverlets

Many thanks to Janet for showing these stunningly beautiful pieces from her collection and allowing me to show some pictures here of the fabrics in the quilts and coverlets.

image of Prussian Blue Ombre stripe fabric

Prussian Blue Ombre Stripe

The first two photo’s are from the same quilt.

These fabrics are in no particular order, I’m just grabbing them out of the folder.

image of Prussian Blue and Buff

Prussian blue and Buff...eccentric, vermiculate print?

These few quilts are a mix of British and American quilts and all 1800- 1850 approximately.

iamge of Prussian Blue fabrics

a selection of Prussian Blue fabrics

image of Prussian Blue Ombre Stripe

Prussian Blue Ombre Stripe

I have more to share over the weeks, we had 8 different presentations over the weekend so this is just a small taste

It was the most fantastic weekend, Thank you to Janet O’Dell (convenor) and all the organizers and speakers.

You can imagine I’m a weeny bit exhausted.

til soon :-)

3 Comments

Filed Under: Antique Quilts, Prussian Blues  

The first Tuesday in November…

November 1, 2011 by
image of Robbie and me

…is Cup Day, that’s Melbourne Cup Day of course and we get a day off.  It really is the race that stops a nation. Why? I don’t know.

I’m not really interested in Horse racing but I do like horses and even used to hurtle about the countryside on the back of this trusty steed.

image of Robbie and me

Robbie and moi.

But given that we do have a day off I am going to catch up with some long overdue blogging, that’ll include reading as well as writing.

I was bit out of action with a bee sting the other week,  of course Murphy’s Law dictates that after I had prepped lots of hand sewing to take to my LQG’s Quilt-in I was stung and could not even pick up a piece of cutlery, never mind a needle.

image of normal hand

Normal hand

image of big hand

Big hand

Yikes…it’s been a long time since I’ve been stung and haven’t really had that reaction before.

All back to normal now.

And sewing again, phew.

I promised a little while back that I would share some pics from Quilts in the Barn, I took close-up photo’s of the fabrics in  Linda’s antique quilts  because I spotted some originals of fabrics which I have the repros of…does that make sense?

So here is what I shot, with thanks to Linda :-)

image of Red fabric

this one's the antique quilt

image of new red fabric

This one's the repro Windham True Madder #20331

Jo Morton did a great one too for Andover fabrics a while back

image of Jo Morton repro fabric

Jo's interpretation for Andover fabrics

The next fabric really caught my attention

image of paisley fabric

This paisley fabric is in Linda's antique quilt

These are my two bits of repro (it also came in green)

image of Repro paisley fabric

Windham Civil War IV c 1860 by Nancy Gere #25310-52

image of Repro paisley fabric

Windham Civil War IV c. 1860 by Nancy Gere #25310-32

I am really liking little spots and dots (almost as much as paisleys)

image of Antique yellow fabric with spot

The real deal

image of new yellow fabric

this one's the repro, Scrappy Dots by Judie Rothermel for Marcus Bros. Textiles 2006

Aren’t we lucky that we have such great fabric designers producing excellent repro’s for us to use.

Another thing I’m happy about is finding more of this

image of madder fabric

I didn't think I'd see a whole bolt of this again.

I took a trip to Melbourne on Friday with Jenn to do some fabric shopping etc and stopped at Quilters Bazaar in Gisborne on the way.  I couldn’t believe it when I saw this fabric as I have had my now paltry sized piece for a few years and guard it jealously.

She had a whole bolt of it so maybe it’s been re-released, not sure and the staff didn’t know.

Anyway I now know what it is as before I knew only that it was an International Quilt Study Centre fabric, but it is designed by Kathy Hall with Jo Morton for Andover Fabrics patt #4132.

LOL I now have enough to make curtains, but there’s more there if you want any too.

Here’s one more pic from Quilts in the Barn, this one is one of Jo’s quilts featuring the above fabric

image of Jo Morton Quilt detail

detail of Jo Morton quilt using Madder Stripe fabric

and here’s my Maltaville saturn block using the same fabric

image of Saturn Block

Saturn Block for the Maltaville Album Quilt 1847

I think I’ve got time to quickly post a couple of pics on the Yahoo group ‘repro lovers’ before Jenn arrives for this afternoon’s task.

I don’t think that race is going to stop anyone in this household this afternoon.

soon :-)

6 Comments

Filed Under: 1800s Reproduction Fabrics, Antique Quilts, Maltaville Album Quilt 1847, Paisleys, Vintage Fabrics