Customer Quilts and my new crochet folly

This was a huge huge quilt - the biggest I can quilt on my long arm machine.   The piecing was very "loose" but it came up beautifully with a fairly tight all over pattern ... my customer tells me this lovely quilt is going to live in Europe with her daughter and new son-in-law - how lovely.

This is the back of a quilt I quilted for my quilt group Launceston Patchworkers & Quilters - every time one of our members turns 80 - they get a lovely little friendship quilt - I was glad I could contribute to this quilt and had fun quilting those quick feather borders.

I hope the birthday girl loves it.

This is another customer quilt - I just love the colours in it - Sally tells me that she used just one bali pop for the blocks and border  -  very very nice colours and the cream

This is the back - the pattern is called "Curley Hearts" and is very cute.

Another customer quilt  done with a very open all over pattern called "Deb's Swirls"

This is the back view

A different quilt again - this one with Feathers - I do like this pattern - open enough but with a lovely swirl giving movement to the quilt.  Great on this type of quilt.

And lastly ... not quilting but crocheting - over the past few evenings I have made myself a wool bag ....  it is nearly finished as I just need to add the handles and make some little flower buttons - then fill it up with my wool stash.

It was amazing I got this far with this project as Merlin want's to sit on me while I am crocheting and then tries to eat the wool, me and my hook.   Jet wants to run off with the wool ball - he sneaks up on it and pounces and is off before you can blink.  So I have to chase him all over the house to get my wool back.  Aren't cats fun!

Happy quilting for now until next time .... Jane x

Weekend Retreat and Class Quilts

I went to retreat on the weekend with our Tasmanian Quilting Guild group - what a wonderful venue (Poatina).   I had a great time and got a lot of stuff done.

This little quilt top still needs borders ... but I am happy to have it done as I am teaching this quilt to a beginners Adult Education class in Launceston in July ... can't wait.

Here is the same quilt in a different colour way - this time I have used charm squares in the centre of the blocks.

 I sewed all the centre bits for my Double Wedding ring quilt - that took a long long time.

Used my curved piecing foot to do the curved ends - this was so easy - no pinning and great curved seams.

Hand stitched a heap of my stars together - this is for a quilt I am making using Robyn Pandolph fabrics - I purchased a whole heap of left over scraps off the lovely Christine about a year or so ago and this project is progressing nicely.

I played with my embellishment machine - I was lucky enough to get this for mothers day and left it in the box to play with at retreat - what a great machine - I could go to town with this one ... I really slapped this piece together just to see what the machine could do ... the possibilities if I actually take time to plan what I wanted to do.   Fun fun fun.

It does some really cool scrunching of the fabric ... then I stitched all over with metallic gold thread to give it a lift.

I would like to add some beading and edging to the top of the journal cover still.

A few weeks ago I did a dangerous thing ... I picked up my old crochet hook - I haven't done anything like this since I started quilting in about 2002/03 - I could really get hooked into it again - pardon the pun - lol!

I made this easy scarf in about three hours one night ... my own pattern but it is just crocheting in the holes rather than in the stitches and a ball of varigated wool.  Very warm and snuggly.   I am now making a cowel ... no pic yet but it will be finished pretty soon ... got to do something warm on these very cold nights we are having.

And last, but not least - the Wedding Party - that was the theme of our retreat and a few people got dressed up - I conned the resturant manager to stand in as the groom - he was a lovely lad - great service manager.

Do you recognise any of these people - what about that bride - a few buns in the oven I think ... what a great retreat - lots of laughs and fun, nice food, warm beds, great company and lots of work done.

Okay ... off to do some work now.   Happy quilting for now .... Jane x

Procrastination

This is what I do when I have a quilt on my machine that I don't like what we have chosen to quilt on it ... Not this quilt here...This is a little quilt that I finished off the borders, did the quilting and binding for a customer ... Maisy is fabulous - don't you think?

 This is the backing fabric that I chose to go with the quilt ... love the bright yellow with the coloured houses ... scrumptious.

And this lot ... well  ... this is my family.  Mum in the middle with 9 of us 10 children and various spouses and some grandchildren ... This was for mum's 70th birthday last year.   A great photo I think.   The tall fellow in the back is my DH and I am in front of him.  It really was lovely to see the whole family together - something that rarely happens because we live all over Australia.

 This one has all 10 of us kids and my DS in it - reluctantly.   He stayed about half an hour and then walked home (just around the corner) as the crowd was just a bit too much for him.

Anyway ... back to procrastination and I'll explain a little.   Sometimes when you go through a quilt with a customer and you agree to quilt a certain thing on it ... you think it will look good.   However, once you start quilting you may realise that it doesn't look very effective at all.   So .... I procrastinate while I think about what I am going to do with it. 

Firstly .... I know I am going to quilt the same thing - just a different format.   So now I have to unpick what I have done.  I unpick from the back usually so as not to pull the thread upwards through the front fabric.  Unpicking usually takes 100times longer than stitching - so what took my an hour to quilt, will take me all day to unquilt.  I have to leave it on the machine while I unquilt because I have done some other blocks that I won't unquilt - confused?   Prattling on is also a good way to procrastinate.  Looking through your photos and posting on your blog is also a good way to procrastinate.    But ... i have given myself to 9am to procrastinate then I am heading out to my quilting room to get on with this beautiful quilt.  At least it is only the top border that I am unquilting.

So Happy Quilting (or unquilting, unpicking, frogging) ... Jane x

A Pinch and a Punch ....

A Pinch and a Punch for the First Day of The Month, a Kick and a Hit for Being So Quick ...did you used to say that when you were little - my goodness, we still do and it still makes my 17year old smile when we say it!

My "Life is Beautiful" quilt is home from The Quilt Patch .... I will now sew on those little pies - that will keep my fingers busy for a while in the evenings.

There are a few of them.

A cat in a box - "Jet" in his favourite spot.

On top of the outside fridge.

Two lazy boys , "Merlin" and "Jonathan" .  They were watching Ironman again, because the new movie is out - and you just have to watch the first one again before you see the new one!

I have decided to use the cream quilters muslin to do my wedding ring quilt - you can't really get a good idea here, but this fabric works much much better than the other fabric I was thinking of.

And, finally - some stitching that I did quite awhile ago - last year in fact .

I even lined it with pretty pink fabric.

Ta Da .... it's a fabric bag ... I just have to finish off embellishing it and it will look pretty in my quilting room.    There are a few people though who think they are getting it for their birthdays ... Not I say!

Happy Quilting for now ... I will not be posting until next weekend I don't think .... I have a busy weekend and week of longarm machine quilting .... starting in about half an hour (working on the weekends - great to be my own boss - slave driver I say)!

Hugs ... Jane x