Custom Quilting

I don't think I have shown you the front of this quilt ... you have seen the back, but not the front.    This is a custom quilt I did for one of my wonderful customers last year  - a beautiful quilt that I really loved working on.

This is the back

The wholecloth effect was just great.
You can click on the pictures to get a close up if you want to see that close - lol!

Cross hatching,my freehand feathers, ruler work, stitch in the ditch  - just a few of the techniques used in quilting this wonderful quilt.

And my heart sings when I see this picture .... I was browsing through my pictures and  came across this again - my journal covers.  I really love making them and these ones are quite plain.   I am teaching my journal cover class at Adult Education this year if anyone wants to attend ... taking it a bit further with embellishment ideas.

Anyway, the sun is well and truely up now, streaming into my workroom.  I had better get my son to college and get on with the day.

Happy Quilting for now ... 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

Shhhh ... quiet quilting

This is some custom quilting I have been doing on a customer quilt - I want to show you - but can't show you the whole quilt .... but you can see little bits ... I really really enjoyed doing this quilt - even though it took ages - having free license to quilt is quite a lot of fun.  What do you think?

The circles look pretty good with the pebble effect near them.

And I was surprised to find this in my mail this week ... The new Down Under Textiles magazine - 1st issue - it is very good with lots of information on how to do stuff. 

Imagine my surprise when I opened it up to this page and saw my photograph with my lovely journal covers ... how great is that!  it was a bit of inspiration the day I took the photo of some of my journals piled up high in the sun ... a great visual I think.   This is going to be a "must" magazine for me I think.

 

  

And as an aside ... I want these two cabinets... they would look lovely in my sewing room and look at all those drawers ... sigh ... maybe in my next life!

Anyway ... Happy Quilting for now .... Jane x

 

Quilts, Another Journal to Give Away & My Babies

I have been busy quilting lately and enjoying the process a lot ... as usual!

Don't you love this quilt ... this is the second one I have quilted for a customer ... and both wanted exactly the same as what the designer had quilted.  I would have really liked to jazz it up a bit with my style of quilting ... but it still looks great this way.

A closer look

Hanging upside down on my quilting machine . lol!

This is a cute little quilt ... I have put some different sashing quilting on it and am very happy with the overall look.

A closer look.

And some E2E quilting ... simple style quilt, but the edge to edge pattern really gave it a lift.   Customer very happy with her choice of pattern and thread colour here.  She found it difficult to choose a patter that would do justice to her quilt and that she would be happy to live with  ... this Briar Rose pattern is beautiful though.

Close up of a block.     On the back of this quilt, I think I spent close to an hour and half trimming off all the loose black, navy and purple threads so they didn't get over into the yellow sashing.  They would show up terribly ... so look after your long arm quilter and trim those threads off the backs as well as the front ... please....lucky for my customer I don't charge for those "little" things!

And now to my babies ... Don't look at me, I've a bucket on my head.  Jet, has hurt his eye and needed to have surgery to have his third eyelid stitched over his eye so it can heal without him scratching it ... it looks particularly grusome and reminds me of the movie "Coralin".   He is coping well, he can eat and drink and toilet but can't scratch himself ... so I give him a good scratch every hour or so and a big brush down every evening which he loves.  Poor baby.

It is so difficult carrying that thing around all day.

Merlin doesn't know what to think, so he is sleeping on top of my outside fridge.

Getting heavy ... but he is comfortable and happy curled up ... every so often looking at me quilting as I walk around my quilt machine.


Over the past week, my family have been refamiliarised with our bath tub ... you see our shower is in the process of being re-tiled after we had a water leak (thank goodness we have insurance) ... So no shower's for the best part of a week ... I am so looking forward to it being finished.  I made the most of it, by getting a new shower screen - the old one was put in in the 1980's - you know - brown!

Anyway, the tiler is here today grouting the shower ... it is looking good.

Oh and before I forget ... I have had such a lovely response to my Giveaway that I made another little journal cover out of the same fabric but put different quilting on it ... I will now draw two names on Tuesday.... So watch out for that.

Isn't it cute ... I really will have to make myself one of these ... I really love the colours.

Happy Quilting for now ... Jane x

200th POST GIVEAWAY

Okay, here we go....this is my 200th posting and I know everyone loves a giveaway.    The giveaway is open to everyone and is my way of saying Thankyou for reading my blog and leaving all those lovely comments. 


The giveaway is this lovely A6 pocket sized Journal Cover made by me and I quilted it on my domestic machine. 


I will randomly choose a winner on Tuesady 26 January 2010 which is Australia Day - yay!


So come along and play .   Oh, and please leave your email details in the post because I can't reply to no-reply bloggers if you are the winner.

This is the back view 

I just love this Cat fabric - it is called Pampered Pets - I got mine from The Quilt Patch in Launceston.

This is the centre 

 And last but not least,  these are what were visiting my backyard today ... they are Australian Native Bush Hens ... but we call them Turbo Chooks because they run so fast...lol!

  Isn't the little baby one cute

Happy Quilting until the Giveaway Draw on Australia Day 26 January 2010 ... Jane

Quilts, Cats and Journals

This lovely quilt was made by Marie D. and was our non-compulsory challenge quilt at our recent Launceston Patchworkers & Quilters Retreat in August - doesn't it look beautiful.










I took my kitties out into the sunshine yesterday (they go on a harness with a long lead) and Jet decided it was just too hot and the water we leave out for the wallabies was just too irresistable - he sat in it and played in it for quite awhile until Merlin came up and wanted in on the action - I was too slow with my camera though.














This Journal cover was made by putting a raw edge applique on the ginko leaves and I have also added a little pen holder - this journal was gifted to Marie F who loves ginko and now I think I would like to make another similar.



















Two little journal covers I made as some of the many door prizes for our LPQ Girls Night In last night - it was a great success and a lot of fun with around 60 ladies attending for a dinner and some entertainment - lots of laughing and fun. The ladies who organise this every year do a wonderful job and we all get a chance to meet members whom we may have never seen before.














The little bag I made using the tutorial from the Pink Penguin blog was one of the raffle prizes and I added a little candle in a can - very smelly - but nice. Fran W from the Quilt Patch added in some fat quarters of fabric - so it made quite a nice little prize.

It is another busy week here and the weather is beautiful - we have been having sunshine which is lovely after all the rain we have had. The place looks great with green grass and all the winter trees getting their leaves back - I do like Spring.

Happy quilting for now ... Jane

The Bali Bag

This is the Bali Bag I made for my sister for her birthday- unfortunately she loved it and I had to give it to her - lol! I have lined it as well which looks great and I added a number of pockets to it.

I used a bit thicker cotton rope than the clothesline stuff and found this gave a nicer stiffer bag. I have also made it a bit more barrel like - I used a Hoffman's bali pop "Capuccino" which I got from The Quilt Patch in Launceston.

That is my son "interfacing with his computer" in the background - busy doing homework apparently!

On the weekend I taught a class at Cranberry Crafts in Ulverstone - Wrapped Wire Dolls - the girls did a wonderful job and got further along than I though ... they have homework and four weeks to complete it until the next class - I will post some photos next week of my dolls (as I forgot to take one and the doll is still at the shop).

This weekend I am teaching another Journal Cover workshop at Cranberry Crafts - this is a very popular class as participants get to make a small useable project while learning some free motion quilting and beading techniques. So I am busy busy busy at the moment - keeps me off the streets ... hehehe.

Happy Quilting for now ... Jane

A Great Weekend

Last weekend was a great weekend for a quilter - from Friday afternoon until Sunday afternoon I was at Camp Clayton for the annual Tas Scquilters Retreat - what a great weekend - lots of quilting, chatting, and none of us had to make meals or clean up. We had show and tell on Saturday night and there were some fabulous quilts .. I took two photos and my camera went dead - forgot to charge the battery.

Anyway - here is my Pandora's Box quilt made from a Bali Pop with some lovely Batik fabric for the border that I got from The Quilt Patch - it was perfect for the border.




















And ... we had a 60th birthday at retreat - Helen D's birthday and I couldn't let the opportunity go by to make a little felted journal cover with some simple quilting with Silk thread and a couple of beads that I got from Cranberry Crafts in Ulverstone. Hope you had a great day Helen.














Coming home everyone was happy to see me ... the little cats (who are one on the 24 October) and the big cat Shadow - she says she has had enough of the little babies who want to be friends with her all the time - she can't be bothered with them - lol!














And just for interest - a week or so ago we had some great gusts of wind and our roof was ripped up ... this is a terrace in the city that was built in 1901 - James and the builder had to get a cherry picker up to fix it and put in some more roof nails as a few sheets were lifted. Thankfully no water damage.














This is part of a beautiful quilt I custom quilted - I have done three of these for three sisters - each different colours but they wanted the same quilting - it is a wonderful quilt.

I will take some more pictures and upload later this week. I have been doing some of my black and white drawings on fabric and made one into a little journal cover - I am very happy with it although it does look very different to my drawings. I have also made a couple of Journal covers for our Girls Night In next week for lucky door prizes - they are fabulous and pink! Oh and a lovely bag I made for my sister but you can't see it until I have given it to her ... will put a post up later on in the week. And finally I am at Cranberry Crafts in Ulverstone on Saturday teaching a wire wrapped doll workshop ... a full class and the ladies are ready to go - how exciting.

Happy quilting for now .... Jane