Saturday 28 June 2014

Behind the Scenes

Whist I feel so honoured to be able to have my quilts commissioned in magazines it also means I am very limited to what I can share about them. But I wanted to share at least a little bit with you...

So I've been working very hard behind the scenes on a few commissioned quilts over the past month. Some wonderful Australian quilting magazines will be displaying my work from September onwards and I will make sure I share all the details once they are published.

This is what I can share...


My king sized churn dash quilt will be appearing in Down Under Quilts in September in all her glory. This one was made for my sister for her 40th birthday and she has lovingly parted with it for a few months so it could make it's way to Brisbane to be photographed.


This super cute red and white quilt is also featuring in Down Under Quilts Christmas edition and is still a work in progress on my sewing table. Details about the fabric can be found here.


This quilt has been sent off to my amazing longarm quilter and is in the process of being quilted which I am hoping to get back to bind next week. This is my original design and is made with the gorgeous Garden Party Tango by Iza Pearl Design, details here. Homespun magazine will be showcasing this in their January 2015 publication.


Another Christmas quilt - this one an Advent Calendar for Love Sewing Australia a fantastic new magazine which has lots of sewing and creative ideas including quilts. This was something different for me a quilted wall hanging with little advent pockets to count your way down to Christmas. My son has already made claim to this one when it comes back from the publishers. The quilt will feature in the magazine's October edition. Fabric was Solstice by Kate Spain, more details here.

I also have another quilt yet to be started but fabric ready and waiting for Love Sewing Australia which will be a beautiful cot quilt featuring appliqued butterflies which I can't wait to get started on.

Why work with magazines...well I absolutely love being able to tap into my designing skills without any restrictions and utilise the beautiful fabrics I have in my stash. It's a chance to quilt what I want in my style not to mention it's lovely recognition for the hard work that goes into all our quilts.

With all this work going on I have no idea why I am starting new things but after much feedback I am also releasing some patterns of my own for sale and launching a new website. Not to mention spending time on the weekend teaching classes at my local quilting store. I would say I'm currently living the quilting dream !!!

Till next time....happy sewing.

Sunday 15 June 2014

Sunday Stash - April Showers


Following on from my previous post about the Camille Roskelley Trunk Show I thought it rather fitting that my Sunday Stash be from one of her fabric ranges.

I was fortunate enough earlier on in the year to receive a fat quarter bundle of April Showers from my friend's at the Fat Quarter Shop. There are 40 fabrics in the range and my fat quarter bundle was put together with 20 of the prints.


I fell in love with this fabric for the cute umbrellas and raindrops and loved Camille's Raincheck quilt made with this range. I have additional yardage of the grey umbrella print which I plan to use as backing.



There are some great stripes and spots in the range too. I love the diagonal stripe and can see many a quilt binding made with these.

 
 


I grabbed additional yardage of the red stripe to make some pretty binding and some of the grey umbrella print which might go into an outer border depending on the quilt design.


I'm not usually a fan of florals but I quite like the larger floral prints in this range.


I think this one in particular will make a great backing for a quilt.


When I first received the fabric I had a quilt design in mind that featured appliqued raindrops but after seeing a similar design I had put the fabric back on the shelf until now. I have opened up my trusty book of blocks and am looking for inspiration for this quilt design.


Hopefully I will have a design together over the next few weeks that I can share.

It's Sunday so I'm linking up with Molli Sparkles Sunday Stash weekly linky party.

Molli Sparkles


Till next time.....happy sewing....

Saturday 14 June 2014

The Camille Roskelley Trunk Show

http://thimbleblossoms.bigcartel.com/product/swoon-pattern-142-pdf-pattern
Swoon Quilt
I was fortunate enough to grab a last minute ticket to Camille Roskelley's trunk show this week. Here we all had the privilege to see her quilts close up and listen to her talk about her design process both for her fabric line and her quilts.

I'm sure you are all familiar with her works and the very famous Swoon quilt above but I thought I'd show you some of the other wonderful quilts we saw during the show.


http://thimbleblossoms.bigcartel.com/product/raincheck-pattern-164-pdf-pattern
Raincheck Quilt
She designs fabric with her mum Bonnie for Moda under the Bonnie and Camille name. She has a new range coming out in approximately two months which she is very excited about somewhat similar in style to April Showers using sailboats among other things, that she drew inspiration from an old feed sack. I have a full fat quarter bundle of her April Showers from the Fat Quarter Shop which I can't wait to crack open in the next month and design a quilt with. I just love her Raincheck quilt made with this range.

http://thimbleblossoms.bigcartel.com/product/niner-pattern-160-pdf-pattern
Niner Quilt
http://thimbleblossoms.bigcartel.com/product/mini-dwell-pdf-pattern-171
Dwell Quilt
http://thimbleblossoms.bigcartel.com/product/round-round-pattern-156-pdf-pattern
round&round Quilt

As you can see her quilts have a simple but classic style about them. She likes to take traditional quilt blocks and put her own spin on them when designing her quilts and often uses scrappy binding and large florals for backing.


http://thimbleblossoms.bigcartel.com/product/spools-patttern-154-pdf-pattern
Spools Quilt




This last quilt is make up of all blocks that she has made from previous quilts. It's like a test block quilt and I love this idea.

Well that's it for me hope this picture post gave you some quilting inspiration.

Till next time....happy sewing....

Thursday 12 June 2014

Baby Clothes Memory Quilt - Work in Progress


I have had so many enquiries regarding baby clothes memory quilts that I decided I would bite the bullet and make one and see if this was something I wanted to offer my customers in the future.


Armed with a stack of baby clothes and a 6.5 inch square ruler I began feverously chopping away these cute little squares of clothes. As this is going to be quilted on a longarm I made sure there were no zips or buttons but I did include little pockets as features.


I decided to do a standard style quilt, 6.5 inch squares, 1.5 inch sashing and a 6.5 inch outer border. To help stabilise the various fabrics I also used a lightweight iron on interfacing applied to the back of each square.


These quilts are very time consuming and it take a lot of patience to be careful not to pull at the squares when sewing otherwise it becomes extremely difficult to line up the sashing - I found out the hard way!!


I am really happy with the overall result and am now offering this range to my customers. I had such an overwhelming response to this quilt that within 2 days I had secured 4 orders - wow!! I feel very humbled that I am trusted to take someone's treasured items and turn them into a beautiful quilt. To keep myself sane I decided to only take one order a month and I'm glad I did so I also have time to make some lovely quilts of my own.


I use 100% cotton batting in between and back with a super soft flannel to make them extra cuddly. This one is now off to the quilters and I'm thinking a simple all over stipple would be perfect.

Linking up at Freshly Pieced for WiP Wednesday! 

http://www.freshlypieced.com/

Till next time.....happy sewing.



Sunday 8 June 2014

Sunday Stash - Red and White

It's a long weekend here in Australia so I'm making this post short and sweet. I purchased this fabric last month from Craft Depot - a great local quilting shop. It was simply called Redworks. I was looking for something for a Christmas quilt but liked the idea of red and white then the quilt could be used all year round and not packed away once the festive season was over.


I bought 2 of the fat quarter bundles there was 8 fabrics to a bundle and also some yardage for sashing and a border.


I already have a design in mind which I was lucky enough to have accepted by one of the Australia Quilting magazines for their Christmas edition which will be on sale in September.

It's Sunday so I'm linking up with Molli Sparkles Sunday Stash weekly linky party.

Molli Sparkles


Till next time.....happy sewing....

Friday 6 June 2014

2014 New Quilt Blogger Blog Hop

Plum and June

I'm excited to announce that I will be part of the inaugural Plum and June New Quilt Blogger Blog Hop for 2014 hosted by Beth over at Plum and June.

This blog hop features new bloggers who have had blogs for less than 3 years. It is a chance to lift the profile of some very talented newbie bloggers and also creates a community for us to generate ideas, ask for help and develop our skills between hop members.

The first posts started only a few days ago so be sure to check out all the new blogs. There will be 2 blog hop days in June and 2 in July with over 80 participants.

Bloggers will be introducing themselves, showing off some of their work and offering hints and tips but will also be asking for your help and feedback too so please get involved.

I will be featured on July 16 but in the meantime please visit this weeks bloggers below:
 
Vera @ Negligent Style
Michelle @ Michelle Bartholomew
Katie @ Good Golly Ginger
Cheryl @ Meadow Mist Designs
Jana @ Jana Machado
Karin @ Leigh Laurel Studios
Kim @ Ties That Bind Quilting
Yvonne @ Quilting Jet Girl
Jen Bower Bird Patch
Afton @ Quilting Mod
Jessica @ One English Teacher
Barbara @ Suzy Homemaker
Cynthia @ Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework
Mary @ See Mary Quilt
Laurel @ Drowning In Fabric
Linda @ Talking Lunch Box Quilts
Rebecca @ One Wee Bird
Anne @ Hudson Valley Quilts
Diana @ Red Delicious Life
Terri @ Childlike Fascination

Monday 2 June 2014

Sunday Stash - Charley Harper for Birch Fabrics


Ok I'm excited...well very excited. I have been waiting for these fabrics to come back in stock for what has felt like an eternity (ok about 6 months) and now I have them in my hands - yay !!!

This is the Charley Harper fat quarter bundle for Birch Fabrics and is 100% certified organic premium quilting weight cotton. This range is also available in other fabric types to.

Charley Harper was a wildlife artist and used shapes, vibrant colour combinations, patterns and textures in his work. I ended up purchasing two fat quarter bundles in the hope to make a king bed quilt for my bed with these.


With birds, cardinals, ladybugs and the like, and simple geometric shapes these fabrics are just amazing.


 I even love the simplicity of these designs and could see their use outside this range paired with other fabrics in my stash.


Super cute images of birds complemented with spots.
 
 
I also purchased about 6 yards of the far right leaf prints in the blue range for my quilt backing.
  
It's Sunday so I'm linking up with Molli Sparkles Sunday Stash weekly linky party.

Molli Sparkles


Till next time.....happy sewing....