One for Me

Do you find yourself running out of time and doing lots for others

and not getting anything done for yourself?? Well thats been

me for most of this year, so I am pleased to say that

this ones for Me......yeah!!!!

I have finally found some time to piece this Briar Rose Quilt

together, its not quite together yet but soon....ish!!

 As you all know I quilted Dawns Briar Rose Quilt  and loved, loved, loved it

so I am making one for me....... myself........and moir!

I have not kept a quilt with detail quilting on it

for myself ever, so I have decided now is the time.

Every girl deserves something pretty, right, so this will be mine.

Hopefully soon I will have this quilted and ready to show you all.

Happy Quilting!

Around The World Blog Hop

For those who don't know what this is, every Monday a blogger is invited to share with the blog world a little about themselves by answering  four questions about their craft and then invite two/three of their blogger friends to continue the chain.

Dawn from Sew Much To Quilt invited me to participate,

But I am a little late, but better late than never, I say. Dawn is a

friend that I have known since we were kids, then we went our

own way for a little bit (you know, marriage, kids,etc) and

are now back in touch only to find out that we both have a love of quilting,

its so nice to be back in contact and share our love of quilting and

also some childhood memories. So Please go and

have a look around Dawn's Blog, you wont be disappointed.

Here are the question posted for the Blog Hop:

1)  What am I working on?
2)  How does my work differ from other of its genre?
3)  Why do I write/create what I do?
4)  How does my writing/creating process work?

What am I working on?

I am a fabricholic from way back, I used to work for

Bargain Box fabrics, and make demos for the shop and run classes eg. shirts, bra making, dresses I also use to make all my kids clothes, until the day

came when they said "I'm not wearing that we want shop clothes", I knew that day would come, I just didn't realise there would be a great void in my life

when I wasn't sewing, so I had to find a new hobby.

Long story short I found quilting and have never stopped.

So I am currently working on my Briar Rose quilt, its the same quilt

that Dawn made recently and I machine quilted it for her, I loved it so

much I decided to make my own

 

Dawn's Briar Rose

But I have many fingers in the pie, I generally have

at least 2-3 quilts on the go at any one time, usually thats because

while I'm in blogland I see something that I love and

get all enthusiatic and start it. Hopeless I know but that's

how I work, Im trying to work on one, finsih it, then start another.

Wish me luck!!

How does my work differ to others?.

In general it doesn't I generally follow patterns, I have nutted

out a few on my own over the years, but I love machine quilting and

this has grown more and more, I have an APQS long arm machine and now mostly  make quilts that have lots of negative space for me to fill in.

Why do I write/create what I do?

The main reason I do what I do is beacuse I love it, I love creating

something, be it for the home or for my family or grandkids and friends, I 

cannot handle doing nothing so this why I always have something to do.

My quilting has introduced me to lots of new friends around Australia, and I even have had the pleasure of meeting a few. I have travelled interstate

for classes, with teachers from America, for my machine quilting and I was

lucky enough to attend Houston, that was amazing I must say.

How does my writing/creating process work?

Generally if I see something I like, I make it, my favorite part

of the process is picking the fabric and machine quilting it, I love colours and I find

it fun trying to put them together. I do love all aspects of making

the quilts, from piecing to quilting, binding not so much but I fugure I'm at the end of the process so I just get it done. I generally have an idea

of how I'm going to quilt it before I have even made it.

Well thats enough about me, please pop on over

to Dawns blog, I'm not nominating anyone as alot of your have participated

in the Hop already.

Have a great day!

Australian Machine Quilters Festival (AMQF) 2014

Australian Machine Quilters Festival is about

to begin for 2014

Not long now and we will all be heading to AMQF in Adelaide

I'm packing my bag and heading off on Wednesday.

AMQF is where machine quilters get together and have classes with some of the best machine quilting teachers in the world, this year, Jamie Wallen,

Judi Madsen, Carla Barrett , Helen Godden, Linda Taylor, and lots, lots more, are all coming to Adelaide.

I'm Looking forward to catching up with fellow bloggers and instagrammers and meeting teachers as well.

I am particularly excited to meet Judi Madsen from Green Fairy Quilts, I have booked all her classes and cannot wait to absorb

all the information she has to pass on.

So, who else is going??  Maybe we can catch up.

See you all next week when I return with lots of photos and 

inspiration from my classes.

Happy Quilting!

Alice's Quilt

Where have I been??? I really do have a good excuse, you see I changed IP providers and that was a big mistake, cause for 5 weeks they could not connect me, so three  different companies later I am here.......yeah!!!   Never doing that again....lesson learnt.

But I did get time to make this adorable baby quilt for Alice, I used

Me and My Sister fabrics called Twirl, so perfect for a little girl.

Lots of applique and bright colours has made this so cute!

 

 I did an edge to edge panto all over called

 

 Daisies Galore

 

 Just perfect for little girls

 

I was asked to make this quilt by dad, for mum and bub as 

a surprise for mum, I'm pretty sure she was

happy with the quilt and little Alice was happy too!

Happy Quilting!

 

Briar Rose

 

Last night I had the pleasure

of returning Dawns quilt to her

after I quilted it.

It was such a pleasure quilting this quilt, its called

Briar Rose and you can find a free tutorial here at

England Street Quilts

Dawn made this from a batik Jelly roll and white homespun.

 

I quilted this on my APQS handguided machine, I statrted by

outlining all the white blocks with a 1/4 inch border. I then made a template

for the centre stems and copied to each block before I quilted the feathers.

 I then did line dancing in all the square blocks followed by

a meandering feather around the edge.

 

The back was just as good as the front but this picture doesn't do it justice

I just did simple ruler work in the outer border.

Corner Border

You can go and see more about this quilt on Dawns Blog
http://sewmuchtoquilt.blogspot.com.au/

I was really happy with how this turned out and am ready to tackle
my next quilt.

Happy Quilting!!

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner

Yes!! I won the Readers Showcase in the latest Edition of Homespun Magazine, June 2014, for 

my French Connection Quilt that I made in December last year.

 

I was very excited to get a parcel from the mailman and even more

excited when I opened it, FABRIC!!! and a book,  The Modern Applique
Workbook by

Jennifer Dick

Whoo Hoo!!

Have a great day!!

Bloggers Quilt Festival May 2014 - French Connection

I am so excited that Bloggers Quilt Festival is finally here again, thanks to Amy

from Amys Creative Side for Hosting the Festival.

I am entering "French Connection" into the Large Quilt Catergory.

This quilt measure 54 x 72 inches.

I made it for a friend of mine,

 Jeanne, who turned the big 60, so what better

  way to celebrate the occasion than with a quilt.

I really had no idea what colour to make or what pattern

to do, I had brought fabric in America on our trip (that we did together)

with intentions to make it into a quilt.

Still unsure I kept and eye out and then I found it in a

recent issue of Homespun Magazine.

"French Connection"

by Rebecca Johnson

I am so happy with how it has turned out and I know this will go

well with Jeanne's decor. I loved it so much that I went out

straight away and brought the same fabric to make me one. It goes well

with my decor too, I was sort of hoping she didnt like it and then I could

make her another ha ha!!!

I went to the local patchwork shop and chose all my fabrics

 and then began busily putting this together. You definiltely

need space to spread out with this one.

I machine quilted it with a Panto called "Gardenia" by Patricia Ritter

For the first time in a while I put a label on the back, I generally

don't put labels on but recently have changed my views on labelling 

quilts.

I did add a quote on the back saying

"Friends are the family you choose"

Jeanne loved her quilt and I hope she has many cozy nights curled 

up on the couch with her quilt.

I must add that about an hour and a half before I gave her the quilt I decided

to photograph the back and would you believe I got bird poo on it, fresh bird poo!!!

Arrrggghhhh! I tried sponging it off but, NO, it made it worst so into the washing machine

it went, all the time crossing my fingers the black wouldn't run. Thank goodness

for colour catchers. Then straight into the dryer and onto the BBQ. Phew!!!

It was a little tense I must say but all was well in the end.

Happy Quilting!

Bloggers Quilt Festival May 2014 - Metro Medallion

Let me introduce to you my Metro Medallion Quilt that I am entering

into Bloggers Quilt Festival over at Amy's Creative Side.




If you are new to my blog, 

Welcome,  I hope you stay and  have a little look around. 

If you have been here before then I apologise for my repost of this quilt, but
its my favorite so far this year and I have to enter it.

Metro Medallion is made with the Quick Curve Ruler by Jenny Pedigo

from "Sew Kind of Wonderful" as soon as I saw this pattern

I knew I had to make it, check out Jenny's Blog and see all the

wonderful quilts she has made with this ruler.

 

 Metro Medallion is made mostly from Red and Black Homespun, with

a red and black print. It's a single bed, sized quilt and I custom quilted it

with my APQS long arm machine (hand guided).

 I was originally going to do an edge to edge panto

on the quilt, but it was calling for custom, so custom it got.

 I was so happy with the way it turned out, I love the texture

the quilting created

and the back was just as good.........don't you just love it when that happens!!

I made this quilt for my very special friend Tayler, who I had known for 28 years or more, she

has been fighting MSA (Mutiple System Atrophy) for the last 5 years. Sadly, she recently 

passed, earlier than we expected, she fought a hard and courageous battle and I miss her deeply, but I am comforted to know that

my quilt is with her in heaven.

Thanks to Amy for hosting the Festival and have fun

looking at all the beautiful quilts.

  

 

Metro Medallion

As promised better photos and even the binding is on.

 

Being a longarmer, I love the texture the quilting gives this quilt........love it

.......hearts a flutter.......sorry......getting carried away!!

 

 

I never used to put labels on my quilt, until I discovered this quick 

and easy way, now all my quilts have labels.

 

Snapped in the car on my lap........ did I say I love the texture.....me bad!!

Have a great day!

Hopscotch Daze

  

Finally its finished.......yay!!!!

I first saw this quilt in Bloggers Quilt Festival 2012 by

Happier Than a Bird by Lindsey Gustafson 

I knew this would be perfect for my little granddaughter and I was excited to get going

on it........ what little girl can resist hopscotch ....... right!! So hubby and I sat down 

and nutted out the pattern and off I went. It has 

taken me about 15 months to complete but it is done now just in time

for GD's 5th Birthday.

 

 I have added flowers, butterflies, lady bugs and birds, her favorites and

traced her hand prints and appliqued them on.

I used blanket stitch on my machine for the applique and did a 

scrappy piano key border. This is a great quilt for using up your

scraps, I just grabbed all my bright colours and off I went.

I machined quilted this on my longarm, I stitched in the ditch around the hopscotch and 

numbers then did an all over free hand for the background. I got the idea from

Angela Walters Book "Free Motion Quilting" the design I used for the background

was called "Flower Power".

I am really happy with how this has turned out

I just love how bright and cheery this quilt is, I know that everytime

I look at this quilt it puts a smile on my face and hopefully hers as well.

 

 

Love this angle, you can see the great texture the quilt has.

 And the best photo of all 

was that as soon as she opened her present

she laid it out and started playing........heart melts.....love her to bits.....so gorgeous!!

Have a great Day!