Toile de jour Cushion Covers Sep 2017

I have been making four cushion covers for an old school friend who has a new sage green sofa. She likes traditional colours and classical furnishings so I chose a sage green toile  and a yellow toile as the main fabrics.

Al & Jan's Quilt 2008

This is the biggest quilt I have ever made. It was made for Friends Jan and Al and was beautifully quilted by Jenny Baker of Bathurst on her big Gammill quilter. Jenny used a rose design continuous quilting pattern which fitted exquisitely with the pretty florals they chose. You can see the quilting design best  on the right side of the label. The quilt design is a variation on Irish chain called "Burgoyne".

Dandelion Quilts June 2017

Each year I go up to Blackheath in the Blue Mountains for a quilting retreat and stay at the Redleaf Resort. We sew, chat, shop for fabric and eat good food for the whole weekend. Most of us make at least one quilt for a wonderful charity called "Dandelion" which provides emergency help to parents and children who are sometimes forced to leave their homes at a moment's notice. This year I've made three simple baby quilts all the same pattern: 6 1/2 inch squares  (7X6 blocks). They are quilted in the ditch and then in oblique rows. All are made from the children's fabric in my stash. I always enjoy making them because I know how much they are appreciated. Last year between us we managed to come up with 53 quilts.

 Above: The Alphabet Quilt

 Above: The Blue and Yellow Quilt

Above: The Teddy Bear Quilt

Mugbags for two new members of Yarnspinners

The bag with the purple eggplants belongs to Maru who joins us most weeks and shows us beautiful fabrics and notions and new techniques to use in our quilting efforts. She is a wonderful addition to our group bringing a Costa Rican perspective to Yarnspinners.

The seafoam coloured bag and mug belong to Mika. Mika does beautiful crochet and is going to learn how to quilt with us. Looking forward to teaching her some basics next week. Mika brings a rich Japanese perspective to our group.

Daisy Mae's Baby Quilt Jan 2017

First quilt for 2017! This one had to be a fast one as my sister-in-law is only here from England for 3 weeks. She is about to have a new granddaughter and was ecstatic when I said I would do a quilt for Daisy Mae. Fortunately I had this one half sewn up already and she loved it - so - problem solved! Here are the pictures. Of course it's a simple quilt made of six and a half inch plain blocks which relies on the colours and textures of the fabric rather than any fancy work in the blocks. I tend to do this for baby quilts because they have to be hardwearing and easily machine washable.

 Above: the whole quilt

 Above: close-up of the blocks and fabric

Above: close-up of the label

Lyn's 60th Birthday Scrap Quilt October 2016

There's no doubt about it, scrap quilts will always be my favourite kind of patchwork. There's always a challenge to bring all those disparate scraps together into a pleasing whole.

Each of the blocks has a strip of red in it and some black and white. In this scrap quilt I also used some unusual sashing, a piece of red and gold batik which was actually a sarong I had bought in Malaysia years ago. I think it absolutely made the quilt and added the wow factor.

 Here's the close-up of the label.......

and a longer view of the label with the backing.

Persephone's Quilt Take Two: Wed Oct 19 2016

I managed to get some better photos of Persephone's quilt. Sarah kindly took them for me with Madame Persephone in situ again. This time I have a photo of the label too!