Mason's Quilt

 

I am so slack at posting on my blog -it has been several months.  In that time I have completed several projects.

This quilt was finished today and it is for one of my grandsons.  I have a very similar matching one on the quilting frame at the moment -it is for Mason's younger brother Kobe. 

The sailing ships were won from block lotto many months ago.  I ended up with 36 blocks and have now used 24 of them.  The letters in the name and the wonky stars are pieced.  The other blocks with the whales, seahorses fish and starfish are all raw edge applique.  For the first time I actually appliqued these blocks with the sewing machine -much quicker than doing it by hand.

Since winning these blocks I have won twice more so still have at least two more "Block Lotto" quilts to make. 

This month for Block Lotto we are fusing batik flower to a low value background fabric. We will not be appliqueing these but leaving it for the recipients to decide which method they will use.

 

These are my first three blocks.  I can make up to nine blocks.

New 12 x 12 group

I have recently helped set up a new 12 x 12 art quilt group in our area.  I have been playing in the background of another local group  for about a year - I made small quilts for there first six topics but was not part of their reveal.  Now that we have our own group up and running I have stopped making quilts for their themes. 

I held the first meeting at my house and chose the first theme - spring.  I chose this theme for several reasons:
                -the word has several meanings
                -it will be spring when we have our first reveal later in September
                -I thought it was a relatively easy topic for those who have not done this sort of work    
                 before.

I have made the following quilt and will call it "Spring Garden Festival"  - we have a fabulous annual garden festival in our region every spring.

 

I will also be revealing a second art piece that I made for another textile group I belong to.  I will call this "Spring Homecoming Ball".  Although there is very little fabric on this one it is made with a front, batting and backing.  I found the idea in a recent Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine.

 

 

 

I am really enjoying making these art quilts.  I will blog about some of the others soon.

 

 

New Toy

I am feeling so chuffed - I have shouted myself a new Juki sewing machine and swiftquilter frame.

 

When we set it up we didn't realise that it had an extension for larger quilts - will have to rethink how I set it up as I wouldn't be able to use the extension at the moment. 

 

However I have quilted one cot sized quilt already.

 

 

This quilt has been sitting around for awhile although I have only recently added the 4" squares in the border.  I made this quilt in response to a challenge on http://www.15minutesplay.com/ to use low value fabrics.

 

I also rescued a much loved small quilt from my daughters place that needed a few repairs.  Because of my love of using small scraps of fabrics I don't always use 1/4" seams and have had a problem with seams coming adrift.  I mended the seams with invisible thread and the quilted it all over.  Hopefully it will last a lot longer now.  I have no photos of this one.

Tumbling Bricks

 

I  am working through my pile of UFO's and have recently finished this bright lap quilt. 

My pile is reducing but unfortunately I cannot resist starting new ideas so I have many WIP's as well.

I am entering this one in the small quilt section of Amy's  Bloggers Art festival.

Bloggers Quilt Festival

There are several categories in this years Bloggers Quilt Festival. 

Here is my entry in the mini quilt category.

 

I have been playing along in the background with a local 12 x 12 group.  I missed out on getting into the first group and we are waiting to start a second group.  In the meantime I decided to make a small quilt for each of their topics.  I am using as practice to improve my skills. 

The topic for this quilt was "Link".   This is my daisy chain - it is the first time I have made a 3D quilt with the addition of the netting and large daisy in the centre.

Textile Art Classes

Over the last few months I have been taking part in an informal textile art class.  There are usually only around 4 - 6 of us at each class and we have learned some fabulous techniques which I hope to put into practice.  In the most recent class we did sun printing.  I have carried this on at home and these are some of he pieces I have produced so far.

 

The above piece was produced by twirling the fabric and then leaving it to dry.  This piece of fabric has been ironed flat and the apparent creases are an optical illusion.  I love the depth to this piece.

The rest were created by overlaying stencils on the fabric.

 

Wow it has been so long since I last blogged - I hope to include some more examples of our work in future blogs.  

Cone Flower Quilt

I have just completed my first Craftsy course   - Pictorial Quilts with Wendy Butler Berns. 

I used the pattern that she supplied with the course to produce this gorgeous quilt.  I am really happy with how it has turned out.  This is the most quilting that I put on a quilt so far.  I am starting to become more comfortable with free motion quilting but have a lot more to learn yet.

I am now hoping to progress on to producing pictorial quilts from my own photos. 

This is the first one I want to attempt.

 

It is a photo of one of my granddaughters taken a couple of years ago.