Miscellany : the Sequel

On the design wall with borders attached

Welcome to Miscellany : the Sequel. 

I realized at the end of the last post, that I had forgotten to upload any pics of the finished Miscellany Quilt.

Well, here they are...

The basting process; I used black quilt wadding for the first time and really liked the effect against the black solid fabric and it made the whites pop too.

You can see my original African Quilt in the background of this. There's a free pattern for it on my website.

I decided to quilt the whole thing in the ditch, which gave a very nice graphic look and didn't compete with the fabrics or block design. I discovered that the quilt fed through easier when I increased the stitch length to 3.5.

The quilt is backed with black Grunge Basics by Basic Grey for Moda - love these fabrics unashamedly ♥

Finally, the finished quilt on my bed.

Bound with the Candy Trees from the Miscellany fabrics.

Thanks for looking and see you soon,

Ann ♥

I ♥ Valentine's Day

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

My quilt is called I ♥ Valentine's Day

A little while ago I saw a tutorial on Moda Bake Shop about how to make a small Valentine Heart quilt from a combination of Moda Giddy and Red Bella Basics Charm squares.

I decided to modify it a little and make it myself for Valentine's Day.

I didn't have the red squares, so I used 30cm of Bella Solid red instead.

Then I used the left over Giddy squares, cut in half, for the border.

I added some red rickrack (It can only make a quilt better, right?).

I machine quilted a hearts stipple in the heart, then just straight line outlined the heart.

I used the solid red to bind the quilt.

Very simple, but cute. I can see other applications for this design as a larger quilt, and also smaller squares and hearts units.

Fun! What did you do for Valentines day?

♥ Ann.

Hello 2011

Happy New Year and Hello 2011!
This is the first post from my new computer....
I've started this post a million times but, to tell the truth, I'm not finding the MacBook Pro as user friendly and fantastic as I'd anticipated ;(
Anyway, I've updated my blog's appearance with a new template and a photo of one of my quilts as the background.
The quilt is one I made a few years ago and called Lima Puluh Bintang, which is Bahasa Indonesia for Fifty Stars, and won fist prize for traditional quilts at the Brisbane Exhibition... it must be in 2003 I think. It was really popular as a class - so much so that I made another one in different colours. This one won First Prize Traditional in the Australian Quilt Show, and was exhibited at Houston, Chicago and Lyon. It was still 50 Stars, but I called it Sea, Stone, Sand and Sky - Darwin Cliffs.
Then I made another one in shabby chic .... and I've lost count of the number of times I've taught it now. I even gave a workshop for it at Barcaldine last year!

The original quilt was made soon after I left Darwin with memories of Indonesia and contained many Indigenous prints and Indonesian textiles in those earthy colours. I thought it looked nice as my background - and Blogger let me upload i.e. it wasn't too big!
I've been busy finishing a couple of commissions and a quilt made from all my strips evening off ends of bolts in the shop. It's called 2010 Closure quilt. There are 144, 4 3/4 inch improvised Log Cabin blocks.

This is just the beginning.

You can follow its progress at this stage on Quiltopia!Design facebook page. (I've added a plugin to this blog towards the top of my sidebar on the right, if you'd like to become a fan and see news from my shop.)
This is getting way too long for a blog post in my opinion, so, my New Year's resolution is:
to get a better handle on technology - be more regular at posting on my blog, work out a better web presence solution including my shop, rework my website AND make quilts I really want to make.
How about you?
Till next time,
xo xo Ann.

African Dreams, again...Then I promise I'll move on!

The latest e-issue of Down Under Quilts has just hit the Internet and you will now be able to find my African Dreams quilt there too. If you want to make it, follow the link to see the project instructions. I also put an ad for my boutique, Quiltopia!Design in this issue for the first time, so I guess that's in there too.
I'm off to the Mountain Quilters' Quilt Show in Peachester this Weekend and haven't got my stuff together yet so have to run...
Maybe I'll see you there,

xo xo Ann.

African Quilts

Look what I just found!

After recently posting about my friends' African Quilts, another friend told me she'd found some photos of another one on another blog. These pics come from Alison's blog, Cardygirl, and the quilt was made by Lea. It was really amazing seeing the quilt after selling Lea the African Squares pack and leopard print from my eBay Store.

Online selling is great, but it also tends to be a bit impersonal. You often only ever know your customers by their log on IDs, and you never really know what they use the goods they buy from you for.
The African Fabric Squares are a bit significant for me, as most of the fabrics were bought by me in South Africa and Swaziland, came from pieces my sister gave me, or markets in Zimbabwe when my daughter and I went over to visit my sister when she was living in Pretoria, South Africa. Some were even remnants GIVEN to me by a lovely African tailor in Pretoria, Images d'Afrique - so exotic!It was a wonderful trip with my little girl, to an amazing place and my love affair with fabulous African fabrics, colours and designs began. When we came back to Australia, I wanted to make a quilt to showcase the fabrics I got in a quilt, as well as design a quilt that could be taught with kits so I could sell some of the fabric.
I came up with The African Quilt (you can get a free pattern if you click on this image on my website):
It started as a wall hanging with the central 36 fabric squares and a border but I liked it so much I went on and made it into a single bed quilt. I used a strange and ugly large harlequin diamond black and white print and fussy cut it for the sashings. The zigzag edge on the border is made from the left over strips between the fussy cutting! Then I decided to teach the quilt and make kits - my first commercial venture.
It was so popular, Australian Quilters' Companion asked me to do it as a project, and it became my second published work.
Then I made a new version as a wedding quilt for my sister and her husband. It's a queen size and quilt- as- you- go and as I was running out of the Black and White diamond print, I decided to cut it just as it came. It still looked good and was much easier with no wastage, and it still created the alternate light and dark effect.
I used a golden yellow Lonni Rossi fabric for the corner stones. One of her friends liked it so much, she commissioned me to make one for her, with turquoise accent fabrics. I chose a gorgeous Phillip Jacobs print for the corner stones to give a different effect. It's also slightly larger.
I entered it in the Queensland Quilt Show and was invited to submit it as a project to Down Under Quilts, where it was published in issue 141, April 2010. (I've already had a good response to the project, thank you!)
It's quilt-as-you-go and reversible. Here's the back:
So, there's the story, started by Cardygirl with Lea's quilt and ended with one of Alison's photos, another cat and quilt cameo. Thanks Lea, for following through with the quilt. And Thanks Alison for posting the pics!
Happy stitching,

xo xo Ann

Show and Tell

I had some lovely visitors this week, who brought in their quilts to show and tell. The first two were Kathie and Sandra with their African Quilts. About three years ago, I had my original African Quilt at the Maleny Quota Quilt Show, and these two girls bought a packet of African Squares each. Of course, almost every time I saw them after this, I'd ask them how their quilts were going...? I caught up with them again at this year's quilt show (last weekend - haven't posted about it yet) and they promised to bring their quilts into the shop.
And here they are! They used a 1 inch black and white stripe, instead of the original diamond print I used and has become very hard to find. (Of course there's instructions to paper piece the sashing in the pattern I did for the magazine - but it's a lot of work and a similar effect can be achieved just by using an effective fabric and imagination.)
The second one was my friend Jill who's been making Kellie Wulfson's (Don't look now!) Lillie Pilly quilt, which her daughter fell in love with in my shop. Jill used aquas, blues and turquoises for Greta's quilt and extended the borders to make a large bed sized quilt. The background fabric is Kyoto cloth (again - I just love this bamboo cotton!) and she's hand quilting it. It's so soft with the bamboo and a lovely beige gingham on the back!

Here's a close up of the tree:

And the birdies, with their dear little cleverly cut wings:

Thanks so much for sharing girls!
Have a lovely weekend and get plenty of stitching done,

xo xo Ann

Finished!

I've just realized, I haven't posted about my latest finished commission. You've seen bits and pieces of it here, here and here if you'd like to follow its development. It's already gone to its owner... and I've finished another quilt I haven't even uploaded the photos for! This one is for a grandson. I slowly built it up from the star in the centre and half square triangles which features an African Shweshwe pack of 5 inch red squares. These dictated the size of the star, the medallion and the quilt. I think they also give the quilt a bit of an African flavour too.
I used the left overs and some of the fabrics given to me by the client to finish the quilt. The dark blue strips on the are a synthetic sear sucker with a metallic thread pin stripe! -You can see it better in the top pic.
I love the backing, which is a Moda one. They quilt by machine so beautifully - a very soft and crinkly finish... just what you want under a quilt next to your body!
I like medallion quilts, but they definitely are a bit slower and seem to take a bit more consideration than some of the others. They tend to spend more time on the design wall waiting for the next border to take shape in my mind.
I was very happy with this quilt and I think its my favourite of the 6 Grand children's quilts I've made for this lovely Grandmother.
I've got lots more to write, but will put it in a new post later,

xo xo Ann.

African Dreams

Take a look at my latest quilt project in print! African Dreams is in the April Down Under Quilts! I made this quilt as a commission and entered it in the Queensland Quilters' Show last year, and was invited to submit it to DU Quilts as a project.
It's easy to make with 5 1/2 inch African fabric squares (available from Quiltopia online or contact me) and finished by quilt-as-you-go.
Another African Quilt to add to my collection!
In the same magazine is this quilt by fellow Queenslander Christine Cohrs. You can catch up with Christine on her fantastic blog, Once upon a Quilt. Or buy the magazine to have a little bit of both of us on hard copy. You can also read Down Under Quilts on line by subscribing here.
Look out for another project from me in the August issue, when you'll be able to make my Wuthering Heights quilt .
Happy weekend,

xo xo Ann.

Quilting

Just quickly - here are two samples of the different quilting on the two quilts in the post below.
The top one is the medallion boy's quilt commission.(I've just finished it!) I did an allover large meander in a variegated blue thread. I've really only just got comfortable with this type of quilting.
On the Shweshwe Quilt, I hand quilted with sashiko thread.

The lines of white quilting show up really well on the red back of the quilt. It gets a bit lost on the white fabric, but pops out on the indigo and red ones. It's a while since I've done this type of quilting but the sense of achievement at finishing is very satisfying.

The whole thing is nice, don't you think?

xo xo Ann.

Update on the last couple of weeks...

Well, I've finished a couple of things I blogged about a little while ago!

The first one is my African Shweshwe Quilt. I showed it to you here and here when I'd just finished basting it and Dolly was curled up sleeping on it. I made it from a pack of mixed indigo and red shweshwe squares and a fabulous Prints Charming red-and-white print, with a background of white Moda Bella Solid all fabrics I LOVE to sew! I hand quilted this one with an ecru sashiko thread. It took 3 skeins of thread and several weeks to finish, but worth it in the end. You can't really see the quilting in this photo, but it's wavy lines in a grid. I'll do another post with some details.
The quilt was already dirty, as It's been in progress for a year, and in use, unfinished as a table cloth in Quiltopia Boutique.

The next one is my latest commission with the star medallion. It's been basted here - but I finished quilting it yesterday! I want to finish it today. I used Shweshwe in it too - the red squares and a little bit of Nelson Mandela - a good roll model and someone to inspire any boy (or person for that matter!).
The one below is a new Jelly Roll quilt I'm working on. It's a sampler and you need a special ruler to cut half square triangles from the 2 1/2 inch strips. I saw the sampler at and went on to develop it in my own way. Quite fun but a bit frustrating for some reason. I used a Moda Verna Jelly Roll for mine. I'm still deciding on the border...

And finally, here's one of my students and her stunning finished quilt, from my last Stained Glass Stack and Slash class @ QuiltEssentials. She used a selection of semi-solid bold fabrics and black quilting thread. Doesn't it look stunning?

I've been busy... but I've been thinking about doing a blog quilt along of my Three Easy Pieces Modern Sampler Quilt featured as a Free BOM on my website. There's also a picture of it in my side bar.I picked some new fabrics (including gorgeous Prints Charming ones) and thought I might rework it as a quilt along. What do you think?
Life goes on...

xo xo Ann.

Searching for Inspiration at the Start of a New Decade

It's time to post, but it's so hard to get motivated! I just read An Indian Summer, one of the blogs in my favourites thing in the sidebar, and the splashes of brilliant colour there helped.
I was really sad to see that Amanda Jean has written her last post at Crazy Mom Quilts. She has made an amazing collage of ALL the quilts she finished in 2009. That blog was truly inspirational and I'm a bit bemused about how upset I was that it's finished too.
I don't know... maybe it's school holidays, the heat, or opening my shop, Quiltopia full time that's to blame.
School goes back on Wednesday, so maybe I'll get some work on quilts done then... instead of watching the first 4 seasons of How I Met Your Mother, or season one of Gossip Girl. I've always been a fan of a good soap, since I used to almost jog home from school in the '70s to catch the last 10 minutes of The Young and the Restless.
I decided to put a little bit of the quilt I made my sister for Christmas up the top there, just to get some colour happening till I post properly tomorrow. I finished 23 quilts last year! And I've already finished a couple this year... but nothing to get excited about yet. I've also written up and sent my next quilt project for Down Under Quilts, Quilt Africa. And I've moved Quiltopia into a permanent retail location in down town Maleny. So I guess I've done something. I am constantly amazed and awed by the sheer persistence of those of you who create and blog and spread the word seemingly tirelessly, when we all know how much effort it all takes.
Right now, I'm finding out that full time retail is fun and very draining!
Keep up the good blogging all you out there and roll on 2010 and thanks for reading -
Ann xoxo