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.

Three Things I'm Working On

I wanted to let you see three works in progress that have been taking up my time lately.Here they are in order of finished-ness:
The first one is my second commissioned quilt for a boy. I've decided on this medallion star centre and a number of borders. It's been a bit slow going, but I want to finish the top over Easter.
The second is a strip pieced hexagon quilt. I decided to use only fabrics from my shop - beautiful ones that for some reason aren't selling well. As soon as I started working on the quilt top, people stared noticing the fabric - and buying it! So I took the top home and finished working on it here so I'll have fabric to make some kits with. It's now ready to be basted...my least favourite part.

And the third is one I started over a year ago! Dolly's already found it where it waits between quilting times,- usually at night in front of the telly. This one I made from a pack of indigo and red Shweshwe squares. I used a gorgeous Prints Charming red and white fabric in the sashing. For almost a year this quilt has existed as a top and been used as a table cloth to cover a trestle table. It's already a bit dirty and stained... I'm free hand quilting it with an off- white sashiko thread (to stand out against the bright white background).

It should be finished very soon, with a binding in the same red and white fabric.
I have given myself a couple of days off over Easter and I have so many things I want to do including:

1. working on all the above quilts
2. adding colour the stitcheries for The Sewing Circle quilt which I started at the same time as my blog - just over a year ago
3. gardening in my jungle of weeds
4. catching up with friends and spending time with my daughter
5. writing a shop newsletter for Quiltopia and updating my contacts list
6. updating my eBay store
7. reading some blogs!
8. writing some blog entries!
9. ...and the list goes on

Oh yeah, and FINISHING my book, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - only another chapter!
That's what I'm going to do right now.

xoxo 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

"I Spy" Blast from My Quilting Past

I recently made an I Spy quilt from a design I made about 11 years ago!

I designed a quilt to showcase a collection of fabrics and to teach as a project for my first Patchwork students back in the 90's. At that time it was a collection of Japanese fabrics, with hand-dyed indigo sashing. Then I did it for a couple of new babies, with novelty fabrics as an "I Spy". Most recently, I've re-used the idea in my African Quilts. It's very simple, but greatly loved! I sold a few of them when we first moved to Maleny about 8 years ago.
Recently one of those customers from the past contacted me again to ask if I still made the quilts and if I would make another one!

I said yes, and went to find my long unused shoebox of now vintage novelty fabrics. I looked up my quilt sketch book/planning journal and there found the entire details of the making of the quilt, including the words on the label, fabric requirements and costing. The lesson to be learned: ALWAYS KEEP A LOG OF YOUR QUILTS!
The fabrics brought floods of memories of my little girl, quilts, times, places and feelings from the past...

Here's Doll, always ready to comfort test a new quilt. And I just threw in a peak at another recent commission being quilted. This one's a Random quilt and looks great when finished with a jumbo pompom trim.
See you soon,

Ann.

WINNER!!!

WE HAVE A WINNER!

Congratulations to Neralie who is the first person to purchase a quilt related item from my new Ebay Store. She has won a lovely Fat Quarter Stack of six Moda Legacy Fabrics. I hope you have fun with those Neralie.

You can visit my Store by clicking the image at the very top of the left sidebar of my Blog. Or just click here. I have a collection of Moda Pre-Cuts, PNG Billums, Patterns and kits available at very reasonable prices. I am continually adding new items, so visit and keep posted for further lucky chances everyone!

Ann.

The assorted squares are laid out in overlapping piles and I start stacking sets of squares in groups of five, so I can keep track of the number, up to 52 squares in each pile for each fabric pack. You can see the packs starting on the left with the row of purple squares.







Here are the packs before tying for presentation. You can see here everything that huge disorganised mass of fabric produced: on the left are some squares for the Black White Red packs of 52, 5.5 inch squares, above that is a stack of squares rejected and for me, in the centre above are the two completed stacks of African Squares, below that are two piles of partially full packs, then to the right are the scraps - selvages and large bits for me to make my African collaged fabric like I used in the African Stripes Quilt.





Finally! The finished fabric packs. I got 17 complete packs out of my initial fabrics and TWO FULL DAYS WORK, cutting, folding, stacking, collating and packing with finishing touches of raffia tie and authentic African Bead.

I go to bed tired and with a very sore back...
My African Squares packs cost AU$37.00. Bargain!