Southern Jewels Cushions

 Happy Mothers' Day!

I decided to make my Mum a cushion to co-ordinate with the Southern Jewels Quilt I made for her hospital stay. Her little unit needed a spread of rich Australian colours.Unfortunately I didn't have any of the original Warratah Under the Australian Sun fabric left for the big panel, but I used some of the new range featuring Banksias. I did still have some of the light gold and green  gum blossoms, so that tied it all in.

I made a purple one for my ex-mother-in -law's birthday too!

Here they both are, sitting on top of the fabrics in the range.

I made the cushions by using Leesa Chandler's Southern Jewels pattern and adapting one corner. The back is just a simple envelope style - no zippers or even buttons but you could do whatever you wanted there. You can get the patterns from me, or Leesa's website.

Have a great weekend,

Ann ♥

Southern Jewels Quilt for Mum

I made  a nap quilt for Mum. I finished it at the end of March, but truth be told, I started it well over 18 months ago for a house-warming present when she downsized and moved into a self contained unit in a retirement village.

Being a keen gardener and wild flower lover, she loved the Leesa Chandler Under the Australian Sun fabrics (also used in the Australasian Quilt) that came out a couple of years ago and I put aside some of my favourites to make her a new quilt for her new home. The Southern Jewels pattern is really easy to make and showcases amazing fabrics. (I made it here too, with Saffron Craig Tree Bird fabric.)

Anyway, You can see some of the process of the making here, and Dusty and I would like you to see some more of the details. He just loves to get in on the quilt shoots (and I couldn't move him!)

I ended up just quilting a large stipple all over the quilt, and I'm quite happy with it. It doesn't detract from the fabric and gives a lovely texture. I chose a variegated red quilting thread this time, although i would usually use a plain colour nowadays. I just have a lot of variegateds left and I figured Mum won't notice. It worked nicely this time.

The backing fabric is the gorgeous New South Wales floral emblem, flannel flower. I was born in NSW, the flannel flower is my favourite if the Australian flowers and red is my favourite colour.

I used a machined binding which i put on the same way as a regular hand finished one, but from the back, folded to the top and then sewn down close to the edge by machine. The trick here, is to cut the binding a little wider than usual (in this case 2 3/4 inches instead of 2 1/2 inch) so the seam line looks good on the back as well as the front.

Looks good?

Thanks Leesa, for a simple stylish pattern and some stunning fabrics!

 Contact me for the pattern, and fabrics can be sourced here.

Would you like to make one too?

Ann ♥

My Australasian Quilt and Travel

It's not the best photo, but here is my quilt, Australasian, hanging in the Quilts Across Queensland exhibition curated at the Brisbane Ekka (for those of you not familiar with that term, its the Brisbane RNA Show). It was entered in the professional pieced quilt category and won third prize. You can see me standing with it below, and I do apologise for the quality of these photos taken with my iPhone. This was a quilt inspired by Leesa Chandler's Under the Australian Sun fabrics, which I mentioned in early blog posts.

It was really quite a thrill to win the prize as it's been a few years since I've won anything, or even entered a quilt in a show. Starting the business and keeping up with all the admin and online activity, not to mention being in the shop 6 days a week, packing eBay items to send, marketing, teaching, sewing and trying to design and follow through projects, as well as housework and parenting doesn't leave much time to produce show quality quilts - let alone shop sample quilts. However, I'm pleased the quilt has had it's moment in the sun... in fact it was sold at the show so I'm not sure how I'm going to teach it/publish it now. Is that an excuse, do you think? I'm planning another one, not quite so complicated in terms of quilting, perhaps in modern fabrics....

This is another quilt I'm working on now, in progress. I have actually finished the top now and am planning the quilting. I made it with a Hoffman Rainbows pack, Rainforest.

The most exciting thing that's happened since I last blogged, is our Japanese trip. It was truly a dream come true for me. I've included a few photos, not in any particular order, of our holiday.

There's a couple of fabric ones,

taupes from Diamaru - I don't know why , but I spent ages selecting this small bundle when I should have just grabbed a piece of the whole selection! It's always like that in retrospect...

and rolls of kimono fabric

The amazing stone wall at Osaka Castle,

A couple of food ones - a green tea ice cream sundae, a Japanese MacDonald's meal,

and a very Japanese night time scene,

It was all so very beautiful, exciting and fun! It was also a great experience to share with my teenage daughter. Who knows if we will go again, but I definitely would like to explore the fabric in a little more depth, especially retro and vintage kimono, and we really only touched the tip of the iceberg as far as food was concerned!

Till next time,

♥ Ann

Saffron Craig Large Field Quilt.

Here is the full, finished Large Field Quilt I made out of the Saffron Craig birds and trees fabrics and blogged about in the last post.

Close up, you can see the quilting and a bit of the back - love this 2 inch black and white stripe, and it shows up the quilting a treat!

I made up a couple of kits for the quilt - one using exactly the fabrics in the one I made, and the other with the Magical Lands collection.

Both will make up beautiful quilts. (Contact me if you would like to get one for the lovely price of $112!)

I used Leesa Chandler's pattern, Southern Jewels, thinking that the large fields of fabric would work well for Saffron's fabrics too.

Here it is in Leesa's Under the Australian Sun Fabrics that it was originally designed for. this quilt was made by Juliet and was one of the quilts hung in the Maleny Quota Quilt Show a couple of weekends ago.

I had a retail stand at the quilt show and it was really nice saying hello to everyone and looking at the quilts. There were some beauties there.

I want to share a few pics of finished quilts from some of the classes I've blogged about. It's so nice to see the end product of a workshop!The first ones were made in the Stained Glass Stack and Slash workshop

Christine's

Zita's

Val's

Jenny's - this was her first go at machine quilting, and what a star she turned out to be!

There were also a couple of French Braids:

Zita's

and let's finish with understated elegance,

Sue's.

Plenty more happening and ready to be blogged about.

Have a good week and happy stitching,

Ann ♥

(PS. 25% Mothers' Day Sale in my eBay Store ends Friday morning!)