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

French Braid Workshop At Maleny Magic Patchwork and Quilts

I love teaching and these are the first class photos to appear on my blog. I especially love the sense of achievement and pleasure the participants get when the play with fabric and colour to make a quilt. I taught a lovely French Braid workshop at Maleny Magic Patchwork and Quilts recently. I have another class scheduled at QuiltEssentials in April. Check out my website classes page for in image of my French Braid and class schedule on my classes page.
Here are some of the ladies with their quilts, from my French Braid. They each made a quilt that reflected their personality and requirements. Sue, above, as recently acquired a beach house and chose blues and sandy to chocolate tones for her quilt which is destined for the beach house bed.

Barbara used a gorgeous Faffe Fassett full blown rose print in rich blues, purples and greens as the feature in her purple and green based quilt. Her husband is painting the bedroom to match the quilt now!

Wow! Helen pushed all the boundaries with her vibrant Kaffe Fassett combination using the bold and beautiful "umbrella" print to set her braids against. We found just the right orange (my personal favourite colour) to separate the braids.
I love the way she matched her quilt! Actually, if you take another look at the photos, you'll see how all the makers coordinate with their quilts! It just shows how each individual's expression of creativity runs as a consistent thread through our lives.

Quiltopia!Design Studio is so much better now...

I'm so happy with this reorganisation! This is the inside of my cupboard all nicely stacked with fabrics, quilts, threads and I even got to keep my 2 original plastic fabric crates. (Actually, I couldn't face going through the twelve year old fabrics all selected by the beginner quilter, me, in a former lifetime when my eyes had just been opened to the wonderful variety of patchwork fabrics and novelty prints out there!) I found the Bugs in Bottles Blocks from that time featured in a former post amongst all this stuff. I also cleared out some fabric I no longer want and put it in a box to take to PNG when I go up to do some classes later this year.

I really like this photo with one of my works in progress (nearly finished now) up on the design wall.
Then below is a shot of the chaos just after the shelves were put in . Disconcerting to say the least, but I did get through it all and it was worth it. I can highly recommend a studio/sewing room clear out and reorganisation.
Now it's back to work for me. I have been updating my website with new products, classes and more news about the Fiji Retreat...

My New African Quillow

This is my new African Quillow. I have these 5 1/2inch African Fabric squares packs for my original African Quilt (you can see it in the side bar) and I wanted to make another project using just the squares combined with another pack of black, white and red squares. I love the red and white Prints Charming fabric and the black and white orchid design batik especially.
I decided step out of my comfort zone (usually in the red sector) and use the blue and purple border print, but I'm still not sure or completely comfortable with the choice...
I used an African Kanga on the back and lovely bamboo wadding so it washed and dried really soft and drapey.

I love this fabric! I bought this in the amazing Hartbeesport Dam Market near Pretoria in South Africa. My daughter and I went there four years ago now to visit my sister who was living in Pretoria at the time. It was a really wonderful experience! Africa holds so much of inspiration to a creative person. The ingenuity and creativity of the people - everywhere you look there is something clever, beautiful, nifty, unexpected that someone has made out of something else. Then there's the scenery, the history, the animals... Anyway, I saw this tablecloth- like length of fabric hanging amongst the other textile treasures in the market an immediately knew "I could do something with that!" It's nearly finished now. I have a fat quarter and a little bit more left over. (Tip: always cut a fat quarter from any significant lengths of fabric and save it in your stash for future projects.)

This is the quilt as I was quilting it, which I did in a simple cross hatch on my domestic sewing machine. I love the riotous jumble of colour and pattern. Then you can see below the final result of the quilt stuffed into its pillow. I used the left over squares from the fabric packs and a bit of the border fabric to make the little cushion top. But I played around with the idea of an unpieced African fabric, same as I used on the back...i didn't have enough fabric so I followed the old quilters' rule of making use of what I did have.
I am making patterns for the quillow and have fabrics ready cut available from my website.
Now it's time to get back to the re-organisation of my studio so I can make more quilts...