Happy-Go-Lucky

I wish I was more…Happy Go Lucky I mean!

My Happy-Go-Lucky layer Cake offering, "Big Stars"

Perhaps it's because I do get a bit caught up in the worries and cares of life that I so LOVE this cheerful new collection by Bonnie and Camille for Moda fabrics! Every new Bonnie and Camille range is anticipated with excitement, and I rarely get to keep even a Charm Pack for myself. This time I ordered all the pre-cuts + a selection of the fabrics + a repeat of the pre-cuts (including the new honey combs). So I have made two quilts - one from a layer cake and the other from two charm packs .

Up down side to side quilting and navy ticking back.

I used my favourite easy (to me) up down side to side machine quilting on this one. I really do love the texture (and speed) of this style. You can see the backing is a classic navy ticking which went very well with the informal reds and retro colours and patterns of the fabrics. Then I bound it with a large scale floral from the previous Marmalade collection. This is possibly my favourite Bonnie and Camille fabric ever. Orange is my favourite colour. And I like the unexpected effect of the large print as a binding too. I'm reluctant to sell this quilt….

Yum!

Now here is the little Quilty. It was unbelievably difficult to photograph this little one in the usual veranda position this time. The weather has been very difficult, grey and wet, but I managed to get in two quick shots and here they are.

Happy-Go-Lucky Quilty for Sale.

 It's Amy Butler on the back - a lovely piece I've been saving in my stash for just the right project, and this seemed to be it. If you like the navy ticking binding, it's in my Etsy shop. (I will be listing the Quilty for sale, just haven't got around to it yet.)

These are the Happy-Go-Lucky fabrics just landed in the shop today. They are online in the eBay store along with any other  Bonnie and Camille fabrics ASAP too.

One of the reasons I love them so much is that you can keep on building a colour palette from them adding more and more bits from each collection, as well as fabrics from other ranges and you get a lovely happy bundle to make a quilt with - like this one.

Why don't you pop over to Bonnie's  and Camille's blogs to have a look at the absolutely fabulous patterns, and quilts they've made with all the different fabric groups. Inspiring!
Thanks for reading :)
Ann.

Prayer Flag Layer Cake and a Give Away

This morning I tried to quickly choose which thread to quilt my Prayer Flag Layer Cake quilt with before I went to work...

 I always have to spend some time deciding, and I often leave the last word to my daughter. She's always so clear headed; looks, considers and simply says, "That one." But she wasn't here today and I actually had a mini anxiety attack until I thought, "I know, I'll ask my Facebook Page likers. And I'll offer them the chance to go into a draw for two  Aneela Hoey Cherry Christmas Charm Packs. I've always been too shy and scared to do that, but here's a chance to try out a give away." And so I did.

The question is - which thread to quilt with? The yellow or the parchment?

Lots of people have already commented.

This is the quilt top on the design wall. It's only a simple Framed design, like the one I wrote a tutorial about here. Made with a moda April Cornel layer Cake, Prayer Flag. The colours are truly reminiscent of prayer flags fluttering against the sky in Tibet.

So if you would like to go into the draw for two Cherry Christmas Charm Packs 

1.  comment on which thread you would machine quilt this quilt with - yellow or parchment.
2. You can comment here on the blog, or on Quiltopia!Design Facebook
3. The winner will be drawn on Friday 14/12 night.
4. Winner will be posted here, and on Facebook.

Thank You and Good Luck!

You could make a 9 Squared quilt with the two charm packs, like my new Vintage Modern one. This one is for sale on Etsy now.

For SALE $75.00

I got three Moda pre-cut quilts basted on the weekend. The Framed quilt is the only one that still needs quilting, and I'd like to get it done before we go away for Christmas!
back Friday with the winner's name,
Ann.

9 Squared, Framed and jelly Roll Race quilts all ready to be quilted.

Japanese Tsunami Quilt

Tsunami Quilt story: The centre panel shows Japan country side with the buildings of people, the cranes from nature, and the ocean waves; the braid border is the Tsunami; the fractured border is the devastation and destruction caused; the red is for bloodshed and the heart of the people; and the blue represents spirit and peace. These are my own symbols and seemed to fit my concept.

It's been a long time in the making, but my Tsunami Quilt is finished! I started it sometime around March last year, 2011, and it's taken me over a year to finish. I blogged about it's beginning here and started to explain the inspiration with these words:

"As I was driving down to Brisbane on my way to teach my Stained Glass Stack and Slash Workshop one weekend, I was listening to a report on the devastating Japanese Tsunami. It had just struck and I hadn't heard much or seen any media coverage as yet.

The thoughts of the dirty water rolling in and over cars, homes, mountains, land, animals and people created images in my mind that I had to express in fabric. Who knows where inspiration comes from, and when it's going to strike, you have to grab it when you can. I had a sudden inspiration to make a Tsunami Quilt using some beautiful Japanese fabric and French Braid borders. (Please be assured, this doesn't in any way diminish the terrible situation in Japan or the horrendous effects of the Tsunami on the Japanese people and countryside, including the unfolding nuclear disaster still in progress.)"

If you've been reading my sporadic blog for a while, you will know that I have had an ongoing and growing obsession with Japan. 

I don't really know when this began, but it was somewhere back before I could read and I loved some Japanese dolls of my grandparents. My Grandfather was an auctioneer for a big wool company in Sydney, and he had business dealings with Japanese buyers who consistently presented him with various Japanese artifacts. I used to love fantasising about owning the dolls and spent many hours leafing through the beautiful illustrated desk diaries. I now own the dolls, a very 60's ceramic coffee set, and only recently parted with the diaries during a downsize into our house.

I kept loving Japanese things, but life moves on and other opportunities and places presented themselves. It was only when my daughter developed an interest in things Japanese that my own interest was rekindled.

I think the devastating Tsunami last year gave me the shove to put Japan back on my agenda and I took Amelia for a one week holiday in Osaka and Kyoto… Thank you Jetstar! 

The quilt's conception - a great pattern and technique explained really clearly in a lovely book + an inspirational idea + fabric that needed to get off the shop shelves ;)

 I based the Tsunami Quilt on a quilt with a medallion in the centre and French Braid borders in Jane Hardy Miller's book, French Braid Obsession. Basically the seed of the idea was there, and I made it grow into my quilt. You can see more of Tsunami's early planning stages in the earlier post I linked to above, including more photos of it's growth.

The braids going on in the intended configuration.

 It became one of those problematic children projects that just don't want to do what you want, and don't seem to ever be going to grow up  work out well. I accidentally put the border braids on going in the wrong direction, so the end black pieces didn't form the arrow shapes I'd planned. I didn't realise until I had sewn heaps more on and decided I wasn't going to change it.

How I sewed them on… By the time I realized, I didn't want to have to unpick them with their bias edges and all…

Then came the dilemma about what size? When to stop? How could I make it bigger? did I actually want to? Did it need to be bigger? Needless to say, it kept going away to make room for other projects. Then I'd see it and all its attendant fabrics piled up on top of something I needed for some other quilt. So I'd take it out, look at it and do a little bit more. 

I put the blue framing borders on and built it up in a log cabin method with incomplete seams. (I always find it incredibly tricky working out the border measurements for these.)

Finally, I decided to finish it to show a group I was doing a French Braid workshop for.

I ended up, using all the left over pieces from the braid cuts to make a fractured border. Had to add the red border, because it needed more red. I could have left it there, but then I put it on the queen size bed and it half covered the pillows. I was toying with the idea of another mini braid on top and bottom…decided on the simple blue and gold strip. To me, it continues the Asian tradition and is reminiscent of Tibetan Tank Has, with their mandalas, borders and opulent metallic gilding.

The final borders are on - and I'd had enough.

 This quilt was always going to be profesionally commercially quilted. I wanted a Japanese style, swirling watery panto to blend the whole thing together, so I sent it to my friend Tricia, from Cut From the Same Cloth Quilting, and she didn't dissappoint. In fact I think I like the quilting better than the quilt!

Tsunami is bound and finished for Dolly to inspect. You can really see the beautiful quilting design in this light.

Here are a few photos of details of the quilt. I was trying to show a bit more of the quilting in closeup, but I think the pne of it on the bed shows it best.

I'm pretty thrilled with the completed quilt. I was going to "bind" it with prairie points in the red fabric, but really, I just wanted it finished. So I stayed up late last night and got it done, and I slept with it on my bed! I'm so glad I opted to make it larger.
The best thing is, this quilt reignited my Japan obsession; I've been to Japan now, with my lovely daughter; I've finished the quilt and have a couple more on the go; AND I'm going to Japan again at the end of September!
This time I'll be alone, and I need some fabric related travel advice …so anyone with ideas about places to go, things to see and do in Osaka/Kyoto area? Please feel free to suggest away. (Not going to Tokyo this time, so Nippori is for another trip.)
If you've got to the end of this long post - congratulations and thank you.
Here is a list of charities in aid of the tragic 2011 Japanese Tsunami and earthquake.
Till next time,
Ann.

How to make an Easy Peasy Little Quilt out of Moda Charm Squares.

 I promised my Facebook page likers that I would write up a tutorial/pattern for this little quilt.

It only takes a few hours to make and is a great stand-by, go-to quick project for a gift for just about anyone.
I've made lots of these, and it's my favourite little starter quilt to teach.

Here it is in gorgeous  Australian designer fabrics: Saffron Craig on top  and a  Melanie Hurlston back.

It finishes up at about 1m - 1.2m square, so just big enough for a baby, child or lap. It's perfect for watching TV, babies to crawl on, decorating a spot that needs it or giving as a gift.

9 Squared Quilt

What you'll need

• 2 Moda Charm Packs with 42 squares each (I used Tend the Earth by Deb Strain in this quilt)

or

• 81 x 5 inch squares
• 1.2m, 115cm wide  fabric for backing something a bit different to the top is fun) 
• 30cm binding fabric cut into 4, 2 - 2 1/2 inch strips across the width of fabric.
• 1 x 1.2m square of natural wadding (I prefer bamboo)
• neutral cotton thread for piecing
• machine quilting thread (I used Wonderfil Confetti in a light grey)
• Sewing machine, rotary cutter, ruler, pins etc.

My lovely Janome 6500 is back from the sewing machine doctor.

This is the combination of Moda fabrics I used in the quilt : Tend the Earth charm squares, grey Sunkissed backing and  a graduated spot from Hoopla. (Could have probably gone for something a bit less of a statement for the binding...c'est la vie!)

How to Make it

• First, open your charm packs and sort through the colours and patterns. You will need to use 81 of the 84 squares in the two packs, so you can straight away put aside three of the squares you don't like.
• Next, lay the squares out on a design wall, floor, bed - somewhere you can see how the fabrics look together. Move them around till you're happy with the placement of colour and pattern.
•  Start by sewing across the rows. 
• Then sew the rows together, working down the quilt. To get the points exact, I prefer to press the seams in alternate directions. For a quilt like this, you can press all the seams in a row in the same direction. Then all the seams in the next row will be pressed in the opposite direction. Very easy.
• Once the top is all together, give it a good press and run a row of stitching about 1/8 inch all around the edge to stop keep it neat.
• Now baste the top, backing and wadding. 

•  Quilt "as desired". By machine, the easiest way is to sew a continuous cross hatch through all the squares using a walking foot and increased stitch length (about 3.5). I made this one a little bit different by using one of the sewing machine's inbuilt fancy stitches. Sometimes I stipple, use a free motion foot and do a curvy design. You could also quilt by hand. Whatever you choose, it won't be hard, or take long, because the quilt is so small.

The quilting stitch is a fancy stitch on the sewing machine.

• Run a line of stitching  around the outside, a bit less than 1/4 inch from the fabric edge.
• Square the quilt by trimming the edges using a rotary cutter and ruler.
• Make the binding and attach using your preferred method. For these quilts I usually do an all in one machine binding which I make by cutting 2 inch strips of fabric and turning them into binding with a one inch bias binding maker, then sewing onto the edge through all layers all in one go. 

*I saw a fabulous post about different machine binding methods on Kathy Mack's Pink Chalk Studio Blog, so have a look there at some other methods used by quilters.)

•  Your quilt is finished and you can throw it in the wash, gentle cycle, gentle low phosphate liquid detergent; tumble dry on synthetic cycle for about 90min. this will make your quilt soft, crinkly and fluffy

You can see the machine sewn binding and the "fancy" stitch quilting here.

Finished.

Of course, you can use any fabrics you like. Sometimes I combine two different charm packs. I've also used just fabric I like. But to keep the quilt and the requirements simple, the finished top has to be less than the width of a regular 115cm wide cotton fabric so you can easily cut the backing. If you're using 240cm wide batting, you can get 1.2m and you will get 2 quilts out of it.

Hope you get time to make a 9 Squared quilt, and I'd love to see it if you do. 

This Quilt is for SALE @ $75.00
SOLD

Have you got an easy peasy little quilt you like to whip up for all occasions?

Till next time -

Ann ♥

Quilts for Beginner Quilters

I love teaching quilts for beginner quilters. My favourite one at the moment is a little one made from two Moda Charm packs, a metre of backing fabric, a metre of wadding and 30cm of binding. The maker arranges 81 squares so they simply look nice, then they learn how to sew them together using the washing line method. They baste the quilt, machine quilt it in a simple grid, trim it, cut and join the binding and finally bind the quilt. It works really well in my little shop, with only really room for one or two students. This is my last student, Shaye, who's making her first quilt for her first child, and believe it or not, she's seven months pregnant in the photos!

Here she is adding the final touch to her binding.

behind her, hanging on the wall, is another beginner quilt I've taught. This time it's a sampler and it was popular too - not too big, a nice variety in the blocks, set on point to add interest, and striking fabrics. It's getting a bit old now, but people still like it...

So I decided to make a new beginner sampler quilt.

It's called The French Sampler Quilt.

This one is predominantly Moda French General fabrics from two different collections, Rouenneries and Rural Jardin. I love the French General designs and their "olde worlde" charm. I also added some old shirting fabrics from my Dad's shirts. Dad passed away 10 years ago today and I still use little bits and pieces of his shirts to add that special something to a lot of quilts.

The other key fabric in the quilt is the ticking, which I've had in my stash for almost as long as I've been quilting and everyone still wants to know where to get it - including me!

I made the second quilt a bit bigger, by simply repeating three of the original blocks. They look different just because I've used different value placement and quilting.

For a quilt like this, nothing looks as good as hand quilting, so I did that as well, using Ecru Cebelia No. 40 cotton thread, made in France. I love this thread for hand quilting as it's not as thick and attention drawing as Perle 8 (which I also love) and seems to suit more traditional work.

I really agonised over the borders for this quilt, and finally chose the beige over a blue and also a red in the same design. It's a little bit washed out, but I like the antique feel of the whole quilt and am very happy with it.Finally I added the pinkish red rick rack. I finished the binding and put it out on my bed, I wished I'd added another five blocks and it could have been a queen size for me. The red was exactly right in my room and I love shabby chic.

My new quilt was inspired by the Tsunami and I'm using a stunning Japanese Kona Bay fabric as a big central panel, with French Braids from watery, murky Bali Batiks. Here it is in the planning stages. I'm using Jane Hardy Miller's French Braid Obsession as a source book, but making the quilt up as I go. Hopefuly it will become a new workshop.

The world is really having its share of suffering to date this year, but I hope you're all safe and looking to the future,

Ann ♥

A Very Nice Day

I had a very nice day at the end of last week.
I was quilting my Fish and Flowers quilt in my shop, when a quilter and blogger from Cairns dropped in. Debbie, from Deb's Quilting, stayed for a coffee and chat. It's really special when someone you've never met in person, but reads your blog, contacts you and you meet in the flesh. I'm sure you know the feeling.
I used an all over stipple on the quilt, after free motion stitching around the flowers with a black thread. They're quite large, and I found it a little challenging keeping the stitching lines straight, or smooth, and although I've done a lot of machine quilting, I've never actually stippled such a large area.

As I was doing the stippling, I was surprised by some old friends from Dalby, a bit further west of Brisbane. I went to school with Ruth, and was the bridesmaid at her wedding. It's great to see a couple still together and happy after more than 20 years!

I finished the stippling, and was quite pleased, then to do the border in some kind of wavy, crinkly design... my sewing mahcine spat the dummy about a foot from the end of the last edge.
That's when Sandi from Embroideroo popped in with her sock monkey for a loan.
Here he is sitting on a can of insect spray. Since we've had so much rain, the ants have invaded and I've had to resort to surface spray to protect special things like the cats' food mat and kitchen tidy bin. Yuk!
But the monkey is sweet. Just in front is a magazine with quilt patterns from Don't Look Now. Kellie is a really talented designer - beautiful quilts- and I'm pleased to stock her patterns in my shop.

Later that evening I was visiting some blogs and a beautiful little quilt at Bumble Beans caught my eye on a number of side bars. (I think Victoria at Bumble Beans must be one of the most prolific and amazing quilters in the world!)It was part of an exhibition to raise funds for Alzheimer's disease research and awareness, Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. I checked out the website, and bought Victoria's beautiful quilt, Memories! So exciting! My own grandmother had Alzheimer's, so I felt a special connection to the quilt and the cause.
Have a look at the websites, and you too may find something you like to support this worthy cause.
Hopefully I'll receive the quilt soon - I'll show it to you,

xoxo Ann.

Last Weekend

Last weekend was one of those weekends when you feel like all you do is work. Do you ever feel like you just can't catch up? I really needed to clean the house, but I'd set up my cutting table to baste quilts in the middle of the lounge room, and although I finished a few quilts on the Saturday night, I still had one to go on Sunday. I was tired on Sunday... but I did end up finishing basting the quilt. It's a top I made almost a year ago from African shweshwe squares. I've decided to hand quilt this one with sashiko thread.

The pile of basted quilts. Isn't that red one a lovely backing? it's from the Moda Rouenneries range and I used it for the indigo, red and white quilt above. You can also catch a glimpse of the large applique flowers and fish one from a few posts ago.

And here it is again! I'm trying to decide on a quilting thread for it, and Dolly's helping. In the end I chose the pastel variegated Signature thread to blend the pastel background strips. The flowers have already been free machine appliqued with a black thread to make them pop. (I've finished it now and love the look of it, even if I do say so myself - very different style of quilt for me... but I'll tell you more about that in my next post.)

Finally, I finished this little fairy Baby Wrap. I really made it to show case the fabric, but it's so simple and could be done with any print you don't want to cut. I just had to put the red half square triangle borders on the top and bottom. When I sew those, for some reason I feel happy. Perhaps that's what quilting is all about.
Do you like the background? It's the lovely shabby chic shelf full of fabrics in my boutique.
Have a good week ,

xoxo Ann.