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.

Wuthering Heights Workshop in Maleny

Yes, I know it's been a while, and thanks for all your kind enquiries after me. I'm fine - just a bit snowed under and the blog has had to take bake seat for a while...

I've been SEWING!

I've also been teaching and have just given two lovely workshops, one in Barcaldine (that was a major one and there'll be a separate blog post for that, including photos etc) and the other in Maleny which I'm posting about today.
This workshop was for the Wuthering Heights quilt seen in earlier blog posts and to be featured as a project in August Down Under Quilts. So if you want to make it, the pattern will be there. We had the workshop at Helen's place and she provided a fantastic working environment, sumptuous morning and afternoon teas (as you can see) and excellent company with the addition of her little sausage dog, Rosie, who was definitely a member of the class!
Jo is sitting in front of my quilt, below. She chose to work with a mixture of green and purple hand-dyed fabrics instead of a Jelly Roll, and the results were lovely.

Helen and Mary both used Jelly Rolls for their quilts. Mary tried a variation with the background fabric a and used small print instead of a cream solid. Sue and Lyn both used Jelly Rolls too.

By the end of the first day, we had a few blocks to show for the our efforts and they were all shaping up marvellously! It was a very pleasant day.
The next lesson happened a couple of weeks later, after I'd been to Barcaldine and back. With slightly diminished numbers, the girls all zoomed on with their quilts and managed to organise their quilt top layouts and and sew most of them together.
Here they are pinning Jo's to the design wall.
And here's how the quilt will look when finished. Don't the greens and purples look beautiful. She's making it for a niece's 21st birthday... Lucky girl!Helen used a Jelly Roll from the new Moda range, Awesome by Sandy Gervais, with gorgeous autumn tones and oranges (my favourite colour) and a Kyoto Cloth (bamboo cotton) background the same as I used in the original quilt. Brilliant result.
Sue's was made with a deep, rich Jelly Roll and quite a dark cream background. The quilt's strong shades and deep colours made it quite masculine and dramatic.
I think everyone was satisfied with the results and the workshop went well. Now all they have to do is baste and quilt their quilts and I recommend with this one, NOT to get it commercially quilted with an all-over design, but to persevere and quilt a small diagonal grid across all the squares to keep the integrity of the squares in the design.
Finally, to finish off the day, here's Sues completed Sewing Circle quilt from our BOM group in 2009 - 10. A few of us have finished now, and they're all a bit different. I continue to get orders for this quilt kit and have a whole new set of ladies sewing away at home all over Australia! Lovely!
Well, till next time - and I know there's a whole group of outback ladies eagerly scanning the blog for some photos of their workshop... it's coming girls!

xo xo Ann.

3 Squares

This is the next stage in my 3 Squares quilt. I am making a border of rectangles combining the two sizes of the central squares - 2 inches x 4 inches. Originally I had planned large 4 inch x 8 inch rectangles but when I was writing up the previous post about 3 Squares I realized they weren't true to the dimensions of the original fabric. So I changed them.
I haven't got much further because I've been working on another sampler quilt using French General Rural Jardin fabrics

(it's proved a little more problematic than I expected)

and I'm planning for a challenging workshop in Barcaldine, in outback Queensland, which is suddenly coming up this weekend!
More about all this later,

xo xo Ann.

Show and Tell

I was looking through my photos yesterday and there were so many I realized I have not yet blogged about. So many activities, projects and ideas... so little time.
I felt I really must show you some recent work of friends and students. Firstly, here's Jill with her finished Lilly Pilly. I showed you some other photos of this one here. I love the aquas, greens and raspberries in this one and her individual border, too.

Jill hand quilted her quilt all over with leaves to echo the applique pieces. It looks wonderful - what a labour of love. Her daughter in England is a very lucky woman.

Yii Mei has been learning patchwork with me. She recently moved to the area and decided to take up the hobby and I think I'd be right in saying, it's become an obsession! This is her first quilt top completed. She's now learning how to machine quilt and doing a fantastic job. It's great welcoming new patch workers and quilters into the fold.

Finally, Sharon joined my French Braid class and brought in her finished quilt recently. She chose to use all Bali Batiks in these unusual autumn tones, and was rewarded with a beautiful result. She also hand quilted her quilt and it looks absolutely stunning and warm.

As for me, I've attended three local quilt shows as a stall holder last month, so most of my energy has gone into preparing for, and being at, them. I have started a couple of new quilts and I joined the Process Pledge - you'll see the button on my side bar. So I've got a few projects and ideas up my sleeve...
I've also upgraded my blog to a new blog design. I'm working on the pages feature, but time is always at a premium.
As the end of the financial year approaches, I've scheduled a 20% OFF SALE in my eBay Store, quiltopia!design. It starts around 5 PM today and finishes at 11:59PM Wednesday 30th June. (You can also visit quiltopia!design by clicking the button in my side bar.)
Why don't you drop by and grab a bargain if there's anything you fancy.
Happy stitching, dreaming, and shopping,

xo xo Ann.

Heirloom Hexagon Quilts

Just finished a workshop for my Heirloom Hexagons Quilt (pictured in the sidebar to the right). Many of the girls have finished their quilts now and I've put together a collage of some finished and WIPs. They all looked fabulous, luscious and brilliant!

The blocks are made quilt- as- you- go so the quilts are reversible. A design wall comes in handy for co-ordinating both the top and the back of the quilt.

When the hexagons are finished the pile up like a stack of delicious fabric pancakes, good enough to eat.

Finally, when you machine sew your finished hexagons together... Voila! Your heirloom quilt is finished!
I thoroughly enjoyed the workshop over three days and plan to do another in February 2010. Maybe I'll see you there.
Til next time,

Ann.