Remember how excited you felt starting out, at the beginning of the school year, with new exercise books and folders? When Paddington Patchworkers invited delightful Blue Mountains quilt designer and teacher, Lynne Alchin, to come and teach a class Di B decided her besties needed folders to keep all our cut-out pieces and applique shapes organised.
The concept is simple, a loose leaf ring binder filled with zip lock plastic pages that can hold all those tiny pieces that seem to get left between the cushions or on the floor under the chair. You could just use ordinary household zip lock bags, but these are made specially to fit in binders and are more robust.
For the covers Di picked a fabric she knew each of us would love – and she certainly hit the spot with my Kaffe hot pink fans!
Gail
Di B with Rae
If you’ve been following my blog for several years you might recall this quilt made by my friend Anne a couple of years ago.
It’s Lynne Alchin’s design, “Laurel’s Stars”, and was the quilt that first sparked our determination to have Lynne come and teach us. When Gail successfully secured her Lynne brought her original “Laurel’s Stars” along to our class and oh my, this quilt is exquisite.
Di B chose this quilt to make for her mother, Margaret, and since she’s such a machine applique whizz she had it finished to this stage in no time. Go ahead, you may drool now.
Rae’s more of a handwork lady, and her starry borders are coming together steadily, piece by piece. This is the only photo I have so far. [Does anyone else use their pants as a pincushion? I confess I do
]
Desley’s put her own quirky spin on Laurel’s Stars by using only fabrics from her scrap stash to complete her applique – and I love it!
My own choice is Lynne’s “Princess Plenty” quilt (seen below), with a centre star surrounded by huge feathers, a pieced border and then …. (be still, my heart) … a deep border of applique vines, flowers, fruit, birds and cornucopias.
I’m using some of my treasured Robyn Pandolph florals, along with Lecien Flower Sugar fabrics, so mine will look very different from Lynne’s.
Already I’ve made a rather cheeky design adjustment. I wasn’t happy with how the centre points of my star met (or didn’t meet!).
My solution? A tiny applique dot to hide my sins. Have you seen my tutorial for these babies?
It’s so great to be embarking on another major handwork project along with my quilting friends, and seeing their variations on the designs really gets all our creative juices flowing.
PS. I’ve had a few requests lately for advice on how to assemble the Joseph’s Coat/Orange Peel blocks I used to make my “Daisy a Day” quilt, and I’m preparing a tutorial on this. I’ll post it as soon as I’m able.
Such beautiful work. A good post to read early in the morning!! It makes me want to hop right up and get to work. I'm going to resist the urge to stop what I'm doing and make notebook covers!!
ReplyDeleteDi, where does one obtain the plastic pages from..and what size are they? A lovely gift idea that I might steal! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteDi B tells me she bought the pages and the folders at Officeworks. They are close to A5 size, though probably a little squarer.
DeleteWell! You Di's certainly don't let any grass grow under your feet, nor let your hands be idle. Di B's notebooks are inspirational! What a delightful surprise gift for all you hand appliquérs. And the quilts everyone is making... they're beautiful. You all make me appreciate handwork, and also make me want to sit down - slow down - and do it. Though unless you're right here beside me, I don't take it slow like you do. I should though. Thank you for sharing these lovelies. I always enjoy and appreciate the dedication you have to your quilting.
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