It's a wrap

First there was the quilt.

Then the phone case.

Then the luggage tag.

Now (tadaa!) meet my newest creation, wrapping paper featuring my Daisy a Day quilt!

My 15 foot roll arrived in the mail on Friday and I couldn't be happier.

Well, actually I could, because today Zazzle has 30% off absolutely everything and my Daisy a Day wrapping paper would have cost me a lot less :-)

Never mind, you can take advantage of this great discount to order Daisy a Day gifts from my Zazzle store, QuiltMe, or indeed anything at all from the entire Zazzle site.

Just use the code: FRIENDSFAM13 at the checkout.

Work-in-Progress

With my new abode still a work-in-progress I can’t quite give you the grand tour just yet. Not that the tour will ever be very grand, but you get my drift.

However since this blog is supposed to be mainly about quilting – my own and that of my friends – I thought I’d update you on what we’ve been up to.

Rae’s Grandmother’s Flower Garden just grows and grows in a most beautiful fashion. I think Rae’s our undisputed Queen of Fussy Cutting! She thinks she’s going to use up all her scraps on this monster. Should we tell her now? or let her find out that this is an impossible dream.

Sue’s caught the hexagon bug too, but hers are quilt-as-you-go. What you can’t see is that the quilt is entirely reversible, and will need no sandwiching or quilting at all once it’s finished.

Here are some more gorgeous hexagon finishes by Sue using Japanese fabrics and hardware she bought at the Sydney Craft Fair.

Gail made this lovely Flowering Vines quilt from a pattern by the Piece o’ Cake girls a few years ago, but she’s always felt it needed a co-ordinating pillow case. Don’t you love her design? Those scrappy edges are such a fun touch.

Gail has also had the wonderful news that she is to be a grandma to twin girls early in the new year, and being a woman of action she’s already designed, made and quilted these quirky beauties for the babies. Geckos for one, and frogs for the other.

There’s one in every crowd, and in our crowd it’s Di B. We love her! Just look at that bag, from a pattern by the Blue Willow girls, made in the cutest, brightest frog fabric and sure to raise a smile wherever Di wears it. Great work!

Here’s a work-in-progress shot.

I’m loving Lyn’s owl quilt in 30s fabrics. Such a simple concept, but so happy and cheery for a little one. And “hoo” doesn’t enjoy an owl joke now and then?

In case you think I’ve been completely idle, this photo was snapped by the quilting paparazzi at our August St Mark’s Quilters workshop. I might have just been sewing on a label, but that counts as quiltmaking, doesn’t it?

I’m a bit excited, too, to tell you that my Daisy a Day quilt appears in an article on Orange Peel quilts in the current issue of Down Under Quilts, along with photos I took of ancient examples of this design in stone and mosaics when I was travelling in Israel last year, and several ‘photos of photos’ from a museum display.

It’s surprising how far back some of our quilting designs go.

There really is nothing new under the sun!

 Di

I won!

I’ve just received an email from Amy of Amy’s Creative Side to say my Daisy a Day quilt is one of the three Viewers’ Choice winners, out of almost 700 entries in the latest Bloggers’ Quilt Festival!

 

Wow! I’m in very illustrious company.  Look at the other two winners…

Firstly there’s the very professional ChristaQuilts with her gorgeous Charming Chevrons.

And then there’s  Geta from Romania who made this amazing 3-dimensional effect quilt (Together in a Friendship World) in a collaborative effort with her friends. Be amazed!

How does she do this?

Thank you to the amazingly generous sponsors. I’ve won my choice of a stash pack from Vicky Welsh and 2.5 metres of Mistyfuse which, as an applique devotee, will come in very handy indeed.

Thank you to every single person who voted for my Daisy a Day quilt.

Thank you to all those sweet readers who left encouraging comments on my blog. You’ll never know how very much they meant to me.

And finally a HUGE thank you to Amy of Amy’s Creative Side for doing the work to make this fun competition such a success.

 Di

2012 Report Card on Di

Quilting

Three words describe Di’s quilt-making efforts this year: Can do better.

In the entire year she has finished just six quilts.

These were the Whirligig quilt, Daisy a Day, Ben and Sunny’s Wedding Quilt, two Blankets of Love for RPA Newborn Care and one child-sized quilt for the Marcia Burgess Kindy for autistic little ones. The seventh “quilt” here is really just a cushion top, her entry in the Dots on Dots blog hop in September, and as such doesn’t really count – it’s just there to complete the collage.

Perhaps if she were to spend less time reading blogs, pinning to Pinterest and playing Words with Friends she might be able to turn more of those quilts floating round in her imagination into reality. Somehow, though, I don’t think that’s going to happen since Di loves keeping in touch with her cyber-friends all over the world and gathering quilt-making inspiration from the blogs she follows.

She could also benefit from not setting such unrealistic goals for herself. Just a thought.

Smaller Items

Di has scored better in this area, with around 40 finishes.

The friends who helped Ben and Sunny’s wedding day in August go smoothly were very happy with their “thank you” gifts of cathedral windows pincushions.

In June Di’s efforts were boosted by an extremely productive collaboration with Di B. She made sock monkeys and owls, crocheted teddy bears, travel trays, luggage labels, applique baby singlets, tea towels, golfers’ hand towels, baby shoes and a growth chart. Together Team Di, along with others on the Rose Bay Committee, were able to raise $3,500 from craft table sales for St Luke’s Hospital.

In a strong finish to the year Team Di (and a friend) knitted seven fat googly-eyed sheep for their neighbouring church, St John’s Darlinghurst, to use in their Messy Christmas Nativity Trail.

The observation must be made that without Di B urging and encouraging her Di would not be nearly so generous and outward-focused and could easily spend far too much time navel-gazing.

Final Comments

The last four months have not been easy for Di J, and she has lost the plot somewhat, as far as her handwork is concerned.

However she has received so much love and support from her family, friends and fellow bloggers that we are hoping to see her finding renewed joy in her all her creative endeavours over the coming year.

**********************************************

May God bless you all in 2013!

I just couldn’t stop myself…

Have I told you I love the custom iPhone 4 case I created through Quilt My Phone? {Oh, maybe once or twice…!}

Not content with just one, I also ordered a case for Di B’s brand new iPhone 5 through the same store. Di’s been such a stalwart this year keeping St  Mark’s Quilters on track when I’ve been MIA, and this vintage Roman Stripe Quilt Pattern from Cathleen’s in stock range seemed an appropriate way to say “Thank You”.

Would you like a “quilted” phone case for yourself?

My exciting news is that I’ve taken my Daisy a Day quilt photo, tweaked the saturation just a tad to compensate for the production process, and created case designs for eight different cell phones. You can now order one for yourself (or a friend for Christmas) from my new Zazzle store, QuiltMe.

You can even create a customised case there too, using your own photo.

Even better, you’ll get 40% off today! Just use the code 12DAILYDEAL3.

Offer is available until 11.59pm Pacific time (6.59pm Australian Eastern Daylight Saving Time).

Di

Winners are grinners!

I’m excited to announce the winners of my three Daisy a Day giveaway prizes, generously donated by JoNell of Quiltsmith (USA).

I’ve emailed all these lovely ladies asking for their addresses, but could Gillian please contact me (through the link at the left beneath my profile pic). Your email has bounced back, and I need your postal address for JoNell so she can send you your templates.

First Prize

Brenda wins a set of ARDCO 12 inch Tea Leaves templates (TLW-12) plus a set of ARDCO 6 inch Tea Leaves templates (TLW-6)

* * * * *

Second Prize

Carla wins a set of ARDCO 12 inch Tea Leaves templates (TLW-12)

* * * * *

Third Prize

Gillian wins a set of ARDCO 6 inch Tea Leaves templates (TLW-6)

 

Thank you to everyone who entered, and thank you so much for all your beautiful comments on my quilt.

If you’ve been bitten by the hand-piecing bug don’t forget you can still get a 20% discount when you order your very own ARDCO templates from Quiltsmith between now and next Sunday (25th November) with the code JIS78

* There is no actual box for entering that discount code at the checkout, but if you simply type it beside your name this will identify you to JoNell as one of my readers, and worthy of special treatment (ie 20% off).

* International shipping, she says, is either at the same price quoted on the website for US shipping, or very little more. After all, these templates don’t weigh much at all.

* Finally, if you have any questions at all you can email JoNell (who is a really lovely person to deal with) at rquilt@rcn.com

Thank you so much, JoNell!

I’m already dreaming of my next hand pieced quilt project using these great metal non-skid window templates. Now, which shape should I choose…..?

Di

Daisy a Day is done, and I’m celebrating with a GIVEAWAY!!!

Call it what you will – Daisy a Day, Joseph’s Coat, Tea Leaves, Lafayette Orange Peel or Lover’s Knot - I really, REALLY love this quilt, which is just as well because I’ve spent more than 18 months piecing and quilting it entirely by hand.

Months ago I promised you a look at the three queen sized quilts I finally finished in July. You’ve seen my Whirligig Quilt, then Ben’s and Sunny’s Wedding Quilt, and now (drumroll……..) here’s my favourite, Daisy a Day.
You can read here how some of my friends and I came to be making this quilt. Robbie’s version became a cot quilt, Jill’s is an elegant runner across the foot of her bed, and Gail is currently on the home stretch, hand quilting her QS version made from delicate Liberty fabrics.

I love scrappy quilts, the more fabrics the better, so choosing colours for my petals was a snap. I simply dived into my humungous scrap pile(s) and chose the prettiest and happiest pieces I could find. Then I teamed them together with white-on-white polka dot filler shapes to make them “pop”.

Ardco metal templates (the 12 inch size) made cutting the shapes easy, though getting all six petals to meet nicely at the centre of each circle, with no gaps, proved a tad challenging at times. I’m glad I didn’t let it stress me too much because looking at the finished quilt I think you’d need a search party to find those wonky joins now.

A wise friend advised me to machine quilt this monster. After all, I do lead a busy life. But after seeing Robbie’s cot-sized version, meticulously hand-quilted and cuddly, I threw caution to the winds and decided to hand quilt mine too.
I feared my wise counselor might think I’d lost my marbles and many would agree, so I kept this a secret!

On Easter Saturday this year I spent the afternoon crawling around on my hands and knees on my bedroom floor, sandwiching and pinning the quilt to within an inch of its life.
Why pin, and not baste, as is more usual for hand quilting? Aha, I had a cunning plan
Placing a safety pin in every white space across the quilt, and counting them in as I pinned, meant I could easily keep track of my progress. By counting the pins out as I quilted each of these negative spaces I didn’t accidentally miss a space, and I marked them off on a card, one by one. 

It was very simple to remove any pins that got in the way of my quilting hoop as I went.
I was surprised and delighted to find that the whole quilt only took me 5 weeks to quilt. I guess quilting for a couple of hours each night in front of the TV, as well as whenever I attended one of my quilting groups, added up quickly.

The binding colour was a no-brainer! There are so many gorgeous colours in this quilt, but somehow the bright pinks called to me the loudest . No surprises there.

If this block design is making your heart go pitty-pat, then I think you’ll want to enter my GIVEAWAY to win one of three prizes generously donated by JoNell at QUILTSMITH Ltd (the business in Virginia, USA, not the shop by the same name in Sydney, Australia).
To be in the running, just pop over to the Ardco Templates by Quiltsmith website and look through all the wonderful sizes and shapes available for your piecing pleasure. Then come back here and leave me a comment telling me your favourite Ardco template shape.
That’s it. No other hoops to jump through (I don’t like them myself), though you’ll make me a very happy blogger if you choose to become a Follower, and I’ll be grinning from ear to ear if you tell your friends about my giveaway on Facebook and Twitter.
*** Please make sure I can contact you by email. I’m afraid I can’t count you in the giveaway if you’re a “No reply” blogger ‘cos I have no way of letting you know when you win!
I’ll close comments at midnight Australian Eastern Daylight Saving Time on Sunday 18th November, and I’ll draw three winners soon after.

* * *

First Prize is a set of 12 inch Tea Leaves templates (TLW-12) plus a set of 6 inch Tea Leaves templates (TLW-6).

Second Prize is a set of 12 inch Tea Leaves templates (TLW-12).

Third Prize is a set of 6 inch Tea Leaves templates (TLW-6)

* * *

You’re going to love ARDCO templates!

First of all, they’re metal. Nice and strong, and accurate. Unlike perspex templates, the edges aren’t going to chip or corners break off.

You can get the tip of a mechanical pencil right into those corner slits (and if you can’t, all you need is a teensy rub with the finest grade sandpaper to widen the slits just a smidge).

See the rough, grainy surface on the underside of the template?

(This one’s well-worn after tracing all my Daisy a Day pieces!)

When you position this baby on your fabric ready for tracing it’s not going anywhere. Honestly, it grips and makes tracing a breeze, especially if you use a sandpaper board underneath your fabric. No skidding!

Being “window” templates, too, it’s easy to position them so you can fussy cut your fabrics.

Finally, once you’ve traced along both the inside and outside edges of the template you’ll have a nice stitching line, perfect for hand-piecing!

* * *

But wait, there’s more …

JoNell is offering all my readers a discount of 10% 20% off any templates on the website for 2 weeks (up until Sunday 25th November). Simply enter the discount code JIS78 when you enter your name at the checkout. What are you waiting for?
Just added:
* There is no actual box for entering that discount code at the checkout, but if you simply type it beside your name this will identify you to JoNell as one of my readers, and worthy of special treatment (ie 20% off).
* International shipping, she says, is either at the same price quoted on the website for US shipping, or very little more. After all, these templates don’t weigh much at all.
* Finally, if you have any questions at all you can email JoNell (who is a really lovely person to deal with) at rquilt@rcn.com


Stats:
88 in x 96 in (approx)
Daisy petals - Kaffe Fassett brights, along with other bright, modern scraps.
Background fabric - White tone-on-tone spot from the Polka Party III range by Holly Holderman for Lakehouse Drygoods
Warm & White Cotton batting.
Pieced and quilted by hand using Aurifil 40 weight thread in white (2024).
Di