Just slap me (gently) across the face with a fat quarter*

…if I ever again start whining about not being much of a finisher.

Admittedly my big quilt finishes are so rare it’s been rumored there are small principalities where a national holiday’s declared when Di comes to the end of stitching a binding down. But when I trawled back through this year’s photos I couldn’t suppress a tiny “Hooray” of my own.

Hey, small projects count as finishes too – don’t they?

I’ve made sock monkeys (“Stella” for Toni’s Auction for Queensland Flood Relief, and “Blossom” for the St Luke’s Hospital fundraiser).  Along with my friends Di B and Gail I made origami bags for the Gumtree Designers’ New Beginnings appeal after the QLD floods.

In addition, for the St Luke’s Hospital (Potts Point) fundraising event mid-year I crocheted and knitted baby bootees and beanies, sewed pincushions and pink origami bags embroidered with grub roses, and created a ‘parliament’ of cute little sock owls.

I sent off two cosy knitted cowls to Sarah, shivering with the approach of winter in the USA – they arrived there just a day before she left for tropical Botswana (but that’s another story!). My dear friends Moo and Margaret scored mug mats for their birthdays this year, and there were baby singlets appliqueed with an elephant, a teddy bear and a ladybug for our new grandson, Jack.

And there were just enough quilt finishes to keep those principalities happy . I had great fun making the red, white and navy hippo quilt for Jack, and tried my hand at a quilt-as-you-go scrappy quilt that went, along with others from St Mark’s Quilters, to help victims of the Christchurch (NZ) earthquake.

I managed to complete several Blankets of Love for RPA Newborn Care, and put the finishing touches on my Scrappy Hexagons quilt which hung in the Victorian Quilters’ Fabric of Society Challenge at the Melbourne Craft and Quilt Fair in July.

Then there were the projects Di B and I worked on together, though when I think back to our stitching days throughout the year I’m amazed we were so productive with all the fun and laughter going on.

We delved deep into our scrap bins for the most colourful and girly fabrics we could find and made a large hourglass-patterned bed quilt for our friend Alicia’s 60th birthday. This was extra-sneaky of us since we’d only just completed a bowtie quilt Alicia had asked us to make for her to give her friend Ian, and she certainly wasn’t expecting to be presented with a quilt of her own at her birthday party in January.

Our St Mark’s Quilters made individual blocks with appliqueed teddy bears which Di and I sewed together into a quilt for the arrival of our Assistant Minister’s new baby boy in the middle of the year.

We quilted and bound a large cheater cloth in time to cover the table in the entrance to St Mark’s for the Advent and Christmas season, and Di helped me sew and machine quilt all the “healing hearts” blocks sent to my mother by Southern Cross Quilters when my father passed away last year. This was a real labour of love.

Finally, there were the cupcake potholders we made as Christmas gifts for our lovely St Mark’s Quilters. Let’s just say the question “Whose bright idea was this, anyway?” might have been uttered a few times, as we tried to wrangle several thicknesses of fabric and batting beneath our sewing machine feet and machine needles constantly broke under the pressure of stitching through Insulbrite. We expended quite a bit of blood, sweat and … laughter on that project .

* Non-quilters, be assured this isn’t some kind of masochistic plea. A fat quarter is just a small piece of fabric (18” x 22”) whose uses include small projects, piecing … and silly hyperbole such as this. 

I have a little more to add to this story about baby Morgan:

One of our St Mark’s Quilters, Ruth, has moved out of town but still makes Blankets of Love for us and keeps up with our doings via this blog. 

I was so excited when, after reading about Morgan, she emailed me this - “You’re not going to believe this! The couple featured were in the cabin next to us on that cruise.” Ruth and her DH shared the same dinner table with Paul and Leanne a couple of times, but Ruth had no idea of the drama that eventually unfolded and was very happy to hear the positive outcome.

What a small world it is – and what an uplifting ending to 2011!

Happy New Year, everyone. God bless you and thank you for reading my ramblings.

Di

Di J’s and Di B’s Big Day Out

In the pre-dawn gloom on Friday Di B and I were grinning like cheshire cats as my DH drove us to the airport for our 7am flight.

In my bright pink coat, toting my selvage bag, and accompanied by that very colourful character Di B, we might have been just a little conspicuous on the plane amid a sea of dark suits hunched silently over their iPads reading the Sydney Morning Herald on their way to conduct business in Melbourne.

We were on our way to the Melbourne Quilt and Craft Fair for the day, and in particular to see the Victorian Quilters’ Guild Fabric of Society Challenge quilts.

This challenge involved making a quilt inspired by, recreated or adapted from any quilt published in quilt historian Dr Annette Gero’s book, The Fabric of Society – Australian Quilt Heritage from the Convict Times to 1960.

Months ago I had entered a photo of my Scrappy Hexagon quilt, a version of Kerry Dear’s Candied Hexagons, and was amazed when my quilt was accepted.

Long-time followers of this blog will recall that Candied Hexagons was inspired by the Frederica Josephson quilt (shown here) in Annette Gero’s book.

I’ve never entered a quilt in an exhibition before, so it’s somewhat ironic that my first entry should be a quilt that was not made for competition and was only meant to cover my knees as I watched TV on winter evenings. It’s not show-perfect, but it does fit the criteria for this challenge, and my highest hope was simply to see it displayed with others similarly inspired by antique quilts.

Consequently as I sent my quilt off I had visions of the lovely ladies opening the box, throwing up their hands in horror at my workmanship, and putting it quietly aside. Di B was the only person I told about my entry, and she insisted on coming to Melbourne with me to share the experience.

Best of all, good friend that she is, she promised not to laugh if my quilt wasn’t hung.

To see my Scrappy Hexagons (as I now call it) hanging in the exhibition space, alongside other much more exquisitely executed quilts , was an absolute thrill for this novice.  Can you tell?

Does everyone who enters a quilt for the first time feel the same way, I wonder?

The winning quilt, and Best of Show in the Fabric of Society Challenge, was Dear Prudence by Linda White, and it was stunning!

Those are 1/4 inch hexagons, 17,977 of them, patiently stitched together with more than 500,000 stitches over 12 months. You can read about the making of this quilt on Linda’s blog here.

As I was taking this photo a lady beside me commented, “I don’t usually like machined quilts, but this one’s really good”. She was somewhat taken aback when I explained that it was in fact handmade. Congratulations, Linda!

The “icing on the cake” is that my humble Scrappy Hexagons quilt will spend next year travelling, with Linda’s magnificent Dear Prudence and the other beauties in the Fabric of Society Challenge, to the Australian Quilt Convention in Melbourne and then to the Quilt and Craft Fairs all over Australia.

Such exciting news inspired a little silliness   *

We don’t get out much (lol!). My quilt, however, will make up for that next year.

And since we were indeed at a Craft Fair, we also managed a little lot of shopping, lunching and meeting up with two dear friends that I’ve known for several years online but had never met in person – Lynda and Neroli. There were hugs all round, and so much excitement that I completely forgot to take photos before we had to leave on a jet plane to fly home again for dinner.

As you do.

Di

* Quilt Police please note – It might not look like it, but in fact no quilts were touched in the taking of these photographs!

Another Frederica Josephson quilt in the making

Rae has caught the bug! These little hexagons are so portable – and addictive. 

In fact, the Frederica Josephson Quilt from Kim McLean’s pattern in Dr Annette Gero’s book “The Fabric of Society” is the perfect take-along project. 

Little by little, piece by piece, they come together in moments of spare time, each one a little treasure.

A gold star for your fussy cutting, Rae

I give you….. (drumroll) …….Candied Hexagons!

Comfort stitching.

Not much creative stitching going on here over the last ten days, but there’s been solace in the quiet in-and-out needlework involved in applying a binding – a process I always find pleasurable. 

I have to admit I went a little cold on my Candied Hexagons quilt towards the end of stitching together my hexagons, and I still regret the inclusion of a handful of my fabrics.  However my love was rekindled somewhat when I began to applique those little triangles along the outside border.

There are many versions of this quilt around, all of their designs having their origins in a stunner of a quilt made by Frederica Josephson.  Kim McLean made hers in reproduction fabrics, and Kaffe Fassett’s adaptation glows dramatically.  

  Mine was a version of Australian designer Kerry Dear’s beautiful Candied Hexagons quilt from the now out-of-print Quilters Companion #18.

From start to finish this entirely handmade quilt took me a year, including about 5 weeks to hand quilt it on cold winter evenings in front of the TV.  Very relaxing, and a lovely way to keep warm :-))

More happy endings

Gail decided that although her Frederika Josephson hexagon quilt  was all but finished it needed a little extra flair.  So she’s added these pretty pieced and scalloped borders to two sides.  Nice! Gail’s new project is this delicate confection featuring the palest pink roses on an ivory background. Fresh from taking in the “wagga” display at the Hunters Hill Quilt Show last week we were pleased to see that Lynne was on the home stretch with hers, stitching the binding on today. I’ve hand quilted half my Candied Hexagon quilt.  Gosh, I’ll be pleased to have this one finished and put to good use as a TV rug.  I’m not at all sure I like it any more. Anne’s beautifully planned Frederika Josephson quilt is almost there!  Don’t you just love her fussy cutting?

Finally, Jill spent the day designing and embroidering a label for the first  quilt she ever made – and yes, there is a story behind the quilt’s name :-))

We’ve made a decision

When the English Quilt girls met this week for our regular monthly day of stitching at Gail’s there was lots of progress to be seen. 

Three of the four of us who had missed the June get-together because we were gallivanting around various parts of the globe (including our own wide brown land) were keen to prove our hands hadn’t been idle.

Rae has started on the hand applique borders for her Whirligig quilt in her signature mellow shades – she’s using plenty of terracotta, teal and sage, with some raspberry and a twist of lime as well.  You’re going to have to wait till Rae’s completed a border to see just how good this looks, but trust me it’s working a treat!

You can guess where Rae went on her holiday by this cute little souvenir she gave me.  It’s a sticky note pad with a design adapted from a patchwork coverlet in the grandmother’s garden design made in England between 1797 and 1852 hanging in the Victoria & Albert Museum.  Yes, our Rae has been to see the V & A special quilt exhibition! The colours in Jill’s kitchen chair cushions should give you a clue to her favourite landscape – red earth and gum trees, and a sky that goes on forever.  Jill’s been touring the outback of Australia, and I’m sure she was inspired by the terrain when she made these, the start of a bigger set.

As you know, I’ve been working on my Whirligig borders too.  I quickly laid out my 9 whirligig blocks on the floor (the order is absolutely random, so it will almost certainly not be the final lay-out) and plonked my unfinished borders alongside, just to get a feel for the colours. Our other wanderer, Lynne, is almost back home too and we’re looking forward to a little ‘show and tell’ soon.

You’ll recall that Anne’s been working away of a particularly gorgeous Candied Hexagon / Frederica Josephson quilt in mostly dusty pinks and blues.  It has the right amount of planned placement - with just a touch of randomness to make it interesting.     Robbie has been appliqueeing the blocks for this fresh floral scrappy quilt for months, it seems.  Suddenly it’s all together, and she’s well into the quilting.  Being a whizz at hand quilting, Robbie should have it finished quite soon. Gail is another one who doesn’t waste time, and her Prickly Pear quilt top is nearly complete.  She spent the day stitching on appliqueed leaves.  She was quite out of her comfort zone with these colours – deliberately so – but this quilt has lots of pizzazz and I think she should feel very pleased with the result. We had hoped to start another quilt together (not really together, but making the same quilt alongside each other, if you get what I mean) but we’ve decided to make this year a time to finish off our projects before starting a new quilt in the new year.   

Unusually sensible for a bunch of quilters, I know :-)) - but there you are!

Peeling back the layers (3)

Being a quilt detective comes naturally to Dr Annette Gero, who is also a scientist working in the University of New South Wales  School of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics. 

Through slides and lots of actual quilt “show and tell” she kept us absolutely engrossed as she told how she’s gradually pieced together the historical background to each one. 

The highlight of her quilt display was a huge quilt entitled “The Intellect and Valour of Britain” where the quiltmaker has reproduced this painting (below) in fabric.  It’s been achieved using the surprising technique of cutting out the figures in “cookie cutter” fashion, butting the pieces up against each other, and embroidering the details on top to create dimension.  You have to see the actual quilt to believe it!  (The venue being a private club I was not allowed to take a photo.)

After such an inspirational talk I simply had to buy a copy of Annette’s definitive work “The Fabric of Society, Australia’s Quilt Heritage from Convict Times to 1960” , especially since I and some friends are in the process of making our own versions of a couple of the historical quilts featured in the book – the Roebuck Quilt and the Frederica Josephson Quilt (including Kerry Dear’s modern version, Candied Hexagons). Maybe I’ll be spurred on to finish them now – and to label them for posterity!

More eye candy of the hexagon kind

When you’re just a little preoccupied with celebrating Someone Special’s birthday by going out to lunch, it’s such a blessing to have a good friend post on her blog exactly what you would love to have written on yours – Thanks Linda!

All of us in The English Quilt group who meet monthly at Gail’s were delighted to have a return visit from Linda (all the way from Iowa in the States), and yesterday was full of show-and-tell, laughter, chatter and advice. 

It never ceases to amaze me how wide-ranging we can be in our conversation topics when we get together.  For instance yesterday’s included English PM Gordon Brown, difficult people on planes, Kaffe Fassett, food portion sizes, osteoporosis, bottle brush plants, husbands who cook, Facebook, “golden oldie” music hits, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the excellence of the Northern Territory health service, and grandchildren – and that’s just the topics I can remember!

But I digress….

On Linda’s blog you’ll see Gail’s completed hexagon quilt, along with Jill’s. But you won’t see this gorgeous version of Kerry Dear’s Candied Hexagons, which Linda herself is working on.  Don’t those colours just glow?  Linda was inspired by the dark cerise shades of the bougainvilleas, and the purple jacarandas out in bloom when she visited Sydney last November – and I think she caught the hexagon ‘bug’ from us!

Hexagon eye candy!

Four out of the seven of us were working on various versions of Frederica Josephson’s quilt at The English Quilt Group at Gail’s yesterday.

After studying the way in which the original quilt seems to glow brightly in the centre, becoming darker as the hexagons radiate out, Ann’s given a lot of thought to her colour placement and is taking her own sweet time with a beautifully balanced design.Gail’s is around 108 inches of girly, floral gorgeousness, and she thinks it might be time to stop and hand quilt it.  Yes, I did say hand quilt!  

But wait, there’s more!

Jill has been so smitten with hexagons that she’s completely finished her quilt top, sandwiched it and begun the hand quilting.  It’s a warm, mellow confection in dusty pinks, blues and browns.    We affectionately call Gail our “over-achiever” but I think Jill’s a serious contender for the title.  Guess how many quilts she’s made before this one – two!

We couldn’t resist laying Jill’s quilt out on a bed to see the whole effect.  You like?

I have neither the time nor the patience to create beauties such as these, so my quilt is a more modest size, a hybrid of Frederica Josephson’s quilt and Kerry Dear’s Candied Hexagons.  My outer borders are attached and I’ve started to applique my scrappy triangles.

Are you wondering why we call ourselves The English Quilt group?  After all, we’re neither English, nor do we restrict ourselves to making English quilts. 

Every nine months or so, as a group, we decide on a quilt design we like.  Then we each make our own version of the quilt, meeting together once a month to help each other with techniques and tips, and share our progress. 

The English Quilt, by Australian designer Terri Brander, was the first quilt we chose to work on together.

There’s no obligation for any of us to make the chosen quilt, though: we just love getting together for a stitch, a laugh and a good time.