Show and Tell from Di B and Liz

By now you must know how much I love to share my clever quilty friends’ finished projects.

(Is it wrong to hope that by doing this you won’t notice how few finishes I have?)

Di B’s niece recently gave her this beautiful framed photo of the wedding quilt Di made for her and her husband.

She started it in a Sue Ross class last year and although we’ve raved about her wonderful fabric choices and meticulous machine applique, but this quilt never really set her heart aflutter.

That is, until it was finished and professionally machine quilted by our friend Linda Billett of Artisan Quilting. Her quilting really was the icing on the cake!

Stunning quilt! Stunning couple! Don’t you agree? Those colours just zing, perfect for its new home in Holland where those sunshine-yellow hand-dyes will brighten up the dreariest winter day.

Liz has been busy too, making a New Life quilt bursting with colour.

All those scraps of fabric could very easily have been consigned to the rubbish bin if it wasn’t for Linda Hungerford’s easy and clever pattern. Now those old scraps can live again!

Liz practiced her free motion machine quilting on this one, after attending a class with Amanda Daly recently. Go to the top of the class, Liz!

Another friend, Lyn, recently gave me a bunch of angel blocks she’s had in her cupboard from a swap some years ago, and I took them along to St Mark’s Quilters.

Some of us scratched our heads but Liz knew immediately how to use them, took them home and made this angelic quilt, complete with Christmas buttons stitched onto the plain squares.

Waste not, want not (as they say in the classics!)

Di

A naughty Friday Flaunt

Naughty, because if she knew I was trumpeting her latest piece of quilty brilliance Di B (who has no blog) would give me a little smack on the hand and blush with embarrassment.

Nevertheless here it is – Lemon Cheesecake!

Di started this beauty as a relatively new quilter in a class with Sue Ross in February 2010, and she’s done a magnificent job. She would be the first to tell you she’s learnt many lessons along the way.

There have been moments when she could have consigned it to the “too hard” basket. But she pressed on and  little by little it has come together.

The Australian sunshine and the blue waters of our oceans, as well as the green of our countryside, are all represented in this quilt.

It’s become a very special gift for two people dear to Di, and since it will be going to live in Holland there are tiny touches of orange.

Linda Billett of Artisan Quilting was responsible for the creative machine quilting.

And feathers! They really show up on the back against the vivid blue fabric Di chose especially to represent the sparkling clear water of Sydney Harbour on a summer’s day.

Who’s this getting in on the photo shoot?  It’s young Matilda, Di’s golden retriever (worthy of a flaunt herself)!

Di deserves this unauthorised flaunt for a fabulous job. Her quilt took over a year to complete but it’s destined to become a family heirloom and I couldn’t be happier for her.  

(Applause!)

More Whirligigs, with a little Lemon Cheesecake

At Paddington Patchworkers Rae’s been busy, finishing all her blocks, appliqueing them to their backgrounds, and tweaking Sue’s basic pattern by adding a bias striped sashing for a little extra pizzazz.

Finally, here are mine, nowhere near as complete as Rae’s fabulous work, some of them only pinned together, and none yet attached to their backgrounds of plain white squares alternating with a black-on-white spot. 

The final step for all of us will be to sew an appliquee border onto this central 9-patch, to bring it all together.

One of the other quilts Sue’s been teaching in our class is Strawberry Shortcake.  Di B has called her version Lemon Cheesecake, created in vibrant blues, yellows and greens.

When those sashings of 4-patches set on point are all in place this quilt will be so crisp and fresh and lemony – yummm!