In between

This post comes to you from the darkened cabin of a Qantas 380 Airbus high above Western Samoa. Finally I have time to exhale, count my blessings, and catch up on some sleep!

 

I'm one finger typing on my DiPhone, on my way to Savannah, Georgia, and  Quiltcon East, via Florida where I'm excited to be meeting up with Linda Hungerford (Flourishing Palms) for some adventures. 

It's a strange feeling, after dreaming of making this trip for so long, and I can't believe I'll be landing in LA in just a few hours.

 

My Quiltcon entry, Levitation Fascination, wasn't one of the 400 or so modern quilts accepted into the show, but I'm OK with that since the standard was very high. It's already won me a rosette for Viewers' Choice at the Modern Quilt Show Australia last November, and I hope I can enter it in a few more shows yet.

Isn't that the cutest rosette you've ever seen? I'm looking forward to spending my prize, a $50 gift voucher from My Sewing Supplies, when I get back home.

 

 

There will still be thrills ahead for us, and a potential prize winner, since one of Linda's three Quiltcon entries was selected for inclusion. Yay!

Also on our itinerary after Quiltcon is AQS Quilt Week at Daytona Beach, Florida. This time I'm extremely happy to tell you my other rosette winner from last year, Out of the Square, has been juried into the show, along with several others from Aussie quilters. There will certainly be plenty of quilty eye candy for this shutterbug to photograph, so watch this space!

 

Those fabulous rainbow shades are all from Karen Lewis' Blueberry Park range, and I love how they worked together.

 

Out of the Square won the award at the Sydney Quilt Show for Best Modern Interpretation of a Traditional Quilt, sponsored by Melinda Smith of Quiltsmith, and I've already spent some of my $500 worth of gift vouchers on those glorious solids I used in Levitation Fascination. 

As an aside, the wool batting I used in Out of the Square was Nu-Wool,  of my Sydney Quilt Show prizes for Taking Liberties, my 3rd placed wall quilt from the year before. One quilt's rewards contributing to the creation of another - I love that! 

If you're not a follower of my posts on Instagram you'll be reading most of this news of last year's awards for the first time. I certainly had some catching up to do! 

For a litttle fun, here's a computer-generated pattern from www.makelight.com showing the colours I used in the quilts I posted on Instagram throughout the year.

You're probably surprised at the amount of yellow, but I'm finding myself adding a little (or a lot!) of this sunny colour to most of my quilts these days.

 

At the same time I'm looking forward, hoping for a year of creative satisfaction - not necessarily involving awards!

How's this for creative satisfaction: my baby granddaughter, Princess 2, joyfully tossing around some of my pretty fabrics. I hope to make a quilter of her one day.

 

 

Last year I chose JOY as my Word for the Year. It didn't go too well. In my humble opinion, joy is something that has to be sought. It's there to be found, if we only approach what happens to us with the right attitude, and I confess I fell into the trap of negativity far too often last year.

So I'm once again making JOY my Word for the Year. Yes, I'm giving it another go, because it's worth finding.

 

"Taking Liberties" does it again

Sometimes a blogger just has to seize the day and ignore the fact that she has a gazillion unwritten posts to be written because today's news is just too exciting to wait for the correct chronological order to be observed.

When I pulled this elegantly printed fat envelope out of my letter box this afternoon I knew immediately that it contained my long-awaited copy of the Liberty of London 140th Anniversary commemorative book.

You might have heard my little squeal!

Last year Liberty put out the call worldwide for photos of Liberty memories over the years from 1875 to the present, and projects using their gorgeous fabrics. From these 140 were chosen for inclusion in this book, and my prizewinning quilt, "Taking Liberties", was one of these.

It's in excellent company, with some amazing projects featured, and I feel so honoured to have my humble work appearing alongside such talent.

Here it is, happily occupying the whole of page 46.  And look! Those dear folk at Liberty  have thoughtfully framed it in.....pink!

And as if that wasn't enough, I'm a cover girl! OK, it's the back cover, and it's only half the quilt, but life's too short to quibble :-)

That little quilt, made from a charm pack of Liberty squares won in an Instagram giveaway from Australian Liberty suppliers Ava & Neve, came together quite quickly, won 3rd prize in the Small Quilt category at the Sydney Quilt Show last year, and has given me the most enormous pleasure ever since. 

It now hangs where I can enjoy those beautiful Liberty prints every day.

I've recently started another quilt using Liberties,  but you'll have to wait till another day when I have more time to tell you about that one...

On seeing the light

Light. Lately, it seems, I either have too little or too much!

This is the year I've decided to make a serious effort to improve my free motion quilting skills, and I thought I'd show you two products that I'm finding really helpful.

First is an Ecolux LED light strip. Some of my quilting friends have been using these for a while now to boost their machine's lighting, but I needed time to justify the outlay to my inner Scrooge.

You could never call me an early adopter LOL. 

I finally bought my 6 light strip from Sewing Buddies at last month's Sydney Quilt Show, and I love it.

Look at the difference it's made to my Bernina 1230! 

On the left you can see light provided by the Bernina's own built-in lighting, and on the right the difference this little strip of lights makes, installed under the throat of the machine, a nice white light shining vertically on my work.

But wait, there's more! 

For those times when I need to shed even more light on the situation I have this nifty little LED folding lamp, another great purchase from last month's Sydney Quilt Show.

In the pic below, the third view is how my workspace looks with all three light sources applied. I love how, with this neat little USB rechargeable LED lamp strategically positioned I have virtually no shadows cast on my work, which has got to be a plus. 

It's cordless and folds into a really flat little unit for taking to classes or stitch-and-sew sessions.

Ah, wouldn't it be wonderful if the small matter of lighting my work area was all that stood between quilting mediocrity and quilting excellence? Ha! 

Or if I could just harness the light from the afternoon sun that beams a little too brightly into my apartment at this time of the year.

Its rays shine right through the length of my apartment, hitting the back wall of my kitchen, and for a few weeks in late winter it's potentially quite damaging to my furniture coverings and carpet. Besides, nobody wants to wear sunglasses to use the kitchen.

Possible solution #1

Draw the vertical blinds and angle them so I can still see the view.

This helps a little, but all those vertical shadows make me feel like I'm in gaol.

Possible solution #2

Completely close the vertical blinds.

No sun, but now my kitchen is plunged into a Stygian gloom and I have to turn the lights on at 3 in the afternoon.

Fortunately I've finally found a solution that works. 

When I moved here I bought a nifty half umbrella, perfect for my balcony. It's just like a proper market umbrella, but with one flat side so that it takes up less room.

Recently I picked up  2 meters of shade cloth from Bunnings in the same sand colour as the umbrella, and hemmed the long sides.

Then I sewed Velcro tape to the flat side of the umbrella and to the shade cloth. Now I can have my doors open for fresh air, but my furniture is shielded from the worst of the damaging rays during those couple of hours each afternoon when the sun is low, and the shade shield is removable.

Two light solutions that are working for me!

Fashionably late - and a new Quilt Show fashion?

I'd just about abandoned the idea of writing a wrap-up post on the Sydney Quilt and Craft Show when this arrived in my Inbox. 

Well (I thought to myself) if it's not too late for a sophisticated soul like Molli Sparkle to do a post on  how he made and used his cute mini quilt / sash at the show, then who am I, a card-carrying member of the glitterati, to beat myself up over being just a tad late to the party?

I've been itching to cut into my FQ bundle of Emma Jean Jansen's Terra Australis, but I'm waiting till Terra Australis 2 is released shortly and I can add some of her extra colours to my fabric palette. 

For now, however, I gave that itch a little scratch by snipping off some teensy weensy pieces of said Terra Australis to foundation paper piece a name tag with my Instagram handle so any of the Sydney quilters I 'play' with on Instagram but haven't met in real life might identify me and say 'hi'.

The 'wing span' of each of those flying geese is approximately 1/4 inch, so I can safely say I still have oodles of my special fabric left.

My name tag worked! Apart from catching up with old friends like Jen, Sel, Michelle, Lissa Jane, Heather, Lisa, a couple of Sues (and more), the lovely Louisa and Lorena recognized me too, as did the delightful Molli, seen here helping our group of three Di's and a Sue take a #selfiewithsparkle

Sue Miller, of Fabric Garden, the 'fabric enabler' from whom I bought my Terra Australis bundle, had plenty to tempt us, and Di B, Sue M and I happily scrambled to sign up for her 6 month Mini Quilt Club using patterns by Julie Herman (Jaybird quilts). We also came home with Jaybird Quilts' Hex 'n' More rulers in both the full size and the mini. Sue's stall was an absolute delight!

A few new fat quarters from here and there might ... (ahem) ... have come home with me too.

Helen Godden had me dreaming of owning a Sweet Sixteen quilter after her fabulous demonstration, but unless I win the lottery that won't be happening any time soon.

And with next year's St Luke's fundraising stall already on my mind I bought patterns from Cameron - James Designs to make the adorable Digby the Dog and Stripes the Cat. It was so hard to choose from this wall of cuties!

I didn't receive permission from Paddington Patchworker Isabella Klompe to share her quilt until after I had done my previous post on Quilt Show favourites, so here it is now, a pretty fantasy in black and white.

And did I mention fashion? Here's the selvedge skirt I made to wear on the first day.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery then my friend Linda, who inspired me, can take a big, deep bow. 

Her Name Dropper skirt, which she made to wear to the AQS Quilt Show at Paducah earlier this year, was A line, but I felt a straight, pencil skirt might look better on me.

Before I started I sorted my obscenely large collection of selvedges into colour piles. I'd decided on a rainbow colour scheme, with the full spectrum running across both the front and the back.

 

In a similar fàshion to Linda I sewed selvages together, end to end, to get strips of each colour long enough to reach from waistline to hem. When I use selvedges I like to leave at least half an inch of coloured fabric attached.

From my commercial straight skirt pattern I cut 3 base pieces from some neutral yardage that had been in my cupboard for ages. Since it was going to be covered up the pattern wasn't important as long as it was pale enough not to show through.

I started from the side edges, working in, covering the base fabric with selvages. To help keep my strips relatively straight up and down I pressed a seam down the centre of the front piece, and used my tape measure to measure and pin one selvedge at a time all the way down before machining.

For the two back skirt pieces I used the centre back edge as a guide to keep my selvedges straight, until the base pieces were completely covered with selvedges.

I sewed as close as possible to the neat edge of the selvedge, being careful to cover and catch the raw edge of the previously sewn selvedge underneath.

Once all three skirt pieces were covered I turned them to the reverse side and trimmed off the excess selvedges to make them the exact size and shape of the pattern pieces. Then I sewed darts, inserted the back zip and finished the skirt following the pattern instructions, with just one variation - I left the waist of the skirt without a band attached, and simply trimmed off the hem edge to a suitable length. Then I bound both the waistline and the bottom edge of the skirt using a nice black Japanese fabric whose origin escapes me right now.

In keeping with the selvedge theme, when Di B and I went back the next day I wore the selvedge Stable Bag that I made last year. Selvedge overload? Quite possibly!

Let me leave you with one final colourful pic from the quilt show, the brilliant sunset we enjoyed as we waited at Glebe Island, footsore and happily weary, for the ferry to take us home.

Sydney Quilt Show 2014

Forget sugar plums, when I close my eyes since last week's Sydney Quilt Show I have visions of quilts dancing in my head. Bright, exuberant, happy, ingeniously conceived quilts, cleverly pieced, intricately quilted and beautifully displayed in our new exhibition venue. 

It's just a (hugely) glorified tent, made comfortable with carpeted floors, air conditioning and all other services connected, but from the time the first exhibitors arrived to set up the word on everyone's lips was 'light'. The fabric of the roof - you can see it in the first photo - diffused the sunlight, and simply lit up the quilts with the most amazingly soft, flattering light. We all like a bit of that, don't we?

Come on, let me show you.

{Lucky for us, I have the permission of all these quilters to post my photos of their quilts - Rachaeldaisy, Jen Davis aka Penny Poppleton, Michelle Law, Chris Jurd, Selina Cheng, Sue Rowles, Sue Robbins - and even Janet Treen!}

Rachaeldaisy has been teasing us on her blog,in the most delightful way, for the last few weeks, revealing tantalizing glimpses of whimsical clamshells, but saving the big reveal of her entire quilt until the show. Here it is, in all its colourful, cheeky, prize winning glory, a fitting winner of Third Prize in the category Mixed Techniques, Anything Goes!

Happy as a Clam

By Rachaeldaisy of Blue Mountain Daisy

Next is this year's collaborative quilt by the Sydney Modern Quilt Guild. This beauty has taught me never to underestimate the 'wow' potential of a humble, traditional block in the right hands. These SMQG girls are experts at 'wow', and have worked their modern magic on the pickle dish block.

Rainbow Rays

By the Sydney Modern Quilt Guild

{Photo posted with permission from Jen Davis aka Penny Poppleton}

Michelle Law was another quilter who shared little glimpses of her creative journey on her blog. She had no expectations of winning with this seemingly simple concept, but her fabrics, placement and wonderfully textured quilting made it a clear winner of First Prize in the category of Modern - New Traditions from Old Favourites.

Across the Universe

By Michelle Law of Buttontree Lane

You can always count on Blue Mountains quilter and quilt teacher, Chris Jurd, to come up with something spectacular. Chris is the 'queen' of New York Beauty, Mariners Compass, Curved Geese and the like.

Come up closer so you can get a good look at her piecing in these New York Beauty blocks. Those points!

Fiesta

By Chris Jurd of Patchwork Fundamentals

Selina Cheng is a talented young modern quilter, one of the SMQG creators of Rainbow Rays. I always love the way she uses colour!

Mondrian Dreaming

By Selina Cheng of Mad Quilter's Disease

Fellow Paddington Patchworker, Sue Rowles, entered two quilts in this year's show. Zig Zag, which she made from jelly rolls, demonstrates that monochrome doesn't have to mean monotonous. Her Zig Zag has zing!

The white space gave Sue the perfect canvas for showing off her skill as a long arm quilter.

Zig Zag

By Sue Rowles of Sue's Top Finish

She also works in glorious colour, and the colours in this quilt are her favourite palette. I like how the lines of chevrons at the top and bottom add flair to the design.

Stars for Ruby

By Sue Rowles of Sue's Top Finish (02 9519 5907)

I was excited to take this photo of my friend Sue Robbins, another Paddington Patchworker, with her quilt Bungendore. I love to see a quiltmaker standing proudly with her quilt, and Sue has every reason to smile. Her beautiful quilt, which she describes in her notes as 'a riot of colour', won Third Place in the category Commercially Machine Quilted Quilt (Small), and was quilted by none other than Sue Rowles!

Bungendore

By Sue Robbins

Also on display were all the state winners from the 2013 Quilt Shows, the work of the creme de la creme of Australia's quiltmakers. 

Janet Treen took out Best of Show with her entirely hand appliquéed and quilted quilt, Rings and Roses, at the Sydney Quilt Show last year, and it went on to be chosen as Best of Australia earlier this year.

Rings and Roses

By Janet Treen of Quiltsalott

Amazingly, Janet again won Best of Show in this year's Sydney Quilt Show, this time with with her quilt Coxcombs and Currants. 

In a milieu increasingly populated by modern quilts, Janet's consummate skill with a needle and thread has ensured that her exquisite, more traditional quilts have risen to the top two years in a row.

In addition to Best of Show Coxcombs and Currants won first prize in the Traditional Professional category, the Retaining the Tradition prize, and the Best Hand Quilting Award. Wow!

In case you think I'm indulging in hyperbole, here's a close up photo of Janet's work. Can you believe this is all hand stitched?

In a nod to the Amish tradition of including a deliberate mistake in their work (reasoning that only God can create something perfect) Janet has tweaked her design in a tiny way. Can you spot her deliberate mistake?

Coxcombs and Currants

By Janet Treen of Quiltsalott

You can see why I'm in inspiration overload, and itching to try some new quiltmaking techniques and designs. Who knows, I might even do something courageous and enter a quilt next year.

I think I just need a few more hours in my day.