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.

More variations on a theme

Quilt 3

A mere nod in the direction of The English Quilt here.

Appliqueed gum leaves and blossoms have replaced the hexagons, and cross-stitched blocks of colourful waratahs, boronias, wattle and Christmas bells make this quilt as Aussie as can be. Gorgeous!

Quilt 4

Delicate English roses everywhere you look on this one. For most of us this was a stashbusting exercise – I just wish I had some of these delectable fabrics lying around in my stash!

Quilt 5

Instead I delved into my ridiculously large collection of blues to create this scrappy little number. How I came to have so many blues is a complete mystery since everyone knows I’m totally besotted with the colour pink!

How can I stitch thee, let me count the ways…

Five of us have just come to the end of another quilt journey (if you don’t count the quilting itself – and who does?!). 

We all started with the same pattern, Terri Brander’s “The English Quilt” (Australian Patchwork & Quilting Vol 14 No 5 ) but once we’d applied our individual styles to this traditional medallion quilt the result was five very different – and very beautiful - variations on the theme.

I thought you might like to see the results. (with permission from the quiltmakers)

Quilt 1

Here the quilter has deliberately left plenty of space around the central medallion so she can have some fun with her machine quilting. I love the way (not having enough to use it lengthwise) she’s crosswise cut that vintage Robyn Pandolph stripe.

Quilt 2 That soft green perfectly sets off the clamshells, hexagons and bows in the centre square

[More in my next post.]

Monday musings

Still taking things very quietly here, so nothing very exciting to blog about.

However I am…

Feeling blessed…to have generous, caring friends.

Listening …to Maeve Binchy’s “Nights of Rain and Stars” on my iPod, being read ever-so-soothingly by Maeve’s cousin Kate Binchy. Love that Irish accent.

Perusing…Audible for the next audiobook I’ll download. So many choices to spend my credits on. Hmmmm…

Wondering…who was important enough to be escorted by around eight police motorcycles and almost as many police cars past my home this morning, and on a return trip this afternoon.

Hand-stitching…scrappy hexagons and appliqueeing them to the final border of the English Quilt.

Looking forward to…my daily hugs and giggles with The Princess after day care, as we watch “Big Barn Farm” and “Charlie and Lola” together.

Hoping…the throbbing, aching pain I’ve been experiencing in my left eye for the last two days doesn’t herald the return of my shingles.

Di

I need a good talking to!

I don't know what's possessed me. While I should be devoting all my attention to completing The English Quilt, with its gorgeous roses and scrappy blues.....

...I find myself dividing my time between The English Quilt and Bonnie Hunter's Double Delight Mystery Quilt, an opportunity to use up some of my oldest and ugliest fabrics by chopping them up into tiny snippets and hiding them in a quilt of thousands of pieces!

Bonnie's been posting each step of the Mystery on her Quiltville website since New Year's Eve, but only the most determined quilters - and those not given to such frivolous diversions as eating and sleeping - could have kept up with her.

Here are some of my fabrics ready for sewing part 1. Not my favourites at all, but Bonnie's website holds out the delicious promise of creating a silk purse out of a sow's ear (so to speak)!

Am I being ever-so-sensible and budget-conscious in clearing out these useless over-stayers from my stash?

Or have I just been swept up in the enthusiasm of hundreds (thousands?) of quilters world-wide, all working on Double Delight at the same time?!?!

(Lynda, Marilyn, La Vella, Pennie, Jane, Prue, Gail, Stephanie, Julie, Jeannie and Pamela are doing it too! - to name just a handfull!)

Back to my sewing machine....

This is my new project

Just a sneak peek. I'm new to clamshells - and loving them! As you can see, it's another scrappy quilt, the more fabrics the merrier. Don't expect to see my fabric stash diminish appreciably, though :-)