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.

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May God bless you all in 2013!

The Wedding Quilt

Ready for another #10 bus?

You’ve seen so many sneak peeks of this one, so here’s the reveal. Taaadaaa!!

Of the three queen-sized quilts I skited shared about finishing in July, this is the only one I also started the same month, a feat only possible because I stepped out of my comfort zone and made it entirely by machine.

I wanted this quilt to reflect the blending of two cultures, Korean and Australian. Most importantly, I also wanted to include in it something of Ben’s and Sunny’s daughter, our precious little Princess.

I chose oriental-themed fabrics from a collection I had been gathering for a few years, augmented with a handful of Australian fabrics from Leesa Chandler’s Under the Australian Sun 2 collection. Since most of the orientals, as well as the Australians, were embellished with gold stamping, they played together very happily indeed!

I love the way Leesa’s Australian native flowers – flannel flowers, tea tree, gum blossom, gum leaves, banksia and waratah – add plenty of colour to the quilt, along with the cherry blossom, chrysanthemums and ginkgo leaves from various other collections.

I used Julie Wallace’s Lanterns of Light triangle template to cut my equilateral triangles after first cutting 8 inch wide strips.  Because several pairs of eyes are always better when determining a layout, Di B, her mum Margaret and I spent a morning with all the pieces spread on the floor making sure there was a nice balance.

I know you can still see some clashes, but please don’t blame Di B and Margaret for this. I confused myself just a little when I was sewing the rows of triangles together .  Our church hall was the perfect place to sandwich and tack the quilt, and I machine quilted it on my Bernina 1230.

With the guide attached to the walking foot, I quilted 1 inch either side of all the seam lines, a simple process as I was just machining edge to edge across the quilt. Wrangling the quilt through the 6.5 inch harp (throat) was a little challenging at times, but not impossible.

My recently acquired perspex extension table helped enormously, as did applications of Neutrogena Norwegian Formula hand cream, which made my fingers so grippy I felt like Spiderman!!!

The Moda wide quiltback in rich scarlet was a lucky find at Patchwork Products, as was the black and white binding that I think nicely frames all those  ‘look at me!’ triangles.

 

Stats:

81 in x 75 in

Various ranges of oriental themed fabrics, teamed with Under the Australian Sun 2 by Leesa Chandler for Robert Kaufman.

Bamboo batting.

Pieced and quilted on a Bernina 1230.

Pieced with Aurifil 40 weight thread in white (2024)

Quilted with Aurifil 50 weight thread in red (lost its label!)

Di