Wednesday, February 28, 2007

William Morris - "The Strawberry Thief"



This is a little quilt I am almost finished. It was designed by Michelle Hill, Adelaide Australia. I decided to try a "pre-quilting" method with this quilt. I made the complete quilt, crasshatched it, and did the bindings - all before I applied the applique.
The pre-quilting technique was great, no problems applying the applique, but I decided I would have to do the blanket stitch around the shapes by hand and not machine as I had planned. Even though it was a small quilt, the constant turning around and around in the machine with the extra bulk of the batting made it impossible.
I have this rule about new techniques - try it for 5 minutes - if it is a pain to do - STOP and THINK - and do something else. Works fine and leaves me with fewer grey hairs!


Tuesday, February 27, 2007

I sometimes wonder why I bother making "stand firm" statements here -- I have such a struggle living up to them!

The study in Daniel is going incredibly well. I love Bible history, so a lot of the historical significance is not new to me. The spiritual implications and insights, however, are bowling me over!

I could so very easily be a Babylonian. (In the context of the study, I mean.) I really struggle with materialistic wants and images. How do I reconcile wanting my home to look nice and be pleasant, and not wanting things? Or, even worse, wanting (cough, cough -- coveting) what my neighbor has? STRUGGLE! The appearance part (self-appearance) could be more of an issue, but sometimes I'm so discouraged about my weigh (and total lack of control there), that it's easier NOT to worry about my appearance! Talk about convoluted.

We're well into the week 5 study. I love that God uses these studies to reveal areas I haven't given over to Him, and to draw me nearer and nearer to Him. How lucky am I that He loves me so?

Blessed. Indeed.

Selah!

:)

Saturday, February 24, 2007




Quilting can look great when it goes all over an embroidery. Cross-hatching, meander or other patterns give an even look which does not take away from the stitchery. Thread colours look best when they blend with the background. The quilt can have a custom quilted treatment, where borders are quilted differently, such as in this one made by Glenys, or an edge-to-edge pattern also looks great.

Monday, February 19, 2007

This is another Art Nouveau Design I am working on. It will become a "block of the month" design which can be easily quilted "as-you-go". The centre panel is being adapted from a Mucha design from a copyright free source. The outer panels will feature flowers: eg lilly, rose, nasturtium. It will be constructed with a heavily quilted raw-edge technique.
The technique I am using involves Corel Draw, using shapes to correspond to those of a scanned image. This is slow and tedious, but ensures a crisp outline for a final pattern, scaleable to any size. You can see how it progresses. the fill colours are only to give an idea of tonal value, and may not resemble the finished quilt at all.

Thursday, February 15, 2007




Pictured are details from a beautiful Twisted Bargallo quilt, made by my customer, Jan. The colours are wonderful and the edge to edge pattern "Waitomo" from Lorien Quilting looks superb on it. the quilting was done using a Statler Stitcher on a Gammill Optimum machine.

Thursday, February 8, 2007

heart2heart3


Here is the 3rd set of postcards I sent for the H2H project. Btw, sorry about the text on the previous posting. I love the crazy cats and thought they were perfect for Valentine's Day. The orange flowers and the heart are scrapbooking brads. I also used them on the heart card below. I've never tried them before but I think they are great and I'll probably use them on quilts in the future.

My friend A.M. who is a also a fiber artist (paper) generously made and donated 12 cards for H2H, thank you. I'll see if I can get scans and post those also.

If you want to donate cards, Karey is now gathering Mother's Day cards for wounded soldiers to send to their moms. What a great idea- making these cards is addictive.

Wednesday, February 7, 2007

heart2heart2



Here is the second set of postcards for wounded soldiers spearheaded by Ms. Karey B. from Houston. I found 2 heart blocks around the house; the 1st was almost done and the 2nd just needed to be trimmed to size--perfect for Valentines. The second pic shows the backs since sometimes people wonder what they look like. Yes, those are stickers-that's what happens when you hang around 23 month old girls-stickers everywhere.

Tuesday, February 6, 2007

What's on the longarm today?


This is a lovely applique quilt designed by Lynette Anderson
My customer, Jeanette has made this for a grandchild.

An edge-to-edge pattern was stitched on the computerised Statler Stitcher. The pattern blended well into the backgound, and as this quilt will be loved, used and washed frequently, this was a practical choice for quilting.


Watch this blog for regular updates of quilting from the Statler (computerised) and Gammill hand-guided machine.

The original quilt - "Where will I be" is still happening - the fabrics are on order and I have acquired some gorgeous silks as well. Hope to make more progress soon!

The quilt that I made at McGregor Summer School will go into the Sydney quilt show, if accespted.