Quilting

Well!  Surprise, surprise.  It would appear my blogging history is abysmal as I have not put mouse to pad on here since 2011.  My only defence is that I have been ill for the past few years and having been free of pain for since March 2014 I am now beginning to see a difference in my attitude to life and regaining the ability to take  hold of my life and attempt projects again.

Enough of the past and the only reference I will  make to the past now are solely relating to UFO's in my quilting, embroidery and sewing world.  I have a UFO list as long as my two arms put together  but that is no biggie for me.  I love the journey and learning new techniques, which peeks some people because they chide me about not completing quilts.  All I can say to that  is  I have a designers mind and can put something interesting aside for future use in full view on a shelf and eventually that piece of research will be used to my advantage.  I try to keep a good catalogue and filing system of items I have been working on so I can easily pick the project up again and have all the information I need at my fingertips.

UFO's I would like to work on in 2015 include:

Fairyland Quilt - Hand quilted and embroidered with applique
Aquamarine Ambience - Machine embroidered on Dupion silk

Lone Star Quilts & Beyond 
Quick Split Broken Star 

Fairyland Quilt:  Which I commenced when my little Grand-Daughter Eloise was only a year old because I know how long I take to make quilts and is destined to be given to her on or about her third birthday which is in September but it could be delayed until her fourth birthday but we will see how I get on.  Life has a habit of getting in the way sometimes.  This quilt was started in March 2014 whilst convalescing from an operation and certainly helped me focus away from pain and it was a delight to make the embroidered and appliqued blocks.  I chose to make all of this quilt top by hand, having learnt the basics of hand-quilting from a book by the famous Ginny Beyer 'Quiltmaking by Hand: Simple Stitches, Exquisite Quilts'

The 'Fairyland' quilt book can be purchased directly from the  http://www.thebirdhouse.com.au/books/Fairyland/fairyland.htm
or just simply click on the photograph.

Aquamarine Ambience - Machine embroidered on Dupion silk

I first discovered Jenny Haskins and Simon Haskins,  (here is another website showing their beautiful) designs when I visited Australia for a month to spend time with my daughter and her fiancee, whilst they were on a working holiday in that wonderful country.  My life changed totally in many ways once I visited a newsagents in a town we visited whilst touring along the wonderful scenic Great Ocean Road.  I purchased a copy of  Jenny Haskins then magazine called Creative Expressions. (She has since retired as Editor of that publication and back copies may have been sold out but you may find one if you google it.)  Jenny Haskins' website has many more wonderful designs to choose from.  In fact the have revisted the Aquamarine Ambience and are using the embroidery collection to make another quilt design and when I find the link to that I will add it here.  

The other reason my life was changed after reading Jenny's publication was I only had a normal  mechanical sewing machine at the time and I knew that if I was going to be able to achieve my aim of making one of her quilts I would have to purchase a computerised sewing machine.  This I did within approximately five months using money from an inheritance.  I was so fortunate and I still have to pinch myself to believe I actually have this machine.  At the time I purchased the Bernina Aurora 440Q/E but soon progressed to the Bernina 730Q/E machine it was top of the line and to be honest I still have it and love it to this day and it is definitely a keeper.

I decided to use the original colours for this quilt and only have four blocks to complete and I will have finished the top and it will be ready to be  sandwiched and quilted.

Simon Haskins has recently done another interpretation of a quilt using the Aquamarine embroidery CD and it is called Modern Ambience in a combination of yellows and dark and light blues.  It is fantastic but the pattern and instructions are not on sale yet.  I can't wait to find our more about.  Some information can be obtained from Jenny Haskin Designs on facebook.

Lone Star Quilts & Beyond by Jan Krentz  (Teacher of the Year 1998) and here is Jan's blog.  If you want to subscribe it is possible to view Jan's safety tips and other teaching videos on The Quilt Show

I don't have very much more to do on my version of the Lone Star Quilt above.  I have sewn the middle section and made the arrows blocks with the machine stitching on them.  I have to join them and get to grips with the 'Y' seams again, like I did with the following quilt top called the Quick Split Broken Star, although nothing I can't handle.  But there are other quilt to finish before I let leash on this one again.

Quick Split Broken Star. Jan's blog so you can see a selection of quilts using a similar pattern and also in different colourways

If you click on the above picture it will take you to Jan's blog and just scroll down and you will find a number of interesting quilts that use a similar pattern or with a different colourway.  I have very nearly finished this quilt as well.  I am sorry I didn't use a coloured white background colour, mine is quite plain but I was so happy to find a beautiful rainbow boarder that goes so well with the centre colourwheel.  I haven't attached it yet because it took me about two years to find exactly the fabric I needed to finish this but I am convinced it will look really interesting when I finish it.  I had to master the dreaded 'Y' seams in this quilt as well.  I don't understand why I dreaded doing them as this sort of seam is quite common when garment making.  Maybe I was just being too fussy, but can you really be too fussy when precision piecing?