Quilt & Craft Expo

So I've been preparing 10 of my quilts recently.....

....to be on display at the Quilt and Craft Expo at Blackburn this weekend, eeek!  As well as my quilts there will be a pile of quilts from Michelle Yeo, and many others. 

I feel very privileged to have some of my quilts on show. 

If you would like to attend the Expo is being held at the One Community Church - 184 Surrey Road Blackburn (Victoria) from 9am - 3pm.

Entry is $7.50 ($5 conc) and there will be scones and slices, tea and coffee served all day.

The Expo will display quilts as well as other home made crafts. 

Hand made items will be for sale, fabrics, soaps, jewellry, cards, jams and more.

All monies raised will go to the Prison Network Ministries (PNM) for work amongst women in prison (Victoria).

It sounds like a fabulous day! xo

Liberty Love

Liberty fabrics are such happy, cheery fabrics.

 You don't need much of them (especially at the price!) but a few scraps of Liberty go a long way.

I'm finding I can chop up lots of small scraps and include them in my current Liberty project.

The size of these squares is 2" finished, so the finished blocks are 14 inches.

Here's a photo of four of them together. I am liking the effect so far.

Talking about lovely fabrics, my Amitie Textiles stash fabrics arrived recently.

Aren't they divine? I may have to buy yardage of some of these!!! xo

This week

This week I was blessed to capture a snapshot on my phone of a stunning sunset across the bay...what a picture. It's wonderful just to stop for a bit and marvel at God's magnificent creation!

Another beauty discovered in the gardens at Heronswood (Dromana). Those more knowledgable about plants than me on instagram told me it is a Peacock Iris, and I can see why! It looks as though someone has carefully marked it with beautiful blue inks.

I had a lovely delivery from the gorgeous Etsy shop Polka Dot Tea, thanks Girls! This Melange Chambray cotton yarn dye from Lecien will be paired up with Liberty fabrics sometime soon. It's absolutely delicious.

Also I was working last week at Treehouse Textiles new shop in Mornington...and loving it! I will be there this week (Mon, Tues, Wed and Thurs arvo) if you are in the area drop in and say hi! (2B Empire Street, Mornington).

How has your week been? xo

Unconventional & Unexpected...A Book Review

To say that Roderick Kiracofe's world has been touched by quilts would be an understatement. He has spent many fruitful years of his life searching for, collecting and cataloging quilts across America (predominantly from the last half of the twentieth century) and now he shares his incredible collection with us in his exceptional new book "Unconventional & Unexpected: American Quilts Below The Radar 1950-2000" released 9th Sept.

Roderick has long been involved with craft, painting, photography, art collecting and co-authoring quilt books. In the introduction to this book he shares how he fell in love with quilts and how his magnificent quilt collection came to be.

Woven throughout the book and striking photographs of the quilts, are fabulous essays from renowned quilters (some of whom you will recognize I'm sure!).

I have thoroughly enjoyed sitting down with a cuppa and losing myself in the essays that, along with the quilts tell stories about the people who made these quilts, their lives, the influences on them and the communities they lived in.

Roderick shares that his collection is based on "quilts (that) are not precious: they are "real" and were made to be used" (pg 13). Personally I love the quirkiness and colour, the design and sense of adventure a lot of these quilts possess and could easily see these quilts both being used on my bed, or hanging on my wall! (oh I wish!!!).

Some of the quilts are shown with their beautiful, patched backs.

I've been inspired by so many of the quilts in these pages, and one of them has already made my fingers so itchy to create I've started my own based on this fabulous quilt called Mosaic Rose (pg 176).

I am making my version of it out of Liberty of London fabrics, and I'm thrilled with the result so far. Two blocks done, I will probably do 30 in total. Perhaps I will call it Liberty Rose?!!

As I wrote to Roderick...the quilts, the colours, the essays, the eye-catching flyleaf cover, even the beautiful weight and finish of the paper used to create the book, and the collection of quilts he has spent years putting together, all combine to make this a very significant book in the quilting world. I am thrilled to have it in my collection!

Insta Snapshot

Are you on Instagram? Do you #like or #dislike it?!

I'm sure it's not everyone's cup of tea, but I must say I do enjoy it over there, the connections with others, the inspiration and encouragement, the photographic record of little snapshots of your work and life. A little like blogging I guess, only a lot faster! 

Sometimes I like to look back over my photo feed and see the work (quilting work of course) that I do get done. Doing a lot of handwork I often feel as though I don't achieve much. Looking back on instagram though, I can see that actually I have created a lot of stuff, some finished, some still in the works.

Sometimes it's just for fun!...

Our very tolerant Groodle Millie getting her Groucho Marx look on

Or to remember a show you loved....

David Tennant AND Matt Smith arggh!

And other times it's nice to capture a 'this caught my eye' shot!

Raindrops on Roses...ahem...Nasturtiums!

I do record a few little snacky things from time to time...

Raw Peanut butter on a date topped with a pecan, yum!

Simple Vegie Fried Rice

...but mostly it's a record of what I'm creating at the time.

I'm loving the Liberty fabrics. More of this to show soon!

Little 'butterfly' units ready to sew onto my Mandala quilt

If you are on instagram and I haven't found you yet, let me know, I do get very inspired by seeing what you do! xo

Burbling Along

Burble: (noun) a bubbling or gentle flow.

I think burble is a great word to show what state I'm in at the present. Things are getting done, but, as a few of them are hand work, they are just burbling slowly along!!

My Mandala has had another wee round added...I just adore this hot salmon/pink with grey dot fabric.

It's been so much fun to watch this quilt change and grow with each new round.

Photo mosaic made at BigHugeLabs Mosaic Maker

I have also been working on my Linen whole quilt piece that is going to hang on the wall in my lounge room. I'm using a darning foot and free motion quilting this using the 1/4 inch quilters tape as my guide.

My Kantha-like quilt is still happening after all the unpicking here, I have now restitched one border...three to go and I'm done!

I received another beautiful stash of Liberty charm squares from Amitie this week, delicious. They were making pretty patterns on my design wall, with a few of the charms from the previous stash added in. Sweet.

I have loved liberty for a long time, and have been showing a few favourites over on instagram like these two..

This little bundle of Liberty Love also made it's way to my door from Westwood Acres. Very nice.

So that's about it, work happening, but slowly. Sometimes life is like that too. It's kind of nice. xo

Another Round a Whole Quilt and a Class

My Mandala rounds are slowing down a little now as the quilt grows. It's measuring roughly 33 inches (84cms) across and I'm not sure how much further I will grow it, or even how I will finish it yet!

I think I will bring the centre greens and blues back into the design next. For more info on this quilt see this post.

The other project I'm working on now is to quilt my beautiful piece of hand printed Linen I purchased from Cloth Fabric in Sydney a few months ago.

I decided to quilt this fairly simply and quickly, so I will free motion quilt it on my domestic sewing machine (Janome 6500P). After pinning the quilt sandwich, I have laid out 1/4 inch quilters tape to mark out some unusual triangular shapes.

Next I will stitch inside each shape, beginning just inside the taped outline, then working my way in towards the centre of each shape. A little hard to describe, I hope to be able to show it soon. I don't know that this is the best way to do it, because the centres may get a little puffy, I will give it a go and let you know!

Last Saturday I taught free motion quilting to such a beautiful bunch of talented women at Treehouse Textiles. Now that Em and Sarah have opened a shop in Mornington, the Treehouse at Merricks will be used once a month or so for special VIP classes. It is always such a treat to work there, in such a gorgeous setting, with beautiful food and new friendships made.

Em will also run regular weekly classes at her new, fabulous shop and you can see upcoming classes and book in for these on their website, here. For upcoming VIP classes...Judy Newman's classes are always very popular, her next one is 26th Sept here, and don't miss out on a class with the talented Trish Harper on 18th Oct here. For more info about their new shop, see this post. See you in the shop!!! xo