Placemats

I haven't completed as many things as I would have liked this week.
The last of the handmade gifts for the forthcoming family visit is now completed.
I made 5 coffee themed placemats to go with a book on coffee making.
In the future I may consider a few more as I have some leftover panels and matching fabrics.

Quilt Show and book review

Its a lovely sunny day and I have just been to the Monbulk Community Quilt show nearby. Monbulk is a small and attractive town located 47 Km east of Melbourne in the Dandenong Ranges national park area. It is situated in rolling timbered country, noted for its vegetable, fruit and tulip-growing production.

The quilts were on display in a church building, so the space was a bit limited which prevented me from taking better pictures. But here are some quilts that I want to share with you..



I purchased a lovely book by Gail Pan.  This is her first published book and has a number of projects based around the theme of baskets and include a lovely selection of stitcheries.

Apart from quilts there is a Needlecase and a bag that I would like to make in the near future.

Baby Quilt and memories of Hawaii

Just finished a quilt for my dear friend Angela's grandchid.  Its due this week so as soon as its born I'll add the label and post it off to Canada.
Both parents are artists so I hope they like my creation.

The photo doesn't show the designs too well but when she told me that the theme was baby african animals I knew exactly which novelty fabric from my stash I was going to use.
I had enough fabric to put in the back.

In between projects I made this block just for fun...




I have mentioned before that  Jan-Maree and I, have been swapping blocks since the beginning of the year, so these are the ones she sent me for March. They had to be green to match Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

I want to show you a tile I purchased last September in Hawaii. It was an original by  Bobbi Caputo who grew up in the Big Island picking coffee with her family in the Kona coffeelands.  A lot of her work depicts her childhood memories and when she signed this work at the back, she told me that this image was her mother making a quilt.
That was another highlight of my cruise of the Hawaiin islands....loved it, I would go back for a visit any time...

Tassellating Stars Quilt

Just completed the third of my gift quilts I'm taking with me as a gift when I travel to South Africa in early April for a family reunion.
This one is for my uncle who turns 80 years old.

Here's a closeup to show the quilting,  stars and swirls.

I have used this technique before years ago on a small quilt  and added some beads on the centre of each pinwheel.

The same technique can be found on Moda Bake Shop - Pinwhweel Twist
I  started with 100 , 6" squares of different solid fabrics.

Once the squares are joint together randomly, the top is marked with a template, recut and joint together to form the pinwheel.



Basicallly we only sew straight seams and the result looks more complicated than it really is.

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Did a little fabric shopping yesterday that I want to share with you...

I bought a large enough piece to use as backing for a lap size quilt, but any suggestions on using on the quilt top itself are welcome !

Then I found this geometric pattern... I think this is my favourite fabric of all times at the moment. Don't know if I have the courage to cut it up !

And a few more small pieces for the stash....

Just playing...

I didn't spend too much time sewing today, but managed to get into my studio a few times to play.
Finished the second of the three quilts that I am presenting as gifts but I won't show the full picture in case the recipient sees the blog...
So I took a photo of the backing...

Felt like playing with my scraps, so went through the bags and cut up squares, triangles and a few rectangles, so one day I can just start sewing as recommended by Bonnie Hunter.
There isn't sufficient pieces at the moment as it takes quite a long time to cut them up.

In the process of sorting throught the scraps, I was inspired to make 10 miniature log cabin blocks which is one of the goals I decided early in the year. These take up so little fabric and are such fun to make.  They are 5" and I have done 75 so far. Not sure how many more I'll make but will keep on using my very small scraps until it looks that I have put a dent in it... who knows when that will be, as they seem to be growing !

Dot Challenge

I've been very inspired by the blog 15 Minutes Play..
When the idea of using dots, stripes and plaids came up I tried these 2 blocks using the brightest dot fabrics from my stash...

Now I would like to try the stripes and/or  combination of both...

Green it is ! .... and James Ingram.

Green is the colour for March, 2011 Rainbow Scrap Challenge.
These are my blocks.. By the end of the year I should have enough for one or two quilts...

And now for some music....

I am a huge fan of James Ingram so it was difficult to pick a favourite song... My choice is "One Hundred Ways". Apologies for the poor sound quality but his voice is devine.