Small Quilts and Cushions I made

I'm slowly working on a quilt but until its finished I won't post a picture...
However, I'll share with you a number of projects I have done over the years.
Mainly cushions and small quilts. Some have been given away but others I have around my home.

This cushion was inspired by the play "Three Sisters" by the russian playwright Anton Chekhov.

 


For this one, I was given the border fabric and that started the inspiration...

I saw this design in a store years ago and had to make it... used my own handprint...

 This one was done many years ago, when the 1930's type stype fabrics weren't as popular as they are now.  At the time I didn't like these fabrics but decided to still use them to widen my tastes... I have this little quilt on a wall in my bedroom.

 This is a mug rug that I wanted to try out 'blue' work..

 This mini-quilt is made using foundation papers. I have done several of them in different styles but this one I kept for myself...It was quick and easy and I like it very much.



 This is just one panel I kept from a couple of full size quilts with these Japanese dolls.
The doll's dress was made from a cotton dress fabric I had made for myself years and years ago. The quilts have been given as gifts and I never took any pictures of them but this little panel I still have.

This little quilt was also made many years ago and the fabric and pattern were in a kit.

At the time I was discovering Amish quilts and even made a little doll which is somewhere in the house ....



This is one of my favourite miniature quilts. It was made a couple of years ago and it was a gift.





Bonnie McCaffery visit to Melbourne - Australia

About half-hour ago I arrived home from attending a very inspiring lecture given by  Bonnie McCaffery from the USA. 
She spoke about her quilting journey and showed us some of her quilts that she is teaching at the moment in Australia.

 Her style has  changed over the past 20 years  from kaleidoscope quilts, freeform applique and NON applique quilts, DigiBobbE (digitized bobbin embroidery), and her latest interest....Portrait Quilts. She has written a book  "Portrait Quilts" and has a DVD called "Painted Face for Beginners - Workshop on DVD".

I'm so pleased to be able to book into her "Painted Face for Beginners' class this coming Sunday. I hope to blog about it.

Another class on offer is DoodleZenDotZ which truly adds pizzazz to our projects.
She showed us this quilt with that technique.

Bonnie produces free vidCasts which can be downloaded from iTunes. These vidcasts features  some of her techniques and also interviews with well-known quilters from the USA and international artists.  Just go to her website.

And lastly, I don't normally add personal pictures but I could not resist this one taken this evening.

Civil War Bride Quilt - block 6 & special goodies

Here's my 6th block of the Civil War Bride Quilt. This one was straight forward and I'm getting better with the feet of the birds.

I spent a few hours at the Organic Market in Bryanston and picked up these...
All locally made and for some stalls we can speak to the makers at work...

These were made by African Woman's Self Help Community groups ...

And finally, my mom gave me this doll which she had when she was little in Portugal.

She reckons its at least 70 years old but I don't know much about these types of dolls apart from the fact she is very fragile and hasn't got any of her original clothes ?

Have you seen these types of dolls before  and are they collector's items ?



I'm hoping to spend a few hours sewing and if all goes well I'll blog something interesting soon.

Gloria Vanderbilt Quilt

I haven't completed any projects that I can blog about since my return from South Africa to celebrate significant birthdays of family members.

My brother has a vast library of approximatelly 10,000 books of various topics.  Art books makes up a large part of his collection.  He showed me a book by Wendy Goodman about Gloria Vanderbilt.

Style icon Gloria Vanderbilt dabbled in interior design  for a period and this is her take on quilting.
She had the entire room decorated with quilts - walls, ceiling, furniture, even the floor had quilts glued down and coated with polyurethane.

Here she is wearing a coat to match her room also.

And now for some music.... Lisa McClowry - Come Dancing.

It'a a favourite song of one of my family members dedicated to me...

Books and blocks...

I didn't intend do another blogpost so soon but I got these in the mail today.
My friend Jan-Maree and I swap blocks each month and she sent me these purple blocks. Thank you Jan-Maree, they are gorgeous.

The other treat I got was from Amazon. I placed a book order 3 weeks or so and here they are.  I am taking my time to go over each book and inspire myself !

Block 5 of my Civil War Bride Quilt

Finally completed my 5th Block.

I've cut the pieces for the 6th one which I plan to complete in April.

Will not be posting anything for a while until I return from my African trip.