Gifts, blocks and Chris Botti

For those who follow my blog, its no surprise for you that I love music just as much as I love quilting. So today, for the second time I had the opportunity to see Chris Botti (American Jazz trumpeter) live in my hometown of Melbourne.  The show was amazing and in the end I had a chance to have a foto taken with him which made my day.

Now back to quilting ...
I have been re-arranging some of my linen cupboards and found some old quilts I made quite a while ago. This one I made 10 years ago and its machine pieced and quilted.   I always love red and green quilts.

Here is a closeup of one of the blocks.

I'll take more pictures of other old quilts I made and will post on future blog posts.

This week I purchased a few fatquarters of some modern looking fabrics, which I have been using...

in the block of the month  hosted by Craftsy. I made 3 blocks this week.

I am having fun playing with grey and yellow, which are combinations I have never tried before.

Yellow is such a fabulous colour to add to other colours...



My friend Teresa sent me these blocks as part of the Farmer's Wife block swap we do. The fotos don't do its justice.

She made me this adorable book cover, which I absolutely love... I already had the right size notebook and it fits perfectly.



And lastly, I want to dedicate to all of you who read my blog and send me lovely messages regularly, this mauve rose, the foto which I took this morning in my garden.... its has a wonderful fragance.

Autumn Quilt

Autumn is here..... my favourite season of the year. I love it because some days we have blue skies and sunshine and other days it's cloudy wet or windy. Inspiration for me comes from variety in all aspects of life.

Today is cloudy and warm and we had rain overnight. I just took this picture of my latest completed project.  It's another gift quilt.

Years ago I did a class based on Ricky Tims's technique of Convergence Quilts.

That's the quilt block in the centre of the quilt.  Like so many quilters, I often try out blocks or have extra blocks for projects or simply don't like the particular fabrics chosen, so I have accummulated these over the years.

So this quilt is purely made from leftovers blocks. The only planning that I had to do, was making the sides of the 4 patch blocks to ensure they would fit.

I made these blocks a couple of weeks ago for my friend  Teresa as part of our swap of Farmer's Wife Blocks.  Now that the blocks have reached her, I can share the pictures.

And given that I started on the Autumn theme, I'll end the same way, with a classic song that I adore....

Finished Quilt & Jonathan Butler

I completed this quilt today. It's going to be a gift for a relative in Scotland.
I had made the top last year from a charm pack and the technique is 'disappearing nine patch".

For the quilting I used a decorative stitch along the stitching line instead of stitch in the ditch. It was quick and doesn't require too much fuss.

With the very hot weather we are having these past two days (38 degrees Celsius) the garden is not too happy, but early this morning I took photos of these two lovely rose plants which are still giving so much colour...






This past Friday I went to see a live show with Jonathan Butler, for the first time in Australia.
Jonathan is originally from Cape Town, South Africa and has been singing and playing the guitar since he was a child. He has an impressive number of albuns released and has performed all over the world and continues to do so with such a varied reportoir.
I chose this song which is more of a smooth jazz / R&B style.

Baby Quilt

I have done a bit of sewing on a couple of swaps but until they reach the recipients I can't show you. But finally finished something I can share on the blog.
Part of the backing fabric.

I cut up the 5 1/2" squares with the AccuQuilt and in no time I put the quilt together.

The fabrics I used were from a collection called "From Little things" by Sarah Fielke.

I want to share with you my pin collection. I have hundreds of pins that I purchased locally or from my travels.

I pin them to a bag and hang the bag in my studio but I photographed it outside to get better exposure.

I flatted the bag to show you some of the pins...

These are my favourites, from my trip to Hawaii, New York including the Blue Note Club, my cruise on the cruise liner "Pride of America", a couple of visits to Disneyland, International Quilt Festival in Houston, Catalina Island, etc. All fond memories of places, people and activities we did...

This week many tributes have been made for Whitney Houston.
I always loved her music so I'll leave you with a favourite of mine.

Finally completed a project !

I've been busy with work and since returning from holidays my sewing routine has not settled.

I made this table topper from some pieces of a charm pack I had purchased years ago called Woodland Bloom by Lila Tueller. The colours are fresh and have a modern feeling which I'm enjoying more and more working with this style.

I didn't use a pattern because the flowers, leaves and stems were all cut from the dies from the AccQuilt. Everything was machine applique and pieced including the binding. I want to design a few more projects using many of the dies I've been acquiring as they are so easy and so fun to do.

 My friend Jan-Maree sent me these two pieces of chess board fabric... how cute is that ?
She knows that my daughter plays competition chess.  I'm thinking it will look nice for a tote but if you have some suggestions please let me know.

I decided to show you my thimble collection I've had for a little while.

Most of these thimbles remind me of the places I visited both in Australia and overseas and some thimbles have been gifts from friends who live in other places I am yet to visit.

My daughter is showing off my favourite thimbles which we bought together on our travels to Catalina Island, Washington DC, Hawaii,  International Quilt Market in Houston and of course New York. 

As part of my swap with Jan-Maree, she sent me these lovely stars...



And a stack of 1930's fabrics... too adorable....

Blocks done for Civil War Quilts

I have decided to only make 42 blocks out of the 52 published on Barbara Brackman Civil War Quilts blog. 



Close up...

I am still thinking how I am going to put it all together but I don't want them to end up as orphan blocks and would like at least the top completed soon.
I struggled a bit to keep some of the blocks the correct size, so I have to take that into consideration.  Overall I'm pleased with the results.

Monday's project

My Summer Vacation ends today, so I had a bit of fun with a site I came accross recently.
They are offering 2 free blocks of the month with a video tutorial. What got me interested is the fresh fabrics Amy Gibson is using. I have been collecting some modern looking fabrics which I thought would look great for these blocks.

The site is called Craftsy .

These are my blocks....

These are my recent fabric additions. They were heavily discounted as they are not recent collections.

Small quilt and show 'n Tell

Here's another quick quilt/table topper I completed yesterday using the the leftovers of a charm pack I recently used on another project.

I wanted to do something small in between the list of 2012 goals and larger projects as well as before cleaning up my studio.

It will probably be a gift for someone who showed interest in the similar quilt I made recently.

I want to share with you a quilt I made sometime ago.... The pattern was a free pattern from a fabric company (can't recall which one)  and it was fun and relatively easy to do.



Close-ups ...

Border showing the overall quilting.

The fabrics were from different collections.

And now for some music....  Chopin - Fantaisie Impromptu, Op. 66 (Rubinstein)

This piece is one of my favourites in the classic genre and its romantic and ivocative nature touches my soul  like nothing else can. I hope you take time to listen...

I Love NEW YORK !

No matter how many times I visit New York, I can never get enough of this vibrant city.
A couple of years ago I returned to New York and visited The City Quilter for the first time.

One of the things I purchased there was a kit for a wall hanging. In the past few days I've been putting it together.



It's machine appliqued and I used a straight stitch around each shape.

This section of the quilt is suppose to be the the Guggenheim in New York  .



Other well recognised landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty, the Chrystler building, the Empire State building and the Citicorp buiding are all in the quilt.

And this is what the quilt looks like.

I would have preferred to photograph it outside but the weather is not the best today.

I used for the backing the 'New York Taxi Cabs' fabric.

I'll be enjoying looking at it for a long time and dreaming about my next visit to New York !

That's my first concrete goal done for 2012..
Next I'm going to play again with my scraps doing a little project before tackling the next goal.

Table Topper

I had a play with my AccuQuilt GO as I purchased the smaller tumbler recently.
I cut out the blocks from some leftover fabric I had from a quilt I made my mum  last year.

Its very scrappy but I like the way it turned out.

I have a few days left before I go back to work and the weather forecast is just perfect for staying indoors and quilting...

But I can still look out of my studio window and enjoy my garden...



In my next posting I'm planning to show you a completed quilt that I'm currently working on that symbolizes a place that I absolutely love....

First completed project for 2012

I am hoping to make a few smaller quilts this year, so here's my first one...



The fabrics came from an half a charm pack I had purchased years ago. All dot fabrics.

The main reason I haven't been doing a lot more sewing in the past couple of weeks is because I've been gardening and taking advantage of lovely weather while I'm home on vacation.
Here are some photos of my backyard and outside my studio...

I enjoy having breakfast in this spot early in the morning and listening to the  birds singing ...

The bulk of the gardening work is now done, so I just have to keep up with the maintenance and enjoy the beauty and lovely scents.

And finally, some music...

I don't often get comments about the music references I add to the blog, but today I've chosen a very beautiful song called "Heaven in your Eyes".  It has a special meaning to me and I would like to share it with you.
The main artist is the contemporary jazz saxophonist Elan Trotman and it features the keyboardist Brian Simpson...

2012 Resolutions and Orca Bay progress

Happy New Year !

Today I managed to get into my studio later in the afternoon to do some stitching and formulate my quilting goals for 2012.

Given that Orca Bay has now been revealed I decided to do a couple of blocks to get an idea what the overall quilt would look like. 
I have to admit that I am not too happy with the Ohio Star blocks. They seem to get lost with the other blocks, lacking contrast.

Looking at the blocks before stitching them together, the blocks with the darker corners I am not too happy with and once I put them together I deslike it even more !

I tried various combinations to give these blocks some definition, including use of the same fabric to the corner squares but even that didn't work. The Hourglass blocks are the problem in some instances and I was not inclined to do more of them.

For the Ohio starts I should have used darker blue fabrics instead of the varieties of blues I used. I'm going to put aside for now what I have done until such time I come up with a different layout or use the blocks on another project.

I feel this has been a disappointing start to my quilting year....

On a more positive note, I have set out for myself for 2012, to complete 8 UFO's, at least to completed top stage. The rest of the goals will be to do a couple of new projects for gifts, try out new techniques and make smaller projects.

I hope you started 2012 inspired....