Fourteen Down

Yesterday I sewed my little heart out and completed another 10 log cabin blocks. I had done 4 the day before, so now I have 14 and only 50 to go.

Oops, how did that get in here??? LOL

OK, so here is the photo I meant to select ... my log cabin coming together. It's a bit less exciting than the top picture.

And I'd also like to share with you a quilt I finished for a customer. This is Jenny Herring's Quilt that she has been working on for many years, and finally completed (one of those long term WIPS we all seem to have). I quilted in each block to give an overall double wedding ring effect and we were both very happy with the result.

I love how the pattern makes a secondary pattern of a diagonal chain.

Now I'm off to put another customer's quilt onto the frame, and hopefully get some more log cabin blocks done.
Jennidee

A Prize

Wow, I still can't believe it.
I just got back from Wentworthfalls TAFE where I attended the awards ceremony for the Blue Fringe Arts Festival. I have entered once before many years ago. But the festival has become more well known and prestigious since then.
I arrived a bit late (I'd gone to the wrong venue) and missed 15 minutes of the first speech which was being given by John Fenely, the Commissioner for Mental Health NSW. He gave a great speech about how mental health issues need to be addressed at a community level before hospitalisation becomes an option. One of the things he said which really struck me was "As humans we are exceptional because we are so complex". (I spoke to him about it afterwards and he spoke passionately about the diversity of humans being something which makes us great).
Then the awards were presented and I heard the Highly Commended Prize for textiles and craft go to Monique Donaldson. Her entry was an amazing Regency gown. I heard someone behind me say "she only got Highly commended?".

And then they announced the winner for the textiles/craft section and they said my name.

I got up nervously and I was shaking. They took my picture and presented me with a certificate and a sealed envelope (which I later discovered had a cheque in it). It felt quite surreal.

Here I am with my entry which I called Plumage. The judge was Pam De Groot, an international textiles and felt artist. I am shocked and delighted.

This is probably a better photo of the entry.

I think Monique's entry was just as worthy of first prize, but I am very grateful for the prize and the cheque, which will go towards buying my daughter a piano (and aiding in her recovery from depression as well).

Sorry I haven't updated in so long. I really must write more often.

Jennidee

Oh So Cute

I've just finished quilting a baby quilt for a lovely lady called Caroline Wilkinson.
The blocks were hand appliqued and embroidered by members of the family for the baby.
I completed it with free motion quilting around the qpplique/embroidery blocks and pretty rose or swirl borders in the dragonfly fabrics.

The quilt will be a wall hanging so the buttons were OK to add.
Carolyn loved what I did (I bound the quilt and also added the rod hanging so I was able to hand over a completed quilt which is a nice change).
She said my quilting took her patchwork to a whole new level and I could quote that for my blog. How nice!

Jennidee

Jenni Herring Rose and Feathers

Yesterday I finished quilting this rather large quilt by Jenni Herring.
She chose the art nouveau roses as an edge to edge for the center and feathers for the border.

I popped it on my bed to take some photos ans also so that you could see the size. You can't really see it in the photo but it hangs well over the end of the bed even when over the top of the pillows.

 I hope the lucky recipient is very pleased ... and I can't see why she wouldn't be. It's a wonderful quilt.

And now on to the next one which is another why from Jenni. This one has motor bikes features on the material and will be quilted with flames.

See you again soon
Jennidee

Daphne's 70th Quilt

It was nearly two months ago now, but I realised I hadn't put up Daphne's 70th quilt on my blog to show off.
My mum and I made this one together. Daphne is my mother in law and my mum is also good friends with her. I'm lucky to have two lovely ladies like these in my life. and even luckier that my mum is as crafty as me (well actually I'm as crafty as her ... I grew up with her knitting, sewing, embroidery all around me, so it's no wonder it finally rubbed off).
My mum's speciality is machine embroidery so we planned this quilt to have my applique skills and her embroidery skills combined.
I think you will agree the result was gorgeous and Daphne loved it too.

Looking at the dress she is wearing that day ... I think we chose the fabric well. :)

On Norm and Daphne's bed

 The applique centre

One of the rose appliques on the first border and also showing the cross hatch, nouveau rose and stipple quilting

Showing off mum's machine embroidery and the pebble quilting I did around it.

Sorry for the photo heavy post ... but I felt like it needed to be done.

I'm currently quilting the nouveau roses on a customer's quilt with feathers in the borders. I'll take a picture when it's done.

Jennidee

Kimonos

I've just finished quilting a Kimono quilt for a Textile Teacher called Cathy.
She brought the top to me with a story of how it was supposed to be the backing of another quilt for her aunt. So it was basically one large panel with printed kimonos and black borders had been added. But when she took it to the quilters the backing wasn't big enough so she bought another piece. Then she decided she would put the kimonos with more wadding and backing to make a whole new quilt, but ran out of enthusiasm for the project and decided to bring it to me.
So it became the first quilt for my new machine and frame (a Handi Quilter system).

I quilted a kind of curly paisley design around the kimonos as a stipple to make them pop out. And around the black borders I did large peacock feathers.
She was very happy with the result.

The new machine was a scary decision as they are very expensive. But my hand was forced really by the fact that my old machine wasn't performing. It would sew fine for about 12 minutes and then large loops started to form at the back (without me changing any settings). I tried once to have it fixed and it performed well for two quilts and then started playing up again. So it was upgrade ... or fold. I've decided to carry onwards and upwards.

Next week I'll be adding a Qbot to my set up and computerised patterns will be offered to customers.

So wish me luck.
Jennidee

Art Deco Hats

I'd like to introduce my newest quilt which I have called Art Deco Hats.

It is now on display at 'Down Patchwork Lane' in Penrith (NSW Australia) and I hope to start classes to make the quilt at the end of March.
As long as there is a minimum of three quilters interested in taking the class it will run on the last Thursday of the month from 1:30 to 4:30.

The pattern will also be available in my ETSY store at the end of the week.
The quilt will also be on display at the Springwood quilting show at the end of April.

I really hope we get enough interested people in taking the class!
Jennidee

Teaser

So here is a teaser of what I am working on for the Australasian quilt challenge. Remember the theme is '10'. Of course I can't show you the entire design as that might breach the conditions of entry. But I can tell you this will be one beautiful quilt if my drawings are anything to go by ... now I just hope I can pull it off!!!!

Sewing Day

I just got back from a sewing day at Folklore in Penrith for Aussie Hero Quilts.
It turned out it was an excellent decision to go.
I was talking to a very lovely lady sitting next to me (who turned out to be Terina) and we were chatting about her daughter Lucy (who was also there sewing). And Lucy had brought in her quilt Soldier On for everyone to view up close.

Imagine my surprise when I realised Lucy was Lucy Carroll whose blog I've been following and Soldier On is the amazing quilt which won best pictorial quilt at the Sydney Quilters Guild show (that I'd been drooling over at the show, and it was the reason I started following her blog). What a small world it is!

Lucy and her mum are both such nice people and her mum lives just a few streets over from we. I hope we can get together for some more quilting soon and Lucy and I can perhaps swap ideas and work on art quilts.

I'm thrilled to actually meet another art quilter. And to meet another quilter who lives so close. It was the reason I went - to meet more quilters, and boy did I hit the jackpot.

And on top of that, Jan-Maree and all the other lovely ladies who I sewed with today were so much fun to be with. I had a wonderful time and will be going back whenever I can (they meet once a month.

So ... a nice story for me today.

Jennidee

Donation Quilt Finished and posted

I began this quilt in January for Aussie Hero Quilts

http://aussieheroquilts.blogspot.com.au/

It's an organisation who send quilts to Australian service men and women who are on a tour of duty overseas. Lots of the pictures they send back are from very desolate places, and so the people who make these quilts aim to bring a bit of colour and comfort to the lives of the men and women while they deal with some pretty stressful conditions.

I was going for a green and gold look. Just about everyone who saw it said it look a bit feminine to be going to a soldier. But luckily it went to a lady captain in the Navy.

I hope she likes it. I was trying my hand at the braid block (or strip I suppose) and I do like how it turned out, but I'm not sure I'll do much of it in the future as it is a little time intensive and you have lots of off cuts (which I suppose you could use in a scrap quilt, but I don't make many of those either).

 

It's quilted with a spiral pattern that in places looks like wave, appropriate for the recipient.

 

I will be making some more of these donation quilts - in between paid projects like this one was. If you want to try making one, head over to the site and check it out. Thousands of quilts have already gone out, but requests for more come in all the time.

 

Jennidee

First Australian Patchwork and Quilting Publication

I'm so excited to be in the applique special of Australian Patchwork and Quilting. I always wanted to be in this mag, and now I've made it for the first time, and hopefully not the last.
The issue number is Vol 22 No. 6 and here is how they styled my 'Breeze' applique wall hanging;

I remember how excited I was to finish this applique as it was my first large design. I still think she is lovely though. She is the start of something wonderful I think.

On other news, I've been blog crawling these past few days looking for other Australians on line. It's nice to ' meet' other people who are a little closer than America, the UK or Canada who I might one day be able to meet up with in person and have some creative time together.

I'm thinking of creating an Aussie blog link type page ... what do you think? I'm not really sure I want the extra work though. :)

I hope you've had a happy Easter. I've finished off two gorgeous new stitchery quilt tops (which don't currently have a home in a magazine, so I'll offer them up as soon as they are quilted .... so sorry, you'll have to wait a while to see them. And I finished the Arabian Night Top ready to be quilted later in the week.

We had visitors twice over the four day weekend, so I think I've done pretty well to get as much done as I did. How was your weekend?
Jennidee

On The Design Table

Just thought I'd share a photo of the quilt I'm working on at the moment. I won't be able to post a photo of it finished until it is published.
It's called Arabian Nights and I'm loving the way it's turning out.

I also wanted to share a funny story with you.
My daughter was writing a story for school and in it I'm too busy watching 'The quilting channel' to help her with her problem.

My husband, who was in the room listening to the story as well asked what show would be on the quilting channel and we came up with;
Free Motion Challenge
Queers For Quilts (who go looking for special antique quilts)
Grand Designs (quilts that take a long time to make and are too expensive)
Quilt Make Over (old quilts that are taken apart and given a make over)
and
Quilt Road Show (looking for good bargains of quilts for sale).

The sad thing is, it's probably not that far from the truth. :) We don't get many quilting shows in Australia, but the odd ones that have been aired have been similar .

Until next time
Jennidee

On the Cover Again

I'm delighted to for my project to be featured on the cover of Patchwork and Stitching Vol 14 No. 2

And here is the wonderful styling they produced to photograph the quilt.

I love the way the projects are presented in magazines. You could use these as inspirations for decorating your home. It's not that obvious in the photo, but I quilted this one using an all over meander (or stipple) design. I haven't used that design in a while now ... interesting how we change!

 Once again, thankyou for following this blog. And with a few new followers on board, I'm curious to know how you found me. Would you please leave a comment below so I can find out?

Thanks,
Happy creating
 Jennidee

50 followers, thankyou

Hi everyone, and hello to my new follower. Thankyou so much for joining me.

Today I'm working on a braid panel quilt for the Aussie Hero quilt program. i'e just about finished the first panel.

 When I saw the braid quilt at Not So Fancy Nancy
 http://craftywench.typepad.com/knittingwench/2008/11/almost-a-finished-heather-bailey-quilt.html
I just knew I had to make one too. Mine isn't goign to be all braided though.

I didn't have a pattern or anything so I just made it up as I went along. As a result, my braid is probably much skinnier.

Mike says he thinks it's too flowery for a male soldier, so I hope there is a female soldier who has requested a quilt too. I was going for green and gold (the sahing will be a golden yellow) and these were the fabrics I had.

I'm not sure I'll have enough of these fabrics for two more panels, so I may have to rethink the green and gold theme, or go buy some more fabric. Who am I kidding? Of course I'm goign to go and buy more fabric. LOL

See you agian soon
jennidee

Chameleons

Hi Everyone.
I hope you saw the cross stitch gallery page I put up.
I'm currently working on a quilt which has confused chameleons on it. They got into my stash and didn't know what colour to change to ... so they went psychadelic.

There are 6 Chameleons in all different patterend fabric (you can just see the prurple and the pink one in this photo). And they are scampering around on a pieced background of 4 large blocks of different stars.
Today I'm quilting the layers together. It's coming up really nicely. I hope it will be published in April next year. It's kind of frustrating that it takes 6 months for things to make it out onto the news stands. But having put together an art book years ago (which took the best part of 10 months to set up) I understand all the organisation and work that goes on behind the scenes in the publishing world.

Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed this little preview. I made a vlog showing the stitching of the applique around the lizards. I need to compress it, but once my son has shown me how to do that, I'll post a link.
Jennidee

My Monster

So this is the monstrous frame I am goign to order for machine quilting. But it's actually adjustable to two sizes. See the leg in the middle? Most of the time, my frame will sit at that width to fit in my room. But if I need to do a king size, double or queen quilt, I can bring it out to the larger size in my family room (where hubby says it is NOT to stay).

I can't wait.

Dugga's Quilt

Last weekend my father in law turned 70. My mum (Sandra) and I got together to make him a quilt to mark the occaision. That's my mum on the left, then me, Dugga and Annalese (my daughter).

If you are wondering why he is called 'Dugga' ... when my son was a baby my father in law, Norman (Dugga) would go up to James ( my son) and go 'Dugga, dugga, dugga' like a plane coming in to attack and tickle him. Somehow James decided that this what what he was goign to say every time Norman came near. So he wasn't known as Grandad as we originally planned, but became known as Dugga.

The wording on the quilt refers to Dugga's origins. He is from Liverpool in England where the locals are known as Scousers. And the quilt is red and white squares to celebrate the colours of the Liverpool football team.

Each red square is actually a pinwheel block made of different red patterned material. Annalese sewed two of the pinwheel blocks and they are so good I lost track of which ones she had sewn. And the white material in between has little fleur de lis printed white on white.

On the back of the quilt I used polar fleece which is really soft and warm. It's only quilted in teh ditch of the square seams.

Dugga seemed to really like his quilt, though he said it could have done with pockets for his remotes!!!!

Now that Dugga's quilt is finished I had better hurry up and design some more cross stitches as my editor just informed me she used the last one I gave her in the next issue.