Round the World Blog Hop

I have been nominated by Dawn from Sew Much to Quilt to participate in the Round the World Blog Hop. Dawn loves doing embroidery and also does some lovely quilts. The Round the World Blog Hop is a fun way to see some blogs that you might not know about. There a few questions that we have to answer so people can find out a bit more about us.

What Quilting/Sewing thing am I working on?
Most of the quilts I make are Crazy Quilts and Art Quilts.

I belong to the Waverley Art Quilters and every month we study a different Artist, theme or technique. Lately we have been playing around with Gelli plate printing, here are some of the fabrics I have made.

I have made many crazy quilts in the past and a few months ago I started sewing a new one with a Seasons theme. Here is a winter block that is not finished but you get the idea.

Winter by Linda Steele

How does my work differ from others of it's genre?

My crazy quilts always have a theme or topic and are set out in a more structured format, a bit more like a traditional quilt. For example my quilt Crazy about Ballet was set into a star pattern.

Crazy about Ballet© Linda Steele

Why do I create what I do?

I love the combination of sewing the fabrics together and then putting embroidery over the top of it. I also love having a theme and thinking of the different ways I can represent it. One idea usually leads to another and I get endless hours of enjoyment out of it. I never know when a new idea will come into my head. I could see something on TV or in a book or magazine or just wandering around the supermarket. Not that I actually wander around a supermarket, I am usually rushing around trying to get out of there as soon as possible.

How does my creating process work?

I get an idea for a quilt and usually think about it for quite a few months before any sewing gets done. In my head I have a very rough idea of what the quilt will look and I start making the blocks one at a time. After the blocks are complete I have to try and get them to fit into a quilt, this stage is often the hardest part and I often try all sorts of ideas before it all comes together. Here is a post I did about the designing of Christmas Crazy

Christmas Crazy ©2013 Linda Steele

When the top is finally complete I have to decide how I will quilt it because I love to do my own quilting. I machine quilt on a domestic machine and it takes many hours to complete. I find that I can usually only quilt for about one and half hours before I take a break and can only quilt for 6 hours a day. I keep a record of how long it takes to quilt and Christmas Crazy took 60 hours.

That's a little bit about me, the three bloggers that I have nominated are;

Pat Winter is an American crazy quilter; she is a well known teacher, author of Crazy Quilting magazines and calendars and sells her work on Etsy. If you love crazy quilting you will love Pat's blog and all the wonderful links and free tutorials she provides.

Jennifer Clouston is an Australian crazy quilter from Qld and she has written a beautiful book called Foolproof Crazy Quilting. Jennifer does a lot of teaching and her students often allow her to post photos of their work on her blog. It is very inspiring.

Marilyn Wall is an American Art Quilter and teacher, who does the most beautiful pictorial quilts of people, flowers and birds. I always enjoy her blog and she often has step by step photos that show how she achieves such a wonderful realism. You will love seeing her quilts on her website http://marilynwallfiberartist.com/

Bye for now,
Linda