Firelight

The latest quilt that I have completed is an art quilt named Firelight. It is mostly made of wool that I have needle felted on the embellisher machine. I have also added some thread painted trees, hand embroidery and finally I machine quilted it.

Firelight ©2015 Linda Steele

I had three weeks off from minding my grand-daughter in the last school holidays and I mostly made it then. I might have started it a bit before that.

I am not sure when I had the idea to make it but I did enjoy making the small version in my Seasons Crazy Quilt (that quilt is still not finished!). I blogged about that block last month on the 13th October, in my post called Fire Block.

Here is a photo of the little block as a reminder.

Fire Block

This little fire centre is only about 4" square so my latest quilt is much bigger. My Firelight quilt measures 38" wide x 25" high.

Here is a close up photo of the quilt.

Firelight detail

Here is a close up photo of the ground area.

Ground detail

I had so much fun making this quilt that it makes me want to make more art quilts.

I entered this quilt in the AQIPP (Australian Quilts in Public Places) exhibition; the theme was Fire and Light.  I was thrilled to be accepted because it is quite a prestigious exhibition.

I went to the official opening and was amazed at the beautiful display of quilts with so many different ideas and techniques. The quilts are professionally displayed in an art gallery style. My quilt looked much smaller than it did at home and I wish that I had made it twice the size. Although I didn't win a prize I was still proud to be among such a high standard of art quilts.

The exhibition is on at the Box Hill Town Hall Art Space, Maroondah Hwy, Box Hill, Victoria, Australia. Entry is free and it is on display until Dec 22nd. Click on the link above for the opening times.

You couldn't take any photos at the opening because they have produced a beautiful hard cover book of all the quilts. I will try and go back before the exhibition closes and see if I can take some photos then.

Bye for now,
Linda

Crazy Quilt Quarterly Magazine

There is a lovely magazine available for people who are interested in Crazy Quilting and it's called Crazy Quilt Quarterly. A new issue has just been released and it's the Winter 2015 issue. It's an American magazine and so that is why it's the winter issue.

Pamela Kellogg, a well-known crazy quilter runs the magazine and she interviewed me a few months ago about my Christmas Crazy Quilt.

Christmas Crazy©2013 Linda Steele

The Crazy Quilting Quarterly is a really lovely magazine with lots of gorgeous photos of crazy quilting. It's 40 pages long and she has devoted 3 pages to my quilt and has lots of lovely close up photos of the blocks.

The magazine is only available on line and not in stores. You can buy a print version or just have a digital version that you can read on your computer or Ipad. It is $14.95 for a combined print and e-version or just $6.95 for the digital version only. The price is US dollars.

Here is the Link to Crazy Quilting Quarterly 

You can read about how I made my crazy quilt by clicking on some of my previous blog posts Designing Christmas Crazy and Christmas Crazy

Bye for now,
Linda

Happy Birthday Savannah

It's hard to believe that my first little granddaughter, Savannah is one year old. Where has that year gone?
I have been minding her during the week since she was five months old so I have got to know her very well. After a rough start we have got into a good routine and get on really well.
Even though she was going to have a proper party with family and friends on the weekend, I decided that we would have our own private party during the day.

This is how we started the day; she always likes to pretend to clean her teeth when I do.

Cleaning her teeth

Notice how clean and fresh she looks?

After lunch we had our little party and I helped her open one of her presents.

Opening presents

After singing Happy Birthday, she decided that she wanted a closer look at her cake.

I want that cake!

Her parents are quite strict with her and she doesn't usually eat cake or biscuits, but I had to let her have a bit of birthday cake.

She started off quite sedately and thought that this was something that she really liked. Then she decided that she really loved that cake and wanted to eat every crumb.

It took a long time to clean her off and clean the high chair!

She's such a dear little girl with such a sweet little personality. I suppose everyone thinks that about their grandchildren. I feel very lucky to have been able to spend this first year with her.

Happy Birthday, Savannah.

Bye for now,
Linda

President of Waverley Patchworkers

At the last Waverley Patchworkers AGM (Annual General Meeting) I became the new President. I originally thought that I would take on the role of Vice President and after twelve months of learning the ropes I would take over as President.
Imagine my surprise when the President told me that she had decided not to go on for a second year! So I went straight into being President and have to do a crash course on the job.

I have been a member of Waverley Patchworkers for 16 years and have spent three years on the committee in the past and I have run three of Waverley Patchworkers Quilt Shows and been on the committee for two other shows so I am not completely new to how things run at Waverley.

I am still the coordinator of the Waverley Art Quilters and a Valuer for Victorian Quilters so I will be busy especially as I do want to keep making quilts as well. This year is especially hectic as I am still minding my baby granddaughter four days a week. I must be mad to take on another job!

My main aim as President for the first year is to have a stable year and to get everyone in the club to know each other a little better.

Last week the International Quilt Festival was on in Houston and if you click here you can see the photos of the prize winners. I didn't have a quilt in the show this year but if I get a move on I might have a quilt finished for next year.

Bye for now,
Linda