Designing Christmas Crazy

A few people have asked me about how I designed my Christmas Crazy quilt. It was quite a saga in the end and quite a number of times I thought that I would never get this quilt finished. I never design a quilt fully from the beginning, I always have a bit of an idea in my head of what it will look like and then I start and the quilts develop as I go along. This process suits me and the design always changes as I go along but this design process also has its drawbacks as I often go through a lot of angst trying to decide on how it will all go together.
I took a number of photos as I went along, not for blogging purposes but to try and help me decide the correct path to proceed.

Here is a photo of the finished quilt. I suppose it looks a simple enough quilt but the journey to it being finished was anything but simple.

Christmas Crazy©2013 Linda Steele

 All last year I pieced 12 crazy quilt  blocks with a Christmas theme and then I had to decide how to put them into a quilt. I had made the blocks into circles because I had an idea to make them into hanging Christmas decorations. I also knew that I wanted a Christmas scene or something like that at the top but before I could design the top I had to know how wide the bottom part would be.

 Before I could decide on the block placement and therefore find out how wide it would be, I had to choose a background fabric and this turned out to be much harder than I expected.  Here are a few examples of what I tried.

Pale yellow

Dark green

 

Gold

Light green

????
I didn't like any of the backgrounds and if you look at the side you can see that I was planning a red border. As you can see from the photo above I had so many blocks and I was finding it very hard to find a pleasing composition.
Finally I tried a mid/ dark green background fabric that I liked but I was still having trouble finding a pleasing arrangement for the blocks and I realised that if I used all of them the quilt would have been too wide.

I removed three of the blocks including two of the large ones because I found they were just too big.

At last I had something I was happy with but you can see from the photo above that I was still thinking of having a red border . But at least I knew how wide the quilt would be and I could design the top section. You can probably also notice that I changed the shapes of some of the blocks to make them easier to place. I found it too hard to design when I had them all as circles.

 I got a large piece of paper out the same width as I wanted the top section to be and drew up a Christmas scene. I wanted to keep the centre as flat as possible and sometimes  the embroidery will pull in a bit so I prepared the centre part first.

 Here is the reindeer that I had fused onto the background fabric, he looks very flat without any shading or embroidery doesn't he?

 When I had finished embroidering the scene, I auditioned the fabrics for the crazy piecing around it.

Auditioning fabrics

At last I was thinking that this quilt could really work and this is what it looked like before I added the crazy quilting embroidery.

Top pieced

It suddenly occurred to me that the red border would be too strong for the quilt and I decided on a green border, the same as I was using for the background. I was also going to make  the hanging ribbons in the same colour as the blocks for interest but in the end I decided it would be better to have them all the same and I used a gold coloured thread and a chain stitch for hanging the blocks .

 It was getting close for the deadline to enter the quilt into the Victorian Quilters Showcase and Houston and I really wanted to push myself to get it finished because I was sick of it and didn't want to spend another year on it. I had designed an applique border but I knew that it would take too long to make and in the end I just left the border plain. The applique would have looked good but I just wanted to get the quilt over and done with.

 Now I had to baste and quilt it.

 

Quilt basted and ready for quilting.

 I could hardly believe that I had finished the quilt after so many months of work and so many hours of trying to work out how to put it together. My simple little Christmas quilt had taken 18 months to make.

 There are a lot of photos in this post and so I will wait for another post to show you some close-up photos of the finished quilt.

Bye for now,
Linda

Waverley Art Quilters Display

The Waverley Art Quilters were very honoured to be asked to display our work at the recent Victorian Quilters Showcase 2013.

The Waverley Art Quilters were formed in 2007 and for the first two years we studied design and composition using the book 'Art Quilt Workbook' by Jane Davila and Elin Waterson. Since then we have been challenged every month to study an artist or technique and make a small quilt inspired by the subject. These works are not required to be quilting show standard but they are opportunities to study many varied techniques and materials on a small scale. Creating a small quilt every month can be challenging but the knowledge we have gained and the fellowship of sharing our love of art and quilting is worth it.

We set up on the day before the show opened and here we are looking very glamorous in our safety vests.

Set-up day

We tried to have one of our members sitting with our quilts at all times to answer any questions and to look after our quilts.


Here is a photo of me in front of our display.


 

We had 10 different subjects on display and I'll show you a few photographs.

Clarice Cliff

Margaret Preston

Image as Inspiration

Reflections

We had so many wonderful compliments and I would like to thank those of you who came along to see our quilts.

 I felt a bit sad when we had to pack them up on Sunday night.

 Bye for now,
 Linda

More Showcase Photos

Well the Victorian Quilters Showcase is over for another year. Everyone agreed that the quilts were of a very high standard this year and there was a quilt for all tastes. There were traditional pieced, applique, art and even a display of the current trend of modern quilts.

The profile a quilter this year was Desley Maisano. Desley is a long arm machine quilter and her business is called Addicted to Quilts. She does the most amazing machine quilting and it was lovely to see so many of her quilts all hanging together at the show.
Here is a photo of Desley in front of her Best of Show quilt from 2011.

Desley Maisano

Here is a close up detail of some of Desley's beautiful quilting.

Desley is a professional quilter and you may contact her if you would like her to quilt your quilt.

This year it was the Victorian Quilters 20th birthday and to celebrate they had a challenge to make a one metre square quilt inspired by a plate. There were 17 lovely quilts and the winning entry was done by Ramona Resurreccion.

Isn't it beautiful? The quilts are going to on display around Australia at the various Guild Shows so you will be able to see them again.

Sue DeVanny won 1st in Art Quilts for her quilt named Time.

Time by Sue DeVanny

Here is Pamela Brockwell in front of her beautiful quilt that won Best of Show.

Pamela Brockwell

Pamela got permission from Sharon Schamber to make up her winning quilt pattern and enter it into the show.
Here are a couple of detail shots for you to see the beautiful machine applique and domestic machine quilting.

Pamela has certainly mastered the use of her machine, it was a stunning quilt.

I took a lot of photos of the quilts but quilt shows are becoming very strict with the guidelines of publishing photos and so I have shown you some quilt photos of people that I know. This year for the first time they were selling CD's of all the quilts for $10. I don't know if the cd will be available after the show or not.

It was a very inspiring show and one of my favourite parts of attending the show is being able to catch up with the many quilting friends I have made over the years.

Bye for now,
Linda

Victorian Quilters Showcase 2013

The Victorian Quilters Showcase is on at the moment and I had a wonderful day there on Thursday. The first day of the show is always exciting because everything looks so new and fresh and it's the day that the prizes are announced.

I was thrilled to win two prizes at the show. I received a first in Mixed Techniques and Excellence in Embroidery and Embellishment for my quilt Christmas Crazy.

Christmas Crazy is a hand embroidered crazy quilt and I machine quilted it on a domestic machine. It is my original design and it's a wonder that it ever got put together. I made all the hanging ornament blocks last year while I was participating in the Crazy Quilt Journal Project 2012. Then I had to decide how to make them into a cohesive quilt. I tried so many configurations and took photos of each step and made my family come in and see what they thought. I also tried at least four different background fabrics. In fact I might do a blog post showing all the things I was thinking.

Anyway the agonising is over and the quilt was finally finished. 

Here's me just after the ceremony with my prizes.

That box you can see behind the ribbons is quite heavy and it's a three drawer chest filled with Madeira machine embroidery threads.

I have always wanted to own one of these. When you open the first drawer this is what you see.

But there are three drawers!!

I am very lucky and this chest of threads was provided by SSS Pty Ltd.

I also received a gift voucher from Eureka Patchwork in Ballarat. So it looks as though I will be making a trip back to Ballarat sometime soon.

Today is the last day of the show and I am just about to go in for the day. There are some really beautiful quilts this year and I have taken some photos that I will put into a post next week. But here is a sneak peak of the Best of Show quilt made by Pamela Brockwell.

Bye for now,
Linda

Art Quilts on Show

On Thursday the Victorian Quilters Showcase begins. It is part of the Craft and Quilt Fair which is held at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre, 2 Clarendon Street, South Wharf.

It starts on Thursday July 25th and finishes on Sunday 28th . It is open 9am to 5pm daily.

I always love going to the show and seeing all the shops and of course all the wonderful quilts. Being able to catch up with all my quilting friends is always a pleasure. Sometimes we only see each other at these shows but we just pick up from where we left and find out what we've been up to.

This year we have a more exciting reason to be there, The Waverley Art Quilters have been asked to mount a display of our Art Quilts!

The Waverley Art Quilters meet once a month and discuss a different artist or technique. After our discussions and further study we make an A3 sized quilt inspired by the topic.

We have chosen 10 different topics to display and I really hope that you come along and see our quilts.
Those of you who read my blog will have seen my efforts so I'll give you a sneak peak at some of my fellow Art Quilters quilts.

Clarice Cliff by Nola Gibson

Florence Broadhurst by Marion Davidson

Margaret Preston by Anne Andrews

I hope that I have tempted you and I really hope that you come by and say hello. I will be there on Thursday, Friday and Sunday and there will be someone from our group at the display every day.

Bye for now,
Linda

Out and about in Ballarat

While I had a lovely time teaching at Quilt at the Winter School last week, the organisers thought it would a good idea to give everyone an afternoon off. Most of us went shopping and one of the most popular destinations was Gail's Patchwork Emporium in Sebastopol. Doesn't it have a lovely old fashioned name?
Gail's shop is attached to her house and a couple of years ago tragedy struck when the entire place burned down. Gail and her husband have rebuilt the premises exactly as it was and it is beautiful.

Gail has so much beautiful fabric and threads and gifts for sale that it is hard to choose what to buy because you really want everything. Everyone was leaving with these beautiful pink and white bags filled with goodies.

You can see that I find it hard to resist batik fabrics.

One of the big tourist attractions in Ballarat is Sovereign Hill. It is done up as an authentic Gold Rush town in the 1870's and at the moment they are having a Christmas in July promotion. All the shops have Christmas decorations and it is really beautiful. Every so often it snows and it is very realistic looking and quite magical.

On the way home from Ballarat I went to look at Lake Wendouree, which is a large man-made lake that is famous for its black swans. I wanted to see it again because when I last saw it about four years ago we were in the middle of a drought and it was completely empty.

We have had plenty of rain since and it is at its beautiful best.

Lake Wendouree

I also dropped into Mill Rose Cottage on the way home. It is a lovely patchwork shop in Ballan not far out from Ballarat. Of course I found something to buy there as well. Can you guess which colour fabrics I am thinking of working with next? I won't be able to show any progress shots though because it is for a birthday present and you never know she might see it and it will spoil the surprise.

 

 

Well, my time at Ballarat has come and gone and I have at last packed everything away. I don't have any teaching commitments for a while and I am really looking forward to being home and starting a couple more quilts. It has been such a busy first half of the year for me and I seemed to be always rushing from one deadline to another. It will be good to slow down a bit.

Happy sewing,
Linda

Ballarat

I spent all of last week in Ballarat, which is in country Victoria. I was one of the tutors at Quilt at the Winter School and I was teaching a 5 day crazy quilting class. It was actually four and a half days because we had Tuesday afternoon off.
The retreat was held at the beautiful Ballarat Grammar School and everyone had a wonderful time.



Ballarat is known for its cold winters and last week was no exception. One morning it was -3.5 degrees and the apparent temperature was -6.5!! There was ice everywhere and we had to be careful not to slip on the way to the dining room for breakfast. I wore my coat, scarf and gloves every morning and evening.

A frosty morning in Ballarat

One of the tutors was from Canada and she is used to much colder weather and she was calling us the down under princesses because of our constant chatter about the cold! Luckily the classrooms were well heated and we were rewarded with beautiful blue sky days.

Everyone was asked to bring a very small quilt of 4"x 4" and 6"x6" and they were for sale to raise money for charity. They all made a lovely decoration in the common room where we would meet for morning and afternoon tea.

6"x6" wall

I forgot to take a photo of the 4"x4". They all sold very quickly and you had to be quick to buy your favourite. I was lucky to have bought one of Caroline Sharkey's quilts.

Caroline Sharkey's quilt.6"x6"

I was too slow to buy anymore. Here is a photo of the little quilts that I made.

My little quilts

The food was wonderful and I am sure that I put on weight. We had cakes for morning and afternoon tea and desert every night. I suppose I could have said no but it was so delicious.

One night we had to dress up with a fancy hat. Here I am with a couple of friends from Waverley Patchworkers.

Don't we look glamorous!

Here is a photo of me with some fellow crazy quilters.

Crazy Quilters

The dining room didn't seem to be heated and so we found it difficult to take off our coats.

On the last night the tutors had a photo together. The other tutors were Caroline Sharkey,
Helen Godden , Karen Goetzinger (Canada) and Jenny Bowker.

The tutors
Caroline, me, Karen and Helen

Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of Jenny because she was very busy trying to get some quilts ready for an exhibition and she was working non stop towards her deadline.

I have never taught a 5 day class before but it was very successful. I usually teach crazy quilting in a one or two day class and there never seems to be enough time to get everything done and I am always pushing students onto the next stitch. How wonderful to have the time to learn and quietly stitch and talk. I had a lovely class and it was a pleasure to teach them.

Ann

Barb

We had Tuesday afternoon off and most people went out of the school grounds to boost the economy of Ballarat. I'll talk about that in another post.

Bye for now,
Linda