Quilters Companion Magazine

I was at the newsagent and innocently bought the latest Quilters Companion Magazine, not realising that there was an article about me in it!

It is their Great Australian Quilts No. 3. The magazine is wrapped in plastic because there is a CD with it called Learn Machine Applique with Rachelle Denneny. When I opened the plastic I noticed my name on the cover.

They've devoted 6 pages about me including photos of 7 of my quilts. The article is titled A Disciplined Designer!

I am happy to be described as disciplined, isn't everyone?  Maybe not.
I think that they have written a lovely article except that they wrongly state on the pattern page that I live in Horsham! Don't look for me there, I live in Park Orchards.

Quilters Companion asked me a few months ago to create a project for their magazine based on one of my latest quilts.
I designed a Wall Hanging named Panda Crazy based on a block in my quilt Eastern Elements.
This is a crazy quilt using free machine thread painting for all the stitches and motifs. Instead of doing all the embroidery by hand I have done it on the machine but not using the programmed fancy stitches. I think that the programmed stitches are fine for some things but I find them a bit flat for a crazy quilt. I have added some braids and beads as well.

The pattern is well set out with a lot of step by step photos. There a quite a few different techniques to use when making up the pattern including, foundation piecing, free motion machine thread painting and stitching and inserting piping into the binding.

I wonder if anyone ever makes up the patterns in Magazines? I think I might have made one once or twice a few years ago. These days, I just look at the photos and read the articles.

Here is a photo of the actual wall hanging.

Bye for now,
Linda

World Crazy Quilt Progress

 I am still working on my World Crazy Quilt (I am still thinking of what I will name the quilt). I have 12 different blocks representing different countries and after I put the blocks onto the background fabric, I thought that they looked a bit plain and bare.

Well, I thought that they needed a bit of embroidery around the borders and it wouldn't take long.
How wrong was I! Each block took two hours to complete the embroidery. That's 24 hours of work that I hadn't planned on.

When I had finished doing the little lazy daisy stitches, I had to put a bead on each cluster. Once again I miscalculated because each block took 40 minutes to add the beads. I had thought that it would take about 15 minutes.

So my little after thought took an extra 2 hours 40 minutes for each block. No wonder these quilts take me so long to do. I think it is worth the work though, judging from the photo above.

I have also been busy with the Australia block that will be in the centre.

Bye for now,
Linda

Blog of the Week!

Well, I had a big surprise this week when the American Quilters Society picked my blog as their Blog of the Week.

I was thrilled!

I have been a member of AQS for a few years now and I love their magazine, American Quilter. It is always full of wonderfully large photos of prize winning quilts.

I have entered their big quilt show in Paducah a few times and I always order the catalogue because it has a photo of every quilt in the show.

American Quilter also has a facebook page for those of you on facebook. They are always talking about interesting things.

Thanks American Quilter.

Bye for now,
Linda

Holidays

I have been away on holidays for a week at Bateman's Bay, which is in New South Wales, about 2 hours east of Canberra and 3 hours south of Sydney.

My favourite birds are blue wrens and I kept seeing them everywhere. I was so happy and driving my children mad by trying to take photos of them all the time. They are so quick that it was hard to get good photos.

We went to the Mogo Zoo which was one of the best zoos that we have been to, I got so many closeup animal shots. I can imagine putting this Komado dragon in a crazy quilt.

The next day we went to Birdland and I have so many wonderful closeup photos of parrots, kookaburras and owls that I'll be able to use in my quilts.

We spent ages with the peacocks because they all had their tails out showing off to the peahens and doing their mating dance. One of the peahens went pecking for food down a path and the poor peacock couldn't fit his tail through and was all sad. We thought that she mustn't be interested in him but next thing she was back pecking for food right in front of the peacock!

Even the back of the peacock is very attractive.

I managed to go to a couple of patchwork shops without driving the family crazy. I went to Patchwork on the Bay in Bateman's Bay and Steph's Patchwork and Stitching in Moruya. Steph's is a big shop with a huge variety of supplies. In Mogo I went to a scrapbooking, art and craft shop called Amanda's of Mogo, it was like an Alladin's Cave with so much stock. There was also a shop that only sold beads, so I managed to spend money in all the shops and came home with a nice supply of things.

The picture shows some of the purchases I made. I also bought a 24 set of Inktense pencils.

It's nice to go away and have a change of scenery but it's good to be home as well.

Bye for now,
Linda

Another Crazy Quilt in Progress

I have been very busy this year teaching my Quilting All Over the World class as a block of the month.
The original quilt is very large and quite complicated to put together. I decided to make the quilt a smaller and more manageable size for the class.

Because I changed the quilt to a square setting instead of a circular setting, I had to add four more countries. The countries that I decided to add were Canada, Spain, Scotland and New Zealand.

I have finally finished all the small blocks and they are pictured above. The quilt is a medallion setting and I am going to put a large Australia block in the centre. It has been really interesting for me to re-do this quilt, it has given me the opportunity to change some things that I didn't like in the original quilt.

I also had to change some blocks because when I reduced the size, some of the motifs that I had done in the first version didn't work as well in a smaller size.

I am now trying to finish the centre so I can finally put this quilt together. The class members have been very patient, watching the quilt progress month by month. I promised them it will be finished by the next class! I have a lot of work to do.

I am very happy with my kangaroos in the centre.

Bye for now,

Linda

Quilting Novels

I have just finished reading the three quilting novels by Margaret A. Rowe. I can highly recommend these enjoyable novels, if you like the Elm Creek series then you will love these.

I was teaching at the Michelle's Sewing Basket retreat earlier this year and Margaret was the guest speaker. She was so entertaining and inspiring that I bought all three of her books.

They tell the story of a group of quilting friends and their joys and disappointments in life as they participate in their Patchwork Guild's Challenge for the year. The novels are set in Australia and their challenge each year has something to do with the history of Australia's settlement, so not only are you enjoying the novel you can learn a bit of history as well.

The first novel in the series is called The Maria Challenge Quilt, next comes The Elizabeth Challenge and the third novel is called The Caroline Challenge.

Margaret has such a lovely, natural way of writing and it is very easy to identify with the characters. The books seem well researched and although no quilt shops are named, you will recognise the shops if you have been there.

Margaret has self published her books and I have seen them for sale in some quilt shops here in Victoria. You can also buy them directly from Margaret by emailing her. My only complaint is that I wish they were longer, I didn't want them to finish. I know that she is working on a fourth novel, so I hope that it doesn't take her much longer to finish it.

Bye for now,
Linda

Student Quilts 2010

I had a lovely surprise this week. I teach my quilt Crazy about Australia as a block of the month at a shop named Missy Moo. Carlie, one of my students from last year has just finished her quilt and she brought it in to show me.
I think that she has done a lovely job. She changed the centre so she could depict her Grandfather's old house, which I think is a lovely idea and makes her quilt even more special.

I have also received a photo from Sue, who was in the same class as Carlie.

Sue has actually personalised her centre as well. What talented women I teach.
The class goes for 12 months and it is always lovely to see how the students gain confidence as the months progress.

Bye for now,
Linda