Miscellany

Life goes on! There have been a few finishes since my last post way back last year :(

I'm just giving you a glimpse of my major finished quilt, the Bali Sunset I was working on. It's made to the same pattern as my Australasian quilt - due to be published as a project in Quilters Companion magazine this month (of March) if you want to make one.

Bali Sunset Quilt

Miscellany Quilt designed by Lizzie House

The next thing I was totally obsessed with was the new Cloud9 100% certified organic cotton collection, Miscellany designed by Julia Rothman. I fell in love with these fabrics, and the quilt made with them, last year at the AQM in Melbourne. The fabrics feature a randomish collection of sketchbook-like line drawing inspired designs and look wonderful together, especially accentuated with a solid black.
I really wanted to make that Lizzie House quilt, but I felt there was already one of those in the world, so I didn't do anything for a while. Then I saw a quilt called Anita's Arrowhead on Facebook as a free download from Quiltmaker.

Endless Knot and Fish bone designs in the blocks

So I decided to go with that, using the black background and the Miscellany fabrics. (The black I used was a beautiful Moda Bella Solid that I carry in Quiltopia boutique). You can follow the evolution of the quilt below:

The block layout juxtaposes 'negative' and 'positive' versions of the blocks.

Another layout option that uses like blocks side by side to create a different effect.

The quilt is 7 x 6 blocks

 

I pressed all the seams open for this quilt, to minimise bulk and for a smooth finish when joined and pressed. It paid off and I was very happy with the resulting quilt.

But it wreaked havoc with my (expensive) forked pins!

Pin cemetery!
The quilt blocks sewn together, I decided on an uneven border with wider sides than top and bottom - and I've just realised I don't have a photo of that here! Another post coming up....

Till then, have fun!
Ann ♥
PS You can purchase all the Miscellany fabrics from my Quiltopia!Design eBay Store right here :)

Dolly supervises the quilt production in my studio.

Bags

I recently made some bags.

I've never been really into bag making - I'd rather make a large hand quilted quilt than a small and fiddly bag. However, I found some really good ones in Susan Briscoe's new book, Japanese Quilt Inspirations. I decided to make the Kaban (Tote) Bag and the Komebukuro Bag (Rice Bag).

Kaban Bag - one side

I really wanted to feature some of the gorgeous funky new fabrics in the Critter Community range by Suzy Ultman. I love the owls and some of the funky coordinates in this collection. I found the bag really easy to make. Just used some left over scraps of bamboo wadding to pad, and some old jeans (that no longer fit *sob*) for the base, trim and handles. I think the bag is nice with orange top stitching like on jeans, and I like the way I adapted the pattern from the original patchwork block, to the more modern casual look of two fabrics.

Kaban Bag - the other side

You can see my mum's old Singer in the pics. It's an original 50's model, manufactured in Australia and still goes like a steam train engine. Great for getting through some of the bulky seams on these bags. The Komebukuro bag was also fun to make. I used a Moda Charm Pack, Oh My!, instead of Susan's pieced blocks for the sides and it worked out really well - 2 bags from one charm pack. Bargain! Just another amazing use for the charm squares.

Komebukuro Bag

Dusty

Finally, the kitty story. Here's the lovely Dusty keeping me company as I cut I Spy Squares for the I Spy Packs I sell. He always manages to find a spot nearby in the early hours of the morning or the wee small hours of the night when I engage in sewing related activities!
I'm really not used to these new Blogger settings yet - nothing seems to go where you want it to...

 ♥ Just into the store - Alexander Henry, Itty Bitty Berry, and Moda  Always & Forever. Think sweet sticky peppermint candy and berry sorbet with these delicious new additions. Very girlie, very pink and pretty, with dashes of green and grey ♥

xo xo Ann

Green Tea Sundae

I've been gathering together fabrics for a Green Tea Sundae

quilt.

It's inspired by green tea sundaes I got a bit obsessed with in Japan... top left was the yummiest! Bottom left was most intense in colour and taste (and made me feel a bit sick). The ice cream trio was large plastic food models in a charming Kyoto tea house. I really want to make a quilt with these greens to remember our holiday.

I ate this sundae at the Lipton Tea house, Kyoto Railway Station, on our last day and succeeded in making myself queasy for the flight back to Australia later that night. It had rich green tea flavoured ice cream, sweet red beans, some sort of gluggy, gelatinous white tapioca balls, green tea flavoured cake squares, glace chestnuts and green tea-ish whipped cream...mmmmm... like when you've eaten too much party food when you were a kid!

xo xo Ann.

My Diamonds Quilt

Time to write a blog post. I went down to Melbourne last week to attend the best Australian trade event, Australian Quilt Market. There were lots of Familiar designers and fabric companies there with a wealth of fabulous goods for me to stock in the shop... but more about that in another post.

I feel it's time to revisit my blog....

These are photos of the process of my Diamonds Quilt - now finished and hanging in Quiltopia! if you're in Maleny and able to come in and see it.

Up above is the book with the pattern and my selected fabrics - only a few actual Kaffe Fassett's, but lots of other gorgeous stuff. Then, to the right is the design wall progress.

All the diamonds are in place below. I used the same hydrangea fabric twice - once for the top row with predominantly creamy blooms, then later I used the blue/purple ones. This was the fabric I started the quilt with.

You can see the blue hydrangeas here. I like the idea of the directional fabric and stripes going every which way, and I've seen a Kathy Doughty (of Material Obsession) diamond quilt made using all stripes - incredible!

Here's the whole thing on the design wall, ready to sew. If you've ever made a diamonds quilt, did you find a formula for sewing that ensures perfect matching of seams? I'd be interested to know because

every time I thought I'd found a way, it changed in the next row. A bit frustrating. I quilted the whole quilt in the ditch by machine then used a huge variety of variegated Perle 8s to hand quilt about 1cm in from the seams. Each fabric row used a different colour.

The back looks stunning (even if I do say so myself) with it's hand quilting and sublime Prints Charming paisley - it's in the top too and as no one was buying it I decided to use it. It has a very luxurious feel (or "hand" as they say in rag trade).

The quilt could easily be used either side and I look forward to having it on my bed. See those border triangles? They're a Bali Batik and, being a child of the 60's,  orange and pink has long been a favourite colour combination for me. I think I feel a workshop coming on in 2012 for this one. On from quilting - my daughter has just finished grade 10 and started her first real part time job. It gives me a funny feeling.... I started this blog when she was still in Primary School. In fact it would probably be about  a blog anniversary time !
I'll look it up and maybe we could do a give away :) I'll post details here and also on Quiltopia!Design facebook page, so if you haven't already, join us there for daily updates and special offers.
Thanks for reading and following over the years

xo xo Ann.

I haven't been around...

OK, I know, I haven't been around. We went to Japan and my camera broke, so I've only got my iPhone now and its pictures aren't so good for posting to the blog...

I've been using my Quiltopia!Design Facebook Page to keep people up to date and I can post pics directly from my phone. So, If you'd like to hear more from me, please join us there :)

The Australasian quilt has gone to its new owner now, but not before I had time to send it to Sydney to be photographed by Quilters' Companion for a project in a coming issue. You'll be able to make one like it...

 or join a workshop as I'm making a new quilt.

Same design, completely different fabrics and feel to the original. Actually I like it better. Its all Bali Batiks, and my first time making a whole quilt with Batiks. Its got a definite sunset feel and reminds me of my last night of my first trip to Bali. The sunset lasted late into the evening and the velvety night sky was tinged with magenta at 10PM as I was boarding the plane back to Melbourne! That memory stuck with me 22 years since, and has now found its way into a quilt.

I've finished the Diamonds quilt too! I put the last stitch n the binding last night, and my daughter slept with it on her bed.

I wanted to use just a few of the modern fabrics with large prints...This is a new quilt I made using the Rooftop Garden fabrics from moda. It's called Almost Amish, because I based the design on a traditional Amish style Diamond in a Square quilt. When I looked it up just now there are so many links to patterns and pictures. The one I chose here is the Folk Art Museum with some lovely images of Amish quilts and plenty of other tabs to explore.

I had it quilted all over in black thread with a swirly feather design and I'm happy with it. 

These are my two nieces who came to stay for a couple of weeks  and have just gone home.

I've been very busy in the shop, and have collected much more fabric, which I am trying to keep up with listing in the Store. Some new ones are the Saffron Craig Owls, Twomonkeys fabrics and the beautiful new Robert Kaufman Oriental Traditions 9, which reminded me so much of Japan when we were there in July, with its orchids, bamboo and geisha all in greens, blues, browns and rich red...

 You can see the from the pictures taken in Kyoto in Summer this year, how evocotive the new Oriental Traditions fabric line is. Not sure what I'll make from it yet - but something!

My daughter turned 15 last week... How time flies.

Till next time,

Ann ♥

My Australasian Quilt and Travel

It's not the best photo, but here is my quilt, Australasian, hanging in the Quilts Across Queensland exhibition curated at the Brisbane Ekka (for those of you not familiar with that term, its the Brisbane RNA Show). It was entered in the professional pieced quilt category and won third prize. You can see me standing with it below, and I do apologise for the quality of these photos taken with my iPhone. This was a quilt inspired by Leesa Chandler's Under the Australian Sun fabrics, which I mentioned in early blog posts.

It was really quite a thrill to win the prize as it's been a few years since I've won anything, or even entered a quilt in a show. Starting the business and keeping up with all the admin and online activity, not to mention being in the shop 6 days a week, packing eBay items to send, marketing, teaching, sewing and trying to design and follow through projects, as well as housework and parenting doesn't leave much time to produce show quality quilts - let alone shop sample quilts. However, I'm pleased the quilt has had it's moment in the sun... in fact it was sold at the show so I'm not sure how I'm going to teach it/publish it now. Is that an excuse, do you think? I'm planning another one, not quite so complicated in terms of quilting, perhaps in modern fabrics....

This is another quilt I'm working on now, in progress. I have actually finished the top now and am planning the quilting. I made it with a Hoffman Rainbows pack, Rainforest.

The most exciting thing that's happened since I last blogged, is our Japanese trip. It was truly a dream come true for me. I've included a few photos, not in any particular order, of our holiday.

There's a couple of fabric ones,

taupes from Diamaru - I don't know why , but I spent ages selecting this small bundle when I should have just grabbed a piece of the whole selection! It's always like that in retrospect...

and rolls of kimono fabric

The amazing stone wall at Osaka Castle,

A couple of food ones - a green tea ice cream sundae, a Japanese MacDonald's meal,

and a very Japanese night time scene,

It was all so very beautiful, exciting and fun! It was also a great experience to share with my teenage daughter. Who knows if we will go again, but I definitely would like to explore the fabric in a little more depth, especially retro and vintage kimono, and we really only touched the tip of the iceberg as far as food was concerned!

Till next time,

♥ Ann