Friday 10 August 2007

Amazing. Astonishing. Wonderful.

Wow! What amazing news!
After my month of quilting I actually have good news to report!
I have won "Best Professi
onal Bed Quilt" at the Canberra Quilter's Exhibition.
I am astonished. This photo is a bit dodgy. The colours are much darker in real life. The applique is against a dark beige and black gingham. This quilt gave me some grey hairs. I had been showing to classes, demonstrating the use of tiny Catherine Wheels (they are the flowers). Unquilted. By the time I came to layer and bast it it was quite badly distorted. Let that be a lesson! The basting become a pivotal moment in history. I was close to chucking it in a corner and not entering it. Najelle came to the rescue and insisted on getting the quilt re-basted. I then quilted it on my Mega Quilter. Free motion. Stipples behind the applique and swirling flowers behind the charm squares.

This next quilt is "inferno" Not a prize winner but better quilting in my opinion.

Bright, eh?!
Finally is the collaborative effort. Mystery Medallion. This was commercially quilted and I have included a close up as the quilting is amazing! Terina went to so much trouble and spent so many hours on the quilting. Everyone has admired her work.
"Quilts with Attitude" is the name you need to remember.




Saturday 4 August 2007

Tidbinbila Blues and Safe Pastures

Saturday was the last day for a class we have been running since last year. The class featured two of my larger quilt designs-Tidbinbilla Blues and Safe Pastures.
Two of the ladies made Tidbinbilla Blues and the rest worked on Safe Pastures.
Gail is pictured here with her version of Safe Pastures. She has added a couple of her own ideas to the quilt which is wonderful. Her new border fabric looked like it might take over the quilt so she added a few heavier features to balance the quilt.


This next quilt is the Tidbinbilla Blues design, as made by Lynne, holding the left corner. I just love her blues and made a quick dash around the shop to see if I could locate myself some of that shade of blue!
Lynnes is now going to be on easy street with only two queen sized quilts to complete in my other classes!



This quilt is Marianne's, but she had to leave the quilt for me to photograph so I don't have a photo of her with her quilt.
Marianne was the lucky witness to serendipity! She chose all but the border fabric when she set out to make the quilt. With strong purples and touches of a gold (almost limey) green, it was going to be a bit of a fluke to find the perfect border fabric. However luck was on her side and we unpacked the perfect border fabric for her just that week and here it is finished!

Last, and not least is Patty's Pastures! Sylvia and I helped her with the fabric choices and so of course it is gorgeous! LOL



I love the way Patty has organ
ised the "random" checkerboard corners into a pattern.







Strange Flowers


Hand-over day is here and once I finish this, I will head south to the drop off location.

The other quilts are too big to easily photograph so I will do that once they are hung at the show. Meanwhile, Strange Flowers is small enough to cope with and here it is.

In answer to Helen's (Tas) question, I have stitched in and back out of the swirls. As I am not a perfect sew-er, the lines are not planned to line up exactly.

I showed the quilt to Helen Godden (Goddess!!) today and she was at least impressed with my courage to quilt black onto white! LOL