Dinosaur Uproar

I made this quilt top last weekend while I was waiting for my new walking foot to arrive. I used the last of my Moda Dinosaur Uproar fabric and added some green with a leafy print .... in case the dinosaurs got hungry. The pattern is a nice easy one called Baby Bali.

Queensland Flood Auction Quilt

I Spy a Baby Quilt

from Two Bits Patches

This I Spy baby quilt is being auctioned on behalf of the Queensland Flood Appeal. The quilt measures 63 x 85 cm (25 x 32 inches) so it's just right for baby's cot or in the pram on chilly mornings. The 100% cotton fabric features lots of animals - cats and cows, fish and frogs, kangaroos and cockatoos. The quilt is machine pieced and quilted, and machine washable. Retail value is $80.

Here's how the auction works: The bidding starts at $A10. Leave a comment on the blog with the amount of your bid. It makes sense to bid higher than the previous post. You'll need to leave an email address so you can be contacted, too.

The auction finishes on Monday 24th January at midnight Australian Eastern Daylight time. The highest bidder is the winner.

The winner then sends the amount of their winning bid to the Premier's Flood Appeal. Email me with your receipt number and I will post the quilt straight to your home. I will pay postage to anyware in Australia; if posting overseas I will get a quote for postage and we'll split the amount 50/50.

There are many, many more auctions: you can find the whole list here.

My Sewing Room Window

This is the view from my south facing sewing room in the summer. This part of the garden is badly in need of a refit. The garden is best in spring, lots of bulbs and enough rainfall to keep things green. As soon as the hot weather hits in November everything dries off and brown replaces green. I need to pull everything out and start over but it doesn't rank highly on the to do list.

The big eucalypt trees in the photo are between our property and a gravel road which leads to the neighbour's house. We take the dog for a walk each morning along this track; we occasionally see wallabies, kangaroos and koalas.

What sewing am I doing? I'm doing a sample for a mystery quilt I'm presenting to our patchwork group and I'm in the middle of a semi-major clean-up. The chocolate hearts are all in one tub now and are top of the UFO list.

Made a quick trip to the new twilight market and had a chat to Lara from Chocolate Coated. Bought a Sewline fabric pencil, I've heard good things about these fabric markers. I'm always too nervous to mark a quilt top, I usually stitch in the ditch but now I have no excuse to try something more adventurous.

And the winner is...

Finally I have some time to choose the giveaway winner. I was going organise something clever to choose the winner but in the end I went for the tried and true method of name on slip of paper and get hubby to pull one out of the ice cream container.

I am pleased to say that Anne A was the winner. Well done Anne, the squares will be sent ASAP. Thanks to everyone that posted a comment, and big thanks to my new blog followers.

Anne's favourite colours are rosy pink, burgundy and green. My favourite colour scheme is, without a doubt, autumn tones. I grew up in Ohio and the autumn trees are just gorgeous.

When I see orange, yellows and rust colours I just have to spend.

My choice for our patchwork groups' 2007 Round Robin was autumn shades. I've been quilting the finished result this month, I'll have to get organised and finish the quilt so I can show you all.

Two Blues

On the cover of the latest Down Under Quilts was a lovely pink and yellow quilt by Erica Spinks called Sunshine on Roses. I thought the pattern would work well with my I Spy scraps. I used two blues as you can see and with some quick strip piecing and lots of prints I put this top together. Everything was from the stash, so it's a free quilt .
I'm putting some borders on it now. I was going to go around the center with light blue and then dark blue because that was easy. Fortunately some other ideas popped into my head before I cut the border and I'm trying something a little different. Photo next posting.

I Spy In the Pinks

This is a new I Spy quilt I've made, In the Pinks. It's a really easy pattern. I used 24 6.5 inch I Spy prints for the centre of the blocks. The border for each block is 2.5 inch strips, 8 fat quarters are enough to do all the blocks. I often quilt with diagonal lines, it's easier to ease the 'crossings' on the bias than on the straight.

Do you use metric or imperial measures? My brain still thinks in inches but I'm happy to work with centimetres too. I was in our local discount fabric shop waiting to be served when a customer asked the staff, how much is a yard? After three different staff members didn't know how to answer, I volunteered the information that if she bought one metre she would have a bit left over. I proceeded to explain the conversion from yards to metric but no one was listening.

Why don't I shop in my local quilting shop? There isn't one in our country town, the closest one is 20 kilometres away.

More Chocolate Hearts

The chocolate hearts quilt is starting to take shape....I wish that posting photos to a blog was as easy as patchwork!

The wedding isn't until April 2010 so I have plenty of time for this quilt. That means I will take my time and probably start half a dozen more projects before this one is finished. Still, that's one of the best things about a hobby - you only have to please yourself.

And I Spy Emma Too

I gave Emma her QAYG hexagon quilt on Saturday, you can see how impressed she was! Machining the hexagons was the way to go; she would be at school before I finished a hand pieced one.
But... hand piecing is very pleasant if you have no deadline. I've always wanted to make a double wedding ring in 1930s prints. When I was in grade 6 my best friend and I would watch TV after school; on the couch at her house was a double wedding ring quilt her grandmother had made. I loved all the cheery yet faded colours.
I've found my sheet of cutout vinyl templates that I bought years ago. The set of Matilda's Own templates have been recommended but I thought I would try I ones I already have. I'm not quite ready to start but the idea is floating up to the top of the queue.

The Virgin Retreat

The retreat was great. Our group of 15 went to Rawson Village, a very popular venue for patchwork and scrapbooking groups on the East side of Melbourne. Great food, no washing up and all day (and night) to sew. We made our booking for the same time next year; if you don't book early you miss out.

I finished Project No.1, the QAYG quilt for granddaughter Emma. It took longer than I thought to top stitch each hexagon but then it was very quick to sew together.

I made 7 more blocks for Project No. 2 the Chocolate quilt. I need more dark chocolate fabrics, so stopped on the way home at Lily Lane in Rosedale and found 3 more dark chocolate prints and a metre of milk chocolate.

Nice to get away, quite nice to get back home.

Introducing the Chocolate Quilt

Project No. 2 for the retreat weekend is the Chocolate Quilt. DS is getting married in April 2010, and I asked him and his fiancee what colours they were after in a quilt. Chocolate, cinnamon and vanilla; the same colours as the wedding invitations.
The pattern I choose was colourwash hearts - dark on light in one corner, light on dark in the opposite corner. My fabrics aren't really colourwash designs, more of a scrap quilt in six shades: dark chocolate, milk chocolate, caramel cocoa, honeycomb, creamy nougat and white chocolate.

My sewing materials are all packed. I'll pack myself in the morning, do a half day at work and go on my adventure after lunch.

I wonder what I have forgotten...

I Spy Jack

Project No. 1 for my Virgin Retreat is QAYG hexagons, all machine done. I bought the perspex templates from Kiwi Quilts at one of the Melbourne shows and they do a great job. The first quilt I made with the templates is modeled above by grandson Jack. He got his playrug for Christmas 2008. Granddaughter Emma is already 4 months old; if I wait until Christmas 2009 she'll be crawling around.

The hexagons are all pinned and ready to be machined. The I Spy pieces are a mix of my favourite fabrics and leftover squares from the charm packs on my website - 61 different prints in all and backed with five different pink fabrics. I hope to finish the whole quilt on the weekend.

One of my g-g-grandmothers did make a quilt. Mary McClelland Criswell made a red and green autograph quilt in 1852 for her parents Andrew Gibson Criswell and Alice Carlisle Criswell. This quilt is not in good condition, some of the fabrics have rotted away, but the signatures of family and friends are still completely legible after 150+ years.

The quilt is very large as you can see. When I decide to make a replica I think I will choose one block at a time without attemping to make the whole quilt. Look out Dear Janes!