January Finishes

 I bought this framed vintage car in an op shop and immediately thought about tearing it out of the frame and making a boys baby quilt out of it. Thank you very much to the maker, whom has painstakingly cross stitched this for me. Colour Inspiration- check, center focus - check , and left over triangles in brights already cut for me. Easy Peasy.. rip up an old sheet and quilt made in two afternoons. Got to be pretty happy with that! I put a running tacking stitch in red to give a little interest in the zigzag. One down , two girl quilts to go!

I riffled through all the bits of printed cottons I had and started whipping up cushions. Some I have crocheted edges to, others left simple.

I have also eco dyed some cloth to get leaf imprints on the fabric . I have then echoed the eco print with either a eucalypti flower or the actual leaf shape. 

 And more printing
magnolia flower and seed pods

Fan shapes

That's my crafted lot!

ZizZag

Warning, this is a heavily laden quilt fest photography session. 

I think that I tried to capture aspects of the quilt through the vision of other items, so that your eye might be drawn to the quilt as a secondary detail. Really it has just become a backdrop so that you can focus on the lovely aspects of my garden (including my rotting old fence, which features once again. May I say that I am becoming attached to my rotting fence as it has become a desirous object to be photographed  and offers interesting perspective when looking at it through the eye  of the lens). The pomegranates are beautiful still- they have been dangling from those branches for months and I am surprised the possums haven't knocked them off.

I completed the quilting over a two day period and found that walking after sitting for such long periods of time at the machine was near impossible - My back was killing me. It is the first quilt that I have completed with free motion quilting and overall I love the effect (But my quilting has a lot to be desired.)  As with all things it takes regular practise to become good

Anyway enjoy the photography and I am happy to have finished the quilt and send it off to the new mum Katie whom I hear has a beautiful little son

You've survived to the end! Well done :)

I have  lots of photos from the Royal Show to show you tomorrow (or whenever I collate them) so please drop back again soon! Cheers and stay well.

Cabbage Patch

It is time for spring around here and I am the lazy gardener. Really I am not much of a gardener at all, although i do admire a well thought out garden and love a good display of nature's bounty.

This year I have planted my own colourful cabbage patch. Tongue in cheek- I love this type of gardening because it looks good all year round and once I've crocheted it , it doesn't require any maintenance on my behalf.

Do you recognise this work?

It is my spoke wheel flower scarf. I have only twelve more circles to produce to make it long enough. Although every time I think it is long enough I wrap it around my my neck and think I should go a few more.  I was at swimming training the other night sewing in all the loose ends on the scarf and decided to wind it up  upon completion (instead of the normal toss it into the bag) and I suddenly had a lovely looking cabbage in my hand - I had to take a  picture of course.

And this is the baby quilt so far

Hoping your garden is blooming

Star Crossed Love Quilt

5 boiling hot days

3 days off from work and all spent under the air conditioner

Pardon the language - but it was Bloody hot!

Adelaide / South Australia is now officially one of the hottest places on earth

Urrghh!

But the up side is I have spent most of my time quilting the baby quilt which had to be finished Sunday for the baby shower... tick 

I have only just this instance finished the binding and as I did so the cool change has blown in.

What a blessing. hallelujah! 

As you see I have snapped photos at the light is dimming but even if I had finished earlier I would have avoided going out in the 40 degree plus heat
So tomorrow I might attempt some decent shots, but this will do for now.

 For the binding I used the reversed side of the material to get more muted tones to match the natural soft tones of the hand dyed materials.
My quilting is a bit neh! But it was speed quilted... overall I'm pretty happy with it.

 What a relief  - cool weather and a finished quilt!

Rainbow Monkey Quilt

 Holidays are wonderful.A bit of extra spare time to be creative in  and ignore all those other impending jobs that you alway feel like you have to do. The recent make of the baby blues quilt made me think that my monkey print would be fun to produce as a rainbow styled quilt. So  I printed up 29 monkeys. An odd number you say! Originally planning a 24 square quilt with a few to spare I didn't really plan the number of monkeys printed (beyond 24) but just used up the last of my black ink. Unfortunately I am a monkey short now.

 Selecting colour was fun. Any bright solid or spotted print that fit in the rainbow. A fat quarter is sufficient amount to piece, so I haven't had to go out and buy any material. The left overs I am thinking of piecing together in odd shaped log cabins

Below the Baby blues quilt finished and bound. Just simple horizontal stripes for quilting. My daughter wouldn't let me cross stripe the quilting. And the teeny tiniest binding ever - which may I say was a pill to sew

A little light on the subject

 Daylight hours and better light! But the wind is blowing and it is making it impossible to capture a shot without the quilt top blowing upwards when on the clothes line or is partially in shadow when hung on the pergola.

But you do see how much brighter the blue fabric is in the light! Far more appealing and not so dull looking.

Last night shot looks grey compared to the one taken this morning.