My Grandmother's Doll Quilt

My grandmother made this little doll quilt later in her life. It was occupational therapy while recovering from something or other (living in Oz the details were sketchy as they didn't want to worry me or something like that. Very frustrating.) These fabrics are not cotton. Think polyester.

These prints scream sixties and seventies to me.

The herringbone stitch is a nice touch.

A rogue woven fabric - a coat? skirt? vest?

My grandmother loved her polyester suits. But I'm sure she didn't have this many. I believe the fabrics were shared amongst the group in recovery.

Nothing like a good op-shop to find this stuff.

Incredibly, my family sent me a bag of polyester scraps and a huge polyester flimsy... which I've blogged about before but haven't done anything with yet... it's mind boggling and will probably be cut into small quilts. That one didn't have any hand stitching like this little beauty.

I'm sure my grandmother had a green poly suit...

What's hiding in your cupboard?

A room with a view...

When I'm ready to throw a quilt sandwich under the machine, I commandeer the kitchen table. Lots of lovely light and space. I'm quilting this in a wavy grid pattern and it's proving to be as wonky as the piecing. I've decided to ignore the many flaws, acknowledge that it will look great at a distance, and still keep people nice and warm. I'm doing the interior square at the moment. Pieced borders will be added in a 'quilt as you go' method. I should be able to make a little progress before I go to work.

Scrappy Potholder

So we are off to a family tea at my sister-in-law's but I had a few minutes to finish up this scrappy potholder/trivet. The last one I gave her she didn't want to use because it was too 'good' so I thought surely this one would be ordinary enough to use.
A very plain back and as I had to use a flash to get the photo, you can't really see the quilting.

It's got two layers of wadding, one cotton and one insulbrite. It measures approximatley 12 inches by 14.5 inches.

I've nearly got the back pieced for my green wavey quilt and hope to sandwich it up tomorrow for machine quilting - going to practice a little free motion. Gotto go now to check my vegetable casserole as my contribution for tonight. Evidently my niece-in-law is bringing fish pie. Should be interesting.

Hope you all have a very blessed time with family and friends this Easter.

A little progress...

I managed to finish my curved blocks without too much crying... still a few puckers and distortion but to me it doesn't matter. This is a trial layout... will probably play a little then decide that's enough and just sew them together. While I'm pondering the layout I'm cutting some 2.5inch strips to make a piano key border in an assortment of greens and black/whites.

So far the 'home retreat' has been ok. Still more distractions than a real retreat, but a very welcome break nonetheless. Still two more days before I go back to work!!

Parkerville Quilt Show

I visited the Hills Folk Craft Group Show today which is sponsored by and held at the Parkerville Baptist Church in Parkerville, Western Australia. And a very lovely couple of hours it was too.

First up is a little demonstration of machine threadwork with different fabrics and fibres...


Amazing trupunto applique and quilting...

Teeny tiny pieced log cabins - I have a medium sized hand to give you an idea on size...

And dozens and dozens of amazing, interesting, charming, sweet quilts...

Other crafts included mosaic tiling and papercrafts...

and beautiful old-fashioned embroideries...
I didn't take photos of the card-making, oil painting or scrap booking. I'm all about textiles! There may have been a little retail therapy as well as a good cup of coffee and running in to a few quilty girlfriends! What a perfect way to spend a beautiful spring morning...

Weekend Away

Part One: Busselton WA

This is the historic jetty which has been restored. It is more than 1.8km long. They have a train that will take you to the end of the jetty and back. At the end of the jetty is an amazing underwater observatory. We visited a few years ago so did not go down on this short trip. We did walk to the end of the jetty and back though. Wonderful as long as you don't mind dodging the fisherpeople (women were well represented). You can read more about the jetty and the underwater observatory here.

Another thing we did was walk along the beach between our caravan park and the jetty. About 5.2km. My DH got so far ahead of me because I had to stop for seashells (of course).

Along the way we passed this abandoned sandcastle, not yet swept away by the sea.

Part Two: Bunbury WA
The Bunbury Patchwork Group hosted their annual International Quilt Challenge quilts along with their annual group show and another challenge involving Kaffe Fasset fabrics. Sadly many of my photos did not turn out as I had a setting wrong on the camera. Anyway, a little taste. The quilt above and the ones below are all part of the Kaffe Fasset challenge which was organised by The Blue Box in Busselton.

This quilt was from the International Quilt Challenge. The theme was "Movies" and the challenge fabric was the pink and black of the babushka dolls. This was the only photo of these interesting quilts that came out! Ugh!

These photos are from the quilts for the Bunbury Patchwork Group. A few close-ups turned out.

This quilt was one of three that were found at the local op shop in the 'dog blanket' box. This one totally fascinated me. The fabrics are all over the place with all sorts of man-made fibres. It starts with the central star and fans out. Each 'tie-shaped' piece is turned under and hand appliqued down. There is a rough pattern to it with the placement of the fabrics. There is a thin wadding and a backing. It's just so scrappy and free-form. Maybe a baby blanket originally? No one knows.

Hope you have mini-vacations on your weekends - at least occasionally!

Blue Strips

Cyclone Yasi continues to wreak havoc in Queensland with loss of power and water and flooding and winds, damage to buildings and crops. Fortunately no fatalities so far. Three babies were born. The people of the region and the emergency services are well prepared, but the recovery will be long and we must keep them in our prayers.

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It seems ridiculous to be chatting about cutting fabric while so many thousands of people are undergoing life-changing events. But it's life as usual for me, even while my heart goes out to them. Eventually I may be able to do more than pray for them. A donation of money, or quilting supplies, or a quilt.

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These strips are cut for a pieced border.

I'm using a variety of widths: 1.5" 2.5" and 3.5"

Here is a closer look at the variety.

I'm not sure yet if I will do a piano-key border or build up vertical columns of scrappy rectangles. There will be a very dark, narrow framing strip. This is a controlled scrappy Disappearing 9 Patch.

Any ideas?