Brain freeze

I have been working on the dog tooth borders for my Morrell quilt. 

I am doing it by machine using the freezer paper technique. 

I have done this technique for many of the block borders in this quilt, with some having a double or  triple dog tooth border so you would think I had this down pat but it still manages to do my head in - brain freeze!

Because it's kind of upside down and facing away I keep making errors, especially around keeping the right sides of the fabric together. 

Spatial relations is not a strong point of mine so I even managed to be-head a bird. 

I was going to leave it as one of my 'Amish moments' but then I had an email from Mayleen, hoping that I had enough fabric to fix it, which made me re-think and re-do it.

Much better now...

I think I've refined my steps as to when and how I cut the fabric so hopefully the rest will be more trouble free and I won't to do any more un-picking. 

My motto should be 'look twice and sew once'.

It's been fun getting out all of the red fabrics. I was considering whether to add some other reds but then decided just to stick to the ones used in the quilt.

I have also been hand piecing the keystone blocks but my points don't go together very well in the centre. I cut the pieces carefully on the bias and do half the 'circle' and then sew the two halves together. 

Any tips for getting the points to come together nicely?

Cheers

Carole

Come together

All my Morrell blocks have now come together - yay!! 

What a nice treat for Mother's Day.

It was difficult to photograph but I'm not going to complain about the lovely Autumn sunshine this morning.

Now to make the borders from red and cream (same as background fabrics) triangles. These will be machine pieced using the freezer paper method. Its fun getting out all the scraps of red fabric that were used in the blocks.

Someone kindly gave me the border freezer paper from the classes we originally took with Di Ford at Kaye's 'Needles and Pins' in Warrandyte. 

I think it was Dorothy? Anyway, many thanks.

Carpets of Autumn leaves in Melbourne's Fitzroy Gardens

Happy Mother's Day!

More Morrell Progress

I have spent most of the weekend slaving over a hot sewing machine putting together the many blocks for my Morrell quilt. 

Happily some Autumn sun came into the sewing room and provided some natural light.

 The quilt has grown a lot and is now struggling to fit on my sewing table.

I have only got two more rows to go so hopefully this pile will be a finished top by the end of next weekend (sans borders).

I have been so focussed on the Morrell ( a good thing!) I haven't prepared any CCCQ blocks for hand sewing whilst I'm travelling on the bus next week ( a bad thing!). 

Oh well back to removing stabiliser from the Morrell broderie perse blocks instead (boring  but necessary!).

Have a great week.

CCCQ Block #9

I have finished Block #9 - 'Eliza Whiteside'. I enjoyed doing this papercut style applique. The fabric I used is 'Design 2875 by Paula Barnes of Bonnie Blue Quilts' a Marcus fabric. More and more I'm having a touch of yellow in this quilt. A long time ago  a read a quote from quilter who said something along the lines that she liked all of her quilts to have some yellow, like a 'touch of sunshine'. Corny as it sounds this idea lodged in my brain and I like to do it when I can.

CCCQ Block #9

My sister-in-law always likes to see the back of my work so here's a peek.

Slowly (as is everything Morrell) I am putting my Morrell top together. Removing the tear away stabiliser from the broderie perse blocks is fiddly and takes awhile. Note to self - next time, do this as you go along or use a wash away stabiliser! 

As I'm squaring up I have had to do some minor surgery on some blocks as I've missed bits on the broderie perse or I wasn't too accurate in fitting some applique pieces to fit the 10" block etc. (please note touch of sunshine in the star).

All points now fit within the boundaries.

 I've now finished piecing together 3 out of 8 rows.

Autumn has truly arrived in Melbourne, my little Japanese maple really has the 'wow factor' this year.

Off to prepare the next CCCQ block.....what! I've run out of background fabric and it's Sunday. Oh no - this means I'm consigned to tearing off stabiliser on the buses all next week - sigh :(

Australasian Quilt Convention 2013

Melbourne really turned on a beautiful Autumn morning, it was almost too nice to go indoors to the Australasian Quilt Convention (AQC). 

It was held in the Royal Exhibition building

Which is set in the Carlton Gardens, I was there early so I had a bit of a stroll around first. It's so nice to see and hear water in our fountains after so many years of drought when they lay dry.

 

There were plenty of tributes to nature inside. 

These are the quilts that caught my eye. 

I apologise in advance for not crediting all the photos.

Enjoy. 

There were quilts from Korea...

These were from the AQC challenge: Free

'Free Board and Lodging' by Kay Murray

 These were from the New Zealand Hoffman Challenge...

Two quilts from the Garden Path theme...

Random quilts that I liked...

Moon Garden by Judith Coates Perez - whole cloth painted & quilted.

 

The workmanship in this quilt was just stunning - love the colours...

'Southern Stars' by Karen Malone

Interesting use of colour...

Infinity by Deborah Laurie

 This modern quilt included the creative use of tea towels!

'A Little Bird Told Me' by Anieta Barendrecht

Absolutely stunning...

'Night Bloomers' by Beth Miller

 It's amazing what you can do with leftovers, the blocks were quite small.

'Left Over Madness' by Wendy Blyth

'My Mrs Billings' by Shirley Lodington

  Great fussy cutting...

An amazing achievement considering the maker confessed to not enjoying making the hexagons! (read the label)

'Basket Case' by Kathy Doughty

'Constellation' by Ros Luck, quilted by Leslie O'Rourke (Quarry burn Quilters)

Loved how this was quilted...

These small quilts by the twelve by twelves were beautiful but difficult to photograph as the sun was shining on them.

'Floral Nine' by Jane Rundle

Something Borrowed Something Blue exhibit from the UK.

This was my favourite, the effect of the shadows was achieved not by an amazing use of fabric colours.

'Curious Cate' by Gillian Shearer

Phew! 

Then I went shopping and discovered some new shops, including Pieces to Treasure where I bought these French table runner kits and was very tempted to start their new BOM 'Love Birds'.

And Mai Misake where I bought some beautiful Japanese Taupe fabric for my Comfort Quilt. Here's my little stash.