My quilts in AP&Q - some details

For those that are interested, below are photos of the quilts which were shown; most of the names are links which will take you to a full post about the quilt, and some detailed photos.

Starburst

Falling

(Part of my tree series, and for which there is a pattern available in my Etsy shop, under the name of an earlier version, Winter Harvest.)

No Pot of Gold (incorrectly labelled in the magazine) and another post about it here

Nurture also blogged here.

Rory's Rockets

Electric Quilt 7

The Electric Quilt company is shortly releasing EQ7, and I can't wait!

I bought EQ5 years ago, and use it to design most of my quilts. I love it! I lusted after the EQ6 upgrade a few years ago, but was still learning even more things EQ5 could do, and invested in further fabric instead. I don't mean to suggest it's hard to use - in fact the opposite is true - but every now and then I think of something else I want to try, and look it up. But only a few months ago I was thinking I really was ready to upgrade, and decided it probably wouldn't be too long until EQ7, and I'd wait. It seems that was a smart move!

Even though I'm still learning more of what EQ5 can do, I can see that EQ7 has some amazing new functionality to make quilt design easier, faster, and lots more fun.

Below is a selection of quilts I designed solely in EQ5:

Eleanor's Quilt

Reflections of Autumn

Twinkle, Twinkle

Swimming in the Sun

Daydreams

Rory's Rockets

Breaking Surf

Beachside Blossoms

Starburst

Nurture

Iced Chocolate

Snow Dance

Fancy Feathers - detail

I'll warn you now, this post is photo-heavy. I'm proud of the fancy feathers I quilted, so here are some detail photos, and one of the finished quilt. It's now on it's way back across the country to Adds, who pieced the top.

I've left all the images relatively large, so you can click on them to see more detail. It's actually nice and squared, though it doesn't look it in the photo above; I just didn't get very straight on the wall.

If you look closely at the image above, you can see a major spine of feathers going from left to right.

A fun heart filler (I came up with several variations as I quilted):

I was quite pleased with how I managed to keep close to the edges, withough getting too close so the quilting is hidden under the binding (well, in most places, it did sneak under a couple of times!).

A different heart filler - this one came straight from Linda Taylor's fancy feathers:

Some more...

I did this section towards the end, so there are some newer filler patters, and it's definitely neater:

An 'extra' heart:

A hidden ladybird:

And more...

I really like the filigree-style filler on the right of this one:

Some waves:

Another hidden surprise:

Even though some of the intricate quilting gets a bit lost in the prints, it gives wonderful texture, and it's fun to look closely and find the detail and surprises.

It was hard to let this one go!

Excitement at Sampaguita Quilts

I popped into the newsagent at lunchtime today to see if the new issue of Australian Patchwork and Quilting was on sale yet. Luckily for me, it was - and I had the wrapper off before I got out the door.
On page 24 is my quilt Lilac Soda as a project!

And immediately following that is the quilter's profile - on me!!!

I think they did a beautiful job of photographing and styling my quilts; I'm thrilled!

Feeding the forest family

Owls, squirrels, what else is in this forest? There are a few shy family members moving in...

The quilt grew quickly today because the borders I added, although fussy-cut, were unpieced. Next up is a complex border of 28, 24-piece stars, which will naturally take rather longer!

I also forsee this being put aside for a little while, as my sister-in-law is in hospital on bed-rest, and likely to have her baby before the week is out - a full month early. Luckily it's not early enough to pose significant risks to the baby, but enough to throw my plans out! I'm eyeing-off a pile of stormy seaside-toned prints to use for that, and have a cream and pink print in mind to give it a bit of zing and femininity.

Precision-pieced patchwork

I ended up machine-appliqueing the owls' eyes with a satin stitch. Here they are on their perch ready to be added to the main part of the quilt.

Next up is this cute little squirrel. Both the squirrel and the owl are Margaret Rolfe designs. Even with foundation piecing, it's quite fiddly to get precise points where segments meet.

The eye and acorn are only about 1/4in across, and are ready to be appliqued in place.

Hello Hoot

In the absence of other household members last night, I stayed up until 4am piecing the owls for my current quilt. Most of the quilt will use Hushabye, Eva and Twiggy, but I threw in a few browns and neutrals (all so easy to locate now!) for the owl, although his forehead beak and wings are all a deep eggplant from Eva, and the branch from Eva matches this beautifully.

I'm not sure yet how I'll do the eyes. Last time I made these owls, I embroidered the eyes by hand, but this will be a used bed quilt, and I think they need to be more durable than that, so I'm mulling over machine techniques.

I've been trying to blog them all day, but had trouble uploading the photo. I've now almost finished the next set of animals, too.

Solo Saturday Sewing

Simon has taken James and Eleanor camping for the long weekend. Camping and I don't mix, so I'm having a nice time sewing alone. It's tough!

I've started adding borders to the tree, and have been cutting lots of little odd-shaped pieces for some foundation-pieced blocks to add next. Hopefully I'll get those finished and joined tomorrow.

Swanky Stash Storage

On Tuesday Eleanor and I went furniture shopping, and bought two of these.They were delivered on Wednesday morning, and Simon and I put them together on Wednesday night. I've been so sick of dealing with stacks of tubs all over the room, and repeatedly unstacking and restacking them.

Since then I've been sorting my stash into them and giving my sewing room a good clear-out while I'm at it.

The room seems so much bigger, plus I think it looks great, and it's much more organised. There's no telling how long they'll stay so neatly stocked, but I expect to start will I'll be good, then will have to resort to major tidy-ups every few months.

Several people have asked me about how I sort my stash, so here you go. First up is the left-hand cupboard:

And a guide to the contents:

Then the right-hand cupboard

And a guide to its contents:

I did a lot of sorting as I went, but there are still a number of piles of miscellaneous prints; some I sorted by colour, others are in small groupsins from certain fabric ranges. I do have a very good idea of what I have and where it is, and there weren't any surprises in the stash.

There are a couple of shelves which don't have quilt fabric, but I'm not sure how long that will last. It's not full to bursting, but the only real spaces are where a pile isn't quite as high as it could be; there's really no room for more piles. Several piles are fabrics sorted ready for specific quilts, and once they're done, the remainder will be sorted back into the rest fo the stash. I do hope that by being able to access everything so much mroe easily, I might actually use it a bit more.

On top are various notions, a couple of bolts and rolls of fabric, steam-a-seam and foundations, a tub of tthreads, some empty boxes, and magazine holders which hold various quilty papers, and will soon hold magazines, as my current shelves are overflowing.

I decided that as I was moving and sorting the whole lot, ti was a good time to measure my stash again. Like last time, I did it by weight. Want to know how much there is? Stay tuned for a GIVEAWAY on this theme in the next week or so...

For now, I'm going back to gaze at my wall of fabric again!

Parliamentary Perch

I'm ready to start appliqueing the centre panel...

There may be only one owl now, but by the time the quilt is done it will contain a parliament of owls.

This tree is the same one as is in my pattern, and I love the effect of the totally different colour.