Quilting Owl

In the latest edition of Australian Patchwork & Quilting Vol 21 No 10 you can check out one of my designs "A Spring Affair".  This is a single bed sized two block quilt with a pieced border in a very soft toned pallet in pinks, blues, greens and of course my favourite yellow.     For some time this project was just a pile of pink, blue, green and yellow blocks and I couldn't decide what to do with them.  The next time I worked on them I decided to add an alternate block using a lovely floral print on a white background set in a square in a square setting.  When the quilt was commissioned I still hadn't decided on a border so it was finally decision time.  I always work well with a deadline and decided to add a pieced border and then an outer border with the floral print that was in the first lot of blocks.     I quilted "A Spring Affair" on my Bernina Aurora 440 with the aid of a floral stencil for the alternate blocks and m...

The Sunday Stitchers brought along some wonderful work to share with us and first up is Thora's beautiful Civil War quilt which took out first prize in the Patchwork Open section at the recent Atherton Show.  Thora made this quilt from the blocks that Barbara Brackman posted on her blog every week last year and it has turned out to be an absolutely wonderful quilt.  Congratulations Thora!  Maybe I will now be inspired to set and finish my stack of Civil War blocks. Jenny has finished the top for "Star Turn" from my recent Mini Quilt workshop. We have been watching Kathy work on Anni Down's "An Angels Story" and we were delighted to see the finished quilt.  Kathy quilted this herself on a domestic sewing machine and I have shown some detail from the border. Kathy also had a beautiful block roll she has recently finished with the lovely message "I'm always happy when I am stitching".  Till next time Frances

I have been thoroughly enjoying watching the olympics this week and this gave me the opportunity to work on projects old and new.  My very long time Double Wedding Ring project was brought out for an airing and I enjoyed doing some hand piecing to progress this quilt.  I am still not completely sure how large this project will end up but I am determined to finish it some time. As I have also been recovering from a particularly nasty bout of flu/cold I needed some comfort stitching and the machine pieced Farmers Wife blocks filled the bill beautifully.  I am still using an eclectic scrappy mix of fabrics and so far have not repeated a fabric in more than one block.  The block count is now 59 and I have passed the halfway mark. I like to vary my stitching so I have also been doing some nice and easy fusible applique with blanket stitch by hand.  These have been the perfect blocks to stitch while watching the games when I have enjoyed sports I don'...