Melba magpies

I purchased this little bundle of joy from Linda @ Gum Valley Patchwork just recently. They are from Emma Jean Jansen's latest range 'Melba', inspired by her time living in Melbourne as a student. 

'Melba' is manufactured by Ella Blue, a fabric house developed by Australian designers. Ella Blue is such a breath of fresh air in the Australian quilting fabric market. They are producing high quality quilting fabrics, at refreshingly competitive prices - AU$16/metre compared with the AU$24 and AU$28 price tags that Australian quilters are used to paying.

I also found a couple of Ella's Basics at a local quilt shop. It's a real treat to find some text fabric with local names! I was not so happy that this shop insisted on charging me $24/metre instead of the RRP $16. Hmmmm ...

I have been collecting a few text fabrics lately. I think they are a calm foil for busier fabrics.

As a sometime proof reader, I couldn't help but notice the typo in this one:

Can you spot it?

Enough whingeing! Have a great weekend everyone. Bloom x

Some summer sewing

One of my 14-year-old daughter's good friends has ventured to boarding school in Sydney. This friend has been very kind and supportive to my Olivia as she has struggled with her health. So it was an obvious choice to make her a snuggle quilt to remind her of how much she will be missed.

(Sorry that the photo is dark and awful. I'm having issues with my SLR lately, but that's another story altogether).

It is a simple raw-edge layer cake quilt, our 'go-to' method when a gift is required in a hurry! Olivia chose 'High Street' by Lily Ashbury, a very happy collection of fabrics. 

Image source

She sewed it together herself across the summer holidays ...

... but somehow ran out of time to do the binding. Hmmm, guess who got that job?!

Not that I minded. Thankfully, I belong to that half of quilters who find binding meditative and relaxing!

Her friend was very thankful for her gift, and thought the quilt was, and I quote: "the most awesome present ever ... and I'm not even faking"! Sweet!

Here is a photo she sent of it on her bed at boarding school. 

She says she wraps herself in it when she is feeling homesick :) Now that would warm the heart of any quilter, young or old!

Scrapping

I have finished my scrap quilt top! Now to find some time to quilt it.

I have a cunning plan to use this Lotta Jansdotter 'Echo' print for the backing (I picked it up for a song ($4/m) at Spotlight recently). I thought I would stitch this quilt from the back by roughly following the lines of the backing print. Good plan?

Notice that beautiful dark green in the background? That is our wheat crop. We have had great rain this season, and the crops in our part of the world are looking amazing. Here's hoping that the forecasts for a dry spring are wrong!

By hand

Thank you for your suggestions on my hexie dilemma. The consensus seemes to be to push on with the project, and that lining the piece with white will stop the seams from showing through so much.

We had a brief trip to Sydney in the school holidays, and I finally got to visit Quiltsmith in Annandale. Another one to tick off my 'quilt shop bucket list'! I snapped these impressive hand pieced quilts while I was there:

I also popped in to Post Office Patchwork in Glenbrook where I picked up a lovely set of 1930s fabrics. 

So armed with your advice, some visual inspiration and some new fabrics, I'm all set to get back to my hexies!

Some hexie action

The weather is cold and drizzly here. Perfect for farmers ... and sewing. I love a rainy day. Having grown up on a farm, rain always meant rest from helping Mum and Dad and time to play. Rain still evokes that feeling for me. And so I have been playing:



I'm channelling my inner 1930s with some half inch hexies in pretty little prints. I am loving paper piecing - it is precise and methodical, which suits me just fine right now.

I have one small quibble: They look lovely right up until the time that I remove the papers. I don't like that the seam is showing through on the white hexies. Picky, I know! You can't see it so much in these photos, but trust me, it's annoying.

What are my options?

1. Push on and ignore it? 

2. Start again with a thicker white fabric so that the seams don't show?

3. Line the back of the piece with white fabric and hope it minimises the seams showing?

4. Shelve it in frustration?

All suggestions are welcome. Just don't call me anal ;) I'm thinking I'll go with #1 and #3. Ain't nobody got time for #2 and my shelves are already too full with abandoned projects for #4. 

Scrap-busting

And so we are well into February, the kids are back at school and my time is a little more my own again. I am keen to get back into some sewing. I was looking for something easy and quick to get me back in the groove.

My scrap basket was overflowing, with lots of surplus jelly roll strips from previous projects (like this one and this one).

 

I decided to make 'Candy Coated' by Amanda Jean @ Crazy Mum Quilts. The pattern is in her book 'Sunday Morning Quilts' (co-written with Cheryl Arkison).

Source

It is a really easy project, not requiring too much thought in terms of fabric placement or colour - the things that usually slow me down! 

I can spend 10 minutes on it here or there and it is coming together nicely. It feels good to be using up fabric scraps and to be dusting off the machine!

Charm square backpack PDF pattern

Whoever dreamed up the idea of fabric charm packs was a marketing genius ... and the nemesis of every fabric addict! The addict enters a fabric shop, and no matter her level of determination to resist, those little sample packs just draw her in. And she says to herself, "If I just buy one of these, it's cheaper than yardage, and I'll have a little bit of every fabric in the range. Win, win!" And so I have an untold number of random charm packs in my stash. 

I set myself a challenge to come up with a pattern to whittle down this collection. Something practical, something quick to make, and that can make use of a single random charm pack. I'm happy to say that I have written up a pattern for my Charm Square Backpack.

I have designed a drawstring backpack, made from a single charm pack, combined with a half metre of lining fabric.

At approximately 18" square, it is a perfect size for that quick trip to the shops, or a swim at the beach. It would also be great as a kid's library bag, or for their next sleepover with friends.

The backpack is fully lined, has an external zippered pocket for safe keeping of valuables and a loop for hanging.

I've made four of these backpacks now, and I confess they are quite addictive! But then it seems I'm prone to addiction :) The backpack on the left is made from Bonnie and Camille's 'Happy-Go-Lucky' range, while the one on the right is Zen Chic's 'Sphere', both by Moda of course, the leading culprit in charm pack world domination.

I also made two backpacks for some entomological friends of mine, using 'Bee My Honey' by Mary Jane.

I was lucky enough to find some fabulous braided cord at one of my local quilt shops. It is apparently an 'end of line' item, so is not readily available. If you find some, I suggest you buy it all (like I did). It just seems to blend with any fabric combination you can think of.

The Charm Square Backpack pattern is available as a PDF download in my shop.

If you happen to subscribe to my Newsletter, you will find a discount code for this pattern in your inbox. If you don't subscribe, but would like to, there is a newsletter subscription link at the top right of this page.

The story of a quilt

I guess every quilt has a story, reflecting what is happening in the quilt maker's life at the time.

I turned 40 in July ... eight years ago! My Mum said she'd make me a birthday quilt.

A pattern was chosen: a simple design called 'Coventry' by Brenda Riddle, from her book 'Comfort and Joy'. I am a sucker for star blocks, and that double border of tiny red squares was calling me.

Source

The fabric was chosen: the same fabrics used in Brenda's quilt, 'Roman Holiday' by 3 Sisters for Moda.

But in May 2006, my Dad was diagnosed with bowel cancer. The quilt was shelved, and the next nine months of Mum's life were focussed on caring for him. He passed away in February 2007.

So now, eight years later, my 40th birthday quilt has been dusted off. In that time, a background fabric was chosen, a dusty blue sprig on cream, from the 'Rural Jardin' range by French General for Moda.

In the last school holidays, Mum and I worked together on my quilt. Mum sewed, while I cut and pressed. 

When Mum and I sew together, we get places! We had 36 star blocks whipped up in no time. Admittedly, we had some help. Inspired by Rita in this post, I invested in a set of Bloc Loc rulers to help with our flying geese blocks. 

While these rulers are expensive, I would highly recommend them. They made an enormous difference to the speed and accuracy with which our blocks came together. 

So my birthday quilt is well underway. The blocks are all done, and pinned to our design wall (aka red fleece blanket). Mum has rolled it up and taken it home to finish piecing the top. I'll keep you posted on its progress. Mum? ... Mum? How are you going with it?!

This is a favourite photo of my Mum and me, taken about 1985 when Mum was 40! Yes, we were milking sheep ... but that's a story for another day.

Cuddle up

My Mum has been keeping herself busy making cuddly, shaggy quilts for her grandchildren.

One of the grandsons has claimed this one.

This quilt started life as a dog's breakfast eclectic pack of eye-spy charm squares. On first seeing them, I wasn't sure how we could pull them together. There were whites, brights, muted country colours and everything in between. 

But we surprised ourselves. We pulled out tone-on-tone prints from the stash, and bordered each charm square. We chose a pale green abstract print for the backing, and the whole thing came together quite nicely! 

 

I employed my Boy to help me take these photos. He's 15. He loves to help his mother with quilt photography :)

The day was dull and blustery. We were having trouble getting a shot, with each gust of wind blowing the quilt every which way.

But then, genius that he is, Boy said, 'Mum, you realise that if we put the quilt on the other side of the gate, the wind would blow it flat" ...

Aaaah, much better. At least one of us was thinking! Thanks Boy ;)

For Jessica ... or is it Jessika?

I sewed up this little quilt not long ago for one of my nieces. Jessica has just turned one. While it was intended as her birth gift, I figure she wouldn't have appreciated it much earlier ... would she?!

I have used my 'go-to' baby quilt, the smaller quilt in my 'Abracadabra' pattern, simply because it can be made up so quickly. I have used an assortment of Aneela Hoey fabrics with some Denyse Schmidt prints, and an Amy Butler dot.

Jessica's big sister Kate also has a version of this quilt, so now they can snuggle together wrapped in love from Aunty Ros. 

Their mother, on unwrapping Jessica's gift, looked at me straight, in all seriousness and gasped, "You realise it's Jessika with a 'k'?" I momentarily died a thousand deaths until I caught the cheeky glint in her eye. Naughty!!

Daisy Chain quilt tutorial

Thank you for your interest in my daisy chain quilt tutorial. The tutorial has moved and is available in its entirety at this link. Best wishes, Bloom.

A kind of hush

I've been very privileged to have some of my projects published in Australian Homespun magazine over the last few years. My latest quilt design is in the March issue (No. 130). It is a soft and pretty number, called 'A Kind of Hush'.

It is made from a layer cake of Figtree Quilt's 'California Girl', plus some yardage. I get serious satisfaction from working out how to make a pre-cut go a long way. If, like me, you have a layer cake stash in the cupboard, then this quilt could be for you!

You can purchase Homespun magazine in Australian newsagents or download an electronic copy from Zinio. There's even a blurb about me in this month's issue which I think I can share with you without breaching copyright. 

And if it doesn't rain it pours - I have a second project coming up in the April issue of Homespun. You'll never guess what it is! A mad idea that I've had rattling about in my head for ages came to be. Here is a clue, just to tease:

Have a good week. Bloom x