My Stars

When photo image transfers (now called heat transfer) first became available, I was keen to try them out and the idea of this quilt was born. The quilt is completely self designed and begins with a black and white photo of my husband and I on our wedding day at the centre. a starting point. This is surrounded by a very busy patched inner section representing the business of our lives that were chaotic and yet had some order within the chaos. It is held in place by the thin red border. The white corner quilting gives the eye a resting place from the busyness in the centre (and provided me a place for more machine quilting practice). Each side shows photographs of my children growing up: my eldest daughter on the left, my son at the top and my youngest daughter on the right. The bottom has my Mum, my husband and the three children together. The white square represents our son who was still born and who we never had the opportunity to see. My garden surrounds them all

From Darwin with Love - A Colour Palette Challenge

This quilt also owes its inception to Kim’s years in Darwin - “The Top End”. One Christmas a package of fabrics arrived in the colours of the Top End: Ochre, bright yellow and intense blue. I will always associated these colours with the Northern Territory. These were colours I didn’t usually work with and the palette was a challenging one - Kim was probably aware of that. I used lots of cream to tone down the complimentaries and this is the result. I was quite pleased with the result and the fact that I had lots of space to practise using machine quilting. A good example of how pushing past our comfort zone can push us into new creative practice.

The quilting patterns were traced onto the quilt and then off I went. There are back to back hearts in the squares between the large pieced blocks. This was the first time I had used a mixture of curved quilting patterns and straight echo stitching

The Country Bride Quilt

This was one on the first quilts I machine quilted. The first applique block was begun in a workshop. The applique is machine done using rayon threads which I loved because of their shiny and fine finish. Everyone else in the class was using very traditional pale pinks or pale blues for their applique blocks but I just loved the more vibrant colours I chose.

At this stage in my life, my husband would go to the club on a Friday night and, as the children had already left home, I would use this time to quilt. Then go and collect him from the club so he wasn’t driving home having had a few drinks. It was a special time for me, a space in the week that was dedicated to what I wanted to do without interruptions.

Each block, including the quilted blocks, was made separately and then I joined them in a quilt as you go fashion. The top seam is sewn right sides together but the back seam is folded over and hand stitched down.

The quilt patterns were all pre-marked on the quilt top before stitching. I think form the photo I must have used a different weight batting in the border because is stands out more readily than the internal blocks.

Handstitched Candlewick Quilt

Hand stitched white on white Candlewick quilt

The commitment to make a hand embroidered, hand quilted candlewick bedspread was quite a large one. I have had people ask if they could purchase this quilt but I will probably never make another one like this so I have refused those offers. Each square is a different design and was completed in the evenings over a period of time. The squares were machine pieced and each square is bordered with cotton lace. I had to save up to be able to afford to buy enough cotton lace of the same type to go round all the squares. You can see a close up of one of the squares below.

I don’t think my hands would cope with all that hand quilting today. Part of my move to machine quilting was the beginning of arthritic pain in the base of my right thumb.

White quilts are notoriously difficult to photograph because the definition of light and shadow is quite minimal but anyone who has attempted to create a similar quilt will appreciate both the beauty of the completed project and the time it takes to stitch. The inner sashings are quilted in pumpkin stitch and the outer border in a rope design

Hand Applique Rose Quilt

This was a block of the month that I signed up for and when the first block arrived the colours were not what I was expecting - they were very modern and I was wanting to create a traditional looking quilt - so I withdrew from the contract for the rest of the blocks and substituted my own colours and fabric. I probably wasn’t very popular with the online supplier but the colours in the first block were nothing like what had been advertised in the pink version. It was an indication that I was becoming braver in my journey and more particular in what I was going to spend my time working on.

You can see I am still working very traditionally when this quilt was made with traditional blocks and sashings. I remember those saw tooths being a real challenge and having to fudge to get them to meet at the join. but that was all part of my quilting journey. I Was still making bed sized quilts at this stage. Quilts that had something practical as an outcome. Very traditional and quite controlled. But then that is part of the journey that has continued into the more free form quilts I create today.

This quilt is hand appliqued, machine pieces and machine quilted. It easily fits a Queen sized bed.

Fancy Cut Dresden Plate

In this stage I was still working very traditionally in blocks. The learning from this quilt was to fussy cut the sections of the Dresden plate and join them together to creating individual mandalas. I really enjoyed creating the patterns in the central squares and if I get back into piecing I would like to try some of the more extensive fussy cut kaleidoscope ideas of Paul Nadelstern. I do have a hinged mirror which enables me to see what the completed fussy cut piece will look like when pieced. Here I have just used a single very patterned fabric but Paula creates her own initial section and then repeats those to create a whole. They are extremely complex. There never seems to be enough time in the day to try all the things I would like to delve into.

I often smile when looking at these old photos at how conditioned I was. The sashing quilting is within the green bands whereas today I would probably ignore those confines and quilt across the borders.

The first time I washed this quilt, the purple dye ran into the white blocks and I felt the quilt was ruined. But then I discovered Dylon washaway and a second wash with that and the quilt was pristine again. I tend to keep a packet of that in my laundry now - not just for quilts but as an insurance against dye runs in the laundry in general.