More Favorite Things

Flower Garden was made because I love hand work and this quilt is pieced and appliqued by hand.
 While I was waiting for hip surgery in 2012, I got to the stage where I couldn't even sit at my sewing machine for more than a couple minutes so hand piecing and appliqueing this quilt was my sanity.
 I gave it to my son and daughter-in-law for Christmas but they had to wait for six months because I wanted to enter it in Showcase.  I am so excited because it was photographed hanging in show by Quiltmania magazine and is pictured in the latest issue.
It actually hung flat which was a miracle because I had put an extra apple core in one corner and it isn't a perfect square.

Next is A Pieceful Garden which is one of my favorite quilts, not just because it is brown but for me it was a creative leap.  I didn't have enough of one brown fabric to do all  the background and while I was "what iffing" I thought "I'll just use different browns" and then I thought "what if I  pieced the backgrounds". While I was sewing I was just about hyperventilating because I was so happy with the effect I was achieving. It was a real "step outside the square" for me.

Country Album was meant to  be a "baltimore meets country".  I wanted to combine some really traditional Baltimore blocks with some country style pieced blocks and really just have a bit of fun.






So until next time

Happy stitching

from Therese.

Busy, busy, busy.

Even though I haven't been posting for a while I have been sewing.  I have had some personal health issues to deal with plus a good helping  Winter Lurgies which is why I have been a bit quiet here.  I did finish a quilt I started about two years ago out of my leftover strings and strips and triangles from bindings down the sides. It is hand quilted and bound now.  All I have to do is the label.








I quilted it vertically in all the strings and it looks great. sometimes the simple quilting is the most effective.

















We have been running some classes this year encouraging our students to actually use some  their stash, especially bits left over from other quilts. I called it Ginger Beer quilts. Does anyone else remember homemade ginger beer and you halved the "plant" each time to make  that batch but added stuff to the original and left it to ferment till the next time. Very much like Sour Dough bread.
The Pennsylvania Log Cabin quilt was one of the classes and is a great way to use 1 1/2" and
 2 1/2" strips.  I made a queen size quilt from stuff left over from other projects. The only problem I have is that it hasn't made a dent in my stash.







So until next time

Happy stitching

from Therese.

p.s. I will be making a big effort to post more often.

Giving Back with a Friendship Medallion

I just love it when people send me photos of finished quilts made from my designs. It gives me so much satisfaction to know that someone else likes what I do especially this particular quilt.  It was an exercise in frugality for me initially that I shared with my friendship group and then in the shop with my customers and from there to the blog and over the internet with complete strangers.

There have been so many finished quilts and every one is different.

I am a great believer in the "pay it forward" philosophy and this was a way of saying THANK YOU to the amazing quilting sisterhood.

Until next time

Happy Stitching

from Therese.

It's Judy"s Fault

One of our customers showed me a picture of a quilt that she liked and asked if I knew how to make the block.  I knew I had it in one of my reference books so I told her I would dig it out while she was away as she was off on an overseas trip a few days later so I knew there was no rush.  But it is autumn after all ----- so when I got home I started flicking through my books, found the pattern, got out the graph paper and worked out how it was constructed.  Then the following Sunday I thought "I should make a block so I can show Judy how to make it when she gets home".
I have been organizing my scraps a la Bonnie Hunter for several years so it was a simple matter of going through the drawers with the right size strips and picking out autumn toned fabrics.  I had a lovely afternoon playing with colours and trying to decide on brown, orange, gold, beige or red.  Then I thought "what the heck, I'll just make one in each colour".

By the end of the day I had five blocks cut out and had drawn up the diagram for a table runner and cut out the borders as well.  That night I appliqued the stems and the next day I pieced the blocks and stitched the border piano keys together.  By the end of the week the runner was together and I had it pinned ready to quilt.  With simple straight line quilting, by the end of the following week it was bound and finished and when three customers asked for the pattern, I wrote it up, typed it out and am in the process of making up the pattern.  So it's all Judy's fault because she made me do it.

I forget sometimes how effective traditional pieced blocks can be for simple items to decorate your home especially to celebrate the changing seasons and holiday times.

Until next time

Happy stitching

from Therese.

Old Favourites

These quilts are some of my favourite old designs. "Pretty 'n' Pink" was the first in pretty fabrics.  Then one day I realised that pink wouldn't suit everyone so I needed to consider other colours. 

That led me to create "Lavender Hill" using any fabric print in the shop that had the slightest bit of purple or mauve in it. I also put a lot more stitching in this quilt too.

 Next came "My Blue Heaven" (see my post from December 18th last year) and then "Peaches and Cream".  I still love these type of quilts with that combination of traditional pieced blocks, pretty applique and simple stitching.  I hope they are as fun for other people to sew as they were for me to design.

The patterns are still available for all of these quilts and just keep selling all the time which is nice for me too.

So until next time,

Happy stitching from Therese.

Shades of Grey

Yes I have been "missing in action" but when the creative bug strikes I can't ignore it. I have been very busy designing a new quilt and have been beavering away stitching in a frenzy while the juices are flowing.
There is still a lot of what I call the "donkey work" to do but I can see the finished quilt in my mind. It may need a bit of tweaking as I put it together which often happens as part of the design process.










  It is in very muted and greyish colours, which I am very drawn to at the moment.  I have incorporated some quite challenging pieced blocks and of course lots of applique and some stitching

It will be a queen size quilt and I hoping to have the top together in another three weeks.

So if I am a bit quiet with posts, please forgive me because I will be head down, bum up, madly stitching.



So until next time,

Happy Stitching from Therese

Old Friend

About 15 years ago I made myself a Needle Book with pockets to hold scissors, thimble and threads as well as pins and needles. It had a very cute Teddy bear on the front and in my mind I called her "Honey".
She has been my hand sewing companion ever since. Over the years of constant use Honey has become a little shabby (as in VERY shabby). I decided it was time to retire my old friend to live by my lounge room chair and stitch a new travelling buddy.

So meet "Hexie".  May we have as much fun and share as many adventures together as Honey and I did.

Happy stitching,

from Therese.

Pattern writing

I love the creative buzz of finishing a new design. BUT! The next step is Writing the Pattern. I always have my rough notes with ideas scribbled everywhere including diagrams and drawings that only I can understand. So eventually I just have to say to myself  "suck it up Princess" and force myself to sit down, focus and just start.  Of course, then I wonder why I procrastinated for so long because once I get started it flows so easily. In about a week this

              becomes this

 plus a bonus Pin Cushion pattern.

I was under the pump because these notes were for our "Summer Sampler" which we started in January and most of the girls are close to finished with 2 weeks of summer still to go.


Sorry for the gap in posting but there were technical changes to Blogger and it has taken me a couple of weeks to work them out.

So Happy stitching,

from Therese.

Our Country Home

Country Hearts was  the first Block of the Month that I designed so it has a very special place in my heart.  It was in 2003 and the fact that it was very successful gave me the courage to continue the journey on my own.  The prairie girls in the first row and the love birds in row 5 still make me smile.

 

 

The second country quilt I designed had an Australian flavour with the outback style house and barbed wire fence in the bottom row.

 

 I chose a block from this quilt to make into a wall hanging, showing how to use elements of a pattern to create something new.

Then I decided to try my hand at a pretty, feminine quilt with easy piecing and some sweet applique and stitching so Bluebird Cottage was created.  We sold it as a pattern and kit very successfully for many years.  It is still available as a pattern now because pretty floral fabrics NEVER go out of fashion, do they.



I am really enjoying my walks down memory lane and re-visiting some of my first quilts for Patchwork Pumpkin.


Happy Stitching till next time

from Therese.

Summer Sampler

I know I have posted about this quilt before but it is now finished and the classes are starting tomorrow. The class format is eight 2 hour sessions and can be done anytime between now and the end of summer.

 It is summer here in Australia and lots of people have their annual holidays.  There doesn't seem to be much available for those people who are so busy during the year, they can't get to a regular class.


 I had a lot of fun making this quilt because it had to be small, it had to be easy but with lots of different techniques to learn.  I wanted a quilt that a real beginner could make but would still offer something to an intermediate quilter too.









I am passionate about hand quilting and I have used different techniques in the blocks to demonstrate how quilting changes everything.  Even by just changing the thread. Click on the photos to see what I mean.

So Happy Stitching,

from Therese