Even more progress

The REALLY YELLOW quilt has now been added to, appliqued and, as of this morning, basted. Thread basted. Have I mentioned how I loath pin basteing? I don't think it holds everything well enough. I always thread baste in a grid with rows about 4" apart with stitches about 1/2" long just going across from one side to the other. I've never seen the logic in going from the centre out or from the centre to the corners. And I've never had a problem with pulling out the threads once they've been machine quilted over or with any shifting of the layers. At the moment I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to quilt it so no photos till its done.

A bit more progress

I've put a border around this now. Still not finished. I was a bit bothered by that centre block in the bottom row. But really it looks a lot bluer in the photo than in real life so I decided to leave it. I'll add some more strippy/leafy bits to 'spill' out into the border areas. Did I mention it's ............ yellow? It's very, very.........yellow. I've never before made a quilt quite so ........yellow.


I've also had some fun doing a couple more journal quilts this week but I haven't put the bindings on so I can't show you yet.

January Journal Quilt

This is my very first ever Journal Quilt. I belong to an online art quilters group and decided this year to do the journal quilts each month along with the other members. Yes I know we're half way through February. The quilts are only small - A4 size (12" x 8 1/2") There is a different theme each month - January's was Heat. Appropriate as I was stitching this last Saturday. The hottest day in Melbourne's history (46 deg C) and the start of the worst bushfires we have ever known. The last report I heard 185 dead and nearly 800 homes burned to the ground. That death toll is sure to rise as more bodies are discovered in burnt out homes and cars.

Show and Tell

This is a bit of show and tell from many years ago. I thought I might drag out some of the old photos of quilts I have made over the years and scan them. This quilt used and lot of my hand-dyeds, some that I had overprinted with leaves from the garden, and some drapery fabrics. The dark areas don't show up very well in this photo. I really should re photograph many of my quilts with the digital camera.I've been shifting around sewing machines this week. So....you think. What's the big deal. You pick it up you put it somewhere else. No. I'm talking about industrial machines. They weigh a ton. They have a large solid table with a large heavy motor that is attached under the table. The head of the machine (the bit that actually sews) can be lifted out of the table. I can barely lift them, they're so heavy. I have five of them that I use for my business, well four really, cause one I had set up for machine quilting in my studio. They have sooo much more room under the arm of the machine than a domestic machine. These have about 12". I needed to swap this one for a different one that had been geared down and was a bit more controllable at slower speeds. So I had to wait until someone came to visit that could help me lift them. Where's a man with muscles when you need one?