Quirky Quilts

5 years ago, I made my quilt ‘Bikinis on Turquoise Bay’ which won a first prize in QuiltWest and was chosen as one of the best quilts from WA to be displayed at the Australian Quilt Convention.

We have just returned from a fantastic trip up to Ningaloo National Park and guess what?  Turquoise Bay still looks the same!

I have had a short break from making commissions to finish the quilt for our bed. At last.  I love it.  It is two sided and the bright side uses improv piecing which takes much longer than you would imagine.  The muted side incorporates pieces of the curtain and blind fabric.

The bright side

The muted side

There appears to be a large demand for memory quilts.  I have so many requests to make quilts from t-shirts and clothing but I believe there is a better option.   Recently I have been making what I call ‘Tree of Life’ quilts which use just a small disc of fabric as a memory rather than a large patch.  Fabrics of completely different material and texture can be used.

A large wall hanging

Apart from the white background, this whole piece was made from my client’s mother’s clothing.  The tree trunk was a t-shirt and the top and bottom beautiful silk jackets.

I have just made a set of three similar but smaller pieces from the baby clothes of each of my client’s three children.

This quilt is 1000mm x 700mm and if you want one similar made, the cost is $300 + P&P.

This one took me a very, very long time to make but it was for my godson’s 21st birthday so that made it more than worth it.  It is made from shot cotton and has a superb, soft feel to it.  Given that it was a BIG quilt, it was tricky to line up everything, particularly the quilting, on both sides.

Green Side of Quilt

Blue Side of Quilt

Australian Landscape

I was thrilled to receive 2nd prize in the Abstract category of QuiltWest.  Standards really high this year and my friends at https://ourhousequilts.wordpress.com and  http://pippaquilt.blogspot.com/ also got prizes for their stunning work.

I made this commissioned quilt at the beginning of the year for a client’s daughter’s significant birthday.  I have just received word that she is thrilled with it!  It is so nice to get feedback!

As a distraction from finishing off the two quilts I am entering into QuiltWest 2018, I have been making rope baskets.  You can become quite obsessed!  I have now run out of rope and have a cupboard full of basket gifts – so back to quilting.

• The background is the Puerto Rican flag with the heading “No La Trata Humana” which reads no human trafficking in Spanish.   I stated in my first email, this wall hanging will be a gift for a charity that fights Human Trafficking, particularly child exploitation.
• The yellow flower is an old Puerto Rican symbol for the sun.  The charity’s logo is appliquéd in the centre of the flower with some of the governing values of the charity in the ‘petals’.
• Taino symbols are quilted into the blue section of the flag.

This piece now hangs in the offices of the Ricky Martin Foundation in Puerto Rico.

I am hosting the first Contemporary Quilt Group Studio Day on Wednesday.  The facilities allow you to try things that are a bit messy to do at home!  I am planning to use various methods to apply soy wax resist to cotton and silk fabrics and some rope bowls I have made. Fabrics and bowls have been washed and soaked in soda ash so that once I get around to dyeing, which I will do later at home, the dye should take. I wonder what it will all turn out like…. and I wonder what other members will be trying….

After the hard work associated with renovating a bathroom which is almost finished, I had fun this weekend making things to go in it.  I made a wall hanging and co-ordinating tissue holder.  I also made a basket for the toilet rolls from washing line – first time I’d done this and it worked very well.  The framed embroidery was made last year.

Renovated bathroom

Wall hanging

Co-ordinating tissue holder

Basket for toilet rolls