Sundrops for Sue

I began making this large lap quilt (59"square) last year, not sure who would end up with it, but knowing I would figure it out eventually; I got it to the binding stage in January...

...then, with the passing of my Uncle Alister this March, I knew straight away 

that this would become a gift for his wife, Aunty Sue. 

I spent a LOT of time at their house as a child - it was pretty much a second home - 

so I wanted to give her something special.

The prints are from a layer cake of 'Sundrops' by  Corey Yoder for Moda. 

The prints are a mixture of florals and polka dots in a range of corals, greys, lemons and greens.

This is a 'sister' quilt to the auction quilt I made last year.

The pattern is 'Cake Slices' by Cheryl Brickey of Meadow Mist Designs.

I quilted a mixture of ribbons, echo diagonals, and straight lines.

The binding is a gorgeous coral fabric, with the backing being pieced from 

a white/grey eyelashes print and a soft green words print.

Aunty Sue was really thrilled - it went straight onto her bed!

'Kia ora' to all my visitors via Kelly's Needle and Thread Thursday linky party! 

Have a lovely Easter!

Summer Day - Lake Te Anau

So excited to share this wall-hanging - it has been selected by Aotearoa Quilters 

to be exhibited at the Ailsa Craig Quilt and Fiber Arts Festival in Ontario, Canada!

The sky is a blue poly-satin with a baby blue mesh overlay and
a couple of scraps of white netting.
I did not quilt it as wanted it to stay smooth like a clear summer sky.

I entered the wall-hanging in the 'New Zealand Through Our Eyes' challenge for Aotearoa Quilters. We had options of sizes/layout and I chose the 18" x 8' long option as I wanted to share a slice of the colours of my favourite part of NZ - Fiordland.

The forest on the mountain-side is made of roughly cut rectangles of various shades of muted greens to
represent the native beech forest that completely covers the hill-sides down to the western shore of the lake.
I free-motion quilted curves over the shapes with a thick quilting cotton to soften up the edges.

I had been pondering the theme of the challenge for a few months, but was pretty sure I wanted to showcase our landscape - this was confirmed for me while camping at Te Anau between Christmas and New Year...

The water is reverse-appliqued, using three layers of blue poly-satins or dress lining.
I quilted the ripples and then cut away some sections to reveal the darker colours.
This is really close to how the lake water looked as it moved on the day that we were crossing in the boat,
so I am super pleased with how it turned out!

...while in the boat as we crossed the lake one day, to go water-skiing at Brod Bay, 

I sat looking at the scene directly in front of me: lake, mountain, sky. 

I knew that was the scene I wanted to create in my wall-hanging.

Pre-trimming - all layers complete.

The wall-hanging was sent away at the end of January and exhibited at the Great NZ Quilt Show in Rotorua, before then heading to Canada. I look forward to seeing it again on 

show at the NZ Quilting Symposium in Auckland in October.

'Kia ora' to all my visitors via Kelly's Needle and Thread Thursday linky party!
Have a lovely Easter!

Mix and Match

I created Mix and Match out of the leftovers from my Starlings of Summer quilt, 

made with a set of Art Gallery 'Imprint' fat quarters that had been in my stash for a few years.

When making Starlings, there are a lot of cut-off triangles, so I decided that I would randomly piece them together to make some improv blocks (rather than stuff them into the scrap boxes for 'later').

It was so satisfying to have a second quilt made so quickly; it measures 29" square.

At the moment I have it hanging on my sewing room wall; not sure what I will do with it.

For the quilting I used some random zig-zag lines, inspired by walking foot designs 

in Jacquie Gering's 'Walk' book.

The backing is a grey/white flannel.

'Kia ora' to all my visitors via Kelly's Needle and Thread Thursday linky party! 

Have a lovely Easter!

Starlings of Summer

My intention was that I wasn't going to make anything new in January and that I would just complete some UFOs and WIPs. Ha, ha, dreaming! (Anything to avoid doing school work...)
Actually, I decided to make a large lap quilt for my lovely, young workmate, Emma Diack,
to mark the occasion of her marriage to Phillip (Harvey) Norman.

I could not resist the challenge of trying out this pattern and trying to win 

a fat quarter bundle in the process and so I have made this Starling lap quilt 

after seeing a Fat Quarter Shop quiltalong on Instagram.
(AND, good news...I DID win a bundle, so excited!)

The pattern is called the Starling Quilt (can you see the birds in it?) and it is great for fat quarters - 

I used a bundle of Art Gallery Fabrics 'Imprint' collection that I have had in my stash for a couple of years and added some new yardage of the light grey print and the blue-black print.

Size: 52.5" square

For the backing I used two aqua prints from my stash (yay for stashbusting!) and I made a scrappy binding from leftovers of the fat quarters.

The pattern is super easy to follow and I had the top made and basted in one day, with a simple all over curved line pattern of quilting done with the walking foot (inspired by Jacquie Gering) 

all done the next day.

When making the starling blocks there were a lot of half triangle cut-offs that I decided to 

sew up with other scrappy leftovers from the fat quarters to make another quilt...

usually I would stuff them in a scrap bin until I 'get round to it' so I am feeling quite proud 

of myself for using them (and it is looking really cool - will reveal when finished!)

Hello to all my crafty visitors from Kelly's Needle and Thread Thursday linky party
and from Myra's Finished or Not Friday linky party - nice to 'see' you all!