Blogger's BOM and much more

Here are my next 2 blocks for the Blogger's BOM organised by Jackie of Canton Village Quilt Works. This month's block was designed by Vicki Welsh of Field Trips in Fibre. Click here to go to Jackie's post with  a list of all the contributing bloggers.


I have started the next block of Friends of Baltimore. Below is a progress photo.

Here is where I am up to now....

Still a long way to go!

Today I started my next Roseville Album block.  Much larger pieces of fabric in this one! Lol

I have also done a little bit more to my medallion....

Lots of piecing in the next round.


Yesterday I went to Bendigo with my DD to see the White Wedding Dress exhibition. The majority of the exhibition was from a collection brought to Australia from the V and A in London. A small selection of Australian bridal fashion was also shown.

It was a fascinating display of old and new wedding fashion spanning 200 years. Alongside gowns by couturiers as diverse as Charles Frederick Worth, Norman Hartnell, Vivienne Westwood and Vera Wang  were creations lovingly made and passed down by families both in the United Kingdom and Australia. Old and new were displayed next to a dress made from curtain fabric during war time rationing and a beaded gown with a 12 foot train. There were stunning appliqued lace veils and hand made satin shoes. Modern Australian bridal wear was represented by several designers including Melbourne's Gwendolynne Burkin,  Toni Maticevski and milliner Richard Nylon and Akira Isogawa from Sydney.

All of the older gowns and many of the newer ones were displayed in glass cases. For us there were several "how did they make that!" moments where we would have loved to be able to look at the dresses more closely. (from the inside!) Some of the designs were amazing!

It was wonderful to see that some of the dresses had been kept by families for over 100 years.

There is a book published by the V and A that shows a greater proportion of their wedding fashion collection.

On the way home we detoured via Castlemaine to visit Threadbear. (of course!)

I have started collecting fabrics to join in with Janet's quilt along to make a version of Susan McCord's Trailing Vines.  I found the "perfect" backing fabric here during the week. That is the fabric on the right in the photo below.
The red and green fabrics on the left (for the sashing and vines) and the "bee" fabric (for the background) I found yesterday.

It is great to be sewing again!! :)

Start of medallion quilt

Here is my medallion quilt so far:

Just 2 half in borders completed. The background fabric will make another half inch border after I have squared the project up with a row of triangles top and bottom.

I have also finished 3 more Civil War quilt blocks.





Just one more block to make and I will have caught up.

I have found a new fabric line that will be coming out before the end of the year. If you like Margo Krager's chintz centre panels, you will probably like this!  :)

Happy sewing. :)

Hello.....is anyone there????

It has been a while since I last posted....

These 3  Barbara Brackman Civil War Quilt blocks are all the sewing I have managed in the last 3 or 4 weeks. :(


The title of this post should be "What I have been buying!".......Lol

These fabrics I found in a dress making fabric shop. (Cutting Edge (no website) on Glenferrie Rd Malvern for anyone in Melbourne)

The print on the left of the first photo is a Liberty which will be added to my collection.

The fabric on the right has 4 panels printed across the width. I think it will make an interesting quilt.

Both the fabrics in the 2nd photo are Italian. I am not sure what I will make yet, but I love the designs.
Who else buys fabric with no purpose in mind? Just because it is pretty??

After reading Kathie's recent blog posts about Betsy Chutchian's recent fabric release (Cross Roads to Texas) I caught her enthusiasm and did a bit of purchasing in several places to gather the collection above. The book, also by Betsy Chutchian, not only has patterns and instructions for many quilts, it also tells the story of Betsy's great - great grandmother, Lizzie Carpenter with excerpts from Lizzie's journals.  It made for very interesting reading and plenty of quilting inspiration too. I haven't made a Lone Star quilt before, so I think that will be the first one I make from the book.

Choosing Quilting Designs is not a new book, but still contains plenty of relevant information. At the moment I am leaning towards hand quilting my Morrell Quilt, so this book will be very useful.

Treasures From Holland by Petra Prins is a much more recent publication. It is full of amazing quilts with clear photographs and diagrams and plenty of very clear instructions. Again there are several quilts I would love to make in this book.

Since my last post about the medallion above I have added to the collection of fabrics. There is more of the fabric on the top right coming (thank you Dawn for identifying it for me)
I have also designed my first quilt using these fabrics. It will be a traditional medallion quilt.

Now to wait till my arm gets better so I can sew for more than a few minutes at a time!!!

I hope all is well with all in USA who were affected by Hurricane Irene.

I've been busy.

With a combination of cold, damp weather and a sore elbow that has clipped my wings somewhat, I have had lots of sewing time this week. :)

I have finally started my Roseville Album quilt!!! Yay!!

I started by making about 16 yards (14 metres) of 1/4" bias tape for the stems and about 50 circles. (thank you Karen for the circles tutorial)

I have chosen 2 or 3 favouite fabrics on which to base the colours for my quilt. I am a bit afraid that when I lift that freezer paper my block may look like an explosion in a paint factory! There is lots of colour there! This may just be version 1.0. lol

I have used reverse applique on the vase and I plan to use reverse applique again on 2 of the flowers.

I have the rest of the elements for the block cut out. I plan to have more to show later in the week.


Does anyone remember Cheddar Cheese and Crackers from Lori's blog? Weeeelll...I started quilting mine last year. I was not happy with how it was turning out, so I unpicked everything and replaced the batting with something a little thicker than I had been using. I am much happier this time.This hand quilting has kept me occupied late at night while watching Le Tour De France on TV.

I am about half way through and Le Tour finishes on Saturday!!

I spent yesterday trying to catch up with my Barbara Brackman civil war blocks. Here are the six I managed to finished. Only one more to go....that last one wasn't cooperating yesterday! lol

Lastly, a bit more hand stitching. I have completed making the triangle borders for my Morrell Quilt.

...and a little retail therapy...

This is a chintz centre  panel from here and a fat quarter bundle of coordinating prints.
This won't happen for a while (I think I might just have enough to go on with for the time being! lol), but I plan to make a small medallion quilt of my own design.

So, it has been a week of starting something new, working on a continuing project and slowly progressing on finally getting some older projects finished.....and always planning the next project!

Have a lovely week and I hope all of you find some sewing time. :)