We make quilts for all sorts of reasons. This one came under the heading of “because I wanted to”. I have long admired Lone Star quilts, generally hand pieced and traditionally quilted, but it wasn’t until I saw the Plains and Pine Big Sky Star quilt pattern, that I was moved to actually make one. This is almost an old quilt for me. I completed it about a year ago, but just hadn’t blogged about it as it was about to hit the show circuit (where it did pretty well), and I wasn’t in a place to work through what…
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It is currently December, and so quilting plans for the new year have begun to pop into mind. Over the past few years I have been interested in doing a temperature quilt, and so planning this in December, ready to kick off in January seems to be the logical thing. But I am starting with some questions (in no particular order): What is a temperature quilt? First thing first – what is this? When I was growing up, stuck to the wall next to the phone was dad’s rain chart. Each morning he would wander out to the garden and…
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My Nana Kit lived to be 102. In her last months of life she took to giving advice to all who she considered part of her family. My cousins received pearls of wisdom on managing a work/life balance; my sons were told how hard life can be, and sometimes just persevering is what is needed. I was told the formula for knitting a skirt and how to double warp a loom. My relationship with Nana was a close one, based largely on a shared love of textile art and the domestic sciences as she used to describe the more practical…
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Like many quilters I have used – a lot – of different approaches to mark my work to help with the task of the moment. There is always new technology, the latest quilting gadget or tool to be used to mark appliqué, hand quilting lines or hand sewing guides on your fabric. For years people have been using the Frixion Erasable pens for their quilt marking needs (debates/reviews here, here and here). I have to admit that I haven’t gone down that pathway, the chance that the lines will appear at some inopportune time has always put me off using…
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We had a recent family wedding that necessitated a cross country road trip covering 2300km (1430 miles), it also needed a new bag. Like many things, it started with shoes. I have had thee cream floral satin shoes which I was given for my birthday in what has come to be known as the pandemic before times… like just before, I didn’t have a chance to wear them. So when presented with a wedding and an opportunity to frock up, I decided that this was the perfect time to wear them. But I didn’t have the right bag and shopping…
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I was influenced. You know when you go to the shows, and watch the demonstrations and write the user case in your head to convince yourself that this is something that you “need”. It has turned out that this thing I bought myself (as a reward for something, could have been surviving a Monday), is worth every cent. I bought myself an AccuQuilt. I now have a collection of dies and a head full of ideas of how I want to use it, both for traditional reasons, but also to have a play with something new and play with colour…
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September 2023 brought the third (I think) of the workshops I have attended this year (the other two will come soon to here). It was with Australian contemporary landscape quilter Gloria Loughman. This was a two day class organised through Canberra Quilters Inc (my local guild), and was a very intense weekend filled with learning, trying new things, and really pushing what it is to me to be a quilter. Generally speaking, I am not an “art quilter”. It isn’t something I have ever thought of myself as, nor has it been something I have thought of myself being interested…
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I have been quilting for decades, but it took me becoming actively involved in my local guild before I would even consider entering my work in an exhibition. The first “exhibition” I entered in was for the completed Down the Rabbit Hole quilt top, with Sarah Fielke. At the end of each year Sarah runs an online gallery-style exhibition for her completed block of the month quilts and quilt tops (from any year). I had managed to keep up with the block of the month journey (2017 must have been a quiet twelve months), so I entered the completed top…
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One calm, blue Canberra winter’s day I had an absolutely rubbish day at work (as one does), I came home and calmly decided to start a new quilt – to “help” sooth the stress of the day. Next morning, went to work and a colleague mentioned that I had seemed a little better than the day before – I thought it was funny when he responded with and eye roll, shake of the head and a mutter about dealing with things “exactly like his wife” (she is also a quilter). And that is how I came to start my Kinship:…
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Over the past few years I have made more of an effort to put my work “out there”, to enter exhibitions or online hanging events, and one of the things I am finding interesting is my own reaction to feedback. I have sat on these thoughts for a while now, over a month, and seriously debated saying something about it. But better out than in. We all know the Quilt Police – or at least have heard of them. Quilt police aren’t exclusively young or old, judgemental comments know no age restriction, but they can be nasty and unwanted and…