Quilts in the Barn

On Saturday I visited Quilts in the Barn at Wonga Park in Victoria - a long trip for me but worth every bit of it! It is nearly 8 hours drive away interstate but what a good excuse for a road trip - two nights each way and lovely countryside to view en route.

A wonderful entrance view

There are a few different bloggers' posts on this wonderful event - so you may have seen a lot of these pictures already (apologies). Of course, if you are anything like me, can't get enough of a good thing....

First some of the Dutch reproduction quilts ( I think they are ones made by Petra and An) - a lot of the patterns are in their book Promenade dans un jardin Hollandais:

"Sisters" on the left

Below is the "Simon" quilt - very exciting to see Petra and An's version (all the way from the Netherlands) now that I am making one too!

"Simon"

Love how the blue sings in this one - "The Elephant"- also from Petra and An's book

"When Stars meet Hexagons" - 7/8" hexagons, stars and triangles

Lots of other quilts with a chintz theme - and I think they are the work of the Sisters:

What a beautiful red to frame the chintz.

Below is a lovely medallion by Dorothy Ramage - and I had the pleasure to meet her at the ticket desk:

Gorgeous fabric and quilting on this one

By Karen Styles - lovely block looks wonderful framed

Look at that broderie perse - sigh.

Stunning border and background fabrics - super blocks.

Hexagons made from antique fabric scraps - such little gems.

Love the fabrics and the fussy cutting - oh, and the perfect points.

It was a thrill to finally see Di Ford's 'Morrell' quilt in real life - and here are two of the most stunning (and difficult!) blocks:

Inspired fabric choices here - gorgeous.

It was wonderful to meet up with Carole and her sister at the Barn. We have both made a version of this quilt using Di's pattern so had to pose in front. Check out Carole's lovely blog for all her photos of her Barn visits too (she went twice!).

Me on the left, and Carole from Wheels on the Warrandyte bus

 Well ...I am running out of superlatives for all there was to see ...but there is more...

The antique quilts and fabrics brought here by Mary Koval - for viewing and purchase. Here is just a small sample that we could photograph. Some was not to be photographed (by request of the owner) - they were fragile but beautiful.

Purchases were made: When I went to pick up a copy of Chintz quilts from the Poos collection it was lovely to see the friendly face of  Meredith and so appropriate that her blog is called "Pomegranate and chintz"! I have broken into my sealed copy of the book now and it is wonderful stuff.  There are lots of pictures from the book now on different blogs.  

 I also bought a piece of lovely new chintz to be treasured - one I have not seen before - doesn't have a sheen to it and is normal patchwork weight and feel. Am assuming it is from the Netherlands as it says "by Prins and Kooiman" on the selvedge. 

I was so impressed by QITB - lovely venue, great refreshments, beautiful displays, many friendly faces and so well organised - thanks so much and please do it again!

To finish off a  lovely day Carole was kind enough to show me her local quilt shop - "Needles and Pins" in Warrandyte. She is a lucky lady. Warrandyte, on the Yarra River, is  a beautiful place to live and this is a very nice little quilt shop ...with my sort of fabric. 

It was also just wonderful to find that Di Ford was busy helping out that morning - so nice to meet her and have a little chat too!

Here are my purchases from the shop (including super bargain finds):

Just in case you haven't seen enough quilts.. on the way home I spent some time exploring Beechworth  ( historic country town in Victoria). With quilting and chintz very much still in the mind I spotted these: 

• In the local museum, along with a great display of gold mining and Ned Kelly memorabilia, was a  sweet child's "wagga" in a cot, and it looked to be made of chintz. 

• In an antique shop - several "much-loved", vintage quilts for sale:

Beautiful hand quilting designs on these

Back to sewing with renewed energy - hope you find all these quilts inspiring too!

Quilt tour part three... and a discovery

A few more quilts around the house just to complete my little tour.

Here is my version of the Sarah Morrell quilt hanging on the wall in the family room - completed in 2012 using Di Ford's wonderful pattern:

Sarah Morrell quilt - version of Di Ford's pattern

There are also more photos of individual blocks here on a previous post.

Hanging in my entrance way is the Folk Art Basket quilt. It is my version of Karen Cunningham's reproduction pattern and was made in 2011/2012.  It was just such a pleasure to make this one and got me well and truly hooked on English Paper piecing and fussy cutting techniques.

Folk Art Basket quilt - Karen Cunningham class

Folded away at the moment  ( spot it on the shelf?) is my red and white Mariner's Compass - made in 2010 in classes with Chris Jurd. It is foundation paper pieced and appliqued, and machine quilted - see this post for a closer view. It was a real eye-opener to discover foundation paper piecing too.

Mariner's compass variation - class with Chris Jurd

The next one is folded on a bed - machine pieced and hand quilted in 2007. It is my design made in my daughter's choice of largely Japanese fabrics. 

Japanese fabric quilt

****   End of tour!   ****

Hope you have all had a lovely Easter - loaded with chocolate and Easter buns like me! 

And the Discovery?

Over Easter I've also been flat out discovering Pinterest. My daughter highly recommended it and showed me the ropes. Wow ...what a marvellous time-waster but such a useful resource for organising quilting ideas ! I have put a link in the margin to my Pinterest collections in case you might like to look - but I think you may have to be a member ... 

The Burnt Quilt

I have been working on The Burnt Quilt aka "Oh dear, Mrs Tompkins" (Di Ford's lovely reproduction pattern ) - using the Dutch chintz central panel in the centre. I am also using a small stash of Dutch chintz florals in the big stars, though I hate chopping them up.

 If you know the pattern, you might see I have avoided doing the tricky inner borders by replacing them with appliqued red stars (fun to do with English paper piecing) . That is what I am working on at the moment.

Below is the fabric for the outer border - sensing a theme here - Dutch chintz again. 

For the feature square blocks where applique or broderie perse is suggested in the pattern, I took the opportunity  to feature squares of favourite old florals  ( or, reading between the lines there, maybe I took the easier option!?). Here are some of them - seriously lovely fabrics...

Sarah Morrell Quilt

Hi again,
My daughter has kindly created a new Blog Header (name and picture) for me as I was already tired of seeing my name up there - hehe. Coming up with a name was not easy - there are so many good ones out there already in use! Hopefully we have not stepped on any toes with this one...just wanted to keep it simple.

The picture is a photo of my version of Di Ford's beautiful pattern - the Morrell Quilt. For me this is the kind of quilt you do as a culmination of all skills honed over many years and I found it quite challenging. Hence the odd wobbly block and uneven quilting. But hey, as they say,  it is rustic and clearly home made, and I do love the design !

I bought the pattern on line and then worked out how to make it in a way that suited me (and my limited skills). Thanks to so many bloggers who shared their experiences with this quilt online. The "skills" that I used included:

• Foundation Paper Piecing by hand or machine  - a wonderfully useful technique for precise piecing. Thanks to great teaching in classes with Chris Jurd I have since found I can  apply this to other patterns.
• English Paper Piecing - am now in withdrawal if I don't do some of this every  week  every day
• Fussy cutting - ditto.
• Hand applique and Broderie perse - love doing them both.
• Machine quilting - that was a steep learning curve that started with classes with Deborah Louie, and still needs practise, practise, practise!

Here are one or two block close ups - some a bit distorted by the angle of the photos, sorry, as it is hanging on the wall in my family room ...

First Blog

Welcome to my blog!

My daughter created this for me as a surprise - part of my 5#th birthday present.  So - after much trepidation on my part and patient instruction on her part - I am going to give it a go. She knows I am an obsessed quilter and keen follower of many, many quilting blogs ....so thought it was time I joined in the fun and did a bit of sharing too :)

I have been quilting for over 20 years but in recent years my interest has largely been in reproduction quilts (American civil war era and the 1800's) - so be warned there will be a bit of a bias that way.

Here are some photos of my more recent quilts -  you might recognise the patterns of Karen Cunningham and Di Ford among them...