Gorgeous "Pemberley" Quilts at The Stitchers' Cupboard

Today was our last class in a series of five monthly workshops to make my "Pemberley" quilt design.

The ladies worked on a variety of sections:

This is Maria's beautiful centre in black, red and shades of blue and grey.  Looks amazing!  Congratulations Maria.

We also worked on Maria's half dresden flower borders in blue and grey.  These will have red half circle centres which will look great.

Kerrie was also working on her dresden flower border.  By contrast, her colours are bright.  Wow, how stunning!!

Here are two of Kerrie's corners.  Fabulous work.

This is Kerrie's bird.  I embroidered an eye for him and everyone else wanted the same!  

 Happy stitching ladies.  I look forward to seeing your progress in the New Year.

Lots of Lovely Work and Laughs at The Stitchers' Cupboard

We laughed so much during the course of the day, my stomach hurt!  What a great class, thanks ladies.  Not to mention a most divine Nutella cheesecake with raspberries on the side which was supplied by Jan.

Here are some pics of the sewing...

These are the gorgeous centre pieces being made for the start of "Meryton" class next year.  

First is Robin's most delightful version in pinks and blue.  She has done so much fussy cutting.  It is gorgeous!

By contrast, this is Sharon's centre for her daughter in brilliant bright fabrics.  Love it as well.

Robin kept busy again today putting together her "Spikes and Specks" quilt.  It looks amazing.

Colleen is on to the last clamshell border of her "Longbourne" quilt:  Very exciting!

Jan completed her magnificent version of "Fleur" in time to give it to her sister for Christmas.  She even quilted it all herself.  She has done a fabulous job.  I am sure her sister will love it!

Here is a close up look of the centre of the quilt.  Jan has needle turned the leaves and flowers by hand and achieved all the piecing on the machine. (Basting stitches still to come out)

Jan even made a matching apple core cushion cover to use as a bag containing the quilt, which can then be filled with a cushion insert to make a great cushion. Very clever!

Tuesday Class at Pioneer

Lots of sewing was achieved in class yesterday.  Here are some highlights:

These are Robin's "spikey" blocks for her "Spikes and Specks" quilt.  Aren't they gorgeous?  I spent a lot of time helping her lay them out and pin it all together with the applique sashing strips.  I will show you more photos when it is finished.

Karen was working on her "Rosings" which she is machine button hole stitching.

Here are some more of her little hexagons.  Lovely.

Natalie was working on her centre hexagon medallion for "Meryton" classes which will commence next year.  This is so pretty in pink and green.

Here is one of the lozenge shapes in deeper pink.  Love the fussy cutting!

Kylie is up to her third clam shell border for "Longbourne".

Judy was working on her apple core cushion.

Great work, ladies.

Teaching at "My Creative Escape" Hobbysew Retreat, March 2015

I am delighted to announce that I will be teaching at the third annual Hobbysew Retreat to take place at the Stanwell Tops Conference Centre from the 11 - 13 March, 2015.

I have very much enjoyed becoming one of the "Hobbysew" family during my teaching assignments at Hobbysew Kings Park this year.  I will be continuing with Summer School and my two monthly classes there next year and will also join the teaching team at Hobbysew Figtree from mid next year.  

The retreat will be a fabulous opportunity for me to get to know more of the staff from Hobbysew as well as meet many new students from the various stores, as well as ladies new to Hobbysew.

I have taught at this venue before and can attest to the beautiful surroundings, comfortable accommodation, great facilities and yummy food.

Attendees will be taught by all three tutors during the event: Emma Jean Jansen from Victoria teaching raw edge applique; Anne Sommerlad teaching foundation piecing and applique and myself teaching "fussy cutting" and English paper piecing techniques.  All materials for the three projects are included in the retreat fee.

I have made a brand new very pretty cushion especially for the retreat.

For more information and booking instructions please click here.

I hope you can join me in March!

Beautiful "Longbourne" by Andrea

I have received these great photos of the spectacular "Longbourne" quilt Andrea has completed since attending class with me at the Australasian Quilt Convention in Melbourne a couple of years ago.

I am very pleased to report that it was the first time Andrea had tried English paper piecing and she is now hooked, claiming that it is a wonderful new obsession with her.  I love converting ladies to this therapeutic pastime.

Hasn't she done a fabulous job?

Thank you for sharing, Andrea.

More on The Pickle Dish Quilt

Thanks for the response and lovely comments about my new Pickle Dish quilt.

I was chuffed that Jo Morton commented about the use of her new fabric range called "Caswell County".

My friend Colleen suggested "Pickled Paisley" for a name for the quilt - I love it!

So here are some better photos of "Pickled Paisley":

This shows the colour wash effect I was aiming for diagonally across the quilt from the top right hand corner: pink to red to orange to gold to brown to teal to blue.

Here are some close ups of the different sections:

Richmond Stitchers Working Hard

The lovely ladies of the Richmond Stitchers are working on various patterns in class.

This is Kim's spectacular version of my whack and stack Le Moyne Star quilt.  She has put together a large quilt of 4 rows of 4 blocks with beautiful green pieced setting triangles and dramatic black sashings.  Just borders to go - sorry this seems out of focus!






These are Karol's beautiful small pineapple blocks taken from my "Paddington" table runner pattern.  Karol made four blocks and we decided to set them in a square and make a cushion.  I love the combination of the bright pink and the red and brown.

This is Judy's wonderful "Padington" table runner.  Judy has been using up lots of the fabric left over from a major quilt. She still has some left!

This is Mary's table runner with her delightful hand stitching in the triangles.  Gorgy!

Hooray! I have finished my Pickle Dish quilt!!!

I have always wanted to make a quilt based on the double wedding ring pattern.  This is always considered a challenging project because of all the curved seams and is often hand pieced.

Of course I decided some time ago to make a more complicated version using the Pickle Dish pattern.  Instead of the rectangular pieced arcs in the double wedding ring, the pickle dish has spiked arcs!  All of these need to be paper foundation pieced. On top of this I decided to use lots of different colours as well as colour wash them using lots of different fabrics!

I cut out all of the paper piecing shapes a couple of years ago and have not got back to it because of the work involved in my Jane Austen Quilt Collection.

It was time to get it out and finish it.  I found the most gorgeous reproduction paisley fabric in rich colours from the "Caswell County" range by Jo Morton for Andover Fabrics (available at The Stitchers' Cupboard).  This became my main fabric in all the background and melon shapes.  Some of the fabrics I used for the pieced spiked arcs do not suit this fabric!  I had to ditch the bright double pinks and greens! 

Note to self: choose the main fabric before piecing all the paper foundation patterns!!!

I also found a matching border print stripe from the same range which would make a striking border.

Here it is, finally finished.  The colours in the photo are a bit washed out.  I will take better photos soon.

My New Table Runner

I have finished the table runner I was making from left over jelly roll strips from my "Autumn Lily" quilt.

Here it is:

I will be giving this pattern out to everyone who comes to my Summer School classes at The Stitchers Cupboard and Hobbysew Kings Park.

More "Longbourne" Lovlies

Here are some photos of the very beautiful "Longbourne" quilts being made in class at Pioneer Patchwork.

Kylie was the "winner" for being up to date with her hexagon frames border all finished and sewn on!  Gorgeous.

I love the soft purple borders,  Kylie has worked very hard to get to this stage so quickly.

Here is Regina's centre with hexagon border done and awesome green borders.  Looks so good.

This is Shirley's centre looking wonderful.  She confessed she was trying to avoid having too much red in her quilt but it always creeps in on her!  I love red.

This is Melanie's beautiful centre with soft pink and coffee cream borders, ready for hexagons to go on.

Chris was working on her hexagon frames - looking great.

Regina was working on her long clam shell borders.

There is always lots happening in class.  Thanks ladies.