More on Jane Austen Quilts

It was lovely to see the progress on some of the girls Jane Austen quilts yesterday.

Here is Kerry's wonderful "Longbourne" all finished and quilted.  Kerry is giving this very special gift to her daughter's mother-in-law. What a fabulous gift.  Her colours are beautiful even though Kerry found them a challenge!  Not as much green as usual.

It has been quilted in an all over clam shell style design.  Very effective.

Leanne had done lots of work on her "Rosings". She had completed all the appliqué and embroidered stems in the centre.  Wow!  How gorgeous is the pink and crimson red together?

We trimmed down the centre and we added a pink border and then the dog tooth border.

Next, Leanne will appliqué her octagon strips on the pink background and then she has an amazing red striped border with dark lines and leaves.

Sue has also completed some lovely work for her "Rosings" centre.  We were auditioning fabrics for the rest of her borders.

Here are some of the cute hexagon flowers Sue has made.

Love hexies!

I am delighted that two more lovely ladies have booked into my Jane Austen tour to England in 2015.

Robin and Kylie, we will have the best time!

Hope you all get some stitching time.

Katrina x

News on Jane Austen Tour 2015

It is still two years away but places are filling for the tour I am attending with Whitecroft Traditional Tours to visit all the places associated with the wonderful Jane Austen as well as feasting our eyes on lots of antique quilts and other textiles.

There are only a few places left at this stage. All very exciting!

I have been doing a lot of appliqué work on my next quilt in the Jane Austen Quilt Collection called "Meryton".  Whilst watching the DVD of the Poldark series with my son, I have been stitching away.

Here is a sneak peek....

That's enough clues for now!

More Lovely Appliqué

OSome of my students have been working very hard on their appliqué skills.

Here is Annemarie's centre for her "Rose Rhapsody" quilt.  This is one of my very early designs which features several three dimensional Baltimore appliqué style techniques, including a woven basket.  Annemarie has done a great job.  Her floral triangles are cut from a beautiful chintz.

Then we all marvelled at the beauty of Chris' "Pemberley".  Chris started this major quilt in June this year and has almost finished it!  She has made all the components for the final border blocks and just needs to stitch them down and sew them together with the sashing.  

Her colour scheme is a combination of pink, blue, brown and green on a lovely soft apricot/pink background.

Here are some photos for you.

Chris has also been working on some of her blocks for her whack and stack "Rococo" quilt.  The fabric has formed many beautiful star and flower shapes.

Wow!  Congratulations, Chris.

Fun Whack and Stack Class

Today I taught all three of my whack and stack designs in the one class.

I needed to keep on my toes with all the cutting, stacking and cross cutting of metres of fabric that was going on!

The first design is Millefiori where hexagon blocks are formed from six 60 degree triangles.

Here are some blocks made by Melvine.  She used a beautiful floral on a soft apricot background. As you can see, Melvine made lots of blocks in class.  Not too much talking happening there!   Some of the patterns formed are large floral shapes in bold colours and other blocks have soft colours with filigree patterns.  Lovely!

Here are some close ups:

Then here are some blocks made by Glynn.  She is using a very beautiful fabric with Jacobean style flowers on a bold red background.  The resulting blocks are looking gorgeous!

This one is my favourite so far:

Then there were two ladies making "Rococo" which features Le Moyne Star blocks from diamonds.

These were made by Leanne. I knew this fabric would be amazing.  Just look at those vibrant colours and pretty flower and leaf shapes with lots of tendrils.

This one is my favourite:

Here is one with its set in triangles and squares.

This one was made by Chris.  She is using a beautiful fabric with large soft Japanese flowers in pinks on a charcoal background. Wonderful!

Then two girls were working on "Fandango".

Here is Inge's centre block with its paper foundation pieced spikes surround.  It really pops.  Great job, Inge!

Now how did Natalie and Lee escape without me taking some photos?  More to come....

I Love Seeing Completed Quilts from Class

 I have some more completed quilts to show you.

The first one is by Jean.  It is her Rococo quilt and it is so different to mine! She used an amazing feature print with many coloured flowers and circles on a brown background.  This is a whack and stack quilt so all the star blocks are cut from the same fabric. It has made some amazing different patterns. The background fabric to her stars is a bright lime green and the blocks are set on point with side setting triangles of print pink forming a zig zag setting.  This is bordered by a narrow border of dark chocolate brown and then a final border of the feature print. Although the Y seams are a bit tricky, Jean is very happy with the final result and she is also pleased it is finished.  Yay!

Here is a close up of those gorgeous blocks:

Now I have some photos of Dru's completed Spikes and Specks centre.  Dru has worked very hard to perfect her paper foundation piecing of the circular blocks and she has completed all the appliqué by hand. The rich dark brown of her cornerstone squares and side setting triangles really frames all of the blocks. We "auditioned" several fabrics for the three final borders and have decided on firstly a lovely blue, then a golden brown and finally a re paisley with some old and blue on it.  Really spectacular.

Here are some close ups.

The girls at Lyn's Fine Needlework were working on their "Florentine" centre appliqué panels today.

Here are two very different colour ways.  First is Dru and then Maryanne:

Dru has a lot of Nancy Halverson fabrics in rich tones of purple, gold, orange, red and green. We used all these colours in her centre appliqué.

Maryanne is using a lovely collection of fabrics designed by French General, La Belle Fleur among them.  Her colours will be softer with a beautiful grey green with some red and pink. Da da!

Here is a reminder of the two lovely "Florentine " centres made by Robin on the left and Leanne on the right.

Here is the centre from my original quilt.

Happy stitching until next time.  I hope to get lots of designing and prep done this long weekend.

Katrina x

More Wonderful Work on Quilts

I have some more photos to show you of progress on some of my students work on my quilt designs.

Firstly, here is Del's centre of her "Cherry Ripe" quilt.  Del loved learning the technique of paper foundation piecing for the first time and she was excited to continue at home to complete her homework.  Here it is. It looks lovely.

Next is a photo of Maria's almost complete appliqué on her "Rosings" centre.  It looks really beautiful.

Then I have a photo of Dawn's "Paradise" quilt.  Veronica just brought it back after finishing the magnificent quilting on it. Wow!  It is spectacular.  She has done it again, including quilting fifteen lines of quilting in black thread around the stripes in the border print.  Fabulous! Here is gorgeous Dawn in the orange top with Ingrid on the left.

Last but not least is Jeanne's version of my "Jelly Mosaic" quilt, also back from being quilted by Veronica.

Another wow!

Well done ladies!