Author: lynkeoghquilts

This quilt was inspired by my eternity ring, bought by my husband on a family holiday to The Isle of Skye, Scotland. The Celtic symbol of eternity is depicted in the intertwining bands. The floral design and colours are based on Scottish thistles, inspired by my husband’s Scottish heritage.

It is a small wall quilt, measuring 130 cms square.

As the appliqué was quite intricate, it needed to be fusible raw edge to keep the pointy ends of the thistle leaves. I then machine appliquéd the edges using a small blanket stitch in a matching machine embroidery thread. The intertwining celtic knot border proved a bit tricky, but I am very happy with the finished look.

I used fine french cotton prints for the appliqué as they are finely woven and worked well for fusible appliqué with minimum fraying.

I wanted to leave some negative space in the design to provide the opportunity for free motion quilting designs to extend the appliqué pattern.

I had a lovely surprise this week. Canberra Quilters are having their annual exhibit of members work at Craft Alive, Canberra. I was honoured to have both my entries awarded prizes.

’Eternity’ was awarded first place in small quilts professional and highly commended in mid-arm machine quilting.

’My Imaginary Garden’ was awarded first place in large quilts professional. It also was judged best appliqué quilt and best in mid-arm machine quilting. It also took out Bernina Best of Show……a very exciting morning.

It has been a long time since I participated in a quilting workshop. The opportunity of attending a weekend workshop taught by Gloria Loughman, at my local quilting shop, became available. I have always admired Gloria’s art quilts. She creates beautiful colourful landscape pieces inspired from photographs taken during her travels. Her style of quilting is so different from my style and it definitely made me work well outside my comfort zone.
We spent 2 full days over painting commercial fabrics, drawing a design from our chosen photograph and assembling the pieces into a finished landscape piece, reflecting rhythm and colour in the sky area.
I tried using new techniques and different methods of choosing colours and applying shapes to a fabric background.

Here is my finished piece, ‘Sunrise at Malua Bay’. It is based on a photo my husband took at our local Beach.

Last week I had the pleasure of visiting Melbourne for The Australian Quilt Convention. I was fortunate to have 2 quilts selected as finalists. It was a lovely surprise to learn that ‘Celebrate Thirty’ was runner up in the pieced/appliqué category of the Australian Quilt Show, and ‘Keep Me On The Map’ was awarded Viewers Choice in the AQC challenge.

It was a lovely display of creativity, showcasing the work of many talented Australian Quilters. Congratulations to everyone who had their work exhibited.

Many of my sewing friends have completed Sue Spargo projects. I have always been in awe of the beautiful hand stitching effects they have created…..so I decided to give it a go.
A small Sue Spargo project ‘Rooted’ fitted the bill. I really enjoyed learning how to embroider using Sue Spargo techniques and guidelines. I found it a lovely, relaxing pastime to create texture and colour. The finished quilt is a bright, happy addition to my sewing room.
The machine quilting was a way of putting my own mark on the design. I tried to use the quilting to add extra texture and patterns.