Author: lynkeoghquilts

I have a new addition to my sewing room, a sit down Bernina Q20.

I was given the opportunity to upgrade to a 20 inch throat and change of brand….and I have been trying it out over the last few days. I love my Sweet Sixteen and my quilting has developed and improved using this machine over the last 12 years, so it was with much trepidation that I ventured to the Bernina. The sewing room has been rearranged and the new machine fits perfectly..

To familiarise myself with the new machine I found a cot panel in my stash and practiced with free motion manual mode for outline work and then moved to the stitch regulator for ruler work. I am really happy with the result. The machine is easy to navigate and sews beautifully.

I love finding a range of fabrics that contain all my favourite colours. The Sacre Bleu, French General, fabrics have beautiful hues of blue and beige, along with pretty small prints.

I wanted to design a pattern that would showcase the lovely soft hues and shading of these fabrics. Of course it needed to be needle turned appliqué. I have worked out the main panels and will design what type of sashing treatment is needed after I have completed the panels.

The design is inspired by old Spanish lace patterns, simplified and drawn so that the appliqué pieces create a floral design. The centre panel depicts flowers and leaves radiating from a main stem with birds perched on the branches.

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.