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I have been working on a new quilt that incorporates appliqué and embroidery using wool felt. It has been a very relaxing activity at night to sit and sew, creating different effects with the wool embroidery. Sue Spargo’s creative stitching provided some great inspiration. I used a range of tilda fabrics for the circles and tried to match the wool felt with the colour shades in each block.

I joined the blocks together and added an outside border using the floral prints.
It is so rewarding when a quilting plan works and makes the whole piece become one design. So happy with the progress so far.

She is finished…. The biggest machine quilting project I have ever attempted. I decided to quilt it with a dense bubble style background filler so that the appliqué would pop. All the appliqué has been outline quilted, then I added a quarter inch outline before filling the negative space with bubbles, feathers and scrolls.

I really enjoyed making this lovely design, using all my favourite blue fabrics. I had to extend , change and create new designs using Yoko Saito’s original pattern so that it became a queen size quilt. My border treatment is very different and I think it adds to the delicate feel of the appliqué design. The background and border fabric are Japanese yarn dyes, with the majority of appliqué in the same fabric style. I added a few printed cottons here and there from my stash.

It has been a while since I have made an update… in between times we have been away overseas for 6 weeks…no sewing but I did manage to buy some lovely fabric in Amsterdam. Now home I can continue working on my current project.

It has been a 18 months since I started my Imaginary Garden quilt, designed around Yoko Saito’s pattern. I wanted to make a larger quilt to fit a Queen size bed, hence some pattern adjusting and expanding was needed.

I have finally completed all the appliqué and embroidery. I decided to alter the outside border to make the appliqué appear to float in the middle of the quilt and added a light blue border with the same fabric I used for the flower stems.

Now for the quilting…. I want the appliqué to pop, so will only outline the flower clusters and fill the background space. I am happy with the progress so far.

It is the third year this event has been organised. All the finalists are exhibited at the Australian Quilt Convention, they then travel for the year, being displayed at Craft and Quilt Shows across Australia.

There is such a variety of quilts and techniques on display, all made by very talented Australian quilt makers.

This was the first year I participated in the event and was very excited that my quilt ‘Isabel’ was selected as one of the finalists and was awarded Runner Up in the Appliqué/Pieced Category.

Finished size: 153 cms wide X 155 cms long

This quilt was made to celebrate all the ‘Isabels’ in my family …great grandmother, grandmother, mother and myself….Lynette Isabel.

The original design is hand needle turn appliqué. The appliqué pieces are all fussy cut and outline machine free motion quilted using a cream 40 wt polyester thread. The background space is quilted in a pattern that enhances the appliqué design. I tried to quilt it so that the appliqué pops out from the background, which is heavily quilted.

2024 AQS Finalists

I am fortunate to live in a small coastal community, so it is the perfect spot for the grandchildren to spend a week over the school holidays….while mum and dad have to work.
These January holidays offered a mixed bag as far as the weather…..on sunny days we did beach ‘stuff’ and on the rainy days the children discovered my sewing machines. They were very creative playing with charm squares. After lots of planning and sewing they each made a quilt top….all their own work. Grandma was then charged to do the quilting and bindings. They then spent hours experimenting on my Bernina machines, discovering all the fancy stitches and patterns they could sew with lots of different coloured threads. A great achievement for a 6 year old and 9 year old.

I have also been busy making a handbag for my granddaughter to take to the Taylor Swift Concert next week. I hope she likes it.

I painted with lumier paints on black fabric, then quilted with red/gold thread for the snake, before outline quilting with black rasant.