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Isabel celebrates all the ‘Isabel’s’ in my family that have come before me…..great grandmother, grandmother, mother…then me.

It was inspired by a quilting pattern I designed for in an earlier quilt, ‘Memories of Alex’.

‘Isabel’ uses a range of Tilda fabrics, ‘Cotton Beach’, and the design repeats and extends the floral pattern. Like a medallion quilt it has a centre design which is bordered by repeating images. Each of the appliqué flowers is created with lots of fussy cutting to create repeated groupings. The sashing strips have rows of fussy cut circles appliquéd onto a plain coloured fabric.
It is all needle turned appliqué on cream coloured background fabrics. By using a selection of background cream fabrics I think it creates more depth in the quilt.

The free motion quilting is designed to enhance and extend the appliqué. All the appliqué is outline quilted then fillers added to the negative space. It is quilted with a cream polyester thread., using my stationary Sweet 16.

I am thrilled that my quilt ‘Coming Home’ was selected for inclusion in The Houston International Quilt Show 2023. It has been carefully packed and sent off to the USA for it’s first international adventure.

My local quilting group have been working on a monthly sewing challenge, where a new block is released at the beginning of each month. It is a sampler quilt with sashings.

I have completed the quilt to provide examples of how it can be quilted. I used straight line and scalloped quilting with rulers. It was great for refining my skills. In some of the blocks I added free motion feathers and circle patterns to add interest.

We are also looking at ways to machine bind a quilt, so this was my first attempt at a flange binding. I am really pleased with the end result. A great exercise for practicing your piecing, ruler quilting and binding techniques.

I have just completed teaching my ‘Bits and Pieces’ sampler workshops, where we covered a new technique each week. At the end of the seven weeks it was lovely to see that many of the students were up to attaching the sashing strips. Some of the ladies had extended my designs and applied their own twist to the patterns. This is great to see. I am always impressed when they extend the pattern and make their own unique creation, feeling confident with their own choices and colour selection.

My ‘Whimsical Houses’ quilt was taught over 2 day workshop earlier in the year. As a result of demonstrating how to create the New York Block centre I had a bright colourful medallion workshop sample…….this has grown into a new quilt, ‘Whimsical Flowers’.

The Raw edge machine appliquéd flowers grow out of the centre circle. I added a foundation pieced flower border to finish the design. It is a small baby quilt measuring 42 inches square.

The bright, colourful Kaffe Fassett fabrics sit on a selection of grey background fabrics. Machine blanket stitch is in a colour that matches the fabrics and the quilting is in grey polyester to blend with the background. The flowers are surrounded by flowing, free motion quilted feathers.
All the appliqué has been outline quilted to define the shapes.