Bellaonline

BellaOnline provides an encouraging, supportive publishing community for women. The following description appears on their website "We provide free training, support and promotion so writers may reach their personal and business goals. Overall, BellaOnline aims to provide high-quality, helpful, trustworthy content, at no cost, in a low advertisement environment for our millions of visitors. We are the 2nd largest women's website on the internet, behind iVillage (owned by NBC). We do this all without paying for marketing, without having a big office or big budget."

Bellaonline has a quilting section edited by Judie Bellingham. Recently Judie did an interview with Kathy Adams of KoolKat Quilting - see below
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art5503.asp

Be Kool with Sue's Kats

My friend Sue Schindler is just as big a fan of felines as I am and she has produced a set of eight wonderful original cat drawings. These are available as post-cards. Click here to see the full range. You can buy a set of five assorted cards including postage in Australia for just $20.00. Click here to buy from KoolKat's on-line store!

Maria's Woodland Creatures

This quilt by Maria of Bundaberg had me reaching for my tallest step-ladder to be able to photograph it full-length!

Thank you to Bundaberg Quilters for making us so welcome during our visit in April.

Judie's quilt

This is an original quilt designed by Judie from Brisbane. I finished the custom quilting on this quilt in late May.

Annie's quilt

Annie's quilt shows some detailed custom quilting.

Barb's quilt

To my dear friend Barb hoping this quilt will keep you warm this winter. This quilt symbolises the warmth of our friendship down through the years.

Kathy.

KoolKat design featured in Toowoomba Raffle Quilt

Win an original KoolKat Quilting design by taking tickets in the annual Toowoomba Quilters raffle quilt. This stunning and unique double-bed size quilt (97 x 97 inches or 246 x 246 cm) was designed and quilted by Kathy Adams. The piecing was done by members of Toowoomba Quilters CLub. It will be displayed at the Toowoomba Quilters Picnic on May 12 and during the club's annual quilt show which is held during Carnival of Flowers week in Toowoomba in September.

The quilt features specially digitised embroidered blocks based on the floral designs in the fabric. With the assistance of many Toowoomba Quilters members, the quilt was pieced, then an all-over quilting pattern was done by KoolKat.

The proceeds of the annual raffle quilt will be donated to the Blue Care Therapy Centre, Toowoomba. For more information contact Dianne Cahill at ohmaster@ozemail.com.au

I meet Loralie at Embroidery Convention

I pursued my interest in the cross-over between embroidery and quilting during the Labour Day weekend in May by attending the Echidna Convention "Embroidery in Focus" at Jupiters Casino on the Gold Coast. I took a gamble on asking renowned US embroidery designer Loralie if could take take her photo. The bet paid off when she asked me to be in the photo!

Her beautiful work can be seen at www.LoralieDesigns.com

Kathy talks quilting at Bundaberg

Thanks to our hosts Gayndah Quilt Club, and Bundaberg Quilters in late April. You made us very welcome and Kathy enjoyed sharing her quilt journey with you and passing on some tips on how to get the best results from machine quilting. Here Kathy (left) is presenting a $100 machine-quilting voucher to the president of Bundaberg Quilters.

KoolKat's patterns are also proving popular, in particular Quick-set Jelly and Bali Butterfly, for which KoolKat can also supply the fabric kit. Just log on to www.koolkatquilting.com for more details.

Jelly roll quilt and an all over feather pattern

This is a quilt I designed using one Jelly Roll and some plain fabric. Itis called "Quick Set Jelly" and the pattern is for sale, available from my website:
www.koolkatquilting.com




Donna's Lone Star Quilt

Donna's Lone Star quilt came up a treat with this all over pattern. The design is called "Deb's Feathers" and is a popular one for traditional quilts. The white thread livens up the plain blue fabrics, and the overall effect is - WOW!

Vicki's Mariner quilt

This striking quilt was made by Vicki and I enjoyed bringing out the compass points with echo quilting (photo above). I also liked how the quilting showed up on the back of the quilt (opposite).

Vicki said the quilt comes from Judy Mathieson’s book “Mariner’s Compass Quilts – New Directions”.

For more photos of quilts that I have machine-quilted for customers, go to http://www.koolkatquilting.com/.

Greenmount Memorial Hall Centenary Quilt

The centenary of Greenmount Memorial Hall (1908-2008) was marked by the unveiling of an historic quilt to mark the occasion. Pictured left are the comittee members who made the quilt, which was unveiled on 28 March 2009 by Crs Roz Scotney and Carol Taylor of Toowoomba Regional Council (below).

The quilt was mchine-quilted by KoolKat Quilting.

Bali Butterfly

Kathy's latest creation is Bali Butterfly. She describes this pattern as an 'easy-peasy bargello inspired quilt for beginning quilters.' It makes a wall-hanging 58 inches or 1.47 metres square. It can also be made into a single bed quilt 60 x 90 inches or 1.52 x 2.29 metres.

For more information go to www.koolkatquilting.com

KoolKat's "travelling roadshow"

Kathy and Geoff have been visiting quilt clubs where Kathy has been presenting her 'quilt journey' of 20 years of quilt-making. She is using her quilts to illustrate how creative partnerships between quilt making and machine-quilting can bring out the best in quilt projects.

Here they were snapped by Tessa at a meeting of Esk and Toogoolawah quilters at Esk on Thursday March 4th.

KoolKat APQ article

I don’t know whether you have seen the latest APQ (March 2009). There is an ad for my quilting service in the quilters basket section. (p7) It features the winning quilt made by Queensland Quilters Inc members. However the article seems to suggest that KoolKat designed this quilt. My information to the editorial people was that I quilted the quilt in conjunction with 2Q members, but I was not involved in design. I am very happy to have been associated with this wonderful prize-winning quilt and shared in the award ceremony, but I cannot take the credit for its superb design and execution, only the quilting!

New patterns

I've just purchased another three machine quilting patterns. This one is called Belladonna from Hermione Agee, the others can be seen at my website http://www.koolkatquilting.com.au/ - just go to the section on all-over quilting and download the quilting patterns catalogue.

KoolKat January customer newsletter

Our customer newsletter for Summer 2009 has just been released. Just go to our website and subscribe if you would like to receive this (http://www.koolkatquilting.com/). I've been working on a new pattern which is soon to be released. Australian Patchwork and Quilting this month (Februrary 2009 issue) has run a Quilter's profile on Kathy Adams, and also a feature on Piecces of Time, which won Best in Show at Brisbane Royal Show (see earlier post below).

Yesterday (Jan 15) we had a distinguished visitor, Dr Kim Bryceson (left) of the University of Queensland. Kim is Senior Lecturer in Agribusiness at UQ with a special interest in the impact of electronic business technologies in agri-industry value chains. Agri-industry includes fibre as well as food. Kim first came to us as a quilting customer, then asked to return and interview us for her research. Like most owner-operators in the modern age, Kathy and Geoff have had to acquire more than a nodding acquaintance with a swag of software. Currently we're learning the Intuit/Homestead site-building program for our new website www.koolkatquilting.com. Kim is also author of 'E' Issues in Agribusiness - the 'what','why', how' which features vignettes on a wide range of business examples - the Peanut Van www.peanutvan.com.au rubs shoulders with Cisco Systems. In terms of being 'E' ready for electronic commerce, KoolKat Quilting is undoubtedly at the stage of 'think big, start small, scale fast' (Chapter 7). In other words, bite off more than you can chew and keep chewing! Now if only I had time to put the 99% perspiration into developing that 1% of good ideas..................

Kathy's review in Australian Patchwork and Quilting

Australian Patchwork and Quilting in the February 2009 issue (Vol 17 No 8) has published a quilter's profile on Kathy Adams or KoolKat Quilting and has also printed a review of Pieces of Time, the quilt which won Best in Show at the Brisbane Royal Show in 2008. The quilt was a raffle quilt project of Queensland Quilters Inc. and was machine-quilted by KoolKat Quilting. For more information, go to www.koolkatquilting.com

Koolkat website

More information on the machine quilting and embroidery services, patterns and other products available from KoolKat Quilting can be found at http://www.koolkatquilting.com/. I began constructing our website in early January 2009 and welcome comments, particularly from quilters, on how it might be improved or refined.

Circles of Oz

Hope you all had a relaxing and enjoyable Christmas and New Year break.

Apart from time with family, I designed a new pattern called Circles of Oz. It uses Australian Aboriginal-inspired fabrics kindly supplied by Bev of Maleny Magic Patchwork and Quilts.


For more information contact Koolkat Quilting at email koolkatquilting@optusnet.com.au , phone 07 4696 8746
or from Maleny Magic
www.malenymagicpatchworks.com, email quilts7@bigpond.net.au , phone 07 5499 9954. The finished quilt can be seen at Bev's shop 924 Maleny-Montville Road.

Queensland Quilt Show winners

Well done to all exhibitors at the 2008 Queensland Quilt Show held in Brisbane this month. Congratulations to all the winners and place-getters. I would like to thank all the Koolkat Quilting customers who exhibited their work and pass special congratulations on to Robyn Mallet(left above) winner of Category 11: Professional - Commercially quilted, and third place-getter in Category 13: Group/Collaborative quilt, Toowoomba Quilters Club Inc. A full list including photos of the quilts can be seen at http://www.qldquilters.com/.

I learned a lot combining the capabilities of Statler's Creative Studio with freehand techniques with this quilt of Linda Wrench's which was displayed at the Toowoomba Quilter's annual exhibition this month.

My quilting club, Toowoomba Quilters, has an annual exhibition during the Carnival of Flowers in September. We also support local charities though an annual raffle quilt. This year it was the turn of the Toowoomba Older Men's Network (TOMNet). The article below was published in a supplement in our local newspaper, The Chronicle.

Best of Show win at Brisbane Royal Show

Prize-winning quilt 'Pieces of Time' quilted by Koolkat Quilting won Best in Show in the Quilts across Queensland competition judged during the 2008 Brisbane Royal Show held in August.
'Pieces of Time' was a collaborative quilt made by Queensland Quilters Inc. and here are the girls receiving their Best of Show and Best in Class awards from RNA official Jan McMillan (left)during the awards ceremony on Saturday August 10.

The "Obsessions" Exhibition

This one is called "Bali Twist" and features embroidered details taken from the fabric design.

This is "Sabah Samba" - all Mayalsian fabrics

"Malaysia Merdeka" (Malaysia Freedom - this is a national holiday in Malaysia when everyone decorates their car, house, building with Malaysian flags to celebrate their independence)

A detail from "Bali Twist"
This one is called "Bali Bountiful" and it used Bali sarong fabrics. It reminds me of a joyful boat ride over the waves.

Here are some photos I took of my four king size quilts just before taking them into the Feather and Lawrey Gallery, Russell St, Toowoomba. There are part of the "Obsessions" exhibition, held in conjunction with Hetty van Boven and Sharon van Boven.

My theme was "East Meets West" and I had given myself the challenge of making four large quilts using Bali and Malaysian fabrics. I enjoyed every minute of making these and apart from a little pressure towards the loooming deadline, it all went well! The exhibition runs until July 12th.

More photos of Karen's quilt

Here is a close up photo I took of the quilt just after it was quilted

Queensland Quilters Show 2007

Wow, what a great honour! My customer, Karen Mersiades has won first prize in the Non-Professional Commercially Quilted section of the 2007 QLD Quilters Show! Her quilt, "Star Gazer" was custom quilted with freehand spirals and diagonals on the backgrounds, and detailed quilting within the red stars.

Pictured is Karen, on the left, and moi admiring the quilt at the show!

New Directions for "The Sky is Blue and so is the Sea"

Twins - only their mother can tell them apart!
Before - my failed needleturn experiment - good to discover this early in the process!
After - the raw edge pieces are loosely in place. They are glued in a few places, will be hand tacked when I am happy with all the colours - then put onto the quilting machine.

Here are 2 photos of the early stages of the big quilt. (2 1/2 x 2 metres). the first one is a failed attempt at needle turn. It was too slow and tedious and the shapes were too hard to stitch out. I found that this technique meant that I was about to give up and abandon the project all together, which would have been a shame as I have prepared and marked out the quilt sandwich and was really ready to go with it.

The second photo shows the same thing in raw edge. this was done in one session (about 3 hours). I have just added a few dobs of glue to hold it in place, then I'll probably hand tack it until I get enough down to start quilting and embellishing. This has the advantage that pieces of fabric can be trialled, and replaced if necessary. I found the camera was great as it reduces the piece and I can see as if from a distance. Must buy one of those door viewer thingies!

I found the work of Ferret, in London to be so inspiring. I will put a link to her blog on this site. She does the most amazing art pieces, and her images are just what I am interested in! She wrote quite an interesting piece on show judging and it has attracted a lot of comments. The message I get from people is to remain true to your own style, don't try to please the judges - keep on keeping on and be true to your inner judge. I love that - and it means that you work with integrity always. Everyone loves her work, the judges just have to come to her. No more nonsense about burying threads in art quilts, please! I'm sick of all this anal stuff. Let's just get creative!

More photos from Malaysia

Here are some details which caught my eye

Malaysia!

The light fantastic - at a restaurant in Kota Kinabalu
The rivers run - on the plane trip to Sandakan from Kota Kinabalu
Looking out over Sandakan harbour from the Buddhist temple on high
Edible wild flowers in the Borneo jungle

Maylaysia merderka!

This was the catchphrase we saw everywhere, as this Friday is the 50th anniversary of independence. We are just back after a 2 week tour of Sabah, Kuala Lumphor and Singapore. I collected Malaysian Batik fabrics and these will go into a new quilt for the new bed! Above are a few photos of the trip - more to come later!

Seize the day!

Some pretty images from my overgrown, drought-stricken garden

Seize the Day!

I have been thinking a whole lot about how to really ensure success in achieving ones goals. Sometimes, of course, life gets in the way. The next challenge for me is doing a budget that will work for us. I'll be quilting until I'm 100, that's for sure. But at least it's a job I like. A recent study found that although self-employed people work harder that those in paid jobs, their rate of happiness is higher.



That may be because the business owner has more control over how they spend their time. Also, any rewards that the business gets through greater sales, increased productivity etc, are immediately enjoyed by the person who created them.



I'm a bit of a consumer and am very guilty of affluenza. Mr Costello (the nicer one of the two brothers) said on TV that compared to ten years ago we (in Australia) have bigger houses with more bedrooms with fewer people in them, bigger mortgages and we spend, spend, spend, on cheaper electrical goods and clothing. And yet we are less happy and more stressed. I have been measuring every cent we spend for about three years. This sounds weird, but when I come home from shopping I put it all in the computer to look at where it goes. After a couple of years I came up with the following conclusions. (Which aren't rocket science and sound a lot like Noel Whittaker)

1. We spend all we earn, and more.

2. Credit cards always get used when they are carried around.

3. The things we worry about (rates, insurance, interest) are only a fraction of what we spend on consumable or discretionary items.

4. Once a "must have" item is acquired it is soon taken for granted and more things are desired.

5. The only way to save is to "pay yourself first" We have now gone into salary sacrifice into superannuation to put $$ aside.

6. 99% of spending is triggered by emotion - a fact well known by advertising people.

7. There is no product that will make us: younger, sexier, happier, wiser, more creative.

8. The only things which have lasting value have to be: earned, saved for, sacrificed for, planned for, and time allocated for.

9. Every human in the universe has only 24 hours each day to work with, money only assists.

10. Finally, high returns = high risk. If you want to earn lots of money working in a war zone, be prepared for some flak. And if it's too good to be true, it probably is. (thank you Noel Whittaker)



Now, to seize the day!

Doing the Hard Yards

Why is it that creativity requires so much discipline? I've been racking my brains to work this out for yonks! I guess creating art is like all the tough things in life - saving money, losing weight, becoming fit, playing a musical instrument. And that explains why so few people really achieve a lot in these areas. It is not a quick fix, you can't take a pill for it and it takes steady slow and regular effort. All of which I have not been doing.

But I think I can get back on it again. That is a good thing about all of the above. It is never too late to start and it is never to late a reap a benefit for effort put in.

What I did was create a timetable for my week. The first three days are the days where I do the things I need to do for income. I work hard those days, very hard. Every week day between 7am and 9am I work on my designing on the computer ready for publication of my work. If you think you want to design and publish something, think of the time you think it might take and then multiply by a hundred! I think initially much of the time goes on creating a system that works for you. There are many road blocks and dead ends until it starts to gel. After that, it gets easier. Rewrites are still a possibility, but they don't take as long.

Discipline - I think all that really means is to quote Woody Allen - just "showing up". I made myself sit at the computer for those two hours this morning and it began to happen. If we made ourselves go to the studio or sewing room for a set time that would happen too.

It meant for me, leaving the breakfast dishes in the sink til smoko time. Who cares! I did, however, have a shower straight after our early morning walk and I will keep doing that otherwise I will be sitting here feeling very unwashed when my customers start arriving for the day. So - it is a little more than just showing up. Be showered, dressed and preferably made up for the day. I am not made up, but that is OK as I don't have anyone coming before 10am.

Also - do we really allow enough time for family, shopping, cleaning etc. I decided that I would no longer commit myself to any evening activities, including making myself sew or design at night. If I feel like it, I can. Instead I have given myself one whole day for creative activity, plus the weekend daylight hours. This will work, because I will have cleaned the house (yippee) on Friday, which is today. All of Friday is for household chores and shopping, except the morning, when I still do the 2 hours on the computer, designing.

Enough of that. Here are some photos of a mega huge quilt I have stared making. It is inspired by the Neil Young song: "I am a child, I'll last a while.....the sky is blue and so is the sea...." There is a photo, a modified image, and the pre-quilted canvas on which is attached some early pieced sections. (The hat of the little girl).

Not blogging enough - new start!

Why did I stop blogging! I told myself I was too busy and that was partly true, but guess what, the creative juices then started to grind to a halt!
Some quilting friends gathered recently to do visual diaries. I am including some photos of what we did. We have challenged ourselves to complete at least one page per day in the journals and meet again in a month. I have managed to do a few pages - I did 5 on one day, and then nothing for a couple of days etc - but I think I can average 7 a week without too much trouble.

We learned to look for the design possibilities all around us - these were Robyn's shoes on the floor. I loved the light and shade they made and this could become something....
This was a "dangerous" colour scheme.... one of the quick activities
This was a "blow-up" We used viewfinders over a photo to get an interesting detail.
This was an "under the sea" colour theme.....

The best thing about blogging and the visual diaries is that new ideas for quilts pop into your head - they really do! It is sort of a problem solving process which begins once you set your mind free to just play. I've got another idea from the lyrics of a song that just sticks in my head and won't go away - it's "I am a child", by Neil Young. I love that bit where it goes: "The sky's blue and so is the sea" - the images just explode in my head - more later!

Turning Japanese

This quilt is in progress! I expect to finish it this weekend as I am going to a quilting retreat - YIPEE! It is a simple design to show off beautiful Japanese fabrics. It is made simply from yardage for the sashings and borders and fat quarters make up the elongated "snowflake blocks".

A hand stitched Japanese quilt which was on display in the touring exhibition I saw as part of Stitches and Crafts in Brisbane last year inspired these shapes. My quilt is, of course, machine stitched. When complete I will put a computerized all over pattern on it.

It can easily be made queen size or single. The design will be published, including colour photo on the front, and full cutting diagrams and instructions. Recommended retail price of the pattern is $15.40. This would be quick and easy for a shop to assemble as a kit of fabrics, or alternatively, the customer chooses their own fat quarters to go with the gorgeous Japanese indigo yardage.

Art Nouveau on a roll

This is the beginning of the first panel which will be at the bottom left of the quilt. When this design is complete I will start making it. It will be made in the "Quilt-as-you-go" style, but I think I will use a different technique to the Rosebud quilt. With this one, I think I will use machine and hand embroidery to create a different look. There will be less freehand quilting and more outline quilting. Some of the flowers will be three dimensional. I just can't wait to start, as I have been collecting all the Bali fabrics I need for this quilt.

Today some catching up to do

Here are some photos of Megan's quilt - quilted all over with "Deb's Feathers" pattern (Designed by Deb) on the Statler machine. A stunning "Stack and whack Quilt".

Michelle had her graduation from USQ (nursing) on Saturday. Here is a photo of the flowers sent to her by her aunt and uncle.

Art Nouveau Gets a Background

This morning I worked on a framework for the background panels. My plan would be that the Block of the Month design would start with these outside sections, with the inner frame and the figure coming last. Each panel will feature a flower, eg, rose, lilly, vine, nasturtium. I still have to address the flowers in the foreground panel, but I think they might overlap and tie in with the outside panels.

This design process is quite intensive, but I am finding that when it comes time to actually make the quilt it goes quite quickly as a lot of the decisions about fabric tone and value have been made already.

I'm working on an entry for the DUQ Calendar competition as well at the moment, but I can't publish any photos of it til after the competition so it will have to be a surprise. I have been using this same method and I pieced the quilt in a weekend, but of course it is a much simpler project, and smaller, too. Quite different - much more contemporary.

Heirloom Quilting

This is a quilt made by my customer, Rosemary. It has been "Heirloom Quilted" which means that very close quilting has been done all over the quilt, in a traditional style. A combination of freehand, stitch-in-the-ditch and computerised Statler patterns have been used. The quilting took me the best part of a week. The calico backgrounds are ideal for this type of quilting. I was pretty happy with the result, and I am sure Rosemary will be too, when she sees it!

Art Nouveau Today's Edition

This morning I worked on the drapery of the figure. It wasn't easy to reduce about five different tones to just two, but by selecting a new background it would be less work to stitch out. My new idea is to use different background fabrics in different areas to make the final design much more dynamic in terms of colour. So we have a different colour behind the arch and a more suitable colour behind the fabric folds.

The original design has some prints stacked up in the foreground, but I think I will introduce flowers here, possibly standing in a tall vase, and spilling out over the frame to lead to the outer frames. I have no idea yet how these will look. In the final quilt, some of these could be three-dimensional, as could some of the leaves in the hair.

Another Idea on the go

No, it's not an alien cat! I am in the process of creating shapes to correspond with the original photo of Anna, one of the spoiled ones. The bottom picture shows how I am drawing the shapes, the eyes and nose and a couple of other areas are shaded in.

The top picture shows the design thus far with the photo removed. What I will be doing is add layers which will represent pieces of fabric. I've decided that the technique for this one will be a raw edge, sewn around just inside the edge, then the back cut away, before attaching the next layer. this will reduce the bulk. By using large tonal shapes, this will be much quicker to make than lots of individual pieces, This quilt will be big - A0 sized, over a metre in height and over 80cm wide. A very scary large cat with eyes that follow you round the room!

Long way to go yet with the design.

Art Nouveau Garden is Slowly Growing

Today, I had fun for five minutes at lunch time when I photographed up close some of the fowers and plants in my garden. These images will be handy to file away for design ideas later.





The Art Nouveau Garden is slowing growing. It takes about an hour a day when I am working on the design as this is all the time I have available, but I will get there. Today I did a lot of playing with colour combinations. Although they may not resemble the final fabrics very much, I am finding that this initial fabric rehearsal pays off once the quilt is started. You can narrow down the basic tone, textures and hues, saving a lot of time later. I have been having fun playing with the magenta, cyan and yellow sliding bars on the palette as you can see the colour dynamically changing as you work.

Art Nouveau Garden

More progress is being made on this design. I have worked on an arch shape to surround the figure and then there will be some wedge shaped floral panels to go around that. There is a lot of black in the design at present, but that will be covered up by flowers, leaves etc to a large degree. I spent about 3 hours on this today and I must say it has been fun and a great learning experience as I am getting better at making the software do what I want it to.

More Pictures of the Kool Kats

It's Sunday - a lazy day, and what better way to illustrate Sunday than with pictures of my two lazy Kool Kats!

This is the female, Anna, who loves to roll at your feet to tell you she loves you!

Me with Anna, or it is Kurtley?
Anna again, loves attention.

This is the male, Kurtley, my couch potato who loves to warm his butt on anything. He was most unimpressed when I got rid of the old nice warm fat monitor and replaced it with one of those flat screen things. Kurtley is shy and there are fewer photos of him, but he is generally seen around the food bowl.

Art Nouveau Block of the Month Design

This project is coming along again. I needed to get into the routine of working on the design and so I do an hour each day after breakfast, before the work day proper commences. I'm learning lots of great techniques in Corel X3 to make this design. The colours are only rough and will be adjusted as I go along to only resemble final fabrics to be used.

I can create a palette and can number the colours later. This will help in the planning of the pattern packs. Because Corel is so great, I will be able to make a pattern sheet cutting out guide for each piece of fabric. This will greatly assist those putting pattern packs together with fabrics.

A Quilt Made Entirely from Shirt Samples

Here are some photos of a quilt made by my customer, Jan. She has collected lots of men's shirt samples and made them into this delightful quilt. I quilted it with an all over pattern called "Chaos" from Lorien Quilting. It shows up well and gives a classic feel to this wonderful quilt.

Family Update

Time for a family update. This is our daughter Michelle, dressed in her university nursing uniform. the picture was taken a couple of years ago. She has now finished her degree, with High Distinctions, and has just started on her degree in Medicine at Hobart University. Yesterday, we were told that she has been awarded the Science Faculty Prize for USQ here in Toowoomba. As well as that she has won a scholarship and a bursary. Michelle did all this as a mature age student. She is now almost 25 years old. We are so proud of her!

Infill patterns on an applique quilt

This quilt, made by my customer, Grace, shows a decorative loop pattern which can be done as an alternative to stippling. It simply goes up close to the applique work. Usually the applique does not need outlining as well, but that depends on the individual quilt and the design of the applique.



This double wedding ring quilt, made by Jan, has an allover pattern; "Deb's Feathers" designed by Deb Guiessler. The quilting was executed on the Statler Stitcher. This is an inexpensive alternative to doing special quilting in the individual spaces of the rings. It creates a lovely, flat and decoratively quilted result.

William Morris - "The Strawberry Thief"

This is a little quilt I am almost finished. It was designed by Michelle Hill, Adelaide Australia. I decided to try a "pre-quilting" method with this quilt. I made the complete quilt, crasshatched it, and did the bindings - all before I applied the applique.

The pre-quilting technique was great, no problems applying the applique, but I decided I would have to do the blanket stitch around the shapes by hand and not machine as I had planned. Even though it was a small quilt, the constant turning around and around in the machine with the extra bulk of the batting made it impossible.

I have this rule about new techniques - try it for 5 minutes - if it is a pain to do - STOP and THINK - and do something else. Works fine and leaves me with fewer grey hairs!

Quilting can look great when it goes all over an embroidery. Cross-hatching, meander or other patterns give an even look which does not take away from the stitchery. Thread colours look best when they blend with the background. The quilt can have a custom quilted treatment, where borders are quilted differently, such as in this one made by Glenys, or an edge-to-edge pattern also looks great.