Back to my work

This Head quilt is a sample for a class I am teaching next year for the quilters. They really liked the Kiss quilt that went to the USA but that would have been too big to teach in 2 days. So, I said I would do a smaller one in the same style. And I love it. The fabric is just tacked down ready to be stitched, so it will look a bit different once it is all finished. I think I am going to do a collection of Heads, all the same size but different heads and different colours. The drawing for this one looked sad so thats why she needed to be blue.

Also, my Kiss quilt is in the Jan/Feb issue of Quilt Mania which is really cool. 

Ice-cream Goddess

At last it is finished, my ice-cream colour way for the Domestic Goddess quilt.

Hopefully this will help sell the patterns, I am certain the black on the original one was putting people off, even thought it was only sold as a pattern!



Now that is finished I can get on with something more in my colours.

We went for a beach walk over the weekend and saw some amazing Kite surfers, so an idea has been added to my sketch book, I really must remember to take the camera when I go out!

The eggs hatched

We now have a family of very tiny ladybirds! they are the size of a pin head.

I have been working on a pale colour way of a block of the month I designed late last year for All Things Patchwork. The original one is black and pretty strong but the patterns were not selling. I decided maybe it was the black that was putting people off so I have done a pale one.

I am not sure about it, I may put a border around each block and see what it looks like. I will leave it up on the design wall in the studio so I can think about it.

Amazing nature

My children found this amazing collection of eggs when they were collecting salad for dinner the other night. We think they are ladybird eggs, they are now in with the snails to wait for them to hatch! Why would a tiny beetle shape her eggs in a perfect hexagon, maybe she knew she was living in a patchworkers garden!

This week I have been busy making my samples for the curve class I am teaching on Saturday, I just love them, I have now got plans for another curve quilt. If I could work out how to write the patterns maybe I should put out a curve quilt book.



Inspiration from strange places

A few weeks ago, during a very long, wet weekend my children took apart our old laptop. They had a great time and we ended up with a box of really cool stuff. We have plans for all sorts of monsters to make from the inside of a computer.

I have an exhibition to do a piece of work for and I was finding it hard to think of something to do, then I saw this..

I started doing some drawing and now I have designed a piece I am really happy with, you can just see the sketch behind computer part. It is going to be a face with the pattern from the computer over his skin. As if he is cross between human and computer. Maybe this is the future! Lets hope not.

Colours in the garden

Its amazing that these flowers were blue at the start of the summer, so much nicer now.
The detail of a small quilt I made at the end of last year has much the same feel about it.

The quilt was made up of my tiny scraps, that I can't throw away. Even after I had finished the quilt my bag of scraps looked just the same. Maybe they grow in the bag!

I have just found out about a comtemporary blackwork exhibition in the USA next year, so I am having a think about doing a piece for that. 3 different people emailed me about it, I think that says something!.
I am teaching blackwork in July at the New Zealand embroiderers conf. so I could do it as a sample for that and then send it over to the states. The brain is ticking.

Busy Weekend

So much for doing new posts every few days! I must try harder! Well here I am now.

The class I taught on Saturday, Designing the Dot, went really well. Lots of fun drawing dots with pastels and pencils. Then down to stitching. The class is designed to help people start on the designing process, using the simple shape of the Dot makes that easier. These images are some of my samples to help inspire the class.

Then on Sunday we had Colour Quarterly, held at All Things Patchwork. That was a wonderful morning. The challenge fabric produced so many different things it made for a very interesting show and tell. We all now have our next challenge fabric and 3 months to think of something else. It must be good for our brain!

My exhibition has now closed, I sold 2 pieces which I think is pretty good at a time when money is so tight. I have had lots of nice comments about the work which makes it all worth while. My daughter is very happy that one of the quilts didn't sell as she wants it on her bed.