The Inky Blocky Quilt: posting the process

I've moved ahead with the quilt I submitted for the Bloggers' Quilt Festival. It's made of shot cottons from Reece Scannell and beautiful hand-printed fabric by Tegan Rose of Ink And Spindle. Tegan's hemp/cotton fabric has native Australian blue wrens on it, which are my mum's favorite birds.

I used my scraps to make a pieced panel for the quilt back. I'm fairly new to quilting, and have been using tried and tested patterns while I learn the craft. However I really love the improvised and inventive quilts mothered by necessity, like those of the Gee's Bend quilters, and also those created by techniques like Denyse Schmidt's paper bag piecing. The patchwork panels in my quilt backs are my little steps towards improvised patchwork.

For this quilt I used up almost all of the leftover scraps in the back panel, with minimal trimming. I think I like the quilt back even better than the front!

Giveaway winners!

I'm very happy to announce the two winners of the Chiyogami pendant giveaway. To enter, readers simply had to go over to my shop and say which pendant was their favorite, to win that pendant or another in the same style. I used Random.org's tool thingy, and the winners are:

   9. bldrnrpdx said...
   Oo! The Blossom in Pink/Red/Black!

   and 10: Bellgirl said...
   I'm putting in an entry for Calendar Girl, because her Internet thingy isn't working properly at the moment :)

...and as it happens, Calendar Girl's choice was the very same Blossoms in Pink, Red and Black!WHich means I'll be making another pendant with the same Chiyogami paper so there's one for each winner. Congratulations bldrnrpdx and Calendar Girl!

bldrnrpdx, could you please email me your postal address, because I got a no-reply email address when I tried to contact you.
 

Giveaways! Quilt and pendants

Deb from Works in Progress has fantastic giveaways- I know, because I won the last one! This time Deb is giving away one of her beautiful quilts made from vintage pillowcases. The giveaway is here.

Have a look around while you're there- Deb has lots of tutorials for using vintage bed linens, so it's a great site if you're taking part in Ange's Australian Vintage Sheet Fat Quarter Swap.

And speaking of giveaways, today is your last chance to enter my giveaway for one of two Chiyogami pendants of your choice. Entries close midnight tonight!

Giveaway Karma!

I've been very lucky with bloggy giveaways recently, so I'm passing on some of the good karma!


I've just put a new batch of Chiyogami pendants in my Etsy shop, and I'm giving away two pendants. That's one each for two readers, so there's two chances to win. And it's open to readers worldwide!

To enter, simply head over to my shop, look in the 'Jewellery' section, then come back and tell me which is your favorite Chiyogami pendant. If the one you chose is sold, I'll send you a similar one. The 'Mambo for Cats' pendant isn't included in the giveaway, sorry, but all the Chiyogami pendants are.

The giveaway closes next Friday June 25 at 9pm Australian Eastern Standard Time, so please be aware that it may be earlier in the day in your timezone. Please remember to inlude an email address if your address isn't linked to Blogger. Good luck everybody!

Little*A has Made My Day!

Little*A has Made My Day!
Originally uploaded by Bellgirl

I love the Sewing Sisterhood, and here's one of the many reasons why. I've just received a package from Little*A in North Carolina, USA, with the exact pieces I need to finish my disappearing nine patch quilt. Thank you so much, Little*A! Here, along with a very cute owl card, are the squares I cut from Little*A's fabric.

The fabric is Oops Daisy from Moda's Swell collection, designed by Urban Chiks. It reminds me of little girls' hair ties, just the thing for the girly quilt. But when I made up all the squares I realised the quilt needed to be a bit bigger...and I'd run out of the Oops Daisy Fabric, which is out of print! I looked on Etsy, I looked on Ebay. Finally I just googled, and found Little*A's lovely red sundress on Flickr. I Flickrmailed to ask if she had any 7" scraps, and she did!  This parcel arrived this week, and I've cut out five more squares, the perfect amount to finish my quilt top. I've decided to call it the 'Little*A Quilt'.

I hope Little*A won't mind me sharing the words in her message:

"By the way, my kids were very impressed that I was sending a package all the way to Australia. We looked you up on Google maps, then just for fun read the driving directions, which took us to the west coast of the U.S. and then told us to "kayak across the Pacific Ocean." :)"

Those North Carolina crafters sure are dedicated when it comes to delivering their mail (tee hee!).


 

Softie Portrait of Uncle Barney

Softie Portrait of Uncle Barney
Originally uploaded by Bellgirl

Here's another softie from Karin Neuschutz's Sew Soft Toys, from Winterwood. It's a portrait in fake fur of my mum's Australian terrier, Barney. That makes him our Maisy's uncle!

Here they are together at the dog beach. Wa-hey!

Great Works in Progress!

It's not every day I bring in the post and then rush off to get the camera to photograph the packaging. But then it's not every day that I get a lovely parcel from Deb from Works In Progress, from Christchurch in New Zealand.

I entered Deb's giveaway post on Sew Mama Sew's Giveaway Day, and I'm thrilled to say that I was the lucky winner of Deb's 'followers' giveaway, which was a copy of Kathy Doughty and Sarah Fielke's quilting book Material Obsession.

I have blogged about this gorgous book before- it's where I found the pattern for my favorite quilt to date, the Bug's blue and green 'Avalon' quilt. Deb's been making a quilt from their second book, Material Obsession 2 (see Deb's work-in-progress picture to the left).

I'm now a regular reader of Works in Progress, and one of my favorite bits is Deb's tutorials. They're recycling at its best, and the titles say it all: "Pram bag from two pillowcases",  "Bunting from pj jacket and pillowcase",  even "Pot holder from old napkin and frayed teatowel!". 

Deb's tutorial "Best ever bag from Vintage sheet and a doiley", (pictured to the right) was featured on The Vintage Sheet Blog. It's an ideal project for those of us who are taking part in the Australian Vintage Sheet Fat Quarter Swap 2010,  hosted by Ange's Ramblings.

Now I just have to decide how to recycle Deb's beautiful wrapping 'paper'. I think my latest softie, in hot pink and orange, has fallen in love with it! Thank you very much, Deb :)

Softie Seal of Approval

Basking here in my land-locked 'coastal' garden is my second softie from Karin Neuschutz's Sew Soft Toys, from Winterwood.

It's made from silk dupion, which gives it a sleek seal-fur look.

I'm thinking of making a whole colony for my brother and his family, who leave near a seal colony on the Great Ocean Road. Arf arf!