Summer Picnic

My Spring Summer Picnic quilt is finished. And while i didn't quite have it finished to enjoy the Australian spring as hoped, it is ready to make the most of the last remnants of summer.

For me, this quilt is all about the colours. Colours that really please my eyes and say 'take me out onto some lush, green grass and enjoy the warmth, blue skies and fresh air outdoors'. The design is simple...super simple....but i really like how in it's simplicity, it's reminiscent of the table cloths we used on picnic tables when i was young.

I was inspired to make my Summer Picnic quilt after seeing Annie's Picnic Quilt by Malka Dubrawsky (p.122 of her book Fresh Quilting; Fearless Color, Design & Inspiration) (You can read more about that here).

I also really liked the colour combinations in Kaffe Fassett's Green Shirt Stripes fabric, so while the solids are primarily shades of green, i've tended to include some prints and squares of purple and blue to liven things up a little. I've used Kaffe's Green Shirt Stripes for the binding.

Today, we headed off to the sculpture garden outside the Australian National Gallery in Canberra to take some photo's. As usual, my assistants were very helpful and the perfect picnic quilt testers; 
1. rolling on it - tick
2. munching yummy things on it -  tick
3. jumping and running all over it - tick
4. Hurricane proof? - tick.

Lesson learnt - 

Rip-Stop Fabric is too slippery to quilt using my walking foot!

One of the reasons for the delay in finishing the quilt was because i'd decided to experiment a bit with some Rip-Stop as backing. I thought Rip-Stop would make the perfect backing for a picnic quilt...giving it a bit of water/dirt proofing when the ground is a little damp. So after whipping up the quilt top, i thread basted the quilt sandwich ready to go.

My plan was for simple 1/4 inch quilting either side of the seams with my wonderful walking foot. Sounds easy right? Well, i battled and fought with the quilt as it slipped and created horrible, irregular, messy quilting lines. I persisted for several lines of quilting before i was so disappointed, i turned off my Bernina and set the quilt aside while i decided what to do.

Now, don't get me wrong, my machine quilting is far from perfect at the best of times. My main problem usually happens when dealing with larger quilts and the thread length will vary as i tug and battle with the weight and size of the quilt and i often end up disappointed and not enjoying the quilting process (for that reason i usually opt to take big quilts to my lovely long-arm friends).

But this was soooo much worse. At times like this, a girl needs to consult her Mum and she agreed that i should unpick the mess i'd made, remove the Rip-Stop, make a new backing from the left over fabrics i'd used on the top, re-make the sandwich and quilt it as planned. And, i'm very happy i did. Despite a few wonky imperfections (aka Hurricane assistance) and some of the usual variations in thread length, it's ready and raring for picnics.

I can't wait to take it out for another date. I look forward to some lazy napping, sharing yummy nibbles with family and friends and the likely job of working out how to best remove the evidence that a good time was had; red-wine, homemade beetroot dip (my favourite) and probably some tomato sauce.

Cheers to many years of picnics ahead,
Jen

Linking up with:
- Kim at Persimon Dreams for TGIFF,
- Lorna for Lets Bee Social and
- Amanda Jean for Finish it Up Friday

Peta's Framed Mini-Quilt

Our good friend Peta recently turned 70 years old. Peta is a wonderful, joyful character and enjoys creating her own wonderful art-quilts and handmade treasures.....including the most delicious sweets (so good, i've often requested recipes for!).

As a little gift, i made her this framed, mini-quilt using some of my very favourite fabrics (including some Kaffe Fassett and my favourite blues and greens of course!). You might recognise some of them from what i reckon is my all-time favourite quilt, Dreaming of Jacarandas.

I used a gold thread to quilt 1/4 inch from the seams and i love the way the it shines in the sunlight.

Happy 70th birthday Peta! Here's to a great year ahead and plenty more birthdays for us to celebrate together.

Linking up with:
- Amanda Jean for Finish it Up Friday and
- Lorna for Lets Bee Social

Dreaming of Jacarandas

Hip hip hooray! It's finished. Waahooooo!

This quilt was inspired by a painting by Australian artist, Ken Done called Jacaranda reef . The colours in this painting drew me to it instantly and i knew i had to at least have a print of it on my wall.

When i found some beautiful, floral, Kaffe Fassett fabrics a couple of years ago that had some of the colours in them, i knew the colours would lure me to make something based on the Jacaranda inspiration. If you've never seen a Jacaranda tree before, when in flower they are covered in the most spectacular purple/blue, which fall and cover the ground, creating fields of  'purple snow'. Just gorgeous!

When my husband and i decided we were going to visit Portugal this year, i knew this was my opportunity to make a special quilt for my mother and father in-law, Rosa Maria and Ze Carlos, who live there. I got out my notebook and fabrics and came up with a quilt top, based on string piecing. I had plenty of blues, greens and purples in my stash to match and felt that the strips would still show those beautiful florals of Kaffe's.

To be honest, i didn't think it would take me nearly as long as it did, but after several months of sewing strips together while my little boy slept after lunch, it was finished.

Measuring just under 2x2m, my friend Carol Ikin in the Blue Mountains quilted it for me on her long arm machine using swirls in line green (thanks Carol...you've done a beautiful job).

For the back i chose to use some of the pieced string triangles left over to join together one of my favourite Kaffe Fassett fabrics with a green and white spot pattern. I machine-bound the quilt using some pretty blue fabric left over, hoping it will be super sturdy and ready for lots of use....
It has turned out to be my absolute favourite quilt so far and will be hard to let go of.

But i'm happy knowing it's going to my dear Portuguese family. Best wishes Rosa Maria and Ze Carlos.....i do hope you'll love it!

Linking up with Lorna for Let's Bee Social and Gemma for I Quilt Thursdays @ Pretty Bobbins

Last but not least.....

And finally in the placemat series, and quite possibly my favourite.

I made this placemat using some scraps left over from a quilt i've made for my MIL (stay tuned....i'm in the process of binding this one so will add a post on it shortly). These are my favourite colours at the moment and i really like the straight 1/4 inch quilting i did with my walking foot.

The seams got a little bulky where the triangles meet, but it was the perfect way to use up the leftover string pieced triangles.

A placemat for Silvia

On my last visit to Portugal, my aunt Silvia, who lives in beautiful Viana do Castelo, gave me a gorgeous embroidered tablecloth. In traditional blue on white linen, embroidered cloth is famous in this region! It's so pretty....

So, i've made her a placemat. And while it isn't nearly as precious as the tablecloth she gave me, it is my favourite so far. I'm hoping it will bring her joy and happiness whenever she has breakie or a meal  on it out on her sunny Viana verandah. I can't wait to give it to her.

The pattern is based on the drunkards path design, but i loved the way Angela Pingel put hers together in Modern Blocks, so i've based the layout on this. This was my second attempt (after a bit of a disastrous first attempt), at sewing curves for the drunkards path, and i must say i'm pretty happy with it. I can highly recommend using templates!

I've done some spiral quilting using my walking foot in the hope of showing off those curves and it turned out well. I like the quilting on the back too (this Kaffe Fassett fabric is one of my favourites, so i like the back as much as the front!). The quilting is nice and close and other than the centre of each spiral, the stitches are ended off only underneath the binding, so it should be nice and durable after many washes.

 Here's hoping Silvia will love it.....