QUILT GALLERY
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Paper Dollies
This quilt was a number of years in the making…. it was inspired by the “paper dollies” fabric I found and purchased online. I could only get a small amount of the fabric, so I bought it knowing that I would make it into something special.
When I was a young girl I loved playing with paper dolls. I started with a 2-dimensional cardboard cutout doll, with paper clothes with little tabs to fix the clothes to the doll. It was a fun way to play dress-ups with the dolls, and create their fashion looks. Paper dolls were affordable, and I could even make my own dolls and clothes with cardboard and coloring pencils.
This quilt includes some squares of recycled chenille fabric cut from old bedspreads, recycled bits and pieces of ribbons and laces (including some Chanel ribbon from a gift-wrapped perfume I was once given), and old fashioned ric-rac. I hand stitched tiny buttons and tassels to dress up the dolls on the panel.
To continue with the memories from my girlhood, I used a wide pink satin blanket binding all around the edges, reminding me of the binding of the wool blankets on my bed when I was young.
Bed Beauty
My very first published pattern, Bed Beauty is a simple bed runner using charm squares and some coordinating fabric, with no wastage from the half square triangles.
The charm square fabric is called Dorothy, and was available a few years ago. I love the combination of pastel rose pink and pale mint green, with chocolate brown and black. I have used black satin binding and a black backing fabric. The quilting features outline and border machine embroidery in black thread.
The runner is designed to fit across the width of a queen or double bed - a decorative piece that may be put at the foot of the bed, or up near the pillows. It has an art-deco feel.
This bed runner serves as a mat on my bed for my two cats, so that my doona cover stays white and fur-free.
Beach Houses
I love nothing more than to be at the beach! I grew up close to the beach, and still live along a beautiful coastline.
The blocks for this quilt are based on the Village quilt pattern by Miss Rosie’s Quilt Co. I made the blocks in a range of blue fabrics - I started with two packs of 5 inch charm squares from the Hampton Blues range, and added in plenty of scrap pieces from my stash of fabrics.
The rows of Beach Houses remind me of the old timber boat sheds at the beach at Indented Head (Victoria, Australia) where we spent our summer holidays when I was a teenager, and also the Brighton (Melbourne, Australia) bathing boxes close to where I lived in my 30s and 40s.
Beach Houses is machine-quilted with some wavy lines representing the waves of the sea.
Layers of Love
This is a free quilt pattern from Moda, designed by Sterling LaBosky. I have made this exactly as the pattern describes, using a 10 inch layer cake from the range called The Flower Farm by Bunny Hill Designs. I have added accent and background fabric to compliment.
I love making quilts with heart blocks, and this pattern is so easy using 10 inch squares as the precut. The blocks come together quickly in six rows, creating the illusion of chevrons between the hearts.
Although at little wonky, I have machine-quilted red zig-zag stitch across the horizontal borders and background spaces in the design. A solid red binding makes this quilt a bold stunner.
This is a larger quilt measuring 63 inches x 69 inches, and wraps you in warmth and love. I will definitely be making a few more quilts with this pattern… my next one will be with a collection of purple fabrics and I’ll call the quilt Purple Hearts.
Confetti Blender
I can’t tell you which pattern I used for this quilt… it was inspired by a number of designs I saw that used the concept of small pastel squares floating across a large white background.
I started with a jelly roll of 2.5 inch strips of fabric in a sweet range of pastel batik fabrics. I used a simple white homespun cloth as the background fabric, and the border is made from a recycled white cotton sheet of mine that developed a hole!
What I love about this quilt is that it is large, soft and very cuddly. It measures 64 inches x 78 inches. I machine quilted simple vertical straight lines to emphasise the simplicity of the design. It is backed in a soft pale blue cuddle fleece.
This quilt brings so much comfort and warmth!
Sail Away
This is a fabulous pattern by Thimbleblossoms. I’ve adjusted the pattern so that the yachts are sailing in different directions in each alternative row. I remember that yachts need to ‘tack’ which means they use the wind and sail one way then another in two directions as they make zig-zag progress towards their destination.
The fabric collection I've used is Newport by Minick & Simpson with some additional pieces from my stash - I love the small red ‘burgee’ flag at the top of the yacht mast, it provides an accent to the whole quilt.
I used a red velvet as the binding on this quilt… to add a red accent and to create a thick and soft feeling to the edge. I’ve used a soft minky fabric in a mid-blue as the backing fabric.
This quilt could be used on a boat, or at a beach house, or even as a picnic blanket. I love it’s large size and large scale yachts, however it was a challenge to machine quilt on a normal sewing machine!
Wildflowers
Wildflowers is created using a simple rotating nine-patch concept, that is joining 9 x squares together in a block, then cutting the block through the middle in both ways, and rotating the blocks to create a random pattern.
My inspiration for this quilt is the wildflowers of Western Australia - they bloom naturally every year in fields, bushland and on the roadsides. They create their own symphony of color over several months of the year.
The fabrics I’ve used have been gathered from random fat quarters I’ve found (a bit like gathering flowers in the wild), and a full yard of the pink fabric that is the wider border.
To give this lap-sized quilt some special flair, I’ve used a satin thread in a border of machine embroidery - I think it adds to the finery of blooms that live in this quilt.
Bra Drawer
This quilt is made from a pattern by Lori Holt called Support Group. The pattern was designed and released to raise breast cancer awareness and encourage donations to further breast cancer research and care.
I chose a dark denim blue background fabric to show off the assortment of pretty prints used in the individual bras.
Some bras have a lace or decorative trim to enhance their design, and I have also added bows or tiny flowers to further embellish them.
The quilt has a frilled broderie trim stitched on the outer border, is backed with a soft pink minky blanketing, and bound with a delicate pink cotton binding. I love the femininity of this quilt.
Jelly Hearts
Using a jelly roll from the Nature’s Chorus collection by April Cornell I made this large queen sized quilt by combining a few different pattern ideas. The large heart block is from the Jelly Glazed Hearts Tablerunner pattern by Fat Quarter Shop. I designed the smaller heart block to make use of leftover jelly roll offcuts.
As this quilt became quite large, I decided to hand tie and hand quilt it as I would have struggled feeding it through my domestic sewing machine.
I used crochet cotton to roughly tie the quilt sandwich together, and 4 ply cotton for the outline quilting of the hearts. I added small pink heart shaped buttons along the top and lower borders.
This quilt is heavy and very warm as I used a thick dacron comforter as both the batting and backing. I attached the quilt top to the comforter, then completed the hand quilting and then added a binding in the same cream fabric as the background.
Blue Hydrangeas
I love hydrangeas, particularly blue ones! My great aunts had them in their garden, and I put them in my wedding bouquet.
This quilt took years to complete, only because I first purchased a small amount of the blue hydrangea feature fabric on ebay to start, and then struggled to find the same fabric or a complimentary fabric. The economy block design is a good way to make the most use of a feature fabric.
In my early days of quilting, I used an Excel spreadsheet to plan the placement of the blocks so that I could use all the ones I had sewn, and still make a reasonably balanced quilt.
As I love to do, I used a textured minky fabric as the backing, and loosely machine quilted this one so that it is a large but floppy, cuddly quilt that I take camping and to yoga retreats.
Rose Garden
This one looks beautiful outdoors as it has so many blooming roses. All the fabrics are randoms from my stash - I found so many I had collected that featured pink or red roses. The pattern is a simple snowball block put together in a 4 x 5 grid to make a delicate sized throw.
I chose a big bold pink roses fabric for a wide border, with the inner border hosting a leafy machine embroidery stitch in a varigated green thread.
My Mum loves roses, and so did my Dad when he was a gardener. This quilt often sits on Mum’s bed and she uses it to cover her legs when she sits in her lounge chair.
Thank you to The Cottage on Dhurringile in Tatura, Victoria for the lovely rose garden and stained glass windows where this quilt was photographed. The cottage was also a beautiful space for my quilting retreat.
Victorian Garden
A very clever pattern called Flower Tile from Carried Away Quilting has become one of my favourites, and I’m making more quilts with this pattern - in different themed fabric. This one was made with a single charm pack (5 inch squares) called Decadent Victorian by April Cornell.
A couple of contrasting and complimentary borders set off the ‘squareness’ of this garden layout.
And then some machine embroidery in the aisles of the block design echo the formality you would expect to find in a true Victorian garden.
The backing for this quilt is a thick synthetic ‘hotel blanket’ that I bought back in the early 2000’s. It is a dark mauve, so perfect to create a formal stiffening effect for this quilt.
