Wordless Wednesday

Orange Peel Cushions

For Down Under Quilts issue 159 I wrote an article about Orange Peel quilts. I got so inspired that I decided to make some modern Orange Peel cushion covers - you can find them as a project in the same issue. Appliqué is not really my thing but I did enjoy making these covers. I used black and white fabrics from my stash - some are leftovers from the black, white and red log cabin quilt I made back in 2008!

Wordless Wednesday

Cycle of Life on a cycling blog

I just discovered a lovely 'review' of my Cycle of Life quilt on CycleStuff, a British cycling blog. The blogger, Simon Nurse, says, "It absolutely represents the evolution of a cycling dad. Tentative wandering on the tricycle. Growing confidence with stabilisers. Rough and tumble on the BMX. No fear on the mountain bike (until that first king size crash). The thrill of competition, then fatherhood, with all its highs and lows, complications, time demands and responsibilities."

This just made my day! I am so happy that someone likes something I made so much and that it, as he says, struck a chord. Of course this quilt is my personal favourite as well :-).

Wordless Wednesday

SAQA Oceania Blog Hop

Welcome to the Oceania Collection Blog Hop!

SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) has an auction of art quilts every year, and this year the Oceania members contributed 32 pieces to the collection.



The Blog Hop goes “behind the scenes” to reveal how many of these pieces came about.

A full list of participating artists is on the main SAQA Oceania blog HERE.

This is my auction piece, Black and White #3:



I love black and white quilts and optical illusion quilts. Black and White #1, also known as Op Art Quilt, was made in 2010, for an art auction at my kids' school:



Black and White #2 was made in March 2012. I had planned it to be my SAQA auction quilt for 2012, but it ended up being too large:



All of these quilts are made in the same way: the background is pieced by sewing strips of black and white fabric together. More strips are sewn together and from this fabric pieces are cut and appliquéd to the background with a satin stitch:



Up close this is easy to see:



For more inspiration, visit Susie Cujes and Maggie Gilbert who have already shared their creations.

Coming up soon are Linda Stokes on 15 August and Robin McGrath on 17 August.

Braided rug made with t-shirt yarn

Pretending I did not have enough projects to keep me busy (the Lone Star Quilt, a quilt for Down Under Quilts) I decided last week to make some t-shirt yarn (you can read how to do that here) and then started braiding a rug (braiding along with Cathy, a year and a half later).



This is where I am now, after many hours of braiding, sewing, unpicking, sewing, braiding some more etc. The diameter is now 60 cm (23 1/2 in) and I plan for the rug to be at least 1 metre wide. I am blogging in more detail about this project on my Blue Jacaranda blog and adding frequent updates to the Blue Jacaranda Facebook page, so do go there if you would like to follow my progress!