Getting into the Groove 1998

Sydney 1998-2002

Up until 1998 my quilting life had been somewhat “held back” by work and study.  The year had promising beginnings with mixed outcomes (I was retrenched) so I wondered about the usefulness of all that study I had done.  Luckily I managed to pick up another job almost immediately and to end the year, the good Cap’n was offered work in PNG for a four months. Yeah!  Think of all that sewing time! 

I had free week-ends now to go away to Quilt Camps and managed the odd lecture or two at the Quilt Study Group, an offshoot I think, of the Quilters Guild.  One inspiring lecture was given (1/7/98) by our own Quilt Historian, Annette Gero, and we followed up our interest in historical Australian Quilts at an exhibition at Elizabeth Bay House.  (I’m not sure if I kept the information from these sessions but there’s still a mountain of stuff to go through, so you never know what will surface!)

I had a particularly productive 1998 & 1999 but things started to slow down in 2000.  My job intensified with Sydney’s fervour for hosting the Olympic Games, I also decided to go back to uni and of course there was the devastating attack on the USA, which hit home closer than I would have cared with the loss of a friend.  This was the year that changed our lives in many ways.

Japan Textile Tour 2000

The year was not all work however and (thanks to my MIL) I managed a trip to Japan.  The Quilt Study Group held an exhibition of antique Japanese textiles prior to our departure so that got us all salivating.  I brought back rather too much fabric from Japan (as you do!) and still have quite a bit left over because if I use it….  You know, that old trap!   I’m currently writing about my Japan Textile Tour experiences over on TextileTourist – part of the process to digitalise my photo albums and travel/quilting life.  This year was also the year that we purchased our home on Dangar Island – a significant event and one that we’ve never regretted.    

How amazing to see this quilt dedicated to those who lost lives in 9/11

After 2000, life became a blur of work, study and quilting with the UFO box growing at an alarming rate.  Many quilters were starting to have their tops professionally quilted but somehow that option didn’t appeal to me.  I had enjoyed my machine quilting class with Lee Cleeland (Jun/Jul 1995) and as a result decided to shout myself (on laybuy in 2002), a brand spanking new Bernina with the intention of machine quilting my own tops.  The learning curve was steep but I never regretted spending the money on that machine (even though I lusted after the BSR which came out a year or so later!).  Bertie is still going strong especially as Ernie Elna was retired recently (1973-2011). That’s not to say I don’t miss my blue top Elna.  Ernie was very good to me!

Ernie Elna Supercharged

Baby Botanicals: 1995  (Started: 1993)

I purchased a panel of cute flower prints one year and wanted to piece up a fresh, spring quilt.  This easy design was speedily machine pieced during one of my holidays. 

I had fallen for scrap quilts and wanted to select random colours for Puss in the Corner blocks.  It was a pleasure to rotary cut and machine piece this easy quilt after all the concentrating at TAFE classes.   I found a bright flower garden backing which just seemed right for it too!

Cheater Print & Puss in the Corner

But how to quilt it?  I still had “a bit of a backlog” on the hand quilting front when my friend from the Literary Institute (RLI) Quilters offered me a place on a machine quilting class with Lee Cleland (Jun/Jul 95).  I took it up with relish.  Baby Botanicals became my “practice” piece after days practicing on class samplers.  I can remember sitting at my dining table overlooking a lovely view of Sydney, enjoying the machine quilting process, and now day dreaming of all the quilts I would be able to finish.  I think this must have been my first use of a cotton batt which took the machining quiet well.  I liked the end result – not too puffy – so have mostly used cotton wadding since then for quilts I intend to machine quilt.

For starters on this lap quilt, I did a traditional stay stitch to hold the layers together.  Then I did a circular outline stitch over the panels, finally adding a free machine stipple to the border.  That was a big leap forward; and not bad given that I was still using my trusty old domestic, Ernie Elna.

Just for the Record:
Quilt Finished Size: 122.5x 157.5cm
Block Size: 7.5”
Cut in: 1993
Pieced & Basted: Machine 1993-94
Quilted: Machine 1995
Quilt Type: Own Design
Quilt Finished: 1995
Exhibited: 
Collection: Home# 024
Pattern Name: Puss in the Corner
Pattern Source: Traditional
Fabrics Purchased:
Fabric Design: Floral prints & Plains
Fabric Style: Cotton
Materials Type: Cotton
Wadding Type: Cotton Batt
Backing: Cotton

Lessons Learned:
The small size of this quilt made machine quilting not such an adventurous activity. I really enjoyed Lee’s class (2 days in all) and had come away knowing that I could break away from my traditional hand work beginnings to use a wider variety of machine techniques well enough to finish off my quilts - faster.     

Artful Machining

Machine Embroidery Workshop: 1990

I managed to find a space on a machine embroidery workshop in Armidale (Jul 12-14 1990) with Wendy Wright ADVA which was quite exciting – and rather liberating as well.  I learned to push my old (even then!) Elna to its limits.  Of course everyone else seemed to have a fancy Bernina, but it was still fun and came in good stead a few years later in Dover Heights.   I produced a few interesting samples but saw opportunities to use this artistic technique mostly on garments rather than quilts.  However I didn’t really have much time to follow it up.  We sadly missed out on having the subject offered at TAFE (during my time there) and I made a decision that it wasn’t really my area of interest at the time given all the other tempting options available.  What the course did offer me was confidence in using my machine as a means of artistic expression.  Fast forward to lessons on domestic machine quilting in Randwick a few years later and I could really push that technique much further!   

Hard at work in my downstairs studio

Well, that about wraps up my couple of years in Tamworth “going academic”.  I didn’t actually produce terribly much in the way of quilts, but I did learn a lot in terms of skills, knowledge and experience.  My TAFE teachers were fantastic, knowledgeable and very supportive.  Importantly, we were encouraged to see beyond our current passion for craftwork, to use it as a framework to support other (perhaps more profitable) ventures.  So with my mind bursting with ideas, we packed up our happy home (including my burgeoning craft collection) and moved back to the bright lights of Sydney.

(A repeat photo I'm sorry to say, but photos of that time are just so few and far between.)

Vintage Tea Cups

Tea Cups in Lightning: 1989  (Started: 1988)

Tea cups were used to mark quilting lines

A machined foundation pieced log cabin block made with the Fort Queenscliff Quilters in 1988.  Lyn Cross (may have?) led this group workshop in 1988 following on from either a demo or showing in 1987.  Patterns were provided at the class and we used thin white cotton as our foundation for each block.  I chose a brown and cream colour way – very safe and very neutral. And now just so vintage!  This style of machining was easy and accurate, so we had our required number of blocks ready, and by the end of the day most of us took a top home.

We chose to attempt a lap quilt size, given our busy lives and being somewhat daunted at the time needed to hand quilt (another) finished top.  I set the log cabin blocks in a streak of lightning setting and then tied in the centre of each log cabin with perle thread.  Each block was then hand quilted with a fan to highlight the log shapes.  Finally, I did a traditional tea cup quilting design (overlapping circles) in the border, also by hand.

The batting was a very low loft poly and overall added to the vintage look that I was attempting.

Perhaps you remember some of these fabrics?  Classic  80's

Just for the Record:
Quilt Finished Size: 93 x 138cm
Block Size: 19cm
Cut in: 1988
Pieced & Basted: Machine 1988
Quilted: Hand quilted and tied 1989
Quilt Type: Foundation Piecing Workshop
Quilt Finished: Apr 1989
Exhibited: 
Collection: Home# 009
Pattern Name: Log Cabin set in Streak of Lightning
Pattern Source: Workshop
Fabrics Purchased: 1988
Fabric Design: Plains & vintage look prints
Fabric Style: Cotton
Materials Type: Cotton
Wadding Type: Thin Poly Batt
Backing: Cotton

Lessons Learned:
I was starting to learn that to finish quilts and workshop samples I needed to keep them small so my preferred size became “lap quilt”.  This quilt was fun and easy introduction to foundation piecing and better yet, needed little quilting.  My Elna (blue top) purchased many years ago was earning its keep although perhaps not quite how my mother had intended.  We had bought the machine together at Myer in Chermside (a Brisbane suburb) after I had agreed (more or less) to make more of my own clothes.     

Humble Beginnings

This blog will be dedicated to my quilting life.  I love making quilts: bed quilts, wall quilts, lap quilts, gift quilts and art quilts to mention but a few.  Where to start and what to share?  From the beginning of course!

My mother had sewn my clothes.  I had sewn my clothes.  I had also served time in my grandmother’s sewing room – wide enough for a single bed and a small desk with a sewing machine.  High shelves were loaded with many “things” in the making….dolls, aprons, bottle covers, bags and soft toys.  Her cranky sewing machine loved a challenge and zapped me at every opportunity.  I quickly learned to wear rubber shoes and not touch any metal bits.  When my mother offered to buy me a new machine, I did not turn her down!  We found a lovely blue top Elna at Chermside shopping centre.

The fabric thing stuck with me though.  I began collecting…..   A trip to Bali in 1976 opened my eyes to the magic of batik and wonders of exotic handmade textiles. 

After getting married, we took a trip in to South East Asia in 1980.  Our adventures just had to included a visit to Jim Thompson’s Silk store in Bangkok. I was ecstatic!  I had my list ready – metres of rough raw silk for curtains (dark brown – what was I thinking!) and a selection of bright jewel-like colours for a bed cover I had seen in a McCalls Needlecraft magazine some years before.   

The curtains made it up and looked lavish in our modest Swedish pre-fab in rural Victoria but the quilt languished until we moved to Malaysia in 1983.  It was two wonderful years here that my love affair with sewing and cloth became apparent and where my personal textile tour really begins.

In Malaysia I was entranced by Indian Classic Dance too!