A Sunshiny Day

 Summertime: 2020  (Started: 2016)

This quilt was something of a mis-adventure.  I just loved being able to paper-piece these wonderful Sue Ross circles and so, for quilt #3 in this design, decided on using a selection of blacks and whites I had acquired over the years.  Yes, including a stash of FQ’s purchased from Keepsake Quilting in 1999.  So, in early 2016, I began piecing up my B&W Circles of Fun.

I kept at it for a while but something was just not working and so it was stuffed, forthwith into the UFO Box.  Fun it was not.  March 2019 must have been a watershed moment because I don’t often unpick a quilt to basics.  But this one needed it. 

Thus, after lingering for another 12 months, it assumed priority as a project to complete during my “early pandemic” therapy.  I really just wanted this B & W monstrosity finished and off the books.  So as to speak!  Its rebirth took most of 2020; I trimmed down the size, removed those hideous pink circles, and turned the border into the backing.  And voilà, all ready for quilting.  By 25^th December 2020, I had another long-term UFO finished.  I added a final touch of bling with some of my grandmother's black buttons to tone down the little yellow centre circle. In honour of it's December finish and bright vibe, it was named “Summertime”. 

A holding photo until I can get a better shot - I'm learning lots about photographing quilts too!
And now that I look at it, I think that centre yellow circle may have to go too...

View the top pre-makeover.  All I can say is, that at the time, it was getting there.  Where-ever "there" is.  Now, I know for sure it’s not the best thing I’ve ever done, but at least its finished and was fun to make.  A foray, if you will, into the world of modern quilting that de-railed a bit but as it’s often said, “the next quilt is your best one”.  That’s rather like “free beer tomorrow” offered at your local.  We’ll see.  

And if you want to share some sunshiny too, here's Jimmy Cliff.

Just for the Record:
Quilt Finished Size: 131 x 131cm
Block Sizes: 21”
Cut in: 13 Feb 2016 (started)
Pieced (1^st try): 8 Apr 2016
Still in Work Box: 24 Jan 2017 (not loving it)
Reconstruction: 26 Mar 2019
Top Pieced: 20 Feb 2020
Basted: 25 Feb 2020
Quilted: Machine: 20 & 22 Dec 2020
Quilt Type: Mostly Modern
Quilt Finished: 25 Dec 2020
Exhibited:
Collection: Gifted 3 Oct 2023
Pattern Name: Circles of Fun
Pattern Source: Sue Ross
Fabrics Purchased: The Stash & B&W Medley purchased in 1999…
Fabric Design: Prints, Stripes & Ethnic prints
Fabric Style: High Contrast B & W with a dash of yellow
Materials Type: Printed Cottons
Wadding Type: Cotton
Backing: Pieced using left-over remnants of original borders

Out of the Box...At Last!

 Antique Toys#3: 2020  (Started: 2006)

Well, thank goodness this quilt, be it ever so small, is finally out of the UFO Box and on the Quilt Bed with all of its other buddies. Started in 2006, when I was confined to home with a broken leg, this seemed the perfect something to keep me busy.  And off my feet.

There’s not a lot to tell other than it was quite obvious that once I started this quilt, I regretted taking it on.  Not so much for the blocks; even the applique was quite enjoyable and finding a suitable border to contain it all was not so difficult.  I stipple quilted the blocks and achieved that finish in two days, so I can only say it was perhaps an “allergy” to embroidery that caused this project to sit for so long…well, it sounds a likely tale.  The good news it is finished.  At last!  An embarrassing 14 years UFO.

Not lavished with too much embroidery...

Just for the Record:
Quilt Finished Size: 130 x 160cm
Block Sizes: 12”
Cut in: Prior to 2006 (some blocks started); Work continued from 21 Aug 2006
Pieced & Basted: Blocks worked between 2006 - 2011;
On Design Wall: 2011; Needs Quilting & Embroidery 2013
Quilted: Machine: 4-5 Jan 2014
Embroidered: Hand: Autumn/Winter 2020
Quilt Type: Traditional
Quilt Finished: 31 Jul 2020
Exhibited:
Collection: Home #068
Pattern Name: Antique Toys
Pattern Source: Cindy Taylor Clarke, 1983
Fabrics Purchased: From the Stash…
Fabric Design: Prints, Stripes, Mixed
Fabric Style: Vintage look
Materials Type: Printed Cottons
Wadding Type: Cotton

Backing: Pieced using left-over remnants 

View of the back & the Drum signature block

Previous posts about this quilt design can be found (somewhat embarrassingly) in 1988  and  2006.

Beyond Super-Slow

Windom Variation: 2020  (Started: 2013)

(Warning: I’ve included dates just to emphasise, to myself more than anything, how really “slow” this quilt was in the making!)

In 2012 we visited the Southern Highlands Quilt Show held at the local RSL and after, dropped in as you do, to our favourite shop, Timeless Threads.  I purchased a charming “Windom Quilt” pattern along with a Moda Charm pack that just could not be left on the shelf.  Sadly, Timeless Threads in Mittagong, closed in March, 2013.  (31/3/2013).  Our group had, over many years established quite a tradition of visiting the Southern Highlands to work our way along a quilt/craft shop “trail” that included visiting the villages of Berrima, Mittagong, and Bowral.  We tried for Moss Vale too, lunch and coffee stops permitting. 

This photo is from the quilt pattern showing the finished quilt

Timeless Threads had a sample quilt made up in the Windom pattern and I just loved the scrappy design.  I immediately imagined it useful for my many aging left-overs!  In the main, most of the blocks were small, 4” squares.  This appealed as a highly portable project, easy to take to group meetings, either the shorter evening sessions or even our longer monthly meetings.  The central medallion, a tree, did not suit me though, and I eventually decided to make good use of a semi-finished applique block that had been sitting in my UFO stash (since 1988, gasp!) for rather too many years! 

This applique block has a story all of its own – one of those dreadful blue marking pen stories.  The pen lines had heat set on the fabric (from sitting in my car on a rather warm summer’s day) and refused to budge.  In order to save the nearly finished block, a sampler block from Elizabeth Kennedy’s class at the 1989 Armidale Symposium, I embroidered over the lines and added a few decorative flourishes around the applique, including a few of my grandmother's buttons.  Pleased with my efforts, I felt the block did rather need a wash.  Well, my tub of Vanish took those blue lines right out!  I still shake my head to think of it.  This “magic” became a discussion point of our next (October 2014) meeting. 

Meanwhile I kept working on the blocks for the Windom quilt during both 2014 & 2015 even managing to take some away with us on holidays.  I had enough blocks for a photo shoot on my design wall in March 2015.  Aren’t mobile phones sooo handy!  Anyway, after fiddling around with the colours and preferring a pale colourway, I removed most “strong” or contrasting blocks and had the top being sewn up & basted by April 2016.

It took another 2 years to get that quilt machine quilted and bound.  Don’t think it was finished with me yet, though!  The central medallion still caused me grief and hand quilting seemed to be the only solution.  A pattern on the BeBe Bold packaging lent itself to an interesting quilting design.  One that took another 2 years to finish.  Joy of joys, I finished my Windom Variation on 14 June 2020, only eight years later.

Not the best of photos as light was fading from my verandah
& the holder was complaining. Windom Variation: finally finished 2020

Just for the Record:
Quilt Finished Size: 178 x 178 cm
Medallion: Cut in 1998; continued in Feb 2012
Block Size: 4”
Cut in: Mar 2013
Pieced: 2 Dec 2015
Basted: 13 Apr 2016
Quilted: Machine: started 15 Mar 2017
Bound: Jul 2018
Quilted: Hand: started 30 May 2018 & finished 8 Jun 2020
Quilt Type: Vintage
Quilt Finished: 14 June 2020
Exhibited:
Collection: Gifted 3 Oct 2023
Pattern Name: The Windom Quilt
Pattern Source: Timeless Threads, 31 March 2013
Fabrics Purchased: From Timeless Threads (a Moda Charm Pack) & my Stash…
Fabric Design: Mixed
Fabric Style: Soft
Materials Type: Printed Cottons
Wadding Type: Cotton
Backing: Pieced using left-over remnants 

A Grand (Purple) Idea

Moroccan Mosaic: 2016  (Started:2011)

When it’s finally done, I think I’ll have to call this one the “Will I or Won’t I Quilt”….

Source: Quiltmania #68, p21
Now I look back, my quilt doesn't look anything like this at all!

It all started as a grand idea – an inspiration stemming from an old quilt (19^th c_Piece 67) I’d seen in a QNM, then again later in a 2008 Quiltmania mag (#68 p21).  After lots of sketching and thinking, I gave up the idea of circles on squares (but not before cutting out a heap of fabric circles) and went with another idea I’d sourced from a new Kaffe Fassett book^^ I’d picked up in Camden ME (11/9/10), land of the real windjammers.  Kaffe’s quilt design is called Tilt and it’s a delicious field of colourful rectangles.  Those rectangles spoke to me.

So, with the few leftovers from my already cut circles (damn!), I managed to scrape together enough pieces from my Purple Patch collection plus a few little extras from the stash to put together an interesting background  of rectangles.  The circles however looked insipid on it and I was really searching for “Something Flashy” so it was back to the drawing board for a (long, long) while. 

It was those wonderful paper pieced circles made from scraps (Circles of Fun) pattern that jolted me back to this quilt.  Some of the girls were working on a COF quilt in late 2013 and that inspired me to make scrappy but colour controlled circles which would float on top of my restrained rectangles.  Wow!   It worked and saved the quilt from being wholesome, predictable, and a tad boring even. 

So here we are in early 2015, still piecing this top.  Only the borders to go now!  On reflection, isn’t it rather odd that I’ve yet again decided to branch out on a design your own quilt based on grandmothers fan.  Ring any bells?  Why yes, it’s those still unfinished silk stumbling fans….still crazy after all these years.  Perhaps I should rush out and buy a lottery ticket.

^^(Kaffe Fassett’s Simple Shapes Spectacular Quilts, Tilt p46.)

So here we are in March 2016 and finally I can call this one finished.  I used bamboo wadding and whilst it needled beautifully, it also fluffed a bit and needed fairly close stitching.  Not sure I'd go for it again.  For the record, I quilted this one using Perle #8 in three colours; a lush fuchsia, a rich dark purple and a cakky green (yes, that’s cakky! not khaki & I realise there’s a joke in there somewhere). 

Just for the Record:
Quilt Finished Size: 134 x 191cm
Block Sizes: 11.5 x 6.5”rectangles; 14” & 8.5” circles (diameter)
Cut in: 19 Feb 2011
Piecing Began: 14 May 2011
Pieced & Basted: 3 Apr 2015
Quilted: Hand 2015-16
Quilt Type: Interpretation of Traditional Quilt
Quilt Finished: Mar 2016
Exhibited: No
Collection: Home# 052
Pattern Name: Own Design
Pattern Source: Background - Kaffe Fassett & Wheels - Sue Ross
Fabrics Purchased: Purple Patch
Fabric Design: Purple Patch Collection & Kaffe Fassett
Fabric Style: Modern
Materials Type: Printed Cottons
Wadding Type: Bamboo
Backing: Pieced using left-over remnants

Absolute Magic

Garden Games: 2015  (Started:2014)

Garden Games

In March 2013, some of the RLI Girls were busy working on a pattern called Circles of Fun by Sue Ross.  Fun - sure!  What I really did like about it was that the pattern could handle a variety of colourways (antique, vintage, and classic to modern) and still look great.  Best of all though, was its paper pieced rings of scraps (the classic pattern is called wagon wheels) and the dreaded scrap basket certainly could take a beating with this one. 

After some convincing (almost 12 months) and the gift of an enormous bag of leftover scraps (Did I really need more?), I started work on my very first paper pieced project.  The machine hummed and so did I.  My bin began to fill with teeny fabric bits, and although I rescued a few large enough for applique pieces, I rather enjoyed seeing a diminishing scrap box.  Work on the quilt resumed after a long break and by mid-March 2015, the borders were ready to go on. 

Fitting the borders was the most touch & go part of the whole process – fitting a curving border is especially challenging.  Despite all my concerns, it went together quite well and I had the quilt backed & basted only a few weeks later.
 
Quilting is the bottleneck in my part of the woods, so I didn’t quite get to hand quilting until October of that year.  I wanted to use a few shades of DMC Perle #8 in yellow– perhaps to tone down that “interesting” choice of green that I’d made for the background.  One thing about using Perle #8 is that big stitches makes the task a lot faster and luckily, this effect seems to rather suit the look of this project.  I’d wrapped it all up just before my self-imposed New Year deadline in late Dec 2015… Yahoooooo!!!

Somehow, the dreaded scrap box has appeared to replenish itself.  Is it related to the Cut & Come Again Pie?  (“The Magic Pudding” by Norman Lindsay is one of my all-time favourite Australian children’s stories.)

Anyway, so began my obsession with wagon wheels…..

Just for the Record:
Quilt Finished Size: 158 x 158cm
Block Sizes: 55cm
Cut in: Apr 2014
Pieced & Basted: Apr 2015
Quilted: Hand; Oct 2015
Quilt Type: Modern/ Vintage
Quilt Finished: Dec 2015
Exhibited: No
Collection: Home #058
Pattern Name: Classic Wagon Wheel
Pattern Source: Circles of Fun by Sue Ross
Fabrics Purchased: Scraps from the burgeoning stash…
Fabric Design: All Welcome, especially uglies
Fabric Style: Random selection
Materials Type: Printed Cottons
Wadding Type: Cotton
Backing: Pieced using left-over remnants

Fiona's (top) & Erica's (above) versions of this quilt. 
That stripe outer border fabric is all machine pieced too!

Be It Ever So Humble

There's nothing quite like progress!

Well, it's great to be home and have some time for sewing.  I've eventually put together enough of those little petal squares on my Windom Quilt adaption to make an informed colour selection.  After putting them up, "pales" won out.  Although now, a reasonable stack of "bolds" sit waiting for inspiration and yet another "something" quilt...

So, here it is - photographic proof of being busy at work in the Garden Shed!  FINALLY.

Above photos - 19/3/15

As I worked (photos above), I realised that the pale petals looked better.  Having them up on a design wall allowed me to juggle as I worked and by not stitching until I was really happy with the arrangement, I saved a lot of time and unpicking.  : )

The central medallion is, she said proudly, a UFO from a workshop at the Armidale Symposium. Yes, that was 1989!  It just goes to show that some things should not be rushed....

Photo taken 6/10/15

Never Give Up...

Floral Wreath: 2014

The completed block minus blue lines now part of my Windom Quilt

Finally, my floral wreath sample block started in Elizabeth Kennedy's class in 1989 at the Armidale Symposium has been completed.  Yes, it's only one block but really something to get excited about....it's been a long time in the making!

Part of the reason I disliked this block was that I had left blue fabric marking pen lines covering the design.  And they had heat set - a nightmare....  Nothing seemed to help remove them so I just gave up.  Finally, I decided that the only course of action (after some 16 years!!) was to embroider or applique strategically over the lines and splotches.  Besides, I had purchased a pattern in Mittagong at Timeless Threads - if I recall it was at their closing sale - called the Windom Quilt and I wanted a central medallion.  Why not use this block and get it off the UFO list?

Ah, but those dreaded blue lines!  Then of course I threw it in the washing machine with a good dose of "Vanish" waiting for the worst to happen.  But true to name, those lines just vanished.  Now, finished in 2014, it has a home.

Home# 021: 1989 started

Size: 51 x 51cm (without border)

Sydney Re-invented 2006

Antique Toys: 2020  (Started: 2006)

Antique Toys made yet another appearance in my life, this time as I nursed a seriously broken leg.  Confined to my sofa, applique was the easiest sewing solution and rather than start something outlandish, I decided on finally making this quilt for myself.  Needless to say, the blocks kept me amused through footie, cricket and other sports offerings on the telly.  I couldn’t argue (or reach the remote) and for my sins, also had to cope with “cooking by the Cap’n”.  Live through it we did, and I regret to say that I’m still (in early 2015) working on this nod to my early patchwork addiction.

Toy Duck, version 2, 1998.

If memory serves me correctly, I made the duck block in 1988, with the Swan Bay Quilters as a contribution to a group quilt.  I then tackled it again as part of a group raffle (Bondi Evening Group) for our NSW Embroiders Guild in 1998.  Again, these blocks are from Cindy Taylor Clark’s book “Antique Toys”, 1983 sourced by one of our Queenscliff (VIC) group members.  I designed my own borders in a kind of self-help, round-robin process.

Started: 2006

Fairies in My Garden

Fairies in My Garden: 2002  (Started: 1999)

It's a pity the colours aren't "true" but I'm lucky to have this photo! 

I started a small wall quilt - my first as a grand-aunt - as a “birth sampler”.  I can remember doing some work on it when we visited the family on holidays in the Queenscliff Caravan Park one summer.  This very small wall hanging took a long time to finish with all the applique and extensive hand quilting; going small didn't seem to make a difference to the time it takes to finish a quilt!  

Not such a good photo (pre-digital) but at least the quilting is visible.

I found this cute Jo Samperi pattern in a 1998 Patchwork & Quilting magazine and it seemed perfect.  I already had some suitable fabrics but didn’t get the project finished for some years (during my time when I was on a mission to get the UFO box sorted, ha!). 

Just for the Record:
Quilt Finished Size: 89x 89cm
Block Size: NA
Cut in: 1999
Pieced & Basted: Machine 1999
Quilted: Hand 2002
Quilt Type: Wall Quilt
Quilt Finished: 2002?
Exhibited:  No
Collection: Private
Pattern Name: Fairy Quilt (Jo Samperi)
Pattern Source: P&Q Magazine, 1998 p52
Fabrics Purchased: My collection
Fabric Design: Prints & Plains
Fabric Style: Cotton
Materials Type: Cotton
Wadding Type: Thin Poly Batt
Backing: Cotton

This is what it should have looked like! (P&Q Mag 1998, p52)

Lessons Learned:
I had enough fabric to start a second of this quilt but it languishes in the UFO pile in my garden shed.  Maybe one day I’ll either get to it or start a variation - or something else.  Always waiting on inspiration to strike!  I am never good at repeating things – once done, I like to move on to something new and more challenging.

Flower of Life....

Tea Reading: 2009  (Started: 1999)

My favourite quilts are made with scraps.  This one is made from a mixed bag of left-overs, charm squares and friends’ donations.  The background is made up of a selection of “scrap” creams too, some from a tea dying episode.  This quilt, though not huge seemed to use an enormous amount of fabric – probably because of the shaped piecing.  Not that that is a bad thing; one just has to work harder to keep one’s stash at a healthy level!

This traditional tea leaves pattern by Judie Rothermel in “Aunt Grace’s Scrapbag” was sourced by Erica (who incidentally made 2 quilts of this particular pattern in lovely 30’s prints no less!) and they were my inspiration to try one.  The top is all hand pieced and kept me busy during those long hot Delhi summers!

For the backing, I used a cotton sarong I had purchased in Kathmandu, and a complementary fabric purchased in Mr Singh’s store, Nehru Place.

Once basted, I started to hand quilt the plain background pieces, but cotton wadding makes for better machining, so I did a small stipple using a variety of cream shades.  This had a nice effect of accentuating each tea leaf shape as I left them unquilted.

This quilt allowed me to try a scalloped edge – and thus the need to cut & make miles of ½ inch bias for a pretty binding.  It wasn’t as difficult as I expected and the bias sat nicely in the tight curves. 

I put my Tea Leaves on show for the Dangar Island Australia Day celebration in 2010.  One of our visitors said that the pattern was an ancient design called “Flower of Life” and is heavily symbolic.

Australia Day Quilt Exhibition Dangar Island 2010

Just for the Record:
Quilt Finished Size: 177x 200cm
Block Size: 12“ circle
Cut in: 1999
Pieced & Basted: Hand 2005
Quilted: Machine 2009
Quilt Type: Group
Quilt Finished: 2009
Exhibited:  Australia Day 2010
Collection: Home# 034
Pattern Name: Tea Leaves
Pattern Source: Judie Rothermel
Fabrics Purchased: Stash
Fabric Design: Mixed
Fabric Style: Cotton
Materials Type: Cotton
Wadding Type: Cotton
Backing: Cotton

Lessons Learned:
I hadn’t hand pieced a quilt for ages and this one seemed to take forever ; ).  The blocks were very “portable” however, so this became an easy project to work on in those spare moments when life can be dull (eg driving 12 hours to visit relatives in another state).  I also seemed to use up heaps of fabric due to the shape of the leaves, which wasn’t so bad for the scraps but somehow I was always scavenging for backgrounds as I didn’t want them noticeably different from each other.  

Toys & Raffles

Antique Toys: 2000  (Stitched: 1998)

Perhaps not quite so much embroidery on this one.....

Block #2

Antique Toys made another appearance in my life as part of a group raffle (Bondi Evening Group) for our Embroiders Guild.  I so enjoyed making the duck block in 1988, I did it again some 10 years later!  We each made up a pattern on a 12” block, in colours that appealed to us, although with a leaning towards a Christmas theme.  We added lots of embroidery (in keeping with our group raison d’etre), then put it all together.  

Alison coordinated this effort, starting with a proposal/design ideas discussion in 1998, supervising construction in 1999 (that means quite a bit when it comes to coordinating group quilts) and then off to the Guild in 2000.  Some very lucky person has now this lovely quilt.

These blocks were chosen from patterns which can be found in Cindy Taylor Clark’s book “Antique Toys”, 1983.  I rather enjoyed the "repeat" exercise (remarkably) so somewhere in my mind I stored away the idea that ONE DAY I was going to make all of the blocks in this set for me…..as you do!  

Bondi Evening Group Donation Quilt 2000

Decorative Touches

Hussif: 1998

I made this “hussif” in a workshop with Literary Guild girls in May 98.  A hussif is a portable case to keep all your regular stitching things together.  Being quilters, we would be best suited to either one really big one or lots of them!  I was serious enough about sewing kits at the time, a left-over interest from my Tamworth days, so chose to make this one up in one of my favourite fabrics.

I’m not sure who our workshop leader (16/5/98) was as my pattern notes seem to have “left home” of their own accord.  I did make the hussif up with all its little extras, including a mini felt bear, to have it ready for an exhibition of work by the Bondi Evening Group at the Embroiders Guild in 2003.

Inside view with various pockets and additional accessories
including Mr Bear

Blue cord ties the "bundle" together

Provenance

I can’t leave "Tamworth" without commenting on how difficult it has been so far to “recollect” details of my quilts.  Despite leaving a fairly decent paper trail courtesy of TAFE notes, photos, diaries and a feeble attempt to make up a Quilt Album (a bit of a fad in the 1980/90’s) I still find it difficult to date my quilts in detail.  Yes, I do sign and date my quilts – an early “must do” subscribed to by teacher Joc at Queenscliff - but only with the basics.  I’ve since made up a few labels with additional information such as quilt titles and try to embroider this detail rather than just pen it on. 

Keeping an annual appointment diary also helped as has my list preoccupation.  At the end of 1996 I must have decided to write up a wish-list (with pattern details) and added to it my UFO’s, which seemed to be getting out of hand.  Most years since, I’ve made this list-making my New Year’s priority.  That way I can keep a promise to myself to finish off at least one UFO a year (regardless of how much I really dislike it) before surrendering to something new or signing up for an impossible to finish workshop schedule. 

1922 "Wedding Quilt" MJH
NGA Collection

What brought me to comment on the value of labelling quilts?  The Armidale Symposium in 1990 held a Quilt Exhibition (14-19 September 1990) as part of its activities.  Aside from nearly 100 quilts from members and Symposium teachers, the exhibition had a special showing of two 1920's quilts by Mary Jane Hannaford, of Blandford (and also Tamworth), NSW.  Margaret Rolfe mentions an unknown MJH in her 1987 book, Patchwork Quilts in Australia.  At that time little was known of the elusive MJH, however, at least 3 of her quilts were in the safe hands of the Australian National Gallery at that time. (See photos above & below).  Because MJH initialled and dated her works, we now know of a further 4 quilts (6 are now held at the NGA along with a workbook of poems and sketches) and at least one other quilt, owned by a private collector.  Research and information has brought to light her name, her history and a little more of her life details. 

1924 "A Last Day" MJH
NGA Collection

We also have a wonderful on-line resource in the National Quilt Register, so if you have something that could enhance our understanding of early Australian life and textiles, help this resource list to grow. 

It is best then, to follow the advice in just about every quilting book out there and sign and date your work at the very least.  Future family members, quilt historians or owners may just want a little provenance with your quilt legacy left to them. 

Sadly, I don't have any photos from the Armidale exhibition but I did copy down a poem written by MJH.  She was indeed an inspiring and creative spirit from our early history.

Omission

It isn't the thing you do, dear

It's the thing you have left undone,

Which gives you a bit of a heartache

At the setting of the sun.

The tender word forgotten,

The letter you did not write,

The flower you might have sent, dear

Are your haunting ghosts tonight

The stone you might have lifted

Out of a brother's way,

For life is all too short

And sorrow is all too great

And it's not the thing you do

It's the thing you leave undone,

Which gives you a bit of a heartache

At the setting of the sun.

written by Mary Jane Hannaford, 1840-1930

Fresh Beginnings

Tamworth Community Art & Craft

There was not a Guild as such in Tamworth but a couple of local groups did exist. At the time I joined up with a group offered by Tamworth Community Art and Crafts.  As my life was pretty much consumed by TAFE, I don’t think I used my time there to do much other than finish off “what was due”.  Either way, I met some nice people and confirmed that quilters are a friendly bunch.

Moon over the Mountain: 1995  (Started: 1989)

The Tamworth Patchwork & Quilting Group was led by Lyn.  At some stage the members had each appliqued a “Moon over the Mountain” challenge block and when I joined, Ruth was in the process of machining the blocks together in fun way.  I loved the colours – strong pinks balancing the blacks and checks to tame the “cuteness” of the finished blocks.  In Nov 1990, I bought this top as a memory of my 2 years in Tamworth.  I finally got round to quilting it in 1995 (hand & machine) and then added a small Moon over the Mountain block of my own on the back as a signature block.

Tamworth Moon over the Mountain

Just for the Record:
Quilt Finished Size: 135x 178cm
Block Size: 12”
Cut in: 1989
Pieced & Basted: Machine 1990
Quilted: Hand 1995
Quilt Type: Group Challenge Quilt
Quilt Finished: 1995
Exhibited: 
Collection: Home# 022
Pattern Name: Moon over the Mountain
Pattern Source: Traditional
Fabrics Purchased: Group Choice
Fabric Design: Prints & Plains
Fabric Style: Cotton
Materials Type: Cotton
Wadding Type: Thin Poly Batt
Backing: Cotton

Lessons Learned:
I loved the adventurous border colouring in this quilt and the way it “hangs” all the individual blocks together. After finishing the quilting, I was determined to be a little more radical (ie brave!) in my colour and fabric choices.