A Bushfire Salve

Welcome to my entry in this month's Blogger's Quilt Festival. 

This Polaroid 9 Patch quilt was made with the help of  13 other ladies in my Quilt Club Australia Bee.

The back was pieced using the random polaroid patterns designed by paper piecing lovely Kristy of Quiet Play.

This quilt was donated to a family who lost their home in the Tasmanian bushfires in January. I might be making some more donation quilts because unfortunately last Thursday nearly 200 folks, of my home state of New South Wales, lost their homes in an early season spree of bushfires in the Blue Mountains and the Central Coast. 

I am glad that a quilt can be a salve even if only for a time.

My original post featuring this quilt was back at the end of May.

Thank you for stopping by.

Snap! That back!

I had no sewjo about 11 days ago but getting along to quilt group kick started it again. That, and the girls in my Wombat Stew group who seem to be whipping through their projects at the moment.

Yesterday I printed off some yet to be released paper pieced blocks from Kristy at Quiet Play. She made these up for Gina of Party of Eight when she made a polaroid quilt. 

I thought they would make great blocks for my quilt back for the Wonky 9 Patch Polaroid quilt that my QCA Bees help to make.

I decided to do them in some boy colours as I hope that this Bushfire Quilt will make it into the hands of a young lad. I also used up some of the boy I-Spy fabrics that have been languishing in my stash for some time.

The shot at the top was the best that I could achieve with autumnal sun on a windy day. Fran did try to help but it was easier to climb the hills hoist instead.

So I am hoping that, as a second pattern tester for these blocks, Kristy will release them into the wild soon.

And I am so pleased to have featured her fab Polaroid camera block (made by her).

Now to manufacture up enough Sewjo to get this thing basted next week!

Linking up to TGIFF being hosted by Wombat Stew girl Midgey at Ms Midge.

Katie Jump Back

The back of my Katie Jump Kites quilt is finished!

I switched around a couple of the bricks and added 2 new rows with some other Denyse Schmidt prints. There not many yellow prints in her collections but there are plenty of greens, blues and oranges.

I am very happy with this quilt back. I have been following the FREE Craftsy 'Creative Quilt Backs' with Elizabeth Hartman (who is not only talented but good looking too!). 
I highly recommend this course to give you some very helpful hints about calculations, sewing practice and piecing a quilt back. Elizabeth makes very modern and unique quilt backs that tie in with her clever tops - so there is plenty of quilt candy for the eye.

There is a lot of maths involved with calculating a pieced quilt back and unfortunately I cut about 1.5" too short on the left hand side of my quilt back's light grey top section. Golden rule : round up not down. Be more generous than miserly. I may end up adding a strip but the quilt back is a good 4" bigger on EACH SIDE than my quilt top.

Now my problem will be to baste this quilt with only a week to go before the 2 week school holidays begin. It is going to be the largest quilt I have attempted on my Janome DC2101. Thankfully I am going to do some kind of straight line quilting.

So here is the top and the back.

Top - width 65" x height 74"
Back - width 74 x height 84"
(in the photo above, some of the light grey is folded over the clothes line as it is quite tall)

Belatedly linking up to...

and Link a Finish Friday #32 (LAFF) with Richard and Tanya Quilts

Hold the hot pot

Zakka Style Patchwork Potholders

For some reason I dragged my feet with this project. I think it was more about fabric choices than the actual sewing. I had trouble deciding what to use. I should have gone to my selvedge box first because the second red/pink creation came from there. It was the easiest to put together.

For the green/blue version I got out some Denyse Schmidt fat quarters and lopped off a few ends. I've actually made 4 pot holders from what was initially cut.

The backing and pockets were made from re-purposed tea towels.


The binding is also from my leftover binding stash. I just could not cut into the bias of my dwindling linen supply.


I also managed to sew an orange version of the Ribbon Star block from Freshly Pieced for Kate in the June swap for QCA Beehive #1. I am hoping it is appealing enough for her to overcome her orange aversion!

Kristy of Quiet Play has finished up our Collaborations for a Cause quilt this week. You can see her post here. It is stunning! I love the front of rainbow charms with the contrasting dark grey sashing. 

And my quilt back did not come up too badly.

I have been sewing and watching a lovely BBC series called 'Lark Rise to Candleford.' It was highly recommended by Kristy  and it does not disappoint. I love the main character - postmistress Dorcas Lane - brilliantly played by actress Julia Sawalha.


I am late but linking up with...

April Finishes

This month has seen me:

• learn how to sew a zipper. So pouches are in abundance at my place. 
• learn to make fabric covered buttons. Heaps of fun.
• make my first ever bag. Despite sewing the handles on upside-down the first time.
• join the Zakka Style Sew- Along. Learning the joys and pitfalls of sewing smaller items.
• skip this month's hexagon blocks with the Craftsy BOM.
• cut into 'my precious' Denyse Schmidt stash.
• realise that half square triangles are cantankerous creatures.
• meet my lovely blog buddy Kristy at a Mystery Quilt Weekend.
• make use of my collection of selvedges.

All the while listening to or watching some great series' on SBS on demand, ABC iview, dvd, or the History Channel - Coast, Who do you think you are? Australian Series 2, Is the West History?, Barbarians, Ken Burns' The Civil War, The Civil War Journal, The First World War, Gallipoli, Anzacs, Narrow Escapes of WWII, and Downton Abbey.

1. Katie Jump Rope by Denyse Schmidt - cut into 15/4, 2. Fussy Fairytales - basted 30/4, 3.  Fussy Fairytales - back 28/4 4. Mystery Quilt - top finished 27/4, 5, Diamonds in Squares QCA Bee -  5/4

6. ZSSA Zig-Zag tote - 10/4 7. ZSSA Sewing Kit - 20/4, 8. ZSSA Pin Cushion - 17/4, 9. ZSSA House Pouch - 12/4, 10. Small zipper pouch - 2/4.

11. Large zipper pouch - 6/4, 12. Pocket zipper pouch - 28/4, 13. Selvedge zip pouch swap 1 - 16/4, 14. Selvedge zip pouch 2 - 16/4, 15. Large selvedge zip pouch - 26/4

So now to plan my new 'to do first' for May. Yikes!

How did you go in April? 

I am linking up with....

Astor Manor D9P is finished!

Although I finished the front of the quilt more than a week ago, the back was finished only tonight. Normally a quilt back involves calculating an extra 4 inches to each of the front measurements and then buying a wide back fabric with those dimensions. Sometimes you can piece together normal sized fabric to achieve a similar effect. But in general, the back of the quilt is usually one fabric and plain.


Modern quilts have turned quilt backs into their own art form. I have been so impressed with some of the quilt backs on other blogs and sites...so much so that the back is almost as good as the front! At the very least they offer a different interpretation of the original fabrics.


When my mother handed me her Astor Manor scraps...there was certainly enough to make another quilt front, but also nearly enough for a quilt back. 

I had managed to find two floral prints yardage at Easter time when the gorgeous 'Ribbons and Rainbows' at Blackheath was having its closing down sale. 


Moda also produced 3 wideback fabrics for their 'Astor Manor' range. One was a cream, another brown/stone and the last a burgundy. After looking on their website, I rang the lovely Brenda from 'Widebacks Australia' and she happened to have some of the stone in her end of the bolt sale section. She also gave me 20% off the cream as well and delivered it from Western Australia within 2 days! 

But then I had so many scraps and yards and half yards that it made it MORE difficult to decide what to use and how to use it. I kind of agonised over it and there was more than one incarnation. I'd do a bit and then I'd have to leave it to ponder some more...hoping that some time and distance would help the process...sort of evolve into something beautiful.


But it didn't.

So I left it some more. 


Did some scrapbooking and regular sewing and sorting of Lego (it was school holidays afterall).

And then it started to come together.

Piece by piece...

until it was beautiful.

And it is HUGE...a whopping 94" x 76".