Windmills from Rae and Debi

It's been a few weeks since I received these pictures.

Here is Debi's Windmill quilt. She matched the backgrounds to keep them organized. I love it! It reminds me of those carved windows of the fort in Rajasthan.

Rae calls her quilt - Lost Windmills
I love that she added borders to the top. Don't you think it adds extra movement to the quilt?

Have a lovely weekend you all! I will be in Ithaca, NY for a presentation and workshop. 

No Ugly Flowers - The Flimsy

Created using the Peppermint Pinwheels pattern in Sujata's book . . .

This started out as one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilts

but I couldn't work on it just one block a month . . .

The fabrics and the design were just too much fun . . .

I added the leafy green to stabilize the outer edges 

using 1.5" strips of the batik binding fabric . . .

And I LOVE the 50" x 66" flimsy!!

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CLICK HERE to see more photos on my blog.

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THANK YOU, Sujata ~

I love your book!

Quiltdivajulie

Denim Baby Hourglass

I was so excited to get started on baby Burkley's quilt that I just went back into my favorite quilting pattern book, Cultural Fusion Quilts.
Today was my first real day of quilting. The weather of springtime at the coast has turned to cool windy but clear skies for the Northern Interior. The quiet trickle of our beautiful Bulkley River lulls me in quiet play of Sujata's Baby Hourglass.

This method is fast, fun and reminds of my Two Hour Table Runner. I did have a brain dead moment while listening to CBC's late afternoon show on politics. The blocks were less than what I was thinking I'd be creating. I had missed crucial information while skipping through the directions. I'll share those in another post.

I intend to use  white #5 Perle cotton to do hand quilting inside the blue denim. Adding additional blue fabric I'll proceed with Burkley's quilt. Border includes some Rail Fence blocks too.

Until next time, have a great weekend.

Carli

The Red Quilt

This one stayed as a top for a long time.. I am so glad it is finally a little wall quilt. I absolutely love the texture hand-quilting has created. More to come and more pictures on my blog.

And the story behind this picture or the drums -

Shail, my son loved playing ''Tabla'' when he was a little boy. When we came back from a visit to India during his elementary years, he insisted that we bring these drums along with us. He played them for a while. He even took some lessons in his high school years. I simply love seeing these on the table in out living room. When playing these drums, you are supposed to use your palms and knuckles of your fingers, finger tips.. all in harmony.

I can play a bit but it is nothing you would want to hear.. If you did hear me, I am afraid you may just run right out the door!
:-)

Shapes, lines, colors, textures.. How would you use these forms in a quilt?
 

My Toran Is Finished

Quite Happy with the Outcome!

The border is the same fabric as the background ... 

with a few slashes on each side.

The binding is made up of the colorful strips pieced together.

The back is leftover pieces of the front fabric plus some others.

I consider this a practice piece as I was using my new machine &

still misuse some of its features such as the foot thread cutter.

 I used a walking foot with a variegated green thread for two of the

"organic" lines & then switched to a variegated yellow thread &

did my first ever free motion line on a quilt.

(It's the one with uneven stitches between the two greens.)

Sailing Through Suez - and a story

Sailing Through Suez

In 1962 my parents and I emigrated to New Zealand on the

Chandris Line ship "Brittany". We sailed by way of Piraeus, the port for Athens, on to Suez

and through the Canal, into the Red Sea to Aden and across the Indian Ocean to

Perth, Melbourne and Sydney before arriving in New Zealand.

This journey made a tremendous impression on a 15 year old girl!

I loved every minute of it.

To say the temperature around the Canal, and especially in the Red Sea, was hot is an

unimaginable understatement.

There was a constant red hot glowing ball way up in the sky draining

the colour out of everything along the Canal Zone and through the Red Sea.

Then you hit Aden.

I do wish I had a photograph to show you, we weren't allowed to land

as there was rioting at that time, but from the deck the sight of those

huge dark jagged peaks seemingly going on forever left me speechless.

I have a book written by Pamela Mountbatten with a paragraph in which she

describes her journey along a similar route and her arrival at Aden, I quote:

"towering dark grey volcanic rocks splitting the horizon with their peaks as we came into 

harbour one morning". You will see now how those flying geese came into the quilt.

After that you head into the beautiful Indian Ocean - the sea incredibly green and the

sunsets and sky like velvet at night equally spectacular. 

Hence - Sailing Through Suez to remind me

 of that amazing journey which still has the power to move me to tears with the

memories.

A close up of the quilting - rolling waves in variegated thread. Widely spaced waves

didn't work for me so I went to town and did heaps and heaps!

This red hot fabric for the backing seemed quite appropriate.

This piece would certainly not be in existence without Sujata and

Cultural Fusion Quilts and this blog.

My intention now is to carry on and create

in cloth my memories of other special moments on that journey 

undertaken 53 years ago, also the return through

Panama a year later. Another series will give me the chance to live again

special childhood memories, part of what makes me who I am today.

Thank you Sujata.

No Ugly Flowers - An Update

Since I first posted about my No Ugly Flowers project

(using Sujata's Peppermint Pinwheels design)

I've made some progress.

February brought two pink blocks into the mix.

March saw this cheerful yellow flower appear . . .

. . . along with this more subdued gold flower.

(Be sure to enjoy the text fragments -

I love the way they appear and disappear between the petals)

April's Rainbow Scrap Challenge color is purple.

Here is the tip of the first purple block with the phrase

"Art is good.  Sew your little heart . . ."

And here is a detail from the second purple block.

(although it looks more like blue in this photo)

'

These blocks are so much fun to make!

I already know that I will not be able to

keep working on this one month at a time.

As you can see,

I've already chosen more colors . . .

Quiltdivajulie