Cinzia Quilts

2009-08-14T07:37:00.000-07:00

This quilt was made many years ago. The ties are three dimensional and although difficult initially went well after several blocks.

The quilt was given to my nephew Ben for his 21st and unfortunately it has been hung on his wall rather than being used as it was intended. Admittedly he does like it but his mum thought it was too good to take to the footy or to be used in a young man's home. Hopefully one day soon he shall reclaim it.

Dancer and Rabbit

2009-08-14T07:34:00.000-07:00

Another quilt from Charlotte Warr Anderson's book. Great book and if you ever hve the chance to pick up a copy I definitely recommend it.
i think one of my problems with realistic applique is that I found it too restrictive choosing realistic colours/fabrics. However I did learn a lot about value selection making this quilt and the rabbit.

Dancer and Rabbit

2009-08-14T07:30:00.001-07:00

This design came from Charlotte Warr Anderson's book Faces and Places.

At this time I thought I might go into applique and although I enjoyed this exercise it was not a thought I kept for too long.

Crazy Stars

2009-08-14T07:24:00.000-07:00

In this detail you can see how scrappy some of my fabrics were. This quilt was my first attempt at crazy patchwork and although I enjoyed the higgledy piggledy piecing the idea of embroidering each seam didn't excite me in the least.

For the sashing I had just one metre of a fabric that changed from red to jet black as it went across the width. This was sufficient for only the sashing and with careful placement bright sections appeared to float from the quilt.

This quilt still hangs on our walls.

Scrap Shadows

2009-08-14T07:23:00.000-07:00

Photo needed given to Joan when she retired from Lindsay Park PS.

Mrs' Quillow

2009-08-14T07:22:00.000-07:00

Need photo

Brandon Hexagon

2009-08-14T07:21:00.000-07:00

need photo

Richard's Bird

2009-08-14T07:16:00.000-07:00

When Richard was in kindy he made a plasticine picture of a bird. He was very proud of it and we kept it for ages however over time the plasticine started to dry out and crack and so I decided to make a quilt copy of it.

This is an exact replica of it apart from the top right hand leaves. The colours are also fairly accurate of the original.

It was hand appliqued and mainly machine quilted. I can quilt something this size.

West Bound

2009-08-14T07:09:00.000-07:00

This quilt was another early attempt at scrap quilts. I have always liked the colours in this one and enjoyed making it. The fabrics used were sheeting and it had a mountain mist polyester batting. I gave this to my nephew Matthew as I thought the colours seemed to suit his nature. It ws started in 1992 and finished 1999... can you see a tendency emerging here?

Green Scrap

2009-08-14T07:05:00.000-07:00

Ahh you can tell that I was very creative with the naming of my quilts in the early days. by the time I made this quilt I had a few more fabrics and so was starting to use more variety in the choices. In truth I was finding it hard to finish any quilt which was made using too much meterage. I had bought one green and a white TOT for the QST but when I came to make them figured that it would be too boring if I restricted myself in that way. I ended up using that fabric for the borders and have loved this quilt since.

I regularly use this design for gifts.

Fish

2009-08-14T06:56:00.000-07:00

although this block is known as Lady of the Lake we have always thought that when on the side they resembled fish and so that is what we call this quilt here. It was hung for several years on the wall sideways and that is the way we view it, even though it now resides upon PJ's bed.

This was another class that I did. Unfortunately I have no idea who taught the class and so cannot give credit where it is due. In the class everyone purchased a kit of squares of mixed fabric and the aim was to learn how to mix these together.

We were supposed to have chosen a black as the background but I disliked the harshness of that and instead chose this TOT green. Another person chose a vibrant purple and it was a most amazing quilt.

This quilt was machine pieced and hand quilted

Scrappy Outfits

2009-08-14T06:52:00.000-07:00

Now here is where my true scrappy skills were developed. When my boys were little I made all of their clothes and there was nothing I enjoyed more than making bright and colourful clothes. As I was really into my patchwork I liked to use some of those skills in this area too and so after making their outfits I would save the leftovers and make more clothes. Initially I would make clothes simply using a different coloured fabric for each piece but when the scraps became too small for this I would cut 6in strips and combine these to make large pieces of fabric and from this cut their clothes. I loved the brightness of these items and from this learnt to experiment more with my fabrics in patchwork.

Maroon Quillow

2009-08-14T06:47:00.000-07:00

Another great idea which didn't turn out as hoped. This was a panel which I quilted and then attached a pocket in the back to convert it to a quillow.

Although there were few skills learnt while making this quilt, it did teach me how to add pockets to lap quilts and I have found this to be very handy for keeping feet warm:)

It also confirmed that machine quilting was not my forte.

Snowballs

2009-08-14T06:35:00.000-07:00

Ahh this was another class but a machine pieced design. Still not being confident about colours Joy helped me to choose the colours. I liked the red and blue she suggested but not the grey and so substituted the white. When the quilt top was finished I found it a rather bland quilt and so had very little enthusiasm to complete the hand quilting. Over the years I have attempted to complete this and finally resorted to machine quilting it. It was given away once it was finally finished. Although others thought it looked nice I was never enamored with it.

First Scrap

2009-08-14T06:32:00.000-07:00

I have yet to take a photo of this quilt but will do so soon. I still have this quilt although it is not used often. I decided that I could quickly and easily make an award winning fast quilt using strip piecing techniques. What I didn't understand before making it was that if I strip pieced many strips and then cross cut, most of my strips would be the same and so rather boring. I also discovered that it takes care to have seams matching. A lesson learnt and of great value for future quilts.

First Sampler

2009-08-14T06:22:00.000-07:00

This sampler was completed in a class with Joy Dixon. I started this in April 1987, just a month after PJ was born.

It is hand pieced and hand quilted and I loved making it. When selecting the fabrics the only thing I knew was that I wanted it to match with the lampshade we had at the time and that was why there is so much pink in it.

Joy was a great teacher who thought that we should learn those skills we would need so that if we saw a pattern we could modify it to suit our needs and then make it. I have never had a better teacher.

Oh the quilt was also quilted to death since she also said that if it was heavily quilted it would be able to be machine washed. This quilt has served me well over the years and has been washed numerous times. Now however it is quite frail and is seldom used.

First Quilt

2009-08-14T06:15:00.000-07:00

This is the first quilt that I ever made. I made it in 1984 for my future husband, Paul. It was made with a lot of love and absolutely no knowledge.

The fabric was polycotton and the blocks were cut on the bias, so that the design would go diagonally across the quilt. I also used the thickest polyester wadding as I figured it would be warmer.

It was machine pieced and I also attempted to machine quilt it but that was a hell of a task and I discovered then that machine quilting would never be a task that I could enjoy!

Unfortunately after I learnt how to quilt 'properly' I rejected it and it ended up being a pain sheet. Paul was upset when he discovered I had discarded it as he saw it for what it was... a gift made with a lot of love.