Kaleidoscope Challenge and new work

Part 5 of the Kaleidoscope challenge by Andrea on the Electric Quilt website was poppies. Well mine are not poppies but they are supposed to be flowers. Although I used Andrea's technique I used different blocks and coloured them a little differently to give them a different shape. If you would like to see my EQ6 project file you can get it HERE.

One of my students brought in a quilt she had been working on called square dance. I had a template for what I thought was the same quilt but it was something else designed by Ami Simms and not the design I saw on Thursday. Everyone wanted to know how it was done so today I set about trying to replicate the design. I knew it used 6" squares and so I pieced some together. I brought this lovely fabric back home from my trip to the USA last year. Working with it brought back lovely memories of my time in Chicago and all the other places we visited. So much so we are planning another trip this year to the US but I am not sure where yet. We are checking flights at the moment. There's a quilt show in Long Beach California but I am not sure I want to go there - we shall see.

On the design wall today:

I added borders - it was just luck that I had enough white on white fabric for the borders! I drafted a little template and started cutting up my pieced quilt. I wasn't sure if the squares had to go in some kind of order so I just hoped for the best.

Here it is - it worked just fine - talk about flying by the seat of your pants! I am going to call this quilt "Sewing to Music" - one of the fabrics has a musical theme and another has sewing notions on it and as I always have music on in the studio as I work (except when calculating the maths - I need quiet for that) I thought that would be a good name. Suitable don't you think?

I shall leave it as it is, half finished, so that I can demonstrate how it's done next week in my two classes. There are some small squares left over after cutting that might be nice as a border but I won't know if it will look right until I get the quilt top finished. I can see I have put two dark fabrics together (which I was sure I had avoided) which gives a dark area on the quilt. Perhaps I need to think about the original layout a little more hmmm!

The rain has just stopped so I think I may go for my walk. It's good thinking time as well as good exercise.

Have a wonderful day and thank you for dropping by.

Quilt top Finished

This is how the design wall is looking today. I haven't made any further progress with "Circumnavigation" life just keeps getting in the way. However, Mike Perham stopped in South Africa for a week or two to have some work carried out on his boat so I still have time to get the quilt finished before he completes his challenge.

I did however spend a little while in the studio this afternoon and managed to get this quilt top finished. It took a bit of time piecing it together but it's done now. I shall leave it on the design wall for a little while until I decide what to do about the border design. I have an idea already but shall have a little think before I rush in. It's always good to have a little thinking time.

As I look at this quilt I see things which I could have done better and so I may well make another one like this but a little different. It has certainly got my creative juices flowing which is not a bad thing.

Sewing is difficult at the moment as I almost sliced the top of my thumb off when I was cutting bread for the birds. It's still a little tender and I have to be careful not to catch it on anything otherwise I hit the roof :))

Thank you for dropping by.

Progress and a new design

It was icy here again this morning and the snow hasn't gone although the roads have been gritted thank goodness.

The windows in the conservatory had fascinating icy designs on them before the heating came on and they were soon gone.


I have pieced together two quarters of the quilt on my design wall. It is going together relatively easily I have to say.


I completed Lesson 4 from Andrea on the Electric Quilt website. It was creating a foundation pieced block which I did from scratch. Here is the final quilt design. You can download the Electric Quilt Project file here.

I am off to pack my car for class tomorrow and then I am going to play with EQ6 again as I am trying to design a quilt using hexagons - not the easiest thing to do in EQ but I am getting there - slowly but surely.

Bridget Riley

After reading the comment from Babs I was curious as to who Bridget Riley was. I googled her name and WOW! Here's a link to some images of Bridget Riley's work. I hadn't seen her work before but can now understand why Babs mentioned her. I have been drawn to work like Bridget's for many years, it keeps cropping up in my work. My very early City & Guilds work was very much based on designs like these.

Thank you Babs you have introduced me to an artist I wasn't aware of.

Here are some of my very early work :


None of these were easy to piece but I loved the challenge. My maths folder for C&G was full of these type of designs each one more challenging than the next.

I started piecing the work on my design wall. It seems to be going together very well, I have probably spoken too soon.

New Year Star

I have been busy designing in Electric Quilt. One of my students was asking about a quilt design and I think I may have cracked it. Although it looks complicated it can be pieces using strip piecing - a bit like a Lone Star quilt. It's still snowing here. You would never have believed that I had cleared the drive this morning. I may try making the above quilt in miniature.

On the design wall...

I am busy with this quilt. It is currently on the design wall and I have started piecing it together.It's snowing here again today. Having cleared the drive it has half an inch of snow on it already this morning and it doesn't look like it's going to stop any time soon.

What a difference a day makes!

Early yesterday morning I went out with my camera and took some photographs of a wonderful sky. It lasted for a little more than 5 minutes and I am so glad I didn't miss capturing it.





And this morning......

this is what the garden was like. It is still snowing and much deeper than earlier this morning. My "wet" studio looks lovely in the snow with it's outside lights on.

I am off to make a nice pot of lentil soup - just the thing for a day like this. Actually I have made lots of different soups over the past little while and they have all been gorgeous - at least my DH Norman thinks so!

Class has been cancelled today. Over the past 7 years of teaching at Currie High School this is only my third cancellation - twice this term! Hopefully the snow will have cleared by Thursday for the next class.