Turkey Red

I named one of my quilt designs Turkey Red and June asked about the source of the name.

Turkey red is a color named for the place, not the fowl. Turkey red was the name given to a red dye which had been developed from the root of the madder plant. The knowledge that madder was an effective red dye was not new. The Greeks, Libyans and Romans all used it as did the Moors. After its use was lost the Dutch rediscovered its cultivation in 1494 and for the next three hundred years were the world’s largest exporters. You can read more about Turkey Red here.

Tote Design

I bought some lovely Japanese fabric together with a plain to match - I can't remember what project I had in mind for it now. I have decided to make a tote using the plain fabric and some of my kaleidoscope designs from Kaleidoscope Kreator. It will be a nice quick project to work on whilst my Late quilt embroidery is busy stitching.

I took the photograph I used last summer and it has worked out beautifully. It is designed in Electric Quilt by importing the images from KK3.

Two Colour Quilts

Merry Go Round

Turkey Red

I have been playing with two colour quilts this time. I love the simplicity of the red and cream/white. If you have EQ6 just click on the images to download the project files. You can play around with as many colours as you like.


My husband bought me Jinny Beyer's new book for Christmas The Quilter's Album of Patchwork Patterns. There are 4050 blocks in the book - and they are all in colour which is different from the other book of blocks I have Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns by Barbara Brackman. I am working my way through it which is giving me the inspiration for many,many quilts.

I thought I was going to have to draft all of the blocks in EQ if I wanted to use them but I am finding that a few of them are available in Blockbase (the CD version of Barbara's book). Click the word Blockbase above to see the software which is available from Electric Quilt or Rio Designs for those of you in the UK.

Two-block Quilt

I have been playing in EQ6 with two block quilt designs. Here is one of them. You can download the EQ6 project file by clicking on the image. Enjoy.

Kaleidoscope Kreator Quilt

I have been busy playing around with EQ6 (Electric Quilt V6) and Kaleidoscope Kreator. Santa brought me the V3 upgrade for Christmas. I imported the images from KK to EQ and designed this quilt. I plan on playing some more and will post the results. You can get my EQ6 project file by clicking here.

Latte Blocks 3 and 4

I have managed to get another four Latte Quilt blocks made. The photographs aren't great as I have them stacked on top of each other and you can see the shadow of the blocks underneath but I think you can see what I have been busy with.

I have to say I am learning so much from making this quilt and I am glad I started it. I now have eight blocks made (two of each of the four designs). I think it's time to decide which of the blocks I want to make another two of. Whilst some are quicker and a little easier to make and stitch I think I will make another two of the Parasole block that I made earlier. I really like that block and although it takes a little longer to stitch it will be worth it in the end. I could take the simpler/quicker option and make an easier block but I would regret it in the end.

We have had more snow today - I wonder when it will end, soon I hope.

Take care if you are out and about. Our roads haven't been gritted and the pavements are like sheets of ice - we have kept ours cleared as my back will testify. If only everyone did theirs then things would be much better especially for the elderly and young children but no they don't all clear their paths or their drives!

Someone decided it was a good idea to use our drive to turn around on New Years Eve and what a job we had getting the compacted snow from their wheel tracks away the following day - funny how they didn't think of clearing their own! Grrrrrrrrr!!!!