Applique with Scissors

Following on from this post I have made another 'scissor' drawing, this time keeping in the citrus theme...

These little quilts are fun and satisfy the need to play with lots of colour and fabric!

The raw edge applique around the little shapes is complemented by the free motion quilting.

I love the Keiko Goke stripe fabric for the binding. Gorgeous crayon-y colours!

It was fun to include a little of the selvedge in the hanging sleeve on the back of the quilt...

Millie decided she wanted to model this little quilt, she does it so beautifully don't you think?

I have my next one planned already!

New Block of the Month!

Today I am so thrilled to be able to show you our new BOM (block of the month) quilt created by Emma and Sarah (Treehouse Textiles) and me (Cabbage Quilts)!!

Introducing Citrus Sweet Love...

Our BOM design is made up of 12 on-point blocks, created using hand piecing and machine sewing methods...

Added to that are the 6 beautifully organic applique blocks (we have stitched them using needleturn method, though they would be just as gorgeous using any method of applique).

Then the lovely grey sashings with their salmony cornerstones, as well as the triangle borders with their striking pinwheels, set off by lovely degrees of grey.

Citrus Sweet Love has been a delight to work on across our design, choosing colours and yummy fabrics, stitching it up and adding some lovely hand quilting to finish.

Now For The Details!

Limited places – Mail out begins first week July, 2013
$45 per month (postage included) for 12 months (Australia)
$50 per month – international (postage included)
Cost includes fabric to create Citrus Sweet Love quilt top, patterns and instructions, postage.
Quilt measures 150 x 200cms.

To the best of our ability we will give you the exact fabrics seen in our quilt however on some occasions we may need to substitute, you can be confident that our fabric substitutes will be gorgeous.

We will also be running workshops in conjunction with our BOM program to help with template piecing and needle turn applique

To register your interest in Citrus Sweet Love please email Emma, with your name and phone number so she can contact you....info@treehousetextiles.com.au

We hope you love our quilt just as much as we do! xo

Fabric, a Meet Up and a Musical!

Fabric 
Another beautiful parcel from the Amitie Stash Club arrived today...isn't it divine?

 I love having fabrics chosen for me, and I rarely find ones that I don't like. These are being saved for a rainy day!

Meet Up
Is anyone planning on a visit to the AQC at Melbourne Royal Exhibition Building this week? A few of us are going on Friday and meeting up...would love to see you if you are around. We will be meeting at 10:30am on Friday (19th) in the middle of the food hall. If you want to come email me and I will send  you my mobile number so we make sure we don't miss you!!! See you then if you can make it.

A Musical
Other news in our family is our youngest son is working hard in a local amateur theater group ( People's Playhouse), performing '13 the Musical'.

Fabulous photograph taken by Mike Fletcher for Peoples Playhouse

For those who know this musical he is playing 'Eddie', such a fun role and plenty of stage time!!! I do love seeing young people being passionate and creative, and putting on such an awesome show. I can't wait to see it again this weekend. What have you got planned this weekend, anything special?

Cut and Paste

I am totally useless at drawing! Painting, illustrating, doodling, any of them. I just cannot do it. This makes designing my own applique designs very difficult. So for a long time I've had a little thought in the back of my mind. What if I skip the drawing part and just get some fabric and my good, sharp scissors, and just start cutting? That thought finally prompted me to give it a go last week...

Ok, so the result was a little primitive, but WOW I have had so much fun with this method. And it is so freeing. Just being able to cut wonky and perhaps a little weird looking shapes out of beautiful fabrics, then glue them onto the background (I used an Elmer's school glue stick), then go to town with the raw edge applique and free motion quilting was such a satisfying process!

All of the fabrics in this mini quilt (20 x 20 inches) are from the wonderful pile of Keiko Goke's fabrics that she sent me here. Except for the white background behind the flowers and the colourful Kaffe Fassett fabric I have used on the backing...

I love Keiko's heart fabric for the binding.

I will be writing up a tutorial for this method in the next month or two, I am definitely planning to do more of these in future. I will have a second one to show soon. I still wish I could draw, but perhaps for now my 'scissor' drawings will have to do.

Promise of Joy

If you have been wanting to buy Kathy Doughty's wonderful book 'Making Quilts... the Promise of Joy', now may be the time to do it!

Check out her book on sale here. And see a few inside photo's from my review here. Definitely a fabulous book for a quilter's stash!

Week in Pictures #3

It's been over a month since my last week in pictures!!! Here is a little of what has been happening around here lately...we had a lovely few days with friends in Anglesea over Easter, this wonderful old timber fence sitting along the beach draws me everytime, I just adore the old wood and beautiful rust marks from years of wear...

Back in 2010 I hung a quilt off that fence...remember this one?

 (Kim McLean pattern called Hearts and Flowers)

Alas, this year I didn't have a quilt ready to hang there!!!

There is a lovely little gift/florist shop there that had created a wonderful welcome as you enter...totally made out of buttons! How clever...

When we got home we finally got our old dining room chairs fixed up...all it took was a good staple gun, an hour or two, and a lovely home dec fabric from Ty Pennington....Before...and After....!

So happy with the result.

I am also still working on my Green Tea and Sweet Beans blocks from Amitie. (I cannot wait for their new bom to be released!). Two drunkards paths blocks...

And a sweet poppie block...

The blocks in this quilt are so addictive and I'm finding a lot of new friends in the instagram world who are slowly working away at these blocks too. How about you, what are you working on this week? xo

Repurposed with Love

I feel as though I need to say "Hi, my name is Cathy, lovely to meet you"! I have been rather absent around blogland lately and I do apologise. I don't even have any stitching to show because I'm working on something wonderful that I can't show quite yet!!! However, I have had some beautiful colour come into my life recently...in the form of furniture.

For a long time I have bemoaned the fact that our house was designed with very poor storage areas. It has been rather difficult to keep on top of the clutter! Recently I discovered a gorgeous couple selling on ebay with their small home business called Not Too Shabby Retro. They are finding old furniture and giving it a totally new look with fabulous colours! Absolutely perfect for someone like me who adores colour and was looking for storage solutions. I totally love this amazing green sideboard...

...it is sitting in my dining room and is now housing quilts for sale (coming soon!!) and quilt stuff (rulers, cutters, pins, etc). I didn't think my blue/white jugs would go with the green, but I think they look fabulous together. This next bright yellow one is on the other side of the dining room, underneath our kitchen bench and stores lots of kitchen gear, such a happy colour...

The third one is this huge, solid wonderful piece painted a lovely distressed white. It is sitting in our lounge room and houses all DH's fire making stuff and of course, some of those drawers house quilting stuff!!...

Keep an eye on that tapestry above the sideboard...there is going to be some changes to that soon!

The fourth one is in our bedroom, I love these colours which you can see as you walk down our hall way, they make me so happy...

Ahh, now I have no clutter, lots of clean horizontal spaces, and so much beautiful colour! I love the fact that these guys have taken old pieces of furniture and given it such a fabulous new life. I just wish the sideboards could talk and tell me of their past lives!!! Thanks Not Too Shabby Retro...I love your work!

Oh, and thank you to everyone who wished me well for my Free Motion Quilting class at Treehouse Textiles last Sunday. I had four wonderful students who did such an amazing job. I love seeing the satisfaction we all get when we learn and grow in a skill. I forgot to take an action shot so I've pinched a photo Emma took (thanks Em)...

Of course I did remember to take a photo of lunch....Yummm!

If you missed my FMQ class and want a chance to come along, I am running another one at the Treehouse on the 31st May.

I will finish with a photo I took of beautiful 'God's Eye's' or 'Ojo de Dios' that were part of the decorations that were hanging at a fun wedding I went to last week.

More gorgeous colour! xo

Do You FMQ?

This Sunday (24th March) I'm going to be teaching FMQ at Treehouse Textiles, I can't wait! I first taught myself how to FMQ on my domestic sewing machine years ago because I was too stingy to pay for someone else to do it. I wanted to use that money for more fabric!! Since then I have quilted many quilts (including custom quilts) and love to find new designs to challenge myself with.

If you live locally and would love to give FMQ a go, there are still a few places free, book here. I will take you through various stages, from how to get your quilt sandwich smooth and flat, to having a go at many different FMQ designs on your own sewing machine.

There is so much FMQ inspiration all over the internet. We are so blessed to have so many wonderful resources at our fingertips. How about you? Do you FMQ?

A Wonderful Surprise

What an amazing surprise turned up at my door last week. Keiko Goke (amazing Japanese quilt creator, fabric designer and author) sent me a large pile of her divine, incredibly bright and sassy fabrics, all the way from Japan!

Not only that Keiko generously included her book...'All My Thanks and Love to Quilts'...written in English!

I didn't even know it came in English, but it does now, as well as French, Taiwanese and Chinese. I have often pored over Keiko's beautiful designs and now I can read her instructions yay.

You can purchase the English version here. And be inspired by Keiko's creations on her colourful blog here. In the recent past I have used Keiko's fabrics in this quilt...

Quilt based on Kim McLean's Flower Garden quilt 

using mainly Keiko Goke fabrics.

And was inspired by Keiko's stunning Heart Quilt on the cover of her book to make my own miniature version in sea glass colours for my sister....

What am I going to do with these amazing fabrics? I have a plan, you will have to wait and see!!! Check out the gorgeous rainbow outside my window this morning.

We have had the hottest summer I can remember and finally the weather has broken and we are cool again with some lovely rain. Ahh, what a relief!! xo