Purrfectly Quilted

Shawl/wrap from handspun fibre.

2012-02-09T15:00:00.000+11:00

No this is not a quilt .. but thought you might like to see my finished shawl/wrap. It is so lovely and soft and I have crocheted it with a repeated fan stitch ... from fibre I have spun myself. The ultimate in satisfaction!

Drying Time

2012-02-01T11:42:00.000+11:00

My brother's quilt is finally done ... I have washed it and am waiting for it to dry so I can iron it, pack it up and post to him. Only a year and a half late! He will be lucky to get it ... my mother has been eyeing it off and I really like it too!

Happy Quilting days ... Jane x

January 2012 - a busy holiday time

2012-01-31T07:24:00.000+11:00

In December I signed up for an International Postcard Swap. Of course I decided to combine fabric and drawing ... here are a few I have made a start on. I have tea dyed some cotton fabric, then I ironed it onto freezer paper which stabilises the fabric enough to draw on with a Pigma pen. Next I will do all the quilting stitches on the fabric and batting layer (remember to remove the freezer paper before putting the batting onto the back of the fabric).

Over the holidays I did a bit of spinning ... here I am spinning a laceweight - fibre is Bond (sheep) which I purchased from The Thylacine here in Tasmania - she does some beautiful dying.

This same fibre is now becoming a very long scarf/wrap ... still not sure how much longer I want it to be, currently about 2metres. I just love how soft this is and how the colours blended in, all soft and greeny/greys.

This is some of the fibre I have spun during January.
Top Left - from Fibrefanatic Designs yellow/chartreause Merino
Top Right - from Ewe Give Me The Knits this is Mandie's Licorice Allsorts fibre which I have plied with a black Merino to give it this more licorice look.
Middle Right is the Blackwood (Green) Bond from The Thylacine,
Very Bottom is my very own Merino/Silk/Cat Fur blend - some spun and some still in the Batt stage that I have carded together. It is very nice too!

That big lot of lemony/chartreause has become this gorgeous shawl, a nice weight for winter, and it is big so comes down past my elbows when I wear it.

A close up.

I made another little neck warmer scarf. The first one I made of these went to one of my sisters ... I decided I still wanted one, so made another - it crochets up really fast - less than five hours I think.This one still needs to be blocked as the edges are curling up.

Currently on the wheel, this beautiful blue Falkland fibre ... I have spun this very fine - probably the finest I have spun a whole lot of top. I get about 40 - 50 wraps per inch. Can't you just see this in a very fine lacy wrap - the colour is beautiful. This is also from The Thyalcine.

On my spinning wheel at the moment - the last 100g of this lovely fibre.

So you can see that I have been doing quite a bit of spinning and crocheting this month. I am also trying to teach myself how to knit (continental style) - but am giving myself the whole year to do that because I want to knit socks - woolen socks are the best!

I have also been drawing more in my big Journal for 2012 and will post some of that next week perhaps.

Happy Tangling/Quilting for now ... Jane x

I know I have double posted this post on my other blog ... but wanted to share with you all over here too! I have also done the binding on my brother's quilt and a couple of others that are destined for Quilters Companion in July this year.

Zentangle Inspired Quilting ... on DVD

2012-01-10T19:03:00.000+11:00

It is here .... Quilters Companion DVD for the January issue of the magazine.

I have a limited number of copies available for sale - so let me know if you wish to have one posted to you.

The DVD runs for about 1.5 hours. Lots of information and fun.

Happy New Year everyone.... Jane

A little Quilt & Merry Christmas

2011-12-21T23:29:00.001+11:00

Hi there everyone ... it has been a long year for me and I am taking a little break over Christmas and January 2012.

I thought you all might like to see this little quilt that I quilted with intensive background fill for my customer Helen. This is the second quilt she has made in this pattern and I have loved both of them. I might have to make one myself!

EDIT to add quilt designer details: I just knew there was a reason I liked this quilt ... designed by the very talented Kellie of Don't Look Now. The pattern is called "Jessica's Garden".

I wanted to say thank you to everyone who has read and left comments on my blog ... it really is quite uplifting when someone comments and means I am not talking to myself - lol!

So I will see you all in the New Year when I will be back quilting for my customers. In the meantime here is a little quilt I made with leftover quilted fabric and added a border of Laurel Burch Christmas Trees

Don't forget to check out the AMQF web and blog to see the listing of classes available for September 2012 big event.

A safe and Merry Christmas to everyone.....Jane x

RICKY TIMS in ADELAIDE 2012

2011-12-19T18:50:00.000+11:00

Yes, you heard me correctly. Ricky Tims - musical quilter extraordinaire is coming to Adelaide, South Australia for the September 2012 Australian Machine Quilters Festival ... you don't want to miss a whole day with Ricky, learning about his quilty secrets and techniques ... I'm going!

Also ... this picture is a little sneaky pre-view of a project that I will be teaching for domestic machine quilters ... a 6 hour class that will be packed full of my quilting fillers and focus points. I am looking forward to teaching in Adelaide and meeting everyone.

Happy Quilting for now ... Jane

Custom Quilting & Teaching in 2012

2011-12-07T06:29:00.000+11:00

I sometimes do Custom Quilting for customers. These quilts take longer to do than the usual Edge to Edge quilts as the quilting is individual and more often than not, designed by me. Sometimes I can have the quilt machine tied up with a custom quilt for two weeks at a time.

I do not have a computerised quilting machine - I use an APQS Millennium that is hand guided (this means that I move the quilt machine to create the stitches and patterns - it is all in my hands and head). I don't use a lot of rulers or stencils. I call it Freehand Custom Quilting and this allows me to use my artistic and technical ability.

Next year I will only be doing a limited number of custom quilted quilts, and I already have four booked in. So if you have something special you wish to be custom quilted by me, make sure you leave plenty of time and book it in well before you need it completed. This also means that I will have a quicker turn around for Edge to Edge and AllOver quilts ... so call me to arrange an obligation free quote to have your quilt quilted by me here at Purrfectly Quilted. (Contact: 0438 302 515)

Also, I have been working hard to bring you a project that you can make using my Zentangle for Quilters style of freehand quilting on your domestic sewing machine. January 2012 issue of Quilters Companion will feature my project and accompanied by a DVD ... I hope you all enjoy this project and the brief look at Zentangle for Quilters.

I will be teaching at the September 2012 Australian Machine Quilters Festival, held in the city of Adelaide, South Australia - both a domestic machine quilting class and a longarm machine quilting class - This second AMQF Festival is going to be a fantastic event and even Ricky Tims is coming - don't miss it!

I am also very very happy to say that I will also be teaching at the Taupo Sympostium Fabric Art Festival in New Zealand, to be held in 2013...which is really not that far away.

Happy Quilting for now .... Jane

Orca Bay Mystery Quilt - Parts 1 & 2 done

2011-12-05T06:41:00.000+11:00

Over the weekend I finished off Parts 1 & 2 of the Orca Bay Mystery Quilt. I just have to cut off all the little ears on those hourglass units.

I was amazed at how much fabric you actually cut off and I couldn't bring myself to throw it away. There has got to be something I can do with those little tiny bits ... thinking....

So now onto Part 3 ... and I can't believe the next step is 350 half-square triangle units in Black & Neutral - 2 inches that will be 1.5inches finished in the quilt - cute!

I have sewn all of these blocks on my little Singer Featherweight - it is a lovely machine to do straight stitching on, it just purrs along nicely.

Happy Quilting this week ... Jane x

Orca Bay Mystery Quilt - I've made a start

2011-11-29T10:11:00.000+11:00

Last night I finally made a start on my Orca Bay Mystery Quilt. 1 little 2.5inch square hourglass block - only a couple hundred to go~!

Two little 3.5inch square blue string blocks ... only 70 to go. These are a lot of fun to make. I am using Carol Doak foundation papers to sew these on (because that is what I had otherwise I would have cut up an old phone book as Bonnie suggests).

These blocks will come to life this weekend I hope.

I can't wait to see the next step ... hopefully it will be the red blocks.

Happy Quilting for now ..... Jane

Quick Coaster Mat Tutorial

2011-11-28T06:30:00.000+11:00

This is my tutorial for quick coasters to make ... a great handmade gift for Christmas. All you need to make one coaster is six 5 inch squares of fabric.

Here I have four 5inch squares which are my "top" fabric and two 5inch squares which are my inside and back fabrics.

Fold each 5inch square of top fabric in half.

Lay each one down with the fold facing in towards the middle. (So you have the raw edges on the outside)

this is the third piece being laid down. See how I am laying them down on top of each other.

The last piece is at the top. We need to tuck half of this under the first piece we put down.

So lift up the top piece and fold back the very first piece we put down.

Lay down the last piece. Then put the first piece back down on top of this.

There you have it. The four pieces all tucked into each other so you have only four halves showing. This is where you can have fun co-ordinating fabrics.

Next step is to place the remaining two 5inch squares onto the stack. First peice to go down will be your backing fabric, place it face down onto the stack. Then, the inside piece so the right side is facing up. This piece of fabric can be something like muslin - you won't see it.

Turn the whole lot over and pin the in place.

Stitch around the outside with a 1/4 inch seam.

Trim off the corners.

Open the centre hole and turn inside out.

Voila ... a little coaster. You will need to iron it so it sits nice and flat.

If you like you can run a line of top stitching around the edge, you could even quilt it, embroider it, embellish it or anything you wanted to make it unique and special.

I hope this tutorial is easy to follow. I love these coasters because you can throw them into the washing machine and wash them when they get grubby, and they are easy to iron back into shape.

Enjoy ... Happy Quilting for now ... Jane x

Orca Bay Mystery Quilt - my fabric selections.

2011-11-19T20:40:00.001+11:00

Orca Bay Mystery Quilt (Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville) These are my Civil War fabric choices.

Blues

Neutrals

Black (some of these look navy on the computer but are really quite black)

Reds

I am going with the same colours as Bonnies. I have been collecting these Civil War fabrics for about five years now, so I am very happy to be using them for something lovely and scrappy. Can't wait to see the finished quilt.

The first block is hourglass units - 2.5inch square Blacks and Neutrals - nice! You can see more here on Bonnie's site. Orca Bay Mystery Quilt.

Enjoy.

Bonnie Hunter's new Mystery Quilt - Orca Bay

2011-11-19T11:18:00.000+11:00

I have decided to do Bonnie's latest Mystery Quilt. I haven't done one since I did the Double Delight one in 2008 - my goodness was it that long ago.

Bonnie has uploaded the Introduction and Part 1 ... Look at my right sidebar at the little orca link ... it will take you right to the link.

I am using mostly Civil War fabrics I think ... I'm still deciding on which ones to use ... but I won't be starting to sew for a few weeks yet - at least I don't think so!

Anyone else joining in?

A collaboration

2011-11-15T12:46:00.000+11:00

I finally got the binding done on my quilt ...

This quilt was pieced by my friend Helen (The fabrics are all from my stash) and when she had finished piecing it I quilted it with the pattern Maple Leaf. Finally getting the binding done and is now ready to be used.

It is so sweet - using a whole lot of Civil War fabrics and quilters muslin in the cream squares. Thank you Helen ... this would have taken me years to make without your help! xxxx

A Wedding Quilt

2011-10-23T21:05:00.000+11:00

I love it when I finally get going on a quilt ... this one, however, is very very late! It is a quilt to celebrate my brother and his wife's wedding ... it was in October 2010! so they have celebrated their first wedding anniversary now - without a quilt.

This quilt became more concrete over the weekend .. it is now in one piece and waiting for the borders to be attached. This quilt will be KING SIZE - whew ... a lot of sewing and a lot of fabric. All beautiful green batik fabric. The borders (two) will also be green batik ... my brother wanted a green quilt. Hopefully I will get this to him and his wife before Christmas.

I have used the pattern Peppermint Twist for this quilt - just made it a lot bigger. I can rename it Tasmanian Twist (I do like that name!) Don't you just love how the secondary pattern appears ... just magic.

Happy quilting for now ... Jane x

Quilts Quilts Quilts

2011-10-19T09:07:00.001+11:00

This is a customers quilt ... lots of Japanese kimono fabrics ... with the beautiful "Ellie's Dragonflies" E2E pattern - I love how they flit all over the quilt.

This is one of my own quilts - the batik strips of one colour are very washed out - it is a really vibrant quilt. Easy to put together

I quilted it with "Gothic Vine" E2E pattern with a lovely verigated thread.

The backing fabric is also Batik - gorgeous fabric that I purchased from Brenda at Widebacks (I have Widebacks sample book and can order any of Brenda's delicious fabrics for you).

This is Nancy's quilt - one of my customers. Nancy hand pieces her blocks then gets me to choose the sashings, borders and put it all together. Nancy thought her blocks were very very bright ... but was so pleased with the final quilt - it has come up beautifully and I must admit there was a bit of mathematical thinking to get them into order.

Look at these beautiful fabrics. I believe Nancy purchased them at a recent quilt show and then more of the fabric from Fresh Fabric in Deloraine Well worth a visit, especially if you are headed off to the Tasmanian Craft Fair on the first weekend of November. I have put in a few links for you to check out.

The other information I would like to tell you is this: The next Island Quilt Show is on Friday 27 to Sunday 29 April 2012. If you are interested in my quilting a Custom Quilt for you to enter this show before March 2012 - you NEED TO BOOK NOW. I will only be quilting Edge to Edge / Allover quilting for 2012 unless you have booked it in this year ... as I need to have a break from Custom Quilting and be able to get the E2E Allover quilting out in a couple of weeks and not be held up by the custom work. Customers I have quilted for in the past four years have had very nice wins in the Tasmanian Island Quilts Show ... and two of them have been chosen to go to AQC as the pick of the State in 2010 and 2011.

Happy Quilting for now ... Jane x

A double up post

2011-10-10T07:50:00.001+11:00

Over on my other blog "Jane Monk Studio" I have put a little story about a DVD coming out in Quilters Companion in January 2012 ... it is all about my Zentangle Inspired Quilting ... so hop on over and have a look if you are interested.
Cheers
Jane

I have edited this to add the photograph ... I thought you might like to see the finished table runner from the previous post. I have done all the quilting in the small "tangle" squares on my domestic sewing machine. I love the effect, I used the drawings I had done in my journal over the past year.

Zentangle Inspired Quilting

2011-09-21T15:22:00.000+10:00

What about some of this .... Zentangle inspired quilting .... I was playing with this a few weeks ago.

Have to finish it off sometime soon.

Hope you enjoy!

Jane

Hello Again

2011-08-19T18:17:00.000+10:00

Hi ... did you think I had dropped off the face of the earth? I have had to have a little break but here I am again.

I have a few pictures of some quilts I have just finished. I have a customer who hand pieces her blocks, then she gets me to put the blocks together with sashings and borders and quilt them ... this is her house blocks ... so cute.

And this same customer gave me two Maisy panels and asked me to make a quilt for her grandson ... this is the completed quilt. She had a strip of Maisy fabric which I used at the top of the quilt to make it a bit longer.

I was also recently in Adelaide for a workshop with Internationally acclaimed Long Arm Quilting teacher, Sharon Schamber. Her work is truely stunning and if you have a spare $20 or $40 Thousand she may quilt for you!

While I was in class, I did what I usually do - draw - it helps me to retain what is being said and I find I can usually recall the class better at a later date.
Anyway ... I thought I would share it with you because it is so much like my super custom quilting (that no-one else can afford either as it take so much longer and would cost at least three times the usual for a custom quilt). But ... if you did want this type of quilting ... intensive and beautiful ... I would certainly give you a price!

Hope everyone has a great weekend ... cheers Jane x

Taking some leave from blogging

2011-06-16T13:11:00.003+10:00

Hi there ... I thought I would let you all know that I will be taking some leave from my blogs for awhile.

I will still be doing longarm quilting and if you need to contact me to book in a quilt ... email or call.

Happy Quilting
Jane
x

June Already - what about some quilting workshops

2011-06-14T06:59:00.002+10:00

My oh my, the year is powering on ... June already, well almost half way through June.

I have been a little busy creating and quilting.

See this little beauty here ... you can learn how to do this in my Zentangle for Quilters class. I currently have one booked in Melbourne at Michelle's Sewing Basket in September - I don't often get over to Melbourne, so book in soon if you want to do this class as there are limited places.

Michelle's Sewing Basket
2/54 Wantirna Road, Ringwood Vic - contact 03 9870 0011 for bookings. http://www.michellessewingbasket.com.au/webcontent1.htm

And then there is quilting on the longarm ... this quilt is so cute .. I loved the colours.

The back ... I love this pattern too!

I hope to put some more quilting up here soon ... in the meantime you can check out my other blog http://janemonkstudio.blogspot.com/ - lots going on over there too!

Happy Quilting for now ... Jane x

Velvet, RB&W and a Candlewick Quilt - not all together

2011-05-17T09:34:00.000+10:00

This quilt was made by Judy - she doesn't quilt - it is an absolutely fantastic effort. I like it as it reminds me of tartan for some reason.

She picked an edge to edge pattern called "Popcorn" which looks like clouds and a dark blue thread.

The back was stunning - Judy had chosen a dark blue velvet. I was hesitant to quilt it and said I would try. After the first little bit I could see it was going to look great. It loved the stitching. It was pretty yucky to put on the quilt machine and I had a few headaches....but it was worth it.

A little Red Black and White quilt from Sally ... who doesn't love RB&W quilts?

I used a red thread on both the front and back ... look at that back ....yummy.

And a Candlewick quilt which has now winged it's way back to Queensland. I had carte blanche to quilt this, as long as I used my feathers. I chose to do each block with the same four feathers, fitting into the candlewick pattern. I have also stitched around the candlewick to give definition and make it pop. The lace was also quilted down.

One very happy owner = one happy quilter!

Some obligatory cat photos - Jet snoozing on my Thousand Pyramid Quilt that I call the "Red Herring". I quilted it with an edge to edge pattern of fish with a varigated thread and changed the colour out for three of the fish to make them red - hence "Red Herring".

I know, I know - a bit mad! Jet likes it though.

And Merlin found another spot to sleep - a Queen sized bed was not big enough for two of them!

This week I have on the quilting machine a lovely stitchery quilt ... I am able to give my undivided attention to ...loving it!

Happy quilting for now .... Jane x

Some Quilting & Mothers Day

2011-05-09T07:22:00.000+10:00

I have been quilting .... this is a customer quilt that I cannot show the whole quilt. I thought you might like to see the border pattern that I used ... very effective.

And a little bit of the centre blocks

Isn't it pretty!

I had to change thread colour a heap of times with this quilt ... sometimes it just works out better that way!

This quilt was so big that it almost didn't fit on my machine - well not quite - but it was pretty long. Isn't it absolutely devine ... love those Reproduction fabrics and this lady does beautifully precise work.

I have stitched in the ditch of all the blocks and around the border. I have basted the border as my customer wants to hand quilt the border panel. This will look quite good I think as everything else is only stitched in the ditch - but what a huge job that was!

I spent Mother's Day binding this quilt for a neighbour who has been ill. She made the quilt last year but hasn't been able to get the binding done ... I thought it was the least I could do to help her along and let her enjoy her beautiful quilt. Do you do things like that sometimes? It gives me a lot of joy to be able to help when it is least exected!

And ... it snowed on Mother's Day. Beautiful snow, it didn't settle for very long though.

I spent the weekend up in the Central Highlands of Tasmania where the temperatures were between below zero to about 5 degrees Celcius over the weekend. Temperature guage watching is a fabulous sport - you should try it some time - lol! My medications were increased and some changed last week after a visit to the specialist ... so a weekend of being lazy was definately called for - I couldn't have done anything more and my Dear Husband James made sure the place was kept warm and comfortable!

This was the last week of the Trout season ... he took his fly rod for a little walk and came back with dinner.

And this was yesterday ... cutting kindling - for something to do. I think he likes his shed!

Okay ... this week I am quilting another Candlewick Quilt for a customer up in Queensland ... it is beautiful, on a very soft creamy background. The order is for my feathers ... so I am going to have a wonderful week working on this. I hope you all have a lovely quilty week too! Jane x

Island Quilts Tasmania 2011 - Two Firsts!

2011-05-04T12:49:00.000+10:00

I know this is not a great photo ... but I didn't get to the Island Quilts 2011 Exhibition this year as I was teaching over in Melbourne at Michelle's Sewing Basket.

I came home to a wonderful email from Fran Williams advising that we had won with her beautiful quilt "Everything but the kitchen sink"

So details are:

First - Traditional Quilts - Two Person
"Everything but the Kitchen Sink" made by Fran Williams - Quilted by Jane Monk

Another win also was

First - Non-Traditional Quilts - Two Person
"Japanese Heads" made by Corrie Szopko - Quilted by Jane Monk

I don't have a photo of Corrie's lovely quilt. I am waiting for the information to be posted on the Tasmanian Quilt Guild web site ... soon hopefully.

There is something special about being entrusted to quilt someones beautiful work, and even better when our combined work is acknowledged by such a win at our State level. Thankyou to everyone who lets me quilt for them.

Congratulations to everyone who entered a quilt ... not every quilt can win, but they are all special and hold meaning to those who make them.
Happy Quilting for now ... Jane x

Happy Easter Holiday

2011-04-20T10:48:00.000+10:00

This is a beautiful little quilt that I quilted for Sally at The Quilt Patch (St John Street - Launceston). The girls at The Quilt Patch have the patterns for sale and if I had a girl I would have had to make it .. I was very tempted! I have no affiliations and there is no brown paper bags here - lol - it is just that I think it is beautiful and I enjoyed quilting it for Sally. I don't often get to see the quilts I have quilted finished and bound.

Look at that centre ... how could you not love it!

It is by Leanne Beasly "Down in the Garden" ... very very nice!

Here is another little quilt I have recently done - edge to edge quilting with hearts and four leaf clovers as requested - very cute.

And I had to show you this ... Merlin (the cream coloured cat) and Shadow (my black moggie girl) together alseep on my lap. Shadow absolutely hates the boys and hisses and spits when they come near her usually, but was not about to give up her place on my lap - she totally ignored Merlin when he came and pushed in ... amazing. They have been as close as they can get to me for weeks now since we got home ... I don't think they like us leaving them behind.

Okay ... I hope you all have a lovely Easter holiday break ... get lots of quilting done (or not)! I will be off line until I return from Melbourne where I am doing a number of workshops at Michelle's Sewing Basket - looking forward to that. I hope everyone enjoys the Tasmanian Quilt Show - I am sad that I will be missing out as it is when I am booked in Melbourne :(
Happy Quilting for now ... see you all soon!

Functional Custom for Stitchery & Applique Quilts

2011-04-06T19:50:00.000+10:00

Most of my customers don't want heavy custom quilting on quilts they have made as gifts for others. They want the quilts to be soft, drapable and huggable. Some of these quilts are for children, so I can understand that they don't want the quilt to be heavily quilted like a "show stopper" would be.

Here are two quilts I have recently quilted ... they are functional and pretty without having too much quilting on them.

Next time you make a quilt ... think about how you want to use the quilt and what type of quilting would suit your purposes.

I hope you enjoy these beautiful quilts ... I know I loved quilting them.

Happy quilting for now ... Jane x

Wanna see some close ups - lol!

2011-03-20T00:29:00.000+11:00

I thought you all might like to see a few close ups ...

I love the vibrancy in this quilt - fabulous colours... and the pattern is "Sassy"

Another customer quilt ... beautiful butterflies with the quilting pattern "Wandering Daisies"

The back ..

Lyn's beautiful quilt ... the photo doesn't do it any justice. I have used a modified quilting pattern on this one ... I have added my own style of Dragonflys.

The back

This is a custom quilt .... a heavily embroidered centrepiece that I have quilted with a small stipple to hold it down and capture some fullness.

Lots of borders too! What a fun quilt.

Close up of a few borders

The outside border ... swags with a stylised feather

More of the borders. I like the leafy style of feathers here ... they really suit the quilt I think .

And finally ... did you know that you can make Zentangles into quilts ... these are some of my little baby Zentangle drawings ... some will become little quilty things ... soon. You can see more Zentangle goodness over on my other blog Jane Monk Studio.

Happy Quilting for now ... Jane x

A Little Bit More ...

2011-03-17T05:38:00.000+11:00

A little more has been sewn together ... okay I couldn't resist and finished piecing this scrappy quilt ... I love it. I can look at all those pieces and think of all the quilts I have made ... and those I haven't - lol!

Lots of longarm quilting happening here this week ... busy busy busy.

I guess all those Scquilters (Southern Cross Quilters) are getting ready to leave for retreat in Kiama next week - I hope you all have a fantastic weekend ... sniff, wish I could have been there but I am teaching Zentangle workshops (you can see more over at my blog janemonkstudio.blogspot.com)

Happy Quilting for now ... Jane x

Sewing Happening Sporadically

2011-03-11T14:44:00.000+11:00

Does this look scrappy to you? I am really liking this with all my scrappy fabrics. I was sewing at 12.30 last night as sleep once again evaded me.

Hope you are all Quilting along merrily.... where did February go?

Jane x

Warning - Picture & Scrap Heavy Posting

2011-02-22T13:36:00.000+11:00

You may know that I love scrappy quilts ... they are the quintessential quilt to me ... anyway ... a little while ago I got some scraps of Civil War Repros (from Christine - thankyou Christine) and my friend Helen (having nothing of her own to do - not!) made this quilt for me. All I had to do was supply the 2m of beautiful cream 1seeded quilters muslin that I got from "The Quilt Patch" in Launceston along with the scraps
I had from Christine. So this beautiful quilt turned up miraculously in a week or so ... Thank you Helen...Helen also made me a cushion from the left overs - I am so lucky

This quilt is from Bonnie Hunter's book "Adventures with Leaders & Enders" and the pattern is called "Sisters Nine Patch"

The mail came yesterday with Bonnie's new book "Scraps & Shirttails II" ... I love the patterns in this book ... very nice ... my brain is ticking over at a terrific rate, going through all the fabrics I have, what scraps, lights and darks and what I can use for backgrounds ...mmmmm

I love this pattern ... I need to make this quilt!

And not so long ago I went to The Quilt Patch in Launceston (having not been there for many months) and spied this book ... look at that delicious quilt on the front cover ...

Why would you not want to make this quilt ... even the cat likes it!

So there lies my problem ... spoilt for choice.

I have been quilting for eight years now ... so have accumulated fabrics that I will never use as a whole piece in a quilt, lots of scraps, lots of partial fat quarters that no one in their right mind would have even purchased in the first place (had they known anything about quilting 8 years ago - lol)

So over the past little while I have been tidying up my scraps ... I have started a scrap bin system as recommended by Bonnie Hunter ... it works - I am amazed at how much you can salvage from fabric you would consider almost useless ... look at these bins ... these are the strips in 1.5, 2, 2.5 and 3.5 inches wide.

See the little red mouse ... Merlin left him there for me this morning ... good little toy mouse catcher that he is!

Then I have culled my bins of bigger bits of fabric ... found these plaids and more neutral toned fabrics ... all that I have used in past quilts ... so do I cut them up or just keep them ready to use as setting blocks or sashings in scrappy quilts .. have to ponder that some more.

A whole heap of beautiful plaids in yellow/green/oranges ... I got these when a local quilt shop closed down and I couldn't resist the bargain ... they would look fantastic in a Bonnie Hunter style scrap quilt ... wouldn't you use them??

Then there is this bin ... full of stuff that I probably wouldn't use in a co-ordinated quilt ... but some bits that I couldn't bear to part with either ... yep cut 'em up and put them in a scrappy quilt or 10.

Oh but wait ... there is more ... left over from quilts I have made ... see the chicken wire fabric - I made some really nice naive applique chook quilts back in 2004 ... but am I going to use this fabric anywhere else ... nope, cut it up and put it in a scrap quilt.

So you see where I am going with this ... I feel like I am obsessed ... I have spent my whole lunch hour today writing this posting and thinking about scrap quilts ... Do you do that?? Obsess over an idea and can't get it out of your head until you at least make something of a start towards that quilt ... In the past week I have sorted and put together three UFO's ...all in their little boxes ready to be sewn ... at least I will be ready for retreat this year!

Okay back to the quilting machine now ... I am catching up with my backlog after two months without a working machine ... Thank you everyone for your patience. And if you got this far through reading my post, thank you ... I hope I have inspired you to get out your scraps and make something useful like a Scrappy Utility Quilt ...Happy quilting for now ... Jane x

Zentangle & Fabric

2011-02-11T12:36:00.000+11:00

A week or so ago I quilted this .... a long table runner (or piece of wall art) ... Fabric is beautiful white Cotton Sateen and I have used Superior Gold Metallic Thread ... it has a little bit of stretch and I had absolutely no breakage. Always use this thread as it is a great metallic.

So here are a few close ups...

And this is the whole piece ... I can't get it all in the lense of the camera without being too far away.

Closer

The other end ... do you like the border?

And some plain white thread on Cotton Sateen ... these are the pieces that I use to teach my Zentangle for Quilters Class ... see more information on my classes here ... janemonkstudio.com

If you would like to book a workshop for a group or just a few...give me a call. My contact details are on my web site www.janemonkstudio.com

And these little darlings are why it is a good thing not to cut your lawn ... they eat the seeds from the tall grasses, amongst other things. I took this photo from my quilting room through the glass ... so I didn't disturb them. I have never seen so many in my yard at the same time ... there were about 12.

Okay ... have fun quilting up a storm. Jane x

A sneak peek

2011-02-08T07:17:00.000+11:00

I thought I would show you a little sneaky peek at a project that I have underway. I have come up with an easy method of not wasting fabric when making circles and squares from 10inch Layer Cake - and you can make a whole quilt from one pack, plus a little border fabric.

I would like to use this quilt/pattern to raise money for the Victorian Floods ... as you probably all know, pretty much every State in Australia has been affected by either rain or fire with devestation to a lot of property and people affected.

More on this later this week. Happy Quilting for now .... Jane x

600 or so half square triangles

2011-02-06T15:33:00.002+11:00

I couldn't rest until I had done something with at least one UFO ... I had this box of 600 or so half square triangles in shades of blue. I was going to make an Ocean Waves quilt but changed my mind and then left the little blocks just sitting there. Cleaning up my quilting room I found I had lots of UFO's.

So ... yesterday I pieced those little blocks all together into this 57 x 57 inch quilt, put the borders on today and quilted it with the pattern Waterworld using a nice varigated blue King Tut cotton thread ... and put the binding on. I will be able to stitch the binding down tonight.

A close up ... you will see that there isn't quite enough constrast between the lights and darks to make the pinwheels really noticeable ... but I like the overall effect.

The backing fabric ... I used a pale blue thread on the back so it blended.

Happy Quilting for now ... Jane x

Finally Quilting Again

2011-02-03T17:10:00.000+11:00

Many of you may know that I have been unable to quilt for a couple of months now due to mechanical failure with my quilting machine. Luckily for me, the tech services in the United States provide a good service and are very helpful in determining what the problem may be. After three sets of parts, I am becoming quite an accomplished electronic installer - although it may really be their good instructions. However, the machine still could not be fixed so they sent me another machine that has not been in active service. My DH and I set it up this week and I have been putting it through it's paces.

I pieced this quilt a few years ago and have never gotten around to quilting it - you know customers come first! Anyway I put an Edge 2 Edge (Pantograph) pattern on it ... I am very happy indeed with how it turned out. I even sat watching the news on QLD unfold last night and put the binding on. One UFO finished.

A close up of the blocks ... I loved this fabric and am so so happy I made this quilt with it.

I used strips of every fabric in the quilt to make the binding - I just love the look.

The beautiful backing from Widebacks - fabulous quality as usual and beautiful to quilt.

This little baby was quilted quite awhile ago and I hadn't gotten around to putting the binding on ... it is also finished now. It is only a lap quilt - I think I will put this one in the car for the longer trips - I always get cold when I am a passenger on a long trip.

That beautiful backing again. This time I used an all over pattern (pantograph) of Anne Bright's design.

This is the naughty machine ... all packed up ready to be sent back to the USA ... I hope they can whip it into working order again ... sniff sniff I will miss my little Millie. At least I have a new Millie that works well.

I have been doing some custom quilted blocks to test it out some more ... but white on white doesn't photograph very well ... I'll see what I can do when I have finished them.

So next week I am back quilting customer quilts ... I have a few to catch up on but am taking orders.

Happy Quilting for now ... Jane x

Auction Winners

2011-01-25T05:50:00.000+11:00

The Auction for the QLD Flood Appeal ended Monday 24 January 2010

The winners are:

Auction 3- Quilt (on Purrfectly Quilted) - MAC $320

(These two auctions were on my Jane Monk Studio blogspot)

Auction 1 - Zentangle Kit - PETRA $120

Auction 2 - Hand Drawn Zentangle Letter - NANCY $225

What a great auction ... thank you everyone for participating and giving to this worthy cause.

Would the winners please contact my by email with their receipt details when they have made deposit to the QLD Premiers Flood Relief Appeal Fund http://www.qld.gov.au/floods/donate.html

Two More Things I Love

2011-01-20T11:49:00.000+11:00

I love William Morris' designs - they are elegant and sophisticated, romantic and wonderfully inspirational. I also love Michelle Hill's interpretation of Morris' work in her quilts. I am lucky enough to have been able to purchase a copy of Michelle Hill's latest book (a signed copy no less, from Patchwork By Sea in South Australia - thank you to everyone there as my book arrived today).

I also love love love fabric and now have some fat quarters of Michelle Hill's range "In the Beginning" and one layer cake of Barbara Brackman's "A Morris Tapestry".

Now to combine these into a beautiful quilt .. hmm may take me some time but I am determined to make a Morris inspired quilt.

Now for everyone who is waiting for quilting to be done, or wants quilting to be done ... I am in the process of changing over machines and am not 100% sure when that will be completed ... those that are waiting, I will advise individually...thank you all for your patience and support.

Don't forget the QLD Premiers Flood Appeal ... and all the auctions that are taking place through Toni of Make It Perfect

This is my Quilt Auction

This is my Jane Monk Studio Zentangle Drawing - Auction 2
The winning bidder gets to choose the letter I draw in the centre.

This is my Jane Monk Studio Zentangle Kit - Auction 1
A full official Zentangle Kit including DVD

Thank you everyone for your support of this greatly needed appeal....Happy Quilting ... and bidding .... Jane x

Purrfectly Quilted Queensland Flood Appeal Auction

2011-01-13T21:21:00.001+11:00

I am just overwhelmed by the footage that we are seeing coming in from Queensland, I have friends and family there (they are okay) and everyone is affected by the devestation and loss occurring at the moment. I heard about Toni from Make It Perfect and how she was organising an auction in blogland and I wanted to join in to help as much as I could. If you click on the pink umbrella button below you'll be taken to her site where, on Sunday, there will be a complete list of everyone who has an auction running.

I am actually auctioning three items - A quilt on this blog and two other items on my Jane Monk Studio Blog.
Auction Quilt Auction 1 - Zentangle Kit and Auction 2 - Illuminated Letter hand drawn by me.

To Bid you will need to click on the Auction you are interested in bidding on and leave a comment (DON'T DO IT HERE) but on the page for the item you’re interested in. The auction will finish on Monday 24th January. If you are the winning bidder I will send you an email. To pay just go to the Premiere’s Flood Relief Appeal donate the amount and send me an email copy of your receipt together with your address and I will post the bag to you. This auction is only open to Australian residents as I will be covering the cost of postage myself. So start bidding and let's show those in Queensland how much we feel their plight and want to help. Thank you so much to everyone for your generosity.

Auction - Quilt

Auction Item 1 ... An Official Zentangle Kit

Auction Item 2 - An Original Hand Drawn Letter in my Zentangle style - you get to choose what letter you want in the centre.

Thank you to everyone who is participating in this wonderful initiative.
Hugs
Jane x

Fabric Postcard Technique Class

2011-01-13T02:03:00.000+11:00

On Saturday 15th January I will be teaching my Fabric Postcard Technique class at Cranberry Crafts in Ulverstone ... I thought I would share a couple of the postcards I have made.

This little one is full of owls ... I just loved the motifs on this fabric and cut them out so I could place them as I liked. They are placed on some tea dyed fabric that I made which has come up a very lovely soft colour.

And this little fellow is hand drawn by me in my Zentangle style ... I think this makes a fantastic personalised fabric postcard, don't you?

You can see more of my Zentangle drawings at http://janemonkstudio.com

I have quite a few others but I can't show them as that would spoil the class.

Happy Quilting for now ... Jane x

Welcome to the New Year

2011-01-10T21:09:00.000+11:00

Some of last year's quilts ... I love Maisy - this was a quilt that I was asked to make up from some Maisy panels - isn't it cute.

Another edge to edge pattern - Angel Wings.

This is a Tasmanian Brown Trout - very yummy. We went fishing in the Highland Lakes region in Tasmania over the New Year ... very relaxing.

Of course we took our kitties with us ... Merlin loved the wood pile.

Jet preferred the bucket - any bucket will do.

This was the view from our tent - directly overlooking Lake Arthur - 'twas beautiful.

So ... welcome to the New Year - I know we are a fair way into January already but better late than never!

I am looking forward to a wonderful quilting journey again this year ... and to start it all off I have been asked to be a guest speaker at the The Australian Quilters Association later this year ... now that is an honour and I am looking forward to it immensely.

Happy Quilting for now ... Jane x

Merry Christmas to you all

2010-12-24T16:46:00.000+11:00

I would like to thank you all for your support over the past year, both customers and friends alike. This year has seen some tough times for me but some great times too!

I would like to wish you all a very Merry and Happy Christmas and a very Safe New Year - don't make too many resolutions.

I will be back sharing my blogging journey with you all again in the New Year.

Hugs
Jane x

Some Gorgeous Eye Candy

2010-12-19T11:03:00.000+11:00

This is a beautiful quilt designed and made by Helena ... she has done a great job ... and I just love her design and colours she has used.

What a beautiful gift for her friends in Qld.

This is the back ... ohh I do so love Batik fabrics ... and these colours are devine.

Happy Quilting for now ... Jane x

Giveaway over on JaneMonkStudio Blog and some quilting

2010-12-14T10:38:00.001+11:00

Over on my other blog ... janemonkstudio.blogspot.com I am giving you the chance to win this hand drawn by me - Illuminated Letter Zentangle style ... if you win I will put in any initial you want ... it is drawn on the 20th December 2010 (to celebrate the opening of my online store http://janemonkstudio.com)

Go visit and check it out ..

Isn't it wonderful how a simple all over quilt pattern can bring a quilt to life ... mind you this one is very pretty.

A close up ... this pattern is Merrily Heart by Anne Bright ... very pretty.

Make a feature of the back.

And another ... this time with Angel Wings

This has to be an all time favourite pattern

Okay ... doing necessary maintenance on the quilt machine ... hopefully I can still meet the deadlines before Christmas ... it is very stressful not being able to quilt when I need to quilt!

Cheers for now ... Jane x

Zentangle for Quilters

2010-12-11T12:15:00.001+11:00

Last Saturday I taught a Zentangle for Quilters workshop at Esmes in Kings Meadows - Launceston. You can see more at Esmes link above ...Lillian has done a nice write up with photos of the class. It was a great day with 8 ladies ready to learn how to do the Zentangle!

This pic is their first Zentangle attempt ... I was so proud of them all ... I love how each and every one has their own style to bring to Zentangle ... lovely.

Then it was onto the quilting part ... now this lady (Hi Sara) hadn't done much free motion quilting before ... took to it like a duck to water.
Don't those Zentangle patterns look great stitched out.

Here is a close up .... I am impressed ... for a first attempt it is very nice. Well done.

This is a little quilt I did for a customer (this is going all the way to Switzerland) ... Satin fabric with a polar fleece backing ... it was very cute.

Happy quilting for now ... Jane x

Launching Jane Monk Studio Web Store

2010-12-07T12:01:00.000+11:00

Hi everyone ... I would like to welcome you to my new web site store.

I have a listing of all my Workshops, including my Zentangle for Quilters and other Textile Workshops such as Journal Covers, Postcards, and my beautiful doll Fleur the Tasmanian Garden Fairy. I hope you will visit and enjoy looking around. I have included the link below....Thanks Jane x

Welcome to my new online web store www.janemonkstudio.com

Where you can buy Zentangle® and other supplies, buy a quilt, book a Workshop, check out the Galleries to see Jane's Tangle patterns, art and quilts.

I have been working on this for quite awhile now and would like to welcome you all to come see my new store, check out my workshops, purchase Zentangle and other goodies. It is early days yet and there will be more to come.

I would like to say a very big thank you to Christine from Gecko Gully who has built both of my web sites .... held my hand through all the technical jargon and requirements that, quite honestly, are beyond me most of the time.

So if you have any feedback, questions or queries feel free to email me ... just go to the contact page for details.

Hugs and thank you for your support here on my blog as well ... I will still be updating my blogs frequently.

Workshop & Zentangle for Quilters Workshop

2010-11-27T10:29:00.000+11:00

This week for a couple of days I was in Ulverstone doing a workshop at Cranberry Crafts. Lynne had arranged for Robyn Alexander of Colour STreams to come and do a two day workshop. I booked this early this year and had no idea what I would be doing.

I must say I am really happy that I did do this workshop ... I learnt how to do nuno felting which I had never done before and expand on dry felting ... it was a lot of fun. The kit I chose was a little bag in Olive tones. This is the kit with absolutely everything that I would need, more than enough to complete the project.

This is my finished bag ... I am very happy with it...don't know if I will be walking down the street with it (although I might). I have learnt some very good techniques that I can expand on and use in my own way. If you get a chance to do a workshop with Robyn Alexander - DO IT - you won't regret it. She is very supportive and a very easy teacher to learn from. Thanks Robyn and thanks Lynne for bringing her down here. She is back next year I think!

Now onto the other workshops ... If you want to learn how to do this .... I am having a workshop at Esmes on the 4 December .... you will need to contact Lillian at Esmes (click on the link to get to her store) to make a booking (and I am not sure how many - if any - spaces are left ... give her a call.

I will also be doing this workshop "Zentangle for Quilters" at Cranberry Crafts in January 2011 and Michelle's Sewing Basket in April 2011.

For now it's back to the quilting for me ... Hugs Jane x

I'm Still Here!

2010-11-23T07:00:00.000+11:00

I can't believe it has nearly been a month since I posted ... I am here and I have been working. Although I did sprain my Extensor ligament - at least that's what I think you call it - my wright arm elbow to wrist - very sore. Slowly getting back to it though.

I can't show you the whole of these quilts but I thought you might like to see the border I did ... it is a Zentangle pattern and you can see more of those over on my other blog http://janemonkstudio.blogspot.com

This border is really neat ... takes a long time to do ...; but is neat.

On the back

Front again.... this time I have arranged the patterns so they create little fans.

A nice Edge to Edge pattern on a beautiful purple quilt ... somthing about purple!

I just love this backing - from Widebacks ... they have a really bright yellow as well which I love ... other colours too.

Did I mention that I have all the swatches for the Wideback fabrics ...so you can see them before I order them for you.

This little guy was walking around our back yard last week ... we think he lives in our very big woodpile. Wasn't too shy and let me get really close to take a photo ... very cute.

Had enough of the camera and was on a mission to get home.

What do you think about this "border" pattern ... I made it up myself ... it is a cross between a leaf and a butterfly ... I do like it and will probably use it again.

Okay that is about it .. sorry I haven't posted for so long. I have the Christmas quilting rush at the moment so will be away from the computer a bit ... but I'll try to keep you posted on what I'm doing.

Happy quilting for now ... Jane x

Candlewick Quilt - Custom Quilting

2010-10-27T07:15:00.000+11:00

A little bit of what is on the machine this week ... a beautiful candlewick quilt.

A busy week for me ... so happy quilting to all ... Jane x

Edge To Edge Patterns & Basting

2010-10-24T14:13:00.002+11:00

This is a lovely hexagon quilt that I did for one of my customers ... we decided on an Edge to Edge pattern - also called "AllOver". This quilt is going to a teenager and would be likely to be washed regularly. The big all over pattern also left the quilt soft and drapable.

This is the left over blocks that I incorporated into the backing (I also make up backings if required)

The overall effect was great.

I also provide a Basting service for hand quilters ... Basting on the longarm keeps all three layers nice and smooth and square. I quilt with a big tacking stitch in rows about 3.5 to 4 inches apart ... if you are interested in this service please contact me.

I am happily engrossed in quilting again after a few weeks away this month.

I will only be taking a few custom quilt bookings per month from now on ... so if you want me to custom quilt for you, contact me so I can schedule your quilt into my diary. I am currently booked until mid January 2011. I am happy to take your Edge to Edge quilt bookings continuously ... I have a 2 to 3 week turn around for these - less if you have pre-booked.

Happy Quilting for now ... Jane x

Finally Home

2010-10-19T11:52:00.000+11:00

To those of you who travel a lot - my hat off to you -it takes its toll - 39 hours of flying, waiting, flying etc to get home. I am happy to have gone away and seen and done the Certified Zentangle Training - it was so well worth the trip, but now I am happy to be home and sleeping in the comfort and familiarity of my own bed and home with my family - I missed my boys (although I'm sure everyone knew I would).

This picture was taken somewhere over the International date line - I missed the 17th of October!

I just loved the movement of the clouds 30,000 feet or so. Beautiful.

This is the Oakhurst Retreat Centre at Whitinsville MA where I stayed for the week - great hospitality - even a cup of tea (not like I have at home but near enough! - Thanks Terri and Deacon Ed for looking after us all).

So now I am a Certified Zentangle Teacher ... I take Beginner, Advanced and special Zentangle Inspired Quilting for your Domestic Machine classes. You can contact me on jane@purrfectlyquilted.com.au if you are interested.

A great big thankyou to Rick and Maria of Zentangle for their hospitality, teaching and friendship ... it makes Zentangle even more special now that I have been to Whitinsville. I met so many people (and they all seemed to know me - am I really that loud on my blogs - lol!) they were all friendly and interesting - so many interesting stories ... I have one to share with you later which will make you all smile - certainly gave me a great laugh!

So I am out of action for a couple of days to catch up, recouperate and generally get myself together and refamiliarise myself with my family (mmm does that sound like I have to do some washing, cooking, cleaning and gerally get those two boys of mine sorted out - one 17 and one 50 - oh and the two boy kitties to hug and play with lol!) ... talk to you all soon.

Happy quilting for now ... Jane x

I will be away for a little while

2010-10-09T17:34:00.001+11:00

This is the quilt I have finished off this week ... I do like curved cross-hatching and can now do it a whole lot better after taking a class with Raylene Smith at the AMQF last week. Thanks Ray!

There are still some chalk marks in the pic ... just ignore them. Anyway customer very very happy with the result.

I will be away for a couple of weeks from blogland as I am heading off to the USA to do the Certified Zentangle Teacher accreditation course with Rick and Maria of Zentangle ... very very exciting as I will be the first Tasmanian/Australian to attend. So I will catch you all soon.

Happy quilting for now ... Jane x

Home Again

2010-10-07T03:34:00.000+11:00

Hi ... I am home again and have had a wonderful four days over in Adelaide at the AMQF. Tracey Browning and Sharon Parkinson have done a fantastic job of organising the event, plus all the volunteers, teachers, vendors, and the quilts ... there were some beautiful quilts. I did take photos but not many. I must have been too overwhelmed to take too many photos.

This the BEST OF SHOW by Rachelle Denenney "Fancy Flutterbys" - couldn't get close as it was up on the stage.

I did a few classes, loved Helen Stubbings class on Colourque - she is a great teacher. Michelle Turners Wholecloth class was great, Belinda Betts class on using those darn rulers was good - learnt a lot and Raylene Smith's classes were very inspirational - so much so I couldn't wait to get home and get back on the machine to do some custom quilting - thank you to everyone of you - we have some really top class Australian tutors. My classes on Zentangle went down very very well ... I saw lots of Zentangles being done over the weekend - see you all can draw really well! I ran into some familiar faces and met a lot of new ones. I purchased a wonderful Salem cutting mat from Constantine Quilts and it came home with me on the plane - with some other stuff I wrapped up, the weight was 9kg over - and the airline did not charge me for this - WOW - I am very happy about that ... perhaps it was because our flight was delayed for over two hours, which would have made me miss the connecting flight, but it was late about an hour as well ... so I finally arrived home very tired but happy.

I am back at the quilting machine for a few days before I head off to the United States for the Zentangle accreditation workshop .... getting a bit nervous now about flying by myself all that way but I'm sure it will be okay.

Will show you what I have on the machine at the moment when I have finished it. ..... Happy Quilting for now - Jane x

AMQF A Wonderful Success

2010-10-04T17:26:00.000+11:00

The AMQF is finished ... it has been a wonderful 4 days ... a fantastic effort on behalf of Tracey Browning of Constantine Quilts and Sharon Parkinson of Patchwork On Parade - both of SA. A wonderful show full of interesting vendors, lovely quilts and great teachers ... Our Australian teachers have so much to offer and were absolutely wonderful ... I can't say enough about them - loL! The International teachers were pretty cool too!

So I am travelling back home tomorrow and will be able to upload some photos on Wednesday.

Cheers for now ... Jane x

In Adelaide

2010-10-01T11:51:00.002+10:00

Hi .. I am in Adelaide at the Australian Machine Quilters Festival ... the weather is absolutely devine, sunny, warm and beautiful. I am teaching this afternoon at 3pm ... and then a whirlwind of classes and sights to see until I return home next week.
Catch you all next week.

Hugs
Jane

It's Finished!

2010-09-28T05:27:00.001+10:00

Life Is Beautiful ... design by Helen Stubbings. Created in Blue and White by Jane Monk!

I have finished ... it was only a year ago that I started stitching this lovely quilt and I have finally finished quilting and binding it. The picture is with the binding and hanging sleeve not yet stitched down.

I have used this quilt to display my background filler patterns - 33 of them.

Here is a close up

And more ....I love how the circles pop because i have only quilted around them ... they are not too big to worry about being unquilted. It does look better in real life.

If you want to see more of my Zentangle to Fabric quilting go on over to my Zentangle blog here.

Happy Quilting and thanks for visiting....Jane

Some Eye Candy

2010-09-21T05:17:00.000+10:00

I have been playing with depth, shadow and background quilting .... you will remember this from my last post ... it has progressed to a nice wall hanging - my Mum has her eye on it I know!

You will have to excuse my photography skills as I am not very proficient ... but you get the idea I'm sure.

On Saturday our Tasmanian Quilting Guild had it's AGM ... I showed this at the meeting and got a lot of great responses so thought I would show you on this blog too!

A close up of the background filling quilting ... see those berries and leaves .... they are one of my Zentangle patterns that I use in my drawing too.

The quilted leaves add further dimension to the picture.

The back ... a lot of people thought this was the front as it was the first part they saw ... it does look pretty nice too!

A bit of a close up of the back.

I used batik for all of this little quilt (apart from the fabric for one leaf) so when I was quilting through the leaves on the front it was quite difficult to go through all those fine layers. I didn't use any stabiliser for my leaves and I raw edge appliqued them with straight stitching as I knew I would be going over them further.

The holes you can see from the needle punching through should close up once I wash this quilt ... which I will do because I like the holes to close up and the stitching to settle. I also like that slightly scrunched look you get when there is a little shrinkage. Although I have used NuWool 60/40% Wool/Poly blend and you don't usually get any more than 1-2%shrinkage with that if any.

So I hope you enjoy my little quilt and have a Happy Week quilting. Cheers Jane

Do The Zentangle at Australian Machine Quilting Festival in Adelaide

2010-09-17T09:09:00.000+10:00

This is just some of what I have been up to ... I can't show you the whole thing because it is for my class at the Australian Machine Quilting Festival in Adelaide - only 15 days to go - I can't believe I will be there so soon.

If you are going to Adelaide between the 1 and 4 October make sure you head on over to Mawson Lakes and visit the show - it is for all quilters and will have a wondeful display of Machine Quilted Quilts - this part of the exhibition is by the Australian Machine Quilters Association.

I can tell you a bit about my class though.   It is called "Do the Zentangle" - I know I could have come up with a different name, but this is kinda cute - yes?

If you have always wanted to learn how to draw Zentangles, then I can show you how. But I am a longarm machine quilter and I wanted to bring the two together... I have made fabric journal covers with Zentangles, fabric coasters and boxes with Zentangles, and I thought what do machine quilters do?   Machine quilters make patterns on fabric with thread ... so I played around with the patterns as background fillers, I also used some well known background fillers as Zentangles so it works both ways.    You will remember my green table runner a few posts back ... this was quilted with Zentangle patterns.    The portrait I am making here will be quilted with Zentangle patterns and I have also made some of these above ... just to show you how it can be done with thread.

If you want to know more on how you can incorporate this style into your quilting ... come and do one of my classes ... there are two on offer at the AMQF ... one on Friday afternoon and the other on Saturday morning.   It will be fun!   You will learn something I'm sure! You will go home with the knowledge that YOU CAN DRAW! I love shouting that as much as I love exclamation markes! lol!

Now back to serious matters ... the obligatory kitty picture ... this is Jet this morning being a layabout catching the morning sun. A very handsome cat to be sure!

And a sneaky peek at my other little burning project ... don't you just love how the darker piece of fabric underneath the leaves gives depth and dimension ... Anyway the sun is out and I have washing to hang out this morning then getting back to work in the Quilt room here.

Happy quilting for now .. Hope to see some of you in Adelaide ... Jane x

Pretty Girly Quilts

2010-09-13T05:27:00.000+10:00

A little bit of pretty ... I don't have a daughter so I don't get to make pretty ... thankfully my customers bring me pretty quilts to quilt - this is just beautiful and I love the colours. Made by Helen, quilted by Jane - thanks Helen for the lovely colour in this quilt it was a joy.

Just look at those colours - Kaffe and Brandon's fabrics I think.

And more pretty pretty pretty ... love the green and pinks together - they make a great combination in this quilt.

Mmmm ...

And a beautiful back on another quilt ... This fabric is georgeous (from Widebacks).

Merlin on the weekend after a visit from two friends ... too much excitement in one day for a little cat!

And Jet waiting for Jacq to come back and play - he did have some fine jumping opportunities with his favourite toy.

Happy quilting to everyone for the week ... I am head down busy quilting again this week. I am glad it is school holidays and I don't have to drive my son to classes ... at nearly 18 he is happy entertaining himself during the holidays - his last as he finishes year 12 this year. We are doing the driving lesson thing which hasn't been too bad at all really.

Oh and only 19 days until I am teaching at the Adelaide Machine Quilters Festival 1-4 October 2010 - very exciting ... they have a lot of classes on offer and have recently added a few more - go on over and have a browse if you are going to be in Adelaide.

Hugs ... Jane

They are addictive!

2010-09-09T10:54:00.000+10:00

Another pin cushion ... but with hexies ... still putting this one together and then to embellish it. I have made this one a little taller than the last two, so I can put in a pair of small scissors. This little numer can sit beside me on the lounge when I am making my hexagons, and all the little bits can sit inside. I am Happy!

And some simple but time consuming quilting on a beautiful Asian quilt.

Happy quilting for now ... Jane

The Giveaway Winner is......

2010-09-04T06:13:00.002+10:00

HELEN! Wow, another Tasmanian - how about that.

Helen was number 16 on my little list and the lovely Random.Org thingy picked 16.

I am up early this morning so thought I would do my draw so as to cut the suspense (I know you all have other things to do and not many of us quilters are obsessive - lol!)

So Congratulations Helen ... this little pin cushion is heading your way - send me an email with your addy please.

We'll have to do it again when I get to 250 postings - not far away now!

A big big thankyou to everyone who participated and left a comment, we had some interesting guesses ... it has been lovely and I have visited some blogs I haven't been to before.

Happy Quilting for the weekend ... Jane

The Big Giveaway Reveal ... Ta Da !

2010-09-03T17:57:00.000+10:00

It is a Pincushion with a compartment in the bottom to put your bits in.

Oh it is sooo cute ... I am going to have to make myself one now too! You know how sometimes you have that lightbulb go off in your head ... and I love pincushions so wanted to come up with something of my own design. I am very happy with this.

So if you have left me a comment ... this is what will come your way if you win the GIVEAWAY ... I loved some of the comments btw.

The Big Pin Cushion Draw is tomorrow ....

Then I had to make another one because this is what started me on my pin cushion making mission ... I am in a pincushion swap and my lovely partner likes purple ... so the purple one is for Ruth - hope she likes it.

Inside ... and you can see they are a good size. I wanted to have the pincushion lid come off ... but it was too impractical once I had pins in it ... so the bottom had to be the removable bit.

I am happy how it worked out and will now set about writing up the pattern.

See ... lots of room.

And just for something a little different ... some quilting I have been doing for a customer a couple of weeks ago ... but a lovely quilt.

So come back tomorrow when I will draw out the winner of the Pincushion. You still have one day to make a comment.

Happy Quilting for now ... Jane x

I will be teaching at Australian Machine Quilting Festival - Adelaide 1-4 October 2010 Check it out!

Wideback Samples, customer quilting and a secret project

2010-09-01T05:41:00.003+10:00

Look what came yesterday ... a whopping 51 new sample fabrics from Widebacks. If you want to see the fabrics up close and personal to match to your quilt front... I have a Widebacks sample book and you can order them from me too! Most times backings are here within a day or two.

A lovely drunkards path quilted with "froth and bubble" edge to edge pattern - very cute.

The back looks pretty good too.

A georgeous quilt. My customer only wanted minimal quilting in the stitcheries, as most do. So we came up with the following ideas for quilting. She was pretty darn happy with it too!

I have stitched in the ditch around the applique and added some whispy cloud bits and also stitched minimally in the tree branches. I would have liked to have quilted tiles on the roof ... but it is a small enough area not to require further stitching.

You can see the quilting on the back better.

Now what do you think I am doing here ... a cut off bit of post pack roll and it's removable lid????

Covered in some delish fabric I got quite awhile ago ... there is more to come as I am just playing with the design at the moment. Over the next few days I hope to have it finished and ready to show you all.

Leave me a comment if you think you know what it is and you could be in the draw next week to win this!

And Spring is here ... a pinch and a punch for the first day of the month! Raining and cold here in Northern Tasmania at the moment ... DH put the fire on this morning before he left for work at 4.30am, just to make sure I was warm - he is a darling!

Happy Quilting for now ... Jane x

Early One Saturday Morning

2010-08-29T09:57:00.001+10:00

Well ... early yesterday morning at 4am I arose to send off my husband for a day of trout fishing (incidentally - he didn't catch one fish!) So not wanting to go back to bed I decided to embark on a little project that I have wanted to do for a long time.

I made a needle keep. Now this embroidery is my first time at this style ... I have done simple back stitcheries but nothing like this before - so be gentle with me - lol.

I used all DMC threads and a bit of silk ribbon that I had. Those bullion flowers needed to be bigger and the leaves as well - but I am happy with my first attempts.

The whole picture!

The inside - I made it a bit different to the pattern as I used 100% cotton batting for my needles rather than felt stitched onto the lining.

I also wound on a few skeins of DMC threads that I had sitting in a bag ....

Doesn't this look much better than a bag full of threads. All neat and tidy.

And a little box for the varigated ones.

To keep it catty ... Jet lazing in the sunshine

Shadow waiting to go outside to play...

Merlin quite happy just being Merlin really.

And to add some quiltyness ... this beautiful big quilt is destined to be a raffle quilt to raise funds for a home that caters to Cancer patients in Hobart ... when I have more details I will post them here ... the raffle is expected to be drawn in April 2011.

These photos really don't do this quilt justice - it is beautiful and the colours are luscious.

Okay ... a reminder that in 4.5 weeks I am teaching at the Australian Machine Quilting Festival in Adelaide 1-4October .... they have added another class on Friday - so if you wanted to do my class but it clashed with something you were doing on Saturday - you can now do a Friday class - yay!

And then it is only another week and I am off to Massachusetts USA to do a class at the home of Zentangle with Rick and Maria - I can't wait for that either.

Happy quilting for now ... Hugs Jane x

Quilting meets Zentangle

2010-08-22T17:52:00.000+10:00

Spearmint Twist ... A green table runner I made for my mother.

I did utilse the quilting space to showcase some background filler quilting and a few ideas I have for border treatment.

In October I will be teaching a class at the AMQF in Adelaide ... this is a machine quilting show that is open to both longarm and domestic quilters ... it is set to be a great show with fantastic teachers both Australian and International ... go and check out the web site and book in for a class.

Below are more pictures of this quilt so you can see the closeup of quilting. I have used Zentangle patterns and modified them to be suitable for quilting. Enjoy

This border pattern is based on the Zentangle pattern "Paradox"

I hope you enjoyed looking at these pics ... click on the picture to get a closer look.

Vist the AMQF website here to book classes in Adelaide. I hope to see you there.

Happy Quilting for now ... Jane x

A little stitching

2010-08-17T09:48:00.000+10:00

A beautifully green table runner for my mother ... I need to quilt and bind it before I can give it to her though.

The sun shining through this morning ... a beautiful day down here in Tasmania - we did have a very big frost this morning and now the sun is out - lovely.

This is a weeks worth of evening stitching ... making my paper pieced stars ... not too many to go now and I can start putting the quilt together.

I also did this little stitchery on the weekend ... I have had this lovely little pattern for quite some time ... sent to me from Iddy Biddy Designs in Qld as a little giftie ... it is very cute.

Two beautiful postcards came in the mail today from a swap I am in ... can you guess the theme - lol!

And a couple of zentangles I have drawn last week - if you click on them you can see them better. Don't forget ... if you want to learn how to draw these wonderful artworks I am teaching at the Australian Machine Quilting Festival 1-4October 2010 in Adelaide ... classes will book fast!

Another piece of eye candy .... you can see more over at my zentangle blog ... janemonkstudio.blogspot.com

Now ... back out to the quilting room for me ... Happy quilting ...Jane

Fantastic News - AMQF October 2010

2010-08-14T07:55:00.000+10:00

Fantastic News

I will be teaching at the AMQF (Australian Machine Quilting Festival) in Adelaide 1-4 October 2010.

Do the Zentangle ® and create beautiful background fillers for your quilts - Basic starter class

You may have noticed that Zentangles are taking the world by storm. Zentangle® is an easy to learn method of creating beautiful images from repetitive patterns. It is a fascinating new art form that is fun and relaxing. It increases focus and creativity as well as improving your dexterity and pen control. Zentangle provides artistic satisfaction and an increased sense of personal well being, even if you thought you couldn’t draw ... you really can, one stroke at a time! I have taken Zentangles one step into my world of quilting where I use this method of drawing to discover new designs for background fillers. Inspiration is everywhere we look, even in the fabric we are quilting. So come along to this hands-on class where I will teach you how to draw simple, beautiful Zentangles and then how to adapt these patterns into background fillers for your quilting.

And for those of you who were wondering, I have the founders of Zentangle, Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas’s blessings to go ahead with this – so a big thank you to them and their trust in my ability. I will be flying off to the USA the following weekend to do a Certification Class with Rick and Maria in Massachusetts... so I will be one of the first people in Australia to be a CZT (Certified Zentangle Teacher).

Now my internet connection has been slowed do snail pace ... uploading pics is painfully slow. I will post a few photos here by Tuesday (when my provider resets my connection speed) ... so come back and have a look – I’d love to hear any comments. In the meantime – head on over to the AMQF and check out their classes – they are for both longarmers and domestic quilters ... it looks all set to be a great festival and I am sure happy I am going!

Happy Zentangling for now ... Jane

Working in the Quilt Room & Dinner

2010-08-10T07:14:00.000+10:00

I have spent a lovely three day weekend at Quilt Retreat ... I didn't sew an awful lot but did put together 140 odd blocks for a quilt I am making for my brother ... green green and more green . I need to lay it out now and sew the blocks up, I am very happy with it though. The lovely Helen sewed up a table runner that I had cut the pieces out for ... she is quick ... she also made some lovely girly girl quilts herself and I will have to get her permission to show them here later. So I am back in the quilt room now attached to my quilting machine. Here are a couple of quilts I have to show you.

Rae made this lovely Ricky Timms Convergence Quilt and added the lovely flowers... I have stitched around each flower and then filled in the aqua coloured blocks with a simple background filler. The borders are done with a freehand leaf vine with a repeat of the flowers in the corner blocks. It is a very cute little quilt.

This is a lovely stitchery quilt that one of my customers made - she didn't want very much quilting in the stitcheries, and you can see that I haven't put a lot, just enough to anchor the blocks and my stitching follows the block and stitchery lines so as not to be obtrusive.

And last but not least, trout was on the menu last night. My husband caught this up at Arthur's Lake in Central Tasmania on the weekend (we had two) ... it was very nice - wrapped in baking paper and then alfoil and cooked on the bbq, served with some lovely salad ... eaten before a photo could be taken - lol!

The quilting machine has a lovely drunkards path quilt on it at the moment ... another custom quilt that I am enjoying quilting...I have always wanted to make one of these ... one day!

Happy quilting for now ... Jane x

Life is Beautiful ... and Zentangles in Tasmania

2010-07-31T16:54:00.000+10:00

I finally finished appliquing the small circles on this quilt - Helen Stubbings - Life is Beautiful. You might remember that I decided not to use the sashings and I am happy with the effect, how the circles frame the embroidered circles ... now for some fun with quilting this.

See how the coloured circles frame the embroidered circles - lovely.

Finished a quick little quilt for myself ... freehand quilting.

Big hearts and little hearts.

The back - I really shouldn't use white backs - although I love them.

.
And if you haven't been over to my other blog site - janemonkstudio ... here is a little bit of what it is about. My drawing, specifically my ink drawings. I teach this method of drawing called Zentangles, to anyone even if you think you cannot draw - anyone can do this - really! - it is a wonderful way to practice patterns that you can use for your quilting backgrounds as well.

So if you want a 2.5 hour art experience, come join me in a workshop where you will learn how to draw some simple string lines and fill them in with patterns. We have all done doodles, now take it a step further and make your own mini works of art. No previous drawing experience required to participate. This is an anything goes class with simple tools and techniques you can take away with you and expand into your own style. You will be surprised at how good your Art will look. Get a group of six together and book in a workshop.

A change is as good as a holiday

2010-07-28T14:43:00.000+10:00

Okay it is official ... I am no longer grey - lol! Although I still do have little fat cheeks (an unfortunate side effect of cortizone). I bit the bullet last week after being over 50% grey for about five years. It is a big change ... but I used to have black hair once! My DH likes it, makes him think he has a new wife - chuckle chuckle!

So, they say a change is as good as a holiday ... I should feel like I have been on holiday - right? Hmmm have to work on that one a bit more.

Here is a lovely quilt from one of my customers ... an all over feather pattern gave movement without detracting from the straight lines of the piecing.

Oh those beautiful backs .... scrumptious.

Another beautiful quilt, with a large leaf edge to edge pattern.

I don't think you should hesitate to have an allover pattern on an applique quilt ... if you don't want to spend a lot of money on custom quilting and the quilt is going to be used frequently, an all over pattern will often fit the bill without detracting from the quilting.

This quilt remained soft and drapeable (is that a word).

Back to the quilting room for me today after a visit to the doctors took around 2.5hours out of my day.

Happy quilting for now ... Jane x

Baby Quilts and The Lure of Television

2010-07-18T17:48:00.001+10:00

This is a little baby hexie quilt one of my customers made for her grandchild ... the daughter in law asked for black and white - isn't it wonderful.

Very cute indeed - but I am partial to hexagons!

Another little baby quilt

And ... another baby quilts .... must be the time of year for baby quilts. I do like the colours in this one - very soft with that dash of red.

And yesterday was spent at my Mum's place - with my brother and my husband starting to put up a covered back pergola - this will be a great space when it is finished with laser light roof. It was bitterly cold yesterday and they worked pretty hard to keep warm.

And Merlin has discovered Television - he sits and watches very closely at times - especially if there are birds on.

But these Meerkats were almost too much for him ... we couldn't keep him away from the TV - he was fascinated.

Happy quilting for now ... hope you all have a lovely week. Jane x

Island Quilts Results Up

2010-07-16T15:16:00.002+10:00

Hi Everyone - I just checked the Tasmanian Guild website and they have the winners up for Island Quilts 2010 in Hobart ... My customers did pretty well ... all of these quilts were custom quilted by me and the last two were edge to edge quilted. Gives me warm fuzzies - congratulations to you all and thanks for using me as your machine quilter.

A 2nd Place win for Viewers Choice - by Marie Goodall with "Bunches of Irises for Dave"

The Presidents Award - by Wendy Fittler with "Rose Window"

The Exhibition Convenors Award - by Rosslyn Gale with "Flourishes"

A 2nd Place for Two Person Traditional - by Janine Richardson with "Lightning Strike"

A Highly Commended for Two Personal Non-Traditional - by Marie Fox with "Ginko Dreaming"

A Highly Commended for Two Person Non-Traditional - by Marie Fox with "Black and White and Green Allover"

2010-07-15T12:41:00.001+10:00

Joan's lovely red, black and white dresden plates with an all over pattern quilted in red thread.

Ed Note: You can find this pattern in the Australian Quilters Companion magazine issue QC#36 "Red and Black and White All Over"

The pattern really looked great without taking over the piecing.

The beautiful back. Now Joan is partial to using sheeting for her backs - they wash easily and you use them on beds! A note here though ... if you are going to use sheeting - try to make sure it is 100% cotton. When the fabric is a blend, it can make quilting difficult and you might end up with pokies and bigger needle holes - these generally disappear with a good wash though. I don't mind quilting them - but do make sure the customer knows that it may not be as good as when using 100% cotton quilting fabric. Minki and flannel are also good backings.

Another of Joan's quilts ... this one was an op shop find - I wonder what the story was and why this quilt top ended up in the op shop for sale for $1.00 - yep that's right $1.00. Amazing. But it has now been quilted and Joan loves it like her own.

We put a big overall pattern on this one. You can't see it on the front very well - but the back looks great too.

And now for a little kitty love ... Merlin has a fettish for laundry baskets ... he will sit in it for ages and ages just watching the world go by or until Jet gets in with him.

Happy Quilting for now .... Jane x

Found more pics

2010-07-10T17:53:00.000+10:00

These are all pics of Janine's beautiful quilt - close ups and the back - the pattern of quilting on the back with the white looked wonderful.

This one is Ros's - a close up

And the back - love it.

Maries - she did add a lot of bling dimontes to this quilt prior to putting it in the show.

A face a mother could love ... this is my lovely lad while we were away earlier this year on the motorbikes - it is a rare thing to get a nice photograph of him - well any photograph of him really as he is camera shy.

Happy quilting for now ... jane x

Island Quilt Win and some custom quilts

2010-07-10T16:41:00.001+10:00

Second Place - Two Person Traditional Quilts - by Janine Richardson and quilted by Jane Monk ..... Janine's piecing of this mariners compass block quilt was fantastic ... I had a lot of fun quilting it ... Janine and I went through a very detailed discussion of what she wanted on this quilt and the thread colour etc.

I thought I would show you a bit of what I do when I start to do a custom quilt once on the machine.

This is the quilt loaded up on the machine - all squared up and the top and part sides stitched down - then I put the edge straps on to keep the quilt reasonably stable.

I also draw on my initial pattern ideas with chalk - this comes off easily with no residue.

This lovely little quilt by Marie was also at the show. I quilted this for her a little while ago.

This lovely little quilt was quilted with freehand feathers all over - missing the stitchery panels.

A closer view

This quilt was also done with feathers - and curved crosshatching.
A lovely flannel quilt - front and back.

A closer look at the inner border

Oh my and this lovely quilt - applique and pieced by Ros. Again Ros and I discussed in detail what she wanted on the quilt and what look she wanted for it.

It really is a stunning quilt - and her applique work is very very nice.

And finally - the other morning it was so very cold here at my place but the view out over the river was stunning - the sun rising and bouncing off the fog in the valley - this is the view from my quilting room looking into our back paddock.

The Hobart Quilt Show - Island Quilts - was lovely again this year. Unfortunately I missed the announcement of the prizes as they had changed the time this year to an earlier time and there were a lot of roadworks coming into Hobart. Not to worry .... I'm sure I will find out who won soon enough. The quilts were beautiful - some real stunners in there this year. And I have come away inspired to make a few quilts for next years show. Congratulations to the organisers and participants alike.

Happy quilting for now.... Jane x

Postcards, Custom Quilting and Squishies

2010-07-05T15:51:00.000+10:00

I have been making a few postcards ... and using a bit of glittery stuff.

"Solar Flare"

This was made from tiny left over bits from a quilt I made my son in 2003/2004 ... yes I am guilty of keeping small scraps - but they are neat in a scrap stash box.

I have also added some yarn and decorative stitches with zig zag on this one.

Another made from small scraps - co-ordinated though!

Keys anyone?

I like this piece of fabric ... I have a couple of similar bits - obviously from the same "range" and they make perfect postcards.

I also forgot to share my Birthday Squishies - these are from a group LPQ that some of us girls swap birthday squishies ... my choice was black and whites.

And these are my birthday squishies from the TasScquilters birthday swappers ... I asked for cream - and have a lovely selection of them now. Thanks girls!

These are not birthday squishies but are Reproduction Fat Quarters that I purchased from The Quilt Patch ... They have a nice little range of repros now ... I think I have one of each now! My repro stash is growing slowly but surely!

I did a little bit more on my Repro Wedding Ring Quilt over the weekend - I am loving the curvemaster foot on my machine - no pinning for those curves and they look good.

And now for some customer quilts that i have been doing ... This one has an all over pattern.

Don't you love how the backs look ... and that is backing fabric from Widebacks - beautiful beautiful. And I'm not affiliated - just a very happy customer (I also have the Widebacks sample book so my customers can see what they are getting before they order - a great way to ensure the fabric is right for the job).

More Wideback backs ... mmmm nice

This one is a custom quilt - feathers and swirls

This is the center of the back - I love the way the quilt block pattern on the front makes a lovely trellis look on the back when I have quilted it.

Yep - more Widebacks backing fabric. The best thing about this is you can use the left overs in another project as the quality is the same as your normal quilt shop quality fabric.

And that is a rather long photo essay of what I have been up to in the past week or so. I spent some time on the weekend doing nothing other than spending time with my husband. We went to the Evandale Markets just out of Launceston for a bit of a poke around - it was incredibly cold though. We also went to the Cat show that was being held at Evandale on Sunday - it was really nice to see all the kitties - some of those British Blues are related to our two boys. And the Cornish Rex ... oh my they are just gorgeously ugly cats - one day I might have one of them - they are so dainty. We also went for a drive up to the Trevallyn Dam to have a bit of a look to see how much water was going over - only a little at the moment. It was a lovely day to go for a drive. Came home to a warm toasty fire.

Happy Quilting for now .... Jane x

Custom Quilting

2010-07-01T08:04:00.001+10:00

I don't think I have shown you the front of this quilt ... you have seen the back, but not the front. This is a custom quilt I did for one of my wonderful customers last year - a beautiful quilt that I really loved working on.

This is the back

The wholecloth effect was just great.
You can click on the pictures to get a close up if you want to see that close - lol!

Cross hatching,my freehand feathers, ruler work, stitch in the ditch - just a few of the techniques used in quilting this wonderful quilt.

And my heart sings when I see this picture .... I was browsing through my pictures and came across this again - my journal covers. I really love making them and these ones are quite plain. I am teaching my journal cover class at Adult Education this year if anyone wants to attend ... taking it a bit further with embellishment ideas.

Anyway, the sun is well and truely up now, streaming into my workroom. I had better get my son to college and get on with the day.

Happy Quilting for now ... Jane x

2010-06-25T13:36:00.000+10:00

Some backs for you to look at - A wideback backing fabric can really show off a simple quilting pattern and you get a wholecloth quilt as well as your pieced front.

They are the first thing I look at when I see a new quilt.

Here is Miss Shadow ... lazing in the sun the other day.

This bird is the reason why the cats go outside with harnesses on ..... the birds know how close they can get without getting got!

Jet says ... not fair.

Merlin couldn't care...

Ohhhh aren't they cute!Brotherly love - lol!

Anyway ... I am almost over the yucky bug flu - my doc says it will take about two to three weeks to get through the process of it ... I have such sore ribs from coughing so much. But at least I am not coughing every five minutes now ... should be back out there with people next week.

Happy Quilting for now ... Jane x

2010-06-15T16:53:00.000+10:00

My felted crochet slippers are finished - I crocheted a little rose to go on instead of a button.

There is only one problem - they felted down too small for me ... I will have to gift them to my sister who has little feet - do you think she will like them?

The hexi rug is coming along - have to make about the same amount again to get a decent sized lap rug. Love how my colour graduations worked out.

Can we mess it up - hahaha

And on the weekend my husband and I went to market ... DH found this lovely sad lonely Ashford Traditional Spinning Wheel - some bits missing but nothing that can't be replaced - and look how beautiful it has come up with a bath and oiling.... My DH did a wonderful job of cleaning it up - I forgot to take before pictures - so you can't see the grime and paint and rusty bits anymore.

She needs a name - any suggestions?

And this is the bobbin bit - I'm not sure but I think it is a large bobbin - not the normal size. And it is a single treadle but has a double groove in the wheel - so realy not quite sure ... need to do some research. A very very very good buy at $35.00 - So I couldn't pass it up ... I've always wanted to try my hand at spinning - wool that is - lol!

Anyway - still madly quilting here ... have got the dreaded flu - so life is a bit hazy. I will have to stay away from quilt group this week.

It is a real problem when you have an auto-immune disease - apparently you will get everything going because of the lowered immune system. So I am feeling quite tired - hopefully it won't drag on too long.

And as an aside - I am having a lovely little giveaway over on my other blog - janemonkstudio - to celebrate my birthday month with everyone - so go on over and check it out! Happy quilting for now ... Jane x

Oh No More Crochet

2010-06-08T16:41:00.000+10:00

Life at my house in the evening is now filled with wonderful colour - yarn, 100% wool Marta's Yarn - it is beautiful. I have been making these lovely 4 inch hexagons so I can make a nice crochet rug - colour graduation will be very subtle - I hope it will look nice when I have finally finished this - not that I really needed another project.

This is my yarn - yummy colours

This is project underway ... it is so nice working with these lovely yarns - they feel wonderful and the colours are so vibrant.

And for something a little different - Crochet slippers - felted. They are drying here near the fire - once dry I will sew on the little tabs and put some buttons on - I might make my own buttons seeing as I have some of those buttons you can cover yourself - see how I go. Oh these are really cute ... I will have to make some more - what great presents they would make.

And I have been quilting ... slaving away at the long arm machine ... long hours trying to get some quilts finished and out of here back to their homes.

I will be out of action on my blog for a week or so because of that (quilting) and hopefully I will have some lovely pics to show you soon. Happy quilting for now ... Jane x

Lucy Bag Anyone?

2010-06-03T06:30:00.000+10:00

I have finished my "Lucy" Bag ... for holding my little balls of wooly loveliness .... you can see the pattern here at Attic24 - Lucy does some great crochetting.

I used some wool/acrylic blend that I had enough of to make the bag - probably wouldn't have gone with the green if I had to purchase the yarn - but hey - it looks okay !

See - fits a bundle in there ... but wait .... look under the chair. Looks like mischief Merlin - loves to chew yarn and run away with the ball.

Anyway back to the quilting ... I have been busy doing a few custom quilts and edge to edge quilts and getting the backlog out of the way and out to you lovelies.

Happy quilting for now ... Jane x

ps ... I should have some nice quilting to show you in the next few days.

Customer Quilts and my new crochet folly

2010-05-30T09:53:00.001+10:00

This was a huge huge quilt - the biggest I can quilt on my long arm machine. The piecing was very "loose" but it came up beautifully with a fairly tight all over pattern ... my customer tells me this lovely quilt is going to live in Europe with her daughter and new son-in-law - how lovely.

This is the back of a quilt I quilted for my quilt group Launceston Patchworkers & Quilters - every time one of our members turns 80 - they get a lovely little friendship quilt - I was glad I could contribute to this quilt and had fun quilting those quick feather borders.

I hope the birthday girl loves it.

This is another customer quilt - I just love the colours in it - Sally tells me that she used just one bali pop for the blocks and border - very very nice colours and the cream

This is the back - the pattern is called "Curley Hearts" and is very cute.

Another customer quilt done with a very open all over pattern called "Deb's Swirls"

This is the back view

A different quilt again - this one with Feathers - I do like this pattern - open enough but with a lovely swirl giving movement to the quilt. Great on this type of quilt.

And lastly ... not quilting but crocheting - over the past few evenings I have made myself a wool bag .... it is nearly finished as I just need to add the handles and make some little flower buttons - then fill it up with my wool stash.

It was amazing I got this far with this project as Merlin want's to sit on me while I am crocheting and then tries to eat the wool, me and my hook. Jet wants to run off with the wool ball - he sneaks up on it and pounces and is off before you can blink. So I have to chase him all over the house to get my wool back. Aren't cats fun!

Happy quilting for now until next time .... Jane x

Weekend Retreat and Class Quilts

2010-05-24T07:59:00.001+10:00

I went to retreat on the weekend with our Tasmanian Quilting Guild group - what a wonderful venue (Poatina). I had a great time and got a lot of stuff done.

This little quilt top still needs borders ... but I am happy to have it done as I am teaching this quilt to a beginners Adult Education class in Launceston in July ... can't wait.

Here is the same quilt in a different colour way - this time I have used charm squares in the centre of the blocks.

I sewed all the centre bits for my Double Wedding ring quilt - that took a long long time.

Used my curved piecing foot to do the curved ends - this was so easy - no pinning and great curved seams.

Hand stitched a heap of my stars together - this is for a quilt I am making using Robyn Pandolph fabrics - I purchased a whole heap of left over scraps off the lovely Christine about a year or so ago and this project is progressing nicely.

I played with my embellishment machine - I was lucky enough to get this for mothers day and left it in the box to play with at retreat - what a great machine - I could go to town with this one ... I really slapped this piece together just to see what the machine could do ... the possibilities if I actually take time to plan what I wanted to do. Fun fun fun.

It does some really cool scrunching of the fabric ... then I stitched all over with metallic gold thread to give it a lift.

I would like to add some beading and edging to the top of the journal cover still.

A few weeks ago I did a dangerous thing ... I picked up my old crochet hook - I haven't done anything like this since I started quilting in about 2002/03 - I could really get hooked into it again - pardon the pun - lol!

I made this easy scarf in about three hours one night ... my own pattern but it is just crocheting in the holes rather than in the stitches and a ball of varigated wool. Very warm and snuggly. I am now making a cowel ... no pic yet but it will be finished pretty soon ... got to do something warm on these very cold nights we are having.

And last, but not least - the Wedding Party - that was the theme of our retreat and a few people got dressed up - I conned the resturant manager to stand in as the groom - he was a lovely lad - great service manager.

Do you recognise any of these people - what about that bride - a few buns in the oven I think ... what a great retreat - lots of laughs and fun, nice food, warm beds, great company and lots of work done.

Okay ... off to do some work now. Happy quilting for now .... Jane x

Procrastination

2010-05-12T08:17:00.002+10:00

This is what I do when I have a quilt on my machine that I don't like what we have chosen to quilt on it ... Not this quilt here...This is a little quilt that I finished off the borders, did the quilting and binding for a customer ... Maisy is fabulous - don't you think?

This is the backing fabric that I chose to go with the quilt ... love the bright yellow with the coloured houses ... scrumptious.

And this lot ... well ... this is my family. Mum in the middle with 9 of us 10 children and various spouses and some grandchildren ... This was for mum's 70th birthday last year. A great photo I think. The tall fellow in the back is my DH and I am in front of him. It really was lovely to see the whole family together - something that rarely happens because we live all over Australia.

This one has all 10 of us kids and my DS in it - reluctantly.   He stayed about half an hour and then walked home (just around the corner) as the crowd was just a bit too much for him.

Anyway ... back to procrastination and I'll explain a little.   Sometimes when you go through a quilt with a customer and you agree to quilt a certain thing on it ... you think it will look good.   However, once you start quilting you may realise that it doesn't look very effective at all.   So .... I procrastinate while I think about what I am going to do with it.

Firstly .... I know I am going to quilt the same thing - just a different format.   So now I have to unpick what I have done. I unpick from the back usually so as not to pull the thread upwards through the front fabric. Unpicking usually takes 100times longer than stitching - so what took my an hour to quilt, will take me all day to unquilt. I have to leave it on the machine while I unquilt because I have done some other blocks that I won't unquilt - confused?   Prattling on is also a good way to procrastinate. Looking through your photos and posting on your blog is also a good way to procrastinate.    But ... i have given myself to 9am to procrastinate then I am heading out to my quilting room to get on with this beautiful quilt. At least it is only the top border that I am unquilting.

So Happy Quilting (or unquilting, unpicking, frogging) ... Jane x

A Pinch and a Punch ....

2010-05-01T09:00:00.001+10:00

A Pinch and a Punch for the First Day of The Month, a Kick and a Hit for Being So Quick ...did you used to say that when you were little - my goodness, we still do and it still makes my 17year old smile when we say it!

My "Life is Beautiful" quilt is home from The Quilt Patch .... I will now sew on those little pies - that will keep my fingers busy for a while in the evenings.

There are a few of them.

A cat in a box - "Jet" in his favourite spot.

On top of the outside fridge.

Two lazy boys , "Merlin" and "Jonathan" . They were watching Ironman again, because the new movie is out - and you just have to watch the first one again before you see the new one!

I have decided to use the cream quilters muslin to do my wedding ring quilt - you can't really get a good idea here, but this fabric works much much better than the other fabric I was thinking of.

And, finally - some stitching that I did quite awhile ago - last year in fact .

I even lined it with pretty pink fabric.

Ta Da .... it's a fabric bag ... I just have to finish off embellishing it and it will look pretty in my quilting room. There are a few people though who think they are getting it for their birthdays ... Not I say!

Happy Quilting for now ... I will not be posting until next weekend I don't think .... I have a busy weekend and week of longarm machine quilting .... starting in about half an hour (working on the weekends - great to be my own boss - slave driver I say)!

Hugs ... Jane x

A New Project in the Pipeline

2010-04-23T09:01:00.000+10:00

Some time ago I decided I wanted to make a Wedding Ring Quilt - but not traditional colours - I wanted to use taupes. But....I have also recently decided that I shouldn't buy any more fabric if I can use something I already have in my considerable stash.

Last year I got these yummy fat quarters from the Sturbridge Village Harvest by Judie Rothermel Range. I really love the colours. I just happened to have enough fat quarters (24) to make a bed sized wedding ring quilt. All I need now is 4.5metres of background fabric - and I have this lovely dark creamy fabric with little flowers - the alternative is to use cream quilters muslin. I'll have to think about it for awhile before cutting the background fabric.

This is my little project box with all the pieces cut out and ready to go. I will be machine piecing this project. A good retreat project I think.

And this is the pattern I will be using. I like the way these rings are really round, not squashed like some patterns are.

Wish me luck ... I think I will make this quilt for my darling husband ... I have never made him a quilt before, and I'm sure he will like the colours.

Happy Quilting for now ... Jane x

A Bit of This and a Bit of That

2010-04-13T07:13:00.000+10:00

We have been away to the beach for Easter and the school holiday. After the past couple of months that we have had, the break away from the norm has been a godsend. There is something very soothing about sitting watching the sea, fishing, being lazy and not having to think about anything other than what to make for dinner. James caught fish, so we had about five beautiful meals of salmon freshly caught.

While away, I decided only to take my drawing things, (I know, I know - it is terrible not to take some hand sewing ... but drawing has been calling me back for awhile) I have been sitting on the beach or in the caravan drawing my little black and white tangles. I have started a new blog just for my artwork and it will have pretty much anything I do relating to my drawing. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. http://janemonkstudio.blogspot.com

Another little taste of my 3x3's.

This is the life hey! James fishing - or just feeding the crabs his bait - lol!

After a few years of not catching any fish when we went away, we finally hit the jackpot and caught quite a few feeds of fish - very nice indeed.
Our caravan is parked just where I am taking the photo from - a very beautiful free camp spot - but probably not for very much longer as it is getting busier and busier with campervans and campers. Although there was none near us for at least half a km.

Or perhaps just nosing around outside - as far as the harness will let me go! Jet just loves nosing around.

Okay - I'm tangled up - now what?
Merlin cries when he gets a little bit tangled or thinks he is tangled because he has worked out that we come over to him and sort it out - clever boy.

It's just too much - Jet says - leave me alone!

It's been a very busy day for two little cats camping.

And Shadow is glad to be home again ... she can get away from the two little rascles Merlin and Jet.

I am back quilting tomorrow - working on those beautiful quilts and catching up with phone messages. Hope you are all having lots of quilt time.

Hugs
Jane
x

STOLEN QUILT

2010-04-12T11:49:00.001+10:00

Dragonfly Maiden by Cindy Watkins - DeepPeace Studio

This lovely quilt was blatantly stolen from the St Helen's Quilt Show in Tasmania on the 7th Aril 2010. If you see it please contact Cindy at deeppeacestudio@yahoo.com.au.

This is a terrible loss of a beautiful quilt that toured Australia last year in the AP&Q challenge. I can't believe that I was only looking at it on the 3rd of April

Happy Easter Everyone

2010-03-31T13:15:00.000+11:00

Wishing you all a wonderful Easter Holiday ... This picture was taken in the Tall Trees Forest just out of Albany WA ... Man those boys make me feel really short. We are all have red faces from all the wind and sun after riding our motorbikes for two weeks.

Happy Quilting for now ... will be back blogging after the 14th April. Cheers Jane x

A little bit of Sad News

2010-03-23T11:41:00.000+11:00

I received some very sad news that my Dear Dad passed away on the 18th March 2010 ... after quite a long illness - so I think it is a blessing for my Dad - not so for the rest of the family.

But we are now back home after four days of very long riding back to catch the ferry home.

I will be not attending to any quilting stuff until after the Easter break now .... but feel free to leave a message if you need to.

Hugs
Jane
x

Arrived in Sunny Albany WA

2010-03-10T15:09:00.000+11:00

Hi - just a quick post to say we arrived in Albany on Monday morning after a very uneventful trip across the Nuhullabor. The weather has been perfect and we are really enjoying the travelling (thank goodness for Nurofen! lol!)

Albany is very pretty - much as I remember from our last trip here in 1997.

Doing some very lovely rides along the coast where the sea is that beautiful colour that we get in Tasmania as well.

Got to get back to it .... Happy Quilting to everyone for now ... Jane

PS .... I have visited a few quilt shops with a few more to go yet!
Cheers

Going on Holidays

2010-02-25T14:35:00.000+11:00

I need to tell you all that I will not be quilting from tomorrow to the 14 April 2010....the kitties will be well cared for by our housesitters - I hope they behave themselves!

The reason for the "down quilting tools time" is .....

This man is ~~forcing~~ taking me on a lovely trip to Albany WA on our motorcyles .... sore butt is all I can say - lol! It is the same distance as when we went to Townsville two years ago for the Ulysses AGM. We have a ball and I find the best part of these trips is the journey to get there.

These are our bikes - mine is the pretty blue one!
Our son goes on the back with James on the other bike.

And just so you can see the lap of luxury that we will be enduring whilst on this travelling trip - this was one of our camps on the way up to Townsville - pretty much doing the same thing again this time - it is luxury to have a shelter and table with chairs to use at camp!

Oh also ... my lovely blue and white "Life is Beautiful" quilt will be hanging at The Quilt Patch - St John Street, Launceston .... while I am away - it is still unfinished and not yet quilted but you can see what this beautiful quilt of Helen Stubbings looks like in the blue and white colourway.

Happy Quilting for now .... chat when I get back ... hopefully with a few fat quarters stuffed inside my panniers and backpack and lots of photos. Cheers Jane x

Shhhh ... quiet quilting

2010-02-24T18:26:00.000+11:00

This is some custom quilting I have been doing on a customer quilt - I want to show you - but can't show you the whole quilt .... but you can see little bits ... I really really enjoyed doing this quilt - even though it took ages - having free license to quilt is quite a lot of fun. What do you think?

The circles look pretty good with the pebble effect near them.

And I was surprised to find this in my mail this week ... The new Down Under Textiles magazine - 1st issue - it is very good with lots of information on how to do stuff.

Imagine my surprise when I opened it up to this page and saw my photograph with my lovely journal covers ... how great is that! it was a bit of inspiration the day I took the photo of some of my journals piled up high in the sun ... a great visual I think. This is going to be a "must" magazine for me I think.

And as an aside ... I want these two cabinets... they would look lovely in my sewing room and look at all those drawers ... sigh ... maybe in my next life!

Anyway ... Happy Quilting for now .... Jane x

I thought I'd show you my progress on two quilts

2010-02-23T13:28:00.000+11:00

I thought I would show you the progress I have made on two of my own quilts - it has been slow growing as I only get to do my own stuff at night or some weekends.

But ta da .... the borders are on ... now it needs quilting ... custom or edge to edge ??? I'd like to do custom, but time is lacking ... we'll see.

The other side - don't you just love how the sun shines through giving it a stained glass effect ... if only that would stay when the quilt was quilted.

Life is Beautiful ... strips sewn together

All sewn up ... I only have to put the small four patch circles in the crosshairs now ... forty something I think and I am hand appliquing them with blue thread for the blue part and white thread for the white part - as I have done for the bigger 4patch circles - looks very neat and tidy.

A close up

The back ... I still have to iron the long rows after stitching them.

So a little bit of stitching to go before I can quilt this quilt ... and it will be custom quilted - a good way for me to show customers how I like to quilt stitcheries.

Happy quilting for now ... Jane x

Charity Quilt, Quilts and my Babies

2010-02-12T15:55:00.001+11:00

This little quilt is for a fundraiser for the Franklin House Gardeners Committee - Denise made it using some sumptuous Japanese fabrics and I quilted it for her (my little contribution to the care of this lovely old home in Tasmania) using a lovely pattern called "Lotus" in keeping with the asian theme. It came up a treat.

The back looks good - I just loved the fabric she used for the backing... I could do with some of that.

A lovely quilt by Sharon ... I just loved the combination of those colours and fabrics - scrumptious!

And a pattern called "Feather Me"

And the back....

This is the back of another quilt that I can't show you yet ... love the little flower pattern.

And last but not least .... Jet and Merlin - getting up to mischief I'm sure - no no we're not doing anything - certainly not smacking each other - aren't they too cute!

Happy Quilting for now ... Jane x