Trade routes

This quilt was made for an exhibition organised by Irish, German and South African quilting societies. The theme was Interchange Threads Connect, and one of my first thoughts was about the Silk Route, after all, it has the interchange, it has the threads, and it has the connect, too. I was thinking of making an appliqué of camels and oriental patterns, but then opted for a more abstracted interpretation that played on the interconnection of land and sea trade routes.

The main thing here is the colour - the contrast between the teals and the golds and the nuances of the various shades. I machine-pieced the top and started playing with the textures.

As you can probably see, I had a great time playing - there's machine quilting, hand quilting, embroidery, beads...

Our International Rep Paula took the Irish part of the exhibition to South Africa and she has some photos in her instagram and the exhibition looks really great, I'm looking forward to seeing it when it's brought to Ireland.

Linking up to
Off the Wall Friday at Creations by Nina Marie
 Can I Get A Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Dancing in the Wind

Sorry to those who already saw this quilt (very recently), but it is my favourite project of the year and so I just have to enter it into Blogger's Quilt Festival at Amy's Creative Side.

It's very simple piecing with some blocks featuring a bit of hand embroidery and 3D appliqué - my latest craze.

Here are all the little ballerinas who are dancing in the wind:

The triangles are made of blender fabrics with subtle floral/botanical prints and quilted with wonky triangle spirals, which creates a nice texture. And it's all as bright as it can be - just the way I love it.

I recently encountered a quote by J.W. Goethe, which goes: "...savage nations, uneducated people and children have a great predilection for vivid colours". I'm still wondering which of these categories I belong to...

Thanks for visiting and do check out all the quilts in the Blogger's Quilt Festival - some fabulous stuff there!

Dancing in the Wind

Can you hear the music?

The summer ballet - little ballerinas doing their pas in the breeze.
Meet the cast:

Rose

Lily

Daisy

Tulip

Bellflower

and Poppy

In their brilliantly bright floral-themed setting:

I wanted this piece to have a certain stained-glass-window feel, so it's very tall and narrow: about 175cm by 73cm (69'' by 29'') and basically, it's a collection of set on point squares divides into half-square  and quarter-square triangles, with a few lighter-coloured panels for appliqué set in-between.

I embroidered the stem figures before stitching the patchwork part together, then quilted the whole thing - leaf-shaped motifs for the panels and wonky triangle spirals inside each patchwork triangles, which creates a kind of shimmering texture overall. The scrappy binding was put in place before the 3D appliqué to minimise handling.

The flower petals are made of two layers of cotton fused together with bondaweb and hand appliquéd in place to shape the flowers.

I like how it turned out - bright, happy, summerly and light. Hope I'll still be able to take some photos of it outside with the remaining summer flowers.

Linking up to Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River
Let's Bee Social at sew Fresh Quilts
Free Motion Mavericks at Lizzy Lenard Vintage Sewing
Off the Wall Friday at Creations by Nina-Marie

A Binary Opposition

I've got a question for you that's sure to split people in two camps:

This is my entry for a challenge themed "Binary" (meaning you can use only two colours of fabric in your quilt). I wanted to make it binary not just in colours, but also in the subject and chose this familiar opposition.

I made a sketch and then played with it in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop:

But although I like the cup mandalas, I decided against using them in the quilt, just printed out the letter outlines to make the appliqué. I used freezer paper to make templates and bondaweb to attach the appliqué.

 Then I added borders, assembled the sandwich and got out embroidery floss and needle ... and didn't take any more photos until it was complete :))). The letters are stitched down by hand with whip stitch (with the slanted part on the back).

And then I decided to add a "simple pattern" of stylised tea leaves and coffee beans around the border, and of course that took forever. All the stitching is done through all the layers, so it doubles as quilting. The background was filled with the running stitch. Good thing it's just a mini, 23'' by 16''.

It's been a very long time since I did any embroidery at all, and I have never done any like this, so that's a new experience for me and I'm thrilled with how it turned out.

Now back to machine work, I'm feeling the seasonal mood and want to make an autumn quilt before it's all over. I'm all set up with my pattern:

And a pile of fabric:

... will keep you up to date on this one.

Linking up to
Off the Wall Friday at Creations by Nina-Marie
Can I get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a fabric Addict
Show Off Saturday at Sew Can She