Change of blog location

Hi Everyone,

The Sunflower Quilting blog is now on Wordpress and can be found at http://www.sunflowerquilting.com.au/sfq-blog/ as part of my updated website.  I am planning to expand the information on the website and my lovely husband has changed it all over for me.

I'd love for you to come and have a look at what I've been doing and follow from the new location.

I'm looking forward to hearing from you.

Happy Sewing

Raylee

Blue Gentleman

Whilst posting about the raffle quilt I saw I had not actually shown you my main piece of work from 2012.
This quilt is made for my husband and will be his after it has been in the Royal Canberra Show next weekend.
The pattern for this quilt is from Sindy Rodenmayer of www.fatcatpatterns.com and is called Southern Gentleman.  Sindy created hers in browns but I decided to make it in blues.

I spent many hours tracing shapes onto Vliesofix and then cutting them out.  I skipped a step and the appliqueing was done as part of the quilting process.  It did mean being very gentle with the quilt top. I was pleased with the result.

Thomas in front of the yet to be bound quilt.

Hanging at the 2012 Canberra Quilters Exhibition

I was thrilled to win 3rd place in the Bed Quilt Professional category.

 

One of the 16 blocks. Each block was 16", a good sized quilt you could say.

Lots of interesting shapes to quilt around.

Each shape was appliqued raw edge style in matching thread, this meant rolling the quilt numerous times as I stitched each colour, then started again with the next.

The background quilting is white Rasant thread and I used an extremely pale blue Bottom Line in the bobbin. This is my version of McTavishing, all the background quilting is freehand.

The sashing and setting squares, I like the secondary effect created from the diamonds.

The navy border, you can see the chalk marking I did to keep my shapes even in size.

 

Lastly I've added a few extra close ups of the blocks. I love the texture created by the quilting.

If anyone is wondering why I chose blue for this quilt, Thomas has blue eyes and he looks great wearing these colours.
I know this was a long post but I hope you enjoyed seeing my special quilt for Thomas.

Raylee 

Canberra Quilters Raffle Quilt 2013

You know how I said I was going to be better at posting regularly, well it didn't happen did it.  Partly because I was thinking of anyone who reads my blog.  I read that I should lower the resolution of the photos going on the blog to make it quicker to load the page etc.  Since then I've discovered that this blog can handle the pictures and though I will keep them to a smaller image size, you can click on any picture to see it full size with all the lovely detail.

I've not been idle as you will see. The main thing I have been working on with a lot of help from my lovely Mum is the 2013 Raffle Quilt for Canberra Quilters.  Thanks Mum, without your help, I'd still be piecing.

yes, it's hanging from just below my guttering, it's not a small quilt.  Note the nosy dog, Sam.

Sam is a Tenterfield terrier, fully grown.  You can see the lower part of the quilt, I really like the quilting on the green blocks.

This picture shows the block pattern and the quilting quite well. Green blocks quilted with clear monofilament, creating a lovely texture without the added colour.

Still on the machine at this point, did I mention I liked the quilting on the green?

The repeating lines give a cool effect...

offset by the leaf design on the white blocks, all done freehand in white thread.

The border.

The back, sometimes this is just as good as the front.  I have to say I  really like both on this quilt.

 

 

 

 

Well the quilt is now in the hands of the valuer and then will be shown at various shops around Canberra in the lead up the the annual Canberra Quilters Exhibition in August.  Tickets will be on sale soon at many shops in and around Canberra or through Canberra Quilters, I will also have them available.

So having sorted my photo issue, here's to a better blog year.

Raylee

AMQA Inc. Quilt Show

At the end of September I attended the Australian Machine Quilting Association Quilt Show for 2012.  This show was held in conjunction with the Australian Machine Quilting Festival at the Adelaide Convention Centre.  I was pleased to be able to enter a couple of quilts that I quilted for Sandy and Carol. Here are the photos of their quilts hanging in the show. 

Sandy has made a beautiful quilt as part of her sewing group, they shared fabric so there are a lot of variety in the thongs. 

 

 Sandy's quilt 'Aussie Thongs'

  

  

Here are a few close ups.

The border is made of log cabin blocks and the quilting design is called 'Beaches' by Anne Bright.

The bright colours work so well and the background fabric was  a great choice for a beach.

Sandy should be quite proud of her quilt as it caught the eye of Ricky Timms who had come to Festival to teach.  I was told he thought it a great quilt.









I really like the flower thongs and you can also see the quilting pattern in this photo, a pair of things, a shell, some water lines.

Another quilt I entered was made by Carol.  Carol must have an enormous scrap bucket as she has made at least 4 of the Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilts.  Bonnie Hunter is well known for her scrappy style.

This quilt is the pattern 'Carolina Christmas'.

Carol's quilt 'Fantasia'

Carol does wonderful piecing and her quilts are a dream to quilt.  The preparation and care taken by Carol make for a great result.

Some close ups.

 Not sure what these are called, whirlygigs, friendship star variation.

The star within a star block. Carol decided on a pattern called Fantasia by Lorien Quilting for this quilt. The curves balance it nicely. 

Pieced borders are very typical for a quilt designed by Bonnie Hunter and Carol does them so well.  

In this photo you can see the quilting goes off the edge of the quilt but you can also see the line of stay stitching Carol has done. 

Stay stitching on a pieced border is a good idea.  It prevents any of these small seams starting to undo when the quilt is handled which can then become a problem when quilting.








A long post but I wanted to show a number of photos of each of these quilts. 


 If you are interested in knowing more about either AMQA Inc. or AMQ Festival please follow the links on the right of this blog.

Happy Quilting
Raylee

Friendship Challenge

Quilt by Raylee

These 2 quilts have 3 things in common!  Go on, I hear you say.  Well these 2 quilts are what a Kim and I came up with in response to some simple parameters for our friendship challenge. 

At the Inaugural Australian Machine Quilting Festival in 2010, the speaker for the Gala Dinner was Kimmy Brunner from America.

Quilt by Kim

Kimmy described how herself and a friend had challenged each other to make a quilt using specific colours, lime green and pink, I believe.

Well Kim and I discussed and decided on our challenge requirements whilst waiting for our flight home.

Red, Black, one other colour and at least one circle.


As you can see both quilts fill these requirements, but oh so differently!

It was great to see these quilt hang near each other at the Australian Machine Quilting Association Quilt Show, held in conjunction with AMQ Festival 2012.

 I received a text from Kim on her way home from Festival, time to think about our next challenge.  Will let you know.

Happy Quilting
Raylee 

A Busy Year.

Checking back to my blog today I was shocked to see that despite my last post I did not get myself into a habit and show you things regularly, it's actually been longer than before.
In the past year my husband has gone on long service leave from the Defence Force, I have taken on an executive position of an Australia wide association, been needed at school by son #3 a fair bit, done a fair bit of quilting, and more recently spent a week in Adelaide at the Australian Machine Quilting Festival.

I have seen on a few blogs I regularly check that they have a button which says something like IBOT, which stands for I Blog On Tuesdays.
What a great idea.  I don't need the button, I just need the day that it should happen and I plan to stick to it unless there is something that just cannot wait.  I did think about my week and have to admit that Tuesdays is probably the better for spending some time at the computer.
So after a busy year I do have lots to show you and my plan is to do that on Tuesdays. Watch this space.

Block detail from Blue Gentleman

Too long between posts but plenty to show.

I can hardly believe it has really been over 7 months since I last showed you anything.  I have some catching up to do then.  Though I haven't put anything on this blog I certainly have been busy.  Plenty of customer's quilts and some of my own, a Member Challenge for AMQA Inc, Canberra Quilters Exhibition, more customers quilts, a trip to Qld to see my Mum, some new excercise classes for me, and some more quilts.  This is all on top of the busy life I have as Mum to my boys and wife to Thomas.  So I had not forgotten just needed to catch up a little and not say yes to too many things so I could spend some time showing you what I've been up to.  I have some photos to get of my camera and then I can start uploading them here.  Check back soon, I promise it won't be very long.
Happy Sewing
Raylee

'Linda in Pink' AMQA Inc. Member Challenge 2011, 2nd Wholecloth - Handguided