Summer Star Quilt top finished!

My Summer Star Quilt top is finally finished! I plan to hand-quilt it, once I get the hand-quilting of the huge Pinwheel Quilt done... might be a while still :) 
Now I can start thinking of a new project... Perhaps I should finish piecing the Chintz Quilt, I was getting bored with following instructions and sewing snowball patches, I think that should try and modify it somewhat to make it more original and creative.

Mom's Delft Snowball quilt top finished

My mom just finished piecing her "Delft Snowball" quilt, inspired by Kaffe Fassett's Wedding Snowball quilt pattern found in his wonderful book "Museum Quilts". Here are some more shots of the lovely quilt.

Shirt-stripe boxes quilt all done!

I got my shirt stripe quilt back from the quilters recently (Dot's Quilting, Cape Town). I chose an all-over stipple pattern because it adds texture to the quilt (and its also the most affordable option at the moment...). I added some diagonal stripe binding by hand, and now its all ready for winter. Here's a close-up.

I've been working on my wedding décor, I've decided to do my own flowers and decorations. I will share some of my endeavours tomorrow. It is autumn here at the moment and the surrounding vineyards have just started to change colours. Glorious! 

Shirt stripe-boxes quilt top finished!

I finished my shirt-stripe boxes quilt this morning (its about time!). Its been so hot here lately (about 35-40 degree C), I haven't felt much like doing anything energetic. I'm busy thinking about my next quilt... I want to try star blocks and some sunny colours.

I also finished the Botanika throw pillows with black piping for the sofa. I think it looks fresh!

Knitted patchwork

This is a knitted patchwork blanket that I started working on when I was about 15 years old. I work on it from time to time, when I feel like knitting (mostly in winter). This is how I taught myself to knit fair-isle using Kaffe Fassett's wonderful book "Glorious Knitting". I never really knitted any sweaters, except for a vest and a waistcoat from "Glorious Knitting"; I prefer to knit sampler blocks to play with colours and patterns. 

I have a whole bag of blocks waiting to be joined, hopefully the blanket will get finished this decade :) 

I'm still waiting to get my sewing machine back from the service agents. I haven't had much time for sewing though, I've been away at a national soil science conference for the last week. It went very well, I got an award for the scientific paper I presented, that is God's unmerited favour!

Pinwheel quilt top finished!

I finished piecing my blue pinwheel quilt yesterday. The quilt consists of 32 large 10.5" pinwheels and 256 small 4.5" pinwheels. To make a small 4.5" pinwheel, one needs 2 light and 2 dark 3" squares of fabric, which must each be cut in half diagonally to make the 8 right-angled triangles for each pinwheel. To make a large 10.5" pinwheel, one needs 2 light and 2 dark 6" squares of fabric, which must each be halved diagonally. One also needs 4 x 36.5" x 4.5" strips of fabric for the center plain bands. All seams must be 0.25". Finished quilt is approximately 88" x 88". 

Now I have to decide on the quilting. I definitely want 100% wool batting. I'm not sure if I want to attempt hand quilting, or if I should rather have it done professionally? Please let me know what you think, I have never attempted hand-quilting so I'm quite keen to try it, but this quilt is huge (225 cm x 225 cm) so I'm worried that I will get overwhelmed and then don't finish it...

Blue pinwheel quilt is underway

My latest quilting project is a square pinwheel quilt that I have designed and am making using Kaffe Fassett fabrics. My colour inspiration for this quilt came from Monet's Water Lilies paintings (see examples). There are actually over 300 water lily paintings by Monet. The purple-blue, green and pink hues create such a tranquil feeling. I have to assemble 252 small pinwheel blocks and 32 large ones. It will keep me busy for a while...