Ned and the Very Land Itself

Finally, here is a picture of the quilt I made for my husband Terence for our wedding anniversary. If you are Australian it should be fairly self explanatory. If you aren't, this is meant to be a nod to Sydney Nolan's painting of bush ranger Ned Kelly in his homemade armor. The grey green rectangles are eucalyptus leaves and the white and yellow parallelagram is a sulfur crested cockatoo. In the center of Australia, the sand really is that color.

Polyester, silk, cotton (on the back facing and backing) and several different weights of variegated and solid color thread.

It's about 18 x 36" (guestimate).

Blue and White Quilt

My son is ten-and-a-half and ready for a new bed quilt. His existing one is for a smaller bed and seems a little too young in his current bedroom. Yesterday he told me he wants it to be blue and white. Later in the day, of his own accord, he came into my studio and pointed out some fabric that he liked. It's a slightly deeper shade than sky blue.

Unlike my friend Erica who has an impressive collection of blue fabric, the blues I have are left overs from a project that needed a lot of different shades in small amounts. I was buying blue in 20cm pieces.

White I have. I'm a white person (not cream) . So the hunt is on for a variety of that shade of blue and some inspiring block that will not be the end of me when made double-bed size. I'm leaning toward Hunter Start or Birds in the Air or a big mariner's compass and a couple borders.

Mere Words, Pix Soon

Despite my lack of blogging, there has been no lack of quilting activity now that the studio is in some kind of shape (thanks to supportive husband who installed shelves for me).

In fact, I've opened a couple new chapters.

First, I'm restoring a Road to California scrap quilt that I found at the local antique store for $12. I think it is from the 1920s. It isn't a masterpiece, but I like it, and would like to keep it "alive" for the foreseeable, so I'm appliqueing replica patches over the shredded patches. The original is there, underneath, but my efforts should stop the filling from coming out and prevent any ripping of the backing (so far intact).

Second, I'm making an anniversary art quilt for my husband (who doesn't read my blog). It's a sort of abstracted nod to Sydney Nolan. Silk, and poly with linen backing. It has been a chance to do some intensive quilting on the Bernina.

Pictures of these projects soon.

And a co-worker is having a baby so I'm having fun working on the baby quilt. Lots of flowers and ladybugs.