Where do you get inspiration for your quilts?

I have some quilts under way from patterns, but I just can't resist changing the pattern to better suit what I want to do. I'm also really interested in taking images and using them to inspire a quilt, not just literally by attempting to reproduce the photo, but also by taking lines, shapes, colours and textures from the image and playing with them in fabric.

This quilt I made for the 12 by 12 challenge on the theme of 'Spring' was quite literal in reproducing the image. I even traced some of the flowers.

The butterflies and some of the leaves were decoupaged from a paper napkin, and the background is a fabric I hand dyed. I used fabric paints for the flowers and leaves and parts of a pack of silk waste for the stamens.

For my 'Leaves of Autumn' quilt I went walking and gathered some leaves to work from. Here are some of the 'prototype' versions:

And the finished quilt:

I will be teaching workshops on this quilt...

No blog for a long time - what with the Shop Hop and the Mystery Quilt it has been a very busy time at Quilters' Lane. I've also enjoyed meeting lots of people who have popped in while on their holidays either from other parts of NZ or from around the world. It seems the Wairarapa is getting on the tourist map!

Over the past year, quilters have been working on my Mystery Quilt, which I called 'Conundrum at Cocktail Hour'. Each of the seven colourways was named after a cocktail - or at least loosely. The colours were:

Black Russian - Black and White with a touch of Red

Chatham Island Iced Tea - yes that's Chatham Island, not Long Island! - Chatham Island Forget me nots and other kiwiana

Blue Hawaiian - blue/green batiks

Kiwi Grasshopper - Kiwiana with greens

Shirley Temple - sweet and pink and floral

Champagne Cocktail - purples, blues and ivory with gold highlights

and Sundowner - rich browns, oranges and golds

Here are some of the colour charts that people chose from:

Black...

We are having a Spring Clean at Quilters' Lane - everything excluding batting will be 25% off from tomorrow Monday October 7th at 9.30 am until Saturday October 12th at 1pm. Make the most of the school holidays and come and enjoy, the weather is beautiful here in the Wairarapa!

It's so good to feel the warmth of the sun again! The sky is blue and the birds are singing away merrily - and it's reminding me that Christmas is not far away. If you're from the northern hemisphere like me that sounds strange, but I have been here 11 years now so am gradually getting used to the idea of Christmas in the summer. The Shop Hop is only three weeks away and we are getting all the fabrics ready for those that have registered.

This week at Masterquilters our 12 by 12 group presented their quilts on the theme of Spring. There were some beautiful and very creative quilts, unfortunately I didn't think to take my camera but there will be photos later in the year as we are taking all of our quilts to the Christmas meeting. The other group had worked on the challenge of 'Baking', and came up with a great range of wonderful ideas from baking hot earth to scorched cakes!

Here's mine - I experimented with fabric dyeing, paints and decoupage.

Talking of dyeing, I have been...

Today is a day of catching up in all senses of the phrase. The world seems to have been spinning a little faster lately!

I have been going through the few photos I have had time to take to get up to date on what's going on with my quilting, as well as in classes.

The other week we started a class in hand piecing. It has launched a number of us on an exciting journey, which I started half-heartedly as a way of having stitching to take with me when I travel, and I am now thrilled to be on the journey with others, and not necessarily worried about reaching the destination! I am talking about the Dear Jane (tm) quilt. So far I have completed these blocks:

This is a picture of the quilt in its entirety:

This is the quilt made by Jane Stickle and completed in 1863 - this year is the 150th year of its completion. The blocks were all documented by Brenda Papadakis in her book, Dear Jane, and now there are hundreds of 'Dear Jane' addicts around the world. Our little group has just...

Two years ago I had only just bought the shop, and was getting to know people in the local quilting scene. Among those lovely people I met was a group of shop owners who like me felt that we needed to offer more exciting activities for quilters. Owning a quilt shop is not just about buying and selling fabric. Quilting is really an entertainment industry. Yvonne of Sawmillers had seen Shop Hops happening in the States and thought we could do something similar over here. And so the Quilters Friend Shop Hop was born. The first year was such a success that we decided to run the event again, and now we are into our third year.

Each year the shops create a quilt that you can make. For the registration fee you get blocks from the quilt which you can put together as you like, or purchase a finishing kit to make the quilt as done by the shop. The creativity of the shop owners is put to work as we try to come up with interesting quilt ideas for you.

This year we decided instead of sampler...

The last two weeks have been all about catching up. I have been making blocks for the Masterquilters raffle quilt, the block of the month, the retreat and for our 25th anniversary quilt. Belonging to the club is great fun and taking part in all the activities is what it's all about.

The raffle quilt is being made by most of the members creating one or two small snowball blocks each. It's only a little task for each person, but in the end there will be a beautiful quilt to be raffled off at our exhibition next year.

The block of the month is done at every meeting,  all the names of people who have made a block go in the hat and the winner gets to keep all the blocks. The only catch is they have to make a quilt from them by the following year. Again it's lots of fun and is part of what keeps the spirit of the club going.

The third block I made was for our retreat. Every year a number of us go away for the weekend and have a guest tutor, we have so much fun not only sewing...

Phew, what a few weeks it has been! First the Taupo Symposium - , then on my return my 'beginners' had their 'finishing day' - a bit like a quilting bee of old. Then I spent the weekend helping my husband with his new catering business. It has been so busy I had to hide from the shop for a couple of days just to catch up!

Symposium:

I have just returned from the Taupo symposium. What a fantastic event! It was the first Symposium where I have attended classes. The open evening was lovely, with a powhiri for all the tutors – many of the international tutors were on their first visit to NZ and were blown away. I spent two days learning about colour from Joen Wolfrom, author of Adventures in Colour and Adventures in Design among other great books. Who knew there was so much to learn? After that I took a three day class with Gail Garber from New Mexico. Gail is an expert at paper piecing and curved piecing, and taught us how to draft stars, design our own quilts and paper piece...

Hello again everyone, just to let you know the new class list is on here under 'Information and Quilting Tips'.

Sheila

My 'instant' landscape made in Joen WOlfrom s class