This is going to be my new mobile hand-sewing project.


I figure 3/4 hexagons are the perfect size to carry around so at any given time I can pull a few out and stitch away. Predominantly red, white, and blues, inspired by a layer cake of Moda's Shirtings 1875-1900. It'll be fun fussy cutting the little pictures and positioning stripes.


Also a few feed sack reproduction prints that have been waiting patiently in my stash. I love that little house print.



I'm not quite sure of what pattern I'll do yet. I'm thinking a medallion style with a design of some sort in the middle, then lots of grandmother's garden blocks with a few borders thrown in. EQ would come in handy to play around with ideas. I must get onto ordering EQ7, they're offering lower prices if you order pre publication, May 31st.





I've got a cupboard full of bright, fresh, funky modern fabrics which I adore but recently I find myself being attracted to 1800s and civil war prints. I think because I shop so much on-line the big, bold prints jump out from the computer screen. Whereas reproduction fabrics with their fine prints and more tonal colours show up better in real life. Seeing so many beautiful quilts at the Springwood Quilt Show using reproduction fabrics made me take notice. I still love my modern fabrics but its always nice to try something new. I'm like that with my floristry too, I love big, red, chunky Crab Claw Heliconias and tropical flowers as much as I love a petite bunch of sweetpeas. Like they say-variety is the spice of life.

I figure Chris Jurd's Reproduction Beauties quilt is the perfect showcase for these fabrics. I've jumped in and bought some bundles of fat 8ths and some ten inch squares which will give me lots of variety and probably enough fabric to last quite a few quilts.

These are mostly browns, reds and blues, but I have another parcel that should be arriving any minute of yellows and greens. I certainly keep the postie busy!!

Nice blues. The thing I like about getting pre-picked bundles is the surprise element of looking through them for the first time. There's always a couple that you would never have thought to buy yourself but I know will end up being perfect for something.



Okay, time to get back to the present. This is Denyse Schmidt's Hope Valley range. The description on her website says "The warm and cosy hues take their cue from a vintage-tinged country landscape." What a perfect description. When it came out it was love at first sight. I bought half yards of the whole range.


I'm finally going to use them this weekend in workshop I'm doing with Michelle Yeo, creating this quilt called Indiana Rising Sun. Its based on a quilt from the 1860's. Hmmm , back to the past again. This post is like whizzing around in a time machine! I booked into this class over 6 months ago! Michelle lives in Melbourne and is being flown up to Sydney by The Quiltsmith especially for this class. I'm sure I'll learn a lot. And I'm also looking forward to wandering the aisles of fabrics at the Quiltsmith. They seriously have everything you could ever want in a fabric shop. I might have to get a few little fat quarters.. The question is will I choose reproduction or will they be modern?



Cheerio.