Scrappy Bear Paw

Can you believe this is my most viewed blog post ever? Click here to read about my Scrappy Bear Paw quilt.  

Yes, people just love my Scrappy Bear Paw quilt.  I suspect it's because of the bright colours that I chose, and the simple hand quilting with Perle 8. 

Maybe I shouldn't have allowed my son to take it to his university hostel.  Actually, I don't mind.  I can always make another one when our guild turns 50 years old which is now only 12 years away.  

The display at Capital Quilters when the guild turned 30 years old.

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Oh! Christmas Tree

Yes, it's true - I've escaped New Zealand and like many other Kiwis and Aussies I'm travelling in Europe right now.  In fact by the time you read this I think I'll be in Amsterdam.  You can follow my travels on Instagram - @wendysquiltsandmore  or Facebook - Wendy Welsh - if you're interested.  

But I know a lot of you look forward to reading a blog post from me each week, and linking up to or following the Peacock Party links, so I've prepared five weeks of blog posts to keep you covered while I'm away.  Each week I'll be featuring one of my favourite quilts that I haven't shown for quite some time.  

First up is my "Oh! Christmas Tree" quilt designed by Wendy Williams.  You can read all about it here. 

I know I say it about a lot of my quilts, but I loved making it.  All the bright colours, the wool felt and the hand stitching were just my thing. 

Just looking at these photos makes me consider making another one in a different colour way.  

Now it’s time for the Peacock Party.  Feel free to link up a recent blog post below. 

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Matariki

 Today we've had a public holiday to celebrate Matariki.

Matariki is the Māori name for the cluster of stars also known as the Pleiades. It rises in midwinter and for many Māori, it heralds the start of a new year. From Te Ara, the Encyclopedia of New Zealand.  

Back in 2018 I made a quilt called Matariki +/- 1.  I entered it into the QuiltNSW Sydney Quilt Show and I won a Judges Commendation for it.  

I don't have this quilt any more because a very kind grandma bought it to go on her grandson's bed when he comes to stay at her house.  I hope he's still loving it now.  

You can read more about my quilt here. 

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Millefiori Quilts 5

Can you believe that Willyne Hammerstein has produced enough Millefiori Quilts to fill 5 different books now?

Yes, volume 5 of Millefiori Quilts has just been released by QuiltMania and I'm lucky enough to have my own copy here in front of me.

You might think, "How many different designs can you make out of hexagons, triangles, diamonds and squares?", but that's where Willyne has been thinking outside of the box and has started using irregular, non symmetrical shapes in these new quilts in Millefiori Quilts 5.

I've already bookmarked some favourites and I'm tossing up between making my own templates out of template plastic, and waiting for Paper Pieces in USA to make acrylic templates and paper pieces.  I got in touch with Paper Pieces and they have said that they're only going to make templates and paper pieces for what they think will be the 5 most popular quilts.  So what if the ones I like aren't on their list anyway?  

My acrylic templates for my favourite quilts in Millefiori Quilts 4

I suspect that I'm going to have to go old school and make my own templates.  At least I hand piece now and don't English Paper Piece (EPP) because I sure don't fancy printing and cutting hundreds of papers for EPP.

In the old days we would make a template from the back of a WeetBix box, and trace around it for the papers.  Wen the template got raggedy we would trace around it and make a new template.  And that's how our templates and paper pieces kept getting bigger and bigger!

I love acrylic templates and lazer cut paper pieces.  They're just so accurate. 

If you want to see how many of the acrylic templates for Millefiori Quilts 4 shown above I have used, just take a look at this page on my blog - it's a dedicated page for Millifiori Quilts 4.  

  

My Bollywood quilt

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