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

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

 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Ruby Star

My Ruby Star quilt is finished! 

I used the Raindrops are Falling on My Head pattern by Willyne Hammerstein from Millefiori Quilts 4. 

I've called it Ruby Star because the fabrics are all from Ruby Star Society.  I had a lot of fun fussy cutting ice creams, rainbows and birds.

I chose to hand piece my quilt, but there are English Paper Piecing papers available. 

Last year I used the same Raindrops pattern to make my Bollywood quilt. 

I had a bundle of Ruby Star Society fabrics that I wanted to fussy cut, so I decided to make the pattern a second time and change the direction of the stars.  Here's the two quilts together:

Ruby Star is 42" wide x 50" high, so not huge, but once again the size was dictated by the fabrics and the number of repeats in each fat quarter.  

I had both of these quilts custom quilted by Rayna Clinton.

I'll be taking this quilt along to my Millefiori Quilts class at Quilt Symposium on Friday 7 October.  It's not too late to join us if you live in NZ.

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  What have you been working on this week? 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

I'm teaching at Quilt Symposium 2022

 

Yes, the Lecture and Class information has been published, and I'm teaching at Symposium in October 2022.   You can find all the details on the Sympoisum website here. 

I'll be teaching Raindrops are Falling on my Head (2 day class):

Dancing Cheek to Cheek as a one day class:

Finish your Millefiori Quilt workshop (one day class):

This class is for all the people who have started a Millefiori Quilt,
 but need help forming a plan to finish it.

and finally, Social media for quilters and quilt guilds.  

So, I'm going to be a busy lady because there's also the opening and closing ceremonies, happy hours, fancy dinners and lectures to attend.  And so many people to meet! 

Usually we have international tutors at symposium, but due to all the COVID-19 uncertainty, we're only having Australian and New Zealand tutors this year.  However, there's still 45 different tutors attending and a wide variety of classes to choose from.  

So dive in, read the Lectures and Classes Information Ebook, and if you can't come to Lower Hutt for Symposium, just dream about what classes you would do if you could attend. 

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

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Ruby Star

My Ruby Star quilt is coming along nicely.  I like hand piecing because it's very portable.  I keep a few of the joining star pieces in a little bag and I take them with me when I know I'm going to be sitting still for an hour or so.  

This pattern is Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head by Willyne Hammerstein from Millefiori Quilts 4.  I almost wish some raindrops were falling on my head right now - it's been so hot in Wellington and Auckland this summer.  

Here's one of my favourite blocks in this quilt - although I like all of them.  There are so many fussy cutting possibilities with the Ruby Star Society fabrics. 

I made some videos about Hand Piecing and you can find them here if you'd like to give it a go. 

I've got all my pieces made now, so I'm hoping to get another row added this weekend.

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

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Raindrops are Falling on my Head

 I'm so close to finishing the main body of this quilt.

Pattern = Raindrops are Falling on my Head from Millefiori Quilts 4 by Willyne Hammerstein.

There's just two long seams to hand stitch now, but they will be slow going because there's a lot of places where the points meeting along these seams. 

Once the body of the quilt is done, I can think about the borders.  I want to use more of the feature fabric in the borders, but I'm not sure how I'll do it yet.  

And then I need to think about the quilting! I'll be machine quilting this one because there are so many seams allowances on the back.  I've adopted Jinny Beyer's method of just pressing from the top.  It would be impossible to get all of these seam allowances sitting flat.  Maybe I'll post a photo of the back another day. It's not pretty!

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  What have you been up to this week? Feel free to link up a recent blog post below. 

 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Ballet with Kaffe = Fireworks

Everyone loves a good fireworks display, so I've decided to call my Ballet with Kaffe quilt, "Fireworks".

Fireworks by Wendy Welsh

I'm so pleased that this quilt is finished.  I love it, but it did take me a few years from start to finish. There were times when I thought I might never finish it. In the end I drew a line on my pattern and decided to stop piecing at that line.

I started this quilt in June 2017, and I finished it in February 2021.  That's almost four years!!!

The Cotton + Steel floral fabric on the left of the photo below was my inspiration fabric.  I didn't use it in the body of the quilt, but I based all of my fabric selections on it, because I love the way that those colours work together.  I used it in the borders of the quilt, and I managed to secure enough to use it on the back too. 

Sharon Burgess of Lilabelle Lane, Willyne Hammerstein and me - AQC in Melbourne 2018

Along the way I attended a class with Willyne Hammerstein at the Australian Quilt Convention (AQC) in Melbourne.  Willyne made hand piecing look so easy, but I'd already started English Paper Piecing (EPP) my Ballet quilt, and I didn't want to mix the methods, so I persevered with EPP. 

At the Great NZ Quilt Show in Rotorua May 2021

I finished the English Paper Piecing in January 2020, and then in April 2020 I added the fancy borders, inspired by the borders around Willyne's Moncarapacho quilt from Book 3, pictured below. 

Moncarapacho designed and made by Willyne Hammerstein

I do love hand quilting, and I wanted this quilt to be all my own work, so I hand quilted it with Aurifil 28wt in a range of different colours.  I enjoyed revisiting all the fabrics in my quilt as I hand quilted it.

 

You can read all of my previous posts about this quilt on the Ballet with Kaffe Fassett tab at the top of my blog, or by clicking here.  

I was going to say: IF you live in Wellington, and IF we're back at Level 1 by next Saturday 28 August, you can come and see it in person at Capital Quilters guild meeting.  But that's looking very unlikely now. I think we will have to reschedule my talk to Capital Quilters. 

Or maybe you could see it at Rose City Quilters on 25 October 2021. 

Finished size: 60"w x 66"h

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

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Not Your Grandmother's Garden

The Great New Zealand Quilt Show opened today in Rotorua, and I can finally show you my entries in the Aotearoa Quilters Lime Challenge.  

First up is "Not Your Grandmother's Garden".  

12" wide x 16" high

At first glance you might think these are hexagons, but they're not! Hence the name, and the fact I'd just bought some new jeans from Not Your Daughter's Jeans. 

I love experimenting with geometric shapes, and I wanted to try the Fiesta Gitana pattern in Millefiori Quilts 4 by Willyne Hammerstein. 

I hand pieced this mini quilt, and then I machine quilted it because the joins are quite bulky, even with 1/4" seam allowances.  And of course, time was running out!

I love lime, and I'm happy with my mini quilt.  I did learn that it's hard to draw the stitching lines for pieces with long, sharp points like the stars at the centre of these blocks.  My pencil wouldn't go right to the tip, so I fudged it a bit when I did the hand piecing.  

My second Lime quilt is "The Tea is Delicious". 

This quilt was an after thought because I'd bought this quirky Japanese fabric for the Lime challenge, and I didn't end up using it in my first entry above.  

So, I just cut a piece to the required size, and added a combination of hand and machine quilting.  The name was already there in the fabric - The tea is delicious. 

So that's my two entries in the Lime challenge.  I always love seeing all the colour challenge quilts together, and this time I can say that I've got two in the display.  I'll take lots of photos and report back soon.  

I've also got 3 quilts in the main display, and I'll talk about them in future blog posts.  

I'm looking forward to seeing lots of friends at the Great New Zealand Quilt Show in Rotorua. If you see me around, do say hello.  It is lovely to meet quilters who read my blog and like my posts on Facebook or Instagram.  I'm off to pack some warm clothes!

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

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Progress on Raindrops are Falling on My Head

My hand pieced Raindrops quilt is coming along nicely. I've been experimenting with other fabric combinations because I don't want all of the blocks to be the feature fabric.  

I'm not sure if all of these rosettes will make it into the final quilt, but I need to see all the options before I start joining the blocks.  

The plainer blocks are good because they give our eyes a resting place.  However, I can see that the dark green in the centre rosette might be too dark. 

Last week someone asked me how I calculate how much fabric to buy for a quilt like this.  There are few factors that come into that decision:

- how big do I want the quilt to be?

- how many rosettes will I need to make it the desired size?

- how many pieces can I fussy cut from each motif in the fabric?

- how many motif repeats are there per metre or yard? 

Originally I only had about 1 metre of this fabric.  I bought it in Sydney two years ago, not knowing what I would do with it, but it looked exciting and full of possibilities.  

When I decided to use it for Raindrops are Falling on My Head, I went in search of more, and was lucky to find two more metres online.  However, now that I'm adding plainer blocks to this quilt, I don't know if I'll need the full 3 metres.  I guess I could use it in a border, or even on the back if I end up with leftovers. 

The motif on this fabric is large so I can cut a number of different pieces from it, but I will need 8 repeats of each motif to complete a full rosette for the quilt, unless the flower at the other end is identical. I'm getting seven different pieces out of each motif, and could possibly get nine.

I draw the cutting and stitching lines on the back, not the front.

Here's now the pieces might look in the quilt:

I'm not sure if that explanation helped or just confused you! But, the answer is that the quantity of fabric required depends on a number of variables.  

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  What have you been up to this week? Feel free to link up a recent blog post below. 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Everybody Wants to Rules the World

My quilt is finished and I've called it "Everybody Wants to Rule the World", after a favourite song by Tears for Fears. Click here for a trip down memory lane - or to hear something new.

The colours and stars in this quilt remind me of flags; the Union Jack from the UK, the Star-Spangled banner from the USA, and our own New Zealand Ensign. 

The USA and NZ both held elections last year, and the UK left the European Union, so "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" seems appropriate at this time.   

I machine quilted this quilt with both red and white Aurifil.  I didn't want white stitching showing on the red stars, and I didn't want red stitching showing on the centre blocks.  So I used both colours and I quilted alternating cross hatch patterns.  

This quilt is made from Willyne Hammerstein's Bont en Blauw pattern in Millefiori Quilts 4.  I hand pieced my quilt and used templates from www.paperpieces.com.  The also sell paper pieces for this quilt if you prefer to English Paper Piece.  There are only two shapes in the whole quilt.  The interest is generated by the use of colour.  

You can read my earlier posts on this quilt here:

Something new 19 Feb 2021

Lost in Translation 26 Feb 2021

I started this quilt in November, but as you can see from the top photo, it's not very big.  I made it as a sample so I could experiment with the pattern.  It could be a wall hanging, or a cot quilt.    

Finished size: 25" x 30"     64cm x 75cm

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  What have you been up to this week?  Feel free to link up a recent blog post below:

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter