bloggers quilt festival (spring 2012)

Hi Everyone.
I'm so excited!! Its Bloggers Quilt Festival time (thanks Amy) and I'm showcasing my Colour Wheel quilt. Its my only finish this year, but boy has it taken all my focus and attention since January. Its a monster size fitting our king size bed made with 360 blocks. It was a pleasure using all my favourite fabrics for the front and I'm pleased by how the Kona White offsets the bright colours. The quilt is so large I didnt think it possible to quilt in my home sewing machine so I sent it out to be professionally quilted for the first time. I could not be happier with the result - Karen at Quilts on Bastings did a wonderful job and I love how the swirls offsets the square blocks. Inspiration for the Colour Wheel quilt came from Rita at Red Pepper Quilts. I have these cushions on my sofa and the pillow on the right formed the inspiration, and I was intrigued to see how it would look on a larger scale. I could not be happier with this quilt. From start to finish I enjoyed the process and although it will be a while before I tackle a project this large, it feels great to finally have a quilt of my own. I hope everyone enjoys the festival ... I'm looking forward to spending time tomorrow afternoon looking at everyones contributions. Thanks Amy.
Amanda
P.s I promise to blog a lot more in the second half of this year - time has gotten away from me big time this year. I'm busy making skirts for my nieces which I will post up next weekend. Very gratifying to have a tangible product so quickly and I suspect I will be sewing more clothes this year.
Measurements: 85 inches by 80 inches
Fabric: Range of brights from my stash
Backing: Little Apples
Binding: Narrow Red Stripe
Quilting: Karen at Quilts on Bastings

sherbert children at play quilt

Hi,
Its a sweltering day in melbourne ... upwards of 32 degrees. This afternoon were spending the day inside with the air con on. I did venture out to get some photos of my new quilt. Using the Children at Play range as the feature fabric I paired it with other pinks, oranges, yellows and blues. It reminds me of sherbert. Its bound in a pinky/orange stripe with simple quilting outling the squares. I wasn't in love until I finished the binding. Well now ... seriously yummy colours in a simple design is really ticking the boxes. This one is destined for a very special baby girl after Christmas. More photos on Flickr. Hope your having a lovely weekend ...
Its almost Christmas! Time to go make the Christmas lunch shopping list.

christmas is in the air ....

Hi everyone,
Christmas is definitly in the air at our house this weekend. Yesterday it rained all day so we stayed inside and made an Advent Calendar! It consists of little bags (about 3.5 inch by 5 inch) in a range of xmas fabrics. We purchased little pegs to attach them to the red cord across the top. The time consuming part was making the little felt numbers (just as well it was raining). Super impressed with the result and a little bit of Christmas has landed in our lounge! Bring on the Christmas Tree I say. Can you tell that I look forward to this time of the year?
Hope your having a good weekend.
Amanda

could this be a quilting and sewing marathon?

Hi
The last two weeks have been seriously productive!
4 pencil cases completed for Christmas gifts
1 new quilt cut and the top 80% completed for my brand new niece Darnica :)
The main fabrics are Children At Play mixed with some pink, orange, yellow and blue.
It's a busy week on the home front so hopefully back to the sewing machine this weekend.

handmade christmas

Hi everyone,
Let me introduce my handmade pencil case! About a month I decided to make gifts for my nieces for christmas. As they are all under the age of 6, I thought a straight forward introduction to sewing would be pencil cases. Did I mention I have never sewed anything outside a quilt since high school - turns out its like riding a bike! This is the first of three that I need to make over the next few weeks to make international shipping timeframes. I'm super impressed with how it came out once I got my head around sewing a zip in. I didnt imagine I would be able to gift my first attempt, but this has turned out great. Thanks has to go to the pattern writer Elizabeth of Oh Fransson. The instructions were very clear with pictures at each stage. This pattern is well worth purchasing.

Yah to a handmade christmas! Right, back to the sewing machine. I'm looking forward to sharing the next three pencil cases. Have a good weekend.

bloggers quilt festival (spring 2011)

Hi everyone,
How fantastic is Amy? Big thankyou for organising another Bloggers Quilt Festival. This is my second time posting at the Bloggers Quilt Festival and I find it inspirational seeing what everyone has created over the last six months.
I had a tough time choosing which quilt to post, but have decided to go with my favourite of the last six months. It would have been nice to post my latest quilt but its taking a while longer than I anticipated to sew the top together ... however Im thrilled to be able to share Little Apples. From the first time I saw Little Apples by Aneela Hoey I was in love. This collection is so cute and I am drawn by the bright vibrant colours. Red, White, Grey and Aqua are a winning combination. I wasnt so sure on the green so decided to use this another time. What I like most about this quilt is how the centre panels look like pictures and are offset by the borders. Lots of white frames each one. This quilt is for a special young lady in New Zealand for Christmas. I hope she loves it as much as I did creating it.
I hope everyone is enjoying the Bloggers Quilt Festival - Its becoming one of my favourite events in the blogging event calendar. Im off to have a look at everyones creations. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy One Green Apple Quilts.
Amanda

Little Apples

Hallo,
Its hard to believe that its been a month since I last blogged. In the last month Melbourne weather has gone from Winter to Spring! We have been out and about getting some much needed warmth. Spring is my favourite season. Spring means green leaves, flowers, birds, sunshine, brunch outside and walks in the park - minus needing sunscreen and a hat!

Over the last month I have found time to design and sew a new quilt. I feel in love with the Little Apples fabric range the minute I saw it, and spent the next three months waiting in anticipation for it to hit the shelves. The mixture of red, aqua and grey (not to mention apples!!) is a winning combination for me. I used a layer cake, minus the green colour way which I have kept aside to use later. I wanted to let the fabric speak for itself in this quilt, so I have attempted to create a story with each of the centre blocks, seperating each with simple white sashing.

It came together like a dream and normally the machine quilting is my least favourite part of construction, but not for this one. I kept it simple outlining each of the centre squares and around the white sashing. The backing is a grey Kona Solid. Very proud of my Little Apples creation.
Hope everyone is having a good weekend.
(Yah for sunshine in Melbourne ..... did I mention its finally Spring?)

Little Apples
Measurements: 41.5 inches by 51 inches
Fabric: Little Apples Layer Cake by Aneela Hoey
Backing: Kona Grey
Binding: Remix in Red
Quilting: Machine quilting by me with simple outlining of the blocks and centre squares
Check out Annela's Flickr Site for more Little Apples designs