Quilters Companion

What an exciting issue we have for you this month! Our projects are a wonderful line up of a variety of styles and colours from some of our favourite quilters, plus a new designer shares her vibrant and easy to make quilt! Helen Draper shares a delicate quilt called Mother of Pearl, and I’m sure you will agree that the pretty colours do indeed mimic mother of pearl. Wendy Gleeson shares a machine-made quilt that features a medallion centre and Snowball blocks, as well as fussy cut octagoms from a special feature fabric. Chris Jurd shares another bright and beautiful quilt called Flower Power. Talented quilter, and Quilters Companion regular contributor, Michelle Marvig, shares a really good-looking quilt called Venticinque, we have a quilt from new contributor Jo Grant and we…

Seeing stars The best teachers often use interesting and novel methods to help their students learn. In 1876, when Ellen Harding Baker was teaching astronomy, she employed a unique approach: she made a quilt. Baker was born in Ohio in 1847. She married at the age of 20 and gave birth to seven children, before dying of tuberculosis in 1886. She was also an astronomer – an acceptable field of interest for women in the 19th century – and sought a way to illustrate the cosmos to her students. So, she spent almost seven years designing and sewing an extraordinary quilt. Currently held at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, Solar System, which measures 89in x 106in, is a colourful mix of wool appliqué, wool braid, and silk embroidery on a black…

The International Quilt Festival Judged Show of 2021 comprised many entries. The number of stand holders was reduced, but everyone who did go, retailers and visitors alike, had a fabulous time. Following are a few of the winning quilts from the juried exhibition. 2022’s Quilt Festival Houston will be held November 3-6 at the George R. Brown Convention Center, 1001 Avenida de las Americas, Houston. For more information visit, www.quilts.com/quilt-festival/quilt-festival-houston The Handi Quilter Best of Show Award — $12,500 Rondo, 203cm x 203cm (80in x 80in), Sachiko Chiba Morioka City, Iwate, Japan Artist’s statement: “I wanted to keep the beautiful flowers in my quilt forever. In particular, it took me a very long time to write the design. I sewed the flowers, being careful to choose the right fabric to make them look more realistic.…

Learn a new way of piecing a quilt with this queen-size beauty. Although it is based on a traditional block, not one block will be pieced to make the quilt. It is all made from smaller units, which eliminates a lot of bulk at the seam junctions. The quilt is made from several shades of taupe as the main colour with high-contrast pinwheels in orange. Finished quilt size: 216cm (85in) square michelle@pieceville.com.au www.pieceville.com.au @michellemarvig Materials • 5m (5½yd) cream tone-on-tone print fabric #1 (background)• 40cm (½yd) cream tone-on-tone print fabric #2 (Pinwheel units)• 70cm (¾yd) dark cream print fabric (binding)• 40cm (½yd) dark taupe tone-on-tone print fabric• One strip, 2½in x width of fabric, each of 16 light-medium and medium-value taupe print fabrics• One strip, 2½in x width of fabric, each of 10 different orange print…

This quilt is deceptively simple to make and it’s perfect for digging in to your stash. The contrast between the background and foreground is the key to the design’s success. For the background, Jo used a palette of clear cool aquas, blues and greens, while the foreground palette is made up of fiery reds, oranges and magentas. Ensure that you use a vast variety of small- to mid-sized prints to give the quilt even more visual interest. Finished size: 182 x 213cm (72 x 84in) thesecleverhands@gmail.com @thesecleverhands Materials • 45cm (½yd) each of 15 assorted warm/dark fabrics (mid to small prints)• 45cm (½yd) each of 14 assorted cool/light fabrics (mid to small prints)• 60cm (¾yd) binding fabric• 4m (4⅜yd) backing fabric• Batting at least 200 x 230cm (80 x 92in)• Rotary cutter, ruler and mat•…

Inspired by the vintage Sunflower block, this quilt is a good lesson on what to do when you don’t have enough fabric. Just a few ideas are: make the different centre background a highlight, make each background square different and use two complementary fabrics for the side and corner setting triangles. The 60 flower petals give lots of opportunities for raiding the scrap basket and doing some fussy cutting. The flowers are prepped with English paper piecing then appliquéd to each other to make a ring of petals. Lastly, an octagon shape is appliquéd over the centre. Finished quilt size: 129cm (51in) square Finished block size: 15in square chris.jurd@bigpond.com www.PatchworkFun.etsy.com @patchworkfun Materials • 90cm (1yd) cream print fabric (block backgrounds)• 50cm (⅝yd) black and white spot print fabric (block background)• 20cm (¼yd) black and white check print…