You know me, I often like to experiment with texture and embellishments in my quilt projects. Quilting is for me where “art meets sewing”. Two itches, one colossal scratching!
So when Island Batik announced that December was 3D month for the 2019 Ambassadors, I was in both ecstasy and agony. Right up my alley…. but, oh! Which alley to choose!?!? Thing is, I just about need a street directory for all my alleys. I didn’t even have to make up any new projects for this challenge, and I still had three to choose from.
So, I’ve done the responsible thing, and decided to progress them all……. 3x 3D! Did I mention, I quite like texture? 😀
Love with a Twist is done and dusted! Can you believe it? Last month we finished all the blocks for the Throw size versions of Love with a Twist. However, to complete the Twin size quilt top we need one more block. The last bonus block.
Today we unveil our last block, and it is a balloon cow. Udderly amazing! And a little bitter sweet. It’s been so much fun. Read on to collect your cow balloon appliqué pattern. Also, make sure you’ve collected the whole Love with a Twist appliqué set. They are only free to download until the end of the year, so milk it for all it’s worth!
And with it, your gateway to a month of eye candy and lots of chances to win luscious latest release batiks from Island Batik. Welcome to Colour & Inspiration Tuesday meets the “A Piece Of….” blog hop!
November is blog hop month for half the Island Batik Ambassadors (specifically, the half who did not hop in August). Our theme this time is “A Piece Of…..”, open to any interpretation we wish. The instructions given were to make a quilt, lap size or larger, showcasing as many fabrics as possible from our allocated collection. And so today, after weeks of threadful teasing, and awful puns about sea-cret sewing, I can take pity on you. Today we finally have the Blue Sea quilt “big reveal”.
If you’ve been following along, you already know a little of what the Blue Sea fabrics look like. You probably also know the basic pattern that I’ve chosen. And you likely even know that the Chameleon has been messing around. But do you know what my Blue Sea Storm at Sea morphed into? Nope? Well, let’s take a look-sea! I hope you’ll enjoy my “Piece of” the deep Blue Sea that is now called “Safe Harbour Seahorses”. And enter the competitions to win Island Batik fabrics. Good luck!
Our penultimate balloon appliqué for Colour & Inspiration Tuesday is here!
I’ve been shunning the internet as much as possible this week to work exclusively on my secret sewing Storm at Sea quilt for next Tuesday. But today I will briefly climb down from my hobby horse that has become a bit of a workhorse to bring you a seahorse instead.
Today our very last standard Block for the Throw size Love with a Twist quilt along – Block 9B. If you are making the Twin quilt, there is still one more bonus block to fill out the design. Read on to collect your seahorse balloon pattern and enjoy the art of making the balloon version on Youtube if you wish. All the Wow of balloon artistry, none of those squeaky noises. And then join our weekly linky party. Happy Tuesday everyone!
I don’t, as a general rule, do Halloween. Except for this! This is a Dracunculus vulgaris, a Stink Lily. Also known as a Voodoo lily or Dragon Lily. It grows green and lush in winter from a fascinatingly hideous tuber thing, and has the most amazingly beautiful leaves and dappled stalks. And then it flowers in Spring with huge purple lilies in mid-late October. Just in time for a naturally stunning Halloween display of offensively stinky flowers before it dies back down to avoid the Australian summer.
Don’t let appearances fool you!
This is one of five flowers I’ve had this Spring in my Dragon Lily patch. And it reeks. The air has been super still here the last two afternoons , and the backyard has smelt remarkably like a rotting carcass. A big one! As you can see in the picture I took yesterday, there are flies on the lily. It is a carrion flower – it smells like a zombie and relies on flies for pollination. As soon as pollination is complete the flower then suddenly stops reeking of death, and starts looking like it instead. No mucking around.
I went out to measure this one for you this evening, (50cm/20 inches long BTW) and it is already odourless and just a little droopy. Job done, apparently. Of course, the flies get nothing out of the pollination deal…. no rotting meat for their eggs after all. Such is life, I suppose, when you cavort with the undead!
Appearances can be deceptive in sneak peeks too……
Something else in my life nearly as purple and just as beautiful, but far less on the nose, is the Blue Sea fabric collection from Island Batik. If you remember from last Tuesday, I am making a Storm at Sea quilt. I have made good progress, and today’s sneak peek is likely the last until my latest quilt design appears here on the blog on November 5. Did I mention that it’s not “just” an ordinary Storm at Sea pattern? It’s got a sea-cret twist. 🙂
Well, surely you weren’t expecting a normal Storm at Sea quilt…. the Chameleon is many things, but we rarely get accused of being normal! 😀
