Sashiko Art

This charming little sample of Sashiko art is made by Janelle Kapernick of Qld.

I just love that Janelle chose to use a dyed fabric to capture the moon behind the clouds. Very clever.

I chose to add curved quilting lines with directional change to mimic the changing flow of the ocean.

What a wild quilt!

Isn’t this a wild quilt! I just love all these beautiful animal prints.

The quilt was made by Jane Bester for her son Jonathan to celebrate his 15th birthday.


She fussy cut all the blocks for maximum effect from several jungle animal prints. She made three different sized blocks and framed them in different colours to add movement, variety and interest.



Here are some close-ups:

Jane has also pieced some leftover blocks into the backing and in so doing, she has created a double-sided quilt.

When Jonathan and Jane asked me to do the quilting they said they would like the quilting to give the effect of swaying grass.

I used a pattern called ‘Blackberry’ which was designed by Hermione Agee of Lorien Quilting. It added so much movement, you can really get the feeling of the savannah. The quilting is easier to see in the above photo of the pieced back and the one of the border on the right, shows the detail.

Happy Birthday Jonathan and thank you for sharing your quilt with us.

You can see more of Hermione’s digitized and paper quilting patterns at http://www.lorienquilting.com/

The Sharon Schamber Workshops

Sharon Schamber is an absolute quilting legend. her work is exquisite and she freely shares her knowledge and expertise both through free videos on Youtube and through paid workshops. While her videos are great for those who can't get to a workshop there is really nothing like meeting her and having her guidance first hand.

This photo was taken at Sharon's lecture and that gorgeous quilt is her Spirit of Mother Earth. It's even more stunning up close and personal!

Sharon Schamber in Australia - May 2009

In May 2009 quilters all over Australia were treated to some of Sharon's workshops. Pam Hill of Manly hosted the tour and organised workshops at Tweed Heads, Brisbane, Maleney and South Australia. The Piec-lique class proved very popular but it was the 3-Day Longarm Quilting workshop that was of particular interest to me.

This turned out to be three days of absolute quilting bliss! Pam’s home is located at Manly overlooking Moreton Bay and you can see from the above photos it was just the most fantastic venue, perfect weather (not that rain would have dampened our enthusiasm) scrumptious food and lots of fun in learning.

Quilters travelled from Victoria, Western Australia, all over Qld and Northern NSW and they were not disappointed they made the journey.

The workshops

My good friend Wendy Watkins of Honey Pot Quilting came up from Bendigo (What an excellent excuse for a 3 ½ day leave pass from 2DD’s and DH). Wendy stayed with us at the Aspley Hacienda and as is always the case when we get together, the weekend was a hoot.
We attended Sharon’s lecture at Qld Quilters headquarters on the Thursday night and were just gobsmacked by the display of stunning quilts. Seeing Sharon’s ‘Spirit of Mother Earth’ up close and personal was awe inspiring. Such perfection in the detail. No wonder Sharon has an extensive list of awards and acknowledgements. Wendy and I both hoped some of the creativity would jump over onto us as we almost drooled over the beautiful quilts.

Day One – Wendy hit the shops for some retail therapy (Wuz up with that!) while I headed off to Manly for a day of Trapunto and Beginning Stipples. It didn’t take too long to discover that I was in the company of a very confident teacher. Sharon has a thorough knowledge of her machine which by the way is a Prodigy (that was one tick for me!). Sharon welcomed questions from her audience and was happy for the ensuing discussion to take place. I found her to be a very confident and helpful teacher.

More happy faces.....
L-R Judy Nolan, Robyn Dall, Debbie Cadman, Sharon Schamber and Elizabeth Magagnotti. came over from WA. (Those girls really know how to have fun at work!)

The two days that followed were filled with even more inspiring quilting... we learnt how to ‘Dance with Feathers’ and how to quilt all those creative stipples from ‘Spirit of Mother Earth’. Sharon truly is a very creative artist!

Show and Tell was amazing! This quilt is a stunner and just look at all those stipples and such majestic feathers!

All things considered... it was a fantastic weekend. Thank you Sharon and thank you Pam.