long term UFO finished at last!

I can't quite remember when I started this quilt, but it must be 5-6 years or more. The top was finished and it was just waiting to be quilted. This week I finally bit the bullet and decided to finish it. Now it just needs the binding. I kept all the fabrics with the top so I think I will join strips of the different bright fabrics for the binding.

quilt hanging system

I have a new addition to my studio now. I wanted to be able to hang quilts up so that I could take photos of them. This is very simple and works very well.

Murray got a piece of 2" x 1" timber and gave it a couple of coats of polyurethane to seal it. He bought nine bulldog clips and spaced them evenly across the timber then screwed them on. Then he screwed in two eye-hooks (is that what they are called?) at the one-third and two-third measurements. He attached two pulleys to the ceiling, and threaded cord through them and tied it to the eye-hooks, then attached the other end of the cords to a cleat on the wall.

So now I can let the quilt hanger down to attach the quilt, then pull it back up to take photos or when it's not being used.





Feel free to copy if you think it would be useful.

Carpenter's Wheel variation

I finished this quilt at the weekend. The longarm machine was being a pain - it was moving in a straight line when it was supposed to be doing nice curves, and I was fighting with it to do what I wanted. When I had a good look at the wheels and the tracks I discovered that the coating on one of the tracks was starting to flake off. This made the surface slightly uneven, and when the wheel hit that part it didn't respond properly. After doing a bit of research on the internet, I got Murray to rub over the track with a bit of fine sandpaper, and now it's back to its easy-going self again!





I didn't take any photos of the back. It's a plain fabric and you can see where all the funny little blips are from when the machine was playing up.

the 'marshmallow' quilt

There's a bit of a story behind this quilt. On one of the art groups I belong to on the internet is a dear lady called Camille. She has a wonderfully experimental artisitc streak and does the most amazing things. The first photo below is one of Camille's experiments with marshmallows. She arranged them on a plate, took a photo and then manipulated it on the computer. I mentioned that it looked like something I could make a quilt out of, so she said to go for it! So I did...



I drafted a pattern on paper, which was an interesting exercise.



I decided to use some of my hand dyed fabrics for the quilt. The colours are totally different from the original photos, but these are the colours that jumped out at me.







Now I just have to think of a name for it. I can't really keep calling it 'the marshmallow quilt'.

Any suggestions?