Autumn changes

Its amazing how the change of season has an impact on my productivity.

The height of the sun in the sky, the lovely golden light and warm - but not too warm days.....

lots of baking

Im in designing heaven

I'm currently working on 3 quilt designs for a few fabric houses, sorting out my own cushions that are being sold on my etsy store & taking commissions for quilts.

 I have also been playing around with the idea of modern fresh fabrics in traditional patterns

I have sample blocks strewn all over the house. 

I was also reading Denyse Schmidts new book "Modern Quilts - Traditional Inspiration". The images are lovely and quilts beautiful. Denyse talks a bit about her love of contemporary furnishings and design and how she felt that bedding wasn't being showcased in the same arena.

I nearly fell off my chair!

It was like she had read my mind.

I know you can buy some nice bed linen and bed covers - but nothing beats a patchwork quilt.

anyway!

Here is yet another look at my cushion panels that I have designed and had printed.

I have been to Paris three times in the last three years, its lovely to go back. 

I always stay in St Germain des Pres - I have all my favourite spots, the florist in the cushion panel below being one of them.

cushions made & designed by me.
painting by Dorothy Napangardi

Cushion Panel - St Germain des Pres

I'm also a bit addicted to instagram

am I the only one that loves the in between season?

Xx Siobhan

Once upon a time - My very first quilt

When I had no idea how to sew let alone quilt .............

going back 12 or so years I fell in love with fabric & quilting.

I walked into a quilting shop to casually look and came out with a pile of fabric!

with no pattern or concept or even any real sewing skills I went ahead and created my first quilt. 

Its very rough - but at the time I was extremely pleased (how embarrassing! look how crooked it is!)

I quickly learnt the basics and haven't looked back.

Its a favourite in our house, its usually lying somewhere. Its been washed so many times its falling apart.I was folding it for the 20th time - trying to pretend my house was neat & tidy - and then I looked at it properly. 

It actually had a good basic pattern to it. 

I had been struggling with an idea for the Girls new quilts, I didn't want anything to complicated , but I was also tired of doing framed squares.

the girls current quilts

I'm fickle with bed linen, I get tired of seeing the same quilts & sheets on the same beds, I like to change them with the season. I also like to wash them alot! so I stick to simple & quick.

With an abundance of lovely fabrics hitting the stores, it makes it incredibly easy to create a beautiful quilt in a short amount of time.

 I collated a pile of fabric with yellow/pink/navy & grey

very fitting for an Australian Autumn

The centre fabric is from CLOTH Fabric, It makes a lovely feature.

Its not exactly the same as the original quilt, I did make a few changes.

I'll be dropping it off in the next day or two to my long arm machine quilter - Kim Bradley - and with her final touch it will be the new favourite & inject a new bit of life into the girls room.

I'm sorting another pile of fabric as we speak to make a matching quilt with similar (but not the same)fabrics. 

I want the same quilt pattern but different colours - the girls are going through a faze, one cant miss out but also heaven forbid if they have the same..........

Xx Siobhan

I have spent the last few days adding stuff to my etsy shop

Bea Spoke Quilts etsy shop

Im still ploughing through!

below are some pictures of the things I am adding.......

lots of cushions made & designed by me

 some quilts

more cushions!

Cards made by me 

and lots of kids & baby size jumpers

a little while back I use to have these knitted by a local knitting group and sell them locally, i have listed the few i have left. very cute & comfy

again with the cushions....

so as you can see I have been busy!

hopefully this week I can get back into showing you a few more quilts I'm working on :)

and Im in love with these flowers

oh and before I forget

Modern Quilting is available for pre order or to buy as a digital copy

Modern Quilting

hopefully i'll get my hands on one this week and can give you a sticky beak

Xx Siobhan 

International news ;)

One of my latest exciting ventures!

One of my quilts is on the cover and a few more inside

go here to order your copy

Modern Patchwork

Xx Siobhan

What a glorious Sydney day!

productivity is at an all time high

I have decided to straight line quilt my baby boy quilt, although I have broken the cardinal rule of not having excess wadding...... I'm trying to use up the bits I have. It will work! (fingers crossed)

If I had more wadding I would have circular quilted it, like the one below.

Circular quilting seems to gobble up the backing & wadding - so straight line quilting it had to be!

The next few days will see me sewing these fabric panels into cushions!

busting to get into these

and here we have the back of a special project I have been doing for The Fat Quarterly crew. Very excited about this one.

Thats me for today

Xx Siobhan

Another Baby boy Quilt

I'm trying to build up a stash of simple boy/ girl baby quilts for gift giving.

I riffled through my fabrics and came up with this combination for a boys quilt. 

I tried to stick with all similarly scaled dots/spots & added in the larger scaled spots for interest. The red fabric was for a pop of colour.

looking through my largish collection of fabric is a bit like looking through my wardrobe, I had a lot of "what was I thinking" when I bought that moments!

The idea for this little one partly came from Katie of Sew Katie Did, Katie has some fantastic ideas when it comes to half square triangles & her use of solids is amazing. 

I also saw some art at the London Tate Modern gallery last year that was very graphic and a similar style. This little book also caught my eye whilst I was at The Liberty of London store.

Inspiration for quilting patterns are everywhere

If you have a link to share with a similar quilt - please leave a link in the comments. Its nice to see what other ideas are out there.

I like the randomness of it & the bits of red

I'm quietly enjoying our new clean back area of the house, especially the wall of book shelves.

I didn't really take before pictures or blog the process of our little renovation, we have so much more to eventually do - like the bathroom laundry & kitchen.....

for now I'm happy with a lot of light and white walls. I've added in a small pic below for you to see a little of a before & after.

I'm still moving furniture around & looking out for a few bits and pieces to add.

It all takes time.

Anyway back to the quilt top....

I need to think about how to machine quilt it

Xx Siobhan