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My Ruby Star quilt is finished! 

I used the Raindrops are Falling on My Head pattern by Willyne Hammerstein from Millefiori Quilts 4. 

I've called it Ruby Star because the fabrics are all from Ruby Star Society.  I had a lot of fun fussy cutting ice creams, rainbows and birds.

I chose to hand piece my quilt, but there are English Paper Piecing papers available. 

Last year I used the same Raindrops pattern to make my Bollywood quilt. 

I had a bundle of Ruby Star Society fabrics that I wanted to fussy cut, so I decided to make the ...

I'm pleased to present "Bollywood" - another finished quilt from Millefiori Quilts 4 by Willyne Hammerstein. 

I love the vibrant colours in this quilt.  I started with a piece of the Legendary fabric by Pat Bravo as my inspiration fabric, and chose the other fabrics from that.  The hot pinks, the rich golds, and the sparkling teals.  I love them all together in this fabric.  

Bollywood is made from the Raindrops Are Falling on my Head pattern that is in Millefiori Quilts 4 by Willyne Hammerstein.  I chose to hand piece my quilt, but it can also be paper pieced ...

My Ruby Star quilt is coming along nicely.  I like hand piecing because it's very portable.  I keep a few of the joining star pieces in a little bag and I take them with me when I know I'm going to be sitting still for an hour or so.  

This pattern is Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head by Willyne Hammerstein from Millefiori Quilts 4.  I almost wish some raindrops were falling on my head right now - it's been so hot in Wellington and Auckland this summer.  

Here's one of my favourite blocks in this quilt ...

It's a long weekend in New Zealand, and I'm hoping to get quite a bit of quilting done.  

First I need to put away all the new fabric sitting on my kitchen bench! 

The Kaffe Fassett ones on the left were a birthday gift from my mum and dad.  I chose them, and ordered them, but they insisted on paying.  I also received Kaffe's latest book for my birthday, so I'm enjoying that at the moment.

The spots and stripes were from a quick trip to Palmerston North on Monday. I was invited to judge the ...

Mitered corners - they look so good, but they're not always easy.  

My first mitered corners were on my la Passacaglia quilt above, and they worked out well. 

My second attempt was on my Fireworks quilt (Ballet with Kaffe), and although the pattern didn't match perfectly, it wasn't too noticeable because the border is mainly black.

I also used mitered corners on my Trans-Tasman Bubble quilt (Aussies and Kiwis - remember the Trans-Tasman Bubble??). 

The navy and white striped border needed to be mitered in the corners to allow the pattern to flow. 

Now I'm ready to attach ...

 I'm so close to finishing the main body of this quilt.

Pattern = Raindrops are Falling on my Head from Millefiori Quilts 4 by Willyne Hammerstein.

There's just two long seams to hand stitch now, but they will be slow going because there's a lot of places where the points meeting along these seams. 

Once the body of the quilt is done, I can think about the borders.  I want to use more of the feature fabric in the borders, but I'm not sure how I'll do it yet.  

And then I need to think about ...

Yes, it's winter here, and the raindrops certainly are falling on my head.  

Strangely enough though, my quilt is full of hot colours, so I might have to think of a new name for it before I finish it.  

I'm hand piecing this quilt.  I used to do a lot of English Paper Piecing, but I found it ...

Here's my latest finish, Trans-Tasman Bubbles.  

This quilt is all hand pieced and hand quilted by me.  The pattern is by Willyne Hammerstein from her book Millefiori Quilts 4.  In the book it's called "Dancing Cheek to Cheek", but I called my quilt trans-Tasman Bubbles, because the circles keep disappearing and re-emerging as you look at it.  

The trans-Tasman bubble is an agreement between the New Zealand and Australian governments that lets citizens of those countries travel between the two countries without having to stay 14 days in managed isolation/hotel quarantine on arrival.  

However, as soon as ...

The Great New Zealand Quilt Show opened today in Rotorua, and I can finally show you my entries in the Aotearoa Quilters Lime Challenge.  

First up is "Not Your Grandmother's Garden".  

12" wide x 16" high

At first glance you might think these are hexagons, but they're not! Hence the name, and the fact I'd just bought some new jeans from Not Your Daughter's Jeans. 

I love experimenting with geometric shapes, and I wanted to try the Fiesta Gitana pattern in Millefiori Quilts 4 by Willyne Hammerstein. 

I hand pieced this mini quilt, and then I ...

My hand pieced Raindrops quilt is coming along nicely. I've been experimenting with other fabric combinations because I don't want all of the blocks to be the feature fabric.  

I'm not sure if all of these rosettes will make it into the final quilt, but I need to see all the options before I start joining the blocks.  

The plainer blocks are good because they give our eyes a resting place.  However, I can see that the dark green in the centre rosette might be too dark. 

Last week someone asked me how I calculate how much ...

My quilt is finished and I've called it "Everybody Wants to Rule the World", after a favourite song by Tears for Fears. Click here for a trip down memory lane - or to hear something new.

The colours and stars in this quilt remind me of flags; the Union Jack from the UK, the Star-Spangled banner from the USA, and our own New Zealand Ensign. 

The USA and NZ both held elections last year, and the UK left the European Union, so "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" seems appropriate at this time.   

I machine quilted this quilt with both ...

Firstly - You may have heard about some strong earthquakes off New Zealand, and associated tsunami risks.  Fortunately I didn't even feel the earthquakes, and I don't live in the risk area for the possible tsunamis.  Many people have spent the morning on high ground, but the risk of tsunami has now passed thankfully. I don't think any buildings have been damaged.

Back to quilting.  

I've made a small start on Raindrops are Falling on my Head from Millefiori Quilts Book 4 by Willyne Hammerstein.  

I bought this beautiful Art Gallery fabric from Material Obsession in Sydney ...

 Apologies to all the Dutch quilters out there.

"Bont en Blauw" does not mean "Black and Blue", but rather multicoloured, which sounds so much nicer.  Google translate put me wrong on that one! But a number of you messaged me to let me know, so thank you.  

As my quilt is only going to be three colours (red, white and blue), I'm going to have to think of another name anyway.  

Some of you asked for more details about this sweet quilt.  I'm hand piecing it using the method shown in my hand piecing videos here.    But, there ...

Yes, finally I have something new to report.  

I've made a start on a pattern from Willyne Hammerstein's Millefiori Quilts Book 4.  

The pattern is called "Bont en Blauw", which translates to English as "Black and Blue" - which is a bit unfortunate because that brings up disturbing images in most peoples minds.  So I'm going to come up with a different name for my happy little quilt.   

There are only 2 shapes in the pattern, but there are lots of opportunities to play with colour and pattern.  

When I want to plan a quilt, I just use ...

I am not even close to finishing the Fiesta top. I keep forgetting that even though I laid out the blocks and thought I had the block placement all figured out, I’ve been changing it as I go — so it’s not just a matter of sewing the blocks together now but moving them around and — well, just changing things on every row since the second one!

So all I’ve got are some more pics of a few of the blocks. First a pretty blue star block.

Some of the star blocks have a frame, so to speak ...

The colourful Fiesta blocks are the perfect antidote to the grey days of winter that we’ve had so many of this year. I have enough of the fabric left to use in some other project that calls for some wild and colourful fussy cut pieces.

The effects from fussy cutting/printing a fabric always is a bit of a surprise until the pieces are sewn together. The fabric I used to fussy cut/print for Fiesta has definitely been that – and then some. It was fun to see each block as I finished it.

Some of the stars end ...

I'm so excited! I now have a copy of Millefiori Quilts 4 by Willyne Hammerstein.

My Ballet with Kaffe quilt waiting to be hand quilted