Look what my students are doing!

Kathryn and Ursula, qite independently of each other, bought feature fabric that just wasn't for cutting into small patches. Kathryn bought a fabric panel, and Ursula some very bold floral patchwork fabrics.

Panels can pose problems for designing patchwork quilts, as they are often printed not quite straight. Kathryn and I worked on designing around the maximum that could be cut from each picture. Next we talked about how to include the other great fabrics that she had bought to go with the panel.

One fabric had such a strong design when you saw it opened up, that we had to make sure it was cut in two directions: across and down. This was so that the design stayed consistently in one direction across the quilt. Here's the top so far:

I showed you the start of Ursula's latest quilts. Here are the finished tops.

The bold pink and green quilt:

The Australian fabric quilt, now called Through the Window:

The yellow fabric which looked great in the shop, killed the design when added into it as a border. After much student discussion, I thought of adding it as a piping. When you are gathering fabrics for putting into a patchwork quilt, try to use the colours in the same proportion as the designer of your fabric has used them. That's one of the reasons you are drawn to the fabric to begin with.

Here's the detail of the tiny bit of yellow:

Ursula really loves the patchwork part of quiltmaking, but not the quilting, so she is getting me to do that. More when they are done.

Great new wall quilt

Ursula fell in love with a picture in a magazine of a quilt which had instructions for making the quilt.

She bought fabrics from her favourite patchwork shop in colours that were not a bit like the ones in the pattern, but wow!

The patchwork blocks are Log Cabin variations and are so simple.

Here's the top ready for its borders:

Great work, Ursula!