I've just had a massive clean out of my fabric. Maybe I should say it was the  filtering of my stash.

To be honest I do it every couple of years. I used to pile it all on the floor and ask my friends to come visit and it was like a feeding frenzy. However, I needed to make a statement and get rid of all the fabrics I that no longer figure in my genre of quilting.

I began quilting in the early 1990s.    I worked with fabric every day as a fashion designer and I was very much aware of the age of a fabric by its design.

When I made my first quilt and  I had my first lesson I made a pale pink and pale blue quilt.    It was appliqué and had little pink bunnies on it and I've never quilted it, but I thought I was so clever.

 

 

I learned how to make 4 patch and I was amazed that I could do it. I was also amazed at the satisfaction I got out of aligning those points and creating something from small pieces of fabric rather than creating a garment.

 

 

As you can see I never ever finished it because its hand quilted… well sort of..!

I loved those cute little roses on the fabric. FU FU I call it, which stands for Fairies Undies… its just a way to describe the pretty.

I was a designer by profession and I was surprised that I was beginning to think  quilting! It gave me a bit of a shock really.

Quilting as a professional craft was relatively unknown in Australia. There were two quilt shops in our city and I began to look at it in a different light.

I signed up to do a 'sampler class' Indeed I guess that's the way we all began and I bought my first real  'quilting fabric'

 

 

 Of course this isn't quilted either.

I think I went a bit overboard, its huge… but still I learned to do the basic blocks and my free block was a pig block… not what you normally see in a sampler.

 

I just loved hose fabrics and looking at them now, I still like them but they were oh, so 90's. Yes, these are some of the fabrics I decided to get rid of.

 

Then came time to design my own… I just loved the fabrics in this quilt. The quilting is minimum… but I was working on improving.

I used EQ4 to design the quilt and it opened up an entire new world to me.

 

 

I still like this quilt and I use it as a table covering sometime. I wonder whether I should quilt it more… then again it wouldn't be a 90's quilt!!!

I began to design my own quilts I got quite hooked on Christmas ones so I have lots!!!! I'm not sure if I designed this or it was a pattern from a book.

I bought Debbie Mumm. Hoffman and Robyn Pandolf. I bought wool and I've made a few wool quilts.

Then came the Civil War fabric, I had a huge stash, that has all gone too as are my Americana and Landscape fabrics.

 

 

 

 

My fabric choices and indeed the genre of my quilting has changed, I've evolved. I've mastered my machine and I love what I do.

Every quilt is a challenge because I like to 'see if I can do it' 

These are the fabrics I buy now. I have a huge stash of Cherrywood plains, Own designer fabrics, Alexander Henry, Kaffe Fasset, Terrie Mangat  and beautiful specialised designs like the one below.

Quilting has changed so much and  I've changed with it. I get to create my own genres now and its a real buzz.