Gecko scales

This is what I'm thinking of doing on the gecko. I was reading a book about maths in nature, 'What shape is a snowflake' (I was in the library doing silent reading with a year 9 class so I was modelling good library behaviour!) Anyway, it must have been meant to be because I was struggling to come up with a way to quilt the gecko and what do you know, the answer was in this book! They have hexagonal scales, as do snakes and other lizards.

I will try to do my quilting a little bit neater on the quilt but I quite like the irregular shapes in my sample. I also wanted to experiment with making the scales different sizes and I think that worked quite well.  I started with the line down the spine and as long as the first hexagon is the right size, keeping the rest in the same proportion was fairly easy.  I want to have them large on the top of the head, smaller as they go through the neck and then larger again in the body gradually getting smaller as they go into the tail.  As I get close to the edge of the body and down the legs, I'll change the hexagons into circles to make it easier to quilt.

The head in my sample is about the same width (but shorter) than in the quilt.  I've got it on my metric cutting board so that is a 1cm grid.  I think the size will work on the quilt.  I'm almost too frightened to quilt it!  I love it so far and I don't want to muck it up!!  Should I go for it?

All You Need is Love

I made this quilt last year for my nephew. He likes the Beatles. Actually I think he likes Drum Hero and happens to play The Beatles on it but he did like this quilt.

When I saw the fabric with 'All You Need is Love' in rainbow fabrics, I couldn't resist. I used it to make three dimensional bow-ties, teamed with coordinating fabric.

I quilted Beatles song titles in the red border - and discovered that my lousy handwriting is just as bad when I quilt! Still, it is was a fun thing to do.

Even the binding has little pictures of the Fab Four.

I've started a new project. I'm going to try to document all the quilting designs I use in my quilts. So I have started a new page and I'll link each design back to the post where it was used. Hopefully I won't go around in circles!

My first sample is the quilting design I used in the background of the bow-ties on this quilt.  It was inspired by the grey design in the background of one of the fabrics.  It's like a monochromatic psychedelic design, which sounds like an oxymoron but have a look at the design around Paul in the photo above.  How else would you describe it?

Here is my design.  I'm calling it 'Psychedelic'. It's made up of loops that turn into flower petals, groovy wavy lines and the occasional rainbow to fill in some spots.

I've also made a sample of the design I used in the grassy background of my Japanese Lady. I did a little experiment here and added some grass seed heads to a couple of rows of grass tufts.

Start of a gecko design

Since I have no sewing machine and I'm still sewing the binding on the heart quilt, I thought I would share my next design with you.

Preamble to the design - Last September I was down in Hastings at the Blossom Festival with the Caribbeanz Southern Stars Steelband. That's me in the back right in the black tshirt and sunglasses. I should add musician to my description about me! This was the second year that we've been invited to play at this festival and we have already been invited for next year, which is a BIG deal as the rugby world cup is on and we have tickets to the game down there.

Isn't the covering on the bandstand fantastic. It would make a lovely quilting pattern.

When we go to Hastings, we stay at the Omahu Marae. This is the wharenui (Maori meeting house and also where we slept). I love the kowhaiwhai patterns on the beams.


My design was inspired by some paintings in the wharekai (which I forgot to photograph). The one that inspired me was a very simple gecko shape. I thought it would be great to put that together with a kowhaiwhai pattern and make another ghost layer quilt. I went for a simple koru design. Put two simple designs together and this is what ended up in my sketchbook.


I'm in the process of transferring this design to freezer paper - and making all the legs and feet in proportion with the body! I'm not sure what to do about the feet. Real gecko feet are sort of tear drop shaped. Graphic images of geckos tend to have little circles for toes. Whatever I do, I'm going to fuse the foot part since the shape is too fussy for my piecing method.

I haven't decided on colours yet but it may only have four fabrics, light and dark for the background and light and dark for the gecko. Then again, I may do my usual and have about 40 fabrics in it!