Toni Warrell

Detail of Christmas Quilt

Escaping into my lovely big studio is my excuse for not doing housework. I love the first in all its forms and hate the other. I learnt embroidery from Mrs Bonnie Hurry, craft teacher at Ivanhoe Girls’Grammar School. Although we were given designs or themes for our work we were never allowed to copy and always had to create our own.. To this day I look at a design or pattern that appeals to to me for inspiration and then cant help but plan how to change it.

I started quilting seriously when I was running our school parents craft group. I loved working out the patterns, colours and the quantities of fabric needed. I enjoy the satisfaction of solving new design challenges and helping my quilting friends sole theirs. 

Christmas Quilt

All cotton, pieced and appliqued, machine quilted

270 cm square

2014

I discovered a pattern by Barb Adams of Blackbird Designs for a much smaller quilt. When in doubt I always seem to go bigger. All my quilts are large enough to be used on beds so inevitably this quilt ended up a king size.It was a very satisfying way to use some of my vast Christmas fabric stash.

Windmills

 All cotton, pieced and quilted by machine

190 cm h x 172 cm w

2014

I was able to get a close up of Windmills, a full size quilt will appear on this page soon as well. ( Its fortunate that Toni is such a good friend so I know she wont mind)

I love the challenge of working different (and potentially better) ways to piece traditional patchwork blocks. This pieced pattern resulted from playing around and recutting hexagons. The resulting windmills look very complicated but are easy to join, making it a very enjoyable class to teach. Student are always thrilled with it.