My quilt world - The Colour of Magic

The traditional hanging on the clothesline shot -- but its too big!

Here are the photos of my latest finished project.

The smaller wall quilt

Way back in the 1990's I was still living at the farm -- 'Coranga' .

It was there that I started making quilts. The first wonderful book I bought was called Scrap Quilts by an American lady named Judy Martin. (This book has now fallen apart through use and is just a lot of loose pages inside the cover).


I fell in love with a quilt in this book called Tennessee Waltz and earmarked it as the quilt I would one day make for my own bed. I was fascinated by the way all these square blocks made a circular pattern-- and I still love designs that form a secondary or surprise pattern...

However,,, Life got in the way for awhile so plans were put on hold. (Now, I have a totally different bed in a totally different house!(with a totally different husband)).

Close up detail of the blocks

But I never forgot that lovely design..............

NOW.... Move forward a few years--

I am now living in town... Armidale........and Mum and Dad were off for their second trip to China - "what would you like she asked" and I said answered "some fabric, doesn't matter what it is or what colour"... I was into scrap quilts, although I had only made a few, and still felt the more colour the better!

Mum came back with lots of lovely Chinese brocade fabric.............BUT, green and purple! how could I mix them in the one quilt... I decided to finally use the Tennessee Waltz design and make the brocades the small sparkling squares in the block.

One of my first purchases from equilter.com was the wonderful red fabric. I also bought a number of Asian fat quarters of fabric on ebay. I resized the pattern to fit my now queen bed.

Sir Terry Pratchett

The name of this quilt is The Colour of Magic - it is in tribute to English author Terry Pratchett and the Discworld.

So many hours of reading delight has he given to me and others!

I have read and own all of  Terry's 37 books and I love the novelty and quirkiness of his imaginary world. (Book 38 is I shall wear midnight, will be out in September ......and I'm sooo excited!!!! --- (Terry has a lot to say about those who use more than one exclamation mark,, I think it has something to do with psychosis)).

Just some of my Discworld collection

I have put pictures of Rincewind the Wizzard (sic) and the luggage on the quilt labels, along with a quote from the book were Rincewind talks about the king colour in the rim bow, called Octarine or the colour of magic - which Rincewind thought always looked a greenish purple.

P.S. If I have inspired you to read a Terry Pratchett book then may I suggest you don't start with The Colour of Magic. Great book, but not for a first timer.

Try instead The Wee free Men, about Tiffany and Nac Mac Feegle, the Pictsies who were thrown out of fairyland for being drunk and disorderly... Or Men at Arms, the first city watch book, with Sam Vimes ,dwarfs, trolls and werewolves, and Nobby Nobbs (who was disqualified from the human race for shoving).

 P.P.S.......In 2007 Sir Terry was diagnosed with a rare form of early onset Alzheimer's... (why does this happen to the gifted and talented.... it is soo sad)... but he started a new chapter of his life, and has become a champion of the Alzheimers & Dementia cause,, appearing frequently on U.K. media and beyond....

And now I've bored you all with my eccentric tastes in literature, I will go back to talking about the quilt.


Its been about 5 years since I started this project, which was originally suppose to be one quilt. I finished the top well over 12 months ago and then I didn't know what to do with it!!!!


It was too big for the bed and I didn't really like it - too much of the cream colour. (and to think I was worried at first that the red would be overpowering!)

So after much thought I decided to rip it into pieces again - I've made a large quilt for the bed and the smaller one is for the wall. I also added the gold border to counteract all the cream.


  And now its finished I'm rather pleased with it - I love the quilting it makes it look very luxurious ..

The quilts in my currently messy bedroom

and.... haven't I learnt sooooo much!--- stick to your dreams/goals -- don't be scared of colour or to take risks -- and I love shiny and golden fabrics... plus, don't use too many exclamation marks..... (thanks TP).

Until next time....Kim