Raconteur - inspiration

A couple of years ago a friend, Isobel Lancashire, asked if it was possible to modify one of my patterns which had appeared in Down Under Quilts.  She wanted to make a large single bed quilt from what was originally a king size.  


The original design was based on New York Beauty.  At the same time I had this idea floating in my head and persuaded her to make it instead, even though she could only see what one block looked like rather than an entire quilt.  

 
Above left you have what it looked like part way through.  I am positive that Isobel was wondering what she had let herself in for at the time:) but she persevered. 

From this  came Jarrah's Track,on the right,  which was hung at the Sydney Quilt Show in 2011.  Looks great doesn't it.  And her grandson, Jarrah loves it too... he was heard asking if it was to ever return after Isobel had loaned it to me for photographing for Australian Patchwork and Quilting wanted to publish the pattern.
 

A short time later Quiltmaker called for entries for its new magazine 100 Blocks and so I thought why not.  Made a quick sample, and accidentally made an error with the arrows but the block was still successful and appeared in Volume 4 under the title of Isobel's Flight... her own block. 

 

While making Raconteur I wanted to include blocks from previous quilts that I had designed and so this was the inspiration for Isobel's Flight Too.   Interesting the original block was 8in in Jarrah's Track, the next was 12in in Quiltmaker and my latest was less that an 1 1/2 from one side to the other of the arrows.. a bit of a change.