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Here is the offending sweater safe and sound!
How I demonstrate that far from being a master of patience, I have a short attention span and am attracted to try out lots of fabric related techniques and ideas
Here are my blocks all laid out ready to be joined. I have used some of my own fabrics and some of Project Linus fabrics and aim to make this up to hopefully appeal to a teenager. The only disappointing thing, is that despite the fact that I didn't try to match any points, the blocks aren't too bad at all - some of them better than the ones I meticulously pin! Typical.
And just to show I'm not a complete slacker, here are Mum and Dad complete and holding hands, ready to head up their family.
This one was called 'Saints and Sinners' and shows two common depictions of women, as the slut or the goddess. there were lots of fussy cut images of female saints and naughty girls, some of which I have in my own stash (the naughty girls, not so much the saints
Here is a close-up of one section, with the lovely Michael Miller cutie in her red dress and cleavage on full display, in front of the holy ladies. I especially like the Madonna with the guita
This one was actually hanging vertically, but fitted in the frame better this way. It represents three stages of womanhood. On the left is girlhood, in the middle is marriage and the final block is childbirth. You can see that although the appliqued shapes in each block are similar, they are subtly different in an interesting way. DD says that usually the three stages of womanhood are represented as Maid, Mother, Crone, so this one is a bit unusual (and rather kinder, I think!)
The I looked at the traditional quilts and only took one photo, although there were lots of lovely quilts. This one is by Ted Storm, who is a Dutch quilter, and it is absolutely fantastic.
And then to the shopping! Well, if we didn't support the traders, the show wouldn't get its funding, would it?!
Fabric first. Some dark blue batiks, which I needed (honest) as I am planning a blue batik quilt for DS, some Martha Negley fabrics to add to some I bought recently in a sale, crocodile, cherry and snake fabric because I fell for them, and neutral threads which always come in handy.
Then books. Barbara Brackman's new book on fabric history (I can highly recommend it) and the papers presented at the last Quilters Guild of Great Britain symposium.
Then I just generally browsed. As I browsed, I came across a stall selling antique quilts and quilt blocks. I have always wanted to buy some antique blocks, and fell in love with these four.
They are all hand sewn, and date from about 1870-1880. They weren't cheap, and I don't yet know what I'm going to do with them, but the feeling that someone made these over 100 years ago, is awesome.
All in all, a good day. I made it to about 4 pm, then went home and flopped!
Here is my Dad, who couldn't be seen out in public without a tie (I appliqued that on).
And here is DS, in t-shirt with a motif on, and holes in his jeans.
I'm doing DH next and asked hm what he would like to wear. He says he doesn't care, so it's a sparkly jumpsuit for him, then!
She's not got feet yet, but I plan to do some! She's wearing her trademark outfit of black top and jeans, and I even managed to find some fabric which simulates the blonde streaks in her hair. She says her hair should be bigger than that, and perhaps she's right.
What do you think?