master of patience?

UFO number 1 finished!

2012-02-14T16:30:00.003Z

Here is the inspiration for my UFO number 1 - otherwise known as the Reproduction Quilt.

This quilt was given to me by a lady who had bought it from an interior design shop in London in the 1950s and it had been well-used and well-loved. She wanted to know if she could repair it, as she wanted to keep on using it, but it's obviously beyond mending. Even if the rotten fabrics were taken out, any new work would weaken the whole, and it would quickly disintegrate. She kindly left it with me, and I blush to think that I've kept it for four years! My original thought was that I would make her a replacement, and see if she would swap, but it's taken me rather a long time to get the replacement finished! However, here it is!

It's pretty big, and even DS's long arms couldn't display the whole thing. I'm really pleased with it (even DH, who's usually laid back about quilts - he's seen them all - described it as 'stunning') and hope the lady will agree to the swap. There is a quilt documentation day at Bletchley Park on 25th February which I'm hoping to take the old quilt to, so keep your fingers crossed!

Marbles

2012-02-13T10:21:00.003Z

Do you sometimes think you're starting to lose your marbles?

Do you ever go into a room and when you get there, can't remember why you went in? Did you ever forget where you'd parked the car? Have you ever said, 'I need to get a new, erm, oh dear, a, you know, the thing you put dirty clothes in - a washing machine!" Have you started to forget the names of people who you know really well? Don't worry, because these are normal things which happen to us all at some time or another, but there are some people whose memory problems are due to dementia, and especially Alzheimer's disease. This terrible affliction, like cancer, seems to be touching more and more of us. Ann Hill of Dumfrieshire, Scotland, is organising a huge fundraiser for Alzheimer Scotland for 2013, when she plans to cover the football pitch at Hampton Ground in Glasgow with 5,000 lap quilts! What a fabulous use for a football pitch! After the event, the quilts will either be sold, or distributed to care homes. Have you got a lap quilt you can donate? If not, Ann has patterns on her website to inspire you. Have a look HERE and please join in.

Guilt

2012-02-10T17:07:00.003Z

I proudly announced that my Calendar Baskets quilt was finished by the end of January, but the guilt has crept up on me. I certainly put nine of the baskets into the quilt, but I still have three left! They haven't actually been causing me sleepless nights, but I felt bad about just adding them to my orphan pile while at the same time, declaring them as a finish. Here they are, staring reproachfully at me. Three blocks - not a very helpful number to use up. Then I finally tracked down my 12 Days of Christmas blocks which have been languishing in a bag for years. They too don't make a coherent group. Then I had an idea. What about combining the two groups?

Here is a possible arrangement for the two sets to make a new quilt!

They will play together quite nicely I think. OK. You've noticed that I've conveniently left out the partridge in the pear tree. Well, don't think I'm fudging again - I have firm plans for him which will allow him to star in his own Christmas wall hanging. Hooray! UFOs into quilts!

Quilting

2012-02-05T12:55:00.004Z

We had a Project Linus sewing afternoon last week, so I've been side-tracked into quilting for Linus (not that I mind, you inderstand!). Sue had made this stunning quilt (it's much brighter in actuality) but didn't feel confident enough to meander quilt it. I was happy to do it. It's made a really lovely, snuggly quilt. I will get it back to her for binding.

I've also unearthed UFO Challenge number 1, which is this reproduction quilt I started ages ago. As you can see, it's all layered up and mostly quilted. So why did it turn into a UFO? At the time, I was trying to create some semblance of an antique quilt, and wanted to incorporate some period quilting designs. On the large section with half square triangles I decided to do some wine glass shapes (interlocking circles), and merrily set off to machine quilt them. Although I've successfully free-machine quilted many time in the past, this did not go well at all. And instead of facing up to the fact that it just looked a mess, I continued, until the whole area was quilted, and it looked terrible! Even my good friend Jackie had to agree that it really needed to come out. Rats! The thought of undoing that much machine quilting made me put the quilt back into the cupboard, until Christmas, when I finally had plenty of chill time to tackle the task.
By this time, the stitching had left some marks on the fabric in parts, as you can see above, but I think that'll not be too obvious. I have now just quilted the windmill shapes in the ditch, and now it's on to the flying geese. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!

Crumb-along progress report

2012-02-01T19:07:00.001Z

Last year I started a Crumb-along with Jo and she has asked for people to post photos of their progress. Lots of others have finished quilts to show, but mine is still in progress. I have made about 80 blocks so far, and have more to make. I want to do a central piece of 9x9 blocks of 6" finished, then a blue border and more scrappy blocks.

Here are 64 blocks to give a flavour of the type of thing I'm aiming for. I love seeing all my scraps, which have such lovely memories for me, and the solid blue really ties it all together. I will get it finished Jo, honest!

UFO Challenge #1 finished!

2012-01-31T16:30:00.003Z

I have been working hard to complete my first UFO Challenge of 2012, and finshed sewing the binding this morning! Here it is in all its glory!

For something which was started in 2003, I think that's a pretty impressive finish! If you look carefully, Liz, you can just see the feathers I have quilted in the spacer rectangles (bottom right is the best one). The rest of it was quilted in the ditch, with a little hand echo quilting round the basket contents. Now I'm itching to find out which number comes out next!

Panto, a laugh and a salutory warning

2012-01-29T19:24:00.005Z

Panto is now finished, and while it was very enjoyable, I can't say I'm not glad to be getting on with the old routine. Here is a photo of nearly all of the cast so you can see how many costumes were needed. (The lady in the front left was the dragon, and didn't need to be dressed till after the interval and Jess was in the changing room, probably plugged into her DS or whatever, and didn't hear the call!) The show was very well received, and most people's highlights were when Kalifa got splatted by eagle poo (porridge) and DD and Russ's song 'Be Prepared' from 'The Lion King'. Both were show-stopping!

And here is the laugh - the Dame and Kate doing the crossword together in the dressing room! All the Dame's costumes were very heavy and hot, so Dickie took the opportunity to strip down to his 'undies' in between scenes. (Ian was just waiting for the Crusaders' Arabian market scene!)

And the warning? Jane (make-up artist) and I took the opportunity for a little quilty talk while the show was running. She was concerned about her ever increasing scrap bag, and I suggested the Bonnie Hunter scrap-users system. She was so impressed, that in the time between the matinee and evening performances, she started to cut her scraps, and cut the end of her left index finger off! It was bleeding so profusely that she ended up in A&E! Luckily, they dressed it for her, and she was back at her post for the evening performance. What a trouper! It just goes to show, rotary cutters are very sharp!

Camelot the Panto

2012-01-26T17:01:00.007Z

I have been working hard on assembling the costumes for 'Camelot - the Panto'. I volunteered to do the job to help out our good friend Dawn, without considering the fact that it was a cast of thirty, with some people having two, three or five different costumes! I haven't had to make them all as we have a costume store which has had some items in it, but I've had to make more than I wanted to! (Obviously, I'd rather have been quilting!)

On the far right are the maidens (costumes from the store with added head dresses).
On the right is DD as Morgan Le Fay, Arthur's evil sister, with costume from store with added sleeves and belt.

Here is Igraine, Arthur's mother, with costume from the store, retrimmed, with added sleeves, belt and head dress.

Now for some of the men. Three Black Knights, with dyed tunics and made hoods. (Richard forgot his belt that day!)
Merlin, in a costume from the store and made scabbard for his i-wand.

On the right are the baddies - The Black Wurst and his sidekick Frank Furter, with made costumes. (When I showed the director the costumes, which have the German eagle appliqued on them, he said, 'Oh, I thought crossed sausages would have been good.' I managed to refrain from hitting him, just saying that appliqued brown sausages would have been hard to make realistic, and there was a danger of them looking like something very unsavoury. He had the good grace to agree!)

And here are some more knights, with a mixture of costumes left over from Robin Hood and some made by me. I'll post some more pictures after the final two performances today. Oh, no she won't! Oh yes I will!

Nearly there

2012-01-25T16:54:00.004Z

The last week has been a bit manic, with panto costumes to finish. Since I last posted, I've made five knight's tunics and dyed them grey, sourced boot covers, crowns and sequins, collected walk-down costumes from the hire shop, added hooks and eyes for security, press studs for modesty, lowered necklines, highered hems and sewn up splits. Oh, and fetched bloomers, stripey socks, stuffed fish and sausages from our store.

But yesterday I found time to border and layer my first challenge UFO!

The green border isn't quite as lurid as that, and I'm very pleased with it. I've already started quilting it, and will have to get a move on if I'm to finish it before the end of the month. I can't work on it tonight as it's dress rehearsal, but hope to sneak a bit of time tomorrow!

A little distraction

2012-01-16T12:09:00.005Z

I'm not getting on with my challenge quilt, but it's all Muriel's fault. She bought this panel on a whim (probably in a sale, I expect) and then wondered why on earth she'd been struck by a whim when she got it home, so kindly donated it to Project Linus! It's lovely and bright, so perfect for teenage Linus quilts, but why, oh why do they make panels with 8 blocks? And the border strips (there was one on each side) are never enough to do anything with, either. Then I had an idea. Maybe the border strips would be enough for a central block, bringing the total to a very useable nine.

I dug out my Dresden Plate ruler, and cut wedges from the border. There wasn't enough fabric for my purpose, but I managed to find some fabric in my stash which fitted the bill.

Here is a Dresden Plate which turned out pretty well - the yellow circle in the centre hides a multitude of sins, thank goodness!

And here is the layout for the quilt! It's not a prize-winner, but at least it's solved the 'panel problem'. I hope Muriel approves!

A middle

2012-01-09T08:31:00.003Z

I was shocked (but not surprised!) at the number of UFOs which were in my cupboard, and am determined to keep up with the challenge to finish one a month. So once I'd got the fabric for the Calendar Baskets, it was all systems go!
This isn't going to be an earth-shattering quilt, but I'm pleased with the way it's going so far. I'm going to put a mid-green narrow border on it, then a wider light green. Despite a good rummage in my green fabric box, there's no light green of quite the right shade. That means I'll have to make another trip to the quilt shop. What a shame!

A start

2012-01-06T16:45:00.004Z

I have decided how to use my basket blocks in an arrangement which won't have me falling asleep with boredom while I sew! Some while ago I bought a book which had some great ideas for using spacers with blocks to help them 'knit up big'. I thought it might be useful for Linus quilts, and put it on my shelf.

It's called 'Circle of Nine' by Janet Houts and Jean Ann Wright. They give instructions for 24 quilts, which all have the same idea, of nine feature blocks arranged in a circle and the spaces filled in by rectangles of fabric, flying geese, four-patches or whatever compliments the blocks. This seemed to me to be ideal for my purpose. The only snag was that I have twelve blocks, not nine, but I decided to use three either on the back or for another purpose, so that problem was easily solved!

I think the baskets are busy enough not to warrant fancy spacers, so I chose this arrangement, with rectangles of fabric between the blocks.

And here is the fabric I have bought today. It's busy enough to hold its own with the baskets, but not in a position to overwhelm them. Now to the cutting!

It's number 5!

2012-01-02T12:14:00.003Z

Judy has just announced the number of this month's UFO to be completed, and it's number 5! (Good job it's not number 3 the Twelve Days of Christmas, because I can't just lay my hand on that at the moment!)
I made these blocks in 2003 (gulp) as it was a series in 'Quiltmaker magazine. It was supposed to make a perpetual calendar, but I decided to make the blocks up into a quilt. (That's a joke!) Several of the blocks were rather American (especially July and November) so I changed July from a patriotic motif into flowers, and November's turkey into fireworks. I did make them up into a top, but hated it so much that I undid it!

As you can see, recently I had another look at the blocks and decided the frames were too big. Some have been resized, which is probably a good thing. Now, it's on with my thinking cap to work out how to put them together in a way that isn't a 3x4 setting. Any ideas out there?

2012 resolutions

2012-01-01T15:56:00.007Z

Judy over at Patchwork Times has issued a UFO challenge. The idea is that you nominate twelve UFOs (twelve? you'd better believe I have at least that many!) and agree to complete them by the end of the year. Since completing UFOs needed to be one of my resolutions, I'm happy to join in! I'll start by listing the UFOs on my side bar (they have been there for a while!). Number 1 will be my Reproduction Quilt, number 2 the Stack and Slash, number 3 the 12 Days of Christmas, number 4 the Pinwheel and number 5 Calendar Baskets. Some of these I can hardly remember!
Number 6 is my Sampler Challenge quilt, which is progressing quite nicely. I only have two more clamshell blocks to make and then it will be time to choose a border etc.Number 7 will be this Linus quilt made from four-patches. It needs a bright border to cheer it up a bit.

Number 8 a Mile A Minute waiting for a border. It's been waiting for a recipient before I decide on border colour, if you know what I mean.

Number 9 a Rebecca Collins Lucky Dip quilt which I'll be using as a teaching sample in January. I'm going to demonstrate adding borders and layering up so this will be finished soon anyway.

Number 10 is my Barbara Brackman Civil War quilt. I've layered up the central part (and have bought border fabric). I'm quilting this part first and then will add the border in 'quilt as you go' style. I've never done this before so hope it works!

And here at number 11 are my Orca Bay blocks - well, some of them. It's a great design, but rather dark. I'm glad I've only done half the blocks, so will see how big a quilt I can make with them.

And finally at number 12 are my Crumb-Along blocks. I love these and don't have too many left to make.

My other quilty resolution is to do more improvised blocks. This year I seem to have made lots of named blocks, and I feel it's time for a change! Here's to 2012 - may it be happy, healthy and quilty! Cheers!

2011 (quilting) achievements

2011-12-30T22:20:00.004Z

It's the end of another year, and while I feel as if I've done loads of sewing (and DH would definitely agree with that!) I don't seem to have many quilts to show for it - fifteen at the last count. However, here are my favourite quilts from the year.

Jane and I organised a workshop to make this block from 'Slice 'Em amd Dice 'Em' Quilts. It's a very versatile block and looks great in these donated Linus fabrics.

I love Mile a Minute at the best of times, and these single colour blocks make a MAM rainbow quilt!

Bonnie Hunter designs some fabulous quilts, and this one (which she calls Kiss in the Corner) was a great opportunity to use up some of my favourite yellow fabrics. Since there were several mistakes in it, I called mine 'Nobody's Perfect'.

I taught a class on Log Cabin this year, and here is my scrappy one. The design is 'streak of lightning variation' and I love it! I hope Luc - the current owner - likes it as much!

And here is my gorgeous Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll, designed by Bonnie Hunter and given to my cousin's lovely grandaughter Stephanie. She was over the moon to own it, and couldn't wait for the envy it would provoke from her flatmates.

As to other achievements, I have fulfilled last year's resolution to spread the word about quilting. My beginners' quilting class has been very successful (and what a super bunch of ladies!) and I have also had workshops with the Lutterworth Knit and Stitch, Botcheston WI, Wingerworth TWG and Chesterfield TWG. I suppose that's the reason I haven't achieved as many finished quilts of my own as I would have liked - I've been busy planning, writing instructions, cutting fabric kits for Linus workshops, and then sewing blocks together, layering up, quilting and binding to finish! And with 245 Linus quilts donated in Leicestershire this year, I suppose it's a very good reason too!

Treasure

2011-12-30T16:16:00.005Z

They say that 'one man's trash is another man's treasure' and today I got the 'treasure' part! DS is having a bit of a sort out, and had a pile of shirts ready to go to the charity shop. Well, they're not all going to arrive there, as I've snaffled some of them!

Oh, blow! Blogger seems to be on strike, as far as moving photos around. Here is a lovely fabric which looks quite Oriental, or maybe from the Dutch East Indies! This one is almost reproduction, amd will be a great basic.
Here are all the ones I want, ready to be cut up. They are all 100% cotton, and they are going to be lovely additions to my stash. Thank you so much DS and sorry charity shop - you'll have to make do with t-shirts and jumpers!

Twinkle, twinkle, Christmas Star!

2011-12-24T20:35:00.003Z

It's Christmas Eve here in the UK and so far Father Christmas has delivered presents to all those in Australia, New Zealand, China, India and Russia, and is currently bringing good cheer to Africa - Zanzibar in particular! I know because I'm tracking him by courtesy of NORAD and will be waiting to greet him when he arrives in my locality later tonight.

And here is a little Christmas offering by way of a Bonnie Hunter Orca Bay Christmas star! I've fallen very behind with this mystery, but hope to catch up once the festivities are over. In the meanwhile, I hope all your Christmas presents are squishy, and you and your family have a wonderful day!

Slow going

2011-12-22T19:50:00.004Z

In common with most people, I have been very busy recently. Along with Christmas shows (attended and performed in), carol concerts, invitations, a wedding anniversary (36 years this time!), mince pies (made and consumed), shopping, cleaning and wrapping, I have done just a little sewing.
Despite having said that the pale star block in my Civil War quilt didn't bother me, it began to stand out more and more. My adage is always that once you make a mistake, if it doesn't bother you, leave it, but if it does, take it out. This one needed to come out.It's replacement isn't perfect (a patterned background fabric would have been even better) but this time it doesn't bother me and I'm hoping for a little time to layer it up. I've decided to complete it in 'quilt as you go', as I think the quilting will need to be precise, and it will be much more manageable before the borders are added. What do you think my chances are of getting it layered up before the Big Day?!

Christmas cheer

2011-12-17T17:17:00.003Z

It's a busy time of year, and I have been busy sewing, as well as doing all kinds of other things (stand by for a reveal of the panto outfits I've been making!). However, I thought I would share something I made a few years ago for DD and had basically forgotten about.

I needleturned it all, which was fun at the time, and there were labels for DD and her housemates. Now it's family members who have to watch their step, with DS on the 'Naughty' list, and everyone else on the 'Nice'! DS is away checking on his play in Birmingham, and I'm sure the labels will have moved round when he gets back!

Hooray!

2011-12-07T13:42:00.005Z

After some hard work, I have finished the blocks for my Barbara Brackman Civil War Quilt! Barbara hasn't finished giving instructions yet - there are 53 blocks in total, one for each week - but I've made enough for what I want to do.

The blocks were fun to do, although lots of them were quite challenging. She gives clear cutting instructions, but I would have liked 'finish at' measurements for some of the block components. It would definitely have helped my accuracy! It's lucky I'm a past master at fudging and easing, as I think the blocks have gone together well enough. I still struggle with 'Y' seams - yes I know how, pivot etc, but they still turn out puckered and pleated.

This poor cake stand block is a case in point - or no point, if you look at the base of the purple diamonds! So when it came to this star, I chickened out and paper pieced it. Much easier! (In fact, I wish I'd done the block in darker colours, but too bad.)The last block I did was this one, and I decided to give Y seams one more try. Practice makes perfect, and I was amazed that (with a little bit of attention with the iron!) this has turned out well. My method was to sew up to the V of the Y then take it off the machine. I pulled the next part of the seam together and manipulated it by hand to make all the fabric lie completely flat. Then back onto the machine and sew the other half of the V. It worked for me!

Orca Bay and Christmas!

2011-12-02T21:36:00.005Z

I'm getting on well with my Orca Bay blocks - I suppose since I'm only doing half the required number, that's not surprising! String piecing is right up my street though, and I loved Bonnie's suggestion about using old dressmaking patterns as foundations!

I though the paper would be too flimsy, but it's perfect - especially since I'm making more theatrical costumes, and have plenty of patterns floating around at the moment. Here are all my blocks completed ready for the next instructions.

And here is a little warm-up to the holiday just around the corner. We had another Santa Fun Run here in Lutterworth, and this time, DH decided to take part. He's the one on the left, and good friend Ali is the one on the right. They decided to walk rather than run, but still completed the 5.5km course in about an hour. There were 980 people in the run this year, whcih will result in a huge financial boost for all sorts of local charities. Well done all who took part!

I have been getting in the festive mood too, by making this table runner. I designed it as a make for ladies who come to our Knit and Stitch sessions, as a thank you for all the hard work they have done for charities this year. If you would like to make one, the central part was 18.5" x 6.5" and the letters were bonded on. The first border was 1.5" cut (1" finished) and the outer border 2.5" cut (2" finished). I machine quilted in the ditch round the borders, and hand quilted round the letters. Very simple, but very effective. Have fun!

Too many projects

2011-11-26T10:16:00.004Z

I know I have a lot of projects on the go, but that's how I like it. If I get a bit bored with my Dear Jane, I can do some Orca Bay. If I get fed up with challenge blocks, I can do some of my Crumbalong. But I decided to make an effort to get some projects finished, and since the Barbara Brackman Civil War blocks is coming to an end I thought I'd catch up with those.

Here is week 38 ready to be squared up. Looking good. Except there is just one problem.

Since I have done it all in blue (the colours of my Dear Jane), it won't fit in very well with all the other blocks which are in turquoise and purple! Never mind. I'm just the girl to use up an orphan block. Now to cut some more patches in purple and turquoise!

Cake for quilting!

2011-11-23T13:23:00.003Z

Recently Bunty, Liz, Muriel, Jane and I went for a coffee and a quilty chat at a local gift and garden shop. While we were advising Liz on her 'Dear Jane' blocks, the waiter noticed what we were doing, and uttered those immortal words, 'I've got a quilt. It's old and it's not finished.' Visions of Victoriana (and hexagons!) filled our minds, but we said - genuinely- that we'd like to see it, and could he bring it for the next time we met.

The next meeting duly came around, and the waiter arrived with a bulging black bin bag. Our hearts sank. Then he revealed a lovely quilt which had been made 20 years ago but not quite finished. It had a little hand quilting still to do, and a binding to put on. What could we do but take pity on the poor thing and rescue it from its bin bag?!

We all pulled together and finished the quilting, then pulled the calico backing to the front to make the binding. We also organised a label, so all is good. We have been promised free cake for a future visit - a good return of skills!

And here are my first Orca Bay blocks finished. Since I'm starting with half the blocks, there are 118.5 of them here (I need 112). Glad I didn't make all the 224 for the full quilt! Can't wait for the next installment!

Orca Bay, here I come!

2011-11-18T18:11:00.002Z

It doesn't take much to persuade me to start a new project, but I'd drop almost anything to do a new Bonnie Hunter mystery! So you can imagine I was busy checking my computer this morning, which was the first day of her new mystery quilt, Orca Bay.
I'd even bought a new ruler, the Companion Angle Ruler, which Bonnie assures will make it easier to make half and quarter square triangles. As soon as I'd done the necessary chores (just the necessary ones, you understand, not the ones I should be doing!) I raided my 1.5" strip boxes for neutral and black strips. Plenty of neutrals, but I'm short of blacks. It's lucky I'm off to Rocheberie Schoolhouse Quilters tomorrow, as hopefully the trader will be able to help me out! Never mind, I've enough supplies to keep me going for a while. Now back to the sewing machine!

There's always a first time for everything!

2011-11-11T17:32:00.004Z

Yesterday I had a call from Michaela who works for a charity called Catch-22 asking if I had any quilts suitable for 16-18 year old vulnerable children. (If, like me, you have never heard of this charity you can find out more here.) Of course, they would have to be large quilts for these young adults so I frantically searched through my piles of Linus quilts as she was coming round this way this morning at 9.30! I found a few big ones, and then three which Linda S had quilted, but I had promised to bind. Would I be able to bind three quilts in a day? I decided to give it a go!
The first one was this monstrosity, which had been beautifully quilted by Linda on her Gammil. I had wanted to chop it up, as there seemed to be too much blue space in it, but I'm glad Linda persuaded me not to! I usually do a French fold binding sewn onto the front, then folded to the back and hand sewn. There wasn't going to be time for this, so I still put a French fold on, but on the back, folded it to the front, and zigzagged it in pink. Result!
The resuts look almost decorative! You can see Linda's lovely quilting, with pink variegated thread. It makes the quilt. I did this method with another quilt, and the final one (a gorgeous bright one which had a black backing which had started to beard during the quilting) I just folded the backing to the front and machined it down!You can just see the edge at the top of the picture. Michaela was thrilled with the quilts - she couldn't get over how they were all different! - and I'm sure the young people will be too.

Failed (and succeeded!)

2011-11-01T16:26:00.004Z

At the beginning of October, I challenged myself to finish four UFOs. Well, I've failed. I managed to get three done (which is a start, I suppose) but as ever, am easily distracted by quilting ideas, and 'just had to' do all kinds of things instead of layering up. I could have easily layered up a Linus cot quilt over the last couple of days, but no, I've made a new top!

It's all Linda in Melton Mowbray's fault, as she was making one of these Bonnie Hunter Scrappy Bargello quilts, and I just wanted to try it out. I would say it has turned out fabulously, especialy since it's all made from donated fabrics, some of which are pretty ugly. I made it from 2.5" strips, and had twenty two 16" strips in each set (to make it 44" long, which is a good size even without borders) and with four sets, that makes it 48" wide. Have a look on Quiltville for the pattern and lots more scrappy inspiration from Bonnie. Now I really must do a bit of layering up. Well, maybe!

Learning all the time

2011-10-31T09:49:00.005Z

Although I've been quiting for nearly 20 years, there's always something new to try. My challenge group's current block is Electric Fan, by Lynne Edwards.

This didn't look too difficult in the book, foundation pieced spokes and then templates for the rest. I decided to dip out of the curved piecing and use the Pat Deacon method of laying the plain fabric on top, securing it with invisible tape and zigzagging the pieces together. The only tricky bit would be the partial seam in the middle, but it looked straightforward in the instructions. Easy peasy. Well, it would have been had I a) squared up the sections after they were completed so that the seam lines were at right angles to each other, and b) if I had bothered to read the instructions which stated that the central square was made of the same fabric as the middle part, not a contrast. The partial seam isn't very good, and it stands out like a sore thumb since the fabric is contrasting! Oh, well, I said to myself, the next one will be much better.

And it is! The partial seam isn't much better, but with it being the same fabric as the background, you don't notice it, and the sections look nice and square. There's only one problem. I forgot to put the templates for the outer sections on the wrong side of the fabric, and the fan is going the other way! Never mind, perhaps I'll get the next one right! (Fat chance!)

October finish 3

2011-10-28T09:56:00.009+01:00

I have been doing a lot of sewing, but of the variety that doesn't yield much in the way of interesting photos! Still, I have finished another UFO, my Mile a Minute Rainbow quilt.
This was a joy to make, and I think it's turned out well. I just meander quilted it along the diagonal strips with appropriate colours (yellow on the yellow squares etc). That was easy and allowed me to use some of my gorgeous YLI variegated threads. I'm not sure I'll manage another finish this month (although I'll try) as I've also been busy with Linus quilts, putting them together, wadding or binding them. I've also been cutting up donated fabrics, as we have recently had two Linus sewing days at Linda's fabulous workshop near Melton Mowbray. She is such a lovely lady, and generously gave her space, (heated and fully equipped) plus refreshments and cake for free! Here are (l to r) Pat, Julie, Maria and Paula hard at work. Pauline worked so hard she actually finished two quilts in the day. Admitted this one was a printed panel, but it's still good going! This one was a soft book kit, but Pauline sashed the squares and put them together beautifully. It was bound by the end of the day!On Linda's design wall are Julie's red and black blocks (the first time she's put anything together on point!) and Pat's Mile a Minute. Hers finish at 9" and she's keeping her fabric choices masculine. Great job! Maria (a very new quilter) ended up with a pile of my MAM blocks to sew together. She wasn't impressed with them - they're not everyone's cup of tea, I know. She complained (quite rightly) that they were bulky. "I don't like these, these, what are they called? Make Up Rubbish blocks!" What a great new name for the blocks! And not untrue either. On Linda's chair was her Bonnie Hunter Scrappy Bargello. This is one quilt I'd love to make! Pat had donated a pile of spider's web blocks, and Paula added corners on them and was soon ready to join them up.As for me, apart from being sergeant major and general gofor, I managed to get this top together from orphan blocks. Linda will long arm quilt it, and then I'll be able to bind it. What a great day we had - not only lots of quilts for Linus, but a good laugh too! Here's to the next session in the New Year!

October finish number 2

2011-10-17T09:54:00.005+01:00

This quilt is a Linus one which someone else pieced. It was actually very large (double bed sized, at least) and I've managed to get three Linus quilts from it.

It seems to have quite a bit of Debbie Mumm fabrics in it (whatever happened to Debbie?) and lovely blue and red sashing. I bound it with dark reds out of the scrap bin, and it has worked well. I was slightly dubious about the red stripey at the bottom, but it's played very nicely.

And here is an update on (some of) my UFOs. Dear Jane is first. 27 blocks done, a lot of applique ones which I did on holiday. I think it needs more dark ones to balance it out.

Here is my Barbara Brackman Civil War quilt. I'm way behind with this. She's already onto block 41 and I've only done 29 of these. This set needs more with a light background, I think.

And last (and least) the Crumb Along I'm doing with Jo which is so much fun to do. Next I'm going to do some hearts, which should be nice and quick. I'll have to hang on though, as I'm quilting October finish number 3!

October finish number 1!

2011-10-14T10:23:00.003+01:00

I have challenged myself to finish at least four quilts this month - I've got to reduce that pile of tops somehow - and here is the first one.

It's my Bonnie Hunter 'Kiss in the Corner' which I have renamed 'Nobody's Perfect' due to the number of Friendship Splats in the quilt, where there should be Friendship Stars! (I think there are three - can you find them?) Some people I know would have undone the mistakes and made the quilt perfect, but not me. I've got too many ideas in my head to worry about a few odd pieces which have jumped about while waiting to be sewn! Anyway, I think it just adds to the charm of the quilt. Love it!

And here is an example of what else I have to do. Some people will recognise this, but for the rest, you'll have to wait until it's quilted. DH has just gone off on a boy's weekend, so I'm aiming to get it done today!

Family wedding

2011-10-09T18:36:00.006+01:00

This weekend we all went to my niece, Emily's wedding to Andy. The ceremony was held in a small village church near Ashbourne, Derbyshire, and then the reception was at Shottle Hall, near Belper. The ceremony was lovely, a perfect mixture of solemnity and humour, although the weather wasn't too good, and made it difficult to get any pictures of the happy couple there. Shottle Hall was a beautiful Regency stately home, which I can thoroughly recommend for a wedding venue. There were several rooms where people could get away from the disco and chat, and the food and service was first class. It had stopped raining by the time we got there, and people were able to stand outside for photos and a glass of bubbly. Here is my family looking smart (DS isn't really seven foot tall, he's standing on the lawn edging strip!) My Mum and Dad had a great time. Even though Mum had a complete new outfit, Dad thought a new tie was sufficient preparation for his grandaughter's wedding! Good choice, Dad!Here is my glamorous sister-in-law, Rosemary looking fabulous!
My brother was busy trying to catch some good shots of the happy couple.

I don't imagine he managed to get any much better than this one!

Or this! Congratulations to Emily and Andy, and I hope they'll both be very happy together!

The attention span of a goldfish!

2011-10-04T13:40:00.003+01:00

Now my lovely holiday is over (and all the resultant washing done!) I have had a look in my UFO drawer. It's so stuffed full of tops and part tops that I have decided to set myself a challenge to finish at least 4 quilts this month.

So what is the first sewing I have done? To start a new project!

Jo over at Jo's Country Junction is starting a Crumb Quilt Along, and when I saw the gorgeous blocks she is making, I couldn't resist pulling pieces out of my strips and crumb bins.

Jo's great idea is to start with a piece of solid colour (she chose red, I chose blue) and use this to tie the quilt together. All the blocks are free-pieced (one of my favourite kinds of piecing!) and the first few are Flying Geese with strips added. Here are my first five blocks. I'm really pleased with them and can hardly wait for the next set of instructions!

Another holiday!

2011-10-02T19:35:00.008+01:00

How lucky am I to have just returned from another Mediterranean cruise! (In case you're too jealous, this one wasn't quite as restful as it might have been, since we took mother-in-law, mum and dad with us - all amazing troopers in their mid eighties!)

Here is our ship, the Thomson Destiny, which was not quite up to the standard of its sister ship, the Celebration, although the staff were probably even more friendly. The layout of the ship wasn't as well planned - for example, there seemed to be a lot of unnecessary steps (three steps up, a flat 10 yards of deck, then three steps down) which didn't make life easy for the olds. However, they never complained, and we had a great time, just like a big party (although a slightly slow-moving one!)

Here we all are in our best bib and tucker at the captain's cocktail party. We do scrub up well!We flew into Palma and then cruised to Villefranche on the French Riviera coast. The weather was superb every day, nice and warm (mid 20s C) which was a good filip for us all before winter sets in here. Villefranche was a very pretty little town which had to be reached by tender.Here are the olds on the tender, with mother-in-law trying to work out the vaguaries of a disposable camera. Dad's sensibly keeping well out of it! This town was rather hilly, and saw DH and I making the supreme sacrifice of riding with them on one of those little white trains. It was actually a good way of seeing the town (which DH and I explored on foot later) and getting a good view of the ship anchored in the bay.Next stop was Marina de Carrara ( the port nearest Florence and Pisa). This area is famous for its marble and provided the marble for Marble Arch in London and Michealangelo's David. Here are great lumps of it by the harbour (look at the different colours!) waiting to be transported all over the world.Here is the view from the ship, and that's not snow on the mountains, it's marble! Lots of people on the cruise wanted to go to Rome (a 10 hour trip, with journeys of 2 hours each way!) but we stayed in the port of Civitavecchia, which didn't compare with the Eternal City - although was quicker to get to! I had never been to Sardinia before, and was very impresed with Olbia and its very up-market shops. Here are Mum, me and Mum-in-law just before we all headed into the nearest cafe for an Italian coffee. Sardinia is famous for its cork, and here are some cork trays for sale. They looked a bit hefty to me! We managed to resist them, and the cork mugs, bowls, flutes, pencils, necklaces, bottles, ashtrays and other ornaments etc etc which were in every souvenir shop!

Last stop was in Menorca, to explore the capital Mahon. To reach the town from the docks, you had to climb a flight of 100 steps, which was clearly not a good idea for the olds. We all piled into a taxi and then had a lovely wander along the narrow streets of this delightful town.

Sitting in a cafe watching the world go by is my favourite thing to do on holiday!And then back to Palma to fly home. I suddenly spotted these bags made from rocks at the airport, but couldn't get a good photo of them as we had already gone through security. What a fab idea! The flight home was uneventful and DD was there to meet us. The weather at home has been kind enough to enable me to get all the washing out and dried, and I'm now looking forward to my next holiday!

Oh dear

2011-09-30T08:51:00.006+01:00

I recently posted a photo of this beautiful quilt and broke one of the most important rules of blogging. I didn't manage to find out whose image it was (it came to me in a link, and believe me, I tried to find its origin but failed and soon gave up) so posted it anyway. In my defence, all I can say is that it was so delectable, and inspiring, I couldn't resist, but I know that's no excuse for bad manners. So all I can do now is apologise and try my best to right the wrong. It was made by the talented Mama Spark and you can see all her quilts here. Please visit and help me to salve my conscience!

And here is my completed top waiting patiently in my UFO drawer for layering.

The ultimate accolade

2011-09-19T09:43:00.004+01:00

I have got back to my Bonnie Hunter 'Kiss in the Corner' and it's now a top! I want to get it finished for our local group's forthcoming exhibition, so need to layer it up asap.

I'm really pleased with it, and love the way the Friendship Stars show up so well. Mind you, in traditional manner, a few of those little star points jumped around before I had chance to sew them, and have turned into Friendship Splats! I was going to undo them, but in the end (in true Master of Patience? fashion!) I have left them in. I'm sure you can pick them out, but in case you can't, here's one.

This has given me a name for the quilt - 'Nobody's Perfect'! I took it to my Tuesday group, and people were very kind, and made lots of positive comments about the quilt. All except June, who stood for a moment gazing at it, before she said, 'I just want to eat it!' I would say that was the ultimate accolade. Thanks, June!

I can quilt a rainbow!

2011-09-12T20:32:00.002+01:00

Lots of fun over the weekend playing around with scraps of every colour (except brown!). I have made enough blocks for a nice Linus quilt, and will join them together tomorrow.

My problem was that there aren't enough colours in the rainbow to make a big enough quilt - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet is only 7 rows, and I don't think even my extensive stash will have the required number of indigo and violet scraps! So I decided to make blue/green (alias turquoise) and blue as two rows, which should be OK. I've made 8 blocks of each colour, so the quilt will finish up bigger than this. Very keen to see how it turns out!

Still no master of patience!

2011-09-08T20:43:00.004+01:00

If I had a pound for every person who said they'd love to make a quilt but 'they hadn't got the patience', it'd keep me in fabric for years! (Well, weeks!) I have the attention span of a goldfish, but manage to get quilts finished eventually.

I am more than halfway through assembling Bonnie Hunter's 'Kiss in the Corner', and it's looking good, but when I was sent a link to this quilt

I just had to start making some blocks! I love Mile a Minute, and the idea of making a sets of monochrome ones really appeals. So no more kisses for me just now,

I'm making a rainbow!

Back now

2011-09-06T14:20:00.007+01:00

Two weeks ago we went to Edinburgh to perform our version of Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'. We had a fabulous time, and I have been waiting for Dawn (our own resident David Bailey) to upload her hundreds of photos so I could share them. Apparently, Picassa has been playing her up, as it doesn't like more than 1,000 photos in one file (yes, she has more than that!) so they aren't available yet. So, on with the quilty news.

I have now finished all my Carolina Lily blocks for the challenge group, and I think that although they aren't all very accurate, they will be fine once they are joined to other blocks. Then I had to find another block to do. (We have decided that one block every two months won't get the quilt finished for years, so have chosen to make two blocks instead!) Since my quilt is an homage to the Sundial Quilt in the V&A, I looked to see if there was a block there I fancied. I came up with this simple square in a square, but with a fussy cut centre.

I had some blue toile which lent itself to the centres, and the blocks went together quite quickly.

Although, I'm not quite sure what is happening in this scene. Is this lady sitting with a crocodile at her feet or is it a rather excessive ruffle on her dress? Any ideas?

Kamen Weave

2011-08-19T09:44:00.003+01:00

Regina Grewe was so kind as to give me a copy of her pattern for 'paper piecing with a twist' and I couldn't wait to give it a go. She has two possible patterns, but I chose the interlocking pattern (Kamen Weave) rather than the one where there are stand alone motifs, as I especially like subsidiary patterns.

Here is my version, in reds and creams. I especially like the way she tells you to make the triangles. You only fold the corners over once, leaving a 'rabbit's ear' poking out. (You can see them all around the edge!) The ear just tucks under the next patch, thus giving a nice pointed edge to the triangle. Usually with paper piecing, the points are all folded over, and this makes them blunt. This gives a much crisper final result.

This is a really nice idea for paper piecing, and it went together beautifully. Thank you very much Regina for your kindness. Now I have to decide whether to keep going, or make it into a Christmas table mat! Which do you think?

Festival of Quilts

2011-08-14T13:58:00.007+01:00

Despite the fact that our household has been completely consumed by our production of 'A Midsummer's Night Dream' I couldn't miss out on the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham! I went with my friend Pauline, who had never been to the FOQ before, and was suitably impressed. Our first task on arrival was to find the German quilter Regina Grewe as she had contacted me about the old hexagon top I had finished. She was doing a workshop on English Paper Piecing with a Twist and wanted a good photo of the quilt to display. I went one better than than that, and took the quilt for her class to examine, along with some of the papers. She had sent a photo to help with identification, and she was easy to spot ot the Quilter's Guild stand by the entrance.
She is a lovely lady, and was delighted to see the old quilt, and the papers. I popped up to collect the quilt while her class was busy sewing, and the technique is intriguing. I wanted to buy a pattern from her, but she gave me one as a 'thank you present'. Quite unnecessary, but much appreciated! Thank you so much. When I get a sewing evening, I'll look forward to trying this technique.

Pauline and I spent most of our time looking at the traditional quilts (and shopping) so most of the photos represent this bias. This one is very traditional, but appealed to me, as it's a sampler quilt of stars. Looking good.

This one is a stunning choice of colours, and techniques range from log cabin to applique. Sumptuous.Not everyone agrees with the judges about the winners, but I loved this quilt. It's beautifully designed and constructed.This was a double whammy for me. I love strippies and I love writing. At first glance this one just looks like a strippy, but a clser investigation reveals that the strips are covered with writing. The quilt celerates a gap year adventure, and the writing is taken from emails received by an anxious family.

I wish my handwriting was as neat as this, never mind my free motion quilting!

Here is another strippy with applique in the plain strips.

I was intrigued by this charming alphabet quilt, as I couldn't work out what there was in the seaside scene which began with 'rh' (or why you would put 'rh' on an alphabet quilt at all! Then I looked in the show guide and found it was a Welsh alphabet quilt. What a super idea, and very intriguing.

This fabulous scrap quilt looks stunning from a distance. (Sorry, but we felt the border didn't enhance the quilt as much as one in a plainer fabric would have done. Isn't it easy to 'improve' other people's quilts?)

A beautiful quilt with a simple pattern which relies on colour for its impact.Here is part of the Bayeaux Tapestry beautifully rendered in applique. Unfortunately there was no entry in the show guide, as I wanted to know something about it.This quilt was inspired by a visit to the Foundling Museum in London, and seeing the tokens people left with their babies, in the hope of identifying and recovering them in the future. Some of the inscrptions were heart-rending.This art quilt was especially striking when viewed from a distance.Then we did some shopping, and as I asked if I could reach past someone to get a bolt of red fabric, said person enquired, 'Is your name Lynda Hill?' and it was Loulee who had flown over from the Isle of Man! I had been more focused on the fabric (which turned out to be the perfect colour) than meeting blogfriends! It was great to see her in the flesh! After the shopping and lunch we marvelled over the tentmakers of Cairo and their work. Here you can see some of their fantastic work and a craftsman just visible in the checked shirt. Their work is exquisite, and their designs amazing.Then to the Fabric Creations, which had some wierd and wonderful exhibits. These cakes were particularly eye-catching!And to end as I began, with hexagons. This pictorial quilt is made entirely from black, white and grey hexagons. Wow! Despite all the time we spent shopping, I was very good, and only bought what I needed. Red fabric for a bag lining, blue batik for sashing my leaders and enders, blue reproductions for 'Dear Jane' and some nice threads. A lovely day in lovely company. Thank you Pauline, Regina and Loulee - you made my day!

That's better!

2011-08-10T10:57:00.002+01:00

Yesterday I went to a local group called 'Talking Textiles'. It's an informal group of embroiderers, knitters, quilters and textile enthusiasts who book a village hall, take a project and have the time and space to get on with it. This week Jane was able to bring her lovely daughters, aged 8 and 17 with her. The 8 year old sews and has just learned to knit, while her older sister is an expert, committed knitter. I took my 'Kiss in the Corner' as I was determined to get to grips with it. I arrived about 10 o'clock, set up my machine, made a coffee, admired others' blocks and work, got advice from friends about a set of Linus blocks I had been given, received some more Linus blocks, and then at 11.15 came a voice from Jane's younger daughter, "Lynda hasn't done anything yet!" How awful to be judged by an 8 year old and found wanting! It was just the kind of encouragement I need so I set to and am very pleased with my progress so far.

The Friendship Stars are very clearly visible now (and will look even better once it's all joined up). Now I'm off to cut more yellow squares.

Mistakes

2011-08-08T16:17:00.004+01:00

Have I finished my Carolina Lilies? What do you think? I've been seduced into getting on with some more of Bonnie Hunter's 'Kiss in the corner'. I found the blocks easy enough to do (a churn dash and a three-patch with triangle corners) but had great difficulty putting the components together.

There should be little Friendship Stars with bright yellow centres appearing, and they're not. No matter how I turned the blocks, they wouldn't play nicely together. (This could be why it's been in its box for a month or two!) Then, light dawned. The little triangles on the three-patches have to go one way, and of course, some were going the right way and some the wrong.

Here are the wrong ones. But why, oh why is it that there are eleven (and a half) going the wrong way, and only nine going the right? I suppose there's a subclause somewhere in Sod's Law which decrees that any sets of incorrectly orientated blocks will exceed the sum of the sets of correctly aligned blocks!

So a bit of undoing and resewing later and you can just see the stars beginning to twinkle! That's better!

Carolina Lily sorted (well, almost)

2011-08-06T12:27:00.006+01:00

I have been struggling to make this month's block for my challenge group, which is Carolina Lily. The problem is that I am reducing all the blocks to 8" finished, and when a block is a nine-patch, it's very tricky indeed. Also, the Carolina Lily is a very busy block, with lots of Y seams, and reducing it too much would have been a nightmare. Luckily I have recently had a birthday, and with the money my DMinlaw gave me, I have invested in a copy of Barbara Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns.

How Barbara has managed to catalogue so many blocks so efficiently I don't know, but I'm very glad she did. I can thoroughly recommend this book, as it is fabulous inspiration for any patchworker.

Here is a page of possible Carolina Lily layouts, which has given me the inspiration for tackling my own.I decided to piece the lilies by hand using the American method. This made the Y seams much easier to handle. For small pieces, I'd certainly recommend this method for its ease and accuracy.And here is the block ready to be assembled. So far, so good, but this is when it all went wrong.This is the completed block, which looked very good until I checked the measurements. It measures 8", which means it will be 7.5" finished! Oh blow! Never mind. I'll just have to unpick it and put in some slightly wider sashing. Not a major problem, just and inconvenience.

And as to other matters, there seems to be always something to do for the production. Today I have been to the charity shop to get a brooch for my costume. The Mechanicals in 'Midsummer Night's Dream' are going to be dressed like Miss Marple, so need tasteful brooches to pin at their necks. This one has obviously lost all its 'diamonds' but will be perfect for the job!

Must try harder

2011-08-02T20:15:00.004+01:00

I haven't been very good at keeping up with blogging recently (neither mine nor anyone else's), and comments have been made. 'Lynda must be very busy with 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', as she hasn't posted on her blog much recently.' Too true. Must try harder. So this is what I've done over the past few days.

I have finally bordered, layered up and bound this scrappy hearts quilt which I started ages and ages ago. I have just quilted it in the ditch and then done a freely quilted heart inside each blue heart. It will be perfect for Linus.

Another Linus is this Dutchman's Puzzle quilt, made from just five blocks. The blocks were made at our monthly Knit and Stitch sessions and I just put them together. Putting blocks on point always makes for a great quilt. I have a bit of the binding to sew down, then it's finished.

Then today, I have been fiddling about with leaves for, yes, you guessed it, a certain production! I made the banner for the scenes in the town hall, and we have decided to have leafy bunting for the wood scenes. Lots of leaves have been cut out from various green fabrics, including these gorgeous ones from upholstery fabric. They'll look great under the lights.

However, as you can see, they curl alarmingly, and aren't very attractive on the reverse.

So, I decided it would be the work of minutes to pair them (wrong sides together) and just sew a few veins on them to stiffen them up.

Hey presto! Nice shiney leaves ready to go on the 18 metres of bottle green twill tape DS and I bought last week. Thankfully, someone else has volunteered to do that job, so I can get on with a bit more real sewing!

Banner

2011-07-24T12:50:00.006+01:00

I have been doing more sewing for our production of 'A Midsummer's Night Dream'. The first scene is set in the town hall, and DH (the director) wanted a banner to set the scene. The only banner we had in our store was very medieval/panto, so I set about making another. Thank goodness for Google images, I say, as it was easy to do some research and come up with a design!

Here is the finished banner. Once the stage manager has given it a good press, it'll be just the job. I chose the designs of a tree (for the wood), the castle (for the town), an owl (for wisdom) and the crossed keys (because I needed something else for the fourth space!). I made a big blue and yellow four-patch and cut the shield shape out of that. I appliqued it onto the background, and then Heat and Bonded the shapes, with a bit of zigzag round them to keep them in place. There's only one problem with it.

While the yellow fabric was quilting fabric, the blue was a piece of poly which just happened to be the right colour. The yellow has appliqued pretty well, but the blue has stretched and puckered. For this purpose, it really doesn't matter, but it's a lesson in these days of belt-tightening, that you get what you pay for, and while it's good to get a bargain, you might not be so pleased with the final result!

What's that? Somnium comoedorum? That's Latin, for 'dream on you comedy actors' - or so DH tells me!

Signature swap

2011-07-20T16:00:00.005+01:00

At Rocheberie Schoolhouse Quilters on Saturday, I signed up for a Signature Swap. You have to make a small log cabin block in reds, and then put your name on it, to be swapped with other quilters. Twenty one people wanted to do this so I had to make 21 blocks.

I could have written on the blocks using a permanent pen but I decided to use the letters programme which came with my machine. I've only had my machine for eleven years but have never tried out the memory function! Strangely enough, when I looked it up in the manual, it was easy, which made adding the lettering quite straightforward. I could get used to sitting at my machine while it sews itself - I wonder if it can be pre-programmed to make half square triangles?!

Another finish!

2011-07-12T14:11:00.004+01:00

I've been on a roll recently, and have finished my log cabin quilt. It's a scrappy light/dark quilt, and I'm really pleased at how well it's turned out.

It's in quite an unusual arrangement, called 'Streak of Lightning (variation)' taken from an 1850 quilt pictured in Laura Fisher's book 'Quilts of Illusion'. I think it's a good one.

I quilted the darks with a meander in variegated thread,

and the lights with a feathered wreath motif. This was done freehand. I drew three concentric circles and used them as guidelines. I quilted a circle over the middle ring, and then did feathers above and below, using the pencilled lines as edge guides. Looks good to me.

And I finally decided to give away my 'Roll, roll, cotton boll'. I was sad to see it go, but the look on Stephanie's face made me certain that I'd made the right decision!

No start, but a finish!

2011-07-06T13:06:00.004+01:00

It's a perennial dilemma - what do you do with the UFOs lurking in the back of your cupboard?
Gaynor had this problem with a teaching sample which had been waiting to be quilted since 1996! She brought it along to our Tuesday group to see if anyone wanted to take pity on it. As you can guess, I ended up bringing it home with me, and here it is quilted and finished. I would normally have bagged it for Linus, but the quilt was done so long ago, that the applique designs (the Four Seasons) have been effected with no-sew Heat and Bond, and although that claims to be permanent, I wouldn't like to risk little bits coming off (or being picked off!) and choking a toddler or small child. As luck would have it, we have a fund-raising auction for our drama group on Saturday, so it will be perfect as a lot for that. I was delighted to take the quilt for this cause, and Gaynor was delighted to see it on its way to a good home!

Costumes

2011-07-03T17:35:00.006+01:00

I have been busy sewing costumes for our group's production of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'. I'd rather be piecing, but since I foolishly agreed to make them (you'd have thought I'd learned my lesson last time!) I've been getting on with them. Various costumes have been hired, but the costumes for the fairies have all been made or adapted from charity shop finds. The idea is that the fairies are natural spirits, and I have at last got to the stage when I could dye them all 'pebble beige'.

Since they are all different fabrics, and some started off white, some cream and some other light colours, they have all taken the dye in different ways, an effect I was hoping for. Here are some of the basic fairy costumes. This is mine, with a charity shop flouncy skirt and a top made from calico.

Anne Marie has a linen charity shop skirt with added broderie anglaise frill and a charity shop top with added calico leaves.

Mary M has a muslin skirt with another charity shop top with added frill.Amanda has a charity shop linen skirt and a charity shop nightie which has been pulled up in rouches here and there.
Kate has two skirts - a poly one which has hardly taken the dye at all, with a muslin rouched over-skirt which I forgot to photograph - and then a charity shop top. The last fairy, Mary G., took her costume home at the end of May to shorten the skirt, and I haven't seen it since! (No pressure, Mary, but get a wriggle on as we need it for August!) Oberon and Titania's costumes are made but not dyed, and Puck's is in assembly. Hooray! The end is in sight!

Holiday sewing

2011-06-29T10:03:00.004+01:00

I like to take plenty of books and some sewing when I go away, as there are always times when they come in handy. Waiting at the airport, during the plane journey, that gap between the day's activities and the evening ones, or just relaxing in the shade are all times when I read or sew. The snag is the scissor situation when flying. Although I read that scissors with blades of less than 4" are permitted in plane cabins, since my best Fiskars embroidery scissors disappeared into a bin at check-in, I've not dared test the rule. This means prepreparing anything wanted on the journey. This time, I felt a few 'Dear Jane' blocks would be ideal.

While these blocks are relatively straightforward, especially the one on the right, it's the placing of the applique which is tricky. Since the blocks are so small, a fraction of an inch one way or the other makes a big difference.

Here are the 12 blocks I've done so far. Each one is such a challenge that I'm really enjoying them all. For someone with a short attention span, they're ideal, although I have to admit, my stitch-unpicker has had lots more use than usual!

Another holiday!

2011-06-21T19:21:00.007+01:00

DH and I have just been away on a cruise in the Aegean Sea! We weren't sure whether we would like it, but we had a great time. We chose it because it included two places we particularly wanted to visit (Athens and Istanbul) and other places we had never heard of (Bodrum, Dikili and Patmos).

The ship was the Thomson 'Celebration', which was comfortable and spotlessly clean, the service was exemplary, the food good and the entertainment varied. (I have to admit, that the average age of the passengers was probably about 70, but then, I'm not ageist and they were a fun-loving and friendly crowd!)

Here is our first port of call, Istanbul, with the Golden Horn in the foreground. The city was vibrant and exotic, and exactly as I had thought it would be. We visited the Blue Mosque (so called because of the blue tiles inside) and Topkapi Palace, where the caliph had his court in the Middle Ages.
Here are DH and I by the entrance to this stunning monument to Islamic art.

Next was the Hagia Sophia, originally built as a Christian church in 360AD and boasting some fabulous mosaics from that period. In 1453 it became a mosque, and then in 1935 a museum. Here I am on the first floor, where offices and meeting rooms used to be.

The atmosphere in the place was wonderful, serene and peaceful, and not as oppressive as it looks in this photo of the ground floor.

We just had time for a visit to the Grand Bazaar, a rabbit warren of shops and stalls selling practical items and tourist goods. We bought a gorgeous emerald green shawl for DD which she loves (thank goodness!). Dikili, the port for excursions to Pergamon, was an authentic Turkish port: interesting to look round, but not photo worthy.

This was not true of Athens, where the Acropolis was the main attraction. It was very hot, late 20s Centigrade, and I very much needed my hat, even though hats never suit me.

Here are six ladies, five of whom are replicas. Can you spot the real one? Patmos was idyllic, and we really wished we could have stayed there permanently. It was calm and relaxing and very photogenic, and of course, I had forgotten my camera! Never mind, maybe you've been there yourself and seen it. Bodrum was another lovely resort, with a lively port and pleasure harbour. There we looked at more old stones, although these had been part of one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. It was a huge tomb built by the wife of Mausolus in 353BC, a bit like a pyramid in scale, although it had crumbled away by the 1400s, and the Knights of Saint John used the remaining stones as building material to repair their castle. Can you find me amongst the rubble?

Here is a closer picture of DH. That day was even hotter, at 32C. Too hot for me!

And here is a shot of DH and I on board the ship after the formal dinner. We scrub up pretty well, don't we!

A great finish and a poor start

2011-06-05T14:19:00.008+01:00

I have quilted and bound my 'Roll, roll, cotton boll'! Here DD is holding it up as best she can. Although it's only five eighths the size of the original (20 blocks instead of 32) it's still a big quilt!

I am so pleased with this quilt. Not only was it great fun to make, but the whole top and binding was made from my stash. I didn't buy a single piece of fabric specially for it. Of course, it hasn't seemed to make any dent in my boxes and boxes of stuff, but it's a great feeling looking at all those different fabrics which play together so nicely.

I had to buy yardage for the backing, but I used a tip from Bonnie Hunter when I found I hadn't bought enough. She cuts unloved fabric (you know, the fabric you bought in those 'stash builder' bundles when you first started quilting, and which has lingered at the back of drawers and in the bottom of boxes ever since!) into 10 1/2" squares, and joins them into strips to make backing. Since the squares finish at 10", it's easy to work out how many you need. Plus, they make a nice feature on the backing too. And now for my poor start. I've started making some 'Dear Jane' blocks and here are my first two. I'm using cream and blue for my colour scheme - lots of different fabrics in each. I'm working from the centre out, and then, if I run out of steam (or skill, in this case) I can use what I've made as the centre of a medallion quilt. (Nothing like planning for failure!) The first block, on the right was G7, Indianapolis. It's turned out to be a fraction too small! The other one, G8, Justin's Comet, has turned out a fraction too big! Only two blocks in, and I'm already going to have to fudge. What a surprise!

Civil War blocks

2011-05-30T20:00:00.004+01:00

I must be crazy! I'm making blocks for the Barbara Brackman Civil War quilt, my challenge blocks from Lynne Edwards' sampler book, and now I'm intending to do 'Dear Jane' blocks! How ridiculous is that!
At least the Barbara Brackman blocks aren't too dificult. Here are the next four, taking me up to week 20. The top two were a bit tricky, but the bottom ones were very straightforward.

Here are the blocks I've done so far. I have made a mistake by using white in the basket block and the Jacob's ladder block. I'll have to dip them in tea to tone them in, before I make it up. (Jane said I ought to dye the fabric instead, but since I don't use biological washing powder -eczema in the family - it'll be fine with tea!)

Now I'm off to start my first 'Dear Jane' block (G7). Wish me luck!

Quilts UK at Malvern

2011-05-25T17:50:00.014+01:00

Last week it was Quilts UK at Malvern, and I was lucky enough to go on a bus trip organised by Ruth. No stress, no strain, lots of chatting on the way there, and a little sleep on the way back! I have to say that while I thoroughly enjoyed the day (due in no small part to the good company I had in Paula!) I was underwhelmed at the display of quilts. There were, of course, some fabulous ones, but the majority of quilts looked like something I could make myself, but which I would never feel worthy enough to put in a show. The show guide (while reasonably priced) was very confusing, and it took ages to work out where the descriptions of the quilts were (surely letters should be listed in alphabetical order?) and where the traders were too. Still there was lots of good stuff, and here are my highlights.

Having made an aeroplane quilt myself this year, I was interested in this one. A blurry photo, but an easier block than the one I did! An unusual quilt with three dimensional flowers. This was designed and made by Kate Elgood, and it repaid a closer look. Not only was the workmanship excellent, but look at this gardening fabric she has used as a background! You would never have thought that it would work, but it just enhances the whole theme of the quilt! Here is a beautifully hand-quilted strippy. It's a copy of an old, damaged one found at a house clearance. This is so sophisticated in colour - an absolute gem! (Sorry I didn't get a clear view of this quilt. The show was very busy, and it ws impossible to find a quilt without admirers! )This one is made me cross. I recognised this quilt straightaway as Bonnie Hunter's design 'Christmas Stars'. In the show guide there is no mention of Bonnie at all, just a self important statement about how the maker has designed her own continuous-line quilting design, "and this is something I like to do on every quilt I make." Now, Bonnie is very generous with her patterns, putting them on her website free of charge and giving blanket permission for the maker to display designs to be used in shows or even taught in classes. But that is no reason to just take the design and not even credit her! Just rude behaviour.

This one caught my eye for its superb use of colour. The African fabrics are used to great effect.This group quilt came from a challenge to use only black and white, and make a small hanging the size of a ruler. I'm sure a member of this group would be able to easily identify the makers of each part! I loved this whimsical seaside quilt (Paula didn't, thus proving that we are all different!) The centre was delightful, but the border of beach huts was fabulous.Here is a close up of the border, and you can see the fun the maker has had with the details, both the applique and the quilting.

My favourite part of the show (apart from the shopping, which was excellent!) was the theme quilts, all on the theme of Log Cabin. This block is so versatile, and its design was pushed to the limits!
This one was a log cabin in a log cabin. Very striking.

This one must have sent the maker's eyes funny - but it emphasises the log cabin effect wonderfully.

A fabulously bright and cheerful one, embellished by huge strippy flowers.A prize winning quilt, made from pieces of blue Ikat fabric. It looks good from a distance and equally good close up. Here the log cabin blocks have been cut into quarters, shuffled, and sewn into new blocks. The sashing gives structure to the higgledy piggledy blocks. Facsinating.

Courthouse steps meets Kaffe Fassett. A worthy pairing.A crazy log cabin quilt, with bags of attitude. the colour scheme makes it look very traditional at first glance, but the craziness of the blocks adds loads of interest and movement.And finally, a quilter's notice board, with snippets of this and that, and lots of advice! Every quilter should have one! And as to the shopping, I managed to buy a certain number of things! Notably this copy of 'Dear Jane', which I'm hoping will be the pattern for a new quilt. Look out for news of this soon!

A step too far?

2011-05-18T18:33:00.006+01:00

Since DS came home and claimed his bedroom back, we have been sharing storage facilities in there. He has stored his clothes, shoes, books, DVDs etc and I have stored much of my fabric. It didn't really seem fair for me to be in and out of his bedroom on a regular basis, so I have been busy trying to move my stash into the study (aka my sewing room) to give him a bit of privacy.

My creams were happy to share an under-the-bed-box with the purples, and are now in our bedroom, with a another box of browns.

My IKEA storage unit has been moved from inside DS's wardrobe to underneath my sewing table. This has reds, pinks, yellows and batiks (with a handy carrier bag storage facility at the side!). It was quite easy to move the unit, but some of my other fabrics had got rather out of hand.

I was inspired by a recent post on Stash Manicure to buy some clear boxes from my local handware shop, and separate my blues (and greens) into lights, mediums and darks, instead of being in one big box. (Can you imagine what was lurking at the bottom of the box? Some fabrics which I had completely forgotten I had, and lots of bits!)

The bits were easily assimilated into my Bonnie Hunter-style scrap user system, of 1.5", 2", 2.5", 3" and 5" strips and squares. But then, I went one stage further. Inspired by Hilary's lovely pouch bag she showed at the latest Rocheberie meeting, which was completely made of selvedges, I have now labelled one more box.

Not sure whether this is complete madness or thrift! What do you think?

Lovely day

2011-05-13T18:35:00.005+01:00

Yesterday I had a lovely day out. Can you guess what I was doing? Yes, I was sewing! A lovely Linus lady called Linda had organised a Linus sewing day, and Paula and I set off into the wilds of North Leicestershire to get to Hickling for 10 o'clock. Merrily chatting as we bowled along the A46 Paula said, 'Do you think we've come too far?' I replied foolishly, 'Oh, no. I think this part of the route is familiar.' As you can guess, we had gone 10 miles too far along the road, so had to turn back and retrace our route. Poor Linda was just beginning to get concerned, but she made us feel better by explaining that the sign for the A606 was obscured by the roadworks - even telling us that she herself had missed it the other day (although I think she was just being kind!).

Linda has a lovely workroom (a converted barn) where she holds classes. It was big and airy and had lots of natural light. Here you can see Linda (yes, there were three Lindas there!), Pat, Linda and Pauline busy beavering away. Pauline is holding up some bright blocks she is joining together. these will certainly cheer up someone's day! Linda (with her back to the camera) was squaring up rail fence blocks which had been made by other people (an unenviable task) and then joining them together. Pat (behind Linda) was making mile a minute blocks.

She was keeping mainly to blues and making blocks which finished at 10" so they will knit up fast. The randomness of these blocks reminds me of Gees Bend quilts - lots of life and movement in them.Linda (who is just peeping over her sewing machine) was finishing and sashing the blue Lemoyne Stars you can see on her design wall. These had been made in a class she taught recently.

Paula had taken a fancy to some donated blocks which had been made all in the same cream and red fabrics. Apparently the maker was 'fed up with them'. It's no wonder, as there were 112 of them! I would have given up long before I hadmade that number! Paula arranged them in a clever pinwheel design, and reckons there will be enough blocks for three Linus quilts! I was making the windmill blocks which you can now see on the design wall. They will be a fun addition to a child's bedroom.

I had taken some orphans and fabric strips with me, and we had a good rootle through it all. We made up some kits and Linda kept six tops which she is going to make up on her Gammil. What a lovely lady! It was a super day, with new friends (not to mention the biscuits and sweets) and a run out in the country, apart from all the sewing we did. Many thanks to Linda and everyone, and let's hope we can do it again soon.

Going round the bend

2011-05-07T16:48:00.004+01:00

I have been layering and quilting recently, so not much to photograph on that front, but I have made the next set of blocks for my challenge group. This block was the Corner to Corner Curve - a special invention of Lynne Edwards', which uses a corner to corner line which is also a quarter circle. (It's a Drunkard's Path which fills most of the square instead of being restricted to one corner of the square - a kind of Alcoholics' Anonymous Path!)

Since my pieces were smaller than the original (and I had to draft them myself) you'll notice that there isn't a lot of meeting in the middle going on here!

I'm not sure that the rest of the blocks are much better, but they'll do fine. Can you spot my undeliberate mistake? Why does that always happen!

Congratulations Wills and Kate!

2011-04-29T13:11:00.006+01:00

This morning the whole family have been sitting in front of the tv watching the Royal Wedding! We're not massive royalists, but wanted to witness this historic occasion. Weddings are always fascinating, and this one, between one of the favourite members of the royal family, Prince William, and his lovely bride, Kate Middleton, has caught the public consciousness.

Here is the happy couple (courtesy of Reuters - we weren't actually invited to the ceremony!) and they certainly do seem to be genuinely in love and enjoying every minute. Also, DD has been reading out amusing comments from Twitter, which added to our enjoyment.
Check out Princess Beatrice's hat - high fashion or a huge mistake? From the front, I thought it looked more like a frozen alien chicken, but then, what do I know about hats!

China!

2011-04-18T14:31:00.007+01:00

I have been a bit quiet on the blogging front, as I've been away to China! DH was on business, and I managed to tag along and take advantage of the free accommodation! The trip started in Beijing, and the first visit was to the Forbidden City. This photo shows only a very small part of the city, which was where the Emperors of China lived with their court, including wives and concubines, and is absolutely huge! Once people were admitted to the city, few were able to leave, never seeing the outside walls, family or friends ever again.

Here is DH walking on the Emperor's special road between the Temple of Earth and the Temple of Heaven. Only those of royal birth were originally allowed to use this route, and there were lower parallel routes for the rest of the court.

The next day DH was at work, so I went on a tour of the Hutongs (the old part of Beijing with lots of narrow streets and old houses) by rickshaw. This was fascinating, as I had a lovely English-speaking guide called Nancy, who took me to sample different Chinese teas, as well as a visit to a family home. If you're ever in Beijing, I can recommend this tour wholeheartedly.

Here is a street scene, quite near our hotel. If you look carefully, you can see the stallholder behind the red table eating her lunch! She's bending over a bowl with noodles in it, eating with chopsticks (of course!)

The next day (Saturday) we went to visit the Great Wall at Jian Cou. This part of the wall wasn't in a particularly good state of repair, but that meant that it was less commercialised than the well-known spots, and not so crowded. Here I am going up (DH is standing smugly at the top, while lovely Patrick is making sure I'm OK!).

Here we all are at the top of this section - Patrick seems especially pleased to have made it!

I was advised that the best way to come down was to sit down, and not to stand up, as it was very steep. This proved to be good advice, and apart from the damage to the back of my jeans and my dignity, much easier than the more conventional way adopted by DH and Patrick!

Next stop was Shanghai, where a walk along the Bund, the promenade along the side of the river, is a must. On one side of the river are the 19th century buildings which housed offices and warehouses for the opium trade - you could think you were in any European city looking in that direction. On the other are all these ultra modern buildings including the Oriental Pearl Television Tower (the pointed tower on the left) which has lifts to the top and provides fabulous views of the whole city when the weather is clear.

The weather was pretty good that day, and from this level you can see the numbers of high rise buildings in Shanghai. It's a very modern and very lovely city.

Last stop was Xi'an to see the Terracotta Army. Although I've seen lots of photos and films about this, there's nothing better than seeing them face to face, as it were. The numbers of warriors and the amount of work which had gone into them was absolutely mind-blowing. Seems a shame that the point of making them was for the emperor to take them with him into the afterlife, and it doesn't seem to have worked!

While we were in Xi'an, we hired bicycles to ride round the (restored) city wall. Well, we actually hired one bicycle (it was a tandem) and this is the view I got while pedalling. DH's profile is stunning (of course!) but you can also see the width and height of the wall, and the length of it. The whole wall was 8 km long, and took us about 80 minutes to cycle - including a refreshment break! Bicycles are still popular in China, although most people travel by car, making the roads very congested. There are still some hardy types though, like this man who looks to be moving house, or at least moving wardrobe and bedding!

And finally, a little fabric. I didn't manage to buy any for myself (it was mainly silk, and any cottons were shirting fabrics for the local seamstresses and tailors to make shirts to measure). However, here is a beautiful Chinese robe to drool over. Here's to my next visit!

That's better!

2011-04-06T09:42:00.006+01:00

Things have been very hectic around here and I don't seem to have had much time for sewing, although I have squeezed a little bit in! I got my unpicker out and redid the Barbara Brackman block (the HSTs were all too big, which was the main problem) so here are the next four blocks.

Interestingly, I went to the Bramble Patch, which is my nearest quilt shop, to add a couple of purple fat quarters to my stash for this project, and apart from the batiks there was literally only one purple fat quarter in the whole shop, and that was of grapes! I've obviously chosen a very unfashionable colour, which is just about par for the course!

I have been trying to make up the blocks sewn by the Botcheston WI, and have only the binding to sew on the last quilt. It was fun arranging the blocks into different patterns.

This one is a barn raising design. I've bound it in blue to make it fairly gender neutral.This one is gender neutral too, and it's amazing how the yellow border brings out all the yellow strips to make it very cheery.The last one is streak of lightening, in pink - this one's not gender neutral! I'm going to take the finished quilts to show the ladies who made the blocks, and then they will be off to Project Linus. Maybe now I can get on with some of my own sewing!

A right pig's ear!

2011-03-26T14:10:00.004Z

I have been keeping up with Barbara Brackman's Civil War blocks, in a fashion. Because she has cleverly resized all the blocks to 8" finished, some of the cutting measurements are a little strange, including lots of eighths. While I have done my best on all these, London Square has defeated me! Those half square triangles in the middle aren't accurate enough, so when I joined the triangles on the side, not only did I lose all the points, but the resultant block was too big. So what did I do? I trimmed it! How stupid was that! Now I have a block which is eight and a half inches square, but has very little else to recommend it! (I don't need to wonder why, instead of unpicking it, I'd trimmed it! We all know the answer to that question!) Back to the cutting board!

Spreading the word 2

2011-03-18T16:22:00.005Z

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to 'spread the word' about quilting, and this week I've managed to succeed at this! Last year I was invited by Botcheston W.I. to give them a talk about Project Linus, and I so inspired them, that they asked me to come back and do a workshop for them.

They were such a friendly group of ladies, and here they are all busy hand sewing and chatting. (The conversation ranged from the theatre, sports, burglary, the colour of our school underwear to male nudity! A good spread of topics! ) They all worked really hard, and in one morning achieved enough diagonal strippy blocks to make 3 cot quilts!

Here are the blocks laid out for one top, ready to be assembled and bordered. I was glad when lunchtime arrived, as I'd run out of Vilene foundations, and nearly run out of strips! We all enjoyed the morning, and they are keen to have another sewing day in the autumn. I'll look forward to it!

Sewing, Jim, but not as we know it.

2011-03-16T16:36:00.003Z

I'm still sewing, but this last 10 days or so has been filled with teaching, planning, driving around the country delivering quilts for Project Linus and my new project, as costume maker for 'Midsummer Night's Dream'. Our local group is taking another production to the Edinburgh Festival in August, and yet again, I've got myself roped into doing the costumes!

Much time has been spent by me making the costume for Oberon.

I know it looks like a wedding dress, but it's made from lightweight calico to be drapey, flowy and organic in feel, and will be spray-dyed to either light brown or green to represent the fairies' position as creatures of the wood. (That's the idea, anyway!) I need to get Russ to try it on, then I can finish it off.

Then I dyed some of the calico (I bought a whole 25 metre bolt) for the leaves which will be made into creepers to decorate the set. That was fun, and even more fun when I got people at the rehearsal to cut out some leaf shapes when they were waiting to go on! Crafty!

There has been sewing too. My teaching was a log cabin class, and I had to make some blocks up for samples. I had forgotten what such a versatile block this is, and have decided to make a quilt in this unusual pattern, which is in 'Quilts of Illusion' by Laura Fisher. She says it is a streak of lightening variation, and I suppose it is, when you focus on the dark zig-zags. I have just used darks and lights, and really like how it is coming along.

On Saturday, at Rocheberie Schoolhouse Quilters, we are having a competition to make a Morsbag on the theme of 'Celebration'. Here is my effort. I'm not thinking about winning the prize, just taking part. Now back to the log cabins!

Some finishes

2011-03-04T09:33:00.004Z

Since I have no patience at all, I like to have lots of different projects on the go at the same time. There is always some piecing, some quilting, some layering up and some applique going on at the same time, so I can pick up whatever I feel in the mood for. So this week I have felt in the mood for finishing.

These hexagon blocks were joined together in the start of a quilt and then donated to Project Lnus. I rearranged some of the blocks to make the quilt into a rectangle, bravely cut through the edges to straighten them, bordered, layered and quilted. The fabrics are a bit 60s, but I think it makes a pretty Linus quilt.

Roll, roll, cotton boll has all its borders on, and since DD kindly took the papers out of the string blocks, I'm ready to layer it up. One of the best thing about this quilt is that I didn't have to buy a single piece of fabric to make it! All the fabric came out of my stash! How good is that! I have always liked Bonnie Hunter's designs, but I'm getting to like them more and more, and have started making leaders and enders to use up my scraps, which is very satisfying!

This quilt was made using other people's scraps. I was given a bag with lots of toning scraps in lime green (it looks yellow in this photo), black and white from the 'Authentic' range. I was able to use the scraps to make 9-patches, which have been alternated with black to make this very sophisticated Linus top. Now for some layering up!

Two out of four

2011-02-27T19:27:00.004Z

I have made four more of the Barbara Brackman Civil War blocks. Here they are.

The bottom two blocks, Log cabin and Seven Sisters have turned out OK, but as to the other two! The Richmond block was rather complicated, and the measurements for an 8" block had lots of eighths in them, but mine went together very well. Until, that is, I took this photo, and thought some of the blocks looked a bit small. It wasn't the other blocks which were small, but the Richmond block which was too big - 9.5" instead of 8.5"! A bit of judicious trimming wasn't an option, as I would have ended up with no points, so out with the seam ripper! I think it would have been quicker to have made a whole new block, but hindsight is a wonderful thing! I also had some trouble with the Cotton Boll (the one like an X) as I couldn't seem to print the template out in the correct size. After a couple of failures, I made my own template, and then foolishly used the measurements on the pattern for the plain triangles. I thought they were maybe a little small, but didn't realise just how small they were till the block was together. What a mess.

Four blocks completed, only two of which were correct! Never mind, just thank goodness for seam rippers.

Here are the two offenders, now reformed characters. Phew!

Disappearing nine-patch

2011-02-23T15:56:00.006Z

At Rocheberie Quilters in Rugby, Jane and I recently organised a sewing day. Each person needed to bring eight ready prepared 9-patches and some toning fabric. On the day, they cut thier 9-patches into quarters, and then, using their toning fabric, used the quarters to make half square triangles. We adapted an idea from 'Slice 'Em and Dice 'Em Quilts' by Nancy Brenan Daniel. I forgot to take photos of the nine patches, but here is the resulting block. You get two blocks like this from every 9-patch.

You can see the two little squares in the centre were from the central (dark) square. Nancy sashed hers, which looks great but we didn't give any quilt assembly instructions, leaving people to discover what was best for them. Here are my blocks arranged in a kind of lattice design.

To say these were all donated fabrics from the Linus box, the result is really stunning - and it was very easy! Nancy has some really clever ideas in her book, which I can thoroughly recommend.

Phew!

2011-02-18T09:53:00.004Z

After a bit of hard work and some uncharacteistic perseverance, I have finished my four Mariner's Compasses!

Thank goodness I speeded up as I went along, and the last ones didn't take me a whole afternoon (about an hour for the piecing) so they are all ready for my challenge group meeting in March. How lovely to be ahead of the game!

A whole afternoon!

2011-02-16T10:09:00.004Z

The next block for my challenge group is the old favourite, Mariner's Compass. I have done this block before, but wasn't looking forward to having to draft my own 8" block and sew four of them! Luckily I have a copy of Judy Matheison's 'Mariner's Compass Quilts' which has clear instructions on how to draft your own block, so that part was quite straightforward - at least, it would have been if I could have found a pair of compasses which actually stayed in the desired position, instead of wavering all over the place!

Here is the first finished block, and it took me the whole of yesterday afternoon! OK, I didn't start sewing until about 3 o'clock, but put the final stitches in the centre while I was cooking tea! Guess what I'll be doing this afternoon?!

Civil war quilt

2011-02-12T15:12:00.004Z

I have been busy sewing (log cabin, nine-patch, mile a minute), but nothing very interesting. Except I've decided to make Barabara Brackman's Civil War quilt. She's posting a new block every week, with lots of information about the block names, the quilts, the people and the stories behind the events. Quite a feast for those of us who love old quilts and history! The blocks are already up to week 7, but you could still join in, as they'll be up for quite a while.

Since the American Civil War is synonymous with slavery in my mind, I started thinking about this distressing subject, and how it still exists today. Sp I decided to make a slavery quilt insted, in modern colours, with the idea that I might eventually offer it as a fund-raiser to an anti-trafficking/anti-slavery charity.

Here are my first four blocks. On the top left we have 'Catch me if you can', and next to it 'North star'. At the bottom, is '(Texas) tears' and the rather tricky '(Kansas) troubles'. Although there's only one match point on the Texas tears block, as you can possibly see from the unpicked threads, it's not an easy one! I'm still appliqueing 'Seven sisters', and hoping to catch up with the latest blocks soon. Why don't you join in too?

Spreading the word 1

2011-02-04T15:49:00.005Z

One of my new year's resolutions was to spread the word about quilting (I've already forgotten what the others were!) and I've made a start. As Project Linus rep, I had organised some sewing afternoons last year, which hadn't been very well supported. In conversation with Rosie the Morsbag lady (who was also finding it hard to get volunteers), we decided to join forces and have an afternoon together, and invite knitters as well - very inclusive! Sue booked the room and organised the publicity, and we held our breath. At least there would be three of us there, and we could have a gossip and a cuppa if all else failed.

Well, as you can see, there were about 30 people keen to knit and stitch, and they didn't seem to mind being squashed in like sardines! This photo was taken near the start of the session, before the last half dozen people turned up! At least people had to talk, to say, 'sorry, I've just stepped on your foot' or 'sorry, I've just poked my knitting needle up your nose' etc. if nothing else!

Here are some of the patchworkers - both experienced and novice - and some of the blocks they made in the session. Overall there were six Morsbags made, enough blocks for 3 Linus quilts and the makings of lots of knitted pink hearts to be sold for charity. If you want to see more photos, click here. Here's to the next session im March!

Find the lady

2011-02-02T09:56:00.005Z

I have been sewing the borders for my 'Roll, roll, cotton boll' quilt, but it's slow going. So of course, I've been amusing myself with other things! I continue to be fascinated by Mile a Minute, and have layered and quilted this one for my DBiL.

I tried to use some grown up fabrics for this one, football, ladies, music etc. and instead of I-spy, have decided to call it 'Find the Lady'!

In case you couldn't find her, she's here,

and here (those are knees, in case you couldn't work it out!)

and here. The fabric is a Michael Miller I bought ages ago to make a quilt for DD. I only have scraps left now.

I've also been working on another challenge for Tonya Ricucci. She asked for words for a Christmas quilt called 'Bah humbug!' and suggested insect fabrics etc. I'm sorry, but my first thought was humbugs, the stripey sweets, so have done that instead.

I got a bit confused over the 'm' as I wanted it curvy, not angular, and thanks to some welcome input from Jane, managed it in the end. I'm not sure if it's what Tonya wants, but she can always put it on the back or save it for another quilt!

Roll, roll that cotton boll!

2011-01-24T09:32:00.004Z

I have been working hard on my Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt, and the main part of the top is now finished! I made it smaller than Bonnie's, at 4 blocks by 5 blocks which measures 60"x75" at the moment. As far as I'm concerned, that makes a creditable single quilt, or will do when the borders are on it.

Can you see the block which I need to unpick? Why do pieces always jump around when they're waiting to be sewn? I'm just glad that my friend Jane spotted it before I got any further. That's a bit of reverse sewing for later!

I've just got one more thing left over from Christmas, and that is a lap quilt I made for my dad, and had wrapped up before I remembered I hadn't photographed it! He left a comment on my blog when had shown a Linus quilt I'd made for a boy, and said 'I don't like that quilt. I wouldn't want it on my bed. I like aeroplanes.' Since he was in the RAF during WW2 I thought that was quite reasonable.

Here is the quilt being held up by Mum. Can you see her peeping out? (She's not actually standing on her head - I've rotated the photo!) I had great difficulty finding a reasonable block with an aeroplane on it, and had to design this one, which is made with templates - well, it was either that or foundation piecing, so not much to choose from there! The quilt is called 'There's always one' and Dad (and Mum) have already put it to good use!

Christmas present 2

2011-01-16T20:05:00.006Z

The first part of my Christmas present from DD was fabulous (a private viewing of some of the quilts in the Whitworth Art Gallery collection) but the second part was fabulous too! The same gallery had a Textiles Exhibition, which was varied and a real treat for anyone even vaguely interested in textiles.

It ranged from some quilt tops and coverlets, like this one (sorry, can't remember the date) and other items, including this beautiful embroidered 17th or 18th century bodice,

to this newspaper log cabin 'quilt' and embroidered box,

a Kantha work quilt on the subject of gardening,

a knitted sheep in wolf's clothing,

fabric specially printed for George the whatsits coronation (details were never my strong point!)

an Afghan war rug and lots of other things besides. If you're in the north of England and haven't seen this exhibition, you have until 19th July to see, and I strongly recommend it to you! And then when I got home, there was a parcel from up the Amazon!

It was the copy of Tonya's new book which DH had ordered for me for Christmas! I was so pelased to get it finally, and it was the perfect ending to a perfect day!

Christmas present 1

2011-01-12T16:26:00.010Z

Finding a suitable Christmas present is hard, and the best ones are ones where thought has been applied. This is why DD's present was one of my all-time best ones. She had arranged for me to have a private showing of some of the quilts in the collection of the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester! She came along too, and we had coffee, tea and lunch in a noodle bar (delicious!) and lots of mother-daughter chat as well!

This is the Whitworth Art Gallery, in case you don't know it. It looks rather forbidding, but was very welcoming and pleasant inside. The lovely and knowledgeable textiles curator, Frances, was ready for us at 2 o'clock, and had spread out some quilts ready to get going.

This is the first one, a lovely hexagon coverlet with a mitred border on it. There was a plain calico backing on it, and no quilting. It dated from about 1850. As ever with old quilts, the range of fabrics was amazing! Lots of conversation prints, shirtings, upholstery designs and all kinds of fabrics which look as if they were designed yesterday!

I don't think this photo is too clear, but can you see that there are little fairytale houses on the brown and cream patch between the two green ones near the bottom? I could have spent a whole afternoon just looking at the different fabrics in this quilt!

The maker had solved the problems of the edges of the quilt by using some half rosettes, and just keeping with cream in some parts. It seems to work well.

Next was a strippy coverlet dated about 1790. The patterned fabric was very chintzy, and the strips were unusual in that the patterned ones were wider than the plain ones. They are usually all the same width. Unfortunately, the quilting was not terribly interesting, and seemed to be fairly random.

Next a small, heavy log cabin quilt. This was wadded and backed with a fabulous Turkey red fabric which dated it to the late 19th century. This seems to be a kind of 'strips masterclass'. The centre of the quilt is log cabin, made in wools and wool mixes, arranged in a light and dark arrangement, each corner has a courthouse steps block, and the border is a chevron! The thick fabrics must have made it very hard to work with.
Here is a better photo of the backing. As you can see, this quilt was bound, which is not typical for British quilts. It's not surprising to find lots of paper piecing in British museums, and there was a whole box of paper pieced patches of various sizes, shapes and stages of completion, along with some fabric scraps and some paper waiting to be cut up into shapes. These octogons date from early 19th century. I think this might have been abandoned when the maker realised she should have pieced the little joining squares as she went along, not leaving them to the end! You can see on the right hand side she's started to add the squares (also paper pieced) but not got very far!

There were loads more octogons ready to go (these too have some with squares) and you can see the papers clearly here, with a date of 1815! The papers were made from copybooks or various printed sources. Again, the fabrics were fabulous, with lots of the 'seaweed' fabrics typical of the early 19th century. Here are some teeny Lemoyne stars - how were these going to fit together, I wonder?

Maybe they fit with these?Frances was almost apologetic at having included this top, but then, she hadn't met me before! I absoltely love it! She said it was mid-19th century and was a veritable showcase of Machester cottons. There were so many different fabrics in it, we wondered if it was made from fabric samples. Only the very centre has anything more complicated thn a square or rectangle (and that's only a square within a square which is missing its points!) but the colours and the enrgy of the piece are fabulous! There is a kind of basic design, but the fabrics are so varied, it's hard to see!

Here you can see a bit of bodging (the triangle added in being the worst of it!)
and here, a bit of desperation piecing, where five pieces of fabric have been joined together to make one patch! And that was the last quilt. Although I would obviously have liked to see more quilts, I would like to thank Frances (and DD) for a wonderful show! But the afternoon wasn't over, and I have more photos to show another day!

A reveal and a mystery

2011-01-10T10:08:00.003Z

I have been busy sewing the Bonnie Hunter blocks and am really pleased with them! Here is a sneak preview of mine.

I've decided to make a few more blocks so that it will be a 4x5 block arrangement, which will make a very credible lap quilt. The strange thing is that when I finished sewing the churn dash blocks, I had a red half square triangle left over. Just one.

Now since I have made the triangles with the diagonal line method, there should be another one somewhere! Do half square triangles en masse behave like socks, and are taken by the fairies? Anyone else have this problem?

Happy New 2011!

2011-01-02T14:19:00.011Z

It's the start of another year, with the opportunity to celebrate the achievements of last year, and the possibilities of this! I had a very productive quilting year in 2010 and actually finished 25 quilts! That's not counting the bags, wall hangings, cards and other stuff I worked on. At least now when people ask me how long it takes me to make a quilt, I can say 'about 2 weeks'! Although to be fair, a lot of those quilts were for Project Linus, so were only lap sized. This is probably my favourite quilt of 2010, made for my lovely sister-in-law.

As to resolutions, this year I intend to 'spread the word' and go out and lead some beginners' classes. So watch out Brownies, Scouts, old folks, choirs, trainspotters, Rotary Clubs in fact any local group, or you might find yourself on the business end of a needle!

Happy quilting in 2011!

Got it!

2010-12-31T11:25:00.003Z

I looked on Bonnie Hunter's site this morning, but no more information about 'Roll roll, cotton boll.' I suppose it's not Friday yet in Quiltville. So, I checked my emails, and found that there was a lovely one from Cheri, reminding me of the red squares - which I had completely forgotten. And then 'ping' there it was - the solution to how those blooming parallelograms would fit in!
Am I nearly there now?! At least I'm heartened that my brain has a few grey cells left to take me into the new year! See you there!

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and voila!

2010-12-30T19:41:00.005Z

Holiday times are such great times, but it's always good to get back to normal! Today I have been doing a mammoth clear-round and clean, and felt I could treat myself to some serious sewing this afternoon. Now all the components for (half) Bonnie Hunter's 'Roll, roll, cotton boll' are done. Hooray! And since Bonnie's last set of instructions promise that tomorrow we will start to put the components together, and I'm too impatient to wait, I thought I'd try and work out what the blocks might be like for myself.

First try. Looking good, but rather a lot of gaps there.

Next idea, but not much better. It's those blooming parallelograms which are the main problem. How on earth will they fit anywhere? Maybe it's better not to start with the string block.Oh, yes, very dynamic, but still hopeless!

I give up, and will have to wait till tomorrow. How close am I, Bonnie?

1, 2, 3, 4 and now 5!

2010-12-23T09:52:00.005Z

I'm really enjoying the Bonnie Hunter quilt I'm making. It is perfect for this time of year, when you feel the need to do some sewing, but it has to be something mindless, because you either don't have the energy to do planning and creating, you just want something repetitive to take your mind off all the streses and strains of the season or you only have time for a few minutes sewing! I'm only planning a smaller quilt, so have just made half the reqired blocks, until I see where it's heading.

Step one, pink and green 3-strips.

Step 2, pink and brown half square triangles.

Step 3 (my favourite so far), string-pieced blocks. And I was very good after I'd done them all, and cut whatever remained into useable 2", 2.5" etc strips and squares, and had only a few pieces to put into my strings bag!

Step 4 (quick and easy), green and neutral 2-patches and squares.

And now for step 5, a million tiny half square triangles! (I'm exaggerating slightly, but HSTs which finish at 1.5" and I need 300 of them, even though I'm only doing half the quilt, is a lot of work!). I'm starting by 'shopping in my stash' and have looked in my box of leftover part-blocks to see if there are any blocks ready to go. I've found these flying geese, hourblocks, a pinwheel and diamond in the square, which will cut down beautifully to make a start on the blocks. Next. it's into the reds box to have a rummage!

Another start

2010-12-17T15:37:00.003Z

On Monday, I had no quilts to finish, no housework to do, no Christmas shopping or baking to do, so I decided to start another quilt. (My nose has just grown about 15 inches, by the way, after all those lies!) Anyway, I looked on Bonnie Hunter's website, as I so much enjoyed making her 'Christmas Lights' design last year, and she has another new quilt! It's called 'Roll, roll, Cotton boll' and what really appeals to me is Bonnie's instructions that you shop in your stash first, and then, if you can't find what you want, get your purse out! Here is the first set of blocks.

I only made half as many, as I didn't want a huge quilt - or can decide that later! I was pleased to find that all the greens came from my 2" strip box!

I skipped the second set, as I was so excited at using strings and strips. I've never used telephone book paper as a foundation before, and enjoyed not only the thriftiness of it, but also the ease of tearing away! (I usually really hate taking out foundation paper!) Hope we don't need to find the number of anyone whose name begins with 'A' before we get a new phone book!

And here are some of the finished string blocks. Bonnie encourages you to use anything with a white/cream background, which gave me the chance to use this strange black/white/red fabric which I bought from a vintage shop some while ago. This is definitely my kind of patchwork!

It must be that time of year!

2010-12-09T12:19:00.003Z

I'm getting in the Christmas mood, and as usual, have decided to make a few special cards for close family. Here are two which are ready to post.

They were really fun to make, and kept me busy for an evening of tv rubbish viewing.

I started with some vintage Christmas images which I printed out onto fabric. (I foolishly used pretreated fabric, then realised I could have used just plain cotton ironed onto freezer paper, as nobody washes a Christmas card!) There are lots of images on Google, so have a brouse.

Next I put different cream fabrics round to frame the pictures.

Then came the fun bit. A bit of a rummage in my lace and ribbon boxes to find suitable decorations, and a play with decorative stitches on my machine, and metallic threads. The final touches were a bit of hand embroidery and some beads or sequins.

The hardest part was enlarging the aperture cards to accommodate the different shapes of the final desin. Now I have to brave the queues at the post office to get them weighed - wouldn't do to send a lovely card which costs the recipient money, is it!

Celtic Knots

2010-12-05T13:15:00.004Z

The current block from my challenge group is the Celtic Knot. This is where a bias strip of fabric is wound over and under itself to make a geometric pattern, usually endless. These designs were originally found in manuscripts and carvings made by the Celts in Britain (pre 1000 AD), and are wonderful. Since my blocks are smaller than everyone else's, I had to find a simpler design. Luckily my friend Di has a collection of books with Celtic designs, and I found this one from the Book of Kells.

DH is away on business so I had some time yesterday to get on with these blocks. My first problem was to trace the design onto the light blue fabric. I generally use the window as my light box, but it was dark by the time I realised I needed daylight! Well, they say necessity is the mother of invention, so how's this for an idea?

I balanced my 12.5" square ruler on my sewing machine and a handy box, put a desk lamp underneath, and the design (and fabric) on top! Worked like a charm. In case you're interested in what I used to mark the knot, it was tailor's chalk. It showed up beautifully on the blue, and was soft enough not to drag the fabric.

As to the assembling of the knot, I used a Clover tape maker with fusible web. This made it fairly easy to make the tape and position it on the fabric ready for sewing. Here's the next one ready to complete. If you see me soon, and hear me mumbling, 'Over, under, over, under,' you'll know why!

Secrets and snow

2010-12-02T13:41:00.003Z

I have been busy sewing, but not anything I can share! I am making a Christmas gift for someone who reads my blog, so that will have to keep under wraps (literally!) until after Christmas. Jane and I are organising a sewing day for Rocheberie Quilters in January, and I've been making blocks for that. It's a mystery day, so that's got to stay secret too!

So the only things I've got which are worth showing are photos of the weather.

This is from my front window,

and this is from the back. Lovely to look at, but not much fun for the traveller.

Right. Back to my sewing machine!

Quilt as you go

2010-11-22T10:11:00.005Z

I've been sorting out my (many) Linus boxes this week, and I came across a set of blocks which were already quilted and just needed to be sewn together. They are all in bright colours and it seemed a shame not to put them together, so I decided to have my first try at quilt as you go! Firstly I auditioned sashing colours. Nothing seemed quite right, so I decided to sew them together - wadding and all - and then use a strip at the back to hide the raw edges.

Here are four of the blocks - very gutsy, as you'll surely agree!

I cut a strip about 1" wide, the length of the blocks, and placed it right side down on the edge of the blocks I was going to join together.

I sewed straight through the blocks and fabric strip.

Then I folded the strip over, turned in the edge, pinned and slip-stitched it. (It would have been even easier if I'd ironed the strip under down the free edge, but hindsight is a wonderful thing!). Since the blocks have been quilted right to the edge, it wasn't possible to trim the wadding, so the seams are a little bulky. Never mind, it'll just add to the snuggle factor!

Here are the two blocks from the front. Looking good. Now I'm off to watch the tv and sew the strips on the back!

Too many tops

2010-11-19T09:06:00.004Z

I don't know a single quilter who says, 'Oh, I'm just going to layer up my latest quilt. Really looking forward to it!' Piecing is something most people enjoy, and then others like quilting, but the layering up is nobody's favourite. And that includes me! I've been busy piecing lately, and have now got too many tops!

This is a cot quilt DS started for a friend of his while he was 'resting' earlier this year. All the nine-patches were done, and it just needed assembling. The baby was born about 6 months ago, so I've given him a helping hand, now he's working.

Now I'm retired, I've been doing a little teaching - teaching quilting to adults is much easier than teaching language disordered children, though just as rewarding! This is a class sample which will no doubt end up on its way to Linus.

I've also been running a beginners' cot quilt class, and here is the sample for that. The ladies in this class were real beginners (which is fine by me) and one of them didn't even know what a seam was! Well, she knows now, and the local quilt groups will be benefitting by getting some new members generated by the class!

And of course, I'm rarely without a Linus quilt on the go. This one was made in response to a request from a 5 year old girl with cancer who loves princesses. Apparently her mother applied to the 'Make a Wish Foundation' for the opportunity to take her to Disneyland, unsuccessfully. This Disney princess panel and matching fabric was in the donated bag, which made the quilt very easy to complete. It won't win any competitions, but hopefully it'll win a little girl's heart.

Now to layering up. What joy!

Couldn't resist!

2010-11-12T15:28:00.003Z

Last week we had a Project Linus sewing afternoon, and Jackie, Eileen and I made a lot of blue half square triangles. This is an attempt to try to use some of the donated fabrics, and also, to make some boyish quilts. I have had a request for 5 quilts for disabled youngsters entering foster care, and they're all boys! I have lots of donated quilts, but none were really boyish, hence the half square triangles.

Here are some of the triangles made into pinwheels, and bordered with a nice construction vehicle fabric.Here is a close up of the border fabric. I think a boy would like it. My next job this afternoon is to layer it up, so what do you think I've been doing? Yes, not layering up, but trying a new block! This block is called 'arrowhead' and looks pretty complicated. Not the way Anita Grossman Solomon shows in the current edition of 'Quiltmaker'. You just have to cut two 8" squares, do a little straight sewing, some easy cutting, and hey presto! you have all the pieces you need for the block. Join them together and trim, and it's only taken a few minutes to make! Now, shall I make a few more arrowheads just to make sure I know how to do it, or layer up? Hmm......

Bit of a theme

2010-11-07T16:55:00.004Z

Having had all the pieces for a Linus patchwork top donated was great, but then I needed to find borders. I was lucky to find some pink in my stash, and then went with Pauline on a fabric-buying expedition (she was supposed to be buying, not me!) and found a lovely turquoise spot which was perfect for the border.

Here is the finished quilt, which will very shortly be on its way to a 14 year old girl with cancer.

The turquoise spot turned out to be very handy, as I found it was the ideal match for some Michael Miller fabric I was planning to make a bag with.

This bag is my original design - by which I mean that all the components are taken from various other bags, resized and reorganised. After all, a bag's a bag! I'm particularly pleased with this one, as I've finally mastered a zipped pocket inside it!

Here you can see the zipped pocket in the lining, and an ordinary set of flap pockets. The bag is for a workshop after Christmas, and I hope people like it enough to want to make it!

Linus crazy!

2010-10-31T13:54:00.004Z

I have been busy sewing, honestly, but this retirement business is fraught with people wanting to meet you for lunch, for coffee, for shopping etc. and I'm really enjoying saying 'yes!' This week though, I've had two requests for Linus quilts. One is for a 14 year old girl with cancer who loves textiles - got to get a quilt to her in double-quick time - and the other for five disabled children who are going into fostercare, all boys. Of course, I have very few Linus quilts at the moment, as I've just made a big delivery to the refuge, so am trying to make a some quilts up to suit. Here is the one for the 14 year old girl (who loves pink).

The fabric in the centre was 'left over from a project' and donated to Linus. How can so much coordinating fabric be left over? Well, it's a good job we're not all scrap quilters like me, as there would be no donated scraps to make charity quilts from!

Here is the completed top from the pattern in McCall's Quilting. It's nice and gutsy and will be good for a boy, I think. And finally, I have put together these scrappy blocks which were made at a recent Linus sewing afternoon.

This will make a great cot quilt. Can you see DH peeping through the border fabric on the last two quilts? This donated fabric isn't very good quality, and while it will be fine for these children's quilts, shows its faults when held in front of a window. Now I need to get layering and quilting!

Presents

2010-10-24T11:08:00.005+01:00

I recently had a big birthday, and my parents gave me some money, with a note, saying, 'Buy something you would like with this.' Now, I'm very grateful, but I am fortunate enough to have modest needs, and the income to indulge myself in most of the things I want. So, the money sat in the envelope until this week, when I have used it to treat myself to a new sewing machine!

Now I am retired, there seem to be so many opportunities to go places where I can take my machine and sew, and I was getting tired of packing up and unpacking my machine so decided the time (and the funds!) were ripe for the purchase of a small model to pick up and go with. I went to a lovely shop 'Sew Northampton' where there was plenty of advice, and no sniffing at my small budget. In the end I went for this Janome, because it has all the features of my big machine (needle down, top bobbin, thread cutter, speed control etc) and would allow me to use my darning, quarter inch and walking feet without having to buy more. So far, I'm delighted with it, and am planning to take it out for a test run this week!

Then two friends have given me presents this week too! Jane was shopping when she saw this fabulous calendar in a bargain book outlet. She bought one for herself, and one for me! Thank you so much, Jane. It was a lovely thought, which will give me pleasure for a whole year!

Then my friend Gill said she too had something for me. She had picked up this car sticker, and thought it was perfect for me. It certainly is, and I lost no time in fixing it in the back windscreen of my car! Got to spread the word!

The next present was given to me at the latest meeting of my quilt group, Piecemakers. This group was started by myself and four friends just ten years ago, in Novemebr 2000, and so this month we had a birthday party, where we invited lots of the former members. All the original members were given a present of a rose plant, and we had a lovely evening with refreshments and lots of chat.

It was a special evening, with people coming together to share their love of patchwork and quilting. I thank everyone for their support for the group over their years, and for enriching my life with their friendship. Here's to the next 10 years!

Material girl

2010-10-18T09:49:00.006+01:00

I couldn't have made a trip to the USA without hoping to buy some fabric, and in that I was very successful! I asked the lady in the hotel in Portland whether she knew anywhere to buy fabric, and she directed us to an outlet called 'Mardens' which had bolts and bolts of fabric (along with everything from stationery to three piece suites!).

I managed to track down a Judie Rothermiel toile fabric, a nice Linus fabric with football boots on it and a fabric which said 'Quilters are Piecemakers' which, since my local quilt group is called Piecemakers, I couldn't resist!

I really wanted to find a proper quilt shop, and when we stopped for a coffee in Wilmington, I was delighted to find this one.

It was a real rabbit warren of a place, with rooms opening off rooms in a delightful way. I was tickled to see they sold rulers made by my home company 'Creative Grids', and gave their emblem of the Leicestershire fox a little stroke! I was determined to stay true to my resolution to buy what I needed rather than wanted, so while they had a tantalising selection of autumn prints, (and lots of other gorgeous stuff) I bypassed them. I finally ended up with a layer cake of reproduction fabrics, which I need for my challenge quilt.

The phot looks like I bought a whole stack, but I'm holding the packet up vertically!

Here are the fabrics, along with a fat quarter I bought from Shelburne. And to prove I really 'needed' them, I have already incorporated one of the designs in my latest challenge block.

This little beauty finishes at 8", which makes it quite fiddly. The worst of it is that I have another three to make! Better get back to the sewing machine!

Fabulous New England!

2010-10-13T20:00:00.007+01:00

I have just returned from a ten day holiday (or vacation, as they say!) in New England. We flew into Boston and had a couple of nights there and then picked up a car to drive round the area, look at the leaves and anything else of interest, with the hopes of a few quilts and quilt shops too. We had a fabulous time! The weather was fairly kind to us (it only really rained for one day, and we had three whole days of glorious sunshine), the beds were clean, comfortable and soft, the natives were friendly and went out of their way to be helpful and I am now a convert to the charms of Sam Adams's ale!

The best colours were at the start of the holiday when the skies were grey and I didn't take any photos, but the leaves varied all the way from green, through yellow-green, yellow, ochre, orange, peach and crimson to burgundy! Apparently it's only in New England and Japan that the tree varieties and soil conditions are right for such an amazing display. If you've ever thought it was 'just leaves' I can tell you that the whole are is well worth a visit, especially in the autumn.

Here are some lovely trees in the Hancock Shaker Village showing yellow-orange and orange leaves.

This row goes all the way from green, yellow-green, ochre, orange to red.

Here is a typical vista in the Green Mountains.Here is DH standing on a covered bridge. They are also called 'kissing bridges' as the darkness and privacy afforded the chance for a little romance! They aren't covered for that reason, but to protect the road and structure from the weather, and also because the whole bridge became much more stable and secure. I hadn't realised what a big deal pumpkins are, and we saw them everywhere. Some were small and cute, and others monstrous - literally up to about three feet in height! This selection was outside a house in Deerfield. I don't know if they were for sale or just decoration. Most houses had some Halloween decorations out, usually chrysanthemums and pumpkins , with corn stalks, scarecrows, ghosts and skeletons as optional extras! Some of the decorations were very humorous, such as the scarecrow bending over, to reveal two pumpkins placed strategically peeping over the back of his trouser waistband! (We'd passed that one by before I had chance to snap it!)

Here's another glorious tree with red-orange leaves. Compare the red of these leaves with the next photo. This one is much redder - sorry about the telegraph pole!Now for the quilts. We went to Shelburne, which is a kind of collection of collections, and they had an exhibition of crazy quilts. This one was made by two sisters aged 11 and 14 for their 23 year old sister on her marriage. Her initials and the date are in the middle. The pieces were all edged with white fabric before being joined together. I couldn't really work out exactly how it had been made. The easy way would have been to applique the coloured scraps onto a white background, but that didn't seem to be how it was made at all.

This quilt is a more traditional example, with the craziness being tamed by being made into blocks.
Here a few blocks have been added, but still in usual crazy bright silks and black. The flag dates the quilt quite precisely by the number of stars. (Sorry, I can't remember how many there are!)This crazy quilt is unusual in that it has a plain centre. This has been embroidered with flowers, birds and butterflies. The crazy blocks have been added around the egde, and are creeping into the middle portion too!

This quilt is one of my favourites. It's a string star. It's so lively and jolly. But when you look closely, there's a mystery.

How have these blocks been made? I had thought the shapes making up the star (triangles and squares) would have been made from strings and then sewn together with white fabric. But looking closely, you can see that the strings go from the centre of the stars into the points with no apparent join. Yet the stars haven't been appliqued, and are definitely pieced. Any ideas?

Not much sewing

2010-10-03T13:21:00.004+01:00

After managing to complete four tops last month, I have forsaken quilting for other things. But of course, I always manage to squeeze a little sewing in! I bought a copy of 'McCall's Quilting', and found a lovely pattern by Susan Guzman called 'Dutch Breeze'. Not only is it lovely and easy, but it's perfect for scraps - my kind of pattern! It's made from 1.5" strips and 2.5" strips. Just join them together, cut into 4.5" squares and sew together!

I've only had chance to make a few blocks, but this one will be such fun to do, and since the blocks are 8" finished, it will grow quickly. There are several other good scrap quilt patterns in the magasine, so check it out if you have the chance.

So what have I been doing which has kept me away from my sewing machine? I'm a member of a local drama group, and have volunteered to reorganise and be responsible for our store. We are lucky enough to have a space in an industrial unit which is given to us rent free by the owner, Michael Coates. Thanks, Michael, we're very grateful. The problem is, that people go in and out of it, and it had become a dumping ground which was in total chaos. The chances of finding the blow up hammer for next year's panto, or the soda syphon for Agatha Christie were negligible.

Here is a 'before' picture taken from the doorway. Bags and unlabelled boxes everywhere. The basket of plastic fruit (vital for panto) is obvious, but everything else could be anywhere.

Another view to dishearten anyone trying to locate something specific. (Just why is that cuddly angel fish lying on top of a camouflage net?)

So over the last few days, DS and I have been to IKEA, bought and erected some basic shelving units, and begun to try to empty carrier bags, bin bags and boxes, and start a simple categorisation system. Boxes have been labelled with 'Men's hats - uniform', 'Aprons - coloured', 'Waistcoats' and even 'Dame's underwear' (a large box!) and stored on shelves. Yesterday a group of people from the group came over and we completed the job.

This is now the view from the door, with all costumes hung on racks, and other items in boxes on shelving along the back wall. Here is a view of the props shelving, with the plastic fruit now safely boxed, and the blow-up hammer in the panto props box. What a transformation, and what's more, I'm determined to keep it like that!

Fourth finish (and a bonus!)

2010-09-30T14:49:00.009+01:00

Just because I haven't posted recently doesn't mean I've been idle - the weather has been so dull and dreary that I didn't think any photos I took would be worth looking at! Well, the sun is shining today, so I've had my camera out.

Here is my fourth Linus top finished this month. Hooray! I think it was originally a strippy quilt in progress, but looks good enough with this bright pink binding, I think. I've just quilted it in the ditch to emphasise the design.

I've also been steadily working on the old hexagon quilt which was made by Emily Glass in the 1890s. I've made it up as a coverlet (no wadding), and just hand quilted round some of the lozenge and flower shapes to keep it all together. I was going to applique it to a border fabric, but in the end have folded the top and backing under, and sewn it edge to edge, as many of the old English quilts were finished.

The backing has been made up from white fabric and the pieces of fabric I printed the information I have found out about the quilt, as well as a photo of the quilt as it was when I inherited it. I am determined that the history of the quilt will go with it.

Here is a bit closer look at the back, and I have written the 1891 census record on with a Pigma pen.

The top and bottom are still in the pretty zig zag formation, but (after taking advice from knowledgeable quilty friends) I decided to fold the other edge over to make it straight. All the fabric is still there, but folded under, as so many of the old English quilts were finished. I'm so delighted that it's now in a state for people to enjoy, and if I hadn't taken the papers out, I would never have found out about the maker of the quilt!

I've also been seduced into more piecing by donations to the Linus fabric. This small bag 6"x8" had scraps presumably left over from the Bramble Patch challenge fabric 'Authentic'. It was a shame to scatter these bits into the mile a minute box, so I decided to have a go at making something from them.

There was just about enough to make Bonnie Hunter's 'I spy a 4-patch' design. Very sophisticated colours for a Linus quilt, but I'm sure a teenager would love this.

And here it is at the moment. I'm auditioning border fabric.

Shall I go for the black as a narrow border, then a wide green, or vice versa? What do you think?

Third finish!

2010-09-25T15:18:00.004+01:00

I challenged myself to make up four Linus tops this month, and I needed to get a move on, as up to now, I'd only done two, with only five more days to go! Well, here is number three, all bound and labelled!

It was a top given to me at a meeting of Rocheberie Quilters. The maker thought that since it's in 'my colours' I might enjoy finishing it! Well, I certainly did, and I think it's a perfect bright and cheerful one for a Linus quilt.

I've actually been distracted by piecing - more people seem to like piecing than quilting and I'm no exception! I wanted to put together the sample blocks I made for the workshop last week.

Here's the completed top, made completely from donated fabrics, except for the blue solid, which came from my stash. Now if I can keep myself away from piecing, I only have one more quilt to finish and I'll have completed my challenge!

Learning curve

2010-09-20T09:48:00.006+01:00

On Saturday I held a beginners' workshop for our local group, Piecemakers. Eight people signed up and I decided we would make some simple blocks from 'Nickel Quilts' by Charlene Speth and Pat Thode, and learn about cutting, seam allowance, pressing, 'nestling', making six patches, half square triangles and hourglasses. Quite a lot to cover in a day, but everyone was really up for it.

Alison and Liz are busy sewing, and Pauline is cutting more squares.

Margaret isn't really despondent here, she's just listening intently to Betty's explanation!

We took it slowly and there were tangible results by the end of the session. Everyone was confident with the techniques, had made all three different blocks and was raring to get home and make more.

The other result was the amount everyone had learned. Several people had 'jumped into' patchwork, and didn't really understand the basics about constructing blocks, and there were lovely coments about how much they had learned in the day. Thank you for being so generous! When I say that everyone had learned something, I obviously include myself in that group. The first thing I learned was how to work with stripes. Jane had used this lovely pink striped fabric for her half square triangles, but was unhappy that the stripes were going in different ways.

To be honest, it's never bothered me, but she was not happy. She put her thinking cap on and realised that if you made two sets of half square triangles at the same time, you could swap the components over and have one pair with horizontal stripes and one with vertical! How clever is that!

I also learned from Alison about how useful selvedges can be. She had take the selvedge off a piece of fabric whose colours particularly appealed and stuck it in her notebook for future reference while shopping. Great idea!

The other thing I learned (sorry I didn't know it before, Rosemary) was to check that people with new sewing machines are sewing an accurate quarter inch seam. Poor Rosemary had made a couple of blocks and they were turning out a little small. I advised her not to push her fabric right up to the foot, as sometimes it bunches up and you end up with too big a seam. She followed this advice, but her blocks were still too small. I measured the ditance between the needle and the foot, and it was more like three eighths! No wonder her blocks were too small! We discovered that the needle was in the zigzag position, so was not central, and once that was sorted, all was well.

The ladies were all keen to have another session to layer up and finish their quilts, so I'm looking into finding a venue for this. Who was it that said you're busier in retirement than when you went to work?!

Second finish!

2010-09-11T15:07:00.005+01:00

It's been my first official week of retirement, and I've spent a certain amount of it sewing. (For 'a certain amount' substitute lots!) I'm making good headway into the four Linus tops I have challenged myself to finish during September.

Here is another one done. I have just quilted round the stems and flowers, and done loopy meanders in the rest. I'm realy pleased that I was able to use up these UFO border appliques, and the striped fabric has worked really well.

I am preparing for a beginners' workshop I am taking on Saturday, and as part of it, I want to show about thread-savers and leaders and enders. I have been sewing my scrap 2" squares into four-patches for a while, and thought it would be a good idea to show what could be done with them. I've joined them into nine-patches, with blue 3.5" squares.

Here they are auditioned against more of the blue. Not sure that will be the right sashing solution. Any ideas?

A finish and more information about the hexagon quilt

2010-09-05T14:24:00.004+01:00

I'm concentrating on getting the four Linus tops finished, and I've already done one!

It was made from (presumably) the leftovers from a kit, which were donated to Linus, and proved to be almost enough fabric to make a 'I spy a 4 patch' quilt designed by Bonnie Hunter. Here is DS kindly holding it for me to photograph. DH says he doesn't like the different borders, but I think they look good! I just hope the recipient likes them too!

I have been doing some more research into the possible maker of the hexagon top I was given. Lots of the papers were made from envelopes, and lots had the same name and address, Mrs Glass, 2 Charteris Road, Finsbury Park, London.

I checked on the 1891 census, and here are the people living at 2, Charteris Road.

Emily Sclater, widow aged 63, living on own means, born in Monkton Farleigh, Wiltshire.

Charles A Horpe, railway porter, aged 30, born in Fareham, Hampshire.

Mary Ann Horpe, wife, aged 26, born in Richmond, Yorkshire.

John C A Horpe, son aged 2, born in Richmond, Yorkshire.

Alfred R Horpe, son, aged 1, born in Barnet, Middlesex.

Emily Glass, widow, aged 43, living on own means, born Monkton Farleigh, Wiltshire.

Victor H Glass, son, aged 3, born Finsbury Park.

Elizabeth Godwin, sister, dressmaker, aged 29, born Monkton Farleigh, Wiltshire.

Presumably the house was divided up into flats or sections of some kind. So, while none of this information confirms who actually made the top, it looks like it was Emily Glass. As a widow living on some sort of pension, she would have had the time to do patchwork, and probably a need, after her recent bereavement. (Her son is only 3, so it must have been in the last 4 years.) She would have had access to lots of scraps, as her sister was a dressmaker, and must have had leftovers. Of course, it might have been Elizabeth who made the top, but somehow I can't imagine that a dressmaker would do hand sewing for a leisure pursuit! It's interesting that Emily Sclater was born in the same town as Emily Glass and her sister. It's surely not a coincidence - probably they were either related or friends.

I then looked at the 1881 census for Emily Glass. Then she was living at 43 Havelock Street, Islington.

Samuel Glass, railway porter, aged 39, born in Bradford.

Emily Glass, wife, aged 33, born in Monkton Farleigh, Wiltshire,

Cordelia glass, daughter, aged 4, scholar, born Arnley, Yorkshire.

Lucy Martha Glass, daughter, aged 1, born Monkton Farleigh, Wiltshire.

This is odd, because there is no trace I can find of Cordelia or Lucy Glass in the 1891 census. (I checked in case they were staying with grandparents or something.) No wonder there were so many black bordered envelopes, as it Emily must have lost two daughters and a husband in 10 years. So far, I have found Samuel Glass's death in the early part of 1890, but haven't had chance to look for the girls. What a sad life Emily must have had.

Tops, tops, tops

2010-09-02T15:42:00.006+01:00

I haven't posted recently (or caught up with others' blogs either!) as we've been away. First Paris for a few days, then Edinburgh for the Fringe. Both were great, with lovely weather in Paris and fine weather in Edinburgh, which is good going for city breaks.

Now I'm back and eager to reduce my stash and projects. Firstly, I have been designing a simple cot quilt, as I have had a request from a local craft shop for a workshop. I wanted something easy (without too much matching) yet with the 'ah!' factor.

This simple strippy seemed to fit the bill.

I used a lovely farm design as the feature fabric and then just easy 9-patches. I'll take it down to the shop and see what she thinks about it. It will be a lovely cot quilt for Linus in any event.

The layering up of the quilt got me in the mood to make up some more tops. On looking in the Linus 'tops box' I found ......

the vine strippy I completed before we went away,

the pretty pink 'I spy a 4-patch' I made in July,
a bright cot quilt made from donated log cabin blocks,

another pretty strippy donated to Linus,

and last but not least, a green top which I will look forward to quilting for Linus. That's 5 tops (not mentioning the others in the box!) I'll aim to make up one a week for the month of September. Which one shall I do first?

Festival of Quilts

2010-08-22T20:01:00.007+01:00

We have been away for a few days, but I was determined not to miss the Festival of Quilts at the NEC in Birmingham, so we returned yesterday, and I have spent a lovely day viewing, being inspired and shopping! I started at the Traditional Quilt category (where better to start?) and was very impressed by the standard of entries.

Unfortunately I didn't pay attention to all the makers of these quilts so apologies in advance to all those who are not credited. This was a beautiful wholecloth hand quilted in the Welsh style by Hazel Ryder for her 25th wedding anniversary. Stunning!

Alexandra Rankin calls this design Indian wedding ring. It was foundation pieced and then all the applique, Celtic knots and quilting were done by hand. She says herself it was 'a challenging quilt'!

This quilt isn't really a prize winner (sorry Karen Hrbek) but I thought it was very good use of a printed panel. I think it appealed to me because it is very like the English medallion quilts, and the colours go together so well. Karen says she just 'started with the panel and worked her way out'! It certainly looks more planned than that!

Two things which struck me this year, were the number of landscape quilts and the use of photos. This hanging by Annie Eggink-Steenhoek is the 4 seasons. I'm sure you can work out which is which. She has used photos and printed images in a really meaningful way - they are part of the quilt design, instead of just photos surrounded by fabric, as can sometimes happen.

This quilt shows that the sampler quilt is alive and kicking!

This quilt made by Tracey Asplin was started by a pack of templates! She fussy cut fabrics to make all the different stars and hand pieced it in the car, on holidays and waiting for children! Apart from the superb choice of background colour, I like the way she has dealt with the tricky problem of the edge of a hexagon quilt. She has added bricks to allow them to float in a lush green field. Excellent!I have no idea who made this quilt, but I thought the marriage of the 'liberated' centre and the lively appliqued borders was perfect! This quilt, Fusion, is in fact a group quilt. Four people worked on it, and it's very suitable for today's trends towards self sufficency - and such an unusual design.

I was lucky enough to be treated to a view of the back of this fabulous quilt by Ferret, and it is even more beautiful than the front - if that's possible! The back is black, and all the feathers have been quilted in yellow, so there is a ghostly bird on the back as well! Thank you quilt angel for this opportunity.

This crazy quilt was sumptuous and must have been a delight to work on. A new quilt from a traditional idea by Fine Cell Work. The signature quilt isn't one often seen today, but the signatures on the stars are of important figures whose lives have some bearing on design, textiles and prison.It was hard to read them (unless one did complex acrobatics!) but here is Tracey Emin amongst others.While traditional quilts are my first love, I am firmly of the opinion that there is room for all in the quilting world, and enjoyed the many contemporary and art quilts too. This landscape quilt was lovely. You could just lose yourself in the scenery!

Another landscape - well, more of a map, really. Great colour choices.Ulva Ugerup calls this 'Fly out, dear Swedish ladies!' She has made applque and stitch portraits of famous Swedish ladies, not many I am able to recognise, but Anita Ekberg is the glamorous one in the top row.This was more of a shrine than a quilt, but Dorothy Crossley's 'Love Conquers All' looked great fun. It was for sale, but I didn't think my husband would be very pleased if I staggered home with it! The theme for the Young Quilters was Citiscapes, and there were many charming quilts made by individuals and school groups. This fantastic town in the air was made by Italian schoolchildren from Varese. Without wanting to detract from the achievement, I'm always wondering how much adult help or instruction went into it. Well, nevertheless, it's gorgeous!

Of course there were many exhibitions by professional quilters, but I couldn't photograph thier work, so what else did I do with my time? Shopping! Lots of temptation there! However, I was very good, and tried hard to buy only what I needed, and not what I wanted - tough with so many goodies on offer! I have never actually tried stack and whack, so bought a book on that. I bough some bargain red fabrics for a Christmas quilt I plan to start soon, some reproduction fabrics for my challenge quilt, including some V&A fabric which was all half price, threads, and tape to make cards or something. A great day, and lots of inspiration. Now for a pot of tea for twelve and a nice sit down!

Design problems

2010-08-16T10:30:00.005+01:00

I have recently redecorated my sewing room. Even though I only emulsioned the walls, it was a bit traumatic, as there was clearing, sorting, undercoating, glossing, filling and quite a bit of cleaning to be done as well, so it took me the best part of a week! I'm very pleased with it now, and it was an opportunity for a bit of rationalisation and a sort out. I even went through my UFO box and found these lovely trailing vines.

I had started them as borders to a Baltimore quilt, but got so fed up with them (it's all needleturned) that I gave up and finished the quilt as it was! Hating waste, I just put these into my UFO box and forgot about them. I suddenly realised that they would make the foundation of a great strippy quilt. I decided to make some flying geese for the other strips, and used a pattern from 'Schnibbles times 2' to make some nice 8" ones. Then I put it together.

There is too much cream here, and it doesn't go at all well. Back to the drawing board - or to the quilt shop, actually! I looked for a nice striped fabric, as I thought that would be a quick solution. I managed to find the perfect fabric in the sale for £3 a yard.

With the addition of a few flowers in pinks and purples I'm much happier with it. And I have had a great idea for finishing it. Well, not so much had an idea, but been inspired by Barb's idea. She had made a lovely doll's quilt, in a strippy design, and had used the same striped fabric for the top and bottom of the quilt as for the strips. Have a look at it - it looks great. I have some more flowers to add to the design, but feel as if I'm now cooking with gas!

The only problem now, is that I have three strips of flying geese in my UFO box, which is one more strip than I had before!