Oh dear

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

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!

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!

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

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

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

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!