Festival of Quilts 2009

I know there will be lots of posts about Festival of Quilts 2009 at the moment but I thought I'd share my memories. This was the quilt I entered in the art quilt section. The idea was to make something that was quite simple up close with the design becoming clearer from a distance. It took longer to design and draw out the zebras than to do the actual stitching. The one below was entered by my son and I can honestly say that I feel very proud that every stitch was done by him. It was called "Postcards from the Orient"


After teaching/helping over the whole four days I've had a croaky throat today and been incredibly tired. The children's workshop area was constantly busy and we even had a full workshop on Sunday afternoon. The children worked so hard within each two hour session to complete a project. I do have lots of photos of quilts but haven't had time to go through them yet. One advantage of working so hard was that I could get into the show at 8am each day, both to help set up and view the quilts.

I did manage to escape sometimes and have a look round. There were stunning quilts by Ferret, Sheena Norquay and many many others as well as all the competition quilts, but something that stuck in my mind was the restfulness and calm of the quilts by Ingrid Press, this is what Twistedthread wrote about her

"Ingrid works with cloth (which is often re-cycled) and fibre. She likes to arrange things - mainly in rows and grids. She sees beauty in repetition. Texture is also important and is achieved through dense machine stitching of the quilts and through the materials and weaving methods used when making her small vessels. Making things gives her a feeling of being connected to many generations of crafts people all over the world.She subscribes to 'Less is More' and tries to keep her work calm and rather simplistic, which is helped by the use of a limited colour palette."

The children's workshop area was right next door to the virtual studio enabling me to keep popping my head round to see the wonderful fabric being created, and to indulge in some retail therapy!!

Its been a while.................

I have just looked when I last blogged and can't believe it was May. Well I have been busy and managed to accomplish quite a few things. I have even been domesticated and made lots of jam, you can check this out on my husband's blog . My nephew's quilt for his 21st birthday (which was in March) is still on the design wall. It has now been promised him for Christmas or failing that in time for his 30th birthday!!

I've entered a quilt for Festival of Quilts (so has my son) which actually came together really easily. The designing and drawing took a long time but the stitching was completed in a relatively short time. Do you know the law according to Sod?? Well I normally don't have problems putting on a mitred binding but this time it didn't work and I didn't have time to take it off and do it again. After parceling both quilts up I spent an anxious 24 hours waiting to track the parcel after a not too helpful man at the post office took my hard work off me.

I'm just going to share a small section of the quilt so if you do see it at FoQ please let me know what you think -

I think this section looks a little obscure but you may be able to guess what it is of.

On a totally different theme I have been trying to use up some recycled materials, I had saved a whole stack of those dye catcher sheets from the washing machine. Most are the same grey colour but I had one which was purple (it came out of the machine with a navy shirt).

The stitching is loosely based on a photo I had of a field. I used some gold fabric paint in the top left to be sun rays and some white organza under that for a cloud. This followed the white area on the sheet which I think got folded in the machine. It was a quick little project which I enjoyed.

Both my boys are away from home at the moment (one on Scout camp & the other staying at Granny's house) so hubby and I went exploring today. After a very nice pub meal with mouthwatering white chocolate profiteroles for desert (well you do have to force yourself to eat things sometimes) we ended up on a fantastic beach at Old Hunstanton watching the most amazing kite surfers. There must have been about 40 in the water at a time and how no wires got tangled was amazing. This photo just doesn't show how sunny it was. It was also windy and I gave up trying to stitch as the sand was getting everywhere. I got lots of design ideas though....

Free Bag patterns

I have just been across to the Quilting Arts website (my favourite magazine) and noticed that they are offering a free ebook on bag making. All you have to do is register with the site, follow the clear instructions, and you get all of this as well:-

-Access to their blogs, forums, videos, and free stuff in the members only section of the website.
-A Quilting Arts Embellishments email newsletter filled with expert tips, techniques, and special offers

The great thing is that they keep your e-mail safe and don't pass it on to other third parties!

Bag making here I come so watch this space.

Home alone..........

For the past few nights I have been enjoying peace with the rest of the family visiting relatives in Liverpool. I have just had the call to say they are only an hour away hence this quick blog. I have done lots of stitching over the weekend but as yet haven't taken any photos. Instead I thought I would share the table runner I made for my mum's birthday, it is machine pieced with needle turn applique in the centre. The one below is obviously a Christmas one, this had painted lutradur appliqued pieces which seems to have survived the washing process.

The design is very simple and quick to stitch up, the only real tricky part is attaching the binding on the internal corners.

I have managed somehow to process onto the next module of my City & Guilds patchwork and quilting diploma, this is a distance learning course but with wonderful and supportive tutors. I am now planning my miniature quilt design but have never made anything miniature before. Anyone any tips??

How time flies.................

Despite my best intentions to blog regularly, real life seems to be getting in the way. Last Saturday was spent teaching at the Quilt Musuem in York. There was a group of seven children who made book covers in the morning and CD holders in the afternoon. Below is a picture of two of the book covers but I didn't get any of the CD holders. For the first time ever I forgot to recharge the batteries for my camera!!

The children really enjoyed a treasure hunt round the gallery following clues to look for "treasure". It was great as to solve clues they had to really look at quilts and notice lots of detail. There are currently two exhibitions at the musuem, the main one 'Pearls, Pearls, Pearls' celebrates the 30th anniversary of The Quilters' Guild of the British Isles. I was impressed with the range of work shown, and was particularly drawn to a shibori quilted jacket by Di Goodison. In the smaller gallery was The Wholecloth Tradition which explores the techniques, history and motifs used in wholecloth quilting, concentrating on the North Country wholecloth style. On display were several pieces of Amy Emms' work, including a small case of her tools and some smaller pieces. If you go to visit look at the quilt hanging on the wall by the bed. It was made by Amy Emms having been commissioned by The Quilters Guild, if you look closely it has a whole section of the quilting design that has been missed out, still beautiful stitching though.

On a more down to earth note I have finished quilting my shibori, it just needs binding, hopefully a picture will appear later this week I also made this book cover in a loosely convergence quilt style technique -

My quilt group has what is called a silent auction tomorrow evening. Basically people bring items they no longer want and an empty envelope is placed by them. If you want to bid you just write a price on small paper, putting it inside, the top bid them wins the item. Normally I manage to come away with some interesting threads, fabrics so I let you know of any success.....

Patter of tiny feet

Yesterday we had the tiny patter of newborn feet. Mum is a bit photo shy and protective of her babies. One girl (back) and one boy (front).

May Day

My day job is as a supply teacher and this past two weeks has been manic, I had forgotten what it is like to work each day. I had also forgotten what 29 four year olds can be like! Normally I wouldn't expect work the first week of term so I got lots of fabric from Doughtys to dye, its still sitting in the bag!! I am back to the same school this week and off to the farm on Thursday with them. I have promised DH that I won't return with anything living!! We have got quite a menagerie including cats, chickens, rats (of the pet type), goldfish and goats so really don't need any thing else.

I have however managed to do some stitching on my shibori sample,

Its not too easy to see on this photo but I am hand stitching in a spiral shape. Its a mix of machine and hand. I haven't done any hand stitching for a few months so I am a little rusty. Most of my stitching this week has been name labels on everything from socks to sweatshirts as DS is on Scout camp from tonight. The labels won't stop him losing things, they just make sure things get returned.

I have also done some machine quilting on the dragon quilt, just a few blocks to go now...

I thought I'd also just share this picture of Simba, falling asleep during his piano practise!

I'm just about to watch PS I love you so hope its not too weepy so I can continue stitching...........