Festival doings

As well as the Chris English workshop yesterday (see my "porthole"), I did another three hour hour class on Friday, this time with Sandra Johnson on  letters. It was such fun but also quite technical and focused. We all worked on the letter "O" as that is the most difficult. I met Sandra in Pasadena and hope to catch up with her again in Austin.

Another great feature of this show and a chance to sit down are the 1 hour workshops with experienced teachers and kits provided. I did Kantha stitching with Angela Daymond who will come to Oast next year.

My Kantha kit which also included needle and thread and muslin backing
squares

Angela's sample

My intial

Sandra with her denim quilt

Sandra's lovely and striking Freedom quilt, freedom her word of the year.

My "porthole"

Festival of Quilts Thursday

First day at Festival of quilts. I attended  a lecture by Nancy Crow which I thought was very interesting and engrossing.

Nancy Crow at the lectern

Slide of one of Nancys recent quilts

In the afternoon I did an improvisation workshop with Chris English  where we moved along at a brisk pace but also in a free and easy atmosphere. We were working towards making a porthole cushion cover, We all received a detailed pattern and I was pleased with the porthole technique which I'll return to,

One of Chris English's pieces

And a cushion with porthole

And a tryout piece which I love

At the end of the afternoon I went round the Traditional section singling out quilts by friends and ones of interest.

Let's fly a Kite by my friend Belinda Jeffries in the Traditional section of the Show

I like the strippy setting on this one:Fanciful Flowers by Kathleen Illingworth

Janet Wallace: Flowers in my Garden

Pippa Moss: Sanderson Star
The stars ares pieced as a single piece.

Margaret Mew: Miss Hitchens' Whimsey
(detail)  I loved the brightness of these
reproduction fabrics

Tracy Aplin: Queen Tracy's Crown
Tracy's adaptation of a Jen Kingwell design.

Another photo of Tracy's

Old friends

Three Cats Twisted Ssters leftovers tied with Shetland wool which felted when washed

Moon Over the Mountain

When I went to daughter's for our Golden wedding celebration I came across two old friends, quilts I handed over a long time ago

My current project

The current Bonnies project is a departure from the norm as it's a rotary cut jelly roll quilt from the stable of Pam and Nicky Lintott. I had a Bali Pop and background fabric purchased long ago but not all the fabrics were quite right so I ended up buying long quarters of a few more batiks. We pieced two 3-strip sets and used a large quarter triangle ruler to cut them into 8 triangles which in turn were pieced around an octagon which true to form we cut from a template The first one was partially pieced and then completed last. My fellow members are using yardage which is probably a better option.

Partial piecing

6 strips ready to go

Strip sets

Triangles

8 triangles with contrast arrangement

Pieced alternately

Queen Beez

Golden cake

At last the Queen Beez managed to find a day when we were all free and met up at Mary I's. It was the day before my Golden Wedding and I was treated to prosecco and a very special cake made by Maggie's daughter.
As ever we surveyed our current projects.

Mary's blue and white blocks from hte Oast workshop

Maggie's hexagons

Mary's hexagons

Gillian Travis Workshop

Gillian Travis came to speak at Oast. We were all amazed by the adventurous travelling she has done  and the creativity of her output. Sadly on the eve of her two workshops she was called away for a serious family event but she left samples, kits and worksheets behind.  Judi Kirk who was familar with her fusible reversible applique technique stood in and  gave an excellent demonstration and the people on my day produced some excellent work. I had always intended to view it as a technique not a project day (I don't make wall hangings) so having made full notes during Judi's presentation and collected Gillian's materials I proceeded to have a UFO day or rather work on my current Bonnies stint of sewing strip sets, cutting them into QST's  and making octagon wheels.

Vanessa's

Julia's

Lynne's

?

One of my monster blocks

Top done

I've finally sewn all those flying geese and added them on the borders of  last years Bonnie quilt: Jackie's chequers. Jackie White's pattern was rewritten to be made with templates (by me) and we all enjoyed the different blocks.