Snowball swap blocks

I took part in a batik "snowballs block swap online; half were to be black centres with batik corners and the rest vice versa. I swapped a lot but made more and ended up with 104 which turned out to be just enough for 4 tops. Here 18 batik ninepatches have been added to 17 black snowballs and a border added. I used a special red batik from Houston - I shared the end of a bolt with Judi. Now I am retired I am less inclined to hoard special fabric and used some even though I do not intend to keep this quilt - either for sale or charity (if it doesn't sell). I am planning a teenage group charity project for next year so any sales help towards costs!

Still on the subject of mystery quilts

Yesterday I went sewing in the Log Cabin and Alison produced her scappy version of the Smail's Trail mystery we did some time ago. She and Pat bought half yards and split them in two. I felt the instructions I worked out were only partially mysterious though I did my best to obscure the outcome but the quilts were great.

More lunching quilters

Here are three more in a larger size - the quilts, not the quilters! The effect of he different colours and shadings was just fascinating.

Quilters who lunch

Today I went to the annual lunch of a friendly quilt group - they have been making the mystery quilt I planned and brought them to show and tell. Some had finished before the final clue and devised their own arrangement which made interesting viewing. I loved seeing all the different fabrics.
As well as an utterly delicious lunch made by our hostess and family another member brought party favours - strawberry bonbons and a scented sachet, all very daintily made and presented.

Finish and Pincushions: little & large

This is my first major 08 finish, my largest version of the mystery quilt I planned for Quay Quilters. It's in Moda fabrics, mainly "Chocolat", and the diagonally printed border stripe was a precious find but was tricky to line up at the corners. I added a hanging sleeve and label ready for its display at Hever, the Quilters' Guild Region Two show in September.
The pincushions are Marion's and we were all given a ring and a pattern for each of the sizes.
The next sewing day will be our first dyeing day using Procion dyes rather than Dylon dye pots and we talked about preparations.

Crab & Winkle projects

Marion had completed two Linus Quilts, Pam was working on Hidden Wells, Mary was making a trains and buses hanging for a present and Maggie was adding borders to the mystery quilts. We all chipped in with advice!

Crab & Winkle's new venue

One of our members, Maggie, has had a specially planned workroom extension built on the side of her house. Work is still going on elsewhere but the workroom is now usable. We christened it today meeting for a day of working on our own projects and it was lovely to sit gathered round a big table with light on on three sides, baskets of beautifully organised fabric and surrounded by quiet arable fields. We left later than usual reluctant to depart.

Local Quilt Shows

For one week in July we were lucky enough to have three quilt shows mounted by local groups here in Kent UK - I went to all of them!
Here is Barn Owls, Whitstable, second prize raffle quilt, a lovely Japanese folded design, then a Chinese lantern quilt from Hearty Quilters, Maidstone and finally from Bears Paw, Burham,Karen Cuthbert's very snazzy friendship quilt. I hope the makers don't mind this selection - I've tried to select patterns that are in the public domain - but if they do let me know and I'll remove the image.

Machine Quilting

I'm quilting along the main seams of the quilt, horizontally, vertically and some diagonals using my lovely Singer hand turned 99K. I can be really accurate and it does a lovely straight stitch, seemingly no need for walking foot or dropped feed dogs. My Quay quilt was also quilted on this machine. On that quilt and this one I'll do the finer quilting by hand.