Antimacassar

Having made an antimacassar for my husband's chair I've made a companion piece for my own.

Linus squares top

At the Guild AGM there was a room given over to the Linus project and I spent Friday morning there and started on a set of squares. It gradually dawned that they were NOT all cut to the same size so this is not a masterpiece. At home I did some trimming and concentrated on getting the beginnings and endings of rows in the same place and not stressing about the other seams. I also lost the correct sequence at some point and because the pale fabric had directional trees  I felt resewing would be too much. However whilst I was counting this as a completed top I don't think 36" is wide enough so I shall add a border..

Crab & Winkle meet again

Country Roads

Contrary Wife



Marion's further sample








We met at Pam's for our Crab & Winkle get together last night and among other things Marion showed us yet another sample in very pleasing pale colours she has made for the Stack & Slash workshop which I am planning to do. I cannot resist these quick and easy (I hope) projects which I usually do as charity quilts.

Mary has made a superb quilt for the batik challenge at Sandown but I won't show this till nearer the time. Meanwhile I have still been distracted by Spring sitting outside and reading Alan Bennet's "Not like other people" for book group, much enjoyed and rereading Sara Davidson's "Loose Change" a book about herself and friends at Berkeley in the 60's and the decade that followed. I found I had less patience with the protagonists than the first time - crusty middle age.  However I completed Contrary Wife and Country Roads blocks for the Farmer's Wife project.



Marion's tessellated quilt

Distracted by Spring

Bluebells peeping forth

City Centre cherry tree

Farmers Wife 21 & 23
We are enjoying very warm days here in Kent UK at the moment and this is a very colourful time of year in the countryside and in our gardens. A sight everyone should see if only once is massed bluebells in dappled shade. We went to Rye to see friends yesterday and left early so we could go for a walk in the woods. The bluebells are only just emerging so a later trip is called for. Because of the weather I have been sitting outside and not sewing but today I did my homework: courthouse step blocks for a group quilt and these two Farmers Wife blocks. When I got back from Exeter I spent the whole week getting papers and files in order. I am an inveterate keeper of records and had allowed a backlog to build up. I can no longer keep the runs of magazines I used to so am tearing out the bits I want to keep and these are all filed under various headings. And then there the records of my own quiltmaking plus workshops, group activities, design inspirations and all the attendant photos. At some point these will all have to be thrown out willy nilly but in the meantime they are important to me.

Group days

Valerie's latest block




Marion's latest project

 

Cut and slash class sample

Before the Conference The Usual Suspects met and Valerie showed us her latest 18" sampler block made in a class with Jenny Hoyle.
Valerie has chosen to hand sew.
On Monday I drove straight from Exeter to the Crab and Winkle sewing day where we are working on a second group quilt but no photos yet as it is in a rather messy state at the moment. I chose the general layout so I'm very much hoping it will be all right on the night. It certainly threw up a lot of logistical problems.
Anyway Marion has made a playful sample for the requested stack and slash workshop which I plan to sign up to and she's made a mini version too not shown here. The other quilt was prompted by a gift of unused triangles and lots of scraps. I hope she'll lead a Crab and Winkle session as I too have lots of strips.

Guild Conference

B/W Gala Dinner

Gallery - here, Susan Denton

Redwork sample in class

Lecture - early quilts by Pauline Burbidge (L) and Michael James (R)

Campus with Cathedral in the distance

I went to the Quilters' Guild www.quiltersguild.org.uk/ Conference in Exeter this weekend and had a great time. The scenery I drove through was wonderful especially when Stonehenge loomed into view. Joen Wolfrom http://www.joenwolfrom.com/ was the guest after dinner speaker and was startled to find herself standing to speak at 10pm. I attended a wonderfully thorough class with her on Sunday and have come home enthused and eager to try out colour concepts.
I also went to a half day redwork class where Jeanne Stetson, http://www.swq.org.uk/articles/200908amyemms.php the tutor, had designed a project with a West Country theme, a famous Dartmoor landmark though I opted for apples.
One of the best things was a talk on the history of the Guild by Jenny Hutchison of Strawberry Fayre http://www.strawberryfayre.co.uk/ and founder member, not a promising subject but so many memories of past times we all remember, gentle humour and some wonderful quilts including two by early givers of classes, Michael James and Pauline Burbidge stll prominent today. Photos brought home how we pass from youth to maturity and then age.
The traders were well chosen. Cowslip Workshops fabrics were to die for and I bought two books from the Home Workshop, Two for One Jelly Roll quilts  http://www.quiltroom.co.uk/acatalog/The_Quilt_Room_Books.html
 and Bonny Hunter's Scraps and Shirttails Quilts II. http://quiltvil.startlogic.com/store/page5.html
Now I'm putting everything away but plan to finish the Linus sewing I brought home with me as soon as possible and to apply colour theory to the next bag I make for our Quay Show, starting small!

Courthouse steps

Crab & Winkle are making a lap quilt with panels and Courthouse Steps blocks. To check our measurements I made a little prison baby top 24" square. The measurements were right!