Quilters' Guild Coffee morning

Members of the Quilters' Guild from our neck of the woods got together this morning to chat, show and tell, make a heart decoration (I will make more), hold a raffle where the donations were wrapped - we all won something and most inportantly enjoy Pam's cheese scones and other baked goods.
Cilla showed us her quilt made in a workshop where participants sewed and flipped strips on telephone directory pages (oh bother I've just thrown a defunct one away!). It looks very enjoyable to do. The back was also stunning in a quite different contemporary way thanks to the fabric and piecing chosen and the quilting on the front formed a pleasing design on the back. Caryll who visits South Africa had used da Gama indigo fabrics and scrap golden yellow squares to make a lovely quilt all sewn by hand apart from attaching the binding.

Cilla's quilt

Caryll's quilt

Baskets sorted

Here are my basket blocks sorted out with sets of six on the left and "rejects" for me on the right. Now the swap blocks are all packed up ready to post when I go to Houston for the show.

More baskets

I've made another batch of baskets trying to make them more scrappy and differentiated. I'll get out my first lot and try to make a good selection for the swap, probably omitting the red and black ones.

U3A

The U3A group were playing with half square triangles yesterday though in retrospect I haven't taken many pictures.

For myself I have walking foot quilted the inner part of the blue square quilt and this afternoon have been wrestling with marking the borders for hand quilting, the corners proving very tricky and I still have one to do.

Quilters' Guild Birthday Party

Our table's sample

Carol's sample

Carol's work - detail

Quilters Guild birthday party today. It wasn't a very big affair but I like the fact that a cross section of quilters get to meet. In fact it was at this event last year that the quilting party for Houston got together and laid their plans. Anyway we worked on oblong Cathedral windows, showed and told, held a raffle where everyone one won a prize and ate birthday cake. We arranged our date for next year and laid plans for future events.

Add captionGillian's Show & Tell

Margaret's Show & Tell

Anne's Show & Tell - HST's

Made by Gillian's daughter,
Deborah Kemball

Banbury workshop with Sally

Sally's sample blocks

Needleturn applique was a very good choice for a Quilters Guild Traditional Quilters' Group weekend and Sally Stott has great expertise gained over many years and with many teachers so we benefited from from our morning with her. We had a choice of projects and she demonstrated to small groups of four but in the meantime we all had plenty to do tacking our patterns into place so no longueurs. It was lovely too to see examples of her work.

Sally with her quilt

TheHawaiian  pattern I chose

Banbury workshop

One of the half day workshops was with Leslie Harwood who hails from the USA originally. Her class was the only machine one and the subject was precise piecing which was certainly a characteristic of her own work which was immaculate. We used foundation piecing to make a house block but the real purpose was to demonstrate a method which involved very little fabric wastage. Her accuracy and precision enabled her to make some exquisite miniature quilts which she passed round.

Leslie with her quilts

Leslie's miniature with delicate beading.

Leslie's bright houses

My class sample

Made with charitable intent

Two small quilts just completed, the purple one made from surplus scraps from a 1996 quilt.  For the bears I turned the back to the front in lieu of binding. It's less stable but has a nice soft feel. For babies somewhere. As I had just the right size of fabric I originally cut white backing for the Purple Star too but it looked awful and I found this perfect FQ which makes the quilt reversible.

Purple Star 15.5 x 18.5 inches

Back of Purple Star

Baby Bears 18 inches square

Back of Baby Bears

Usual Suspects Show & Tell

Belinda's ongoing takealong hand pieced project

Belinda's partly assembled K. Guerrier quilt

Tracy's selvages

Having seen Belinda working on her hand pieced stars wherever she goes it was nice to see so many assembled on the bannister and the Katherine Guerrier scrappy stars quilt blocks too as all the ones done in her workshop have a different look because of differing fabric collections. Belinda's has inspired me to buy a lot more modern pastels. Judy has finished her quilt from donated blocks with super Ferret feathers. It's looking good. I'm collecting selvages too so I was interested to see how Tracy has used some of hers. It may be a good idea for kitchen cushions as I imagine the construction would be quite hard wearing.

Judi's quilt from donated blocks

Get Together

Our framed blocks next to Belinda's Katharine Guerrier quilt

Today the Uusual Suspects got together unusually  to work on a communal project. Its eventual destination will be as a fund raiser for Alzheimers - the plan is to cover the Scottish International football field with quilts either for auction or donation. http://www.annhillquilter.co.uk/alzheimer-quilt-project-free-quilt-patterns.html
Inspired by Nancy http://nancynearphiladelphia.blogspot.com/2011/09/inspired-by-mr-mussorgsky.html we used Cherrywood scraps for mile a minute blocks which we bordered with aubergine fabric. We plan to join them quilt as you go with grey and red sashing posts but not yet. Houston beckons.

Banbury Retreat

The lady and the Cross

Traditional Quilt Group Banner

Just back from a weekend retreat in Banbury, Oxfordshire, home of the famous nursery rhyme" Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross/To see a fine lady upon a white horse/With rings on her fingers and bells on her toes/She shall have music wherever she goes.

UFO Night

Last night at Quay Quilters most of us brought in unfinished projects. I was slow getting going with my camera so all I have is Mags' jelly roll quilt. She is stuck for a border not having enough jelly roll or background left.

Mags's jelly roll UFO

I cheated and took in an unfinished project of my mother's which is so far unfinished by me. One for my daughter??
Tomorrow I am off the the Traditional Quilters Group retreat - three different workshops by three different tutors and hotel accomodation in Banbury.

Heather's cactus pots

 I am making these for a swap. I was going to stop when I reached my quota but having reread the "destructions" I plan to sew a couple with more contrast and some with more mixed up fabrics to fulfil the requirements. I have been thinking of these as basket blocks but the Heather http://www.flickr.com/photos/heather-hasthorpe/ whose project inspired our swap calls them cactus pots which sounds more accurate. I notice one in the photo is upside down, a sign of how undifferentiated the patches are. We are using 30's repros with 40's allowed. However when I go on to make more for myself, like Heather I'll use a wider range of fabrics - plains and other oldfashioned prints. My mother has left me me quite a collection. I don't think Heather can have finished her quilt yet - it's not on her photostream.

U3A Class



A Quilt by Margaret - colours not very accurate

I went to help at the U3A class this morning when students tackled half square triangles. Margaret brought two superb log cabin quilts she had made. Her work is so precise and her quilts definitely have her own individual stamp on them. It's a very nice easy going group of more or less beginners.

Margaret's Show & Tell

Ready to sandwich

Here is the blue squares quilt laid out.
Now I have to sandwich and baste.

Saturday Quilt Show

It's wonderfully pleasantly hot on the first day of October and I set off with Alan to visit a small local quilt show in Hawkinge on a hilltop overlooking Folkestone on the channel coast. Then a quick supermarket shop and  picnic elevenses on the edge of the downs overlooking the Channel Tunnel entrance. Lots of activity with trains, passenger and freight, coming and going. Then Alan navigating and me driving along narrow deep Kentish lanes home.