More from our weekend

I didn't get as much sewing done as I expected but didn't mind as I enjoyed the company and sense of relaxation engendered by few tasks and the beautiful and tranquil surroundings. A Little Owl came to sit on an adjacent tree trunk every afternoon and rabbits abounded. A green woodpecker appeared and other birds which we couldn't decide whether they were young pheasants or quails, perhaps the latter as I would expect the pheasants to be bigger by this time.
I did cut out the pieces for my first U3A class and worked out the layout and cutting for yet another stack and whackery quilt. The third one is now handquilted and ready for binding and washing. All this started at a class in Sisters with Judy Johnson, a wonderful teacher who showed us a very ingenious way to layer the repeats.

Stack and whackery squares

Valerie hiding behind her nine patch.

Autumn colours



My camera didn't have enough zoom to properly capture Little Owl atop the log.

Away for the weekend

I am away for the weekend having a lovely time sewing with friends.

Belinda with her Storm at Sea block, started in a class with John Flynn

Tracy's pineapple top starrted in a class with
Anita Grossman Solomon

Three ladies sewing

Judi's modern quilt blocks laid out on a background.

My foundation pieced flying geese which took a long time.

Tracy with the hot water bottle cover she made using Liberty fabrics

Just My Size

The Just-My-Size frog blocks were made using Dorothy Young's method which I learnt doing her mystery quilt a year or two ago.  All together they were too much so here they are combined with stripy fabric. I still have to quilt the other lot all sandwiched and ready to go at home. Some of the blocks were made by folk attending the Usual Suspects retreat.

The back

Close up

Oldfashioned Nine Patch

The U3A ladies practised machine quilting these in two continuous patterns and joined the quilted blocks by sewing the frames together on the front by machine and by sewing down the overlapping background fabric by hand.


The completed quilt

,

Section of blocks

Detail of continuous line quilting, two patterns

Mile a Minute



U3A Mile a Minute Linus Quilt

Wine tasting in a French vineyard

The MAM quilt is the blocks from the first U3A workshop that I assembled. I mitred the border and used a strip fabric for extra effect for the setting triangles. I felt the blue setting blocks were too bright but I limited myself to my stash so it had to do.

Below you can see me on the 8km (5 mile) wine walk we did yesterday where we tasted (not quaffed) 8 wines at four very different stops along the way from 8 different growers. We were provided with a glass and halter arrangement for it and various local delicacies were included too.
At the end we received our free very own vine which Alan will plant and we bought six bottles of beautiful 2011 reds including two from our favourite local grower and only woman of the eight, Marie-Pierre Raffault.

Chinese Coins Quilts

These little Linus quilts were also made with the U3A. I cut thin white cotton strips 12.5" by 3.5" and the students sewed and flipped oblongs and strings on them in various colourways. Two were joined to make a single strip and joining strips of single fabrics were cut. On the finishing day waddings were spray basted to the backings the strips sewed and flipped quilt as you go. I bound the quilts while on holiday and once the students have seen them they will be passed to the Linus Lady.

Spectacular stars

 

I first made this pattern in a workshop with Marion who had made hers in a group workshop led by Judi. I drafted the pattern again and theU3A students each made a segment using fabrics supplied by me, I made more and finished the 43" x 53" quilt, Another chartable donation.



detail

Autumn logs

The reverse

Autumn Logs 57" x 72"

This was started in a strings workshop. I assembled piles of strings with an Autumn colouring assorted roughly according to size. Attendees were given a 10" backing square spray basted onto cotton wadding. The students set the yellow strip diagonally in the centre with the help of a triangle template if need be.
The strings were placed right sides together on either side of the centre strip and sewn through all the layers, then flipped and pressed out till the wadding was completely covered. The square was trimmed again to 9.5" square keeping the yellow strip centrally placed.
In the next class pairs of students sewed sets of blocks together using  a 1" strip of fabric on the top and a doubled over 1 5/8" strip on the back. After the tops of the blocks were the joined the doubled strip was pressed over and hand sewn down. There's always a catch!
I made blocks too and joined the rows and added the top and bottom piano keys to bring the quilt up to a more standard size. It will be a charitable donation.

Last of the Dragonflies

detail of hand quilting

Val Busby's quilt, my Viewer's Choice, made with linens and precious scraps

Zoe's sweet hexagons perfectly displayed.