Feathered stars

I've posted my feathered star and Trish's: here are the remaining two.

Mavis's

Fran's

Bag day

Bag pieces

Having completed my sewing and being on track with my U3A prep. I thought I would make the bag from my Helen Howes fair copse samples. I've cut out the lining, wadding, handle and binding pieces and sewn the two sides ready to go.
In the evening we were discussing Frank Gardner's "Blood & Sand" a book which we all decided had made a deep and lasting impression. I spotted the cushions Elaine had made using blocks taught by Margaret at the U3A and she showed me a quilt of Margaret's she had completed and loved to have on her bed.

Cushions

Soft and comfy tied quilt

Done my stint

Our goal for Friday was a complete feathered star. I'm pleased I've finished mine which took all day as I was sewing with friends and doing lots of chatting.

Feathered star for quilt centre

Usual Suspects

After quite a gap I got to spend a lovely day with the Usual Suspects. Judi has quilted the top I saw last time we met. Belinda showed us a vintage quilt she has been asked to repair by a friend and neighbour. The design is so effective but I'm not sure I would have the patience for so much repetitive sewing. And to show I have not been idle I have got round to piecing my feathered star elements. It will be finished for Friday.

Feathered Star



Judi's asymmetric quilt

Vintage Ocean Waves?

Mood Indigo

We had a wonderful talk at Quay by Delia Copeland on indigo. She was so passionate enthusiastic and knowledgeable; it was lovely to see not just her own work but masterpieces from four corners of the earth, China, Japan, India and last but definitely not least Africa.

Indigo examples

Meanwhile having got some YLI invisible thread from New Threads at Malvern I have finished my small mat bag. The stitches really are invisible. Just when I thought I would never do another hexagon. The mat is a very snug fit. I wanted to do French seams but had to relinquish that idea. These are a mixture of simple marks and zen chic. The base fabric is a very nice heavy Japanese navy (indigo??) fabric. The darkness or lightness of indigo comes not from the length of time in the vat but from the number of dips.

The terracotta side

The turquoise side

Back from Malvern

We had a lovely weekend in Malvern staying at an excellent B&B and walking through a mass of buttercups to the nearby pub for a nice meal. I took only a handful of pictures before the battery ran out and the spare one was flat too so I messed up there.
I didn't have a quilt there this year but will try to do so next year. Anyway here are the ones I did take.

My U3A colleague's theme (diamonds) quilt with lots of exquisite detail and with a
mathematical interpretation with a quote about fractals.

Oast member Patty Schroll's "Bullseye" quilt
hand quilted by eye.

I liked this one!

"Raid on my Fabric Stash" by Lesley Bywater; "2" strips from each fabric
in [her] stash machine pieced around a central block in a log cabin
variation".

This quilting life

The past few days have seen a succession of quilt related activities.
On Friday Trish had completed our Bonnies stint just to make sure it worked; now we have to do ours.

Trish's feathered star

On Saturday it was Tracy Aplin's talk at Oast. She is one of our own and the audience really warmed to her and her dazzling array of quilts. Afterwards there was a mammoth Show & Tell.



S & T: great autumn palette



S &T: wonderful of Katharine Guerrier design

S & T: Gillian's blue delft

On Sunday Ranald MacKechnie, a professional photographer who lives on our road and is chronicling  its inhabitants came to take me and quilts.

Ranald at work

On Monday I went to Tracy's handpiecing workshop and enjoyed seeing some of her work close up.

This is the design we used

Tracy showing her quilt

Students' work at workshop

Today it was  the U3A Open when we showed students' work and talked to some of the 1000 plus Canterbury members and visitors. We listened to various music groups on and off during the day and ended with a ukelele recital and lovely singing from the choir from Abba to John Rutter.

U3A student pieces

Sue and me with lovely beginner blocks all perfect

Margaret's lovely work laid out.

QQ

At Quay Quilters last night Vanessa showed a wonderful house quilt she is working on and Pauline has done a class on Sashiko with Michelle of Fabric Fairy.

Keeping busy

I have been paper piecing hexagons for a teaching segment and these are to trim a bag for my small cutting mat. And I've started on this week's stint for the feathered star - tiny triangles to edge it.

Triangles and Marsha McCloskey's book



Starting to piece. Fabrics
Simple Marks with a dash
of Zen Chic!

Layout

A Bind

I have been joining sampler blocks quilt as you go using different fabrics for joining strips front and back. To make the binding match both I joined 1.25 strips together, passed them through a Clover binding tool and attached to the quilt. This last step  (still going round the sides interminably) is making the quilt look better to me.

The strips



The binding tool

On the quilt

Bonnies' feathered stars

The four of us have embarked on a new project instigated by Trish who is guiding us through the intricacies of   Kay's Star a design in Marsha McCloskey's book. We are all keeping in step and keeping to deadlines. First off we made the centre:

Mine using fabrics for a Web Fabrics BOM which I didn't make,



Trish's



Fran's:  her corners were waiting on guidance

Mavis's.

This week we started on the triangles to edge the star making them using a method that you find in books of a certain vintage but is rarely used perhaps because it's a way of making lots of same colour HST's rather than scrappy ones or a few. I wasn't convinced but it turned out to be quick and accurate partly because we ended up doing a little trimming down to the exact size.

 TWO we sewed the pairs along the
longest edge

THREE we sewed the pairs together in size
order

FOUR we cut 1.75" HST's using the bias
line on a square ruler  And FIVE sewed
strips of three units mirror imaged to measure
4.25" long

ONE We took two contrasting squares ironed right
sides together and cut into 2" diagonal bias strips.