Currently . . .

Basic

I am working on disappearing D9P pieces for a class I am going to teach. I have made a basic three fabric one and now am using precious pieces of Kona Bay and other Japanese style pints in a scrappier version. One more to come before I move on to the interesting bit, the variation which will be the chief focus of the class. However I will get the students to do a couple of basic ones from my fabric kits and they will be yet further strategies.
I'm using a border print for the borders

The start

Centre section done

Border print

Bonnies

Auditioning alternatives

Our Jackie Taylor Civil War quilts are coming along well. I am going to do Flying Geese borders and have elected to go for dark geese and paler skies. I shall quick piece four at a time and make four piles one for each border.

This one is  from Mavis who used pattern elements from a duvet cover as her feature fabric.

this is Fran's she quilted then joined sections. Next borders will be added quilt as you go.

From the retreat 03

Izzy's Christmas centrepiece

Mandy's plethora of immaculately pieced bright hourglasses.

Detail

Colette?? child quilt

Julie's woven jelly roll

Kathy's dachshunds from an Elizabeth Hartmann pattern

Julie's hidden wells type pattern from a jelly roll.

From the retreat 02

From Jill

Instantly recognisable as Julie's. Beautifully made.

Sue's for a soon to be born baby.

Not sure whose this but lovely Lberties.
Miriam's?

Detail - doing hexagons like this kooks lovely and avoids lots of problems.

Pretty one from Jill in 1930's fabrics.

Debbie made this one for a new baby to use as a playmat.
She's awaiting the name to go in the centre once known.

Sewing Day

Before the retreat we had our  bi-monthly Sewing Day at Lower Hardres, Usual Suspects and friends.. It is late being posted as my charger give up the ghost.

Judy O's shirtings quilt - just what a quilt shoukd be like.

Maggie has finished and longarmed the Ladybirds quilt. The spotted red ribbon trim is
 a lovely finishing touch.

I have bordered my disappearing 9-Patch; it needed pepping up. And I used up some of my stash.

From the retreat 01

Jill's Quilt of the Crosses in the making

Isabel's jelly strippy top, a quick way to achieve
a good sized quilt

Detail

Julie's Winding Ways in her signature colours

Detail

Isabel's Shadowed Squares in fabrics that work really well.

Detail

What I did on the Quilting Retreat

This was the third retreat of the year and five nights and days of sewing interrupted only by daily walks and shopping trips as there was a well stocked quilt shop locally. As I knew we were going to have two tables each I took major projects I wanted to move closer to completion. Some stages of quiltmaking are hurdles to get over I find and the long retreat days were the necessary push. I was one of the two packing up at midnight.

Row 4 ready to add

Top complete: most blocks constructed with templates.

I framed each Bonnie Blues block (2015 project) and trimmed to 14", then sashed them, sewed the rows and bordered with my focus fabric plus a thin strip of orange mitring the corners.  I am really pleased with the result and know my husband will like it as blue is his favourite colour. The top is wider than it is long because that is how it will go on our bed which has a footboard.I didn't want the house and mountain and bargello to be sideways on.
I also added two unpieced borders to the current Bonnie project, Jackie Taylor's Civil War pattern. partly to bring it up to a size divisible by three as the final border will be 1 1/2" by 3" flying geese.
I had to do quite a bit of partial piecing in the corners as I wanted o sew the cheddar and red strips together before adding them to the borders and the black cornerstones necessitated some juggling.

Working which sort of geese - I opted for dark geese on light sky to my surprise.

Awaiting final border: a very successful quilt, I feel.

In between these efforts I completed my own Split 9-Patch+ kit and sewed the top in preparation for a workshop next year.

My first arrangement of units

This was a group effort

Sewn together

Detail of lovely 1930's repro. fabrics

So time well spent plus good friends , exercise and fun.

QQ evening

Two weeks ago I finally managed to make it to a Quayquilters' meeting where we were sewing heart cushions but before we embarked on that we had some Show and Tell.

I think this may be Pauline's; she is digging out older projects to complete.
Wonderful redwork embridery.

This is definitely Pauline's. She has employed Rita's Whirlis to create a curved log cabin
butterfly.

This is Jan's very tasteful version of a Gail Lawther pattern. I like it better than the flaming
African sunset ones which most people opted for.

U3A October Project 02

Cut each pair into 1", 2", 3" and 4" strips.

Take the top fabric 4" piece of the first pair and place it on the left and then the
 other top fabrics in sequence from large to small. Then take the underneath strips
and intersperse them beginning with the 1" strip and then in sequence
from small 1" strip ending with the alternate 4"
strip on the left.
Sew together and press all seams towards the left hand navy piece.

Repeat for the second pair but press all seams towards the very light 4"
piece on the right.

U3A October project 01

Today we embarked on  a converge panel designed by Brenda Dean and published in Popular Patchwork in May 2018. 

You start with four 10" squares

And place pairs right sides together

Monday U3A

Led by Margaret the students had gone home to p[lay with disappearing four patches with lots of interesting results.

Inspired by YouTube

More variations

More again