Miss September

This is the September block for Siblings Together Bee 3.
It is 15" square and I am providing the centre 5" sq, (unfinished 5 1/2") and the grey background fabric. 

To make it you need (cutting unfinished sizes)
1. Centre square: 5.5"
2. Background grey: four 3" squares; four 3" x 5.5" pieces
3. Fabric A (orange here): four 3" x 5.5" pieces
4. Fabric C (yellow here): four 3" squares; four 3"x 5.5" pieces.

However I opted to strip piece so cut the centre square as above and then 3" x 22+" strips of fabrics A & B (as I was using scraps I had to use two 11+" of each!) 
and a 3" x 12"+  strip of fabric C (yellow here) and of the grey background.
Finally a 3" x 22"+ strip of the background grey.

The + sign means cut a smidgen more to allow for the strip piecing method.

Cut strips all ready to stitch

Method: First join Fabric A and C strips length wise (there will be an extra 12"+ Fabric C strip leftover).
Cut into 5.5" squares. 
Secondly make another strip set with the Fabric C strip and the grey background and cut into 3" x 5.5" slices.

My strip sets

Sewn and cut 

Thirdly add the C/grey slices to the remaining grey strip and sew as shown. Press to create four pieced 5.5" units.

Units added to
grey strip and sewn.

Sewn units ready to arrange

Arrange as follows and sew as you would any nine patch.. 
Pressing direction is optional as I shall add sashing.

Lay out

Sewn rows

The block - again.

Bonnie doings

Ugh!

Our recent session was making a small purse to put our clips in. I always seem to make a bodge of most 3D items - there have been thankful exceptions. This wasn't one of them. The tension on my machine slipped when sewing the body round the circular base and by the time I had unpicked and resewn fabric had frayed and I ended up with ugly gathers. It doesn't do justice  to the lovely sew all organiser bag lovely friend Stephanie made for me - she  has done over a dozen for friends, all so pretty and well made. 

From Stephanie

Sew lovely!

Dragonflies Day

The bi-annual Dragonflies Quilt Show is always a highlight and this year Maggie Breakspear is now a member so there are lovely quilts from her to see too.
The best bit for me was getting together for a photo opportunity with Maggie and Mary in front. of the quilt "Mary's Garden" Maggie and I made for Mary. Mary was thrilled with her quilt and we loved making it.

Mary's Garden

Me, Mary whose birthday is and Maggie who
quilted it on her Gammill and won a rosette at
Sandown for best computer aided long arm
quilting.

Tracy's work dominated the show but many members contributed to the success.

Tracy's Elizabeth Hartman
unicorns quilt with lots of
personal touches.

Lovely raffle quilts

More quilts on show and lots of well priced items to sell with
Maggie on duty.

Maggie's reduced size version of Stonefield.

Di Hawkins' improv. with
hand dyes. Improv. class with
Tracy Aplin. 

Suzanne Wheatley:
Paintbox Crossings
I always come back to
such traditional quilts.

Maggie Breakspear's African Rainbow and my
favourite.

Absolutely stunning pencils quilt made by
Tracy Aplin for a group challenge.

Lovely cake too.

Home and Away

At Bonnie's Fran showed this Sunbonnet Sue quilt top she made just for fun and to use up scraps. 
Having completed my Starry Skies quilt I want to empty the box so am making a second quilt from the leftovers. Needless to say I had to make extra blocks to make up the size.
Next it might be a doll's quilt!

Batik stars with gaps to fill - I did have two 6" stars to frame and centres for extra chain blocks so not too much work.

Starting to join the rows - 48" square

Lower Hardres Mile-a-Minute

We all met at Lower Hardres to enjoy lunch and sew together.
Jenny was sorting out wadding and backing for this super mile-a-minute crumb top. Lots of scraps used up and lots I recognise too.
She included a piece of yellow in every block for a more cohesive effect.

Laid out

Detail

FOQ 7

PP Forum Friends: Our rotund Romany Wife
A reworking of Jen Kingwell's "Gypsy Wife" using curves.

Claire Tinsley: Forever flowers

Teresa Summerfield: Mad Cow
Love the expressiveness of this; so successful

Moira Neal: Baatik Beauties
As in the title Moira's quilt have lots of funny details,

Snack Baa - get it?

Pascale Micalski:
Exquisite Corpse No.1
Pascale gave a talk at
the QG Region 2
Open Day. See 
my post for May 24th this year.

More from Moira

I'm afraid I don't 
know who made
this very graphic quilt

Elinor Beaven: Blue Arches 2 I like the
oblongness of this as well as the subtle colours

Pauline Cullimore: Ceska and the pomegranates

Picking up

Hanging up to dry

In my current mode of seeing things through to a finish, I added dark charcoal fabric to bring the back of my "map" quilt up to size. (Map quilt because the Westminster fabric used  looks like contours.) Then I sandwiched it and then just got on with walking foot quilting. I had considered having it longarmed but this is one to sell or give away so the added expense is not justified
As I had spray basted it  I washed it after quilting and before trimming. I zigzagged round the outer edge first.

The back - I used up all the extra pieces and
showcased the original fabric in the centre.

FOQ 6

I have lots more pictures from FOQ which I'll post intermittently from now on. In September I'm going to the Alsace show based in St Marie des Mines and neighbouring villages so that will be more visual stimulation.

PhD Quilt from Kent University
A future Oast tutor, Laura Thomas-Jenkins, was
involved in the making of this group quilt. She will teach us animal mosaics so I think her block must be top right.

Grey Line #1 by Sara Cook
Sara studies bojagi and is making work inspired by them. She
gave a very interesting talk on the subject at Oast last year.

This year she curated a
gallery exploring
contemporary approaches.

Janet Bottomley: Sleep beneath
the Stars. Since Janet came to
Oast I shall follow her progress
with interest

FOQ 5 and one or two more from the Modern Section

Marina Kontsevaya: Hashtag quilt
This won third in this section and was my personal favourite.
I liked the large scale graphic design, the choice of fabric
and the dense quilting worked here to create a
pleasing texture.

Detail

Kim Moran-Jones: Friends and Lovers
At first glance this looks very traditional and I like
the tactic of applying the hexagons rather than piecing them.
The contrast between florals and the improvised denim
background brings it into the modern/contemporary genre though and hand stitching is a feature of many modern quilts. There's even a whole section for handwork  at QuiltCon.
The title refers to the original owners of the jeans used!

Nicholas Ball: Triangle Study 3
Super quilt. I think it was second in the modern section.
This could equally be contemporary but many makers
like to associate themselves with the modern zeitgeist.

Mary Mayne: My day is complete
I always check out Mary Mayne's quilts. She can turn her hand to anything. Text is a big thing for modern quilters though usually more stridently political or feminist not contented as here. The use of negative/positive letters isn't obvious at first.

Tip Top

Yesterday there was a very fierce wind so we  didn't go for a walk. Instead I had a very productive day in my sewing room adding the last three borders to my Milky Way quilt top. I feel a real sense of accomplishment having started working on it and continuing without distractions till done. 

First the sea green

Then the wider white . . . 

And a final sea green

Today I'll seek out white wadding and the back I bought long ago.
It's on the bed because I've lost my usual spare room laying out floor as we've had to move out furniture after a radiator leak. New carpet needed too which is annoying.