Enjoying Festival of Quilts

 I was stewarding the Traditional Section on the first day and also could enjoy the two person quilts on the other side of the aisle.

Meghan Arnold: The Spike

Detail: What an interesting pattern

Bamboozled by AitchBee and Daisy May Quilting: just amazing

Detail of Snow Drops by
Eileen Swart 

My friend Belinda Jeffries' Roundabout

Frances Meredith: Grassy Creek
This is a Bonnie Hunter 2020 mystery pattern

Detail

Rings of Stars by my friend Tracy Aplin in her trademark bright colours
 and celebration of colourful scraps

Sewing Set Up

 Not only is what was my son's bedroom now a dedicated sewing room but I set up a temporary annex in our spare bedroom where I'm able to have my design wall up and piece on my Pfaff while the Janome is set up for quilting in the sewing room cabinet.

I've unearthed a 2018 workshop project - Modern Log Cabin with Mandy Munroe -and put work so far up on the wall. I like the blocks so much I plan to start 11 more and keep going the rounds till I run out of the lovely background print. The pattern was for 15" blocks but I don't know if I will manage to get that big.

Chartham Hatch Sewing Day

 Five  Usual Suspects and Sandra met for a lovely day of sewing together. I cut out sashing pieces for my Siblings Together bee quilt but had to delay joining all till I decide on sashing posts later. 

We saw some lovely work and Judi (Kirk) showed us her most recent teaching project in preparation for a Quilters' Guild day which some of us will sign up for.

Judi with the aubergine version

The rings in both quilts use the same fabrics

And another variation

Tracy's (3rd?) housetop quilt this time in 
Liberties in progress

Ethelburga Quilters' Show

 

This took place in St Ethelburga's Church, Lyminge, the first weekend in July. The group is run by Liz Coleman who can be seen at the entrance greeting visitors. There was a one way system leading to the exit on the opposite of the building. There were masses of quilts with most being draped over pews which sadly doesn't show individual pieces off to advantage though it did make for a very colourful overall effect.

Liz Coleman

Julia Freeland

Sue Maudling

Linda Wilsher; The Storm at Seas were all
made in a Zoom class with Judi Kirk

Liz Colman's in Liberties

All three, the third by Julia Freeland

Christmas display

The group quilt using motifs based on recent
archaeological finds made locally.
Meanwhile on the village field re-enacters fought and displayed Anglo Saxon crafts.

Serendipity X Factor workshop

 Saturday 3rd July was a very good day beginning with a 8 am - 11 am workshop with Brenda Gael Smith then a trip to Lyminge for the Ethelburga's Quilt Show in St Ethelburga's church (next blog post), Anglo Saxon battle re-enactments and a very jolly lunch where the three tablefuls all chatted to each other and shared a young girl's birthday cake. Then home where I completed my samples with Wimbledon in the background and in the evening England won 4-0; the second half was the one time I've actually been able to enjoy watching them play. I'm usually on tenterhooks but 4-0 seemed a fairly comfortable cushion. 

Workshop samples

I made the samples but having made Sujata's windmills am going to opt for the "Suzani" nine patch cross: the centre square makes assembly easier and I prefer it. It's a layer cake friendly design and I am using a treasured Carolyn Friedlander Carkai layer cake. As I think I will like this quilt 42 squares aren't enough so I shall cut out more from my stash during the Usual Suspects Zoom tonight.

Light medium and dark layer cake piles

Cutting extra squares

Windmills

 Despite the need to get on with longstanding UFOs I still get waylaid by the prospect of Zoom workshops with favoured practitioners. This time it was Sujata Shah and Windmills under the aegis of the Quilters' Guild. The class was in our afternoon and the blocks with her hints and tips went together so fast I decided not to stick to samples but to push ahead with my hand dyes and make enough for a colourful baby quilt.

Layering fabrics and transposing in stack and slash mode:

Centre fabric swapped out

Untrimmed finshed unit

And the top:

Setting out units

I found it helped to make a pressing diagram as I sewed in four patches with the seam allowances unpicked and the seams swirled.

This evolves as I go along.

Her book (she doesn't plan another one) is fantastic value with lots of projects, ideas and variations. I want to make so many of them. 

On the bed in July

 Here is my Westminster Chimes quilt summery looking but weighty enough for these chilly nights. The sashing took a long time to make. I was inspired by a Kaffe Fassett quilt in the Cotton Patch booth at Festival of Quilts. I think the pattern was from his Quilts en Provence title though I expect I resized the blocks especially as they use centimetres which doesn't suit my quilt rulers or 1/4" seam allowance.

 

Give and Take

Over two late night sessions (11 am - 2 pm) I undertook Tara Faughnan's Give and Take workshop which turned out to be quite a stretch. Construction was not technically difficult though there were many design decisions and many adjustments including unpicking as I went along even though I had simplified matters by limiting my main fabrics to two. Grey plus grey!!

All went on my ad hoc design wall before machining a stitch.

Here is the top for pressing

and folded up and sandwiched awaiting quilting by machine and hand.

Happy Animals

 I don't think I've ever had as few as 1 post in a month. July has crept up on me but it's not for lack of sewing.

On the 12th June Oast held its first face to face workshop for 15 months; it was an in house one when Liz Melville shared her happy animals patterns, both farm and British wildlife. Most of us started with the donkey.

Student work

Student donkeys

And other animals

Mine was made in non realistic colours with details completed at home.