Quilt as you go Houston Stars 3

Place the block with joining strips right sides together with the adjacent block and join, sewing along the top joining strip with a quarter inch seam. Press! Doesn't that look nice! Note the back is still to do - see next post.

Quilt as you go Houston Stars 2

I machine quilted in the ditch with a walking foot and still with the walking foot added joining strips to the back and front of blocks. The top strip was one inch wide and single thickness and placed right sides together. As I was using the walking foot I marked the sewing lines a quarter inch from each edge. The white strip on the reverse was cut one and a half inches wide and folded over and placed on the back of the block with the raw edges at the edge of the block. Both were pinned in place and I attached both at the same time sewing through all thicknesses. Then the top strip was pressed forward.

Quilt as you go Houston Stars 1

Preparing the Blocks: The block is layered with wadding and backing, then secured with tacking or pinning before sewing around the edge one eighth of an inch inside the seam line. I used a looser tension and longish stitch for this. Then the blocks were trimmed to the unfinished size.

Log Cabin on the bed

This is an early quilt (mid 90's) and some not all of the fabrics have faded dramatically, nothing to do with cost or where bought, so that the outside of the block is not necessarily darker than the cemtre strips. Unlike most of my quilts it has polyester wadding and is quite cuddly. I handquilted round every strip.
It was started in an adult education class with Lee Brown when Inger Milbern was unavailable and I planned to incorporate two block colourways. In the event the combination looked awful so I made two quilts, this one in straight furrows.

Houston stars

Gwenfai Rees Griffiths' pattern for Houston Stars came out in the British Patchwork and Quilting magazine over several months in 2002. I began it then but there was a mistake in the first month's instructions and, discouraged, I laid it aside only to take it up again when four of us Log Cabin Quilters decided to make it our project and all of us needed the encouragement and urging of the others to get on and keep up. At last the end is in sight. I have pieced my centre, just borders to add. I have used Christmas colours but show Mavis's blocks in lovely pinks. The blocks have been joined using quilt as you go techniques and I'll show some photos of this process in forthcoming posts.

Vintage quilts on the bed

I love the green and white Roman Stripes quilt I made in a workshop with Jean Ball here in Kent but it doesn't cover the gap where one bed slides under the other so I used the 1900 quilt I bought at FOQ as a partner. My grandson was thrilled when I told him he was sleeping under a hundred year old quilt. The vintage element of the G/W one is the collection of green apron type print fabrics 36 inches wide bought at a craft fair. The size of the quilt was determined by the amount of this fabric. The trimmings from the strip sets were used for the border and I handquilted it using a pattern from "Quiltmaker". It's called apron strings as the cotton prints are reminiscent of the aprons my mother and grandma wore.

Cluck cluck

I went to the U3A class this morning and Quayquilters this evening when we sorted out different values of blue for next years raffle quilt. The combination of blues and a cream background should prove a winner.
Last time we met one of our members was making chicken doorstops while another had made an impressive rooster. They got together in the course of the evening!
I also chatted to a friend about the Paducah situation and learnt of a new posting on the net. Having checked this out, I am feeling more hopeful. I loved my last trip and feel the town of Paducah really deserves the show as they make us feel so welcome.

Quilt Show purchases & Paducah worries

Right until the very end of the Knitting and Stitching Show my fabric purchases amounted to 2 FQs only but right at the end I succumbed and bought 5 half metres (56 inches wide no less) of plains for a very reasonable price with charity quilting in mind. I wash all my fabrics so here they are on the line.
I've been restrained partly because of a planned trip to the AQS Show in Paducah next year and have paid for my room at the Executive Inn up front via the lottery they held in the early summer and received a confirmation. Now I am reading in the Kentucky local press online that all is not well with the hotel and its new owner and wonder what is going to happen. I'm certainly not booking any flights just yet and wonder if the show can go ahead if the hotel isn't functioning. They certainly don't answer phone calls or emails though the closure is supposed to be for refurbishment. Given the present financial climate I am wondering whether I'll see the money or the accommodation.

Fine Cell Work

Speaking of prison baby quilts, Fine Cell Work had a booth at Alexandra Palace. They were reluctant to allow photographs so here is the front of their brochure. Fine Cell Work holds quilt and other craft classes in some prisons including HMP Wandsworth, a male prison and home to some quite tough customers. The quilts and other items sell for highish sums and a proportion is kept by the maker which is useful for them on release. Also the soothing and calm activity must make the long hours confined to cells morebearable and perhaps is a pointer to time usefully spent once on the outside. I used to work in a prison which makes this a cause dear to my heart.

Yet another mystery quilt

After my day at the Knitting & Stitching Show, which incidentally is organised by Twisted Thread the organisation behind The Festival of Quilts, I went to our Crab & Winkle Group meeting where Marion handed me the mystery quilt she made which is destined for a prison baby, yet another colourway and very effective. It's great to see how much local quilters have taken this cause to heart.

Knitting & Stitching at Alexandra Palace

Today I went to the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexander Palace high on a hill with trees on the slopes shading into autumn colours and inside magnificent architectural details and lots to delight: traders of course but also lots of booths displaying the work of textile artists, students and craft guilds. There were also gallery settings of work by particular makers or groups.
The show seems to reflect the current crafty passions with hand knitting to the fore this year.

While on retreat during the Hever Show Jennie showed us how to make a small pocket or pouch. I didn't make one at the time as I hadn't brought any spare materials but did make one when I got home. I need to have another go as I used heavy vilene but would prefer wadding and I had planned to have little frogs on one fabric peeping out as a feature - they've landed up on the bottom.
Meanwhile Quay Quilters have a-make-something-in-a-particular-colour challenge ; my colour was blue so this will do for that.

Yet more mystery quilts

I enjoyed seeing the effect of individual fabric choices.

More mystery quilts

I knew I'd given the group leader the mystery quilt instructions and there were lots of examples at the show yesterday. Here are four; more later. I was expecting seven visitors today, over here from downunder but the weather has been so terrible they've put it off till tomorrow. No bother to me as I've made the lamb casserole so will be just as ready to go tomorrow when I hope the weather will be better and they'll have a safe journey. I shall get on with machine quilting my "Houston Stars" in the ditch instead and listen to the classic serial on Radio Four. Then we'll go to the university cinema to see Mamma Mia, last showing.

Splitting the ninepatch: further examples

Today I went to a group show in Aldington Village Hall and was pleased to see this purple quilt made by Jean P. who was in one of the Split ninepatch charity quilt workshops. Alongside I've uploaded another one in black and white made by Jean C. seen at another local group show. I don't know the maker of the B/W one but believe one of the worhshop attendees showed her the technique. It's pleasing to see them made in adult fabric choices.
I know Jean P.won't mind me showing her quilt here but if Jean C. should object I'll delete the image.
For information about this technique see my posts from September 30th 2009 onwards. My source was Nancy Brenan Daniel's Slice 'em Dice'em book which gives masses of different techniques besides this one. I changed the sizes and one or two instructions for mine.

HONEY BEE

A classmate at Quay Quilters was using this floral background fabric for her sampler quilt back in the mid nineties. I wanted some too and hot footed it to a local shop to buy some. She dropped out of the group shortly after but I used my fabric to embark on a honey bee qult inspired by one in the American Museum in Bath where the Honey Bee blocks were alternated with plain alternate blocks with swags in the border. I sewed my honey bees in course of some worldwide travels and then decided they needed some flowers so filled the alternate blocks with applique planned so the quilt could be used anyway up. Time dragged on but this week I have sewed the blocks together and used the remaining fabric to add a border. I was going to add yet more applique on the border but this project has gone on long enough and the background fabric now appears drab (serve me right for my initial envy) so I shall save my rare applique efforts for a brighter project.

Splitting the ninepatch

Here are some examples of quilts using this technique. More can be seen in my Webshots charity quilts album:
http://community.webshots.com./user/quayquilter

Splitting the ninepatch tutorial 2

Now take the 7" squares and draw a diagonal line from from one corner to the other on the wrong side and place on your quarter ninepatch right sides together so that the line passes from side piece to side piece and doesn't pass through the ninepatch centre square.

Sew quarter of an inch on either side of the drawn line. Press flat to set seams then cut along the drawn line, open out, press again and you have 8 pieced squares, 4 with "handles like baskets and the other four with "snowballs". These can be combined together in quilts or used in separate quilts to create masses of patterns, whether arranged as blocks of medallion style or in log cabin type arrangements.

I show two slightly different pictures of the different steps just for reinforcement!

Splitting the ninepatch tutorial 1

I used nine 5 inch nickel squares for the ninepatch, 4 for the corners, 4 for the sides and 1 for the middle. Later I'll need four 7" squares.
Once sewn I cut the ninepatch across the middle vertically then horizontally.