Region 2 visit to Maidstone Museum

 Twenty of us gathered for this Guild day out. They fill up quickly as it's a chance to go behind the scenes. We gathered in one of  impressive Victorian rooms which still sported a whole tall wall of glass fronted bookcases with elaborately bound volumes preserved inside.

Quilted petticoats. The black one was especially fine.
One of the organisers was especially interested in these.

Detail of silk patchwork
Stars seemed to be a single piece.
 Perhaps the surrounding diamonds
were appliqued to reveal the
central shape.

A log cabin quilt including many shirtings, some quite coarse fabric.

Seemingly random hexagons. Detail.

A quilt with plenty of use,

Detail

Wonderful turkey red setting

Taking a close look

Selected quilts lay ready to view and my group of 10 stayed to examine them more closely.

Then my group with the museum curator went up into a the store in a more modern part of he building. We saw racks of clothes many 20th century worn by Lady Brabourne, also smocks worn by most of the rural populaton and a soldier's jacket from the Crimean war, restored but still stained with blood from his fatal wound.

I remember those instruments of discomfort.

In the afternoon we sat in tables of five to make nifty thread tidies and chat. I still have to do the final step.

At home

 Sandwiching in progress

Modernish sampler which in its various stages has been in the making a long time.

On the bed.

I drew the border pattern (slght tumblers)
 and drafted the corner piecesmyself.

SchweShwe fabric used to make a Twisted
Sisters quilt using Ami Simms' pattern and
templates.

Quay Quilters' Show & Tell

 I took Indy's quilt to Quay and took pictures of the other quilts for the  group WhatsApp page.

Elaine's pieced block from an Ethelburga workshop.

Newest member with a hanging she 
hadmade using a cloak from a
production

Beginners with last week's block

Avril's unusual sampler quilt. Very interesting.

Heather was demonstrating needleturn applique; she explained it very well.

Also blocks are coming in for our group raffle quilt.

Ann's applique block

Avril's pieced block

Elaine's symmetrically pieced block

Lower Hardres Sewing Day

 13 of us got together to sew,not an unlucky number at all. We had a lovely day and showed some great work. I had got out  my Sweet Tea and Green Beans project thinking I only have 3 or so blocks to do and I should finish given how much work I have already done. I didn't make much progress but it's a start and I shall keep going now.

Here is our Show & Tell not including the dog blanket from my last post.

Sheila's from a Katherine Guerrier class

Becky's crochet

Tracy's using Penny Jeffries Blosma and Song fabric

Baby quilt gift by Mary 

And another one for a little boy who lives by the sea

Stehanie's brilliant baby gift,one pocket for the bunny; the other for
its clothes/

Judi's sewing room wall hanging; the patter on the machine is machine quilting.

Decorating

The decorator (our daughter) 

and her assistant are staying over during the week

and the decorator's assistant (Indy)

has requested her own quilt.

It's still a top at the moment.

Belatdly I realised the fabrics are long held Laura Ashley brushed cottons. She's worth it.

On my sofa

 

This was a pattern from White Cottage Country Crafts, now, it seems, closed. I imagine the owner has retired. She took a great jelly roll class at a QGBI Traditional Group retreat and I bought this pattern. The four Bonnie quilters and  all made one. 

I adapted it so one side of the courthouse step block fabric matched the background of the adjoining feature pieced block. This meant deciding placement as I went balancing colours of pieced pieces and backgrounds. Very satisfying.

Queen Beez

 It was just Mary and me this whilst our third member was away though we managed a face time chat. We were making items to sell at our Quilt Show in August.

I worked on the sewing machine tidies I had quilted ready to bind, finishing them later at home while Mary made lovely pincushions and scissor pouches.

Me hard at work