Pastures new

 

We have been away on a family weekend to Pett Level the shore between Rye and Hastings. Time to enjoy the lovely views out to sea from our lofty bedroom.

We went to Rye where Merchant % Mills was seething with eager shoppers.

Pretty corner in Rye

Aja handed me the Cherrywood fabrics I had had posted to her parents in the US seen here in the basket I bought in Rye.

On another day we visited Hastings where we went up the furnicula.

I prepped some sewing to take having recently made progress on my quilt of the crosses one inch at a time.

This served as an aide memoire as it's a bit like a jigsaw to assemble

Blocks completed

 I've finished the 20 blocks for the St Brigid's Crosses quilt plus one extra. I'll take them to one of my three (!) upcoming retreats to complete there.

This and That

Detail

Border detail

I put the quilt I bought from Maggie on my bed. It's her version of fussy rotary cut four squares but hard to discern as it's such a lovely plethora of patterns. It has a lovely drape and looks great. But almost straightaway I had to relinquish it as it's going in the Oast Showcase in October. I'm away for set up day and for the Oast Open Day so needed to hand it over to someone beforehand along with two of my own.

Sunny detail

Westminster Chimes detail

 

None were in our show last month. There was a hand quilting theme to those; these celebrate Kaffe Fassett Collective fabrics.

I am getting on with my batik blocks and and I'm on the home straight. I'll join them into a top on a retreat. I have three retreats coming up which makes me very happy.

We had a Queen Beez Day and I bought Maggie's pattern which she showed us made up in Penny Jeffries' fabrics. She also completed a half finished piece handed to her by a customer. She does lovely crochet too.

Hanging diamonds

Next time we're going to work on our Shimmer quilts. About time in my case.

Batik Trail

 

Pockets for phone, glasses, pens etc

Pocket for book etc and there are two side pockets

I made a carry all bag but didn't finish it in time to sell at our show.

I have one that I use all the time when staying away from home.

My carry all bag

Going through the cupboard I found a huge kit intended to be a strippy squares quilt. 

I decided to make St Brigid's Cross blocks: found in this book

The pattern picture

The picture looked simple but the piecing is more complicated than I thought with the cross having a framed centre and two pieced strips for the crosses plus insert plus partial piecing! But with all that the blocks can end up as a blob.

The cross is composed of a two strip unit with insert and the centre is a
framed square. The strip units are added to the oblong pieces and
these are partially pieced around the framed centre. I tried to assess the
right side of the batiks but didn't succeed with one of these oblongs. If I
use this block I'll change it round.

I have used less than half of the fabric so a strippy squares quilt may the best option.

QUEX PARK

 

There are lots of lovely events in Region 2 of the Guild these days and on Wednesday I went on an organised trip to Quex Park near Birchington home to a remarkable family. Powell-Cotton collected items on his grand tour and caught the hunting bug in a big way. He went mainly to Africa and preserved the skins of the animals he taught and brought them back to be mounted and displayed. A museum was built and later galleries added as his collections grew. Of the four children only the youngest daughter married and her descendants still own half the house while the other half is run by a charity with paid staff. Two daughters and a son also also collected but with more provenance and anthropological intent. They led distinguished careers mostly in Africa while son Christopher returned to Quex returned to run the museum and estate when his father died.

We enjoyed a talk about a small selection of textiles which were acquired without reference to their cultural aspects which the curator is seeking to rectify as far as possible. 

The weather was good, the surroundings calm and beautiful and many friends met up and were able to eat outside.

Neareast is bark cloth bought at auction and
of incredible fineness.

Embroideries applied broderie perse style
as part of room decoration.

Detail of C19th quilt probably brought from Mrs powell-Cotton's
Cumbria farmhouse.

Group Projects

 

Tilda quilt made by Mary and Maggie for Mary I.

The Queen Beez, Mary, Maggie and myself,  have made three quilts together and we swap them between us annually. In addition Maggie and I made one in Tilda fabrics for Mary's zero birthday. All of them were on display at our show.

Two views of the second most demanding one we did, a Jan Newman design. Many fabrics were bought separately for this one.

This is a Jan Newman design "Vermont Summer Medallion" and quite a
learning curve. It is quite a recent project followed switftly
by the Palm Leaf one.

Our most recent and a delight to do with shared farics and easy
construction. A Jen Kingswell design designed to be hand pieced.
We foundation pieced onto very fine vilene which we left in.

The first one we did quite a few years ago and in many ways my favourite.
We contributed the fabrics from our stashes and divided the blocks equally.
It was a pattern from Quiltmania magazine.

The Day Dawns

 The long awaited day (29th) came at last preceded by lots of cake making, the cakes being greeted almost as enthusiastically by our visitors as the quilts. The seven of us all belong to different groups and follow our own path and as it was a one off show we drew on favourites from all our "keepers". These are mine.

Bless this House from 2000 and top made during our year in KL and
quilted back in Canterbury. .It is nicely hand quilted in
Baptist Fans starting from a central circle.

Patchwork Party from 2014 with traditional blocks using drafted  
card templates

Detail though I should have focussed on fine hand quilting which I doubt i could match now. QAYG 

Three Score Years and Ten made in 2017.
It's a Piece o'Cake pattern and I used mostly Carrie Bloomston fabrics.
I pre-quilted the blocks and added applique on top. QAYG.

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Give and Take started in a small hours Tara Faughan class but very much
 my own take on it. Made in 2022.

Fragmental a modified Zen Chic design made in 2025 and quilted
by Maggie Breakspear.

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