Crab & Winkle Sewing Day

Today the six ox of us met up to work on our group quilt. We'd made stars and laid them out so they didn't jar too much - Much swapping round and standing on chairs! Then we added triangles to complete the blocks. Sadly, two of our members had to leave before lunch hence tha gaps but in a few weeks time we should be ready to assemble the centre.

Scrap Quilt Sensation
The design is taken from Katharine Gurrier's "Scrap Quilt Sensation" a book which delivers  what it says on the tin!

Bonnie Quilters

We met in Fran's conservatory for for our second session drafting and cutting Farmer's Wife blocks.

http://thefarmerswifequilt.blogspot.com/
Trish is using what I call New England fabrics - dark rich colours in designs reminiscent of the C19th. I am too and my first sets of blocks will be included in a long handsewn ongoing project using blocks from 3" to 9" in 1.5 increments. Later on I might choose a different tack such as 1930's type styles. Mavis is using up scraps in inimitable fashion- her choices seem frightening but the end result is always wonderful.



My blocks



Trish's blocks



Mavis's blocks

                                                                                       Mavis showed a star top (following Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville's clear instructions Quiltville) intended for a dear grandaughter and Fran showed us her very large Galaxy of Stars top (this was our last group project, all following the same outline) based on Katherine Guerrier's "Scrap quilt sensation".  http://www.katharineguerrier.com/
Fran is hanging fire about Farmers Wife because she has other plans in mind but here  are the first pair of blocks from the three of us.

Fran with her Galaxy of Stars top

Mavis's Quiltville quilt for a grandaughter

Twelfth Night

I sewed down the last of the binding on this quilt yesterday so I shall call it Twelfth Night. I'll get round to a label and sleeve later. It is very much a scrap quilt and I still have LOTS of scraps; this quilt and another one I made with the values reversed seem to have made scarcely a dent. My final finish for last year used up the last of the HST's I made for this quilt and I have a smallish top made from yet more. 

The pattern is from Scrap Quilt Sensation by Katherine Guerrier.  http://www.katharineguerrier.com/ 

However, I have had enough of so scrappy quilts for now.

I have been slow off the mark blogging this year as the beginning was spoiled by the death of a favourite Archers character. For the unenlightened The Archers is a 15 minute Radio drama  which has been going for 60 years.  The actor playing the part of the departed had been on it for 27 years. My husband has been listening for 59 years since he was a child   and I for 43 or so and an original cast member is still on the show. You can listen on the Listen Again section of the BBC Radio Four site and there is a weekly omnibus edition. I'm sure the internet was invented so that expats didn't need to have tapes mailed out to them.http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/programmes

It's usually quite boring and that's what people like about it.

Afternoon at Bonnie's

Spent a lovely afternoon with Fran and Trish getting masses of sewing done. Soon we'll have Galaxy tops virtually complete and be ready for our next project. We all sew the same quilt together. This was my choice in answer to Fran's desire to use up some scraps though this afternoon she commented the box seems as full as ever.  I've now pieced all the stars plus a couple of extras and all my HST's plus quite a few extras. I show the last two stars here and also Katharine's book which is such a rich resource of true scrap patterns.

Galaxy of Stars

The block

Last night I sewed down the last bit of binding on my starry scrap quilt which was begun in a workshop with Katharine Guerrier and is patterned in her book Scrap Quilt Sensation. It really is a true scrap quilt and so enjoyable to see the different combinations of fabric as all the HST's are joined. The block is a six inch star bordered by twelve half square triangles and the effect is derived from the arrangement of light and dark. However I have seen more colour coordinated versions and the result reflects ones personal stash and fabric tastes.

Galaxy Quilts

At Bonnies' we laid out some of our blocks to see the effect - the result is definitely greater than the sum of the parts. The top one is Trish's and the lower one Mavis's and the detail is hers too. I took a photo of that fabric placement on the 8-pointed star so I could copy it!

Usual Suspects

I spent a lovely day with the Usual Suspects and admired Belinda's Snail's Trail quilt also inspired by Katherine Guerrier. The secret is to arrange scraps not by colour but by value but the final look of the quilt is dictated by ones own fabric collection.

Back to the Quilting retreat

During the retreat last week I largely worked on my Katharine Guerrier blocks. I cut out and sewed more than enough of the centre stars and then completed the blocks - I now have 42. I'm looking forward to setting them out but am waiting till I have a good block of time. In the meantime I'm going to make a 36" sample for my magazine project and an alternate centre block arrangement, write the instructions and submit. I'm also committed to a demonstration/practical session for our group, Quayquilters, on special rulers in November so have to plan that out too. Today though we are having a pub lunch, visiting Sissinghurst and admiring the beautiful autumn foliage.

Katharine Guerrier workshop 01

Last Saturday Katharine Guerrier came to talk to us at Oast. Her quilts from the very first hexagon effort were very distinctive and all had a special something. She's written several books but my favourite is her latest "Scrap quilt sensation" as the quilts are stunning though shapes and technique are accessible to beginners and they really are made up of SCRAPS not FQ collections like so many and it's the multiplicity of these that gives her quilts their look. She did 3 workshops for us and I went to the Monday one to make or rather embark on this star quilt. The photos are of Katharine's quilts! I've included one made from half square triangles as well.