Twisted Workshop

I taught a Twisted Sisters workshop for Oast using Ami Simms templates and pattern. Many chose to make their own quilts but others used fabric provided to make a charity quilt.  The charity workers worked on another project in the afternoon to break up the day. It was a lovely hall and I enjoyed the day.
Here are the orange and calico charity colourways and Monica's quilt started in the same workshopwith Ami I went to at the Cabot Quilt Conference and now a nearly completed top.

Oast Raffle Quilt which our group Crab & Winkle made

This is the Oast raffle quilt made by Crab & Winkle. It's very different from previous ones and not to everyone's taste but we are very proud of the promptitude with which it was made, the quality of the work (we allowed for the directional fabric) and the beautifully coordinated colours. I love the use of black. I think it's a classic and would appeal to men as well as women. The longarm quilting was done by Smart Frog.

Yet more from Oast Showcase

Just three more photos though I'd love to show my favourites but these are group quilts I contributed to: Melanie's baby quilt where I made the stars and meandering geese and other members made the rows. Also two cat blocks I made for Marion - she thinks one is sleeping but I thought it was stalking!

More from Oast Quilters Showcase

Firstly Melanie's Twisted Sisters which many of us have done using Ami Simms' pattern and template. I've just received another shipment for a final workshop next Saturday.

The Hidden Wells quilts were made in a Crab & Winkle workshop, Mary's in vibrant colours and Pam's in prints. If I was the "mother" of these, Judi was the grandmother as I practised and learnt Hidden Wells from her and  we all drew on Internet sources too. I think Mary Ellen Hopkins was the original instigator of this fascinating technique.

This is another mystery of mine completed by a member of Rambling Roses.

These then are quilts at the show in which I had a part to play. Margaret's quilt with hearts was a mystery quilt I set long ago, so long I didn't recognize it at first till I read the programme.

Oast Quilters Showcase

It's our Quilt Show here in East Kent this weekend. I've got three quilts on show and it's good to see them hanging up and be able to take a photograph but the best thing has been looking at all the others covering a very wide gamut.

Disappearing Nine Patch Basic 02

The Patience corner setting is the most common as shown in the resewn rearranged block. I sewed a few more pieces together to give an indication of how the quilt will eventually turn out and I show a top made earlier in scrappy fashion - perhaps you can tell I went to New Mexico (Albuquerque) for my holidays.

Disappearing Nine Patch Basic 01

Our Oast Quilters Showcase of quilts etc. here in Canterbury UK is coming up next weekend and we're  going to have demonstrations as well as a sales table, raffle, bag tombola, traders, refreshments, patchwork kits, try your hand at quilting stand  and so on. Lots to do. Link here: Oast Quilters Showcase
Anyway I'm going to do a demonstration and thought I should repeat something I've done workshops on in the past. However, all those workshop quilts were made for charity so I no longer have them as samples so I've embarked on a bit more sewing trying up to use more of my store of charity fabrics.

First I sewed a nine patch from 5" squares.

Then I cut it in two vertically and horizontally. It's
best to check the actual rather theoretical width of the side squares so your cut lands exactly in the middle. It can help to use two rulers measuring from each edge.

Received downunder

Sometime ago I sent four quilts downunder all made from from positive/negative black and batik snowball blocks from a swap. As you can see they were very well received by the four young relatives. The boys got ones where the blocks could be said to ressemble footballs. For the girls ninepatches were added as well. I'm so pleased these quilts have found a good home to be used, enjoyed and in time worn out when I'll make some more!

Three Cats Throw

Last night I finished a quilt, not by finishing a process but by unpicking. I had added three of four circles too far and took them off and let it be. It's made using up pieces from my Three Cats in a Twist quilt using schscewhe fabrics from South Africa and Ami Simms Twisted Sisters pattern and Ruler. I was lucky enough to attend a workshop with her in March 2007 and two years later have made several quilts, mostly for charity, using this pattern.
http://www.AmiSimms.com/

Stars of Glory - can you see what it is yet?

I've made more Stars of Glory blocks and laid them out. This really is gaudy. They're laid alternately because half are pressed one way and half another. I put pins in the centres of the second set which I'm adding to now. Pattern source HERE:
http://www.etsy.com/shop//bcheri?page=3

St Lawrence floors

Here are some "patchwork" floors photographed in St Lawrence's Church, Ludlow, part of the Victorian refurbishing, I suspect.

Stars of Glory

I have started a new project which as it involves lots of chain piecing I hope to do somewhat leader ender style in the manner of Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville fame. http://quiltville.com/ (Her "Adventures with leaders and enders" was one of the titles I purchased at Malvern.)  It's for a friend of my daughter's baby,  the friend's baby that is. Start again: it's for my daughter's friend's baby! I've fished out red and purple fabrics bought at Houston and struggled to find a third but settled for a Cherrywood mustard. The baby is growing apace and will be demanding a single bed size if I don't get a move on. At Malvern I bought one of Lady Sew & Sew's bargain 5 metre pieces in a super scarlet to use for the backing and supplement the red if I run out but I don't think I will. I wasn't sure about fabric placement so laid out the three possibilities and have opted for the purple stars which coincides roughly with the pattern, also shown here. It's simple but clever.
http://www.etsy.com/shop//bcheri?page=3
I cut out more block "kits" and then spent time outside in the sun drawing the pattern for myself (a good way to get a grip on the layout) and working out the pressing regime, something patterns rarely tell you. I do keep getting those patches of light on my photos. I can see them on the camera viewer screen but however much I move round to change angles I can't seem to get rid of them.

Ludlow hangings

Here are two hangings from Ludlow Church, one an ecclesiastical piece commemorating St Lawrence to whom this church is dedicated and one made by Border Quilters to commemorate the poet AE Housman. I have to say I prefer the St Lawrence one. So many art quilts date though they may come into their own later.

Not a hung parliament . . .

. . .but a hung quilt. Here is my Twisted Sisters quilt at the Malvern Show in a prime end of aisle position. I was very lucky. One of my favourite quilts at the show can be seen behind it , behind the blue lone star. I went to the Show and very much enjoyed the quilts and confined my shopping to items on my list. I spent quite a lot though, mostly on wadding. I bought metres of Mountain Mist Cream Rose which I have been wanting to try for some time after seeing Ted Storm's  Spring of Desire  being hung at Paducah in 2009 for the exhibition of the 25 winners of the AQS Show.  http://www.tedstorm.eu/eng/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=58:spring-of-desire-2006&catid=36:quilt-gallery&Itemid=67
It just rippled down from the hanging rod. I asked her about the wadding and she said Cream Rose. Lady Sew and Sews were selling it at the show.

Valerie's masterpieces

I've haven't got round to photos from the last Usual Suspects meet  at Valerie's when she climbed her stairs and dangled her fantastic works in progress over the bannister. One is the Quilt Show BOM. She's used her own fabrics and colour choices for this and the work is just stunning and immaculate. Hopefully at the Oast Showcase 2013 we can all bathe in  reflected glory!

Samples Box

Still on aide memoires here are some of the contents of my samples box, mostly samples from workshops I have taken with tutors including Inger Milburn (seminole and Japanese folded), Jan Mullen(cut loosz) ,Nancy Brenan Daniel (working with strips) , Doreen Nicholson (Celtic)from all of whom I have learned a lot. Some are from sort of workshops (I don't consider myself a huge expert) I have done myself (working with strings and quilt as you go), partly because we are all called upon to do demonstrations etc for Quay Quilters. Needless to say I was looking for something which I had put in a safe place ready for my upcoming session with Oast. It seems despite attempts at organisation I spend time looking for stuff and also discovering stuff I'd forgotton I had like the Laurel Burch fabric in the samples box which will be useful if and when I get round to assembling my Laurel Burch swap blocks. This not the family archive box but a throw out from the archives department purchased for a small amount.