Anja Townrow speaks at Oast

At the Oast meeting yesterday Anja Townrow gave a very jolly talk. Her picture of the dedicated quilter ticked a lot of boxes with me. Guilty as charged! I think she sold lots of patterns afterwards and small quilts. Her workshop today should be good and I look forward to seeing the results but I'm at home. However I bought her big loss leader quilt and I love it. This is the second contemporary quilt I've bought and is not one I would ever make and certainly not one I would ever be able to quilt in metallic thread. I'm sure my daughter and granddaughter will admire it too so its future is assured. I hung it on my design stand to photograph and my husband passed it several times enroute to water his plants before registering its presence. "Oh is that your latest quilt?" I was touched but fought back temptation and explained I'd bought it with several provisos about fabric prices and cost of making etc. "It's a bit bright for me." I pointed how how daughter and granddaughter would also like it whereupon he brightened! The quilt is very much in Anja's individual style with lots of pointy pieces. It will be loved. I think it was the border effect that "spoke" to me. http://www.anjatownrow.com/

Mixed bags

It was the Oast meeting today and I took in nine bags for the Oast tombola which will be at our Quilt Show in June The ninth bag is a big one I used to put all the other bags in, a mixed bag haha! I shall have a bit more room in my house now.
http://oastquilters.co.uk/

Batik Mystery

The top I made to test and  illustrate a mystery project had been in the cupboard for a long time together with its backing so I got it out and quilted it simply in the ditch. Somewhat inadvertently it's to hang in our local quilt show here.

Basket case

Here is the photo of my people sample at Janet's workshop from the right side.


I have also been doing three each of two caramel and indigo basket blocks for a side swap in indigo and caramel with alternate backgrounds. I'm running out of fabric choices!

Janet Clare workshop 02

I drew a dog following a flexible pattern - Janet had made a whole quilt with the dog in different positions. I post photos of her work with her permission. The beautiful river scene is hers.
http://www.janetclare.co.uk
She was using a Pfaff Quilt Expression  4.0 and although I only tried  it for a few stitches I was very impressed and will investigate further.
At the close of the class we laid out our work to look at and admire. I particularly admired the one middle lefthand side, houses grouped round a pond done, I think, by Guild Rep, Sue, who organised our day.

Janet Clare workshop 01

I went to a very enjoyable workshop day taught by Janet Clare; the title was machine drawing and as you can see from my blog I'm a traditional piecer and patchworker and not very crafty I thought I would be well out of my comfort zone. Janet's approach was very calm and reassuring and before long we were writing our names, drawing faces, then people and combining it all with applique and various techniques. There was quite a lot of laughter. I felt the machine seemed to take on a life of its own and figures emerged which surprised me and ideas kept crowding in. The hall was lovely too with lots of light and an Arts & Crafts atmosphere and ladies had been making cakes!!
I realise I've photographed my figures from the wrong side and will do another one. The ballerina in variegated thread was sewn by my workshop neighbour, Alison, and was taken from Janet's website. She was much admired by visitors to our table under the large pointed window.

http://www.janetclare.co.uk/

Crab & Winkle at my house

Last Friday evening it was my turn to host the Crab and Winkle group. We were getting together our entry forms for the Oast Quilters Showcase. Maggie had retrieved her little people quilt from her own little person to put in the show and also brought her embroidered and stitched hexagon piece to show us. Mary is putting the finishing touches to her family wallhanging; her three young ones are depicted on it and she's machine quilted a log cabin quilt for a new born in the family.

Quilt as you go 03 done

Although I haven't posted anything this week I have been really busy as I have had the house to myself and set up tables in the spare bedroom to get down to some machine quilting. I am really trying to finish those many projects in a partial stage of completion so I can get back to where I was when I first started quilting with just a couple of projects at different stages  on the go. One of my problems in this respect is belonging to groups which generate projects and also attending workshops though I have cut down on these and try to stick to ones which generate samples rather than projects. Also there is the spot of teaching and demonstrating I do for which I make things and also complete charity projects started in the class. This Twisted Sisters is one of these. Quayquilters made the blocks and I'm putting them together. Now it's done but I haven't taken a photo yet.  Here it is with two of the purple inner borders added and two more to go. Quay Quilters member Ruby sewed all the offcuts into two 4" wide strips which I've cut in half and placed all round. They make a very effective finish.

Quilt as you go stripwise 02

Once the rows have been created, sewing and flipping, then they too can be joined with a long piece of sashing, pinning at intersections to try to to make the blocks to line up.

Quilting as you go stripwise 01

I am joining Twisted Sisters blocks made by Quayquilters for a Linus quilt. I have cut rows of backing and wadding and am stitching and flipping blocks and sashing. Lastly I'll add the borders. First I lay down the backing and mark the centre with a pin. Then I find the centre of the wadding strip and match it to the backing. A quick spray of basting glue secures them together. I mark the wadding to show the placement of the first block and a line all the way along to keep them straight as I go. The block is basted down and the strips pinned to either side then sewn using a walking foot.

Liberty Hall

I went to the BQSG day at the V&A - an interesting talk, lunch and then round the show starting at the end this time and listening to the recorded commentary. I was much more thorough this time. Having investigated lots of details I will stand back and consider general aesthetics on my next trip.  I decided I had time to go to Libertys as quilts were on display there and check out their fabrics especially as I need one with a 24" repeat for my Sisters class. There were several large scale designs but the repeats were only 12-15" though one was a possibility - photograph here. I'll look again at Malvern.

The quilts on show were very expensive - £1400 - £1900. I thought one at least was probably of Chinese manufacture and the suspended ones were held by huge tacks with heads an inch across making for a largish hole or tear I would guess.

If there were such a thing as a medieval department store Libertys would be it but in fact its it's late C19th Arts and Crafts and just wonderful. I came away with a reel of cotton.

Bag Ladies

Three Usual Suspects have had a very pleasant day at my house. Judi showed us how to make a very pleasing bag which was not too hard to construct. I'm very pleased with mine - the one with stripes and trees. The others are ones Judi brought with her, the wavy stripy one made by Brenda from Judi's fabrics. Immaculate work. Mine is not perfect but I will be neater next time and meanwhile it's an acceptable result. destined for the Oast bag tombola.

Oh and Judi has made a Convergence top a la Ricky Tims under the guidance of Jenny H.