Quay Quilters' Show

Our show went very well better, I suspect, than any of us expected but we had some truly wonderful quilts on display both traditional and contemporary and lovely work covering a wide gamut of tastes and experience. We ate lots of cake and homemade biscuits and delicious lunches brought in by members. As well as enjoying seeing our work hanging up we have also achieved our goal of covering our expenses and raising a significant sum for our charity the Pilgrims' hospice.
You can check out a good selection at the following site:

http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/album/580489473ZHRvJN

Here is my Bee Scene Quilt which combines traditional Honey Bee blocks with hand applique. It's hand quilted and has been on the go for fifteen years with gaps. I was pleased to see it hang for the first time. I used Hobbs Tuscany wool wadding which was like butter to quilt through and gives a soft and puffy feel to the quilt.

I still have unpacking to do but can now get on with making more quilts. The unpacking has been delayed a bit by a Helping Hands day today making a kitted up charity quilt.

Thousand Pyramids tied charity quilts

Bloomsburying

Most of this week I have been deep in show planning and preparations but all week I have looked forward to this planned day out together to Charleston, home for many years to Vanessa Bell, painter sister of Virginia Woolf, and the love of her life, Duncan Grant. I suspect the farmhouse was a hugely uncomfortable place to live especially by modern standards but aesthetically had much to offer as surfaces were decorated and chairs and curtains were in fabrics designed by the artists. Our tour was much enhanced by our wonderful guide who held our interest with her enthusiasm, humour and personal touch.
An unexpected bonus was a small exhibition on a floral theme in the little gallery by designer Kaffe Fassett who visits Charleston for inspiration.

Gallery view

Looking the other way

Bell's painting of the annunciation in Berwick Church

Garden

View of studio windows

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Tessellated tiles on museum stairs

As for the show I can see difficulties in regards to the hanging and possible solutions but can do no more until I see just how many stands we have. Once up all should be enjoyable plain sailing and the time will pass quickly. I shall be flat out but there will be a sense of loss when it's over. However at present I am quite wound up - I'll be doing some food prep. this weekend so I can contribute to the catering, lugging stands down from my loft and writing a big to take list and assembling it.

Janome Club day

Ruth from Janome came today to show us various attachments and their uses and Jim from the sewing machine shop was in attendance. I bought a gadget to attach beads (and I don't do embellishment) and another very effective circle maker. Best of all I learnt how to use the cording foot which I do have.

Going round in circles

Janome circles sample

corded labels

Here we are

Margaret's "vase"

Crab & Winkle Meeting

I nearly missed this meeting and needed a reminder phone call as despite having got out various things to take I completely forgot perhaps because my thoughts were taken up by family news from another group of quilters I'd met with in the afternoon. Anyway I eventually got there and celebrated the other Mary's (I'm a Mary too) win with a sparkling drink. Marion played the Sandown photos from her camera on the TV which as I'd missed the show I very much appreciated and it was enjoyable to dissect them with the others. I took a picture of the TV with a proud Mary on the screen by her quilt and in the background Marion's cat quilt for which we all made blocks. Maggie showed us two  quilts and Marion the music quilt she'd machine quilted for Bea and her apple core top, all curved seams!
I will try to have some stuff of my own to show next week but I'm very preoccupied with Quay Quilters' upcoming show and can't settle to anything till it's over. Once up I shall enjoy it.

Mary on TV!

Maggie with baby quilt

Quilt for the garden

Marion's apple core quilt top

Bea's music stack and slash with Marion's machine quilting including treble clefs.

In these shoes!

I think Goody Two Shoes came to visit last weekend. She told her mum she had to bring ALL her shoes, mostly sandals in various permutations of pink but these dressing up shoes were the piece de resistance!

I know some grown ups who would like these.

Farmers Wives

This is the latest batch of Farmers wives (40-43) with Nancy's gift of a rosebud block bottom left though I can't get the camera to show the large triangles as definitely green rather than blue.

Usual Suspects Day

Quilt for a tiny baby

Another little baby quilt

Tracy with workshop blocks

We had our usual enjoyable day (and LUNCH and CUP CAKES!) with Show & Tell of blocks Tracy started in the Oast Carolyn Forster workshop, New York Beauties Belinda embarked on with Sue Sharp in France and little delicate quilts for hospice babies Judi is making to be sent to a dear friend in the US who has prompted this project.

Belinda's New York beauties

Yarn Sale

I have been selling my excess machine knitting yarns on eBay as cones amassed are out of sync with years remaining. It's good to have the wool rehoused and create some necessary space. De cluttering is a long term process. The task has been made easier because every wool is catalogued. A sample of each is threaded and numbered in my file and at the back the weight and characteristics of each noted as well as which bag it is in. I am working my way through one or two bags at a time and reducing each by at 50% and in some cases (industrial acrylic) 100%, some going to charity shops. I love addressing the parcels with far flung UK destinations .

Page once yarns deleted

Before weeding

Farmer's Wife

A Farmer's Wife Rosebud block arrived  from Nancy near Philadelphia http://nancynearphiladelphia.blogspot.com/ who is very appropriately amassing a whole herd of cows in block form. The fabrics are lovely and it will look good with the ones I'm making.

Nancy's block

Nature red in tooth & claw

We always have magpies, a bird I'm not too keen on as I think they predate on other nicer birds and today I saw a really vicious scene of one in a supine defensive position but definitely still able to lash out with his beak at his adversary who was soon joined by two others alternately onlookers and attackers. Fortunately my final camera click startled them and one flew off in one direction and three in the other though they soon wheeled round in pursuit.

On a more cheerful note the Usual Suspects met up to celebrate Valerie's lunch at the Wife of Bath  http://www.thewifeofbath.com/ and Judi just back from Pennsylvania had lots of goodies to distribute in lovely bags from Marshalls, a good size for workshop requirements. In mine were three bundles from the Old Country Store, http://www.theoldcountrystore.com/  two for Quilt Show prizes and one for me to choose for a thank you present for a special person. Lovely blue and yellow was the answer. All this and some novelties too which I collect. Also a lovely farmer's wife block from Nancy but this deserves a blog post all to itself!

Goodies

Book Cover

I have got Cathy's book cover technique down to a tee or so I believe. I didn't even look at the instructions for this one made from "cheater" schwe schwe fabric which covers a plain sheet notebook destined for our tombola table.

Top Done

This is my Portland quilt as that is where the fabrics were bought. When I put the top together keeping the orange pieces on the border as far as possible as they were so dominant I still felt I could balance it better by resewing one block. Can you see it??

Version One

Version Two

With final border added


The changed block is the middle bottom one; changing it meant the other pieces were balanced with equivalent fabrics diagonally across.
I like the finished quilt more than I thought I would. The asymmetry of it seems a bit Japanese to me and I'm pleased I chose some of my nicer fabrics. In the past I've tended to choose less favoured fabric for workshop quilts but I am now set on using it up!

Stack & Slash workshop

Stacked fabrics cut up and labelled ready to sew

Jean's

Saturday was an in house Oast workshop day led by Marion Fox which was very enjoyable and quick sewing starting with a pile of six different 18" squares which we then sliced and moved the top fabrics down to make different combinations which would result in six different crazy blocks.

I used Amy Butler type fabrics bought in Portland and as they were half yards decided to make two sets of blocks but others went on to border their quilts. Marion gave advice on settings, sashing, how to quilt and particularly binding showing how to mitre corners and a very nifty way of completing continuous binding which I hadn't come across before. I show various fellow participants' work as well as my own blocks in progress.

Sewn into rows ready to combine into a block

Crab & Winkle

Rocket with RicRac

Stars within stars

Marion's novelty medley

Crab & Winkle met at my house this evening and we showed and told - bag and covered notebook from me but I haven't taken a picture of the bag yet. Maggie has nearly finished the quilt for her great nephew and Marion has added more novelty squares.

Bag Construction

I'm still making two bags at a time and it seems to be a very long winded process.. However it's a pattern I like very much that has seemed quite quick and easy in the past. One thing I like which I often transfer to other patterns is the cutting out of a square from the bottom sides, then joining the side and bottom seams (I cover them which is one reason why the bagmaking is taking more time) and then lining up the bottom and side seams and flattening the opening and sewing across so avoiding that bulky triangle at the base of a bag.

More from the Janome Club

Margaret W's previously created fabric

 The theme was fabric creation and among several examples on Cathy's 'teaching table' were the book cover and cushion shown here. Margaret had already had some practice at a fabric creation technique and here are her examples. Meanwhile another member had made this snakes and ladders game complete with fabric oversize die for a lucky grandchild. She created it not with applique but machine embroidery.

Cathy's book cover

Cathy's cushion

Machine embroidery