Area Day afternoon

Paper folding

Paper box base

The final version with embellishment. Pam supplied all materials. Felt flowers and leaves.

In the afternoon we gathered round tables to do a prearranged workshop. Mine was with Pam Bowles and we practised with paper before going on to make a little box from a provided kit. We also cut out felt leaves and made pretty flowers to decorate it. 
On a screen scrolled pictures of quilts by members and from the Hever shows while others hung around the room including a wonderful colour study by Mags James and journal quilts by members of the contemporary group.

I wish I knew who made these journal pieces

By Mags James

Quilters' Guild Area Day

I went to a very enjoyable Area Day in Aylesford where Pascale Michelski was the morning speaker. She loves drawing and is a painter and work reflects this. She started with applique but now paints on silk and adds applique and stitching. She has a very distinct and imaginative style. Amazingly she has only been quilting for two or three years.

This was in the Hever Challenge 2017

A hare and flying sausages!!

Homework

At home I caught up with improvised samples from Janet's Oast class; they'll go in with hand dyed samples from earlier classes.

Asterisk

Wonky Star

Oval porthole

Circular quilting

U3A Open Day

The class of 18/19 came up trumps with lots of work brought in for our display. 

AGM Round Up

I only went to a couple of lectures at the AGM and both were great. First Sarah Humphreys who started quilting age thirteen and whose early quilting journey echoed my own starting with very traditional basics (like me)  to being the the first winner of the modern group category (not me!) at Festival of Quilts.

Sarah's winning quilt

 Then as a lovely finale a double act from the "old guard", Judi Mendelsohn and Lynne Edwards. They'd constructed their talk very cleverly choosing first quilt, quilt they were  most proud of  etc. They are good friends and very funny so played off each other as they alternated who went first. 

Lynne with a signature Cathedral Window piece

Judi with a quilt made with felted pieces of her mother's knitted Kaffe Fasset patterned jumpers

Gala Dinner

Elaine, Stephanie and myself

Ruby Coaster

All present

In honour of the Guild's 40th birthday and ruby anniversary we wore red and the coaster which we all got take home with us also had a ruby theme. A nice custom is to pass them all round the table and everyone there signs their name.

Around the displays

Quilt on the Modern Group Stand

From the contemporary Group display

Quilt by Hilary Beattie, a prize in the Chinese auction

A "happy village" on the fringes of the Lake District  by
Hilary Proctor based on Karen Eckmeier techniques. 

A foretaste of the Quilters' Guild BOM.

Modern Log Cabin Workshop

Sarah's sample piece

Today at the Quilters' Guild AGM I did a very informative and enjoyable workshop with Sarah Humphreys. We made three blocks in all: wonky, curved and improvisational with a side look at one with back ground fabric replacing some of the locks.
We learnt lots of strategies both for making the blocks, setting and quilting options. Here are mine, hand dyes again and they'll go into a quilt with lots of other workshop samples.

Wonky

Curvacious

Improvisational

The day finished with a very interesting very unique and quirky and amusing talk by Irene MacWilliam. Her work is very concerned with human and environmental considerations but also lots of plays on words. 

Irene's work

Travels

Burghley House

In the bedchamber

I arrived at the Jubilee Campus Nottingham for the Quilters' Guild Conference today but on the way stopped at Burghley House, seat of the Cecils who advised Elizabeth 1 throughout her reign and who have held on to their lands and property. I admired the colours of the bed coverings embroidered centuries ago.
And on my bed a humble but richly coloured (for now)  DNP.

Done and dusted: charity quiltsB

Red and Blue Crazy Linus 49x57"

U3A Cherrywood Quilt 02 58x74"

Back of Linus quilt showing machine sewn facing and fleece back.

Oast Quilters

Janet's class quilt with close lines of quilting.

Janet know how to use a microphone.

You can see the quilting

The afternoon talk by Janet Bottomley was excellent. She spoke about how the roots of liberated and inprivistional quilting go back to traditional quilts and also covered modern influencers such as Gwen Marston and the Gees Bend quiltmakers. She also had plenty of her own quilts to show us. 
I took Judi's Hever Stars quilt to hang to promote her June workshop which is filling up nicely. 

Judi's Hever Stars

I'll also take it to Quay. I also took a picture of an interesting quilt at Show & Tell made from an arrangement of HST's.

Show and Tell quilt

Janet with lots of handouts and samples

Janet called this her gin and tonic block

Students' work, a small selection.

Janet's Sunday workshop was well attended and we covered a lot of material during the day but with no pressure. We just had to complete a "porthole" by lunchtime but otherwise could  do what blocks we wanted in what order we wanted. The porthole was to be layered  so we could practise circular quilting which she demonstrated after lunch. The possibilities of portholes were already opening and for me the circular or rather spiral quilting went so well I will definitely incorporate it into future projects. Just in time I'd come across perspex circular templates while seeking out something for my husband. I did two portholes and drew an oval egg shape for the second one.

My portholes

Business

A photo of my screen take
 as I didn't take a picture on
the day.

The figure on the steps is my husband.

I had a busy weekend up in London. On Friday Alan and I visited two exhibitions, firstly Van Gogh at the Tate and then a rest in the members room to give us a chance to absorb what we had seen and then what we had really come to see, Bonnard at Tate Modern reached by a river trip. Van Gogh was very crowded and spoilt by people walking right in front of the picture blocking everyone else's view. Sometimes doing that and then chatting oblivious. Also masses of folk taking photographs with their phones. What's wrong with just looking, buying a postcard if needed or a book or looking on the internet. There were very few of these evil doers at the Bonnard Show which was a revelation because of his lifelong exploration of colour and colour juxtapositions. This one will stay with me for a long time. 

On Saturday I went up by myself to catch the Christian Dior Show at the V&A = so many frocks and such a well dressed clientele. Quite a crush but very well behaved. I didn't realise he had died as early as 1957 so the collections through the decades reflect the work of many prominent designers notably Marc Bohan and John Galliano.

Two of them sewed kits which I ad provided.

On the home front I have had a day with four lovely U3A members who were very pleased with their zipped pouches and later, little gift bags.
Yesterday I had a fabric dyeing session in readiness for the improvisational patchwork workshop with Janet Bottomley at the weekend. The pieces are all in plastic bags awaiting rinsing. And the Linus quilt I am currently making now has a border.