There was a good turnout for our sewing day on the 15th and lots of lovely items to view. It was so lovely to see all the different combinations of people chatting and to enjoy a few conversations myself.
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| Wonderful EPP from Stephanie against a background of Marigold's quilt |
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| EPP from Jenny this time again with lots of fussy quilting. Background is the backing for my tablecloth quilt checks around a cheater cloth. |
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| Detail |
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| Beautiful hand (?) work from Sandra, a lovely quilt sandwiched together. |
This week I have cut out the Drunkards Path units for the border of of my giant nested nested circles and stacked the rest in a pile between sheets of kitchen paper as a compact project to take on our cottage retreat at the beginning of March. The first focus of that time will be working on the piecing elements of our Usual Suspects group quilt with Maggie while Tracy and Belinda make the applique centre.
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| The front |
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| The back still unfinished |
Meanwhile under my table is a basket of stuff I have put in to do "sometime" but somehow sometime never comes. Recently I have bitten the bullet beginning with two sided log cabin blocks "someone" gave me. The fabrics are old fashioned but I still have such things too and it seems a shame they should go unfinished. At Belsey last year I joined them using strips on one side to cover the seams and have done a bit of handsewing down the strips since I got home. It will get done as and when.
Next up was an unprepossessing set of blocks rolled round a cardboard tube. To my surprise when unfurled these turned out to be a complete quilt top and in a old fashioned way rather nice. Adding a border to bring it up to a more usable size was short work and very satisfying. There was a lot of the border fabric and it had a suitable pattern pushed inside the folds. I plan to kit it up after the jelly roll jazz blocks are done.
Next up are some jelly roll jazz blocks from a Houston workshop some years ago. I bought two Fassett jelly rolls while out there, one for this workshop and one for Marti Michell's log cabin workshop which I think is buried lower down. I want to make 12 blocks of the jazz quilt so plan to raid the other stash. I obviously lost my way with this doing various variations and none so it will be a hotch potch, but a colourful one.
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| Jelly Roll Jazz blocks |
Oast Quilters hold a UFO day twice a year. Slowly people are plucking up courage to meet together and socialise. I think there were 10 of us yesterday and there was quite a lot of conversation between all of us. And there there was cake and cheesecake too.
Anyway here's what we did though I've missed a couple as one went early and my table companion had packed up.
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| I assembled my giant nested circles from the Daisy Aschehoug workshop. I plan to add to the sides. |
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| Marcia with lots of tiny Batik units. |
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| Heather working on a complicated bee block |
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| Jenny's Tula Pink blocks |
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| Ingrid's strip units |
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| Deborah blanket stitching applique blocks |
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| Yvonne is holding a quilt sandwich. Fabrics are from her daughter's baby clothes and the quilt is for her granddaughter: three generations. |
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| Sylvie was making disappearing nine patches. I expected one of the usual arrangements but I really like the jumbled effect of this layout - an idea for the back burner. Being all blues is helpful. |
The Anchors Aweigh quilt is finished and labelled too and after completing Sunny and using my transatlantic swap blocks from long ago I set about a quick new project.
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| 37" Square |
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| Fabric detail |
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| Backing same as binding |
I watch Jordan Fabrics YouTube videos most weekday mornings while I have my breakfast and have purchased or downloaded a few patterns from them including this one, "Big & Bold" by Daniela Stout for Cozy Quilt Designs.
I used a group of very ugly fabrics with a 40s kitchen feel to them or reminding me of French plastic tablecloths, hence the name for this "Tablecloth Quilt"..
The blocks are big finishing at 17" square and I made twelve in double quick time, 3 by 4 to finish 51" by 68", 57" by 74" with borders. Despite unpromising beginnings of an ultra simple pattern and fabrics most would hate I like the finished result except for the same fabric kitty corner, an unpicking and resewing job at the Oast UFO day on Saturday.
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| Sunny 78.5" square |
This is "Sunny" last in a long line of rotary fussy-cut four patch quilts started in a Judy Johnson class at Sisters. The feature fabric is a Westminster, I think by Philip Glass and the woven sashing and border fabrics are by Alison Glass. The dyed framing fabrics came from a friend who attended committed to cloth. It's nearly 80" square and the lovely quilting with flowers, sways and feathers was done by Maggie Breakspear.
I am trying to pay a little bit more attention to the backs of my quilts.
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| The back |
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As a respite from more complex projects I've quilted and attached (but not sewn down) the binding of this Linus top made at our recent Belsey retreat. The check is printed on the cross so I could cut it on the straight.
I've got three quilts in various stages of sewing down the binding.
After the lovely time indoors over the twelve days of Christmas it was so enjoyable for five of us to get together in a lovely small village hall (it used to be be two school classrooms) to sew and chat.
I took advantage of the floor space to set out my giant nested circles to my liking and I pinned numbers on the blocks as an aide memoire for when the time comes to sew them.
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| Giant Nested Circles taught by Daisy Aschehoug. |
We also admired Maggie's wholecloth quilt which she has expertly quilted on her long arm. It will go to the South African house.
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| Detail |
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| Binding a perfect choice |
She also brought my Carnival Ride (mostly) quilt back for me quilted and ready to bind. I asked for Chinese Porcelain for the quilting pattern and it looks lovely and just right for this quilt.
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| Carnival Ride block with lovely "Chinese Porcelain" quilting |
Since bringing it home I've attached the binding.
I never got round to QOTC (Quilt of the Crosses) EPP piece as I spent the rest of the day tacking my jelly roll strippy in preparation for Carolyn Forster's Big Stitch quilting workshop for Oast Quilters on the 23rd. It is and looks quite insipid but is in fact very pretty.
As I delete my list of finishes in the side bar at the end of each year I thought I should make a photo record here. I realise my taking photos and saving to the 2021 photo file on my PC has been a bit deficient. I will get to the gaps of the ones I still have.
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| Breaking dishes 57x58,5 |
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| Give and Take 48x66.5 |
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| Cosmos 80" SQ |
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| Back |
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| On the bed |
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| Criss cross 72x81" |
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| Root veg. |
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| Spring Baskets 18" SQ for TQG suitcase |
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| Summer Days 18" SQ for TQG suitcase |
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| Siblings Together top 55.5x70.5" Since completed and donated |
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| African Tumblers 54x72" |
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| Give and Take again outside |
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| Log Cabin Interrupted 48.5x60.5" |
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| Sliced Squares approx. 49x64" |
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| Siddi piece |
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| Karavan 53.5x71.5 since finished and given to DD |
