The Pat Man cometh

 

Gareth here came to test my machines arrayed on the spare room cupboards plus iron and extension lead. He was very taken by the quilts piled on the bed, this one destined to find a new home eventually but not immediately. However I couldn't resist his enthusiasm and wish to purchase this one so I gave in and he carried it off labelless and nameless. It will go on his reading chair and was only sold on condition he called it a quilt not a rug. Hopefully in its new environment it will alert more people to the presence of quilts and their appeal.

The back showing the Australian Bondoon fabric which was rotary fussy cut into four oatches to make the blocks.

On the bed

 

Carolyn Forster's BOM pattern quilt. It's called Cosmos after Dan Bennet's fabric line which largely features. Every few days I'm giving it a quarter turn so I see different blocks close up.

May doings 1

The 10th was our Chartham Hatch sewing day and here is Tracy with the top she made on her recent retreat, I love all the ginghams.

I was first there to set open up and this chap gave me a bit of a turn when I turned round.

His Majesty

Maggie made this lovely quilt in Liberty
Riviera cottons.

Tracy's, I think, as she has been
teaching DNP

Maggie,y lovely work made for her student daughter's flat mate

Meanwhile I was working on my Sweet Tea and Green Beans, applique block two,

 

Coronation

 

Craft sale

Best dressed?

Morris Men

In the hall

The Coronation weekend was very enjoyable and at times moving. We watched the ceremony on TV followed by a buffet lunch for two. Saturday was the concert and on Monday our residents and a neighbouring association celebrated by a tea. Lots of delicious cake plus a bric a brac and paperback sale to raise funds for four local charities. The Morris Dancers emerged from the pub to put on a good display and the almshouse rear garden was open, usually a secret enclosed space. There was a tour of our historic church while I went on a churchyard tour with two very knowledgeable parishioners partly looking at graves in including four war graves as well learning about others buried here whose stories involve an insight into the past.

Springtime Quilts

 First up I put Sunny on the bed. This was a quilt where I didn't have enough of a framing fabric so had to substitute and the result is all the better for it. 

Detail

It's another of my rotary fussy cut four patch quilts. This year I've added the Fish Quilt and Bondoon to the total.

I originally planned to use cross blocks as setting squares for Bondoon but they proved too overwhelming  so they are in a quilt all to themselves and I took various self indulgent photographs among the primroses in our back garden.

On a higher level on our Queen Beez day Maggie showed us her transformed mystery WIP now unrecognisably different from the original version.

And at Quay we saw Vanessa's latest which will go in our show.

Short cuts

 I decided to face rather than bind the Short Cuts quilt so I attached the single thickness fabric strips to the top on all four sides.

I folded under a hem and 

turned the facing through 

to the back side and 

machine stitched it down

 with the serpentine stitch.

                                         Here is the line of stitching seen on the front.

And here the finished quilt which I took short cuts to make.

Moving Forward

I have completed over days the outer row of large petals on the medallion centre. We meet next Friday to decide on the next stage.

Front Binding

Back Binding

 

Also I have sewn down the binding on the Kasbah quilt the other way round to what I intended as the patterned side didn't suit the fron as well as I expected.

Thanks to fabric choices and Mandy's clever pattern (the units are oblong not square) this is, I feel, a very successful quilt.

The back with leftover pieces included.

Home Again

 It's always good to be home again and I have been getting on with all sorts of things including a good clean up of my sewing room and a sort out of projects that have gathered under the table with a (very) long term aim of clear floor space and surfaces as when I first set up this space. I have observed other people's marvellous new spaces silt up in a similar manner. I am trying sew my way out of mine though I could do with a Rumplestiltskin.

I have made backs and some bindings for all the retreat projects and waddings. I am glue basting and quilting one at a time.

The Tilda quilt is quilted and bound - sewing down bindings will be an ongoing job for weeks.

Detail

Likewise the Bondoon quilt - the back shows off the original fabric, available bcause I had to buy more to finish off the border and nothing else would do.

I rewarded myself a quick make of a mug rug made as a warm up in an excellent Janet Clare workshop long ago and retrieved from "under the table". I just machined the label and bagged it out.

Current Mug Rug, not a favourite is HSTs from making Houston Stars BOM.

In the evenings in front of the TV I have been hand piecing Green Tea and Sweet Beans now halted as I need to prep more but I am sewing down the binding of the Kasbah quilt - lovely and mindless.

All three

Poppy

Some of this has been a displacement for an end of month deadline and the Queen Beez group quilt centrepiece. As Maggie and Mary are such expert and qualified stitchers I have been nervous about combining my work with theirs. Anyway I have made a start which is half the battle - Maggie has been our fabric guru and general overseer, Mary and I happy injuns and consultants. So the pieces are cut and placement indicated and I am appliquing and being careful as I can to place points on the dots Mary has drawn. I am doing the large outer ring of petals. Things will be easier when we get to the borders.

We are making Vermont Summer Medallion by Judy Newman.

And as a final note my first quilt, hexagons needless to say, is on the bed as it is every Spring. Technically it's my daughter's but it lives here.

Detail.

My retreat

 I was finishing off leftover projects, two were sets of setting blocks that I opted not to use in the end and another leftover HSTs. 

I made, sashed and joined these cross blocks originally cut out for
the Fish Quilt. It is narrow and long but meets 
Quilts 4 Care Leavers specifications very neatly so that is the plan.

More crosses originally intended for the Bondoon Quilt .
While away I added the borders. mitring the corners.

Yet another was of extra leftover Tilda HSTs now square in squares for a baby quilt though the arrangement went a bit off piste.

I added a binding to the Kasbah quilt and then put it on my bed in the hotel. It was a delight to open the door to my room. More hand sewing to do when I have time.

This was started in a Mandy Munroe workshop

And I pieced and bordered the Westminster blocks I made as part of sharing Maria Spiller's workshop when she had to cancel at the last minute because of illness in the house.

The pink came from Purple Stitches, an end of bolt.
This may be a splash of colour on a hospice bed.

My major piece was sashing and bordering my OZ quilt though lack of fabric meant I didn't finish till I got home.

So I think I was quite productive and now have quite a pile of quilting to get through.

Top pictured with borders at our Lower Hardres Day

Detail of Bondoon Quilt