Quilters' Guild Rochester Trip

 Region 2 organised a textile day out to Rochester.

In the morning we learned about the Huguenot refugees who fled here after persecution and settled particularly in Kent. They were welcomed as they brought superior weaving skills with them and boosted the economies of the towns where they settle.

The curator brought out two 17th century examples of silk cloth:

This exquisite piece is woven
 not embroidered as the folded
 over reverse shows/

Crypt cafe

After lunch in the Cathedral crypt cafe we enjoyed a very lively talk by the curator of the Guildhall Museum which held a large collection of Victorian pieces assembled by a Miss Horton. Laid out for us to examine and handle (after washing of hands) were patchworks and three delightful child dresses.

A pocket - there will be an Oast
workshop on this in January.

Silk tumbling blocks

More silk patchwork: it appears the centres were added last,
perhaps reverse appliqued.

Such a pretty dress

Tukey red hexagons perhaps added later.

Finally a shop at Hometown a really good quilt shop using our Quilters' Guild 10% discount. I had already bought at lunchtime but returned to make use of my £50 loyalty card discount. 

Top two back to use together for sewing machine tidies for our show, Bottom one back general background fabric. Inspired by Mary and getting out my "Japanese" fabrics I bought more plus a background. Lanterns here we come.

Lower Hardres Days Round Up

 A group of 12-16 of us Usual Suspects, former retreaters and Oast members meet to share our work and Show & Tell meet at the lovely Lower Hardres Village Hall every couple of months to sew by hand and machine, share our work and chat.

To give more time for sewing we usually bring a packed lunch but in December Maggie coordinates a Bring & Share lunch.

Many are hugely gifted needlewomen and I am in awe while happily ploughing my own furrow.

Here are some of our efforts from September.

Tracy's 1.5" nine patches with denim alternate squares. Just stunning/

The back of my Fragmental quilt from an earlier month - very tasteful. I'm not sure I have a picture of the finished quilt which Maggie longarmed.

Stephanie's just lovely baby quilt.

Just a corner of Maggie's amazing quilt. Watch out FOQ!

And from December:

Detail of Maggie's quilt

Lovely use of fabrics by Maggie

Maggie's fabric challenge quilt

Detail of Belinda's hand-pieced
Star a Day

Sandra's lovely Halo top. She was worried about the bright 
plain fabrics but they make the whole piece sparkle.
so very happy with the result.

One of Stephanie's commission for twin quilts

and here is the second one

Queen Beez day

 

The Queen Beez trio had a very happy lunch day today with exchange of Christmas presents and looking at the lovely quilts we have made ogether over the last couple of years. Now I am binding one and Mary the other. Maggie has longarmed quilted them.

Based on a hand pieced Jen Kingwell design. We machine pieced ours onto fine leave in vilene each conributing fabric for and making a third of the blocks. Super days were spent arranging blocks, sashing and joining, joining joining. I'm binding this one.

This was a Judy Newman pattern with a kit as a basis supplemented by our own fabrics. There were some unusual techniques and I found it quite a challenge but so pleased with it and proud! Mary is binding this one.
Tomorrow we we show them at Lower Hardres and at Quay Quilters on Wednesday.

Current sewing

 

Fabric pull

True to my form of picking up on the last thing I've seen I have got caught up in Karen Lewis's Shape Sorter project for the Threadhouse Academy. The blocks finish 10" square  and are just right for using the Malka Dubrawsky Simple Marks fabric I bought 15 or so years ago from the Bramble Patch.. My main problem is the blenders. I have some of Malka's Stitch in Color fabric from the time and Cherrywood fabrics are right too but the pattern eats up large amounts. Somewhat rashly I've ordered some FQ packs from a Canadian shop.

First Log Cabin batch

2.5"Strips for Log Cabins.

I am just lovimg stitching these.

More Log Cabins and now Hourglass blocks.

I think I will make two teenage 5 by 7 block quilts or 4x6 plus multi border rather than a big 80" double quilt like Karen's.

Peaky and Spike units

And I used the Accuquilt to cut the units for yet another Woolies project. These are my leader enders.

This post includes blocks made this afternoon. I still need to catch up on posting past activities but my intention going forward into 2026 is to log current ongoing sewing in a timely fashion.

Oast first and last

 Our weekends usually consist of a Saturday afternoon talk by a well known speaker who stays overnight and reaches an all day workshop on Sunday. This September only two people signed up to make a silk painted clock so it wasn't economic to continue and the speaker didn't want to travel just for the talk so the programme organiser asked several  of us to show our first and last quilts. I was very predictable with a Grandma's Flower Garden and a humdrum latest quilt.

Others had made more progress and/or had more impressive starting points.

This was a first quilt

as was this lovely applique quilt by Marion

Detail

I think this was a recent one but can't be sure.

One more : a first/

Northampton retreat 02

 

Detail of Debbie's

Debbie's

Julie's in her trademark palette

From Chris

My Scarlet &Black Woolies Quilt

Blocks made on retreat laid out at home

Northampton Retreat

 A group of us from various counties meet twice a year to sew.  After our previous beloved venue closed we have settled into our new retreat centre in Northampton.

Lots of Show and tell and work  got done during the week. One of our number has sadly died and her projects are being completed and the many packs of fabrics destined for the Bluebells children's charity are being made up into tops and the longarmers among us are helping to complete them.

One of many completed charity quilts

And another

My charity Becky's Nine Patch

for an older teenager

I also brought this version of the Cosmo quilt to be logarmed for Bluebells.

Chris completing Carrie's blocks

Sussex Retreat

Our workroom at the Quilt Retreat. I'm at the nearest right handy for the large ironing and cutting surfaces provided. There's a handy trolley and box for storage too at each station.

Pippa's very jolly elephant. The alternate shading is very effective.

The design wall was handy for making sure my Woolies crosses tessalated.

Treat Prep.

 I am very lucky to have three retreats coming up before Christmas. The first is at the "Quilt Retreat" in Sussex.

I am still using my Woolies Stash, red and black yardage for ecomnomy blocks. I cut out all the fabric after making a test block to check the sizes and printed out all the foundations.

The completed blocks starts and finishes red; alternate blocks will start and finish with black.

This will be quite repetitive painstaking sewing.

In contrast I came up an oversized crosses block quilt in Barbara Cain's "Large Scale Modern Quilts" book. I was slightly limited by available fabric but fortunately several pieces were half yards from which I could cut two complete blocks. I made a diagram with colours marked and tested it out at Lower Hardres.

It may look graphic or ungainly will see. It will be quick to sew in vertical rows and joining the seams makes a big difference.