Ruddy Farm Boy

I am making ten different "Little People" for a swap, a tall order. This is my first - ruddy complexioned farm boy. He is poor and has a limited sense of style. He is a homely character. His shirt is fabric my mother cut out for a pair of trousers but never made. How much still to do will I leave behind, I wonder. Making the prototype took some time - I had hands next to the torso and one young man wearing only part of his trousers but now I have a Ford assembly line going.

My husband is normally quite supportive of my projects but on being shown Farm Boy he shook his head as if there was no hope left for me. I told him it was for a swap leaving him to reflect there are at least six other lunatics out there!

Can you see the odd one out?

The swap was inspired by Lynn's blog. Scroll back to find lots of ideas and instructions for Little People.

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Meanwhile I have been getting on with my own work, finally adding the border to this birdy quilt started in a Stack'n'Whack workshop with Bethany Reynolds in Paducah. It's very jolly. I pieced the backing and made blue binding. Now to sandwich and quilt it.

Quilt Away

Our sewing space

Tracy came to visit

Valerie with a completed project

Belinda with string stars started in a Carolyn Forster workshop

Valerie's ongoing paper pieced hexagons using batiks

The Usual Suspects spent a weekend away in a country cottage with a wonderfully cut off air to it - surrounded by lots of empty space, empty that is apart from numerous rabbits, a fox and a pair of green woodpeckers. I spent a good chunk of time working my way through the 222 stitches on my newly acquired Pfaff  to make a sample book for for future reference. On Sunday morning when I was finally sewing on a project it made a nasty noise and ceased to work. Thread is obviously caught up in its insides but the insides were not accessible without a specialised screw driver. Anyway last night the sewing machine man came to take it away to look at. I hope its OK as it's a beautifully engineered machine  and although there's still quite a lot to learn I know I'm going to love it - Pfaff Quilt Expression 4 , bought from a friend whom I know looked after it perfectly. Anyway here we are.

Quay Quilters' meet

Group quilt block

Mags' quilt

Quay Quilters met for our AGM and I marked the occasion by finishing my block for the group quilt. Now I have to sandwich and quilt it and do our chairperson's as she doesn't hand quilt.
The spidery quilt was made by Mags for her grandson following a seminole class with Mandy Munroe. The webs are done by hand, not printed.

Christmas in March

The post today brought a hungry animal alphabet panel and from Web Fabrics fabrics chosen specially for me for a BOM - I opted for modern colour blue. The lovely white on white background arrived earlier. I can't imagine I would ever have been bold enough to chose this particular combination. I'm really looking forward to working with them.

Higgledy Piggledy

I was determined to finish this quilt top today and I've just sewn the last seam. I might  add a border if I can find suitable material in my stash but for now enough! It uses up reject blocks from Isla's quilt and the cut away applique hearts are recycleby reverse applique. Then I the cut out bondaweb background hearts were appliqued yet again. If only it could be magically quilted. It might sell or it might become a charity quilt. I need more relatives! The hand is my grandson's - I used a different colour for his hand in the main quilt and the "ball" is the rejected centre of a flower. Waste not want not. Fabric scraps and "cheese" have found their way into crazy blocks which serve to make the top oblong not square. I like this kind of playful patchworking, not agonising too much but a bit. However if only it would magically quilt itself! I still have loads of 2.5" squares and will make a couple of small prison baby quilts as the leftover backing from Isla's is just the right size.

Shadow boxing

Girl on a swing

Recycled hearts

U3A Patchwork

Sheila's "Mary's Triangles"

Margaret's "Jewel Box"

"Jewel Box" detail

Bid's first sampler

We met on a very cold windy rainy day this morning and Margaret showed three very contrasting ways of doing applique. Something for everyone. The Jewel Box quilt was an illustration - I love the clear fresh colours and neat piecing. Bid has made an impressive start as a newish quilter, learning lots and taking it all on board and I was pleased that Sheila had followed through on the "Mary's Triangles" I showed last time to make good progresson this little quilt made with recycled shirts and boxer shorts!

Busy week

Mary's jelly roll quilt

Present for Mary's daughter

Last Friday Crab and Winkle met and Mary consulted about her Cherrywood beach huts quilt made with Cherrywood jelly roll and FQ's, a present from the group for her significant birthday. She'd also made a cushion for her daughter. We also admired Maggie's Noah's Ark quilt. What a lucky grandchild.

Quilt made by Maggie

I have been working on Isla's quilt top since the start of the year and I decided I must finish it today. This morning I completed the flowers and in the afternoon made the star blocks for the other lower corner though it took four before I was satisfied. I laid the top out to photograph. However I then had to wash it as I had used a Solvy Sticky fuse on the back as a stabiliser for the applique. Now it's laid out flat but it's going to be quite a job to iron all those seams and I hope the soluble interfacing hasn't greyed some of the paler fabrics.

The top

Leftover scraps

Some left over fabric

BOM Day

Usual Suspects got together to set together their Quilt Show BOM blocks. We hired a village hall and had massive space and tables to set things out on as there were only five of us. We enjoyed a contributory lunch and celebrated Belinda's belated birthday. The local wildlife took an interest.

Mylayout

Cake!

Mr Pheasant

End in sight

Flowers with markings for stems.

Today I prepped the flowers for the lower right corner and traced in the lines for the stems. After three days at least of prevaricating and messing about I can see my way forward. I've abandoned the idea of flowers for the other bottom corner - I'll do two more stars. I think that will look better (and be much more straightforward!). I'm looking forward to clearing the materials away. At the moment fabrics are dumped on the (dolls) bed pending stars but I have tidied the table. I'm looking forward to the hand quilting.

Out for the day

I and another friend and her daughter had a lovely time today with a friend we went to the Houston Show show with. Today we shared patterns and fabric, cutting up the Westminster fabric we had bought into thirds to distribute among us. Amazingly we had no duplicates so we have a very good range between us. I took a photo of our hostess's bed and back drop. Just lovely.
I also took a picture of a vintage circa 30's/40's quilt I own lent to my friend to replicate the pattern. The other quilt was made by our hostess from fabrics won by friend's daughter at Houston, given to her and returned as an appreciated gift.

My dresden plate quilt made in 30's/40's.

Gift of a quilt.

 

Can you see the mistake?

I realise one of my Irish Chain blocks had a (non deliberate) mistake in it and although I have spares this is the one I want so I'll change it. Meanwhile after three attempts I've got the bird I want - green on a light background and have started to piece the top.  I am facing problems here and there because of miscut fabric or not enough fabric but I am pleased. It's busy but not so much of a messy mish mash as I'd feared. Vases of flowers still to do.

Birds of a feather



Top taking shape

Millennium hanging

I am helping a lady who lives in Faversham with her patchwork as she came mid course to our beginners' class. Our group Quayquilters is based in Faversham. To mark 2000 the group, mainly a core of 4 people, designed and made a hanging for the library. Library users contributed fabric. In fact Norma was the designer and it is brilliant - not the small fiddly needlework and crammed in images of many such projects but big and bold which can be seen from one end of the building to the other. It depicts scenes from Faversham's history in a lively ebullient manner typical of Norma's work. I spent 1999 to 200 in Kuala Lumpur so played virtually no part in this project apart from handquilting a cherry or two on the border. Faversham is surrounded by orchards. In the reference library hangs a more "patchworky" hanging. I don't know if this is the group's work or not.

General view

One of the Stuart kings, the Quay, the gunpowder factory explosion, sheep and brewing.

Matilda and Stephen warring monarchs, Thames barges and the murder of Thomas Arden by his wife and lover subject of a play by Thomas Middleton: "Arden of Faversham".

In the reference library

Here are the Quilt Show BOM stars we swapped out more than a year ago. I first laid them out strictly according to match the original block designs. Then it was time to swap around, with the job made easier by three spares. We'll be meeting up to combine them next week. The border stars are so numerous they won't present a problem.

I have made a row of little people to go along the top of the quilt. I shall have to pluck up courage and dot the eyes (and noses and mouths). They will have a bird to the left of them and a dog to the right. I planned to put pots of flowers in the lower corners but looking at this I think I shall have a tall tree bottom left and the flowers bottom right. It's all taking a very long time.

A Farmer's Wife

It was Quay Quilters last night when Trish showed us how she had used the computer programme EQ to make her Farmer's Wife quilt. She had scanned in a plethora of fabrics and when choosing fabrics for blocks, as an exercise selected them using the computer images not the fabrics themselves. The EQ mock up revealed that her choice of sashing was not the right one so she was able to substitute before any wasteful cutting took place. Trish and I are part of a gang of four who sew together and work on the same projects. I only made sets of blocks and haven't got to the end yet and suspect I never will. Trish's blocks are so beautifully pieced and the fabrics so wonderful I felt quite moved on looking at it. Truly a magnum opus. I hope to take a better photo when we meet up on Friday.
Margaret, our treasurer, reported on our show from last year. With a change of treasurer and the bank repeatedly messing up it's taken some time but I was pleased to learn we made £1447 to donate to our local hospice. This is more than we've ever made before partly because of a very successful tombola and also because we charged for admission for the first time. It didn't stop people coming.

Crab & Winkle

It was Crab & Winkle night on Friday. I had only my dyed fabrics to show. On the quilting front I am on the straight and narrow working on Isla's till done though I have had nearly two weeks of not doing anything for it. I saw her on Thursday and her first words were "Where's my quilt?" A hard taskmaster.
We discussed our show and I took a picture of Marion's very pretty cottagy Hidden Wells for my Hidden Wells file and also Maggie's two latest. Just so lovely and inspiring. Pam brought out what will be our second prize quilt a 60" square lap quilt made with a panel and a complementary set of fat quarters which was a large and generous donation from a friend of mine. She is handquilting it. One of Maggie's is a variation on the Katharine Guerrier Galaxy of Stars design but using strips to frame the stars. Indeed it's a completely different pattern, I feel. The other is just squares but using the lovely pastel fabrics so popular now in a very beautiful combination.

Raffle quilt in progress

Maggies stars framed with strips in progress

Maggie's squares