Back again

I've had yet more frustrating days finding my access is blocked by my security programme but am  now back, hopefully for longer. Here are pictures of two Linus 24" quilts I have made. I have yet to take photographs of more significant finishes and I have masses of sewing down bindings on others.

Leftover squares

Leftover block and border on the bed!

Reverse of little squares quilt

Little squares on the bed.

Weekly stint complete

Cushion front

The back with zip closure

I finished a long ago cushion cover, which I started in a workshop with Lynne Edwards, this morning (2003-2012) as the colours match my living room and I was fed up with seeing it on my to do list. I have another cushion back to complete and attach but I need to buy a royal blue zip first. This one is for my kitchen.
I've now attached bindings to all the "little" quilts so along with the hand quilting of the sampler I have something to keep me busy while watching TV on long winter evenings.
Last night was Quay Quilters and we gathered the charity blocks we have been making but the desired optical illusion was absent - we should have specified dark, medium and light.

Next job lists and packing for my quilting retreat next week and preparing a Trip Around the World workshop for the U3A.

Back

It's great to be back - my blog has been closed to me for a day or two, no idea why. Only the pictures showed and the same for blogs I follow. I have been very busy and still have to take more photos. I am off on a quilting retreat next week so have been mopping up smaller projects which were nearly done but not quite. In turn these are using up fabrics from larger items as I am trying to cut down on the plethora of scraps.

Stack and whack squares with binding attached

Leftovers, now quilted

Leftovers showing soft brushed cotton back.

The to do pile

1995 sampler sandwiched and backed with super flowery viyella (50/50 wool/cotton) ready to hand quilt during the winter months

Been busy

I see I have left 2 weeks between posts as yesterday was the latest Bonnie's meeting. Trish had completed the next stage ahead as the pattern is very unclear at this point and she is our chief worker outer so wanted to make sure she was right. Mavis and Fran made progress but I had brought completely the wrong box but I listened to the discussions and today took the plunge on my own account.

Trish's - the blue border will have applique on it.

Mavis's - a colour switch

Fran's, very subtle and controlled.

Mine - very "New England"

Afternoon with Bonnie's

This afternoon Mavis showed us her magnificent hexagon quilt "sandwich" mostly hand pieced and only started a matter of months ago. It's based on a small picture of an old quilt. We also showed where we are up to with our medallion centres - I posted mine earlier.

Mavis's hexagons

Trish's



Mavis's

Fran's

Making a start

I started piecing my long ago sampler quilt today. I'm very glad I decided to go for a side by side effect. I'll think about border(s) later. It's very difficult when the fabrics today are now so different. I do have a possibility but will wait for the top. Meanwhile I have been sandwiching and a Linus quilt and cushion top lie on the bed awaiting  quilting. I did quilt the little leftovers of leftovers 24" Linus quilt (they do need this size). I was pleased I could follow a drawn stencil line with my walking foot. However the  marks did not come off the poplin hearts fabric as they did off the orange corners. I even wonder if the hearts fabric doesn't contain poly.

Love these sampler blocks

Awaiting quilting

All done

Sampler Quilt

After piecing over papers and doing my version of block patchwork for many years I finally went to the Quay Quilters' Show and signed up for a beginners sampler class. I am so grateful for what I learned there - we drafted our own card templates with the aid of rulers, set squares and compasses and although I rarely do this now I value the understanding this gave me and still use it for blocks with odd shaped pieces. However my blocks have lain undisturbed since 1995 while I was wielding rotary cutters and foundation paper but as the to do list has thinned I have got them out. They seem very old fashioned and because fabrics have changed so much in the intervening time it's hard to know how to sash them. All the candidates I tried weren't right for some reason though a friend today suggested navy which is a possibilty.  However I like them side by side  and think I will opt for this though 60" isn't very big. I might have a border fabric which I'll cut quite wide.
The pieced duck will be a label on the back.

Calico too bland.

Pink check - too sugary

Red/White check - too deadening

Navy/magenta check - too in your face

Side by side

Yardage

I've been out at Crab & Winkle today where we are making crackers/table mats on a Christmas theme. I had forgotton half the stuff I needed but had planned to use seminole bands so I set to with a will and this is the result. I now realise making a quilt with seminole strips or a border is not far out of reach. Anyway I should have enough for a set of place mats!















At Quay Quilters on Wednesday Brenda Todd came to show us her quilts and talk about them. She had used such a variety of techniques and made such inspired use of fabric we were all very impressed.

Brenda Todd's quilts
 

We four Bonnie Quilters are all making a medallion quilt, keeping determinedly in step from meeting to meeting so the centre block was our first assignment and after cutting out the squares at our last get together I've sewn them together in readiness for next week.

Quilters' Guild Birthday Party

Members of the Guild from the East Kent area enjoyed a lovely day celebrating the birthday of the Quilters' Guild by sewing, showing and telling, holding a grand raffle and eating a beautiful iced cake. A special highlight was the viewing of the Contemporary Group's suitcase collection which were held up up (with gloves) and shown round and then laid out for closer study - lots of clever people out there. The theme was childhood memories.

Contemporary Quilts - general view

A different angle, my favourite by Lesley Brankin top centre, a beautiful and heartfelt piece.

Sir Thomas More

While waiting for the bus to Faversham we popped in St Dunstan's Church, Canterbury. Sir Thomas More's daughter married  one of the Roper family who are buried here and the remains of whose house stand opposite. After her father was executed Margaret retrieved his head from the stake and had it interred here in the side chapel. A window celebrates his life and a quilt hung on the wall. As it happens we could have lingered much longer as the bus only three stops away from the bus station was 20 minutes late. This is the last day of going by bus for some time as we spent 1 hour 5 minutes waiting for three delayed buses plus the time we waited before they were due. Not good enough. It was from St Dunstan's that Henry II set off clothed in sackcloth and ashes to flail himself on the route to the Cathedral to do penance for the murder of Thomas Becket.

Too clever by half

Project Linus Quilt

I am currently in the habit of using up the leftovers after completing a quilt top and this is my attempt. However if you think this looks unexpectedly odd the reason is that I glanced at the first page of Dorothy's "Just my size" instructions from her Pocketful of Mysteries site and thought I could see where it was going and read no further. Too clever by half as the blocks couldn't be set alternately because of how  I had made them so this row setting will have to do. Dorothy used a nifty construction method, one I shall return to. I now have one 10.5" block leftover and minimal scraps. Now I have to piece some leftover batting. . .

 

Autumn's here and the quilt's on the bed.

Stack & Whack Squares 3: top done

I added the remaining orange strips and the feature fabric borders today. Tomorrow I'll sew the back.


Taken sitting on the spare bedroom window sill.

Stack & Whack Squares 2

 I originally planned to set the blocks together without sashing but in the event decided to half frame them in alternate mauve and turquoise fabric.

Blocks set side by side

Half frames cut out

I sewed the mauve ones first.

Alternating colours

Stack & Whack Squares 1

Like many other patchworkers I'm not just given to cutting up fabric and putting it back together again but have been fascinated by the possibilities of fussy cutting. When I made my first quilt, hexagon rosettes, early rosettes were cut anyhow but later,  like many others before and since, I found myself manipulating motifs and stripes to fan outwards or circle around. I noticed how in Jinny Beyer's block books (Her Quilter's album of blocks and borders is a wonderful resource) she used repetitive elements in border prints designs. Later I read a magazine article by Rebecca Collins where she cut up six identical cushion panels and joined identical pieces in a kaleidoscope effect. However the phenonomen really took off with the publication of  Bethany Reynolds' Magic Stack'n'Whack book though my favourite is the Stack'n'Whackipedia which uses fewer simpler shapes. This quilt was made from that book and started in a class with Bethany in Paducah.

I saw her demonstrate blocks with four identical patches but my efforts really took off after a class with Judy Johnson  in Sisters, Oregon. She really was a wonderful teacher, strong on design as well as technique. The floral quilt was started in her workshop. Making this I learnt not to try to make all the blocks stars - some odder arrangements are good for the mix, a lesson I tried to apply to my current project.


Quilt started in Judy's class. Note that two of the blocks are not pieced.
The border develops an idea from Bethany Reynolds.

Now I've started on a new project with a different look. I wanted lots of background space. The repeat is 24" which permits more variety and I bought 5+ repeats. Four sections are stacked up aligning identical elements (Judy showed clever ways to do this) and strips cut and then subcut into squares. Mine were 4 5/8" to make maximum use of fabric. Then the four patch fun starts - you can have four rotational arrangements, arrange mirror image or all the same way.

The fabric

Arrangement 1

Arrangement 2

Arrangement 3

Arrangement 4



Arrangement 5



Arrangement 6