Helen's House

During our 40+ years of married life we have enjoyed many house exchange holidays which has enabled us to enter into into the domestic lives of other families, visit places we had never thought of visiting and sample other choices of books and music. Anyway yesterday we voted and made our way to Derbyshire stopping at the Newark Air Museum en route. I  stayed up till three to watch the election results then listened to the radio in bed as more rolled in. Very exciting as all the polls were wrong as were the politicians and all the pundits. The people had the last word. It was a very sad night for some.
Anyway here we are in very aesthetic surroundings, lots of graphic art and Helen's quilts adorn the walls. With her permission here are some pictures.

Bedroom quilt

Detail

Kantha quilt

Detail

House quilt

Detail

Day Bed

More houses

On the sofa arm

Chair back

QQShow & Tell, Wednesday evening

All packed up for the following day I set off to Quayquilters where we were making items for the sales table and tombola for our show. I hate making bits and bobs so brought in the tessellated pinwheels cushions I made for the U3A. Pauline, meanwhile, had been asked to make a peg bag and bored with usual options came up with a wonderful wigwam held up by a hook. She had also made a bag while Vanessa has made a top from HST's which she found was incredibly quick to make and to quilt compared to her usual complex pieces.

Bug Bag by Pauline

Pauline with her peg bag

Vanessa's batik quilt

Vanessa,right, with her quilt

Corrected

How could I not see it! My interlaced star was completely mis-assembled but thanks to Mavis it was pointed out and I've unpicked extensively and repieced.

Before

After

Another milestone was finally getting all the QAYG sections of my inner Bonnie Blues quilt assembled. I'm off houseswapping tomorrow but will set to on the borders when I get back.

Bonnie Blues minus borders

Three Days

Mavis reverted to pink after originally plumping for blue. She likes pink!

Fran chose blue but reverted  to including blacks and greys.
She has a lot of those.

Thursday was Bonnie Day and the others showed off their blocks. Mine have already been on this blog and others have seen them but noone including me noticed or at any rate pointed out my mistake. I'll post again once I've restitched the "after" to go alongside the "before". Trish is deep into wedding sewing and will catch up later.

Mary's exquisite baby quilt, soft viyella and sweet embroidered bunnies.

Maggie's quilt top using Schweshwe fabrics. Fantastic border.

Friday was Queen Bees work on our joint quilt which involved a day of sewing in ends with more to come when the quilting is complete. All will revealed when it's on display at Sandown. Meanwhile there was some Show & Tell.
Saturday was a trip to see our son's flat in its completed splendour. We left the car with him and courtesy of our bus passes travelled into London to go to the Tate Modern to see the Sonia Delauney exhibition. Lots of colour inspiration and pattern as there was elsewhere in the collection which we looked at selectively. There was a work by Ellsworth Kelly which looked just like a painting. I bought the Delauney catalogue and her textile adventures were in part prompted by her Russian heritage and by the quilt she made for her baby son. Sweetly Alan said it wasn't as good as mine! I said hers would cost a bit more.

Catalogue and brochure

Cra

Sonia Delauney's quilt for her son.

Tate Modern from the Millennium Bridge; everywhere was seething with people.

Unpacked

Before unpacking everything I rearranged my sewing room putting my cabinet in its summer position under the window. I also trawled through my samples box and threw some items out. I am a hoarder but the the extent of my stash etc oppresses me sometimes. I'm psyching myself up for having a table at the next stash sale but it's unlikely I'll manage. I'm the sort who buys up everyone else's stuff! Meanwhile I'm sworn to a buying boycott. However I am now tidy and it's lovely - feel the zen when I sew now.
This afternoon I machine sewed the binding on
a 24" Linus quilt started in a Carolyn Forster class. I have an aversion to curves and Drunkard's
Path type ones especially, hence the small sample.
However I love Carolyn's workshops because of all the
wonderful quilts, her own and vintage, she brings with her.
I also made the basis for a Honey Bee block and will add the "petals" anon.


Honey Bee in the making, fabrics "Doe" by Carolyn Friedlander, apart from the rust



Circles for Linus

Last Days

Judi's D9P

Valerie (maker) and Maggie (quilter). Wow!

Great quilt

Belinda's blocks - more piecing to come.

Ingrid made this one for Linus

In the meantime

my friends were busy:

Judi's disappearing pinwheel, very crisp and graphic

Izzy's baby panel

Detail of Marigold's Quilt of the Crosses

Marigold's delightful little tree folk 

Marigold's Quilt of the Crosses in Liberty fabrics

Judi's HST's in lovely fabrics, one row to go

Maggie's tumblers

Last Full Day

Ressellated cushion using william Morris charm squares

Linus top started in Carolyn Forster workshop now sandwiched, quilted
and binding attached.

Orphan block cushion for QQ sale table.

I haven't worked very hard but I have finished off a few things that were lying around and that now I can get out of the house and hopefully into someone else's. I also went into town and did my fabric and food shopping to take home and late afternoon went on a super beautiful brisk walk in good company.

We have been busy

Mandy's Petra Prins project with more to come

Ingrid's bright strips

Judy's in the making

Maggie's African quilt top less corners

My meagre efforts

 The time I wasn't walking or talking didn't go very far today as I made two blocks using templates, mended one bag and attached a cushion back to a cushion front.

Struggled with this one

Interlaced Star

Easy respite block

Bag with mended handle

Cushion cover