Time away

 After many months of not meeting person (Zoom just doesn't cut it) four of spent four nights together in a cottage on a farm in Tenterden. It was very quiet and peaceful and we looked out onto a field.

A big but very mild
Limousin bull

Maggie and Belinda sewing

Geese and sheep and pond in a dip.

Good friends and good cake

I have a May birthday but  I was still startled to see a cake make its appearance, chocolate topped with icing and smarties.

We managed a little bit of socialising. Friend Judi came round for supper and catch up and earlier in the day we had had a lovely lunch lunch with Marigold and family members. She had a lot to share with us and brought more when she came round for the afternoon next day. Here they are:

Hexagon flowers

Scraps

Made from a Liberty kit Tracy provided

Lovely Bear's Paw frogs!!

By coincidence three of us had signed up with Brenda Gael Smith to do her Region 2 Geometrix workshop. It was such fun to do it together rather than in isolation. The workshop rattled along at a good pace but with concentration even I managed to cover everything and catch up. I hope to do another one with her. After so much lockdown it's good to have outside stimulation.

My Geometrix samples

These are Belinda's

And these are Tracy's

Crisscross block

 I've had an enquiry about the block in the Crisscross quilt. It is simple friendship star block but the effects are achieved through the use of value placement of dark, medium and light fabrics. I assembled loads of scraps for this and used a friend's accuquilt die to cut the 3" finished half square triangles.

Here is a single block

Here is a a diagram of value placement. 

Note the arrows indicating pressing direction

Alternate blocks are turned to create the overall sense of interlocking light and medium trellises.

I divided my my fabric into two dark piles each with different fabrics, likewise for the light and medium values. This was so I didn't get the same fabric meeting when the blocks met.

I also pressed the seams on opposite sides of the blocks the same way but differently to the other pair so that seams locked when the alternate block was turned.

I started my quilt in a workshop with Jan Hassard who gave lots of information about fabric values and choice and arrangement of fabric. Pictures from the workshop here were posted with permission.

Jan's talks and workshops are second to none.

Crisscross

72"x81"

Hand quilting

 

The Crisscross quilt is done though I have to attach a hanging sleeve and label which are currently ready to go. I quilted by machine in the ditch along the central two lines of the block and then outlined the stars and the corner triangles in perle thread by hand which I much enjoyed.

I cut the binding 3.5" wide and attached it double folded. It's different to the Cosmos quilt wwhich has a binding more like a narrow cord. This and the Cosmos quilt were completed in the same week. I feel as though progress is being made.

Cosmos

At last I have assembled the 80" square Carolyn Forster BOM from Today's Quilter quilt as you go fashion which takes quite a time as you have to join  hand sewn edges on the back before you can go on to machine the next lot on the front of the  quilt. I like the colours and especially the retro cheddar fabrics in the chain setting blocks. 

I put a couple of reject blocks on the back and could have done  with changing another one but I'd run out of the check fabric  which I wanted to use.

The back

It's called Cosmos because of the Dan Bennet Cosmos fat quarter pack which I used as my starting set of fabrics along with others.

It;s machine pieced and quilted though the instructions were for hand work.

Foundation piecing

 I am sewing the block settings with foundation piecing. I drew the lines on the matt side of freezer paper. Next I layered up several pieces with the drawn one on top and sewed through the lines with no thread in the machine so that the design was perforated on each as a guide. 

The first fabric piece is ironed onto the shape on the sticky side and I fold back the seam line along the perforations and trim the fabric (not the paper)  to quarter inch. The next fabric is laid on top of the first one ready to sew the seam. I could sew along and through the drawn line but prefer to fold back the paper and sew right next to the line. Then the piece is folded over and pressed and the next line pulled back and the second fabric piece is trimmed to a quarter inch seam - the quilter's quarter is useful here.

I use the card to place on the line and
pull back the foundation over it.

Paper pulled back

Quilter's Quarter used to indicate the seam allowance

Seam ready to sew

 

This is the picture from Quilters' Newsletter magazine that is the starting point of my latest project. I am stacking and slashing four patches. First I cut four repeats of my fabric and layer them. To line up exactly I insert pins through  convenient reference points and secure them with pieces of cut up eraser. This is the kit I hand out to students. I learnt this from Judy Johnson at a Sisters, Oregon, quilt class a decade ago or so ago.

The kit

The securing stitch

Then I place a pin on either side and remove the first pin. Now after a talk by Paula Doyle I then tie the spot with a stitch and remove all the pins. Now I am ready to cut my pieces. The four repeats yield sets of four identical squares and although the sewing is easy it's fun deciding which layout to use.

Two sets of four identical squares

Four Possibilities:

Set A1

Set A 2

Set A 3

Set A 4

SetB 1

Set B 2

Set B 3

Set B 4

And yet another block all sewn up:

 

Here is the fabric I'm using for my current project - now I've completed the cutting out and foundation making. I've set up a sewing station for my Pfaff in the spare room.

While that is going on I'll bind my criss cross quilt in the sewing room on the Janome. I'm going to make a double fold binding which I've cut 3.5" wide, a first for me.

By contrast the current binding I'm stitching down is more like cord. I sewed down quite a lot today while watching TV coverage of the Duke of Edinburgh. What a remarkable man.

Today too I did some prepping for the Sujata Shah  Siddi quilt Zoom workshop I shall be doing on Sunday.

Backing turned over to the front
of the wadding 

These are fabric samples sourced from 
closing down Malaysian batik factories by
the owner of the Cottage Patch in Kuala
Lumpur. I paid weekly visits while living
there 1999-2000. I'll use them for
this workshop project.

Kitting up

 

I am kitting up a project to take to finish on retreat later in the year and made a test block. The centres are constructed from four identical fussy cut squares. I realise I need to have a longer lead in to plan quilts and take the time to source suitable fabrics and enough of them. As it is this is marked by a series of compromises starting with realising this lovely Philip Jacobs' fabric only has a 12" not 24" repeat. And I cut out enough for 20 blocks when I only need 16, 4 by 4 15" with sashing and borders.

Here is another 4 patch:

Checking in

 I have lots of quilting to do, two smaller quilts and I finally pysched myself up to quilt the Criss Cross quilt. Next is just finishing off the BOM sashing. I use my Janome for quilting and binding and put my ironing board next to me as a support. 

Quilting set up

On the Hotchpotch quilt I quilted on either side of the seams instead of in the ditch, wavy crossing lines in the border and used a 55" wide Llama print on the back. 

Llamas

Having ditch quilted the two central block seams on the Criss Cross quilt I am now hand quilting in perle cotton around the stars and inside the corner hour glasses. It hasn't taken too long and I'm now going around the edge blocks. I laid out the quilt to see where I was up to. 

Criss Cross quilt

On the bed

 

A favourite scrappy quilt using "Mary's Triangles" technique units.

Sewing Room Tidy

 Having finished the last machine stitched sections of the BOM quilt and Liz Coleman's workshop project it was time to bite the bullet and get on with some quilting. First stop tidy the sewing room.

Next manhandle the big quilt through the machine sewing the inner two seams of the block.

Now I am hand quilting around the stars and the corner triangles.

So it's time for another break, this time making a couple of bags from Liz Coleman's Oast bag sewing day, a Japanese loop bag and a zipped tote. 

Very pleased with my loop bag

Zipped tote