December

I have spent time this month putting together blocks to make quilt tops so I can start the year with a clear conscience to start something new. I have done two tops and have made good progress on a third.

 I made stockings for my family.

 I quilted this for Dorothy, the fabrics I think are from her stash of  30's reproductions, some are really cute. I really liked the backing fabric too, lovely and soft.

 This is our gift to Miss Chaos and her boyfriend. I was asked for something purple and she had been mad keen on the most revolting bright greens as a youngster so this is a rather more sophisticated colour pairing in my opinion. If you like the design I think it will be a quilt long in the new year. I have acted as a pattern tester for Lynne at Lilly quilts and will let you know when I hear more.

 

Unfortunately Mr Chaos has shared his cold with me so I am not expecting to be terribly productive over the next few days but I do have 14 pairs of trousers to make for Pantomime which opens on the 10th January at Rugby Theatre so they will have to take priority.

Hoping everyone has a great New Year

Liz

Something else to add to the to do list!

How cute is this?

Head over to this blog if you fancy making one too.

http://www.thezenofmaking.com/2013/08/tutorial-english-paper-piecing-travel-kit-hexies-part-3.html

 There is a good looking tutorial with loads if photos and a free to download pattern.

Is this really a priority this close to Christmas with no shopping done yet, probably not but ...

Till next time
X

Advent barns

How cute are these little barns I found on lilysquilts blog? One available to print off and colour in for every day of advent. I have never been great at colouring in but can see the endless possibilities for todays block. Thank you Lynne.

http://lilysquilts.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/fresh-sewing-day-small-blog-meet-and.html

Been busy

A couple of weeks ago Lynda and I had great fun at Rocheberie at a sit and sew day, a great time to chat and sew, what could be better.

This table topper is part of my gift for secret Santa on an online group I belong to. I quilted holly and berries in the border in red thread but it hasn't shown up in this picture.

This is also a gift for someone for Christmas but I am not going to spoil anything if I don't reveal who it is for." I just want it lightly quilted" were my instructions Eek! I took longer thinking about this quilt than actually quilting it. Eventually I just quilted arcs through the diamonds to make circles through the quilt.

 My lady liked the leaves in the border.

A simple panto through these hexagons.

And this quilt I don't think I have posted about before but was done ages ago and is still waiting to be collected, raw edge applique, lovely fabric colours and design, hours of outline quilting and McTavishing.

My next project is a quilt for a Christmas gift I had an idea in mind but I have been chosen as a pattern tester for Lynne at Lilly quilts so I will be changing my plans. I will have to read her instructions thoroughly instead of my usual look at the picture and do my own thing. Watch this space.

Liz

Where in the world have I been this week you ask!

 

I was told to pack a bag for a city break, a flight of "about 5 hours" he said,

Master Chaos No 2  let slip on the night before we were to fly early the following morning that we were in fact going to America but not to Massachusetts where Master Chaos No 2 lives,
I admit I was a little disappointed .
Texas was our destination, Houston to be more specific for one very good quilty reason and the icing on the cake was that Master Chaos No 1 was at the airport to meet us.

I took loads of pictures of quilts but sadly publishing pictures is not permitted :-(
 I am hoping this one is OK! however if you want to see the rest I would be happy to show you them in person.
Here are the winning quilts
http://www.quilts.org/winners.html
I had the best time, I had tickets every day of the show and used every hour of them. Unfortunately no classes were available but I went to lots of talks. I got to meet people I thought I would only ever see on you tube, Eleanor Burns is just like she is on the screen throwing scraps over her shoulder at her assistant, Jamie Wallen was lovely and I bought his video, Dustin Farrel was chatting to Ferret when I first saw him, he is also great and I bought one of his rulers and I went to the APQS stand to see the lovely Mark and he introduced me to Dawn Cavanah and Marylyn Badger who was wearing a lovely embroidered coat she had bought with her show winnings. Ricky Timms and Alex Anderson were there and the Gadget Girls were a pleasure to meet and I bought some circle templates.
 The set up in the quilt hall was so much better laid out than here, so much more room especially round the winners quilts and makers details and quilt information printed on boards for everyone to see and the programme only cost $1 there are always complaints about the price of the ones at the NEC
 

Anyone who knows me, knows, I do not normally sing the praises of Brother products, (I gave away a Brother sewing machine I once owned)  however I think these scan n cut machines are fab and could now kick myself for not having had one when it was offered and they won't be in England till the first quarter of next year. The more I think about it, the more I can see how useful it would be.

http://www.brother-usa.com/ScanNCut/#.Un5opcFFARY Take a look.

Since I got back I have completed my challenge for Flutterwheels but won't be able to go to the meeting because I have agreed to do another show. Will I never learn? I am prepping a quilted vest, I bought the pattern in Houston because it was exactly what I had been thinking of doing. Perhaps that will be my next post.
Till next time
X

And 3 more, 3 quilts and 3 posts in a week,

 One for Jacquie, a lovely flower garden

 with some fussy cut blocks, shame I was asked to do a panto not do something simple from the front but it is a finish. I think the blue makes a lovely border.

 Two is for Pam, I love the colours here, vermicelli was asked for, I wasn't sure so laid poly over and with a dry wipe pen tried other options, liked the vermicelli. KISS

 Three is my piece for the Lutterworth Piecemakers exhibition next week. The BOM /QAYG was not done every month, my bad, in fact it has been a mad catch up to a deadline but has been quilted in sections on my Bernina, with the exception of the borders, and all joined together. I found this process a little tricky but am glad I have done it.

This is possibly my favourite block, not a trapunto tree as we were supposed to do but a block I started at Phillipa Naylor trapunto class at Walcote so I thought it was appropriate, right technique different design, the hexagons were a substitution too because I had a hexi love at the time and I lost the instructions for one of the house blocks so put in the schoolhouse block I made for Rocheberrie quilters and I totally ran out of time and fabrics so had to make adjustments.
I hope the BOM organisers approve of my variations.
Till next time Liz

Just like busses

3 come together, one for Chris,

 

one for Lynda,

                                        and lastly Sun bonnet Sue delivered to Margaret this morning.

Borders for my Lutterworth Piecemakers QAYG are my next task, can I get it done for the exhibition on the 19th and 20th October at Walcote Village hall I do hope so, but watch this space. If I do get it done will they be able to hang it, as it was not completed I did not sign up.

Till next time Liz

One Flower Wednesdays

 
http://journeyofaquilter.blogspot.ca/p/one-flower-wednesday.html


Look what I found, a group to share progress of hexie flowers. One flower a week and share progress once a month, I should be able to do that, I am sure going to try!

The big textile show and getting back to business

This was where I spent last weekend.

All set up and ready for action.



The quilts were all chosen to demonstrate something I wanted to discuss in my workshop.

It was a great weekend but I had fretted about it quite a lot and am glad to be all put away and back to what I regard as normality and some quilting. This is a lovely string quilt by Chris, I just put ribbon in the sashing and border and up and down in the blocks with the piecing. I am sure it will bring some colour to some child's life.

Picture taken on the washing line this morning It was a bit blowey and I had to be patient.

Till next time happy quilting. Liz

Lucky Me!

This fabric pack of 30 fat quarters was offered on Facebook by Starr Fabrics, one of those giveaways where you have to like a page and leave a comment and post on your own page.
http://starrfabrics.danemcoweb.com/
and guess who won. I think I squealed when I realised it was not a wind up. They will ship to Master Chaos number one  who is expecting to be in the UK for a couple of days next month. I do hope he will be able to have a bit of free time. Two very good reasons to look forward to October.

I have been spending time in preparation for this event.

http://thebigtextileshow.co.uk/

I was asked to hold a workshop on both Saturday and Sunday for people who fancy trying free motion quilting. I spent all morning chatting to people about quilting and then the workshop was in the afternoon. I had a lovely day, met some lovely people and look forward to doing it all again today.
Till next time
Liz

Quilt for Grace

An ex colleague gave birth to a baby girl very prematurely, thankfully she is now home and doing well. Am having difficulty settling to anything much today as sadly we have lost a great member of our theatre, very suddenly taken, a great shock, a reminder of the fragility of life and the need to tell those we love how much they mean to us.

John, I will miss you X

Another project started Doh!

 I love the hexi quilts that are about again. I must have made them as a child but thankfully there is no evidence apart from the metal shape in my sewing box. I remember tracing round it onto old Christmas cards and then struggling to stitch through. Thankfully things are a bit easier now, I had printed out a page from this web site http://moxyideas.com/downloads/   ages ago but not done anything about it then last Rocheberrie I saw someone making some blocks and instead of stitching right through the card she just put tacking stitches on the back. Why hadn't I thought of that. It makes things so much easier and less stress on sore joints and the card is easy to remove by snipping one or two stitches and wriggling the card out, leaving the rest of the stitches behind, great if you intend to applique the flowers onto something later.

 I have no idea what I will do with these but they were a compelling project this weekend while I was feeling a bit lack lustre.

First finish for July

I had some help to photograph this one in the sun today.

This is a first quilt by a lovely new quilter I shall just call J because this is for her daughter who is getting married soon, what a lovely gift.

I hope the wedding day will be as sunny, best wishes to them all. X

Finish on a Friday

In 2009 there was chatter about a ciggy quilt, why, I wondered, would anyone make a quilt about cigarettes?

Stupid me! 

Of course Siggys not Ciggys,  a quilt of signatures makes more sense. I made my blocks and posted them off, they were swapped, and these are what I got back plus a couple more from local quilty friends when the arrangement I settled on needed a few more.

This has been a UFO for such a long time, firstly because it took me ages to decide how to put them together and what to do about the inevitable blocks that were too small or squiffy then I stalled because I was short of fabric for the outer 3 inch border, I finally found it at Lady Sew and Sew at Malvern this year.

I plan to put a quilt label with a map of the location of all the block swappers.

So the question to Jane (who encouraged me to take part) is how is your siggy quilt  going?

Till next time

Liz

Back to quilty content

Raindrops in blue for Tracey

 

 

Feathers and swirls up the plaits and piano keys in the border for Beryl

 

 

If you don't like snakes don't look..... no really!

Well my patchwork friends here is one of the reasons I have been MIA.

 

I have some new friends. Can I introduce you to Angry the snake, the largest of four that have been on stage for Rugby Theatre's performance of Whistle down the wind this week.

Did I mention I have been doing props for that show?

 Anyhow, Dan has bought them to rehearsals and performances and dealt with them but on Friday I was told he would not be available for the matinee performance so I had to put on my big girl pants step up and deal with them. I was not exactly afraid of snakes I just didn't want to get up close and personal with them. As you can see by the big grin on my face this was a challenge I really enjoyed.

Angry enjoyed draping herself around my messy backstage updo.

Normal patchwork content will resume soon.

Liz

Quilting raffia, yes really!

 

Being a member of Rugby Theatre makes you do daft things, the most recent for me is taking on Props for Whistle down the wind to be staged 8th -15th June. One of the items on the props list is straw bales for the barn scene. Easy you may think just buy a bale or two and put them on stage. Not possible because of fire regulations, so I did a bit of research on the web (what did props folk do before the net?) and found the blog of Jessie, a professional, who said she would never put hay or straw on stage because of allergies never mind fire regs. She uses raffia.

When asked, half the cast put up there hands to say they had hay fever including our leading man who spends a significant part of the show laying in the hay, well he is Jesus, isn't he?  

So that is why I have had to fire proof mountains of raffia and am now using the frame of my long arm to hand sew (because I found my hopping foot isn't high enough for the depth of all that raffia) a messy looking straw bale. I will then have to attach it to a covered wooden box. I am actually quite pleased with how it looks so far.  

 On to proper quilting. This is for Marie, she and I both did the same Susan Brisco workshop many moons ago. Marie asked for circles and I suggested something swirly thankfully she liked it and is going to make a quillow but mine lays almost but not quite forgotten in the pile, I just don't love it. I might just have to get it out, I was going to add borders but there are several requests for charity quilts at the moment so I might just have to get it done and gone. I have done a couple more quilts but somewhere between my camera and my computer they seem to have been deleted.

Till next time Liz

Not much stitching going on..

 But I did make this bag

that is actually a folder cover for my script. It is zippered on 3 sides (with one zip and two heads that can meet in the middle, if that makes sense) to keep everything together. I think at some point in the future I will replace the handles, but it is very useful
I am doing props for Rugby Theatre production of Whistle down the Wind  to be staged  from the 8th to the 15th of June.

I have recently completed this big quilt for Gill and yesterday took a trip to Malvern with Paddox Patchworkers and others. Although I didn't make a huge dent in my purse (unlike some of my fellow quilters who returned to the coach with bulging bags) I was thrilled to find some white fabric, an exact match, to complete my Ciggy quilt, a long standing UFO and I bought a flying geese ruler to make units for Flutterwheels challenge that I am really enjoying at the moment, I saw a shop that can supply more american civil war type fabric so I will be able to add to the stash for that project. Yey   

There are some really great quilts on display, several I could find room for on my walls but I can't share the many  pictures I took as it is not permitted. Sorry.

Till next time

Liz

 

Has Mr Chaos fixed Blogger?

Not much to report on the quilting front but I was part of a team at Rainsbrook Valley Railway re-concreting a portion of track before public running starts again next week. It was back breaking work but hopefully our efforts will be worth it in smooth track for all. Well done chaps.
I did have a lovely afternoon out with Nik looking at a quilt display by Leicestershire quilters at Helen Ley House that provides care for people with cancer. Nice to meet up with Di and have a chat over a nice cup of tea.
Till next time and hope for quilty content.
Liz

Cosby Challenge

At Cosby Quilters we were asked to pick a technique from a list and make something for display to be less than 12 inches square. Not quite sure why I chose trapunto or why I made a babies bib but I loved designing and making it.

For Pam

Quilted for Pam with Kites panto