Lutterworth Piecemakers workshop and Malvern Show

This is a picture of my group trying out their free motion quilting skills. I volounteered to do this a few months ago without realising of course how busy I would be with the Japan quilts. Perhaps just as well as I didn't have too much time to get too nervous.


Workshops are a really difficult thing to plan when you don't know how many ladies will be there, what their level of experience is, how long activities will take but mostly what they expect of you.


I was joined by Gill, Jane, Rosemary, Paula and Margaret. In the photo we are joined by Chris and Dorothy.A shot from the other end of the room shows other groups busy too! I hope I didn't bombard them with too much information they certainly didn't have much time to chat. I spoke about machine set up, which can be a bit of trial and error, needles, thread, helpful gagets, batting choice, especially on a bigger project with an example of a poor choice which resulted in difficulty with quilting and a stiff quilt and a good choice which was easier to quilt and is lovely and snuggly, even density of quilting across a quilt. My ladies were lovely and hopefully went away with a few ideas as well as a bit more confidence to give it a go and practice.

My last picture shows what I came back with from my visit to Malvern quilt show, thread nets that I wanted to try out on troublesome thread, a chalk marker for my friend, a chalk pounce for me, a cutting board which swivels which was reduced quite a lot, but if it does not work well I have the ability (Mr Chaos ) to get it sorted out, some fabric samples which are great for little projects like bag making, some other fabric to complete a baby quilt, fabric in the paper bag is for a secret project, and some thread, well quite a bit of thread actually. I will let you know if Wonderfil is wonderful, it certainly looks it compared to another thread.

I had a really lovely day at Malvern, I met Trish on the coach and chatted all the way there, having found a person to take all my quilts for Japan from me( thank you Stitch Witch they were getting heavy!) I then was free to enjoy looking at lovely quilts and shop for quilting goodies. Sadly while we were permitted to photograph quilts we are not permitted to upload them to any web sites so I wont be able to share my favourites with you.

I hope to share my secret project with you soon.

Till next time Liz

Today I shall be cleaning the house it has been sadly neglected the last few weeks and I need to rediscover the surfaces that lie beneath the dust and carpets that are hidden bya layer of threads. I have already done the dining room, damp dusted, hoovered and everything. One down several more to go.

The last of the Quilts for Japan

There are few benefits of waking up at 2 am with a sore throat and runny nose but blogging about all the quilty activity in my life this week is one of them (seeing a beautiful almost full moon is another, I am trying to be positive)
This is Gaynors quilt she dropped it off saying just meander it so I SID to stabalise and meandered round the flowers in the white blocks which actually was a bit tricky because the petals are quite small, then I thought about changing thread colour and meandering with blue in the blue blocks but decided to make a flame flower instead.

I hope Gayner and the recipient will both be pleased.

Flame flower in the blue blocks.
Quite a tight meander in the white flower blocks.
I took all the quilts out to photograph them all together including one from Sue then got home and found the green and yellow one sitting on the sofa Grrrr. Never mind I may not have a photo of all the Rugby donations together but I am happy with our contribution, Thank you Jane, Muriel, Sue and Gayner. The quilts will be delivered to Malvern later today.
The next post will be all about free motion quilting at Lutterworth last night and Malvern quilt show, I have not been before but everyone I have spoken to says I am in for a good day providing I can stay awake.

Till next time Liz

Jane's quilts are done!

I am quite pleased with how this quilt quilted. I love Jane's colour and fabric choices.

Is this my favourite block?

Or this?

Lastly an oriental sampler quilt. Did you know I love red?

I feathered this pineapple block

and made petals of this star. I hope both Jane and the recipients like what I have done.

One more quilt to finish before Thursday and our visit to Malvern and prep for taking a session at Lutterworth quilters on Wednesday evening. Aghhh, Good job I am busy or I would really be having the colly wobbles about doing this.

Till next time X

A bit of catching up to do

I went to Rocheberrie quilters on Saturday and had a really nice day, as usual, but was berrated for being a bad blogger (guilty as charged) so I had better show those who are interested what I have been up to. Here is the quilt that I took from our last meeting. The block with small triangles is probably the one I am most happy with in terms of quilting but I had no idea where to gift it too as it didn't seem to be a quilt for Linus or quite right for Quilts for Heros. but sadly for the people of Japan they have become the latest in need of our help. My husbands interest in Koi keeping has taken him to their country on two occasions so it is a cause near to our hearts.

Having completed this I was asking a friend where I could find more tops to finish as I don't have a stash of UFO's and the next thing I know she has a clear out and I have 4 more to complete. Thank you Jane. A shopping trip for batting and backing with my friend Muriel lead to Muriel donating the backing fabric. Thank you ladies what a great team we make.

Here is a lovely kaleidoscope quilt. I quilted flowers in the patterned parts but they don't show up well but the feathered border does. I bought a lovely dark green thread but my machine kept shredding the thread which was very frustrating.

Next up was this row by row quilt and a picture of my favourite block in terms of quilting which was the flower, quilting round the applique at the top was a challenge and just when I thought I was getting the hang of it I vered off a bit.

I am doing the binding on another and loaded what I thought would be the last one and another friend gave me a pretty blue and white quilt with flowers appliqued on, Thank you Gaynor. I have to get them all done by next wednesday because I will be going to Malvern and dropping them off there, so if I am a bit quiet and not blogging you know what I will be doing.

I have also started my Dear Jane quilt I was feeling a bit under the weather and these little blocks are perfect for just doing a bit at a time.

I have also completed my ciggy quilt top (at long last and after a bit of a performance with setting triangles) it caused quite a bit of interest at Rocheberrie and I only really took it to show Jane who got me into the block swap, I promised to post pictures but I will have to wait till next time.
I will try not to leave it so long till next time

Liz

Rocheberrie Mystery Quilt

I had this on the machine from I think Tuesday to Thursday afternoon
and I learned that I am not a lover of SID on the diagonal! and some of it had to come out, I dithered over exactly how to quilt in the blue triangles and had intended to leave the bright ones but when all else was done they poofed up so I nailed them down with spaghetti. I need to find another more efficient way to do the piano key quilting in the borders 'cos I spent ages dealing with thread ends.
I found hotel quality duvet covers in Dunelm in the sale at half price and used one side as a backing, it is lovely and soft and I will look out for these again, I almost like the back as much as the front.
June brought this to group to show and tell.
It was made by a friend who did not fall in love with patchwork and does not want it. It was offered to anyone who wanted to quilt it. I snapped it up thinking it would be good practice but not really sure what I would do with it then. It is not really a quilt for a hero nor is it a Linus quilt but I had a thought that I would like to send it to Japan for the appeal.
One question to BQL and an English collecting point is discovered, Midsommer Quilting in Bath well done to you I will put in a call later today just to check this information is correct.
If anyone else has a top they have been storing for a while and would be happy for me to complete it for you and donate I would love to hear from you, especially if you have backing and batting.
They don't yet have the infrastructure to deal with donations but they have put in a date of the beginning of May so no great rush.

I have a little something on the go that must be finnished before this can be loaded so I will go and get on.
Till next time Liz

Finish on a Friday and Rocheberrie quilt ready to load

This was started a couple of years ago as a sew along with Amanda Jean http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/ but the quilting left me stumped, not because I didn't know what I wanted, quite the reverse I just could not manhandle it under my domestic machine. I had also made the mistake of using an unidentified chalk to mark and then it would not brush off so my love for it slightly waned. It became my first long arm project and although it is very far from satisfactory it has been good to complete it. I have tested a corner and I think most of the chalk will wash off but I have learned my lesson. It is very difficult to photograph quilting! This shows a bit of the stipple in the cream areas and an open feather border.

This is next up on the machine, after a thread trim and trimming borders session. I am now rethinking how I press seams after sewing a couple of quilts with triangles lately.

I am not sure how to quilt this, I would have feathered the spiral in the solid triangles but the fabric choices don't say feathers to me at all, so I am a bit stumped. I will SID as best I can (much harder I find on the long arm than DM) and hope that something speaks to me soon as I would like to take it to Rocheberrie next Saturday and I have a couple of bag ideas in my head for the challenge but not done yet!

Time to stop blogging and get sewing I think.

Till next time

Liz

Threads and patches day out

What do you do when you have a great day out at Threads and Patches on Tuesday with lots of lovely ladies and are given a kit for a japanese inspired bag?
Well I had mine made by Wednesday before breakfast.
We were treated to a day of demonstrations, mini projects and tools and I particularly enjoyed the fabric painting in the afternoon. Drinks on arrival with home made cake lunch was light and
the welcome was warm unfortunately the venue was not and I would go there again but wear more layers. There was of course the shopping, I bought a ruler that had been demonstrated and a bundle of batics for a dalia quilt it has been on my to do list for a while and a charm pack for a project which may or may not come about. I could also have bought a roll of novelty fabrics which would have been great for I spy or linus quilts never mind, next time.

I of course used the fabric for the lining on the outside because there is no yellow in the tulip print, I am not a fan of the yellow provided but needed a bit for another project. I put an extra bit of green fabric round the opening because I thought the green was a bit bottom heavy but it has made the opening even more dense with fabric and more difficult to close.
It does make a pretty little gift bag and I may have to make more with japanese inspired fabrics.
This is what is on the machine at the moment. This was a christmas quilt I made ages ago, part quilted and then put away because I was so frustrated with it. I have just put it on to practice on. I am actually finding it quite difficult to think of different quilt patterns for each of the star blocks. I am not particularly happy with it but hopefully will be able to look back on it and see improvement.

In the other room I am really enjoying putting these blocks together. What I find really interesting is that the naked eye will not see blocks that are too similar together but when viewed as a photograph they jump out at you. Good job I can have some time to rearrange them.

I have had a flitty week, I am unable to settle to anything. I think I need to write a list and prioritise that may help me focus. Some nicer weather may help too.

Snow drops and my forcythia are now in flower so spring is just arround the corner.

Happy sewing

Liz