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We have just had one of our Sunday family meals and it is so lovely getting everyone together round the kitchen table. However immediate texting and emailing is, there is no substitute for cosy face-to-face chats over food. I am happy to spend all morning preparing a special meal for us all so that we can catch up with workdays and holidays, local news and views, weekly happenings and shared reminiscences. Family is so important.

I mentioned Quiltfest at Llangollen in my last Blog. This is relatively local to me and I usually help with the stewarding. Occasionally though I am invited to display my work, or fill in a gap in one of the displays. This year I exhibited with a group called the ‘Roll-ons’. This group was inadvertently formed at the Festival of Quilts, 2010, where there were many jellyroll quilts. So many, in fact, that we started to get weary of them. Eight of us pledged to make an alternative quilt ‘Beyond the Jellyroll’ and here it is.

From left to right, we have Forward Roll, Spring Roll, Electoral Roll, Fig Roll, Bog Roll, Swiss Roll, Sausage Roll and Jewellery Roll.

Beyond the Jellyroll

I am hand quilting the Kansas Troubles throw and enjoying the hands-on process. It is a while since I have quilted by hand and I had forgotten how relaxing and satisfying it can be. The block is very angular so I decided to ignore that and quilt concentric circles in each block. This has the effect of unifying the complete quilt without losing the precision and drama of the sharp points. I work in a 14” hoop and use a thimble and a rocking motion.

Kansas Troubles: quilting

Whilst trying to hand quilt, there is usually too much interest from our rescue cat, Pussy Willow (or Wussy Pillow as we like to call her!). I have a theory that wadding (batting) is magnetic to cats! Whether it is in a bag, on the floor, in a cupboard or sandwiched between the fabrics of a quilt, the cat always seem to find it. This is her special chair in the kitchen, with wadding on the seat and a quilt as a backdrop.

Willow’s chair

Willow was removed by the RSPCA from a cat breeder in the Lake District, along with several others. Totally neglected, she was in an awful state when we first brought her home. But with time, care and attention she has become one of the loveliest cats we have had.

The tedious and repetitive sewing on the Jacobean panels continues. The edges of each black shape have to be sewn with a zigzag stitch to prevent them from fraying. It’s hard sometimes to keep the impetus and enthusiasm going!

Jacobean panel

Jacobean panel: detail