BLOG 358

BLOG 358

This week I have been at the Festival of Quilts for a couple of days, and what a jolly time I had with my friends from the group. This is one of the biggest quilt shows in Europe and it is truly an international event; quilts and quilters come from all over the world. I spent £1 on the first day on a packet of needles but, on the second day, the purse opened and my money haemorrhaged out of it! Our group called The Line Dancers made a quilt called ‘The Arabesque’ seen as no1 below. This quilt, made using a fabric dyed by Heidi Stoll-Webber, was a very different undertaking for us. There was a dearth of rosettes hanging from it but we loved making it. Below is a feast of visual images from the show for you to enjoy and they show the fantastic scope of textile manipulation in whatever form. Enjoy! (The show champion is amongst them, I wonder if you can pick it out!)

Click on images to enlarge

 

 

             01 The Arabesque

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            05 Detail

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09 Detail

 

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BLOG 357

Blog 357

More time has been spent this week on the Liberty sampler quilt. Firstly, I decided to reduce the dark border fabric around each block to a visible ½” so that only ¼” would show when sewn; it looked less dominating this way. On the design wall I then auditioned light fabrics to go between the blocks and the dark corner stones were the final touch. This quilt measures 40” x 31 ½” and I love it!

             Trial borders

                  Borders

                 Corner stones

                Completed top

The other project I had to finish this week was the memorabilia box which I am giving as a gift on Sunday. Here’s the progress on the design for the lid (as per Susan Lenz).

               Decoration

 

           Fusible

                            

             Shears

                Stitching

             Soldering

                Construction

                Completion

I also handed over the Linus quilts this week. I needed to do that so I can get on with my own work and not feel that there is always something hanging over me. I have made another 3, donated 3 which were book or workshop samples, and made a final quilt top which I couldn’t quilt as I had run out of wadding. I have now handed over 12 quilts (6 to the Chester group and 6 and 1 unquilted top to N Wales) and that relieves my conscience somewhat for my husband winning the log cabin Linus quilt last year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

             Linus quilts

                Quilt top

 PS It is the Festival of Quilts at the NEC in Birmingham this coming week. I will be there on Thursday and Friday and we will find out how our group quit has been judged. Exciting times!