BLOG 450

Blog 450

 

We had a bumper year at Gresford this year, our best yet. The total raised to date is £8815.77 and all of it will be going to our selected charities for the year. Most of the money was raised in the kitchen with all the delicious food on offer and this was closely followed by entry fees, with 1,094 people attending. It is worth all the effort when the results are this good. Next year will be out 40^th year and this must make Val Shields very proud as she was the one who had the courage and foresight to launch this event all that time ago.

I mentioned last week that I was doing a scrap project on my machine, one sewn on a paper foundation using a ‘Stitch and Flip’ technique. It was something that I didn’t have to concentrate on and one which I could easily explain/stop/start when the need arose. Someone had given me a pile of plain paper rectangles, nothing special, but just something that I needed to use up (I generally use the lined refill paper pads for this method). Armed with a pile of scraps of different widths I showed people how to sew them in lines onto paper. The most asked question was ‘Why do you use paper?’ and the answer is for accuracy. All I needed to do was cover the paper with the strips and then, after pressing, I could turn it over and cut away the excess fabric around the edge of the paper. The secret of this method it to use a tiny perforating stitch on your sewing machine; one that doesn’t rip the paper as you are stitching but which later tears when it is tugged. Using this method means you don’t have to pre-cut the strips to size before sewing and, as long as you have one straight edge, you can’t go wrong! As the colours were bright, I chose black as a surround fabric. And that’s the story so far.

             Strips

 

 

           Stitch and flip

 

 

            Black insert

 

Here are some of my exhibits. It was good to see some old friends again, brought down from boxes in the loft, and to exhibit some of my more recent work.

 

           Open Gate (and screen)

 

            ‘Sept 12^th Tell Mother I’m OK’ (Recording the reactions in the press to the 9/11 atrocities)

 

 

 

         Pos/Neg Jacobean (2 quilts from one pattern)

 

           Altar rail (Signature quilt, ‘Flower pots with cat’ and Liberty Stars)

 

 

           Dolphins (2-fabric interpretation one of my doodles)

 

 

             Archway to Hollyhocks

 

             Arched windows (The same pattern reversed. With black: hand reverse applique; with cream: machine applique)

 

 

 

            Prancing horse

 

 

   

          Cats in the Sampler

 

           Archway to Hanging Baskets (Sunshine and Shadow crazy quilt and fabric labels)

 

 

 

          A Sampler in the Cabin (Miniature sampler quilt constructed with Liberty fabrics using a log cabin technique)

 

 

 

 

BLOG 449

Blog 449

It was Gresford week last week, our 39^th exhibition. I was very proud to be a guest exhibitor this year and I think I talked solidly for four days, from 10.30am to 5pm!! I chose to demonstrate a scrap quilt project, something that was repetitive and simple, and I will detail that next week. This week’s blog belongs to Gresford and the pictures below show a multitude of crafts displayed in the mellow surroundings of an old church. Our themed exhibition was ‘The Seasons’.

 

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Another guest exhibitor was Terry Edmonds and I loved the colour and freedom of his work. He recycles objects and just gets on with it, without any planning or designing … a sort of ‘human spider doodling’!

 

            22

 

 

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         24

 

 

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BLOG 448

Blog 448

I finished quilting ‘Sampler in the Cabin’ this week and it will be on display next week at Gresford (and it will look better than in the picture!). Hurrah!

             Sampler In the cabin

 

I decided that I needed another felted cushion for my display. I love the work of Moy Mackay and followed her procedure to create one.

          Inspiration

 

 

         Foundation

 

 

         Second layer and sky

 

 

           Foreground

 

 

            More colour

 

 

          Fabric surround

 

              Finished scene

 

               Netting

 

 

          Soap

                                 

           Wet felted

 

Everything went so well and I was very pleased with the result. Because of time constraints I needed to get on with the thread work so I decided to put it in the tumble dryer with a towel. I knew it would get a good pummelling, helping along the felting process. What I didn’t factor into this process was the heat aspect of it! Duh! What I ended up with was a very well felted picture but it was so much smaller and not suitable for the centre of a cushion! So I decided to forget about that and devote the rest of the time to preparing my quilts for the exhibition.

 

             Selection

 

 

         Cushions

 

  

             Organising

  

    Exhibits for Church

 

         Information