BLOG 456

Blog 456

Here is another selection of quilts from the festival of Quilts for you to enjoy. Next week I will be back to normal; well, as normal as I can be! I will be showing you how to make a coaster box because I have been making a few lately for special birthdays; it’s amazing how many of my friends are reaching 70!! We are all soooo last century.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

             (Made me smile!)

 

 

 

           Painted surface

 

 

 

             Postage stamps

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Colour produced by the density of machine quilting)

 

 

               (Best hand quilting)

 

 

              Best in Show

 

BLOG 455

Blog 455

I have had such a hectic time these last few days; happily so it has to be said. On Thursday I travelled down to the NEC for the Festival of Quilts for a couple of days. I left by train early on Saturday morning to meet my husband at Carlisle station to go to Scotland for a Pacific Island reunion. Then on Sunday we drove back down to N Wales for our granddaughter’s 10^th birthday party. We have packed so much into so few days; certainly not what we are used to as retirees! That said, all of it has been wonderful and all occasions exemplify how shared interest bind a group of like-minded people together. At the Festival of Quilts, I met up with another 5 of our group quilt members for the first 2 days of the show. The glue that binds us is quilt-making and all the joy it brings. It was even more special for us this year as we won a second place and £500 for our latest quilt! It was based on Sunbonnet Sue going through the menopause and we were thrilled that our efforts had been acknowledged.

 

 

 

               The Mood Swingers by Hot Stuff

 

 

Here is a selection of quilts from the show for you to enjoy. They show a multitude of techniques and a variety of sources of inspiration.  It seems that whatever can be imagined can be expressed in fabric.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                     

 

            Miniature

 

                                                  

 

              Miniature

 

 

 

 

 

 

            Miniature

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BLOG 454

Blog 454

 
Firstly, I apologise for the late posting of this week’s blog. We have been away for the WE in S Wales at a ‘house-warming’ party. I use these words with caution as the couple who were celebrating their new home tried to move into the house 7 months ago. They had arrived from Aberdeen with 2 furniture vans and bags of optimism and the first thing they did was put the milk in the fridge and turn it on. 10 minutes later the kitchen was full of smoke with a sheet of flame going up the wall. The fire engine was called and they did what they had to do but not before £125,000 worth of damage had been done to the house and furnishings! Thank goodness they had insured the house and contents from midnight the day before. I gave them one of my art cushions as a cheery gift.

I had completed the painterly background a while ago and needed to add some flowers for interest. I have plenty of ready fused scraps in stock so these became my palette. For inspiration, I turned to art books mainly because they show the structure of flowers which is helpful when I am assembling free-cut pieces.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

       Palette

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Inspiration

  
I played with some ideas first of all but then decided on Rudbeckias because they were flowering in my borders. I free-cut the parts of the flower and ironed them on release paper. Then I was able to peel them off and drop them where I wanted them on the background.

 

 

 

 

 

         Creating flowers

 

 

          In situ
 



 

Once they were pressed onto the ready quilted background, all I had to do was some free-motion stitching to hold the pieces in place and to add some decorative interest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

         Thread work

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

          Completed cushion

 

They were delighted with the gift which makes my efforts worthwhile and it will be a constant reminder for them of a lovely garden party.

 

On Thursday I will be travelling down to the NEC with my chums for the Festival of Quilts. Our group quilt was posted a few weeks ago so it will be great to see it hanging in competition and, as usual, we have our fingers crossed that the judges will enjoy it too! I know the viewing public will be amused by it. More next week!

BLOG 453

Blog 453

 

I was very pleased with the way the thread poppy looked after it was released from the dissolving layer.  I was so pleased in fact that I decided to do the same with the three other thread flowers that I had in stock; a Daffodil, Rose and Convolvulus. Each flower was on a different type of dissolving layer and it was interesting to compare them. The Daffodil was sewn on Gutterman’s Solvy and when it was dissolved with boiling water, a very dense sticky layer was left around the sides of the glass bowl. I poured it down the drain rather than the sink for fear of clogging up the pipe work and spent a while with hot water and liquid soap removing it.

         Daffodil

 

         Daffodil submerged

 

  

             Daffodil drying

 

 

The Convolvulus was sewn on a disposable bag, like the ones often used in hospital laundries which are thrown into the washing machines alongside soiled bedding. This was much more difficult to remove from the threadwork and needed several rinsings before it disappeared entirely. I again poured the residue water down the drain.

            Convolvulus

 

 

 

          Convolvulus submerged

 

 

              Convolvulus drying

 

The Rose was sewn onto lightweight dissolvable layers and was by far the best of the three. Because it was so thin, it was obviously going to leave less of a residue anyway. I was given this product so I am not sure what it is called but I will be sourcing it for future projects. You can see on all three flowers the effect that results from adding sheers.

             Rose

 

               Rose submerged

 

               Rose drying

 

 

Needless to say, the box of novelty coasters for a 70^th birthday (that I showed last week) went down a storm! I have just received pictures of his cake (he trains sheep dogs) and a novelty message which was made for him.  Brilliant! People are so imaginative these days and go that extra mile to make these occasions very special!

 

             Barry’s cake

 

               Barry’s special message

 

 

It was our monthly Chester PsnQs meeting this week and I have been a member there for 33 years. I was asked if I could do them a favour at short notice and fill in for a travelling teacher who couldn’t be there as planned because her husband was having heart surgery. I agreed happily and brought many quilts down from the loft to entertain the assembled members. It is many years since I have shown my quilts and talked about them and I was surprised at how well it was received. All my quilts have stories attached to them and memories sewn into them. They are very special to me and map my development in making quilts over three decades. I hasten to add that it was a one off!