was Sunday 5th July 2009 - DATE CHANGED! This workshop will now be on Sunday 2nd August.
The first workshop is my new "Spinning Squares", for Layer Cakes or 10in square cuts. I have finished the top for this new design and it was much easier to sew than I'd anticipated, plus a piece of cake to cut out (no measuring!) Photo to follow as soon as it stops raining up here and I can take the quilt top outside for photography! Here it is - the rain stopped but not the breeze!
We will be making the centre squares in the workshop. You can finish the patchwork however you like before quilting it. I thought the New York 1930s print by Marcus Bros. from the layer cake pack was fantastic, and I tracked down the same fabric as yardage on the internet so I could use it for my border. I'm hoping to make a second patchwork sample before the workshop, using a Moda Layer Cake designed by Basic Grey, from the Urban Couture range. Dot Sherlock's Quilter's Needs has the same one (and lots of others) - she'll be at Gresford Craft Group's June exhibition (see next post).
The block works with multiples of 6 squares. Moda Layer Cakes typically have 40 squares with a handful of repeats. I bought a pack at Quilts UK with thirty squares from fifteen fabrics and have made the first workshop sample with this (in the first photo) - the pack was from The American Quilt Store (actually in the UK). I am sure they could put together a similar pack on request, if they don't have them on the website. You could make a quilt top with as few as twenty four fabrics, for a 6 x 4 block top. The finished block size is 81/2in. Of course, you don't have to use a layer cake and could precut your own set of 10in squares from fat quarters if you wish. Another nice feature of this workshop is that we don't need to use large cutting mats - an A3 size mat is quite adequate.
Suitable for near-beginners with a little experience of rotary cutting through multiple layers, you will get several sets of blocks finished on the day, with faster machinists completing a whole set of blocks and maybe even sewing them together. Like my "Japanese Circles and Squares" quilt, this one also has a neat number sequence to get the most from your block arrangement.
Sunday 12th July 2009 -
"Super Strips Quilt Top" was my most popular workshop last year at Gresford and I'm running it again. Click here and here to see the previous workshop photos. You will be able to make a dramatic quilt centre from either 1 1/2in strips (21 - 22in long) or from a Jelly Roll with 2 1/2in strips. You will need to cut your strips before the workshop. Machine sewing and rotary cutting. This quilt is based very loosely on the "Hearts and Crosses" coverlet recently exhibited at the Quilt Museum, York. You will be making the inner section on the day but going home with instructions for making the outer borders too, so it is up to you how you complete your version.
The second version of the patchwork is made using a Jelly Roll - the fabrics are Denise Schmidt's "Katy Jump Rope" range. This quilt has been made in everything from scrap selections to batiks, black & whites to vintage prints and seems to work with everything. No prizes for guessing that it is quicker to make it with a Jelly Roll than with 1 1/2in strips. Moda now have a 1 1/2in strip precut - called a Honey Bun...
I think several of the quilts made in the last two workshops will be shown at Gresford Craft Group and Wrexham Quilting Circle's summer exhibitions, in the third week in June.
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