Traditional quilts exhibition in Suffolk

 

Pippa Moss is going to be exhibiting some of her wonderful collection of vintage and antique quilts (the one above is a random choice from her collection, a green and gold wholecloth from Llanelli - I don't know which quilts she will be showing) -

Just to announce that a selection of my quilts will be on show in the teaching area at Quilters Haven, Wickham Market in Suffolk  for the following dates:

Thursday 31st May, Friday 1st June and Saturday 2nd June - then again on Wednesday 6th June and Thursday 7th June. Closed Sunday, Monday and Tuesday due to Bank Holidays. Quilters Haven is open from 9 to 5 o'clock - call the shop on 01728 746275 to check, if you are coming any distance.

There will be a few Welsh quilts, but most will be Durham quilts......the quilts will be labelled.

Visit Pippa's blog here.


I wish I could go! 

If the lure of the quilts wasn't enough, of course there is Quilter's Haven's shop and it is just a short distance to Sutton Hoo, if you can make a day out of it.


Blogger seems to be having one of it's days when I can't upload photos easily - I was hoping to put up a more pic of Pippa's Welsh quilt shown above, but Blogger doesn't want to let me.  There's lots of excellent photos of her quilts on her blog though, so you can see details of and read about some of her collection there.

Sampler quilt course in Bridlington

The blocks from 'Japanese Taupe Quilt Blocks' and 'Japanese Quilt Blocks to Mix and Match' will form the basis of the next course I'm teaching at The Royal, Bridlington.  There's the option to do this course in several ways - as a three day residential, three day non-residential, and individual day courses (with the option to stay over the night before or after - you can always combine the residential options with some extra nights and make it the centre of longer holiday).  Bridlington is a great base for exploring the Yorkshire Wolds and coast, the delights of shops like Scarborough Sewing Centre (an absolute treasure trove of goodies) and the Quilt Museum at York. 

On this course, you can discover some of the special techniques used to make blocks from my two Japanese block books, ‘Japanese Quilt Blocks to Mix and Match’ (JQB) and ‘Japanese Taupe Quilt Blocks’ (JTQB).  You are free to make any blocks you like from the books, but the course will use the following ten blocks as demo samples.  We will also look at ideas for combining the blocks into quilts and other projects. All the blocks from the books, the quilts and the projects will be on hand for your inspiration and you can use any colours you like to make your blocks. Let’s have a feast of creativity!

Some of the blocks included in the course were used on my award winning sampler quilt (top).  You can make yours in whatever colour scheme you like for your own personal style.

Skill level – beginner onwards. Don’t be daunted if you have only just started patchwork!  The techniques used for the focus blocks are all within a beginner’s reach.  If you are more experienced and want to work on more complicated blocks, you can.

30th October - Patchwork 

Part sewn seams, inset seams and curves.  Demonstrations will focus on blocks JQB 38, JQTB 45, JQTB44, and JQTB 62.

 

 

 

31st October - Applique 

 

 

 

 

Needleturn appliqué basics, bias tape appliqué, sashiko & embroidery on blocks. Demonstrations will focus on JQTB 68, JQTB 99, JQB 119,and JQB 109.  NB – needleturn is the hand appliqué technique used for the book samples, but these blocks can also be made with freezer paper appliqué or bonded appliqué. If you want to use those techniques, please bring freezer paper or Steam-a-Seam II, Bondaweb or similar with you.

There will probably be a little bit of sashiko thrown in too, and a look at embroidery stitches on applique blocks -

 

1st November - Combining Patchwork & Applique 

 

–  JQTB 106, JQTB111 – plus ideas for setting blocks into quilts, sashing designs and project ideas.

 

 

Other tutors teaching at the Royal in the near future include Alison Bramley, Jennie Rayment, Lilian Hedley, Christine Porter, Dawn Cameron-Dick, and Katherine Gurrier, plus Fiona and Tim will be hosting the occasional UFO day where you can enjoy their excellent hospitality while finishing off your own projects in good company. 

Check out the details at The Royal's website (yes, the page does start by listing the 'golf specials' - the P & Q courses are further down the page)

Quilts at Hartlepool

The weekend before Quilts UK, we went to Hartlepool Art Gallery to see a selection of quilts from the Quilt Museum, which are on show there until 9th June.  From the Quilt Museum's website, it looked like one of my favourite 'quilts', the Hearts and Crosses coverlet, would be included and I wasn't disappointed.  This is the quilt that inspired my Super Strips workshop design and it is only the third time I've had a chance to see it in real life.  This time I was allowed to take some photos too, so it was great to be able to capture some close up images on the macro setting, such as the detail of the applique above.  The symmetry of the strips in the corners of the second set of stripped triangles was more apparent this time too - I made a note of that blue and white polka dot strip in the centre of each corner triangle.  A more accurate reinterpretation of this coverlet, with a central appliqued section rather than the square-in-a-square effect of Super Strips, is on my wishlist.

Click each quilt detail in the following photos to link to the Quilt Museum's website and read about the that quilt, with the chance to see the quilt in more detail, starting with the Hearts and Crosses - these are just a few of the quilts that are on display and there are many more -

 

 

 

 

 

 

The art gallery at Hartlepool is in the old church at the centre of Church Square, opposite the art college where I did my Foundation course in 1993-94.  At that time, it was disused and derelict.  It was great to be able to see inside it for the first time and see it put to such good use.  The timber vaulted ceiling  is reiminiscent of the main exhibition space at the Quilt Museum in York, in the medieval St Anthony's Guildhall, which was a nice touch.

 

There were some details in the building which could make interesting quilting or patchwork motifs, like this floor grille.

As well as the antique quilts from the Quilt Museum, there were several contemporary pieces including  Elizabeth Brimelow's 'Up the Stairs' and a small exhibition of quilts from the Foggy Furze Quilters, who will be having their exhibition at the Marine Hotel next weekend - click here and here for more details.  A selection of paintings from Hartlepool's collection is also on display.

The exhibitions at Hartlepool Art Gallery are free but for just £1 you can climb the belltower for a stunning view of the town - and a good look at the bell mechanism on the way up (climbing the bell tower made me think of fellow quilter Pippa Moss, who is also a bellringer!)

The stained glass windows in the belltower also suggested a quilt block inspiration -

The view from the top shows just how much Hartlepool has changed in the last thirty years. When I was there as a day student, the area around the art college was very run down, with a lot of derelict sites which have been redeveloped.  The sunny weather helped too - my student memories of Hartlepool are mainly of how cold it used to feel in the winter! This panorama shows the art college (you can see the vertical studio windows clearly), which now has a porch where there used to be open space at the front.  I'm fairly sure there's an extension within one of the inner courtyards too. The art gallery is only a short distance from the Historic Quay, where we spent the rest of the day exploring the various exhibitions (including the main Hartlepool Museum and the HMS Trincomalee).

 

 

Malvern photos

First there's a pic of my sampler quilt from 'Japanese Taupe Quilt Blocks'.  I called this the 'warm' sampler, referring to the fabric colours.  It won the Sampler Quilt Award, so that's the third time I've had it - I also won in 2009 and 2008. It is machine pieced, with hand applique and hand quilting.  I've entered it for the National Quilting Championships at Sandown Park next month, but want to add some more quilting before it is shown again.  As usual, it was a question of time.

 

The second quilt is the one I made for the theme challenge, ' Go for Gold with Fire and Circles'. I called it 'We are the Champions'. It is machine quilted and embellished, with the 'flame' border done with a cording foot and a lot of sparkly fine braids.  The border fabric is the same batik Glyn used for his 'Mission Impossible' quilt in the background for the explosion.  I had to fudge one corner, because there wasn't enough left for a continuous metre square, so it's in pieces!  With the metallic crackle mesh overlay, it isn't obvious at all.

 

The figures are adapted from several ancient Greek vases.  The 30s polyester topstitch thread I used for the freemotioned outlines was a bit of a problem, as the machine really didn't like the first spool and it kept snagging up underneath.  Couldn't work out the problem - the spool seemed fine.  It performed better with the second and third spools (30m on each).  I only had a couple of days to work on this, so any glitches were not welcome. At least I got it finished. I wonder if anyone spotted that the binding on these two quilts is exactly the same? LOL

 

The winning theme quilt was by Sheena Norquay.  I admire her designs and her machine quilting is fantastic.  We were lucky to have Sheena as one of the speakers at the Quilters' Guild AGM in Dundee a few weeks ago.  This quilt is just amazing - click the photo to see it in more detail (there's a LOT of detail in this piece).

   

Reiko Domon and quilters from Peaceful Heart Quilt Group and Yuza Sashiko Guild have sent an exhibition of their quilts which will be touring with the Grosvenor quilt shows this year.  Unfortunately Blogger won't let me put all the photos on this post, so I'll have to try to add them to another post later. First, here are some of Reiko's quilts -

 

 

Some general views of their exhibition space -

 

 

I only got one photo of my stand (I left my camera at home until Sunday - oops). This quilter had made a super version of the Rice Sack Bag from '21 Terrific Patchwork Bags' using African fabrics and the patchwork design 'French braid' for the main panel. 

 

We had a good time at the show, although I was so busy, I didn't really have much chance to see the quilts and feel like I must have missed at least half the show.  Hopefully there will be a bit more time for quilt viewing at Sandown Park later next month!

Note - Blogger's new photo uploader doesn't make it easy to get pictures onto my blog in quantity!  There are several photos it just doesn't want to upload, despite several attempts.  So annoying!  It also keeps altering the alignment of text and photos from centre to left when I don't want it and reversing this when I do.  I wish they'd bring back the old blog posting page.

Quilts UK, Malvern

I'm off to Malvern tomorrow - will be in the marquee for Quilts UK, from Thursday to Sunday at the Three Counties Showground.  I have two quilts entered in this year's show, one in bedquilts, one in the theme category - photos later!

Glyn's first winning quilt

Just before leaving on Friday, Glyn got a call from the organisers at the Loch Lomond Quilt Show to say that his quilt had won the 'men only' challenge, 'Mission Impossible' theme.  Here it is.  It's his first quilt too :-)

It was inspired by the line 'this tape will self destruct in five seconds' that used to feature in the show, but you never got to see the actual explosion. Here it is detonating in an old fashioned British phone booth.  Look closely for bits of tape reel, telephone receiver, springs etc.

The quilt was constructed on a foundation, with the backing and wadding spray sandwiched already, so little extra quilting was needed, although he tried out some free motion machine quilting on the clouds (brave to do!) The phone box glazing is done with sparkle organza, with all the explosive bits underneath, held on with Steam a Seam 2.

On the Bernina -

The lettering up the side was done by hand. Here are some more details -

 

 

 Think I've worked out how to upload photos now!