Great Northern Quilt Show next weekend & Mum's birthday last weekend

From Friday to Sunday, it's the Great Northern Quilt Show at Harrogate.  I've entered a few quilts, although I had to withdraw 'Spinning Squares', as I couldn't finish the quilting in time - life got very hectic at the end of last week.  'Fanoe' (the red and white quilt shown above) will be back on the Fabrications stand, and we will be selling raffle tickets for it.  So if you would like the chance to win this gorgeous quilt, and help out the Quilt Museum at York in the process, grab yourself a ticket for £1.

I took the quilt to Mum's birthday party on Saturday and and quite a few tickets went there...

 

Mum made and decorated her own cake of course -

 

 

Thanks to Justin Wall for the photos, and to June for sending them.

Quilting inspirations on my travels

 

On Saturday, my mum had her 80th birthday party at the Clairville Hotel, near Yarm.  I had to get a photo of the lovely Victorian tiles in their porch. Tiles arranged like this remind me very much of nineteenth century British medalion quilts. Reg, the hotelier, told me there were also very ornate tiles in the hall, but they have to keep them covered with carpet for health and safety reasons, because they get very slippery when wet.  Shame I couldn't see those as well.

On the drive back to Kettins yesterday, we tried the 'scenic route' along the A68 rather than the A1 - shorter but not as quick.  The stunning border scenery compensated.  As we drove into Jedburgh, the views of the abbey ruins were so impressive we stopped for some photos. I liked the overlapping arches.  I didn't see the abbey the only other time I drove through Jedburgh (in the dark, in February, after the Spring Quilt Festival at Edinburgh) and I didn't know how complete the nave was - apart from the roof, most of the structure is still there.  The south transept was mostly missing, as was the east end of the chancel, but it looked like the north transept was still roofed over, with the end window glazed with leaded lights in plain glass.  It was closed, but I'd like to go back when it is open to see some of the stonework in more detail.

There were a few arches, including the one on the right hand doorway below and the centre arch above, where the original builders seemed to have gone a bit lopsided!

 

For once, planners seemed to have got a bypass right.  Just at the point where the bypass veered away from the old town centre, there was a splendid view up to the abbey, with a convenient roundabout and free car park clearly signposted.  So often, something like this is missed because you only see it after you're on the bypass or you don't see it at all.  There was just enough time to decide to stop.  The first photos were taken from the carpark, looking across the river.  As a result of that chance view, we've decided to try to spend a weekend down there, visiting the other abbey ruins in the area -Melrose, Kelso and Dryburgh.

To enter or not to enter?

I have decided I will probably pull out one of the quilts destined for Harrogate next week, but want some opinions! 'Spinning Squares', the workshop sample quilt, was going into the 'In a Spin' theme catagory. Not only am I not 100% happy with my idea for quilting the border, the wadding doesn't seem to like handquilting and is hard work. It is an 80/20 cotton poly I got from EQS on the big roll. I've used it for a lot of other things and it's been great, but realise I have always machine quilted it so far.Unfortunately, the entry description mentions hand quilting...

So far I have hand quilted in the ditch around the blocks and the inner border. The blocks were going to have some hand quilted curves in them, big stitch. It would actually be easier to machine quilt the lot, but I'm busy this weekend and probably wouldn't have time to do it for the show (quilts are handed in next Tuesday) but might be able to do it in time if I really go for it.

I was going to stitch a rope pattern by hand in the border, which is a collaged picture print of Manhattan in the 1930s. That was my second choice idea. Originally, I was planning to quilt along the various skylines in the print, but it didn't do much for it really, so I'll take that out. I now think that just machine quilted straight lines, or maybe wavy lines (3 step zigzag lengthened) about an inch and a half apart would be better.

I could leave in the handquilting in the ditch for now and machine quilt over it later - I don't think it will show (busy, dark prints).

Whatever way, it isn't going to be hand quilted! I think I'd give myself an RSI doing it!

So - push ahead and enter it with simple machine quilting or withdraw it?

Festival of Quilts 2012

 

Festival of Quilts was a busy show, as usual, and

there were a number of bags and quilts brought for me to see, all made from my books and workshops, with promises of more photos to follow by e mail.

This version of Japanese Circles and Squares was started in the Lincolnshire workshop in October last year.  Click here and scroll down to see the blocks before they were sewn together.  The quilt looks different from many of the others because there is an eighth fabric in it as well as the randomly arranged fabrics, which looks especially successful with all those plaids and shirtings.

I managed to see most of the competitive quilts on Sunday morning and afternoon, but it still feels like a bit of a blur - so many quilts!  I enjoyed the European Art Quilts VII exhibit (click here for their gallery), Pauline Burbidge's retrospective and Anne Worringer's wonderful work, among other individual exhibitions, and there was a retrospective of Marie Roper's quilts and dolls too (more about that later).  The Quilt Museum had an exhibit of Turkey Red quilts - this is my favourite (does anyone else find the search function on the museum website doesn't work?)

We were next door to 21st Century Yarns, so some hand dyed bits and pieces came home with me, which I plan to use with some of my Japanese silks.  Glyn tracked down the sheer synthetics he wants for his next project (top secret again I expect).

Festival of Quilts and communications glitch

All going well at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham.  At the end of the first day, predictably I haven't seen many quilts as I've been too busy to get away from my stand!  The special exhibitions look very interesting this year so I hope there will be time over the next few mornings to see them before the show starts.

My laptop had a problem on Monday, so until it is fixed, I'm using my netbook.  However, I can't access the most up to date version of my calendar, so if I am due to visit your group in the next few weeks, please e mail me so I can update the netbook diary.

Festival of Quilts next weekend

Festival of Quilts at the NEC Birmingham is from Thursday to Sunday this week.  I'll be there, on standG41, with the kimono fabrics etc. - see the red box above.

The hall numbers run from RIGHT to LEFT, as you stand at the entrance, so we are technically in Hall 7, although Hall 7 & 8 are opened up as ONE hall. A bit confusing I know!

The show layout has changed again, with the cafe, 'Quilting in Action' and some of the other displays off to the left, thru the 'tunnel' into the next hall, so don't miss that area!

 

Left click each image to view more detail.  Sorry for the low res - these are from screenshots of the pdf files, as I can't convert from pf to jpg directly.

A list of exhibitors is here. Warning - some stand numbers have changed apparently!  Bridget from Popular Patchwork magazine said their stand no. is A59, which doesn't even appear on the plan (I think it will probably be in the lower right hand corner of Hall 70) but says theirs will be the most PINK stand in the show, so they should be easy to find.  I will have a lot of ORANGE again lol :-)

UPDATE - seems there has been an alteration, but it looks like only to the bottom right hand corner of Hall 7 -

 

World Textile Day website now live

Bob has launched the World Textile Day website, with all the info about next year's WTD events plus photos of previous days, links to traders' websites etc.  Next year we are launching WTD England, as well as continuing with Wales and Scotland. These days are a must for anyone interested in traditional textiles from around the world - they are not just specialist days for quilters or embroiderers - with a great range of jewellery, househol textiles and clothing, as well as beads, embellishments and fabrics for crafters.

Hutton Priory Patchers sashiko workshop

Hutton Priory Patchers enjoyed a relaxing sashiko workshop at the Arts & Crafts Centre at Worden Park, Leyland, on Thursday.  We made the panels for the sashiko kinchaku drawstring bags (above).  The workroom was lovely and cool on a hot (!) day.  The Arts & Crafts Centre was originally one of the outbuildings for Worden Hall and there was a fantastic antique kitchen range in the fireplace.

 

One of the quilters had made a bright and summery version of my Oriental Log Cabin Sampler - much more pink than the original and also some yellow highlights in the strips.

 

 

Another group member had made two wallhangings with blocks from 'Japanese Quilt Blocks to Mix and Match'.  She made the first one and her daughter liked it so much, she made another one for her.

  

Sorry for the short post, but I'm getting things ready for the Festival of Quilts at the NEC Birmingham next weekend - there's a lot to do...

Quiltfest 2013 - flyers

The Quiltfest flyer for 2013 is done and we will have them to give out at Festival of Quilts next week - my stand no. is G41.  Feel free to download and use the images.  They may seem a bit wordy again, but we need to have both Welsh and English on the flyers for widespread distribution in Wales.  Tet sent me an updated version of the header he designed for last year's flyer, so we have a nice sense of continuity now. Thanks to Bethan for the translations, and Debbie and Glyn for checking them over - I hope there's no typos!

 

Crafting for arthritis sufferers - link

Jeni at the In Colour Order blog has posted a useful series of tips for crafters who have arthritis -
click here to read her article.  A lot of the ideas are useful for those of us who don't have arthritis.  Thanks to Aurifil on Facebook for flagging this up!

Japanese Quilt Blocks & Taupes sampler quilts

 

If you're looking for even more alternative inspirations for colour schemes and block settings for blocks from 'Japanese Quilt Blocks to Mix and Match' and ' Japanese Taupe Quilt Blocks', perhaps for the sampler quilt course I am teaching at The Royal, Bridlington, at the end of October, here are some links from around the web.  The lovely sampler quilt above was made by Pauline Jennings (thanks for the photo!)


Robyn Burgess owner of  Patchwork Passion, New Zealand made the gorgeous sampler below - thanks for permission to feature your quilt Robyn! There's some block details too- here, here and here - all looking lovely with vintage kimono fabrics. She writes -

I have used old kimono fabrics  It all started with a roll of kimono fabric that I picked 

up in the Flea Market in Japan several years ago. This roll had never been made into a 

kimono but had been around for a while. This is how you buy fabric for a new kimono -

 in a 13" - 15" wide roll of about 13 metres. All through the project I wondered if I was 

going to have enough and look plenty left over - thank goodness.

Clauia aka Armchair Quilter


Sakura block on Flickr

Enlarged block, Igeta variation on Flickr

New Pieces BOM course (scroll down link) - image below -