Spring Quilt Festival, Edinburgh - next weekend

Preparations for the Spring Quilt Festival at Edinburgh have come around so quickly, and I haven't had time yet to write up Quiltfest or the latest sashiko session at the Studio, Loch Lomond.  I have lots of photos of both events, and hopefully I don't have so many that the computer will take forever to read my camera card, as I want to post those as soon as possible.

This afternoon, I started cutting packs for my 'Shimacho' quilt from 'Japanese Quilt Inspirations'. It should probably be called Shimacho II, because the first Shimacho (literally meaning 'stripe book', a weaver's scrapbook) is a cushion I made about twelve years ago, with a different design and no sashing between the pieces.  The random effect makes a lovely quilt block design, so I went back to my original idea and used a different arrangement of squares and strips for the quilt above.  It is actually made from nine giant blocks, one of which was used to make a big cushion (in use on the sofa at the moment).  I got lots of lovely gold prints from Quilt Gate when I was at Quilt Week Yokohama, so I decided that packs for this design would be a fun thing to do.  The fabrics are very similar to those in the original, although with purple rather than turquoise.  One £6 pack makes one huge block and you just add a sashing fabric (or fabrics) of your choice (the one above is Makower's Rondella print), so nine packs would make the quilt as shown above, plus sashing, or your could mix in some of your own fabrics with mine. Alternatively, just make the cushion version.  It is ideal for pantograph long arm quilting. The pattern was also featured in 'Quilt Essentials: Japanese Style', a bookazine by D&C, altong with a selection of projects from 'Japanese Quilt Inspirations' and my two sashiko books.  It is great value at just £6.99, and I will have some for sale at the show. 'Shimacho' will be displayed on my stand.

'Irori' is another quilt I will have on display, but it will probably be draped on my demo table as there's not a lot of space for big quilts.  This quilt was designed to use a selection of striped cotton tsumugi my friend Hiroko sent me, combined with some fat quarters of Japanese quilt fabric.  I bought a lot of striped tsumugi on my last trip, so I have a great selection of different stripes and colour combinations at the moment.  Half metre pieces will make three blocks for this quilt.  I will also have some of my popular sashiko kits back on sale, as they use the same fabrics.

The workshop this time will be 'Mini Mariners' Compass in sashiko. We started playing around with a Mariners' Compass design as a sashiko motif at the Scottish Quilt Championships in September and it worked very well as a sashiko design.  I have the early workshop slot at 10.45, so book as soon as you arrive.  The £3.50 price includes a sashiko needle to take home.  I used to just loan needles for the workshops, but so many people wanted to keep theirs, I have factored the cost into the workshop fee.

There's still plenty to do, so I'd better get on...