sashiko and other stitching

Quiltfest - open!

2012-02-01T18:51:00.002Z

Quiltfest is open in both venues now - the Pavilion and the Museum. Busy day, as we were hanging the museum exhibiton in just 2 1/2 hours this morning, but we were ready to open by 1 p.m. 'Bucketful of Fabric' is SO colourful and looks fabulous. Photos tomorrow!

We're also on the BBC - Cymraeg! http://www.bbc.co.uk/newyddion/16835035 Slideshow of exhibition highlights, with text in Welsh.

Quiltfest - set up day one

2012-01-31T22:06:00.002Z

A busy day today putting up Ferret's exhibition at the Royal International Pavilion - now to print off all the labels for our opening tomorrow! All the info about Quilfest is on our website - www.quiltfest.org.uk

Time and Time Again - completed top

2012-01-30T14:56:00.005Z

I left out the lighter sky blues from the roll, and kept the remainder of the darker colours for the binding, which will use up most of the rest of the roll. The little bits will be used up for some block piecing samples I can use in the workshop. The effect is quite different from the original 'Time and Again' in the distribution of light and dark values, and I don't think I'll add applique to this one.

There wasn't quite enough of the print for all the centre squares, so I mixed in a few cut from the roll, rather than introduce something else.

Perhaps there's enough time to do the Bali Pop one next...

Quiltfest - sneak previews!

2012-01-30T11:35:00.005Z

I've been compiling a list of images of some of the quilts we will be showing, so if you want to see these in real life, visit Quiltfest before 12th February - the following links will take you to images from Ferret's gallery (mainly!). The photo above shows her 'Victorian Steampunk' dress, which also be on show, on its first appearance at the Fashion sans Frontiers show at Festival of Quilts in 2010.

Mother

Daughter

Heat

Nude with Rope

Herd Mentality

Greek Fossils - photos can't really do justice to this quilt where the design is created by amazing thread play (same goes for Ferret's other quilts really - you just have to see them to get all the details).

Leather star

Leather Feathers

Bad Rain

Dragon 1 - the new one
Dragon - the original

Ferret's famous coat - photo further down that blog link, with pictures of Leather Star at the beginning.

For the trading day - Phoenix Rising

There are some work in progress photos of Quiet Moment and Dragon 1 on Ferret's blog - http://ferfab.blogspot.com/ - quite a few of the quilts are also in the 'Virtual Galleries' section on her blog, which shows pics from her solo show at Festival of Quilts in 2009.

We will be hanging Ferret's exhibition at Llangollen tomorrow and the 'Bucktful of Fabrics' exhibition at the Museum on Wednesday morning. Magie Relph's exhibition also features
work by guests Janice Gunner, Ann Mayner and Dorita Smith. Here are some links to a couple of Magie's quilts we will be showing -

Say Africa

Flower Stems

The backs of these quilts are also made of gorgeous African wax prints - I wish we could display them so you could see both sides, but alas that isn't possible. I'll try to take some photos as we set up the exhibition, so you can see how fablously colourful they are from the back as well as the front. This exhibition will be a really gorgeous shot of intense colours. Debbie and I spent most of Saturday afternoon matching up the quilts with hanging laths ready for a quick setup on Wednesday, and I feel like I know the backs of some of them just as well as the fronts :-) !

We are also going to have this at the Pavilion gallery - guaranteed to make you smile! comparethequilt.com

Have fun exploring the links!

Esther's Blog: You Look Nice Today

2012-01-29T10:43:00.000Z

This is a VERY interesting article on an incident of copyright abuse - about a big company ripping off an artist's design -

Esther's Blog: You Look Nice Today: This is a sign created by a US artist called Tori LaConsay in and for her local neighbourhood. The reason I know about it is because I ...

Time and Time Again - brights

2012-01-27T22:30:00.004Z

I started another sample for my workshop at Bridlington on 9th February. This time I'm using a fabric roll by Robert Kaufman - 'Prisma Dyes', out of their Artisan Batiks range. I got it at the National Quilting Championships at Sandown Park last year - I can't remember who I bought it from though, but it just jumped out at me as a suitable fabric range for this workshop. It has duplicates of some fabrics but threes of others, and I knew I'd need multiple strips for each 'column' in this design.

Even with threes, I've modified the original Time and Again pattern a little. Another option is to use a Bali Pop strip cut (Hoffman - one strip of each batik) or a Tonga Treat pack (Timeless Treasures - two of each fabric) and select similar fabrics for the four block columns. I'm a bit tempted to get a second Tonga Treat in the 'Sugarplum' colourway, so I'd have four of each fabric strip, split these into two different sets (four each of ten different colours in each) and make a pair of quilts, perhaps using the leftovers from one set for the block centres in the other quilt... lots of ideas.

It isn't easy to choose rolls online when you can only see a part of the roll in the seller's photo. I prefer to select rolls 'live' whenever possible. See what I mean? It's the same roll in all the photos.

I didn't try to coordinate a roll by starting off with my block centre fabric - it was easier to do it the other way round. This very bright Japanese print has been in my stash for nearly ten years and came from a bargain basket in a Tokyo craft shop. There wasn't quite enough for the forty five 2 1/2in squares I needed, so I cut the remaining six from leftovers from the roll. The original Time and Again quilt has block centres made from kimono scraps, with no two alike, so this time I thought it would be interesting to use a very large scale fabric with as much variety as possible, giving me dark squares for the lighter blocks and vice versa.

I'll keep you posted on progress!

Japanese Quilt Blocks - Australian Style

2012-01-27T13:41:00.005Z

Helen Mutch came to my sashiko retreat in Maleny last March and sent me this photo of the quilt she's made. It's gorgeous! Helen has combined blocks from both 'Japanese Quilt Blocks to Mix and Match' and 'Japanese Taupe Quilt Blocks' with sashiko blocks she made on the retreat. I wonder if it is possible to spot some of her blocks in the post via the link :-) ?

Helen wrote -

'I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, especially your enthusiasm for all things Japanese. It certainly opened my mind to wonderful Japanese fabrics and designs.

'As you can see from the attached photo that I made your sampler quilt. It’s not a particularly good photo and does look a lot better in “real life”. I love doing sashiko and have incorporated it in other projects. Some of the blocks from your book kept my mind buzzing but I also loved doing those as well.

'Now I need to put it together and was wondering how you quilted it. First of all what type of wadding did you use and secondly did you just ditch stitch the quilting or incorporate quilting inside each block?

'Looking forward to your reply so I can get on with the quilting, though the weather at this time of year isn’t at all conducive to sitting inside with a quilt over my knee!!'

:-) This isn't the first time I've been asked about the quilting on my sashiko kasuri & kamon sampler from 'Japanese Quilt Blocks to Mix and Match'. Here's the 'quilt' from the photo in the book. At that stage, it was only a top and wasn't quilted - there just wasn't enough time to get all the patchworks hand quilted before publication, and I really wanted to hand quilt them. So you can't see any quilting lines on the photo.

I need to revisit the quilting and add more, as so far it is only quilted in the ditch between the blocks, and in circles around the sashiko crests. I want to add extra quilting close to the main outlines in each crest and in the ditch on the other blocks, but nothing that will overpower the patchwork and sashiko designs really - just doing the job of holding the quilt layers together a bit better.

Helen's quilt has a lovely border fabric that we got from Bev Perel at Maleny Magic Patchwork, who organised the retreat. I think the whole bolt sold out in a few hours! I thought it would make the ideal border when I get around to making a version of the quilt using the easier patchwork blocks from both books with sashiko blocks from the first one (or maybe even using the applique designs from the second book as sashiko motifs). My remake won't be as long though, just 5 x 5 blocks not 7 x 5, as I want to get the weight of it down for baggage limits when I fly.

Thanks for the photo Helen - we could do with some warmer weather up here (although we already have the rain, thank you!)

Bags & wallhanging - also from Australia

2012-01-27T13:11:00.004Z

June Fitzgerald from Brisbane, Australia, sent me some pics of recent projects. The wallhanging above uses patterns from both my sashiko books and June paired them with a lovely acorn motif fabric she bought on a trip to Japan. As I always say, fabric makes the best souvenir!

She made a Swag Bag from 'Fabulous Fat Quarter Bags' for her niece (lucky niece) and once again, the black fabric really makes it look classy. Prints with black backgrounds are always good for coordinated projects like this.

The Rice Sack bag from '21 Terrific Patchwork Bags' is also given a sophisticated look with her fabric choices. She's used the original block selection from the book, but it looks so different with stronger contrasts.

June also tipped me off re Lisa Walton's hand dyed sashiko threads - www.dyedheaven.com June wrote 'One of her new yarns which I purchased is ideal for autumn maple leaves. The variegated colours of the yarns make them very exciting. It is a shame they are not on the website. Her fabrics are of the highest quality and beautiful to work with.' Looks like Lisa has some gorgeous hand dyes there - it will be interesting to see what June uses them for next! Thanks very much for the photos!

Time and Time Again - from Australia

2012-01-27T10:10:00.005Z

Joanne Krause from the Patchwork and Quilters' Guild in Melbourne, Australia, sent me photos of their recent workshop based on my 'Time and Again' quilt. Heather Shepherd, who was one of my hosts in Melbourne during my March 2011 trip, was coordinator and Joanne says my design was well appreciated. The orange and lime central squares in the one above really pop, don't they? So fresh and summery. I was struck by the lovely sunny fabrics the Melbourne quilters used when I taught there last year - we did Super Strips. I wonder if any of the same quilters did 'Time and Time Again'*.

It's lovely to see these variations on the original design, like the one at the top which has extra columns, or these below with variations on the borders, because I'm about to teach this design as a workshop for the first time at The Royal Hotel on 9th February. More summer colours in the quilts below - the blues and greens are calm and cool (it must be pretty warm over in Melbourne right now).

It works well in so many different fabrics - the aubergine purple and taupes combination below is one of my favourites, and it's great to see how lovely it looks in pastel prints too (are those 1930s repro fabrics on the far left of the pic below? That would work well... expecially as this design can have a big nostalgia factor if you use fabrics with special memories for the central squares).

*I've renamed the original 'Time and Again' quilt 'Time and Time Again' for the workshop version - I think Fiona at the Royal originally called it that and I thought it was very appropriate for the workshop, considering the number of times the quilt will be made in endless fabric variations!

I'm starting a new version of it myself, using a Robert Kaufman batik roll (saltdye, i.e. mottled batiks rather than waxed) and I'm hoping I have enough of a very vivid large scale Japanese print for the centre squares. It's the kind of print that has a lot of variety, and it has nice memories, as I found it in a bargain basket in Tokyo nearly 10 years ago - it will be good to use it at last.

Hope these Australian quilts have inspired your colour palette today...

Knitted hat

2012-01-26T11:11:00.008Z

Busy busy with more Quiltfest stuff today, but taking a few minutes out to post about some hats I made in the autumn. So far I only have photos of one of the hats, but I'll get pics of the other one soon - it was a similar construction. I took the photos a fortnight ago, when Glyn was working on the car and it was cold.

The yarn is a gorgeous hand dyed merino I got from a craft shop in Great Ayton back in August. They were selling proper local handcrafts - yarns, prints, ceramics, woodturning etc. etc. - and at the time they were in a shop under the Captain Cook schoolhouse museum, but were hoping to take up residence in the library in the new year. Anyway, I got more yarn there in November (I'll post details of the spinner/dyer later - I've kept the labels). There were 2 hanks of this merino, 50g in each, and the other was red, hot pinks, purples and white. I wasn't sure if I'd have enough to knit the design I wanted, so I knitted the red/purple one first, without the little 'twiggy' points at the corners, but with the twig tassel in the middle. It is about an aran weight, so I used 4.5 mm needles for the main part of the knitting.

I cast on invisibly (i.e. to leave open loops for grafting later) on 3.5mm needles and knitted 99 garter stitch ridges, then grafted the ends together to make a loop and the 100th garter stitch ridge. Without breaking off the yarn, I picked up one stitch per ridge and started knitting towards the edge of the hat brim. I placed markers at every 20th stitch and after a couple of rows started increasing once after each marker, making the hat into a slightly pointed pentagon shape.

Years ago, I made Glyn a hat with proper 3-D points, but I knew there wouldn't be enough yarn to do that this time, so the pentagon with 'twigs' was a compromise. It's still quite a pointy shape though. Once I'd knitted a couple of inches or so up from the garter stitch band, in stocking stitch and in the round, I worked a purl row. That's where I added the 'twigs' - at each point of the pentagon, cast on a few stitches (I think I did 9) and immediately cast them off again knitwise, and continue purling to the next twig point. The 'twigs' have a curve to them, but look good/funny LOL. Purling that round turns the knitting and gives the hat a more pronounced edge. I purled at this point on the red/purple hat too, but didn't add the twigs, because I thought I might not have quite enough yarn.

Once over the purled ridge, I started to decrease for the crown, again at the same five places in the round. I did a left slanting decrease, by slipping a stitch and passing it over, so the decreases spiral clockwise. On the pink/purple hat I did the decreases by knitting two together, so it spiraled to the right. Because the increase stitches before the purled ridge were picked up after the markers on each round, the increases slant to the right, so on the green hat, the direction of the slant/spiral reverses as it goes over the purled ridge, like this >. On the red/purple hat, it goes in the same direction, like this /. A small but interesting detail. I switched from my 40cm circular needle onto a set of six needles (five in the work and one knitting) once the crown stitches started to decrease significantly. Once I was down to 5 stitches, I repeated the 'twig' points in my cast off round.

The wide garter stitch band at the beginning is just as stretchy as a 2 x 2 rib and keeps its shape well, so long as you knit it on smaller needles, just like you would for a rib. It's deep enough to pull down over your ears when its cold too! Hats are a good project when you want something quick and portable :-)

Quiltfest updates

2012-01-23T11:49:00.005Z

Very busy today with things for Quiltfest.

We have an alteration to the traders' list to announce - The Silk Route will not be attending trading day but we have Castle Court Quilter (Dianne from Whittington) coming instead. I'm delighted that we will have her on board as part of the trading day selection.

Nantwich today

2012-01-22T19:31:00.004Z

There seemed to be a LOT of quilters at Nantwich Civic Hall for today's fabric sale and we met many friends there from the local quilting scene. There were some great bargains too - lots fabrics and threads to drool over and many stashes must be larger tonight.

The Quiltfest workshops are really starting to go now - click here for booking info and details - and Debbie took quite a lot of bookings today. So if you are planning to attend either Ferret's or Ario's workshop, don't wait too late to book!

Nantwich Fabric Sale this coming Sunday

2012-01-17T10:39:00.003Z

I'll be at the Nantwich Fabric Sale on Sunday, where as well as demoing sashiko, we will be taking bookings for the two workshops running as part of Quiltfest - one with Ferret on Saturday 11th Feb and one with Ario on Monday 13th - click here for workshop info. The fabric sale is at Nantwich Civic Hall, 10a.m. - 4p.m. There is a small admission charge. As well as the sale, there are demos by quilters and quilt groups, plus various quilts on show. If you are wanting to make contact with quilt groups in the wider area (and grab some super fabric, notions and book bargains at the same time), don't miss it!

Look out for the Quiltfest banners in the main hall.

Fanoe Quilt in Fabrications - errata

2012-01-11T17:07:00.002Z

Two errors have been flagged up on the instructions for my Fanoe Quilt which appeared in the December 2011/January 2012 issue of 'Fabrications' magazine. Firstly, there should be three sashing strips measuring 5in x 1in not 51/2in x 1in. Secondly, the squares which are cut in half diagonally to make the first round of triangles, as shown in the block above, should be 4 5/8in, not 3 7/8in.

I'm not sure how these errors got into the instructions because, as always, I write up my instructions first, then make the block from them, and correct any errors while I make the block. The sashing mistake is probably a cut and paste typo, but I can't work out how the other error got left in the instructions, as I couldn't have made the quilt with the wrong size squares.

Checking the block measurements has been a tricky, as my copy of Fabrications got left in Scotland before Christmas while the working drawings and notes are next to my work table in North Wales, where I haven't been since Christmas, plus the quilt is with Fabrications for taking to the Grosvenor quilt shows this spring! A bit complicated.

I have double checked (again) all the other triangle measurements and the setting triangles and these are correct. This must be assembled with accurate quarter inch seams for the blocks to work.

I'll let Fabrications know and ask them to print an errata in the next issue.

Patchwork courses at The Royal, Bridlington

2012-01-06T14:05:00.005Z

February is going to be a busy month! As well as Quiltfest taking up much of my time at the moment, I'm teaching patchwork courses at The Royal, Bridlington, once again. Fiona has put the info up here, if you're interested, and we are just finalising the requirements lists. There are only a few places left now, so if you are interested, book quickly.

The day workshops are Spinning Squares (top), Super Strips (below) and Time and Time again (last pic - a new workshop - a Jelly Roll version of my 'Time and Again' quilt).

I'm also doing a short workshop to make a version of the Komebukuro bag, on the evening of the first day. It will require a bit of preparation to fit the workshop into a short time slot, so I'm asking everyone to bring FIVE blocks ready made and quilted - these can be five the same or five different, so long as they are all the same size. What a great way to use up some blocks from that larger quilt you never got finished... Alternatively, bring squares of heavier fabric, like denim or lightweight furnishing fabric. More info on the requirements list! Ann Ferguson of Quiltopia made these gorgeous Komebukuro from charm squares, but then she does have a headstart with all the beautiful fabrics in her shop...

Sorting & storing your stash

2012-01-05T11:45:00.003Z

I made a start on getting fabrics unpacked and into the new linen cabinets yesterday afternoon. In the process, I had to think a lot about the most logical way to sort them.

When I started quilting, I used to sort my fabrics (mainly fat quarters) by colour - a basket of blues, another of reds, and so on. As I've acquired more fabrics and also started working with specific themes, I find it is more useful to sort fabric by type/style than colour. So I am working with the following main groups -

C19th reproduction
1930s repro
batiks
Japanese/oriental
taupe
novelty
panels/ombre
woven plaids/stripes/checks
non-quilting/unusual fabrics

Pieces larger than 1/2 metre/yard are folded and stacked on the shelves. 1/2s and 1/4s will be in boxes & baskets, still sorted by type. I do not worry about creases in storage too much, as I always press & starch fabrics before I work with them anyway. I'll continue my scrap systems - taupe scraps, Japanese/oriental scraps, anything else - and my strip boxes (1in, 11/2in & 21/2in Japanese/oriental strips). Most of my 'special' vintage Japanese fabrics, like those pieces I've been given by friends and very unique/antique pieces (inc. old yukata sample books) are still at Yamadera and are in their own storage drawers already. Fabrics already allocated to a future project will be stored together; the stack of blue fabrics on the centre shelf above includes the beginnings of two new quilts. Jelly Rolls can make a cute stacked display - they never fit well in boxes!

Before any fabric storage went into the room, we hung blinds, so these are always down unless I'm working in there and sun damage will be minimal. If it turns out there's strong sunlight on this wall in summer, I'll drape the cabinets temporarily. All my stash is unlikely to fit in the cabinets and there will be a fair bit in boxes on top I expect, but so far they are doing a great job of swallowing up cloth in surprisingly little space.

How do you store your fabric stash?

New workroom linen cabinets

2012-01-03T19:54:00.003Z

I got two yellow stained pine linen cabinets in the Ikea sale eighteen months ago, planned to go into my old workroom in North Wales, but they hadn't been put together, so we spent some time over the last couple of days putting them together. They look perfect here and you'd think they were bought for this workroom. I've built quite a few pieces of from Ikea but these were probably the most complicated, so I couldn't have built them on my own.

Glyn is going to tweak the locks & door hinges so they close a little better. The locking mechanism is good quality with metal bars and latches, so I've been joking that I'll be locking up my stash!

I got these cabinets as the internal depth is 40cm, so they are ideal for storing Japanese kimono bolts (36 - 39cm wide fabrics), but for now they'll be a new home for my patchwork fabrics. I'm looking forward to doing some unpacking and sorting now :-)

Christmas break

2011-12-29T17:09:00.002Z

Christmas was one mad dash after another around the country, travelling back to North Wales on Christmas Eve, with Christmas dinner in England. After going to watch Mersey Morris Men's Boxing Day Revels at Willaston, we had another long drive on Boxing Day, including stopping off at the African Fabric Shop to collect Magie Relph's exhibition 'Bucketful of Fabric' which will run as part of Quiltfest 2012. Now getting ready for New Year and Quiltfest in February!

Bridlington workshop, February 2012

2011-12-22T15:26:00.002Z

A quick update on these - there are a handful of places left and, due to popular demand for me to rerun Super Strips at The Royal Hotel, we have changed the programme slightly - day two will now be Super Strips while the Komebukuro bag workshop will be condensed into an evening session on the first night. Phew! It will mean a little more work before the bag workshop for those who want to use quilted blocks on their bags (another option would be to make the outside of the bag in furnishing fabric, denim etc. and leave out the quilting) but we'll be able to fit in three quilt workshops into the three days. For more info about the rest of the programme and the venue, please click here. There's some photos of the lovely quilts made on my Super Strips workshop with Village Quilters, Middlesbrough, earlier in this month's blog posts, so you can see what the pattern looks like - the photo above shows one of their quilts.

Fabric suggestion for 'Irori' quilt

2011-12-22T12:21:00.004Z

The new version of 'Irori' made for 'Japanese Quilt Inspirations' mainly used Moda's 'Ikoi' fabric range, now discontinued (quilt fabric ranges come and go so quickly!)

However, True Up blogged pictures of Anna Griffin's forthcoming range, Honoka. Wouldn't this be just perfect for Irori? Definitely a range to watch out for.

Solstice outfits for 2011

2011-12-20T10:58:00.009Z

Some new additions to the Solstice 'sparkle' party outfits this year - I knitted myself a purple sparkly frilly scarf in one of those tape yarns and made a new shiny coat for Glyn (not quite finished - leather lapels need sorting out and topstitching), while he did a new version of the top hat he had when he was in Clerical Error Morris.

The coat is a cross between a bike jacket and a Victorian frock coat, based loosely on a frock coat pattern by Laughing Moon Mercantile - this is the pattern. Being a multi size pattern and having both single and double breasted versions on the same tissue sheets didn't make the pattern easy to follow,with much consulting between instruction sheet and pattern tissues, plus some of the info re details like the back pleats was quite tricky to do - partly this was because of the prequilted synthetic fabric, which is quite shiny, and the wadding didn't make it hang well at first. The pattern did note that the construction isn't 100% authentic Victorian tailoring which may be why I found it confusing. As we were using prequilted fabric, with quite high loft poly wadding, I cut it with the 42in pattern for 40in chest fitting, but needed to taper in the side waist seams and the sleeve seams by about an inch for a decent fit. This was sewn on the new Bernina 220, mainly with the walking foot.

Instead of buttons, the front and sleeves close with metal bike jacket zips, really nice chunky ones.

Glyn trimmed his top hat with pheasant and peacock tail feathers, and recycled a 1920s ermine collar as a hat band. There's very large paste brooch on the back, where the ends of the collar cross over. The tinsel is just for the sparkle party.

A few scenes from the mummer's play - Sir John of the Thumbs of Denbigh town slays the dragon -

- and is challenged by Bold Gareth -

- before Beelzebub threatens to drag them both down to the grave (good view of hat!) -

With our host, Denise -

I need to finish the leather lapels properly, removing some of the bulk of the quilted fabric from the inside seams and topstitching, but there wasn't time to make a good job of it on Saturday. A large silver skull and crossbones metal stamping will go on each lapel and the lining has a skull and crossbones pattern as well.

Happy Solstice everyone!

Fanoe quilt in Fabrications magazine - out now!

2011-12-14T10:08:00.003Z

My red and white 'Fanoe' quilt pattern is out in the latest issue of 'Fabrications' magazine (no.75, December 2011/January 2010). Love the styled photo of the quilt, with all that snow and the very decorative gazebo! And it's on the cover too! I think it would make a great festive quilt, although there isn't a single Christmas fabric in the original.

Vicky has done a great job with laying out the instructions, which feature my step-by-step photos for constructing the blocks.

I'd like to make a blue and white version next, to keep. We are planning to raffle the original quilt at Wrexham Quilting Circle's exhibition in June next year.

Village Quilters and Super Strips - update

2011-12-13T11:23:00.005Z

I did the 'Super Strips' workshop with Village Quilters in April 2011 and as I was driving through Middlesbrough on my way to set up my demo display at Sew Caring Quilters exhibition last Friday, I arranged to drop in and see some of the finished tops and quilts. What an impressive collection! Use the link above to go back to photos of the workshop, where you can see these in the early stages.

This colourful version used a Fabric Freedom strip roll, with lots of metallics - it is very sparkly in real life.

Two Bali Pop 'Cappucino' strip sets made this quilt and matching cushion. This batik set makes a very sophisticated quilt. The diagonal strips and triangle borders at the ends are unique to this quilter's Super Strips and a great way to extend the design.

Moda 'Luna Notte' Jelly Roll -

Also by Moda, French General's 'Maison de Garance' -

A Jelly Roll designed by Sweetwater for Moda (not sure of the collection name) -

This quilt was made from strips cut by the quilter from her stash - carefully chosen for a glowing effect. It feels so cosy!

And a bag made from the scraps, plus a bit extra -

Village Quilters are an industrious group and meet for a full day on the Friday, so they can really get into their projects in the spacious hall. Several Christmas items were well underway. I liked this bunting - must make some for myself sometime.

It was lovely to see so many quilts finished since the workshop and I'm looking forward to working with this group again.

Sew Caring Quilters workshop & exhibition

2011-12-13T11:15:00.004Z

I was on Teesside last week, where Sew Caring Quilters at Redcar made 'Japanese Circles and Squares' for their workshop on Tuesday and had their annual exhibition on Saturday (photo of a corner of it above). I didn't get many photos in the workshop or the exhibition, where I was busy demoing, but I don't think I've done a workshop where it was also one of the quilter's birthdays, and a special one at that.

Betty had a lovely fabric selection for her quilt, including a lot of hand dyed South African fabrics, and chose a circle pattern print for her applique circles.

Helen and her mum Margaret were working with the same fabric selection and are going to combine the blocks into a larger quilt.

Another subtle fabric set, with many neutral colours and several plaids (I love plaids in this design).

Looking forward to some photos of the finished quilts!

Quilt design inspirations - not always Japanese...!

2011-12-01T11:08:00.019Z

Some quilters seem to think that all my work is 'Japanesey', but what do you think? 'Time and Again' (above) is probably as much retro as anything, while 'Spinning Squares' (below) is an abstract block - not even any Japanese fabrics there (although it would look lovely with lots of colourful gold prints).

When I first started quilting, I had just returned from working in Japan and I didn't have many non Japanese fabrics. Quilt shops were thin on the ground (I didn't know of any in the early 1990s that were local to me), so my other alternative was making quilts from my dressmaking scrap bag, mainly 1970s and 80s fabrics, with lots of Laura Ashley and Liberty materials. While I was inspired by the work of Japanese quilters, who were in turn often inspired by traditional American quilts, I don't think my quilts generally are very obviously 'Japanese'. True, I often use the geometric designs traditionally seen in Japanese fabrics, architecture etc. but very little of my overall output features kimono, geisha, koi, dragons or whatever, and much of the vintage Japanese kimono fabric I sell is selected for it's abstract or retro designs - I don't have much with things like Japanese landscapes and I just don't sell 'geisha' fabric at all.

Quite a lot of the following quilts were featured in 'Compendium of Quilting Techniques' ('200 Quilting Tips, Techniques & Trade Secrets'), so you may recognise them from there, but some are more recent.

A lot of my quilts have been inspired by other things, from Celtic design ('Solstice', my triangular quilt) ....

...to traditional British culture & folkore ('Fish & Chips', 'The Fabled Hare', 'Dancing Colours')...

... as well as antique quilts in the British tradition.

The remake of the checkerboard medallion above, in contemporary fabrics.

I like my retro 50s inspirations too!

The retro cot quilt uses blocks from the 'Retro Revival' chapter in '130 Little Quilt Blocks' -

The red and white 'Fanoe' quilt which is appearing in the latest edition of Fabrications magazine was based on cottage doors in Sunderho, Fanoe, Denmark.

'Lulea Blockhus' (Lulea Log Cabin) uses scrap bag fabrics in a random arrangement based on old Swedish utility quilts.

This earlier quilt, 'Roman Perdu', is just a scrap quilt -

My Oriental Log Cabin Sampler looks just as good made in Kona Bay Japanese prints or another colourway - mine is at the top, while Michelle Boyd from Chester Ps & Qs made the second one, begun in my workshop. I think the red and black one is by Eilish Lund, from Wrexham Quilting Circle.

'Masu' uses the Courthouse Steps construction with textured Japanese wool kimono fabrics, but the 'square in a square' result is very abstract (and not a pagoda or geisha in sight!)

Even a lot of the quilts made using my 'Japanese Circles and Squares' workshop design don't look especially Japanese. The blue one was made by Charlotte Coghill at last January's workshop at The Royal Hotel, Bridlington, while the mixed up batik patchwork blocks became my 'instant art quilt' version. The next is inspired by Chinese colours and patterns, while the last uses the same block design and layout for a community arts project.

Super Strips is based on the 'Hearts and Crosses' coverlet in the collection at the Quilt Museum, York. The original is made from C19th prints. This one by Margaret Evans from Gresford Craft Group is made from batiks -

This is my 1930s style print version and the crumb quilt made from the leftovers -

Maybe people only think I made quilts like this? LOL Hope you enjoyed the eye candy anyway.

STOP PRESS! New BRIDLINGTON workshops announced

2011-11-29T13:09:00.012Z

I've been trying to sort out some dates for workshops with Fiona at the Royal Hotel, Bridlington, after the great workshops and residential courses we had there earlier this year, and so far both our booking diaries just wouldn't coincide with suitable dates. However, due to a cancellation by another tutor, three dates in February have come up and we are proposing to run the following workshops - Spinning Squares, Komebukuro Bag and Time & Time Again. Yes, the last two of those are brand new workshops! All the workshops can be run together as a residential course (for residential participants there will be informal evening sewing sessions where you can continue working on your projects too) or done as individual day workshops (you can book individual night's stays too).

I've chosen these courses because they make the most of precuts - 10in square Layer Cakes (Spinning Squares), 5in Charm packs (Komebukuro bag) and Jelly Rolls (21/2in strips -Time & Time Again) - but of course you can always cut the required pieces from your own stash. Full requirements lists will be sent out on booking. Fiona will be busily putting the booking info up as soon as possible on their website.

Spinning Squares (image above) -

Tuesday 7^th February - 1 Day 11am to 5pm approx

Ideal for Layer Cakes or cut your own 10in squares. Make these fascinating blocks from wedge-shaped pieces, cutting with the 60-degree angle on your ruler (beginners) or varying the angles (intermediate), learning how to sew nice sharp centre points. This block puts your quilt in a spin, so get started with your own Spinning Squares. Finished quilt is thirty 8in blocks – we’ll make as many as we can on the day.

The photos below show some of the blocks made in workshops at Purely Patchwork, Linlithgow, and at Gresford. It's another block that works with so many different fabric combinations.

Komebukuro Bag -

Wednesday 8^th February -1 Day 11am to 5pm approx

‘Komebukuro’ are traditional Japanese drawstring storage bags and the 9in version makes a great craft workbag. Make two bags from a charm pack and ten 10in squares (great for leftover Layer Cake squares!) or one bag from ten 10in squares. This is a variation on the Komebukuro Bag from my new book, ‘Japanese Quilt Inspirations’. Suitable for all skill levels.

The one below is by Ann Ferguson at Quiltopia, Maleny, Queensland (see my previous post for more info about Ann's bags).

Time & Time Again -

Thursday 9^th February – 1 day 11am to 5pm approx

A Jelly Roll version of my popular ‘Time and Again’ quilt. Learn how to piece with a ‘part sewn seam’, so your blocks seem to turn around and around. Great for batiks and directional fabrics too, while you can feature special fabrics in the block centre. Finished quilt is 60 x 38in.

Price includes morning coffee & biscuits on arrival, buffet Lunch & afternoon tea & cake. The food at the Royal is excellent IMHO. I have to be careful not to indulge too much when I work there for several days! These workshops are fantastic value for only £35 per day per person (day workshop rate).

About the venue –

The Royal Bridlington is a 4 star AA Guest Accommodation based in the beautiful South Beach area of Bridlington. There are 18 individually decorated en suite rooms. Food is always high on the agenda and fresh seasonal produce is used where possible and portions are certainly not small!

Want to do all workshops?

Live local? Book all three workshops for £95 (saving £10)

Need to stay – All three workshops and 2 nights accommodation & dinner for £190 per person sharing a room or £210 for single occupancy.

Extra Nights – Dinner, bed and Breakfast for extra nights at the special price of £45 per night per person (twin) or £55 per person single occupancy.

Deposits – For a workshop a deposit of £10 is required.

For Accommodation, we normally ask for a deposit of £10 per person per night. The Balance is due 6 weeks prior to arrival.

Cancellations –

Standard cancellation policy and term & conditions apply as per www.royalhotelbrid.co.uk/terms-and-conditions.php or available upon request.

Non Quilting Partners –

Should you wish to bring your partner you may do so. There is plenty to do in the local area and we can arrange golf too.

£45 per partner sharing your room per night Dinner, Bed & breakfast.

Why not extend your stay?

Extend your stay and perhaps visit The Quilt Museum in York, The Sewing centre in Scarborough or any of the other fantastic attractions on offer.

How to Book –

Call The Royal Bridlington on 01262 672433.

(sorry, formatting seems to have gone all over the place in this post!)

Ann's bags

2011-11-26T15:27:00.006Z

Ann Ferguson at Quiltopia, in Maleny, Queensland, Australia, showed me photos of these gorgeous bags. She used the structural designs for the Komebukuro bag (above) and the Kaban Bag (below), but simplified the patchwork panels to show off some of the new fabric ranges at the shop.

Ann wrote on her Facebook page -

I've just finished making two Komebukuro bags from Susan Briscoe's new book, Japanese Quilt Inspirations. These ones use 1 moda "Oh My!" charm pack.

She pointed out that one charm pack would make two bags, as she has done here - you need twenty charm squares for each bag. The original bags in my book had slightly more complicated blocks for the panels, but they look great with the charm squares, don't they? I'm thinking about turning a charm pack version of the bag into a new workshop.

She also posted the photo below -

I just finished the Tote Bag from the book I've been using lately, Japanese Quilt Inspirations, and the Critter Community fabrics. I used my old Singer to get through those thick seams.

The machine Ann has is the same one my mum had in the 1970s and the first electric machine I used. I'd love to find another, but I don't know the model number. Ann told me that this one was Australian made around 1950s. It was her mum's and, like me, is the actual sewing machine she learnt to sew on - what a coincidence! She said she traded her first sewing machine, her grandmother's converted to electricity Singer treadle for one of these models too, when she first started quilting and before she got into old sewing machines! So Ann's had 2 of these as 'significant sewing machines in my life'. Lucky thing. They are real workhorses and fantasic for sewing heavier materials too, like denim - Ann recycled denim from an old pair of jeans for the handles, top trim and base, so her bag will wear very well indeed. I used a tea towel for the heavy cotton on my original one.

Thanks for the photos Ann! You always choose really gorgeous fabrics.

More new workroom progress...

2011-11-24T22:30:00.004Z

Walls painted, blinds up, lights in and new table installed. Haven't decided yet whether to have the table parallel to the window (original plan & better for natural daylight) or at right angles to the window (tucks in neatly against wall and makes room feel bigger). Both positions work fine with the lighting units. I will sleep on it and see how the room looks in daylight tomorrow morning.

Rewarded with real ale!

Travels with a Bag Lady...

2011-11-21T11:15:00.007Z

November has been a quiet month in terms of talks and workshops, with just one talk for Chester Ps & Qs - 'Travels with a Bag Lady' - mid month. I've belonged to this group since 1998 and they have a great programme of monthly meetings, workshops and other events, like UFO days (could do with attending some more of these!) Some P & Q quilters are all 'bagged out' in the photo above.

I've been busy otherwise, with work on a new book and travel up and down to Kettins, where the new workroom is taking shape. The two 75w twin fluorescent daylight fittings were salvaged from a local office refit - they were going into the skip! The dull grey walls are being painted magnolia, as I wanted a bit more warmth than white would give.

This is the view. The main worktable (pine dining table, also recycled) will be going in front of the window, so the light will be excellent for working. There will still be enough room for my Ikea desk, as and when I move it.

On a more colourful note, this month I tried purple potatoes for the first time. They look amazing and taste delicious! From top - Petches pie (from Great Ayton), beetroot and peppers; venison bangers and mash (with red onion gravy); 'Shepherd Neame' shepherds' pie, with Shepherd Neame Master Brew ale in the gravy. The challenge is on to make dinner as colourful as quilts.

Redcar Exhibition in December and Scotland bookings

2011-11-16T11:18:00.003Z

I will be at the Sew Caring Quilters' exhibition at the beginning of December once again - weather permitting (I was snowed off last year). Click this link for photos of the 2009 exhibition. This year it will be on Saturday December 10th, rather than falling on the first weekend. Remember this is a morning exhibition! I'll take some of the quilts from my latest books this time. More info here as soon as Helen sends me the opening hours.

I may also have mentioned (or maybe not?) that I am in the gradual process of relocating to Scotland, near Coupar Angus. This means I'll be available for a lot more work north of the border than previously. If you're interested in talks and workshops in Scotland and the Borders, please contact me as I'm taking bookings for later in 2012 and also 2013. Mileage for Scottish bookings will be calculated from Kettins, but for the forseeable future, anything south of the border will be calculated from Wrexham. This seems the fairest way to do it. :-)

Teesside views and Yorkshire inspirations

2011-11-07T13:28:00.014Z

Last weekend was spent on Teesside. We decided to do a tour of the bridges over the River Tees on Saturday, among other things, starting with the A66 bridge at Stockton, then the Victoria Bridge. The Princess Diana bridge was already closed for the Riverside fireworks event on Saturday night.

The next bridge downstream is the Infinity Bridge at the university. Stunning.

The shape of the bridge is based on the infinity symbol, although it is very difficult to get the whole of the curve into one shot from nearby - and the camera lens tends to put a slight bend onto the image too.

The Infinity Bridge (footbridge) at the university was also due for closure later that afternoon (hmm, that doesn't look like a proper legal temporary closure notice to me).

The cables suggest variable straight line grids for quilting...

Two sunset views through the bridge -

Glyn's photo of the same scene -

After crossing the Tees Barrage, we skipped the Newport Bridge (planning to come back that way) and headed straight for the Transporter Bridge. I didn't know that the Transporter closes early on Saturdays, which was a bit of a disappointment, or that there's a visitors' centre there now. So I think we'll redo the whole expedition another time, perhaps adding the old bridge at Yarm as the starting point.

Glyn's photo upriver (my camera wouldn't take this without the flash and got unwanted reflections off the hi vis panels on the righthand boat) - love the sunset reflections in the warehouse windows on the north bank.

On Sunday we went to a craft fair at Richmond Station. The venue is a very interesting reuse of the old railway station.

There were many stalls with a good selection of local, hand-made items, so I did some Christmas shopping. The specialist food and beer also went down well. There were some gorgeous hand dyed yarns from Ash Creativity.

These skeins were inspired by nature. The yarn labels themselves are temptingly worded. From left - 'BEECH LEAVES - The rich colours of an autumn day in a beech wood, depicted in merino and manx loughtan wool', 'GOlden colours of hazy autumn days in lovely soft merino' and 'Tints of autumn colours in lovely, soft 100% merino'. Beautifully observed colour inspirations I think.

These will go very well with some natural cream handspun wool, Jacob's (very dark brown), Manx (mid brown) and Welsh Black (dark brown) acquired in Great Ayton on Saturday. Roseberry Crafts (Facebook page link) are currently in premises under the Captain Cook Museum but are planning to move. When I visited in August, I got some hand dyed merino in two different colourways, and have used them for hats (I'll blog the patterns sometime soon), plus a few turned pieces in interesting woods made in Great Ayton by Nigel Coates and some deep blue ceramic dishes with spiral decorations. The gallery shop also features photographs by Lee Wilson. This was our favourite print.

Furoshiki quilt and wrapping cloths

2011-11-02T23:23:00.006Z

The furoshiki wrapping cloth I used as the panel centre for my quilt of the same name in 'Japanese Quilt Inspirations' came from Gary Bloom in Kyoto, who sells as kyotocollection on eBay. He's also just opened a brand new website specialising in furoshiki - furoshikishop.com. As well as having the panel above still in stock, he has got some beautiful new seasonal furoshiki - and they are on special sale at the moment on eBay! My favourite is 'Winter' and I am so tempted to make another quilt with this one... perhaps just a small wallhanging?

These smaller furoshiki are roughly the size of a fat quarter and could be framed very nicely with a smaller version of the strip border I used for my quilt. A yabane (arrow flight) border, like the one I did for the warm brown taupes sampler quilt, would also look good.

Other larger size furoshiki include this one from a design by Masao Ido, 'Giouji Temple', which could be used instead of the rabbits and moon panel in my original quilt. You could really go to town with autumnal colours on this one, and perhaps add some sashiko details in the top and bottom border areas.

Scrap quilts

2011-11-02T21:02:00.004Z

I've been packing up fabrics in my workroom this evening and there are still scrap baskets from the last three books - taupes, Japanese cottons and assorted prints. Playing around with scraps to make scrap quilts is something I really enjoy, and the more random the better! Here are several made over the last few years. I'll post pics of the next one when it's done - at least the top :-)

The last one was made with dressmaking scraps from the 1970s and 80s.

Work in progress on the quilt above -

What do you do with your scraps?

Fabulous Fat Quarter Books on eBay

2011-11-02T10:02:00.003Z

Christmas is coming... so I've just listed some hardback copies of 'Fabulous Fat Quarter Bags' for sale via eBay - it will be easier to keep track of sales there while I'm travelling around in November.

Autumn Quilt Festival, Malvern

2011-10-31T19:51:00.008Z

I'm back home from Malvern today after a very easy and relaxing three days (for a quilt show LOL!) I was demonstrating and teaching one hour sashiko workshops, and the quilts from 'Japanese Quilt Inspirations' were on show again. For the first time, I was on the same side of the main hall as the entrance doors and it is quite a difference experience from being either in the marquee in May or further down the hall - the quilters reached me within a minute of the doors opening at 10 a.m.

My red and white 'Fanoe' quilt was on the end of the Fabrications magazine stand (photo above), just inside the entrance. It will be in the next issue. There were plenty of red and white fabrics for sale at the show, which would be ideal for this. One trader told me that quilters seem a bit reluctant to mix slightly different reds in a quilt, but I hope they notice that it is actually a feature in my quilt and the subtle changes in reds makes the design more lively. The longarm quilting is also in a shaded red thread, and was done by Pam Ablett at Quilter's Trading Post, Whitchurch. I saw Pam at the show and she told me that they are just about to move into their new premises, where she'll be able to have both Gamill machines up and running, and they are also going to start running workshops.

I found some interesting fabrics from several traders, including Tudor Rose, who were opposite me - they had some excellent taupe fat quarter bundles which would be ideal for a remake of the little grey lap quilt hanging up on the corner of the left of my demo stand (from 'Japanese Taupe Quilt Blocks'). I'm teaching there next year, with a freezer paper applique workshop based on my 'Sensu' (fans) quilt from 'Japanese Quilt Inspirations'.

We had the pumpkin trick or treat bag from '21 Sensational Patchwork Bags' on display of course, full of sweets (candies) as this has become a bit of a tradition at this show, which coincides with Halloween weekend annually (NB - Glyn is keeping his hands well away from the sweets in this photo - they are for the quilters!) This year we had traditional boiled sweets (mints, chocolate limes & Werther's Originals) and (luxuriously) chocolate eclairs... mmm.

The 'Japanese Quilt Inspirations' display -

I spotted several quilters walking around with versions of my patchwork bags, including a lovely Rice Sack Bag I spotted near the main entrance but unfortunately didn't catch up with its owner later on. This splendid sashiko bag, complete with Ainu ayus ('having a thorn') patterns up the sides, was the only one I managed to snap. The various sashiko designs are all from 'The Ultimate Sashiko Sourcebook' and this is an ultimate sashiko sampler bag.

Japanese Circles and Squares - the workbook

2011-10-25T17:45:00.006+01:00

I have been teaching the fat quarter friendly Japanese Circles and Squares since around 2002 - that's the date on my first worksheets - and there have been so many lovely versions made since then, with a few interesting variations invented as well. The photo above shows the L-layout which was an accidental new design from an early workshop and of course there is the random art quilt arrangement as well, as shown in the block layout here. Both these are my patchworks.

For a while I've been wanting to write a workbook based on this class, partly because it isn't possible to cover all the variations in a day (some require a little more planning with the finished blocks at the layout stage) but also because there are so many possibilities for this very economically cut block. I would be looking at around 72 pages, possibly 96 pages, full colour and retailing at around £12.99 (less if possible). As my books are often translated into other European languages, I would like to look into producing this with three languages in one book - English, German and French - which would be possible, as the book would be heavier on photos and diagrams than text. I would also like to offer bundles of books with a kind of 'teaching licence' for others to teach this as a workshop - 16 - 18 copies (a workshop's worth) at a special price with a teacher's pack, which would include suggested lesson plans, tips on preparing samples for the different stages, learning points etc. etc. What do you think?

Here are some more pictures of finished quilts, often sent long after the workshop - but I still like to see them!

Mike Hannan -

Dot Sherlock -

Lorna Henshaw -

Jean Bickers -

Davena McKay -

I'm looking forward to seeing more in future. It would be great to include some student work in a book, but I would need to have very high resolution photos to be able to do this (hint).

The Autumn Quilt Festival, Malvern

2011-10-24T20:57:00.005+01:00

I am starting to get ready for the Malvern autumn quilt show this weekend. Unlike Quilts UK in May, it is only a three day show, but there is still plenty to see and do, including one hour workshops (I'll be doing one on making little sashiko coasters). As usual, there seems to be much to do, including repacking a lot of kits and patterns that have sold out over the last month!

The quilts from 'Japanese Quilt Inspirations' are still on tour at the autumn shows and will all be on display at Malvern - click here to see photos of them displayed at the Great Northern Quilt Show at the beginning of September 2011. It is hard to choose a favourite quilt from the book, but I think 'Kamon' ('crest', above) is one of them, at the moment.

The original version of 'Irori' (hearth), renamed 'Tatami' (rush mat) in the book, is the one with the longest design history, as the top was made in 1998. It includes fabrics acquired in Japan in 1991/92, as well as some of Euro Japan Link's first fabric ranges, so it has a lot of nostalgia for me.

'Igeta' (well curb) is another big favourite, once again predominantly blue and white, although this was the second version of this quilt, with the first one made in red and black (also included in the book, called 'Matsuri', which means festival). I took this quilt around with me to finish the hand quilting, and worked on it in various places including my hotel room in Hungary last year!

It has become a bit of a tradition to take a quilt with me to work on in the evenings at my hotel - I haven't decided which one I'll pack for next weekend yet...

Lincolnshire area day and workshop

2011-10-24T11:35:00.009+01:00

The last weekend has been just as busy as the previous week, with Region 10's Area Day on Saturday followed by a workshop on Sunday. The venue was Ludford Village Hall, near Louth - a spacious and well-lit hall with ample car parking, ideal for both Saturday's talk and Sunday's workshop, which was 'Japanese Circles and Squares'. My new talk, 'My Japanese Quilt Inspirations', combines well with this workshop, as I feature a few of the workshop sample quilts among dozens of other quilts inspired by Japanese textiles, architecture, art and design.

There were some super fabric combinations used for 'Japanese Circles and Squares', so I'm looking forward to seeing photos of the finished quilts. Lis (who now blogs as Piece'n'Piece) made the first one shown below - I expect I'll see some good workshop photos on her blog soon too. EDIT - Lis has posted a photo of her quilt with the sashiko detail - click here.

This random pieced version in plaids, stripes and shot cottons was one of my favourites. It has an extra fat quarter in the stack, so there will be 48 blocks rather than 42. The finished quilt will look like a cross between a Japanese boromono rag cloth and an Aussie wagga.

The weekend was a chance to meet up with Sheila and Jane, who attended my sashiko course at Bridlington earlier this year. Sheila brought the cushions she made using her sashiko samples, combined with tsumugi striped cottons, all very colour coordinated and showing just how creatively small pieces of sashiko can be used.

Elvington and Garstang

2011-10-21T11:03:00.009+01:00

On Tuesday I was with Priory Patchworkers at Elvington near York for the sashiko furoshiki workshop, followed by 'Sashiko and Japanese Country Textiles' talk. I didn't take photos in the workshop as I'd planned to take them at the talk afterwards - everyone in a line with their stitching, as quite a bit got done at tea time - but somehow I didn't. It was a bit of a busy day. I'll look foward to having photos sent later.

I did manage to get plenty of photos with Garstang Patchworkers and Quilters in our Super Strips workshop yesterday, after my 'Travels with a Bag Lady' talk the evening before. As usual, I came away with another potential workshop sample on my 'to do' list, this time using one of the 'Arcadia' Moda Jelly Rolls like Debi did (see photo above), as I love this range and have a few rolls stashed away. Here are the other patchworks, in various fabrics - some are from strip cuts and some were cut from the quilters' stashes. Some are done with 2 1/2in strips, some with 1 1/2in.

Debi also brought her version of my Rice Sack Bag from '21 Terrific Patchwork Bags', in batiks -

The workshop was held in Bilsborow, where there is an excellent fish and chip shop - so had some for lunch, purely for research of course, just in case I do another 'Fish and Chips' quilt anytime soon.

I'm off to Lincolnshire for a Quilters' Guild Regional Day tomorrow and workshop on Sunday (Japanese Circles and Squares), so more photos after the weekend. I'm also looking forward to seeing photos of finished projects from both the workshops above. Thanks for some fun, creative days! :-)

Talk and Workshop with Shipton Quilters

2011-10-16T15:40:00.005+01:00

Yesterday I taught a workshop for Shipton Quilters, near Cheltenham, based on two blocks from 'Japanese Taupe Quilt Blocks', with my new talk 'My Japanese Quilt Inspirations' the evening before. This is the first time I've taught a workshop based on the taupes book and it was the group's suggestion. It worked so well, I'm going to add it to my workshop list - just got to decide on a title first.

In the morning, we made a patchwork block and, in the afternoon, an applique block. I chose a variation on the igeta (well-curb) motif, komochi kume igeta (grouped well-curb whirlpool), for the patchwork block and mitsu kasane jigami (three layered fan papers) for the applique. The patchwork block is a good introduction to the part-sewn seam technique I use to make a lot of my blocks (and frequently use for the woven effect sashing effect on sampler quilts) and the fan papers are a way of introducing needle turn applique, with a layered motif but without too many pieces. It is also a block which is achievable in an afternoon.

More patchwork blocks - the one at the bottom left is Irori, a block from 'Japanese Quilt Blocks to Mix and Match' which also features in 'Japanese Quilt Inspirations'. It uses the same part-sewn seam technique as the other blocks, but is an easier option (although several quilters made this as a companion to their first block!)

There was also the option to work on a different block, for those who were up for the challenge or were already into needleturn applique.

I rarely have any photos from my talks, but asked my host Sue if she would take a few pictures for me, as some of these quilts haven't been seen on my blog before. 'Yume de mita - Chokai-san to Shonai no heiya' (Seen in a dream - Mt Chokai and the Shonai Plain) is my second quilt (not counting the unquilted patchwork coverlet made second). It is the first of my kimono quilts.

This is another Mt Chokai quilt, started around 2001, but I included it to prove that I do have plenty of UFOs (UnFinished Objects) too. The 'grid' is not quilting - it's the tacking stitches! I must finish this quilt sometime soon. The sheer amount of hitomezashi sashiko I planned for it seemed daunting at the time (there are only a few rows stitched across the rice fields!) but now I've done 'The Denman Kannon', this doesn't seem such a big project. The 'Delectable Mountains' blocks across the bottom represent Dewa Sanzan, the three mountains of Dewa, the other holy mountains surrounding Shonai. The view of Mt Chokai is, of course, from Yuza-machi.

'Butterfly Dance', winner of the Kona Bay Challenge 2009, is a slightly more complicated piece but returning to the kimono theme.

I need help holding up the larger quilts but the smaller ones, like 'Zen - Garden from the tea house', aren't a problem.

The Kamon Sampler from 'Japanese Quilt Blocks to Mix and Match' uses the woven effect sashing I mentioned earlier, most effective done with either an ombre shaded fabric or a stripe.

Kyoto Collection sale

2011-10-10T11:13:00.003+01:00

Gary Bloom at Kyoto Collection is having another of his eBay sales, including some super furoshiki cloths (mainly small sizes but great for quilt/large size cushion panels), including Hokusai's Great Wave, and the excellent and long out-of-print Kyoto Shoin textile book series. I can't recommend these books enough - a great resource and essential addition to your bookshelves if you like Japanese textiles. Think I'll add a few of the smaller furoshiki to my stash this time round :-)

The furoshiki panel used for my quilt of the same name (above) was supplied by Gary - click here to buy the same one (his other large size furoshiki are all suitable for making the quilt above at approximately the same size as the original, or use one of the smaller ones and add the border for a wallhanging).

The Guild of Needle Laces AGM workshop & talk

2011-10-09T18:43:00.005+01:00

I had a fun day with the Guild of Needle Laces at Windsor yesterday, where I was the speaker for their AGM and gave a mini workshop where we made the sashiko panels for pincushions with the shippo (seven treasures) design. I didn't take any photos (it was a busy day) but you can see some of their work on the Guild website. The Guild's mission statement is to 'promote the interest, skills, teaching, conservation, history and exhibition of all needlemade laces' , so the membership has a wide range of interests and produces work in many different styles. I was impressed with their creativity and attention to detail.

Needle lace is something I'm not especially familiar with, although I once tried making a piece from instructions in a needlework book. Even a lot of the specialist tools (scroll down link) are unfamiliar, although they were beautifully crafted from attractive woods and a bit tempting to acquire! I settled for a needlelace 'dreamcatcher' from the sales table as a souvenir of my visit.

Their annual challenge was fasctinating, with the variety of panels all made from the one outline pattern. Click here to see previous years' challenges (I especially like the 2010 challenge). This year's design was abstract and very Art Deco (to me). Hopefully the 2011 challenge panels will be added to their website soon. There seems to be a lot of scope within needle lace for pursuing your individual style and interests, whether by adding colour or varying stitches and infills. Overall, the effect of many of these stitches is not unlike the lace-like effect of hitomezashi (one stitch sashiko - shown in progress on the border of the Denman Kannon below).

Thanks for a lovely day! It was also the first outing for the Denman Kannon after it's return from Japan.

Ancient patterns and celestial changes

2011-10-06T10:29:00.009+01:00

I read this amazing piece on the BBC today -

Aboriginal Stonehenge: Stargazing in ancient Australia

As the sunset can be seen from my kitchen window, moving from one solstice to another behind the neighbouring mountain, I originally wanted to line up tall garden features to mark the solstices, which would have made a triangular setting rather like this.

***************

Earlier, I started looking up some other ancient designs, this time from Japan - Jōmon (up to c.200 BC), Yayoi (c200 BC - AD250) and Kofun (AD250 - 552) eras. During the Kofun era, there were tumulus burials in Japan, in Kyushu and parts of Honshu.

The guides at Knowth and Newgrange made points about the similarity between the designs at these sites and other ancient cultures throughout the world. I guess it is largely because these are very universal patterns - the spiral and variations similar to a human fingerprint (pointed out by Glyn), concentric circles, square spirals (like the raimon or lightning design in sashiko), the zigzags and triangles, the crosshatchings etc.

In 'Arts of Japan 1' (Weatherhill/Shibundō, 1973), Saburo Mizoguchi notes that Jōmon designs 'must be related in one way or another to continental Aisian cultures'. He notes a 'preserence for oblique lines and every variation of spiral and coil'. Jōmon means 'cord pattern' and the designs are in clay, either impressed with cord (like beaker pottery) or coils of clay applied to the surface. The photos below are scanned from 'Arts of Japan'.

Bronze was introduced from the continent during the Yayoi era, as seen in the highly decorate ritual bells known (now) as dōtoku.

Mizoguchi notes that Yayoi ceramics are in a 'quieter' style, with patterns being less dominant than the overall form of the vessel, while motifs are in vivid colours.

Later Kofun era pieces show influences from China and Korea. This is when large tumuli or kofun were constructed as tombs for dead emperors and other important figures.

Try Google image searching the above era names for more pictures of Jōmon to Kofun era art. It is interesting to compare these designs, especially the Jōmon and Yayoi pieces, with some of the designs at Newgrange and Knowth (see below and previous posts).

'Arts of Japan 1' is now out of print, but there are several copies for sale on Amazon UK - here and here, some much pricier than others! It covers aspects of Japanese design up to the Edo era, and includes a short guide to kamon (family crests), a handy glossary of design terms and has a decent index. Many illustrations, but mainly in black and white. A good addition to your library, if you are interested in the history of Japanese design motifs.

Newgrange itself...

2011-10-04T17:33:00.012+01:00

After Knowth, Newgrange itself. The approach from the bus stop is impressive. Click here to read about the site - I'm going to stick with what isn't covered in the link - and check out the other links at the end of the page too. In the tradition of my travel photos, the site appears almost deserted... actually, there were at least two main tour groups there at the time, so more than 50 people on the site. It just looks empty. We were timed for the entrance to the passage and split into two groups (about 18 in each I think), which added to the sense of occasion.

The slate walls in the image above are modern, added to enable access to the passage more easily for visitors and made from machine cut slate, so future generations will easily identify them as later additions. The stone at the threshold echoes the famous triple spiral inside the tomb while the 'lightbox' which illuminates the passage at dawn from the 19th to the 23rd December each year is the window like aperture above the passage entrance.

No photography is allowed inside, but you can get a good impression of how it looks from the photos on the Newgrange site. I stood next to the alcove on the right hand side - there's an illustration of it here, by Sally McKenna. I made a quick sketch of some of the pattern details, which are probably easier to see in her artwork than in photos. The roof structure, with overlapping slabs (click photo below to go to http://www.mesacc.edu/~tomshoemaker/celtic/slides.html and go down the right hand menu for 'mounds/chambers'), immediately suggested a irregular Log Cabin block. Although the guide maintained that the roof hadn't leaked, we could see leaching on the stones. 'Interior 2' on the same website shows the narrowness of the passage, which wasn't as bad as I expected. It was also, curiously, no more claustrophobic than being in a room with quite a few people.

A few more interior image links -
Lit with candles
Information about Michael J. O'Kelly, who excavated Newgrange - scroll to bottom of page for an excellent image (plus read all about the archaeology)

"It therefore seems that the sun has shone into the chamber ever since the day of its construction and will probably continue to do so for ever." Dr Jon Patrick

Kerbstone designs -

The carvings are in shallow relief -

We were discussing how the original designs were drawn out, and it made me go back to a discussion at one of the quilting sessions over the weekend - how quilters used the width of a finger or thumb as a measure for parallel lines. Seems to fit here too. The patterns have a human scale - the width of a thumb, the width of a finger, a hand span etc. I think we should mark up a wholecloth this way.

EDIT - Marks made by the width of the fingers in prehistoric art are covered in this BBC article from 30/9/11. A very interesting link - please read.
While waiting for the bus, we 'drew' a double spiral in the gravel, simply working in two lines from the outside of a rough circle.

As we left the site, the resident moggy mouse patrol appeared at the kiosk. He is clearly the current 'owner' of Newgrange and a bit of a sun worshipper himself.

It was a shame the bookshop at the visitor centre was closed for stocktaking, although it looks like there's plenty of books on the website (with Amazon links) - will have a look at these later. 'Newgrange Speaks for Itself' is already on my wishlist.

Looking back from the visitor centre path - Newgrange is on the central horizon - an amazing day.

Di Pattison's exhibition at Brú na Bóinne

2011-10-04T15:31:00.012+01:00

While we were waiting for the first bus to take us to Knowth, we saw Di Pattison's exhibition 'Earthworks' at Brú na Bóinne visitor centre. Just our kind of thing. Some were based on aerial views and plans of sites (including Knowth, above), which instantly appealed to our mapping instincts and interest in ancient sites, and she uses natural pigments harvested from the earth around the British Isles to make her paints. So her paintings have a fabulous colour palette, totally natural and very addictive, which seem to link the subject matter straight back into the landscape. I was hooked.

You can see a better image of the Knowth painting and read about it on Di's website here. By the way, the cross shaped heads in the tomb chambers are nothing to do with Christianity, as the tomb dates from over 2000 years before that. I like her comment -

I tried in this painting to convey the sense that to an archaeologist the soil, regarded as just dirt by most people, is rich with evidence helping us understand our ancestors’ lives and beliefs.

Unfortunately I didn't manage to get a catalogue (as mentioned on the exhibition poster above) as the bookstall was closed for stocktaking, so I got in touch with Di today and she kindly gave me permission to show some images from the exhibition on my blog. The exhibition continues until 12th October and I'd highly recommend it, as the photos here don't really do justice to her work, which is incredibly tactile and really needs to be seen in person.

Here's the info about the paints and how she creates them (click to enlarge and read) -

Many well-known sites around the British Isles were included, not only sites in Ireland. This aerial view of Arbor Low in Derbyshire was quite magical.

Some of the paintings were available as limited edition prints too (the print version of the painting above is on the right).

There are better images of many of these on Di's website gallery. She is based near Cambridge and her contact details are here (I spotted that she has an 'open studio' weekend events in July and December, so that would be worth checking for dates). I'll be looking out for her work in future.

EDIT 5/10/11 - for more interesting art inspired by ancient designs, keep an eye on Sally Westcott's blog (listed on the right in my bloglist). She's just told me this -

I'm creating a series of petrogylph quilts (12 x 12) at the moment and New Grange is in my scope... I will let you know when the series is complete - two down two to go!... I'm off to Houston for the International Quilt Festival - I have two quilts in the Jewel Pearson Scholarship Exhibition! So exciting!

It is!

Newgrange - Knowth - stones

2011-10-04T12:08:00.013+01:00

I'll start this post off with info panels about the stones from the main exhibition at Brú na Bóinne Visitors Centre. This was an excellent presentation about the history of the sites and life in the area contemporary with the building of the tombs. While I could nit pick about some of the assumptions made about the social structure of megalithic society (e.g. what looked like a modern 'nuclear family' depicted living in the hut illustration) it was nevertheless fascinating. I would agree with the suggestion made by the booking desk staff - unless you have a long wait for the bus tour (we didn't), save the exhibition till the end because you'll get more out of it once you've had the guided tours to the sites.

I started this post with the above images because the stones are more strongly lit, displaying their carving far better than they do under normal light conditions in my photos on site. Most of the designs have quite shallow relief. The info panel below gives a wonderful collection of the various spirals and geometric arrangements.

Now for some of the stones themselves - Knowth (some of those above are from Newgrange) -

The second stone from the right is the one with the 'sundail/calendar' design (the last of the exhibition photos above). The mixture of rough quartz lumps and smoothed granite pebbles creates a fascinating texture.

Sprials and concentric circles -

'Snakes' -

Newgrange - Knowth

2011-10-04T11:11:00.011+01:00

Last Tuesday we went up to Newgrange, to see the megalithic passage tombs. Starting at the Brú na Bóinne Visitors Centre, we boarded a bus first of all for Knowth.

We arrived about 11, which was OK for getting onto the bus tour at this time of year, although in the summer holidays you'd probably need to arrive a bit earlier. By bus is the only way to see Newgrange and the best way to get to Knowth (there is a car park there but with big warning signs about theft from parked vehicles). Tip - don't believe the description of the bus interchange being 'just over the bridge' - it is a decent walk to the pick up point at Brú na Bóinne, so don't leave it as late as we did! Also, don't listen to other people in the tour group when they point out that you are wearing the 'wrong' tour time label and should wait for the next group going over the bridge - some stupid woman visitor did that to me and we nearly ended up missing our bus thanks to her interference! There is a fair amount of swapping of passengers from one bus to another going on, all coordinated by coloured stickers on the visitors, which the bus drivers need to be able to see (and you must keep your tickets for site admission).

I can't beat this virtual tour info, so click the link and I'll just stick to photos! Next post will feature images of the carved kerbstones all around the edge of the mound. The 'overhang' is a modern addition, to protect the stones.

Souterrain -

Inside - the main passage. There's no public access along this, but Glyn got a decent photo through the gate.

Side passage (my photo) -

Info panels - these are displayed in a small modern chamber at the start of the passage. Click photos to enlarge images and read the info.

Stones next. Click panorama to view at full size.

Dublin - interesting images and design inspirations...

2011-10-03T12:40:00.018+01:00

We had breakfast at Bewleys Oriental Cafe on Grafton Street on Friday. I booked a table in advance, partly because I wanted to have a chance to see the Harry Clarke stained glass windows up close and figured we might get a good table that way - turned out I was right. We sat right next to the wall, in the Harry Clarke Room. These are the original windows installed in 1927.

Other interesting stained glass details at Bewleys -

Breakfast was delicious by the way. I especially liked the Irish black and white puddings, much nicer than the English black pudding, like a cross between that and haggis.

The wooden floor under the entrance gate at Trinity College suggested an English paper pieced project in woodgrain fabrics alone, or perhaps something in Japanese folded patchwork?

From old to new - the contemporary 'ironwork' at St Stephen's shopping centre, and the clock, was worth a look. The pattern formed by the kiosk roofs is interesting.

After the talk on Saturday, we went to Clontarf Castle for a late lunch with the quilters. I was impressed with the fantastic gothic interior (taking notes for my dollshouse pub project, which also has a gothic bar!)

Delicious ice cream indulgence -

Mariners' Compass variations in paving, underneath the monument 'Our Lady, Star of the Sea' -

The Bull Island, also shared with Raheny, is connected to Clontarf by an historic wooden bridge. While most of the island is city property, the (North) Bull Wall and breakwater, related road and path, and Bull (Wooden) Bridge belong to the Dublin Port Company, and are closed for a day each year to assert this. At the end of the breakwater is a statue of Our Lady, Star of the Sea (Realt na Mara), to watch over mariners and dockworkers.

While out on Bull Island late on Saturday afternoon, we watched as what appeared to be a tidal bore came in - fast - there were surfers waiting out in the bay to catch the wave, on the other side of the breakwater (tide table link here). I haven't been able to find any information specifically about tidal bores in Dublin Bay online, but it certainly looked like that and the surfers knew it was coming - should have raced down to the beach afterwards and asked them about it I guess. Fantastic strong wave patterns coming in.

Dublin trip & sashiko workshops

2011-10-03T10:51:00.011+01:00

I had a fantastic trip to Dublin to teach the Eastern Branch of the Irish Patchwork Society last week. Although I've lived in Wales since 1984 (apart from my time in Japan), somehow I'd never managed to get across the water to Dublin before. It was ultra easy from Holyhead (only 85 miles from home) and we had a smooth crossing (and late night return) with Stena Line.

I liked the pattern created by these gangways.

The approach into Dublin port is a stunning mixture of beautiful distant mountains, lighthouses and industrial architecture, so plenty to keep us interested and out on deck.

I'll add a few more separate blogposts with design inspiration photos from Dublin, lighthouses and our trip to Newgrange, to stop this post getting too long.

On Saturday, I gave the 'Sashiko and Japanese Country Textiles' talk at the Irish Patchwork Society's meeting. First I got to enjoy their show and tell - there were some really good pieces of work - here's just a handful (I didn't take the photos). There was a real friendly buzz at this meeting and I'd recommend the Society to anyone looking to join a p & q organisation in Ireland. Overall, I found Dublin a very relaxed and friendly kind of place, where everyone seemed to have a great sense of humour - just as well, because I'd somehow managed to get my wires crossed and packed the wrong sashiko workshop worksheets! I always have all the other worksheets with me, whether on the laptop or (in this case) as hard copy, so there was no problem to get enough printed off for the workshop.

The first workshop was on Sunday, at the same venue as the Saturday meeting. Lots of beautiful little samples of Shonai Sashiko were stitched.

The second workshop was hosted at Ann's house, with fantastic views over the estuary of the river Liffey.

A few couple of pieces of eye candy were brought for me to see. Gwenda had made a lovely sampler from my 'Japanese Taupe Quilt Blocks' book. She has inspired me to get on with making my own sampler quilt from these blocks!

Yet another quilt made using blocks from 'Japanese Quilt Blocks to Mix and Match'. The diagonal block arrangement works really well. I particularly liked the sashiko highlights in the centre of the 'framed' block (name escapes me at the moment!), the sashiko blocks with dark indigo thread on beige and the orange print used for the triple plum blossoms. The kimono blocks have various different prints.

One of the quilters has a Babylock Sashiko machine, which she brought along to the class. Of course, we were doing hitomezashi (one stitch sashiko) by hand, which is worked on a grid, but I am sure that some of these stitch patterns could be done on the machine, because it has independently variable stitch and gap length settings. However, you'd still need a very good knowledge of how these patterns work to be able to stitch them by machine. I guess that is one of the things I like about this machine - it doesn't take away any of the skill needed in understanding and marking the patterns, and you still need to have a lot of practice to be able to produce patterns like asanoha (hemp leaf) where the lines cross but the stitches don't. It is excellent for anything where a hand quilted big stitch effect is required and even a beginner can get great results (although Glyn didn't stitch everything on that panel lol).

I had great fun with the Irish quilters and look forward to visiting again sometime - or maybe our paths will cross again over here soon? I'm back to teach the embroidery guild in February, when we will have a full weekend of sashiko, running the same course I do for the WI at Denman College.

Hexagon Quilters and the Rice Sack Bag Revisited

2011-10-03T10:28:00.010+01:00

It's over two weeks ago now that I had a great bag making workshop with Hexagon Quilters at Reading, after the Sashiko and Japanese Country Textile talk the night before (glitches with a worn out wifi router at home and my week in Ireland led to my long blogging break - new router now installed!) Some more variations on the Rice Sack Bag (my favourite) were created. From left above - Kaffe Fasset printed stripe used for panel and strap; Cathedral Windows panel combined with Ricky Tims fabric; checkerboard panel coordinating with colourful tsumugi stripe; scrap panel with same tsumugi (closest to the original bag panel, which was foundation pieced from scraps); Thai patchwork panel combined with Thai (?) ikat; straw coloured Japanese fabric with blue tsumugi stripe; blue/brown colourway of Robert Kaufman's "Imperial" collection with brown tsumugi. Endless possibilities for making this bag very unique, as you can see.

I also remembered to take some work in progress photos during the class. We were in a very comfortable church hall, with a view of the gothic church through the back window and the old churchyard on the other side.

This lovely quilt is a version of my Kasuri Sampler from "Japanese Quilt Blocks to Mix and Match". The fabrics are from Euro Japan Links Limited (see my links menu right). I love the inclusion of the soft lilac and turquoise fabrics. Otherwise, it is probably it is one of the closest versions to the original, as even the border fabric is the same tsumugi stripe - I'll add a photo of my Kasuri Sampler at Quilts UK 2007 so you can see them both together (may have to do a blogpost rounding up all the versions of this quilt sometime soon!)

The Denman Kannon 'on tour' - Sakata, Japan

2011-09-17T09:07:00.003+01:00

Photos from the exhibition Reiko Domon organised recently - I'm not sure if this was the exhibition at Sakata Manchinka or the one in Akita City (may have misunderstood her e mail), but they will be having another sashiko exhibition in Yamagata City in May next year. As you can see, the Denman Kannon is still in Japan!

The American Museum at Bath

2011-09-13T09:21:00.010+01:00

Unusually, Crafts for All ran from Thursday to Saturday and closed Saturday afternoon, so Debbie and I were in the unusual situation of having a Sunday off straight after a show! This meant we could fit in a trip to the American Museum at Bath, something we have wanted to do for a while. It is closed on Mondays, so previously a visit had been impossible. Of course, one of the main reasons we wanted to go there was to see some of the famous collection of antique American quilts, but the museum turned out to be a great source of other inspiration, especially some of the native American items.

I am always a sucker for a dressing up box, so here I am emigrating to America in the C17th, trying to stay upright on deck! The first photo shows me inspecting our supplies...

As these photos are me in pre-photography days, I've 'watercolourised' them. And this is how the West was conquered - by quilters obviously.

These paintings were curiously reminiscent of Ainu embroidery designs (Google Image search 'Ainu clothing' for more pics). Sorry the images are slightly blurred. No flash photography is allowed and I was suffering a bit from camera shake.

Treasures of native American basketry. The patterns in these were stunning.

Moccasins -

Silver and turqouise -

The museum includes a number of room settings from different periods of American history, beginning with a home c.1680. This was interesting for me as I once lived in a Welsh farmhouse built c.1690, and the original house interior would have been very similar to this.

Of course, I loved the miniature version of the house -

...even if it was a bit tricky to photograph on the macro setting.

The murky interior of a Colonial tavern (alas, it was dry) reminded me very much of The George in Speldhurst!

While the quilt display was well worth seeing, including a stunning large Baltimore Beauty quilt, the other quilts were displayed on vertically hung hinged panels, and covered with a (UV resistant?) plastic sheeting. This made photography very difficult. Anyway, if you want to see images of the quilt collection, I recommend their excellent book, 'Classic Quilts from the American Museum in Britain'.

The museum has many little snippets and facts to inspire. I didn't know that the Shaker communities wove these beautiful braids (presumably, too fancy for their own use?)

Pennsylvania 'Dutch' ('Deutch' i.e. 'German') painted furniture often reminds me of the 'roses and castles' painting seen on British canal ware. The painted dresser seems to imitate the colours of Biedermeier style.

The tiny floral bands on this chest carcass were interesting -

The restaurant was good (veggie mushroom quiche for lunch, even though were were a bit late at 2.30) and there are a couple of gift shops - although, as usual, they don't have postcards of the things you want! The bookshop did pretty well on quilting books though, including a few of mine.

Crafts for All, Bristol

2011-09-09T18:48:00.004+01:00

As well as the quilts on my demo stand here, the show organisers asked me to bring some quilts for a small display, part of a much larger display of quilts by various local quilt groups and quilt tutors. As it is unusual for some of these quilts to be out and about at all, I took the following photos.

Several that don't get shown much include a small sampler made for 'Japanese Quilt Blocks to Mix and Match', using remakes of two kimono blocks.

The patttern for the small appliqued wallhanging 'Tea Things' appeared in Popular Patchwork about eight years ago. I may republish it.

The grey taupe lap quilt was made for 'Japanese Taupe Quilt Blocks', as an excuse for including the sizes for setting triangles for using the blocks on point.

'Takarazukushi' (Collection of Treasures) uses applique blocks from 'Japanese Quilt Blocks'. Like the previous quilt, I intended to quilt it much more heavily (by hand), but there hasn't been time to revisit it and complete the quilting. I must do that sometime, as it is starting to develop creases in the lilac background, which would be helped by more quilting. The plan for this was for a clamshell type pattern like seigaiha (ocean wave) on the lilac faux edo komon print and shippou (seven treasures), in big stitch, over the border squares, plus extra quilting in the background for the applique motifs.

I am running a 'make and take' on the stand, where we are stitching hitomezashi kikkou, a woven stitch.

Sunday update - we had lots of people trying the make and take today, including this enthusiastic 7 year old stitcher. He did really well too!

Great Northern Quilt Show - Best in Show

2011-09-07T09:30:00.007+01:00

Just a quick post, as I am getting ready to drive to Bristol for Crafts For All, which starts tomorrow. This is partly for Ferret, who has blogged about this gorgeous sampler quilt - 'Overleaf' by Susie Corke. Like Ferret, I was also wowed by the quilt at Sandown Park and have pretty much the same opinion of it! Read Ferret's blog post for more info.

The photos with the blue winning ribbons are from the Great Northern Quilt Show and those with the purple ribbons are from the National Quilt Championships at Sandown Park. I am a bit annoyed with myself that the Harrogate photos aren't quite as sharply focussed as I would like to really show off the hand quilting, which was beautiful.

I can't find Susie's website, if she has one, so if anyone knows of a site or blog, please let me know and I'll add the link. I read somewhere that she teaches, so you may be interested in workshops.

Great Northern Quilt Show - more quilts!

2011-09-06T12:16:00.012+01:00

Here are a few photos of some of the other quilts in the show. For copyright reasons, I can't go showing photos of everything, so I'm sticking to photos of quilts by quilters I know and quilters I hope won't mind me drooling over their work! The table runner above was started at one of my sashiko furoshiki workshops (sorry, I am having a complete block as to which one, and will need to be reminded).

If you look closely at the photos in the following link, you can see Michele Boyd's blocks at the Chester Ps & Qs Log Cabin workshop back in April 2010. Lovely to see the finished quilt in the Bed Quilts section. There is a lot of work in this - it's quite a bit bigger than my original version too.

Always nice to see another version of '99 Treasures'. Jacky Hooton machine quilted this one. Because the quilting design supplied with the pattern is a continuous line design - a hybrid between shippo (seven treasures) and fundo (balance weights), it is ideal for machine quilting as well as hand quilting.

The theme category this year was 'Down by the Sea' and there were some lovely pieces and a good diversity of theme interpretation. Sandra Wyman's quilt, 'Digging for Bait', had already caught our attention at Festival of Quilts, so I was really pleased to have another chance to see it. At Festival of Quilts, I didn't have my show guide to hand when I was looking at the Contemporary quilt section, and I didn't realise it was one of Sandra's quilts. She was kind enough to send me a copy of the photo mentioned on the label.

Sheena Norquay's fantastic four panel wall hanging won first in the theme section.

... and rounded up quite a few more awards along the way, winning the Machine Quilting award and coming Overall Runner Up in the show. It did not surprise me that Sally Holman bagged this quilt for her Judge's Choice either, as the sea is a constant inspiration in her work as well.

It is easy to see why. I am a big fan of Sheena's quilting and I own one of her small wallhangings (a piece made for the Quilters' Guild's £50 fundraiser about 6 years ago).

Great Northern Quilt Show - Ferret's quilts

2011-09-06T12:01:00.005+01:00

Ferret is going to be our featured quilt artist for Quiltfest next February and (fingers crossed!) her 'Leather Star', which won First place in Small Wallhangings, will be on show, along with a lot of her other stunning work. Click here to read her blogpost about the show.

The back of the famous coat -

Jane Rollason is hoping to have 'Holiday Starfire' and 'Ferret's Fractals' at Quilt Expo in Viville, France, next July, where she is featuring quilts with black backgrounds in the exhibition in the local church. Click the photo of 'Holiday Starfire' below to watch a video of Ferret quilting it.

Rather puzzlingly, the portrait of Cy wasn't placed in the Small Wallhanging section, which seemed rather odd as it is another excellent piece of work.

Great Northern Quilt Show - quilt details from Japanese Quilt Inspirations

2011-09-06T11:13:00.010+01:00

Here are flat and detail shots of pretty much all the quilts from the book. The longarm quilted ones are for sale - details are here. The quilt above is 'Kimono' (quilted by Karen Florey at the Running Chicken) - detail below.

I will try to keep this post a manageable length, by giving you the eye candy without too much text!

Quilt names precede quilts, and I've included some detail shots showing the quilting.

'Furoshiki' (quilted by Ferret - there will be some extra quilting added to this before it is sold)

'Geisha' (handquilted)

'Kunimoto' (quilted by Ferret)

'Igeta' (handquilted)

'Matsuri' (quilted by Linda Paris)

'Masu' (quilted by Linda Paris)

'Tsuyu' (quilted by Linda Paris)

'Sakiori' (quilted by Lesley Carol Taylor at North Sea Quilters)

'Kamon' (handquilted - my current favourite)

'Irori' (quilted by Linda Paris)

'Tatami' (the original version of 'Irori', hand quilted)

'Shimacho' (quilted by Maria Laza)

'Sensu' (quilted by Maria Laza)

'Kamigata Bunka' (handquilted)

'Hanui' (hand quilted)

Great Northern Quilt Show - quilts from Japanese Quilt Inspirations

2011-09-06T10:45:00.003+01:00

All my quilts from 'Japanese Quilt Inspirations' are touring with Grosvenor Shows this Autumn, and will be appearing at the Scottish Quilt Championships later this month, as well as the Autumn Quilt Festivals at Malvern and Chilford in October and November.

For the first time I saw the quilts all together, as a collection. Because of the way a book progresses, with some quilts made for the 'advances' (i.e. so the publisher can make a brochure or 'blad' to sell the book), I don't usually see all the quilts together in one go. Even the styled photo shoots, which were done at the Japanese Garden and Bonsai Centre at Newquay in Cornwall, didn't have all the quilts together at one shoot. So it was exciting for me to see how they look all together.

I got a bit out of sync with the numbering, because I wanted some quilts to be hung opposite each other - we managed to sort this out when some of them were hung and I'll try to get them in a slightly improved order for the other shows. My idea was to try to get pairs of quilts, where we made the same design in two different versions, hanging opposite each other in the V-shaped sections, which more or less worked, though a few were out of order. Anyway, they still looked good, and hung quite well to say they have spent the last few months folded up at the back of my workroom! I tried to minimise creases by refolding every few months. Rather than make this blogpost ultra long, I'll write up a few more posts about the show, so keep watching!

Great Northern Quilt Show

2011-08-31T08:44:00.006+01:00

The quilt display stands were up and the exhibits bagged and ready for hanging late yesterday afternoon when I delivered the quilts from my latest book, 'Japanese Quilt Inspirations', to the showground at Harrogate. The Great Northern Quilt Show opens on Friday and we will be setting up my stand tomorrow afternoon. The photo shows 'Hanui' at last year's show, where it was awarded a Judge's Merit in the themed category - as was my other entry, 'Utamaro no Ukiyo-e' - I wonder if this is unique? Two Merits in the same category? They are very different quilts, although I did sneak in a bit of the border fabric from Hanui into the little art quilt.

This is one of my favourite shows, as we usually fit in a bit of extra curricular fun, including the obligatory traditional fish and chips on Friday night. Plus it's the one where I get to meet lots of quilters from Teesside and North Yorkshire, as well as our own area.

Vicky from Grosvenor Shows told me there's more traders than ever too, with some new faces taking part, so that should be interesting! This quilt show is unusual in that it incorporates the Great Northern Needlecraft Show as well, so there is a lot of interesting stuff for embroiderers and other crafters as well as quilters - and things that just might come in handy if your quilting is pushing the boundaries a little.

'Japanese Quilt Inspirations' - quilts on tour and for sale

2011-08-24T19:26:00.006+01:00

I had a fun day with Bent Needles quilt group at Leyland, near Preston, yesterday (workshop photos to come later) and gave the new talk, ' My Japanese Quilt Inspirations', for the first time. There were a LOT of quilts in that talk. I wish I'd asked one of the quilters to count just how many were shown. I thought (before the talk) there would be around 30, but I think 40 or more would be more accurate. Anyway, so many that, once I've added the sampler quilts from 'Japanese Taupe Quilt Blocks' and a few other works in progress to the talk, I won't be able to fit them all in the car.

In addition, there is the idea that I really could do with my own longarm machine, and I met and fell in love with the APQS Lenni at Festival of Quilts, where Linzi Upton was demoing on her machine. The two issues seem to have come up at the same time so, with the quilts from the new book touring this autumn with Grosvenor Shows, I have decided to kickstart my longarm fund by selling the quilts from the book which were professionally longarm quilted. Here's the list - I'll add more and better photos next week, when all the quilts will be hanging at The Great Northern Quilt Show at Harrogate. Where I have been able to include a reference photo, it will appear after the quilt description. If you would like to see the quilts in person, they will be shown at both Autumn Quilt Festivals and the Scottish Quilt Championships in late September.

Furoshiki (Wrapping Cloth)

69 x 68 in

This piece was designed to showcase a furoshiki panel, a very popular souvenir from Japan - if you ask someone to bring you fabric from Japan, you are most likely to get one of these!

Longarm quilted by Ferret

£400(no photo yet)

Kunimoto (Hometown)

66in square

Japanese architecture is a great inspiration and I love circular ‘moon windows’. The quilt top is 100% silk, made from vintage kimono fabrics.

Longarm quilted by Ferret

£500

Shimacho (Fabric Scrapbook)

68in square

Antique weavers’ scrapbooks, where tiny fragments of all different sizes were collected, suggested this lively arrangement of scrap fabrics.

Longarm quilted by Maria Laza.

For Sale £500

Matsuri (Festival)

77in square

The black and red colour scheme, inspired by festival costumes, made the joins between the plains and the prints even more subtle.

Longarm quilted by Linda Paris

For Sale £500

Irori (Sunken Hearth)

69in square

The sunken hearth in old Japanese houses and the surrounding tatami mat arrangement suggested this block. In this version, the ‘hearth’ is accented in red, like Log Cabin. Longarm quilted by Linda Paris.

£500

Sensu (Fan)

64 x 58

Kimono fabrics are traditionally woven around 14½” wide, ideal for display in a stripy quilt – this one uses yukata (summer kimono) cotton, with freezer paper appliqué fans. Longarm quilted by Maria Laza

For Sale £450

Masu (Measuring Boxes)

70in square

Stacking masu were used to measure rice and seemed the perfect design for a strip cut. The colours of this Moda Jelly Roll (‘Arcadia’) echo summer – earth, sky, vivid green rice fields and dragonflies.

Longarm quilted by Linda Paris

£450 (no photo yet)

Tsuyu (Summer)

62in square

The rainy season at the beginning of summer sees hydrangeas and Chinese bellflowers in bloom, in lilacs and blues, with metallic shimmer hinting at the raindrops.

Longarm quilted by Linda Paris

£400 (No photo yet)

Sakiori (Rag Weave)

66 x 58in

The ultimate in fabric recycling, sakiori is usually striped. Pretty pastels echo the decorations for the Tanabata Matsuri (Festival of the Weaver Maid) in July.

Longarm Quilted by Lesley Carol Taylor at North Sea Quilters

£500

The photo shows the quilt top before quilting - I'll post a photo of the completed quilt next week.

Kimono (Japanese Robes)

80 x 64in

The kimono outline is an instantly recognisable Japanese design and freezer paper appliqué makes the blocks much easier than patchwork piecing – twelve blocks, one for each month of the year.

Longarm quilted by Karen Florey at the Running Chicken

£650

I really pushed the boat out on this quilt - it is heirloom quilted to a very high standard - and is a lovely example of Karen's work. It is the quilt on the book's front cover.

If you are interested in any of these quilts, please e mail me using the contact form on my website.

Reader's Quilts - Time & Again (variation) and Kimono

2011-08-20T15:16:00.008+01:00

Both these sets of photos arrived within a day of each other, although I'll start with Norma Scothern's quilts, because she started writing her note to me back in January! I met her at the Festival of Quilts. She has made two versions of 'Time and Again' and writes of the one shown above -

'This was the first quilt - entered at the Loch Lomond Show - with attached note! Heavily hand quilted in white cottons, a Japanese pattern.

I can only guess the 'never again' part referred to the handquilting, because Norma did make the quilt again - her second version is shown below. She used the larger block size option for both.

'This one was made with eight fat quarters - in a range of fabric - quilted with thick white coton a broder'.

If you know the original version of Time and Again well, you'll know that the square blocks are made using the part sewn seam method, so each rectangle surrounding the central square is the same. Norma redrafted the design so she could piece the blocks using a different method - this is her sketch -

The original quilt is assembled in rows side to side, not columns. While Norma's method is interesting and has worked for her, you would need to take a lot of care to line up the 'square blocks' in this design, as it would be quite easy for the strips to be shunted slightly out of position - in the original version, the row construction stops this happening. The colour schemes she has used are just gorgeous and really make the quilts glow. Thanks very much for the photos and the sketch!

The second quilt is the first reader version of my 'Kimono' quilt from 'Japanese Quilt Inspirations'. Heather Smith has made this for her son's girlfriend (lucky thing!)

As this is the first time I've seen a reader's interpretation of this quilt, it's lovely that Heather has made it in quite a different colourway from the original - all those warm browns, rusts, ochres and reds, with just little hints of blue, give the quilt an autumnal feeling. She has also simplified the sashing, leaving out the woven effect (which doesn't show unless the fabric is a stripe or an ombre). Once again, thanks very much for the photos!

KImono and Haori boxes arrived

2011-08-19T14:20:00.003+01:00

They should have been here for Festival of Quilts last week, but arrived this morning. Approx. 40 assorted vintage kimono, haori and michiyuki, most in silk.

There are some very nice vintage pieces in among this lot, including a few items dating back to the 1930s and most 1950s/60s. Overall, the condition is very good indeed - better than many pieces sold on eBay. Some would be suitable for overdyeing, as the silks are quite pale, with interesting woven textures.

I will have them out on sale at the Great Northern Quilt Show, Harrogate, from 2nd - 4th September (Friday to Sunday) and, depending on item and condition, I'm looking to price these at £15 - £30, with most in the £20 - 25 range. Great for wearing or repurposing, either for quilts, embroidery or wearables.

The fabrics include tsumugi, rinzu (damask), omeshi (jacquard), meisen (a crisp, thin silk) and other fabrics which have not been in production for a long time.

Festival of Quilts - photos

2011-08-15T12:15:00.008+01:00

It turned out there were a few photos of part of my stand, where it was the backdrop to bag photos.

I took very few quilt photos and am looking forward to a virtual version of the show from friends photos later on - there just wasn't time to go looking around.

This is one quilt that really caught my attention, not in the competition, but in Marina Mamonova's own gallery. I love the design. I haven't been able to find a website for her work (the one on the quilt labels doesn't seem to have quilt pictures), so if anyone knows, please tell me. Her name seemed familiar, from one of Ferret's blogposts and an earlier quilt I liked at FoQ in 2006 (?). EDIT - спасибо -Thank you for this link to some more of Marina's works (in Russian)! Hopefully, this link will take you to an auto translated version of the page.

Another of her quilts in the same gallery -

This piece in the 3-D section also caught my attention, for its steampunk qualities - entry no. 974 (I will have to look up the maker when I find my show catalogue).

It seems to be a good resting place for a life' worth or two. I thought it was very influenced by the work of Rozanne Hawksley, who was featured at the Knitting and Stitching show a couple of years ago.

Festival of Quilts

2011-08-15T08:26:00.005+01:00

This year's Festival turned out to be the best ever for me. I was so busy and hardly got a chance to escape from stand G41 until Sunday! I didn't see as many of the quilts as I would have liked and will be relying on a few photo slideshows from friends to experience the whole show 'virtually' (Janet has already posted a few pics of some winners on A Quilter's Journal blog). Really, it was so busy, I forgot to even get a photo of my own stand! Suffice to say there was a fair bit of leftover space in the cars when we packed up.

On Sunday, I managed to do a little bit of shopping - there are some traders who I only see at FoQ, and I had a little shopping list. Goodies included fabric from Heide Stoll-Webber (take a look at Feather on a Wire, Sally Bramald's blog - she has done quite a few pieces using Heidi's gorgeously jewel-like sateens). These pieces just GLOW. I pinned the 140 x 150 cm panel up between the curtains in the hotel and was rewarded with my own stained glass window lighting up the room on Sunday morning.

Debbie spotted some mulberry bark on stand F2 (will have to check back for company name), which immediately suggested a panel based on the sea. She's going to experiment and do some dyeing/painting on her panel, but I think I'll keep mine natural and applique onto some hand dyed fabric. Somewhere I have one of the Oliver Twists 'Thirty Bob Treat' packs (i.e. £1.50 in metric) from several years ago, with lots of sea greens in it, so that may end up combined. Anita's Beads had some strings of very natural tiny 'rocks', chips like gravel on a seashore, which will end up on the same piece - they are tumbled, so they look shiny and wet.

Stef Francis had hand dyed silk ribbons that I hadn't seen before, which will be going into another project for next year's FoQ. A friend and I decided to enter the two person quilt category and finally make a piece which has been on the back burner since 2000. The ribbons may be used on that, but will see if it really needs them or not. They will go with the theme though.

Speaking of that piece, we got one of those amazing cotton lengths from the Rosenbergs. This family business sells the most incredible, unique fabrics. If you are into kaleidoscope effects, they are an essential place to check out (as far as I know, they don't do mail order business at all, but they are at most of the big shows, including the Great Northern Quilt show in a few week's time and the Knitting and Stitching Show). The yardage panel I got has a fascinating 'crystal' motif in the print (repeated 6 times along the length - we need 5 repeats) on a very intense black background.

Other goodies include the Aurifil Thread Basics Collection in neutrals from New Threads (it was on a show special, but was already on my shopping list, as it is great value even at full price and beautiful threads too) and Empress Mills tacking thread (fine, breaks easily and is the best IMHO - only I could think of tacking thread as a 'goodie').

Several friends won awards, so I will try to do a roundup of links to their winning quilts later.

Now to catch up with everything at home!

Llangollen Quiltfest - flyers

2011-08-08T12:07:00.005+01:00

The Quiltfest flyers are ordered and you will be able to collect yours from stand G41 at Festival of Quilts from Friday onwards. We'll also be distributing them via all our trading day participants and, of course, our featured quilt artists. Many thanks to Tet Tethys for producing a great design at short notice and to our Welsh translation specialist Bethan Hughes (we are hoping to get plenty of bilingual content onto the website soon too).

If you can't wait to pick up a few flyers, you can always download them here - or just left click the images above to open them up full size and 'harvest' the images via a right mouse click.