Malvern photos

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

   

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

 

 

Some general views of their exhibition space -

 

 

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

 

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

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

No U-turns!

From this to this (above) - corner blocks are all the same It is still raining, so photos outdoors aren't possible, and as this quilt now measures 89in long x 69in wide, I can't photograph it indoors and be able to show the whole quilt in one photo. Please use your imagination!

The blocks are off centre Log Cabins, which I included in 'Japanese Taupe Quilt Blocks' not because they are directly based on a Japanese motif per se, but because they can be rotated and the light/dark placement reversed to create patterns like seigaiha (ocean wave). It is also a block much loved by Japanese quilters. I left off the last two narrow strips, so the unfinished block size was 9in not 9 1/2in - same as the border width. This block is quite easy to adjust for size like that.



I used the same stripe for the narrow strips as I used for the arrow flights, fussy cutting so the darker browns would be on the finished strip face. The other, very subtle multicoloured pinstripe appears in the pine circle design, which is included towards the bottom of the sampler. I like the way this stripe looks slightly greyed out and subtle from a distance, but includes a lot of brightly coloured threads when your get up close. This was the point of no return, as I wouldn't have enough of the arrow flight fabric left to make another four blocks. The bias strips have taken up a fair bit of fabric, especially as some of it was fussy cut for the arrows.


Quilting ideas - I will start with quilting in the ditch along the sashing and then deal with each block individually. As with the samplers I quilted from 'Japanese Quilt Blocks to Mix and Match', I don't want the quilting to overpower the patchwork and applique block construction. In the border, quilting in the ditch on either side of the arrows and along the seam lines in the corners may do, although it is probably better to add a broken zigzag along the top of the darker stripes, otherwise the quilting will tend to produce a ridge and furrow effect, which would stop the quilt hanging well. I don't want to add another narrow border after the arrows, so dense quilting will help control all that bias fabric so the quilt shouldn't hang wavy. I would like to use Hobbs Polydown wadding (batting) to give the appliques a more sculptural quality, but don't want to go the whole hog and trapunto them - although I have thought about it... Might just be a bit too much with trapunto. I'm hand quilting it, by the way.

Yabane border and something for cornerposts

The yabane arrow pattern border is coming along well (see earlier post) - the photo above shows the block I've used as the basis for the border design - 20 arrows across the top and 28 down each side. I seem to have got the maths right and, so far, it looks like they are going to fit - phew! With the number of seams and the number of 1/2in wide strips in each side, I have had to be so careful with seam allowances.

Only problem now - what to use for cornerstones (i.e. the squares needed to fill in the corners)? I've been flipping through my book, trying to see if there is a block that would work well for this. Whatever I use will have to work trimmed down to 9in before seams, not 9 1/2in total finished as per the book blocks, which rules out anything with skinny edge strips. Perhaps just keeping things simple, with a 9in square cut from the same stripe as the arrow feathers, on a 45 degree angle, would do the job well. I have thought about fans, or something curved.


Or use a block from 'Japanese Quilt Blocks to Mix and Match'? In the correct colours of course. But it has to be an easy one! Any suggestions? I don't want to use a block already used in the sampler (see my earlier post for sampler pictures).