Chinese Corner in the Cabin - with quilting

The Corner in the Cabin quilt made by the MaoNan Textile Ladies quilt group has arrived back from being quilted by Fiona Garth at Quilt Sandwich.  The quilting looks wonderful - it really brings the quilt together.  Now to bind it and get the hanging sleeve attached in time for deliver to the Scottish Quilt Championships on Wednesday.

Chinese Corner in the Cabin - quilting

Fiona Garth at Quilt Sandwich longarm quilted the Maonan ladies' Corner in the Cabin quilt yesterday.  Here are some photos and a video link of the quilting in progress.  The design is Oriental Pano from Sweet Dreams Quilt Studio.  I can't wait to see the quilt - it looks great in the photos and video clip.

Fiona has also written about it on her blog.   Thanks very much for doing such a great job so quickly!

Chinese Corner in the Cabin - with borders

Somehow I had miscounted the total number of blocks and when I came to try to fudge a final row with 7 1/2in x 8in blocks, I was one whole block short!  Even piecing together all the remainders of the block trimmings would not have made a block big enough to add the final piece.  So I had a design change and used the four best remaining blocks to make cornerstones in the pink border.

The patchwork was finished and posted to Quilt Sandwich yesterday afternoon, but not without a few glitches.  First of all, the ends of some of the patchwork seams on the outside of the central area had started to unravel, just through the quilt being held up for the photo!  These all appeared to be seams done on the industrial machines at the college.  I repaired as many of these as I could find.  Then I looked for the pink border fabric and I couldn't find where I had put it... Not in my workroom, and I hadn't left it in the suitcase when I came home from my trip.  Eventually I found it, folded up underneath one of the quilts I'd taken to China.  I felt very relieved.  The colours are so outside of my usual palette, I didn't have anything that would have made a reasonable substitute.  Adding the border and sewing across the ends of the seams in the cornerstones will hopefully have sorted out any further unravelling.

Chinese Corner in the Cabin

The Chinese Corner in the Cabin quilt top by the Maonan quilt class is going off for longarm quilting today, to Fiona Garth at Quilt Sandwich.  It has a wide pink border added, partly to help stop the stitching unravelling at the edge when it is on the quilt frame (not all the machine stitches are quite as small as I would do).  There is also an extra row of blocks on the bottom edge now - the ones I had to 'fudge' to fit.  All the blocks had to be trimmed down but there were a few that weren't big enough. These are not really my kind of colours and I had no extra fabric to make those blocks bigger, so I have widened but not lengthened them with the trimmings from the biggest blocks.

Arranging the blocks using the bed as an improvised design wall yesterday.   This is the second quilt made from the group's blocks - the first one, a quilt as you go, was assembled while I was in China, and is still there.  The finished size, with border, will be approx. 75 x 67in.  Fingers crossed, it will be at the Scottish Quilt Championships, which starts on 25th September.

Hutton Priory Patchers sashiko workshop

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

 

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

 

 

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

  

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

Great Northern Quilt Show, Harrogate

I got home late last night after three days at the Great Northern Quilt Show at Harrogate. The show seems to have taken on a new lease of life this year, returning to the usual hall and with lots of really great entries. I wasn't judging, so I had a bit more time to set up my demo and sales stand, just as well with all the stuff I had taken! With a 4.5 metre frontage, I needed some help to cover it all, so my mum & friend Debbie from Gresford Craft Group gave me a hand every day.

I entered my Kasuri Sampler quilt (right) in the Large Wallhanging section, where it won a rosette - second or third, I'll have to check! My other quilts in the competition were "Dancing Colours" and "Oriental Log Cabin Sampler"(top),which won the Scrap Quilt award (these photos were taken before the quilt show).

The blocks for the Kasuri Sampler are all from my latest book, "Japanese Quilt Blocks to Mix and Match", here http://www.susanbriscoe.co.uk/japanquilts.htm Other quilts from the book are going on tour with Grosvenor Exhibitions next year, from September, so look out for them around the UK.

Tomorrow I'm doing the cutout photography for next year's sashiko book, "Japanese Sashiko Inspirations", with our photographer Karl Adamson, so there's lots to sort out for that, mostly vintage items from my collection that have been the design sources for the new project. Plus there's the car to unpack... lots to do!