Sidmouth Revisited - from Today's Quilter magazine

I just spotted this article online in Today's Quilter, from when they published the pattern for Sidmouth Revisited. Enjoy! It is the quilt on the right hand side in the photo above.The other one is by Rachel Nicholls.

Sidmouth Revisited - twice!

Kim Higgins posted some photos on Facebook showing my Sidmouth Revisited quilt and Rachel Nichol's version hanging side by side at the Quilters' Guild AGM in Torquay this weekend.  Lovely photos and it is great to see them beside each other, even though it feels a little like seeing double!

Spot the difference!  Mine is above and Rachel's is below.

This is the original -

Another photo of mine, with slightly better lighting -

Kim wrote -

I'm probably not going to have time to look at the exhibition at the Torre Abbey this trip, so I'm glad to see two replicas of the Sidmouth quilt here at the conference.

I happen to be stood taking photos alongside Heather, the QGBI Curator of quilt collections so we admired these two together. 

Susan Briscoe's hand quilting of her replica deserves a photo of the back side too. I believe this is more authentic in terms of fabric colours, no binding and its hand quilted. Am I right to describe the back side as "wholecloth"?

But I love the fabric choices of Rachel Nichols' quilt which, in my opinion, still gives it an olde worlde antique look even with it being machine quilted.

I think I need to dig out the pattern from The Today's Quilter magazine and put it (yet another project) on my ever growing quilting to-do list!

The original is on show at Torre Abbey at the moment, along with some other quilts from the Guild's collection.

This is the first time I've really viewed the back with the quilt hanging up.  It still needs some extra quilting, but the quilting shows up very nicely on the cream sateen I used for the back.

UPDATE - I pasted all three together in this photo, so you can see them side by side.  The resolution isn't very high but you can still see it a bit larger if you click on the photo -

West Country Quilt Show

We are having a great time at the West Country Quilt Show in Bristol this weekend.  

Sidmouth Revisited is hanging well.

Angel and Ting have brought a great selection of hand embroidered and natural indigo dyed textiles from Guizhou Province in south western China.  From left - Martin Conlan (Slow Loris), Angel and Ting.

Lovely seeing the MaoNan Textile Ladies' group quilt hanging next to a selection of colourful MaoNan hand embroidered pieces.

Natural indigo hand dyed fabrics from Guizhou Province.

Miao embroideries.

More photos soon!

West Country Quilt Show and the MaoNan Textile Ladies

I will be on stand 48 at the West Country Quilt Show in Bristol this weekend, demoing sashiko, and have entered Sidmouth Revisited (above) into the competition.

Angel Yao is coming to the show with some of the MaoNan Textile Ladies.  That's the group who made the blocks for this quilt when I went to China in 2015.  I'm taking the quilt with me so she can take it back with her.  I'm not sure at the moment whose stand it will be displayed on, but I am sure it will be somewhere!

 

These are some of the patchwork things that the MaoNan group have made since my course.  I think they are also going to be demonstrating traditional embroidery, but I won't know exactly what they are going to be showing/demoing until we meet up again on Thursday.

UPDATE - As far as I know, Angel and Ting have arrived safely in the UK.  Bad news re the embroidery demonstrators however.  One of them could not get a visa and, without her, the other embroiderer we had coming didn't want to make the trip (a bit understandable when it is your first big international trip).  So there will be an exhibition of their work, Angel and Ting are going to wear MaoNan costume, but unfortunately neither of them is an embroidery expert!  I am really disappointed as I was looking forward to seeing some of the Textile Ladies over here.  Once we know exactly what the visa problem was, I may suggest trying again in a few years' time - maybe coming to Edinburgh.  We will see.

Last week's sashiko workshops

I had a full week of travel, talks and workshops, visiting Leicestershire and Norfolk.  Both Cosby Quilters near Leicester and Flying Geese quilters in Snettisham did my Introduction to Shonai Sashiko workshop.  I didn't get photos of their work but, for once, I did take some photos of my workshop samples - a mixture of the ones I've done for my Yuza Sashiko sampler with my regular groups and ones where I've experimented with fabrics and thread colours.  The photo above shows Cosby Quilters hard at work.

Here's Flying Geese busy stitching.

This lovely panel was made previously by one of their members.

I gave two talks, for Leicester Quilters and the Cosby group.  As I was showing Cosby some of my quilts inspired by traditions (of various kinds), there were quite a number of large quilt tops in the talk.  I must get these tacked up and quilted soon!

In between the talks and workshops, I had a day off and went with my host Jo to her embroidery group, where we made little leaves using Lutradur (sorry, no photos of those!)  I also managed to add some more quilting to Sidmouth Revisited, in time for it to be sent to the West Country Quilt Show.

I added hearts in the corners and beech leaves in the outer borders, all with doubled outlines. It is easier to see the quilting from the back of course. I still want to add a lot more quilting before it goes off to a few shows next year.  At 95in square approx., there is a lot of quilt to cover.

Having the hanging sleeve on the quilt in time for my second talk meant we could at least hang it up.  It is a heavy quilt, so that spared out gallant quilt holders a little.

Lots of things in today's post including...

Sidmouth Revisited.  The quilt came back by courier today and my subscription copy of the magazine arrived as well, so it will be in the shops in a few days.  The quilt looks lovely in the styled photo (detail above) and as usual the magazine has done a terrific job with the instructions and diagrams.  For a quilt that looks fairly random and isn't difficult to put together, it has a lot of subtle differences in measurements as the patchwork progresses outwards through the various frames.

Now 'all' I have to do is add some more quilting and make sure I get my entry forms in for the West Country Quilt Show next month!

The other things that came were some more Japanese plain cottons for sashiko.  As the reds and browns have been very popular and sold out quickly last time, I've now got plenty.  The darker red will make a great background for one of the panels I'm stitching for the one off workshop at Edinburgh Patchwork in December - more details of that soon.

Sidmouth Revisited - ready for Today's Quilter

The quilt is waiting to be collected by the courier now...

I will add some more quilting when it comes back to me - like square diamonds (cross hatching) between the feather wreath and the circle segments, and some other details in the borders, radiating lines around the centre rosette etc.  I wish I knew what time the courier would be here, because I could have added a bit more quilting this morning!

A tip on how to mark a fan when the paper isn't big enough for the template size you want...

It is going to be in the Christmas issue.

Sidmouth Revisited - feather wreath

I finished hand quilting the feather wreath and the central rosette on Sidmouth Revisited yesterday.  If I have time, I will add another line half an inch inside the feather wreath.  When I get the quilt back from photography (it is going into Today's Quilter's Christmas edition), I will add lines radiating from the centre to link the outside of the rosette to the inside of the feather wreath.

These photos show the quilting towards the outside edges, on the larger X round and the square on point round, where I have done double lines of quilting echoing the piecing.  When the quilt returns to me, I want to add small beech leaves in the squares on the squares on point and cross hatching in the X squares, with a gentle swag running along the setting triangle bases each time.  I will do large beech leaves in the outer border (over 2 rounds of squares and rectangles) and hearts in the corners.

I seriously underestimated the quilting time for this one, but it is 96in square!  Today I will add fans in quadrants to the corners of the centre (the point of the fans will be in the orange squares) and semicircles half way along each side, with a small eight petal rosette in each.  All the quilting is based on the original Sidmouth quilt, but taking the motifs used and rearranging them to fit better with the patchwork frames, simplifying them if necessary.  I am hand quilting with Wonderfil 12wt Fruitti col. FT25, which shades from cream to light grey, which gives a rather nice antique effect.

Quilting Sidmouth Revisited

I am hand quilting Sidmouth Revisited at the moment.  A big job - it is 96in square.  The photo above was taken several days ago.  Although I've taken inspiration from the original quilt for the designs, I have resized the quilting frames that don't quite match up with the piecing on the original so they have a more sympathetic relationship to the patchwork frames. Most of the quilting motifs are Welsh and will include beech leaves, hearts etc.

The centre will feature a feather circle which is more typical of North Country designs, although used in the manner of the 'coin' circle centre seen on Welsh quilts.  Lilian Hedley drafted it for me on last autumn's course at The Royal, Bridlington.  This is a 24in square quilt she made with a smaller version of the feather circle in the centre.

 

The circle in the middle of the original coverlet is more like a chevron pattern than feathers, but nevertheless has a rather Neo Classical look.

This weekend's projects

Sidmouth Revisited has been an ongoing project for a while now.  Tacking a quilt as big as this is a problem at the moment, because right now there is nowhere in the house where I can put up the 109in long quilt frame and still be able to walk around it.  The quilt top is 96in square. So I have to depend on the weather being dry and not too windy...

There was rain forecast for mid afternoon and the evening was supposed to be dry, but it wasn't.  I had a backup plan - plastic sheeting.  The rain didn't last long.

 

Glyn has started on repainting some details at the front of the house, including the finial from the porch roof.  The wooden gable has been painted sage green too, much nicer than the 1980s relic mahogany stain.

The house sign is done in the style of an old Scottish Region railway sign, from Off The Rails.

The Gothic arch in the beech hedge is an ongoing project and is starting to take shape nicely now.  The house is beginning to look less like a thirty year old bungalow and more like the pre 1850s cottage it really is.