Spring Quilt Festival at Harrogate this weekend

I'm setting up for the Spring Quilt Festival at Harrogate today, and it is open from tomorrow to Sunday. I'm teaching (a boro style landscape picture), trading and demonstrating.

I also have exciting news about my kogin book. We have almost finished checking the proofs now and this is the book cover. The Ultimate Kogin Collection will be published on 28th June 2019, but I am planning to launch it slightly early, at Gresford Craft Group and Wrexham Quilting Circle's annual show from 18 - 21st June (where we will be showing the projects from the book) and nationally on Sewing Quarter TV on 23rd June.  If I can get copies early enough, I'll also have it at World Textile Day at Bridge of Allan, Stirling, on 15th June.  Fingers crossed! This is why I have been so busy over the last eight months.  All the projects are staying under wraps for now... but I can show you the cover.  The front cover has some fab kogin buttons stitched by Fiona Fitheridge and Kogin Lab.

Spring Quilt Festival, Harrogate

I'll be at the Spring Quilt Festival at Harrogate on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with the mini boro bag workshop at 11.30 a.m. each day.  See you there?

Spring Quilt Festivals - photos from Edinburgh

I'm back from the Edinburgh Spring Quilt Festival and getting ready for the next one at Harrogate on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  The hall seemed brighter and warmer this year than the first time we had a show there.  I'm really getting to like the Lowland Hall, especially being able to drive into the end of the hall for set up and breakdown.  So much easier than having to take everything up flights of stairs in the cold!

We have a big selection of striped and plain Japanese cottons and colourful fine sashiko threads at the moment, as I've just restocked.  Fiona's 'green' version of Masu is behind Glyn.  She's loaned me it for Harrogate as well, so you can see it there (only sandwiched and not quilted at the moment).  The colours are gorgeous and she's used the stenciled yukata fabrics so well with the stripes.  I like it better than mine.

My workshop this time was the mini boro bag and everyone seemed to have a lot of fun in each session.  It is quite strange telling students to stitch unevenly and at random, when sashiko is much more precise. The photos are in no particular order and the different days seem to have got a bit mixed up in the upload.  I'm running the same class at Harrogate, so I'm making up more packs of vintage Japanese cottons today.

Getting ready for the Spring Quilt Festivals

I've been busy packing for the Spring Quilt Festivals at Edinburgh (Friday 16th - Sunday 18th February) and Harrogate (Friday 23rd - Sunday 25th February).  I have a great selection of fine and thick sashiko threads in lots of colours, striped and plain sashiko fabrics (narrow width) and some great new additions to the stencilled yukata cotton ranges.  We will also be displaying some of the finished samplers from last year's sashiko course.

My workshops at the Spring Quilt Festivals this year, and later at the National Quilt Championships at Sandown Park in June, are for mini boro bags.  These are smaller versions of the bag I made for the V&A book last year.  The bags Fiona made in the photos above and below are about the same size.


Edinburgh workshop details are here and Harrogate details are here.

I'll start you off on making the bag, which you will be able to finish at home.  The workshop pack fabrics are rather special, as we have packed up a combination of new Japanese striped Enshu cotton (from Hamamatsu) for the lining and handles - super strong and durable - with vintage recycled Japanese cotton fabrics for the boro patches.  Depending on how soon the fine white and fine cream sashiko thread arrives from Japan, the stitching thread may be bright red!

Fiona has made more of these bags than me now, so she's been in charge of putting together the boro fabric packs for the workshop.  There will be a really nice mixture of fabrics in them.  This is another of Fiona's bags.

The boro section of the bag is made flat, then sewn up the sides - 

Also by Fiona.  I think she's made more than me now!

If you can't make it to the show, there is a link to a free tutorial for the larger bag on my website, courtesy of the V&A.  I'm also teaching a day workshop on the larger bag at The Peacock and the Tortoise on 11th May - details are on their website.

Sashiko from Scotland - tour continues

We had an excellent weekend at Harrogate and now the sashiko samplers are hanging at the next Spring Quilt Festival at Duxford this weekend.  I won't be there, as I'm going to the SECC on Sunday to help my City & Guilds tutor Gillian Cooper on her stand/gallery space - say hello if you're there!  I keep saying I'll take a stand at SECC myself, but something seems to get in the way every year.  Maybe next year?

Glyn got to wear his infamous Japanese carpenter's trousers again at Harrogate... with his patchwork boots!

Here are some detail photos from the samplers.  I will post photos of the whole exhibition when it comes back.

My new stock of the amazing Tulip sashiko needles arrived with Glyn on Friday night, so we had them onsale on Saturday and Sunday.  On Friday, we used Olympus needles in the workshop, because I'd run out of Clover, and the difference between the Olympus and Tulip needles was incredible.  Stitching sashiko with Tulip's needles is like a knife going through butter.  I must get some of their other needles as well on my next order, as the combination of Tulip needles and a wool wadding for traditional British quilts is going to be amazing.

My Clover stock got mysteriously held up in the post, so much so I actually thought my order e mail had got lost in the ether!  But now I have the Clover sashiko needles, white marking pens and Chaco paper back in stock.  The order was sent out on February 21st and was only delivered today.  Very strange.

There was a lot of interest in my 'Sashiko in Stockton' course at the Harrogate show, and places are filling up fast.  I've got a few more e mails I need to reply to, which I'll try to get done asap.  We have postponed the course in Perth as we haven't had many bookings, so it looks like it will run later in the year instead.  I'm working on some projects for a couple of books Thames & Hudson are publishing for the V&A, so that is keeping me busy right now, but they have to stay under wraps at the moment...

Spring Quilt Festival, Harrogate

I will be at the Spring Quilt Festival at Harrogate every day from Friday to Sunday, and the Sashiko from Scotland samplers will be on display once again.  This time, I'm hoping to get a chance to see the rest of the quilt exhibition, as there were some stunning quilts on show last weekend.  The Spring Quilt Festivals have the same selection of guest quilts, so you will have more chances to see these further south in the UK before the quilts return to their makers.  Maureen's quilt (bottom left in photo above) joined the others on Saturday, now home from a trip to Japan, where it was shown at Yuza Sashiko's exhibition in September.

Fiona is working on her 'official' class sampler now, but if you like the green fabric from Nukumori Koubou, I've managed to get it in stock again.

Also coming in time for the show are Tulip sashiko needles.  I tried these excellent needles at the quilt show in Tokyo last month, and have decided to stock them, as well as the Clover needles.  They are great value with six needles in the pack, and the packaging is just gorgeous, with a little corked 'glass' (actually plastic) tube inside the cardboard box, so you can store your sashiko needles safely.  If you open the box from the bottom, you don't need to break the pretty Tulip seal on the red cord either. They will be £7 per pack.

I will be getting Clover needles back in stock soon, but I have had to find a new stockist for them, as EQS have stopped stocking all Clover products!  So we will be using Tulip needles in the one hour sashiko class this time.

More photos from the Great Northern Quilt Show

Here is a selection of quilts from the show a couple of weeks ago, starting with best in show.  Enjoy! Left click on the photos to see them in more detail.

I chose this wonderful small Welsh style wholecloth as my Judge's Choice.  Gorgeous.

Had this pictorial quilt been in the competition, it would have been a very tough decision between it and the Welsh quilt!

Barbara's quilts will be shown at the Scottish Quilt Championships next weekend.

 Liz Binns students produced some superb frame quilts.  There isn't room to show them all, but I particularly liked the graded pinwheels in the border of this one.

This quilt was very interesting for me, as it was made from a Golden Hands book published in the 1970s - what a real 70s quilt looks like.

Andrea Stracke's wholecloth (above) and a lovely quilt in Kaffe Fassett prints and plaids - but I can't see the maker's name!  If you know, please tell me.