A new pattern for the Great Northern Quilt Show - 'Maru'

'Maru' is a variation on the quilt I teach as 'Japanese Circles and Squares'.  I've been asked for a pattern for a while now, so I will be launching it at the Great Northern Quilt Show at Harrogate in just over a week.  It is ideal for large scale prints with big motifs and a lot of pattern variation in the centre, while the background to the circle is a great place to use up darker scraps from your stash.  It takes a little more planning to arrange your fabrics for each block but is quite quick to make once you get going with it.

Welcome to Japan - Nihon e youkoso!

When I saw Bobunny's 'Detour' range for Riley Blake Designs, I loved the travel-themed fabrics, so I wanted to make something using their fat quarter bundle. Another variation on Japanese Circles and Squares seemed the way to go, with eighteen fat quarters to play with.  I added some fabrics with kamon crests, traditional umbrellas and another monochrome Japanese print.  The arrow print has been a lot of fun to use.  I used plain fabrics for the compass star - they just look a bit mottled because I've got the patchwork pinned to the curtains and it is rather bright outside today.

The design uses the same layout and method I used for Masu a couple of years ago and I'm making the blocks starting from the centre once again - the only way to really get the shading right.  Masu used the same large print Kona Bay fabric throughout the centre, but 'Yokoso' (as I'm calling it for short) uses the paler colours from the 'Detour' bundle mixed up.

I cut the fat quarters the same way as we do in the 'Japanese Circles and Squares' workshop and graded the fabrics according to how dark or light they were.  The map prints in particular have a lot of contrast, so pieces with a large 'landmass' (in dark grey) weren't used in the centre - they will go towards the outer edges.  Like Masu, the centre circle area will float on the darker background, but I'm making this one a lot larger, so I'll shade out through the pieces left over from the centre fabrics to the red spots on white (in two sizes) I'm adding towards the outer edges.  It could go as large as 14 x 12 blocks (84 x 72in).  If it does, I might have to think about longarming it, either sending it away for custom quilting or booking a session up at Seattle Quilt Company at Aberdeen.  We had a training day on their Gammill for Glyn's birthday last October - I couldn't write a blog post about it because it was while we were without broadband, so here are some photos now, with Lisa at the shop.  I would want to warm up on something else first! Glyn is a much more intuitive longarm quilter than I am.

With the travel theme, I thought it would be appropriate to add a Mariners Compass style star to the centre.  So after the first four blocks were sewn together for each quarter of the quilt, I sliced through on the diagonal and added points by stitching, flipping and trimming.  I made the two sides of the point different lengths, with the cherry red segments a bit shorter, to give it a slight sense of movement.  Glyn had suggested I should make it like a propeller, but that would be a bit too tricky for me.  Perhaps I should have just done one half of the point each time to give it more movement - I might try mini versions of that on another piece.

I had not planned for the reduction in block size when I stitched the two pieces back together along the diagonal, where 3/8in was lost into the seam, in exactly the same way as making a triangle square.  The size reduction affects the square underneath the point in each corner and would continue along the rows and columns towards the outside of the patchwork.  After thinking through possible ways to fix this, it seemed the best way would be to have the blocks in the affected rows trimmed down to fit, rather than adding extra fabric to each quarter of the centre.  The affected blocks could be resized by trimming off on the wide sides only.  Rather than 'waste' 3/8in x 61/2in strips from the widest long pieces, I thought it would be a better idea to cut them that bit smaller when cutting the pieces out.  After ending up with rectangular blocks where I didn't want them and finding it is just too easy to mix up a 2 1/2in strip with a 2 1/8in one, I've gone for trimming the finished blocks! So long as 'Japanese Circles and Squares' blocks are trimmed on the wide sides only, it isn't too obvious that a bit has been taken off. A couple of days ago, I seemed to be doing as much unpicking as sewing, but hopefully I've got beyond that now.  I'm blaming the hot weather.  It was 28 degrees C in the shade yesterday afternoon and today is hotter (officially 24C on the weather forecast).  I have finally caved in and switched the fan on!

Scottish Quilt Championships

My quilt 'Maru' (Circle) was awarded a Judges' Merit, so it must have scored better than I expected it would. I think it works better with the gold cord circle, in the photo above. Originally, it didn't have the circle.  I wanted to see if it really needed it. The photos below show it before and after the circle was added. It was done with two lines of gold 'chainette'-type cord, a bit thicker than Twilley's Goldfingering.  I let the lines cross over each other here and there, to soften the finished line and slightly vary the thickness.  I was going to have three cord lines, but in the end two looked like enough.  Perhaps I should have kept the cord side by side? It will be interesting to see my judging forms for any comments.

 

It was hanging opposite Glyn's 'Welcome to Scotland'.

  

  

There were many fantastic quilts in the show and I expect there will be plenty of show reviews in the magazines. Nina MacDonald's Japanese fans quilt was finished with longarm quilting and looked lovely.  She started it at my workshop at Purely Patchwork last year - there's a work in progress photo here.

  

  

One of the ladies who came to my kinchaku bag workshop at Seattle Quilt Company last year brought her finished sashiko bag.

I had a good time, with friends staying and helping out on Friday.  The next show for me at Edinburgh will be the Spring Quilt Festival.

Scottish Quilt Championships next weekend

I will be at the Scottish Quilt Championships at Edinburgh from Friday to Sunday, demonstrating and teaching. It is the first time I've been to this show, although I've been coming to the spring quilt festival at the same venue for at least eight years now.  Here's the workshop info - it is a new one -

WORKSHOP 1

10.45am

1 hour

£2.50

Japanese Sashiko - Circle Segments

This unusual sashiko motif is easy to mark and stitch, once you know how. Workshop kit includes 5”

piece of sashiko fabric, sashiko thread in a choice of colours and worksheet. Hand sewing.

I think I'll offer a choice of fabric colours too, although that's probably going to be indigo blue, brown or dusky pink. Click here for a full workshop list.  Workshops can only be booked on the day, so it is first come, first served, and payments are cash only.  I need to make a new workshop sample or two and I think I'll mark the pieces the day before. I usually mark the panels in the morning, but with a 10.45 workshop, I won't have a lot of time.

I have entered one quilt, Maru (Circle), and Glyn has entered his 'Welcome to Scotland' and 'Mission Impossible' quilts.  Now I need to add the gold circle to my quilt and it will be finished - delivering it this afternoon!

Maru, with and without quilting

Quilting makes a difference to the overall appearance of patchwork. I machine quilted 'Maru' starting with the inner circle and echo quilted working outwards at 5/8in intervals, using the walking foot, in a dark blue thread.  This meant I only needed to mark the first circle.  The radiating lines inside this circle were marked with strips of masking tape and quilted with a shaded thread - cream through to orange.  The block is the 'Japanese Circles and Squares' workshop, with the blues random and the central circle all from the same fabric (or nearly all!)

 

 

Here's the same areas before quilting -

 

 

 

Quiltfest - Pavilion gallery now open!

From this to this -

 

Quiltfest is now open at the Royal International Pavilion and the second gallery at Llangollen Museum will open tomorrow afternoon at 2p.m.

Many thanks to our hanging team - Debbie Gordon, Maureen Poole, Elaine Humphreys (fresh from organising a one day quilt show a couple of weekends ago) and Glyn - who got the exhibition up and looking good in just a few hours.

 

I finished 'Maru' in time - it looks different now it's densely machine quilted - here it is without the quilting.

  

The final quilt, 'Bamboo' by Kate Fenney, arrived this morning, just in time. She started it the last time I taught at Denman, and it looks great.  There's some work in progress photos here.

 

Looking forward to a busy week and hoping to see lots of visitors.

Getting things ready for Quiltfest

Getting the final selection of quilts sorted out for Quiltfest - hanging them at the Pavilion on Monday, opening on Tuesday, with the Museum exhibition hanging and opening on Wednesday - see www.quiltfest.org.uk.

'Butterfly Dance' will be one of my quilts - more about it here. 'Maru' (circle), started last December, is just about finished and I'm also planning to show it.