Cinnabar and Nutmeg

Sue Webb posted these photos of her version of Cinnabar and Nutmeg on the UKQU Facebook page today and said it was OK for me to copy them here. She wrote -

Finished piecing my largest ever quilt last night. It is the Susan Briscoe pattern from the supplement in Today's Quilter some time ago. It's not perfect but I am pleased as it's certainly the best I have done. Now to see about having it long arm quilted.

It looks pretty much perfect to me.  It will really suit longarm quilting.  The V&A quilt that inspired it doesn't have very fancy quilting, just a pattern of circles, which the online catalogue describes as 'wineglass' i.e. interlocked circles, but looks more like circles that just touch.  Unfortunately the one time I saw the V&A quilt was at the quilt exhibition there in 2010 and there was total visual overload with so many quilts, so remembering the exact details of the quilting pattern is really difficult.

 

I had to do a bit of a double take when I saw the photos!  Sue's quilt is above and mine is below. She has done an amazing job of tracking down similar fabrics.  Can't wait to see how she has it quilted.  it looks better on her bed than it would look on either of ours, as we don't have any beds without footboards.

 

Today's Quilter sashiko special supplement - sneak peek!

I've had a look at the pdf files for the sashiko supplement, due out on August 18th, and it is looking really good.  There are three complete projects - Koi scroll, Marumon (framed below) and Ranru.

All three projects were featured in 'Japanese Sashiko Inspirations', which is currently out of print, so it's a good chance to get your hands on these patterns.  Ranru is also in 'Simple Sashiko', but not the other two - they are a bit more complicated!

The history section from '...Inspirations' is included...

Plus a great sashiko gallery selected from both 'The Ultimate Sashiko Sourcebook' and '...Inspirations', including sashiko works by Yuza Sashiko Guild members as well as me.

As I mentioned in my previous post, Today's Quilter will have the large sashiko sampler from '...Ultimate...' displayed on their stand at Festival of Quilts at the NEC, Birmingham.  If you take out a subscription during the show, you'll get the sashiko special to take home with you too, in advance of it arriving in the shops.

Today's Quilter Sashiko Special supplement

The next issue of Today's Quilter magazine will feature a sashiko special with my designs, and they will be displaying my sampler from 'The Ultimate Sashiko Sourcebook' on their stand at Festival of Quilts.  The sampler went off on its travels yesterday.  The photo above shows it at the Loch Lomond Quilt Show in 2014.

This is the quilt at Yuza Sashiko Guild's exhibition at the Sanno Club in Sakata in September 2014.

It has been to a few exhibitions over the last decade, including Region 13's exhibition at The Boat Museum, Ellesmere Port, in 2005 -

And the Region 13 exhibition at Quilters' Guild's Llandudno AGM the same year.  I also use it a lot when I'm teaching, so you may have seen it at a workshop.  It is quite a large and very heavy quilt, so I haven't taken it on European teaching trips yet.

The Knitting and Stitching Show at Edinburgh for the first time

Tomorrow afternoon will look something like this, as we set up for the first Knitting and Stitching Show at Edinburgh, which opens on Thursday and runs until Sunday.  Lots to do today to get ready!

The latest issue of Today's Quilter goes on sale in the shops on April 28th.  

I don't have a new quilt in this one but there's a great supplement this time, all about world textiles and featuring articles by and about many of our World Textile Day traders, including me.  I'm saving my copy for bedtime reading while I'm at the show.

Super Strips in Spring Colours

Sue Jennings sent me some photos of her Super Strips quilt now it is quilted.   She showed me the top a couple of weeks ago, which she made from my pattern in Today's Quilter magazine.  She wrote -

Over the weekend I finished quilting my Spring Colours quilt. The pattern was in Issue 6 of Today's Quilter and was designed by Susan Briscoe. It was quick and great fun to make. My old Bernina 1008 deserves a rest for a few days. The quilting took a good 10 hours - mainly because every seam was stitched in the ditch. It is now hanging on my sitting room wall. It really cheers the room up. Happy quilting, all!

I did use my Westalee ruler foot and a straight ruler...it made the triangles very quick to do. I stitched every seam in the ditch - time consuming, but I think it was worth it.

King of Hearts - aka Highland Fling...

My 'King of Hearts' quilt is on the cover of Today's Quilter magazine.  I'm not sure why, but they've called it 'Highland Fling' in the mag - maybe an allusion to where I live, although I'm not in the Highlands!  Here's a photo I took of the finished quilt before I sent it off for the photo shoot.

My next patterns in Today's Quilter...

My contribution to issue 5 of Today's Quilter is Sarah's Triangles, a throw sized quilt inspired by the Sarah Wyatt quilt at the V & A.  Mine has much wider borders, so I couldn't resist some extra details in the quilting, and I finished it yesterday.  If you'd like to make it, start looking for two charm packs for all the half square triangles... Think antique/reproduction fabrics, with browns, madder reds and creams, with a touch of pale greyish blue.  Issue 5 will be on sale on 7th January.

Lulea Log Cabin will be in the next issue -