Festival of Quilts and dog sitting part one

It has been a busy couple of weeks and I am just starting to get myself back into gear. I thought that not having an internet connection would be good for a couple of weeks, but I was starting to get a bit twitchy after a couple of days. Shows how dependent I have become to stay in touch. Anyway more of that later.

We started our dog sitting break with a quick visit to the Festival of Quilts. It was a whistle stop tour and I missed so much. When we left I turned to my husband and said " Well, I was good this time. I have only spent £2.40" He turned and gave me a look I know only too well and replied. "Have you just forgotten the sewing machine you bought in the first half an hour?" Whoops!

Something I didn't miss though was my mothers quilt. Everytime we walked near it I lurked to hear what people were saying and was very pleased with the comments it was getting. Wonderful to be able to report back to her with such kind and supportive words. This is me hogging her limelight, although I think the quilt is outshining me

Back to my new sewing machine. It will be arriving next Friday so Alan has his work cut out to get the room finished. Only a small matter of finishing the attic and putting everything back, redecorating, laying new floor and putting up new blinds. Then he can reassemble the grace quilt frame and we can await the Q'nique Quilting machine. I am so excited and he will be able to have a rest.

Then it was off to the Lake District to dog sit for my sister. 

Meet Toby

He's a real sweety. More of our trip in the next post but now it's back to preparation for the courses starting in September.

Bev

Watercolour Quilt

There are so many Patchwork & Quilting techniques that I feel I will need two life times to fully explore them all.

Watercolour quilting is one that I recently came across. And having now heard of it I needed to have a go.

I had some Liberty Cotton Tana Lawn fabric, which is not very good for patchwork as it is so fine. However as this method uses Pellon Quilters Grid to stabilise the fabric, I thought that it would be a good test.

I separated the fabric into light, medium and dark, and then had a play on my design wall.

Having decided on this arrangement I ironed it to the Pellon Quilters Grid to stabilise all the fabrics.

As I was ironing a fusible fabric I used some baking parchment over the top to prevent any of the glue messing up my iron.

Now for the sewing. Firstly I sewed alternate vertical seams all in the same direction ( from the top to the bottom )

I then stitched the rest of the vertical seams in the opposite direction to prevent any distortion 

Before I stitched the horizontal seams I clipped all the joints making sure I cut the stitching too. This allowed me to lock the seams together and get great matching points

Now that I have had a go at this technique I will start to save small squares of fabric (2 1/2" ) and start planning another one. I think I will try to get a better tone difference between the fabrics, but I think for a scrappy quilt it has worked out quite well.

Bev

I know that I should have spent the day at the computer today but I couln't resist some sketchbook work.

Using this picture, which we took on our recent visit to Seville I have taken small fragments and made some quick sketches of them.

I am hoping to get some more time tonight to finish the page. It is nice just to sketch without a finished item in mind and just wander around the page adding snippets that I fancy.

I am also working on a page for pictures of my students work. That should be live soon.

Hope you have a look 

Bev

3D Forms and Somerset Stars

Last month my level 2 students were given a challenge to produce a 3D form using paper or card. This design exercise always produces some surprising results and today they didn't let me down.

Today we were exploring some folded patchwork techniques including Somerset Stars

These are made from folded squares of fabric and are built up in layers to produce star patterns. Great fun and wonderfully tactile.

Bev

Shrink

Over the last couple of weeks I have been experimenting with a product called "shrink". 

I have used solufleece before, where you bond the solufleece to the wrong side of the fabric using bondaweb or heat and bond. It shrinks away from heat in a similar way to tyvek. Make sure you use an iron cloth of baking parchment to prevent any residue being deposited on your iron. Also do not press with the iron, it is the heat not pressure which allows the fibres to shrink. If you press the fabric the fibres have nowhere to go and the result is not satisfactory.

The difference with "shrink" is that it is not bonded to the fabric. 

Stitch it in place and then apply heat from the reverse side as described above. 

All the samples have been stitched using a normal presser foot and with cotton thread. 

All the samples started as 6" squares and finished at 4.5" 

Narrow parallel straight lines

Small grid pattern

Large grid pattern

Parallel lines spaced apart ( sample sewn diagonally )

Parallel lines spaced apart. I love the 'smocked' look of these two samples.

Straight lines stitched in a spiralling design

Hope you like the effect as much as I do

Bev

A Mixed Bag

I have been meaning to write my blog for what seems like days now. Apologies if you have been waiting for the new post.

We are still travelling up and down the country when I am not teaching. I am pleased to say that my mother is recovering well from the subarachnoid aneurysm and is now back home. The fabric I ordered for her had arrived and we couldn't resist in auditioning it against the pieced top she had done before going into hospital. It is going to be a wonderful quilt.

My parrot patchwork is nearly finished and with a few tweaks to the design it will be ready for display at Tudor Rose Patchwork. If you would like to have a go at stained glass patchwork and make this fun pair of parrots please get in touch with them. The day school is on Monday September 28th.

Tudor Rose Patchwork

I have also been busy with a new beginners project for next Wednesday. Using the half square triangle block I have made this lovely Star table runner. A great project for anyone wanting to perfect the half square triangle block

 

 Using the half square triangles I was playing around with in the last post, I have made a simple bag. It is proving to be an easy way to take small projects and quilts to class and back.

As part of our '30 events for our 30th year' ( for our wedding anniversary this year) Alan and I pottered along to the BBC to watch a recording of the Radio 4 programme - The Museum of Curiosities. It was very interesting to see how these things are made. We also got a glimpse of the BBC news area and saw the weather reporter Tomasz Schafernaker presenting his report. However I have to say that I still fancy myself as the Doctors next companion. An older companion for an older Doctor????

I could do with a tardis for all the projects I have in my head.

Bev

Half Square Triangles

Things are slowly getting back to normal. My mother is on the mend and hopefully soon be out of hospital. I have entered her quilt in the Festival of Quilts and although she won't be able to visit with me this year I am looking forward to seeing it and taking lots of pictures for her.

It will soon be time for my students to have their summer break and it is going to be strange not having lessons every week with them. New courses will be starting in September, please get in touch for details.

A bit of serendipity was brought in last week by one of my machine embroidery students. Cyn free motion stitched this sample 

And by a happy accident didn't get the tension quite right, which has produced some wonderful whipped stitches, fabulous textures and effects.

This morning I had time in the studio to explore half square triangles patterns.  Which is your favourite?

   

 

We will be mastering the half square triangle unit on 1st July please get in touch if you want to book a place on the day.

Happy stitching

Bev