Her Majesty's Diamond Jubilee

I know this post is a little late as it is nearly a week since the official Jubilee celebrations. Yesterday I was reading Barbara Brackman's blog and she had devoted a post to the Jubilee. She was talking about panels to make Jubilee quilts and I suddenly remembered the Cath Kidston bag I had been given for my birthday. This bag is double sided and made of quite lightweight calico so it could be easily unpicked and the panel used as the centre for a quilt.

On the subject of Corgis Barbara has designed a superb Jubilee panel that you can find in her special Jubilee post  here. If you are not a regular reader of her blog I can highly recommend it, it is one of the most interesting quilting blogs in my opinion. 

I also have a Jubilee pin given to me as a birthday gift from my eldest son. This is also from CK and was much admired when I wore it over the weekend.

For those of you in the UK you will know how disappointing the weather was over the Jubilee weekend - in fact our whole summer so far has been a wash out. But we did get the bunting out in the garden. Cilla is posing in her favourite garden chair and in case you are wondering - yes that is the insides of an old washing machine made into a wood burner.



How many things can you make from a recycled cotton shirt?

I know that I have not shared much recently - life has been hectic and most quilting has been work related making sample blocks and quilts for classes.

However this is a little treat I have been meaning to share for a while. All the items in the following photos were made by Maureen, a creative and prolific quilter who attends my Tuesday class and does not have a blog of her own so it is my duty to share her work with you all.

She started with a red white and blue men's shirt that she bought at the International Quilt Day Event.

She added some plain white and blue star fabric and made a quilt.

 Here is a close up.

 Then she made a bag - here is one side, note the button holes in the handle!

 This is the other side - the label from the shirt has made the flag on the yacht!

 Then she made a cushion.

 A couple of pincushions made from the scraps!

 And finally this cute little fella!

 Look at his coat with tails made from the collar tips!

Awesome work Maureen!

Malvern Quilt Show

This weekend we have visited Malvern Quilt Show. Geoff came with me and did his best to enjoy himself! He also bought me my birthday gift of EQ7 which I am looking forward to getting to grips with!

We have been to the venue before as it is where Vanfest is held every September, but it was our first time at the quilt show.

I have really enjoyed our weekend away, we met up with Anthea and Rachel from Quilting Antics for dinner and drinks last night, but I did not feel that the quilt show lived up to my expectations.

As this is my blog I can express my opinions without fear of hurting anyone's feelings.

The venue was not as good as Harrogate, my local quilt show. The cafe was tiny and expensive (£1.80 for a small cup of tea!). There was another cafe just outside but that was also quite small.

The hall was cramped in my opinion and there were not enough competitive quilts. Also lots of quilts I had seen before at other shows and many were not shown to good advantage. There were also not many modern quilts or quilts with the 'wow' factor. I know this is very subjective and many of the quilts were made to very high standards but they were just not speaking to me.

It made me realise, that even with all its faults you cannot beat the Festival of Quilts and that Harrogate comes a close second.

 I did buy some great fabric though, this is the latest from Alexander Henry.
This will become cushions for Jonathan's next student flat - 16th floor of a high rise near Leeds Uni - the 'penthouse slum' as it is known!

And for those of you who wished you could have been there here are a few snippets of the quilts......

 How can I resist wonky trees and houses?

 This one was made with recycled fabrics - the hand quilting on it was stunning!

Piecing over papers in Civil War Fabrics - what's not to like?

As usual I didn't agree with the judges - good job I'm not one - that would be controversial. I don't think a single first prize went to an amateur quilter which is a shame because it might just put people off entering. 

Baskets, Leaves and Trees - more Civil War Blocks on point.

In my Tuesday class we are making more blocks for a small quilt. The purpose of the class for this term is to learn how to make a quilt with blocks 'on point'.

My starting point was the Apple Tree Block from Barbara Brackman's Civil War Quilt blog but then I played around with basket, tree and leaf blocks to come up with 13 blocks which play nicely with each other and are meant to be set 'on point'.

This is the layout I have decided upon.

 This is my first layout with the 'heavy' tree blocks on opposite corners but I think that the new layout above looks more balanced. I did think about remaking some of the blocks but that's not in the spirit of patchwork is it? 

Here is the starting point - the Apple Tree Block

Next is sashings - although these are not needed in an 'on point' quilt I like them to define my blocks. I did not have enough of my first choice fabric so am now auditioning a couple of fabrics.
The fabric I have used for the blocks is partly Barbara Brackman Civil War Reunion and Woodrow Studios William Morris.

Hexagon Pincushions

My mini workshop at International Quilting Day was a hexagon pincushion.

Hexagons, made by the English paper piecing method, often have a bad reputation in P&Q circles as they are the point at which most of us started patchwork, many people abandoning it at this point.

To illustrate this point, most of us have an unfinished hexagon quilt in our UFOs (go on, admit it!)

However, here in blogland, hexagons have been undergoing something of a revival and many internet groups have been making hexie quilts.

So, I decided that we should include hexagons in our IQD activities and came up with this little hexagon pincushion design made with only 8 hexagons.

Everyone seemed to really enjoy making it on the day and I know that some of you have secretly been making more!

I confess to having more than one hexie project in my UFOs and I love making them! The red ones are for a block in a red and white quilt I am making - more on that soon!

It is now officially the Easter holidays and I have two weeks with no teaching. I am going to try to catch up on gardening, tidying the sewing room and working on some of my UFOs. I am also going to try to blog about some of these because sometimes I am just too busy to keep you up to date with my quilting activities!

Civil War Quilts - Show and Tell.

Today was our end of term show and tell.

Not all the quilts are finished but it gives a flavour of how different the same blocks can look.

Click on the photo to view the quilts.

International Quilt Day - The Results!

Yesterday was our International Quilt Day Event.

 Here are the wonderful red and white block lotto blocks

 We had cake - lots of cake!

Elsie made a special red and white patchwork cake - thanks Elsie, I was really touched.

 The silent auction was even better this year, fabric, patterns and books galore!

 Here is everyone enjoying themselves - 52 ladies and 2 young quilters.

And the result of all this fun, stitching and cake eating......

£1017

raised for Barnsley Hospice!

Thanks to everyone for your support - see you next year!