Charity Quilting Day

Our sewing group - which is really an embroidery group - is involved in charity quilting. We try to have at least one, ideally two charity quilting days per year. Yesterday was our latest one. Most of the quilts we make go to Belarus but we have also sent quilts to the local Women's Refuge and the NSPCC.
Jack who is our contact with the school in Belarus which we support is visiting us in October. He will be giving a talk to the members and showing pictures of his last visit which was at Easter this year. We are hoping that he will have some photos of the quilts being given to their new owners. We will be sending him home laden with a new batch of quilts for Easter 2009.
Our members also knit and crochet for the children in Belarus - blankets, hats, gloves, scarves and sweaters. This photo shows quilt tops which have been tacked ready for quilting. We have lots of members who do not want to piece or quilt but are very happy tacking or sewing on bindings - which is great!
One of the two ladies in our group who do the most work towards the charity quilts is Kath. I have taken these next two pictures so you can see how organised she is. As I said to her yesterday we need her to run the country! The first picture shows how she packages a quilt top, backing and wadding and ties it together for the tackers. They are tied together with selvedges - this woman wastes nothing!
This second photo shows how she has prepared the bindings, measured them and wound them onto home made bobbins made from last years Christmas cards! I bet you would all like Kath to join your quilting group!!
Finally one of the quilts being tacked.

The next 4 Dear Jane Blocks.

I have had these four blocks done for a while but never seemed to get round to posting them on the blog. As I have won Anina's giveaway (lucky me - my first blogland win!)and some of my photos have gone up on the Dear Baby Jane blog I thought some of you might pop over to see my blog so I better have some DJ stuff for you to look at! H1 Peek A Boo
Foundation pieced.

B11 Melissa's Cross.

Foundation pieced and hand applique.

B10 Jud's Trophy

Foundation pieced.

B9 Tinker Toy

Hand pieced.

Progress is slow but sure - I am hanging on in there!

August Birthday Block Swap

These are the blocks that I have made for August, the second month of the Birthday Block Swap on About.com. I made them last week and they are already on their way to Susan in Indiana USA. The block is called Pennsylvania, chosen by Susan and she wanted white on white background with 1930s prints.
The block was so quick and easy to make that I decided to make two for her! Sorry about the folds in the blocks on the photo but I got them all packed up before I realised that I had forgot to photo them! Hope she likes them!

Run To The Hills 2008

This weekend has been the second of the two VW festivals we attend. Run To The Hills is near Matlock in Derbyshire. The weather was mixed (!) with heavy rain on Saturday night which led to lots of mud on Sunday! Our camper is the white one with awning attached.
This is me with our friends enjoying the evening.
A bouncy castle with a difference!!
Lots of straw was put down on Sunday but still a few campers got stuck!!
This one is available for weddings!
Had a good weekend even with the rain and mud but glad to get back for a hot bath last night. Took ages to get home due to the demolition of the cooling towers on the M1 near Sheffield. Robert arrived home at 1am from the Leeds Festival - he is soaking in the bath, I am on my 3rd load of muddy washing, looking forward to hearing all about his first music festival later.

RESULTS DAY!

Today is a special day for 16 year olds in the UK. It is the day they get their GCSE results. These results determine their future studies, job prospects etc. As many of you know I was very worried about my son Jonathan as we have had a very difficult time with him over the last few months.
Anyway - he passed them all!!! He now has 10 GCSEs! I am so relieved!
He has an A in English, Bs in English Lit, Media Studies, Science, and Design Technology and Cs in History, Maths, Graphics, Additional Science and Religious Studies. He was expected to do much better in Maths and Graphics but the results in English and Media have definitely compensated for these. And a pass is a pass so that's all that counts!
He is going on to college to do a BTEC in Art & Design and then hopes to go to university in 2 years. I am so relieved and very proud of him. I cried all the way home in the car - it takes 20 minutes and yes I was driving!
This is the only photo he would allow me to take - I've no idea who his friend is!

As I said in a previous post - last Thursday my brother visited with his 4 children and we like to get a family photo! These are my Mum and Dad's 6 grandchildren ranging in age from 16 to 3. The two big ones are mine!

Also a couple of photos from the Leeds VW Festival last weekend.

My youngest, Robert has set off to Leeds Music Festival this weekend with his friend and his friend's Dad. Apparently it is already a mud bath due to all the rain we have been having lately!

Hungarian Dear Jane!

One of the showcases at the Festival of Quilts contained Hungarian blue and white quilts which were very striking and attracting lots of attention.

One of them was a Dear Jane with a difference. As you can see the blocks are the same but they have been converted into diamonds.

I love how the maker has added one red block in the top corner.It really was a lovely quilt!

I have edited this post so that you can click on the photos to make them larger!

THE FESTIVAL OF QUILTS DISASTER

This is my first post without a photo - appropriate really because it is about my missing entry to the Festival Of Quilts.

For those of you reading this from outside the UK - FOQ is probably the largest quilt show in the UK. This year I entered the student category which was for a design board rather than a quilt.

This is the entry I posted on BQL (British Quilt List - yahoo forum) last night -



"I need to share this before I have slept on it and feel better.BQL has many quilters on its membership list who have entered FOQ, some of you have won prizes and some of you are judges.

I want everyone to know what has happened to me today. Imagine how it feels to wait in the queue on the first day, see your name in the programme, when the doors open eagerly make your way to see your quilt in all its glory - only to find an empty space.

This is what happened to me today - my entry - in the student category - 1157 to be exact- is lost.

This represents one month of hard work for me. I can easily redo the design board - I have photographs and all the art work here at home. It doesn't really matter if it never is found. What I wanted was my work on display at the FOQ and more importantly I wanted it to be judged - and yes I wanted the chance to win.

I am devastated. For everyone who is thinking how well they do only to lose a few quilts (and I do know that mine is not the only one) stop and think how you would feel if that was one of yours. When you visit over the next few days look at the winning quilts and think about how they would feel if their quilt had never made it.

At the moment the courier is being blamed - I will be asking them if they agree with this in the morning.In the meantime I would like to thank my fellow C&G students, particularly Mary for their support (I suspect there will not be any entries from our college next year!), Susan Briscoe and Sandie Lush for listening".



This morning I phoned the courier. It would appear that my entry has been lost by the courier company recommended by the organisers of the FOQ .However they did alert the FOQ organisers that it was missing one week ago. I never got an answer to the question why I had not been informed. Obviously they thought I wouldn't notice..........

Four entries are missing from the Leeds depot. The other 3 belong to one person who had entered 3 quilts into the show. My thoughts are also with her - I can imagine just how she is feeling!




We have had a family party today with my brother and his family visiting from Essex. My Mum confided in me how upset my Dad has been about the FOQ disaster as he knows how hard I have been working on my City & Guilds over the last year.

Anyway this afternoon I had a call from Wayne from Expofreight - the four missing parcels have been found! They never left the Leeds depot and had in fact 'fallen down the back of some shelving'. If only I could have had the conversation I had with Wayne this morning, last week this could have all been averted. He informed me that the quilts would be going straight down to the NEC this afternoon. I called the NEC to try to talk to the FOQ organisers straight after this call and later this afternoon Andrew Salmon (the man in charge of the company organising the show) phoned me back. We had a long conversation - the upshot of which is as follows.

My design board will be hung tomorrow and will have a printed apology next to it - his suggestion.

He will try his best to get my entry judged if the judges are still there. This was my main concern although I know I cannot now win.

I have had a verbal apology from both the courier and Mr Salmon which I have accepted.

He has promised to phone me regarding the judging over the weekend.

I am going to be offline for the rest of the weekend as we are going to the VW festival at Harewood House Leeds.

I don't know how I feel about the whole episode at the moment - a bit numb I suppose. I am glad it has been found and they are trying their best to put things right - but the disappointment is still there.

BQL AUGUST BAG

I did actually finish this last week but have only just got round to posting!
Very quick and easy to make - not really my style but will make a great Christmas gift. Used shiny fabrics from my stash so even better!

BQL JULY BAG!

This bag was started on July 3rd and finished on July 30th! You know how it goes - the more time you have the longer it takes! Anyway, I used my hand dyed fabrics in my favourite colours and I am pleased with the result. It was a great bag to practise quilting on. This is not actually free motion quilting - I drew on the design and quilted over it. There are flowers on one side and stars on the other.
This is a close up of one of the flowers - I have used buttons to embelish the centres.
I found the star pattern on the internet - it is one of those continuous line designs which I had always wanted to try. They are actually quite fun to do.


Here is a close up of my quilting!