Teenage Angst in situ

Today we visited Jonathan in Leeds and I thought I would share this photo. I really don't like having my photo taken but I think this one came out quite well.

A better photo of the quilt label and a close up of Jonathan's Diamond Block.

Tuesday Patchwork Class

I have decided to make more of an effort to share photos with you from my Tuesday patchwork classes. I am proud to report that I have been featured as Blog of the Month in the February issue of British Patchwork and Quilting magazine so if you have found my blog through that - welcome to you and I hope you enjoy what you find.

This first quilt is by Carol a lovely blue sampler quilt which features some of the blocks we made last term and a few Lynne Edwards old favourites. Note the cat block at the bottom - Carol is a cat lover and regular reader of this blog - hope you enjoy seeing your quilt!

These next two photos are back and front of a bag made by Kath. It has been made to hold her cutting mat. She acquired some scraps from Sue who was moving back down to Dorset and she set herself the challenge of using every single scrap - just adding the blue background fabric.
A beautiful result I'm sure you'll agree.

Liebster Award

I have been awarded the Liebster Blog Award by my quilting buddy Hazel of Cotton Cocktails. This award highlights smaller blogs that have 300 followers or less. When you receive the award the idea is to nominate 3 - 5 blogs that you enjoy that also have a smaller following.
I am really pleased to accept the award and I nominate the following blogs because I love to read them and I think you should check them out.

1. Art with a needle by Kathleen Loomis.
Kathleen has some interesting ideas about the quilting world. art quilts and improvisational piecing. And lots of great photos.

2. Deb Rowden's Thrift Shop Quilts
I love antique American quilts especially those everyday ones found in thrift shops and antique malls in the US. I am lucky enough to have some that I picked up on my travels - just wish I had more. Deb's blog is a visual treat.

3.Little Welsh Quilts and other traditions by Mary Jenkins.
I also love Welsh quilts. Mary co-wrote one of my favourite books 'Making Welsh Quilts' and I was really pleased to discover that she also writes a blog. I even discovered that I was mentioned on one of her posts regarding the Sundial Quilt in the recent V&A exhibition,

4.Angie Quilts
Angie contacted me after she had seen my sewing machine cover at the Festival of Quilts. I have been following her blog ever since. She is a quilt teacher who writes every week about the progress of her students which is always interesting. She also has tutorials on her blog.

Hope these blogs inspire you as much as they do me.

Teenage Angst completed

Most of my Christmas holidays were taken up with the completion of this quilt. It didn't quite make it for Christmas but the last stitch was put in on New Years Eve. I was very pleased with the final result and so was Jonathan.
Here is the finished quilt.

Each block is surrounded by a quarter inch of red which although time consuming really enhanced the colours of the quilt. The red represents the fire of a mother and son's relationship in the teenage years.

Many of the blocks have special meanings to Jonathan - particularly the cat block - we do still have four cats but they are a different four to the ones we had when the quilt was started!

The back is also pieced - as I said before I really love pieced backs! I have used sample blocks for the back and Ohio stars which we have been making in my patchwork classes.I didn't actually have one piece of fabric big enough for the back so piecing it was the natural solution.

And finally a label made on my new Janome.

Life has been hectic over the last few weeks with lots of celebrations for Geoff's 50th Birthday. I have also embarked on a large project to turn one of our bedrooms into a sewing room. This is a very big job as it currently houses loads of toys and other teenage stuff. Spent today packing Rob's extensive Jurassic Park dinosaur collection into boxes for storage in the loft.

My next big project is my City & Guilds wholecloth quilt which is based on Welsh Celtic designs. I will try to keep you up to date with my progress.