Not a dry eye in the house!

In October 2011, Chris, a dear friend and founder member of Foxy Quilters, lost her battle with cancer. Weeks before she died she asked me to promise to finish her quilts for her. Some were finished shortly after her death but the rest have now been completed and were presented to her husband yesterday. 

Here is Neil, her husband with the bed quilt that Chris was making for them. It was a mystery quilt, Chris had done all the piecing, layered and tacked it so I just had to quilt and bind it.

Chris had bought her fabrics to make a Civil War quilt in patriotic colours as she has an American granddaughter. Sadly she had only completed one block before she died. As the class progressed, I cut fabric for her blocks each week and members of the class made up enough blocks to make quilts for her grandchildren.

This was a very emotional surprise for her husband, sister and brother in law and I am sure they will be treasured.

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!

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.

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.

More Civil War Quilts.

At my Tuesday class some of the Civil War quilts are starting to take shape.

 Maureen's is almost finished!

 Celia's is looking good.

 Liz's red, white and blue one is ready for borders.

 Cherry brought in another Kentucky Crossroads quilt top - this one is so bright and springlike! I fell in love with it especially as it included some vintage fabrics.

Cherry has also nearly finished this string star quilt - I love the block layout and the secondary patterns it forms.

Civil War Quilt Progress

I have been continuing with my Civil War Quilt.

This quilt was made from Barbara Brackman's Civil War Quilt blog.

It is now complete with sashings.

 I started by adding scrappy sashings which I decided looked too overpowering for an already very scrappy quilt. The only problem is that I had cut all my remaining fabric into 8 and a half  x 2 inch strips. Bad idea!

Then, I decided to use the red fabric that I had intended for borders, this looked much better but means I have no border fabric now!

I added green cornerstones, but then decided I didn't like them either!
Reverse sewing required!

So that is how I finally arrived at the red sashing with no cornerstones.

 I am now contemplating borders, this is a very difficult task as I have very little fabric remaining. The plan is to make a scrappy border first, followed by a border of the remaining red fabric which will have to be pieced as I have no long pieces left.
I could buy more fabric as I have found a supplier on the internet but really I like the challenge of working with what I have.
I originally bought 12 half metre pieces with 1 and a half metres for the borders. The finished quilt will be about 70 inches square so I don't think I have done too bad. I will have enough fabric for binding but not backing. I also have 8 orphan blocks and loads of crumbs!

 Janice, who is making two single bed sized Civil War quilts, has also just finished this lap quilt made with just one of the blocks, Kentucky Crossroads. Lovely isn't it? It is amazing how many of the blocks could be used on their own to make a great quilt.

Finally, these are some of Kath's blocks. She has made them with what she calls 'ugly fabric'!

As you can see the quilt be will far from ugly.

Between now and Easter we will all be trying to get our Civil War Quilts finished. By my reckoning there should be at least 25 between us, we could have our own quilt show!

Trapunto Workshop with Philippa Naylor

On Saturday I was lucky to attend a workshop with Philippa Naylor. Actually I organised it for my embroidery/patchwork group! We have a lovely big venue at the church where we meet so Philippa is able to teach 20 ladies in one class. This is the fourth year that Philippa has taught for our group and this years technique was trapunto. 

Before you ask, last year it was curved piecing, and that is still a UFO so I am hoping to do better this year.

I have decided to share my progress and hopefully this workshop sample will turn into a small quilt.

 The first photo shows my progress of as last night. This is the first stage completed but I will guide you through the process in a series of photos.

 First we drew our design (Philippa's design actually!) onto fabric.

 Then we added a double layer of 80/20 wadding behind the design and stitched just inside the motifs using water soluble thread. This was done using Free Motion Quilting so the line is a bit wobbly - the stitches are supposed to be as long as possible so they are easier to remove, mine vary quite a lot!

 Then you start to cut away the wadding just leaving the areas that you want to have the trapunto effect.
This is a fiddly process but actually quite enjoyable in a theraputic sort of way!

 This then leaves this pattern of wadding shapes on the back that remind me so much of flock wallpaper!

The next stage should be to layer it up with some more 100% cotton wadding and start quilting but I have a little problem! My motifs are quite near the edge so I am going to have at add a border before I do this.

It is half term this week and I have no classes so I hope it is not too long before I can report on the next stage of this small quilt. However I do have my two class samples, my Little Log Cabin Trees and another UFO to work on this week!

Robert returned from New York on Saturday having had a fantastic time - he has taken 800 photos and has bought himself loads of trendy clothes! He would love to go back but not until he is 21!

Civil War Quilt

You may be aware that 2011 was the 150th Anniversary of the start of the American Civil War.

In my Tuesday class we have been making a Civil War Quilt. We have been making blocks from Barbara Brackman's Civil War Blog Each week I have taken 2 blocks and written instructions on how to make them. By February 7th we will have made 38 of the 53 on the blog. I have decided to use 36 of the blocks for my quilt. Each block will finish at 8 inches square.

The fabric is Portobello Market by 3 Sisters for Moda

 This is the layout I have chosen - although it may change

 My design wall is a piece of thick cheap wadding from Dunelm Mill which has been tacked to the wall. Gizmo likes to have a snooze whilst contemplating the layout of the blocks!




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Here are 4 New England blocks made by some of my students a few weeks ago. I took the photo to illustrate how different a block can look depending on the fabric choices.


I am now at the stage of sashings. On Saturday I cut 84 sashing strips out of the fabric I had left, to make scrappy sashings. On Sunday I decided I didn't like it so I cut out some more strips out of a red fabric I had bought for the borders. I stitched this with green cornerstones. This morning I have decided that I don't like the cornerstones, I think the sashing will look better without them! More reverse sewing today! I always change my mind a few times as I am making a quilt!

Wonky Trees

As you may already know I love liberated quilting and improvised piecing in particular.
In November I started a new patchwork and quilting class and decided to do some improvised piecing for the first few weeks just to get everyone loosened up.
A couple of weeks before Christmas we did wonky trees and these little beauties are what they produced!

I've got some really talented ladies in this class!

Butterfly Quilts for Barnsley College

Earlier this year I was asked if my Embroidery and Patchwork Group would like to be involved in producing Art Work for the new building at Barnsley College. Of course I said 'Yes!'
The theme was butterflies.
We asked members to produce an embroidered butterfly block which we then joined to make this very attractive quilt.
It now hangs proudly in the Library of the new building.

We also made some Butterfly Blocks in my Tuesday patchwork class, which I joined and made into this quilt.
This now hangs in one of the corridors.

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I think it is really great to see quilts hanging in public places. I think they look really good!

Hello - I'm Back Again - With lots of quilts to show!

Hello! I'm back again!

Don't really know why I have stopped blogging recently. I have been busy with new quilt classes and lots of workshops but I suppose really that you just get out of the habit.

The first photo I am going to show is very special. This quilt top was made by my good friend Chris who sadly lost her battle with cancer and passed away on October 28th.

This is the quilt she was making for her new Gandaughter, Charlie who currently lives in California. The block comes from Quilters Cache and is called California.

I was lucky enough to meet Charlie at Chris's funeral, Chris didn't quite manage to complete this quilt before she died but me and a couple of her quilting friends will make sure that its all finished for when Charlie comes back at Christmas.

 Recently we had a show and tell at our embroidery and patchwork group and I took some photos of quilts that were made in my classes last year. This is Kath, hiding behind her 'Handbags' cushion.

 The cushion holds this quilt which Kath designed using my little handbag block.

 This is Kath's Blue Ridge Beauty which is a Bonnie Hunter design. We worked on scrap quilts and using recycled clothing last year. This quilt is made entirely from recycled shirts.

 Smruti made a baby quilt using Bonnie Hunter's Scrappy Irish Chain block.

 Jean's Scrappy Irish Chain Quilt.

 Look at the back!

 And Celia's Scrappy Irish Chain.

What lovely quilts!