Blocks from Weeks 4 and 5.

Good progress is being made by my students in the Tuesday classes. Soon I will be sharing finished quilts. Some total beginners have produced beautiful quilts to a very high standard and I am very proud of them all.

Week 4 was one of my favourite blocks - Liberated Stars. The points of the stars are free pieced so that you never get two stars the same. I particularly like it when the stars are all made using the same background fabric so that the stars appear to be 'floating' on the quilt.

Week 5 was Flying Geese - such an important block in many quilts so I decided I needed to include it but decided that we would make the folded version which is only made from rectangles and squares.

Even this last one was quite easy to make using folded flying geese units.

Students Liberated Square in a Square Blocks.

Week 3 Blocks.

I am seriously behind with my posting on these - so need to start catching up!
On week 3 we did a foundation pieced heart which would also lend itself to free piecing of course! Some of my less experienced students found this block a bit confusing so I need to revisit this block in a future class.



The rest of the class was spent working on liberated square in a square blocks which are quick and easy to do with no worrying about matching corners. These blocks were a real hit - everyone seemed to enjoy them! The only problem with them is that the edges of the finished block are on the bias so you need to be careful when joining to another block or adding sashings.

I also made some 6 inch blocks but did not like these as much.

Goodbye Chloe - and Bonnie.

Sadly we had to have Chloe, one of our rescued, ex-battery hens put to sleep this morning.
She had almost two years of freedom since she left the battery farm in June 2008.
I have not been keeping you up to date with the chicken situation, Bonnie died a few weeks ago and we lost Maggie last September.
Here is a photo of Bonnie and Chloe from last Autumn.


This is not meant to be a sad post as all three girls enjoyed their freedom to the max and we were so pleased to have them as our pets.

I made a quilted piece last year to celebrate their freedom which I don't think I have shown on the blog but will be exhibiting at the FOQ in August. Perhaps you might see it there?

Patchwork & Quilting Course - Week 2 Blocks.

Each week I have been producing three sample blocks for my students. Week 2 was the good old shoo fly block. I decided to use this block to demonstrate how to make half square triangles out of two squares - a skill that every new quilter needs.

For the more experienced quilters in the group I made a block out of four six inch blocks. I love the way that secondary patterns appear in this block.

I also included the churn dash block as it is a variation of the shoo fly. I used the bonus triangles from the string blocks to piece the centre of this one. I really enjoy making blocks out of tiny pieces especially since I learnt they work much better if you press the seams open.

Patchwork & Quilting Course - Blocks from Week 1.

I know I haven't blogged for a while - one of the main reasons is that I have been going through a mini crisis with my City & Guilds course.
The main highlight of my quilting life at the moment is teaching my classes every Tuesday.
We have just completed week 7, the progress that the students are making is excellent so I thought it was about time that I shared some of their work. Apologies to anyone whose work does not appear but my photographing of blocks has been a bit random!

When we all returned for week 2 I was amazed to find that Kath had made an entire quilt top using the string blocks we had made in week 1.
I must point out that Kath is a very experienced and accomplished quilter. It is lovely to have her in the class because she was my first patchwork teacher and has been very supportive and encouraging as I have progressed in my quilting journey.

This is Angela's first ever patchwork block - Angela is now hooked and has even bought herself a sewing machine!

Mary's block - colours are much nicer than shown in this photo.

Maureen's block - she is making a Christmas table runner.

Judith's block - another first timer!

Carol's string block with sashings.

Liz's Block.

Kath's second block in another colourway.

Pat's block.

It was fantastic to see these blocks in the second week.
The course is going very well and I will try to get up to date with our progress.

My aim for the course was to encourage people to try patchwork and quilting, to help people to develop their skills but most of all to show how much pleasure and satisfaction you can get out of it. I think I already have some new P&Q addicts!

Quilts 1700 - 2010. Two contemporary quilts.

There are quite a few contemporary quilts in the exhibition. There has been much discussion about whether they fit in or not. My view is that the old quilts were the stars of the show but I do appreciate that some people will not have seen the work of contemporary quiltmakers.
I have to admit that many of the contemporary quilts did not inspire me and I have seen better work at quilts shows - but these two below did catch my attention and were my favourite contemporary pieces.

This quilt is called 'Chinese Dream' and is made by Susan Stockwell. The quilt is made entirely out of Chinese paper banknotes. It features a map of the world and is supposed to represent the rise of China in the global economy and the way in which bank notes are recycled in the same way that other quilt materials can be.

The second quilt is by Pauline Burbridge. We are studying her at college and I am only just 'getting into' her work but it is growing on me and I do like this quilt.