International Quilting Day March 19th 2011 - you are invited!

The third Saturday in March is designated International Quilting Day. The philosophy behind it is for quilters to meet together to socialise and help others.

Sue, Lynne and I talked about hosting an event here in Yorkshire and after getting a few ideas together we decided to go ahead. The only slightly sad part is that Sue has now moved back to Dorset and can't be with us on the day - but I know she will be with us in spirit!


You are invited!


Here are all the details

Date - Saturday March 19th 2011.

Venue - Emmanuel Methodist Church, Huddersfield Road, Barnsley, South Yorkshire S75 1DT

Time - 10am - 4pm

Tickets - 5 pounds. Tea and coffee provided but please bring your own lunch. Please book in advance.

Activities - Block Lotto, Ugly FQ Swap, Mini Workshops, Raffle, Show and Tell.

All proceeds to Barnsley Hospice.



You will be able to participate in mini workshops during the day for a small additional charge and I am delighted to announce that these will be led by Hazel of Cotton Cocktails and Lynne of Linen Stitches. If you hop on over to their blogs you will be able to see some lovely examples of their work. Lynne will be teaching how to make delightful applique pictures and Hazel will be teaching how to use wax crayons to make fantastic fabric postcards.

I really hope you will come and join us - all quilters are very welcome.
Please contact me for more details and then I can reserve your place and send you a copy of the full programme.

I am getting a sewing room!

This is because my sewing space downstairs is constantly being invaded by teenagers, husband, cats and.................small soldiers!

These are photos taken by my youngest son, Rob who is studying Interactive Media at college. They were taken for a project last term.
I am actually in the process of acquiring a sewing room - Rob's old bedroom but it is a slow process sorting through 16 years worth of toys and deciding which to keep.

It will be lovely to have my own sewing space soon.

Tuesday Patchwork Class

Trying to get into the habit of taking my camera to class to get photos of my students progress. Today we started a new topic - scrap quilting and/or the use of recycled fabric.
The first photos show two different placements of Daphne's blocks. They are based on buckeye beauty blocks and are made with fabric from her son's shirts.

Cherry has completed a quilt top made with applique blocks made in a workshop I taught last August. All the participants donated their blocks and Cherry has put them together to make a charity quilt.

A lot of class members are working on a scrappy Irish Chain, Cherry has got a head start on this too!

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.