Towse's first 'sewing group challenge'

Around the middle of last year I joined the Fat Quarters sewing group, which is based in Great Missenden and affiliated to The Quilter's Guild. I have learnt a lot of new stuff and met a lot of very clever women! In the Autumn, to my bemusement, they brought around the 'February Challenge'. Everyone was given an eighth of self patterned cream fabric and a photo. The instruction was to create a piece inspired by the photo which used all of the cream fabric. My photo was the roof of Marylebone railway station.

Interesting as it was, I had no idea what to do with it, so there it sat until Christmas and a conversation about architecture with neighbours. Then I started doodling, re-arranging and more doodling until I had an image that I thought I could replicate. Of course it wasn't that simple with little paper templates and the realisation that I had done some 'strange' junctions. I also realised that the whole thing would have been easier if I had understood the practice, rather than just the theory of foundation piecing. However, here is the finished piece, which might well end up a cushion cover or something.

My neighbour, who knows more about architecture and art than I ever will, has shown quite an interest in the pattern and the process. (In fact, he drank tea while looking keenly through my latest patchwork pattern book the other day!) He says my piece reminds him of cubist inspired abstract paintings of the early C20th such as this one of 1913 by the Russian Mikhail Larionov. Does that make me an artist?

2014 and the Farmer's Wife blocks keep coming!

OK, I admit it, my FW is going to turn into another 'Monster', but then when I read the book I understand that I could need 111 blocks to make a double bed sized quilt. So that's my story and I am sticking to it!

Because I have got so fascinated with the possibilities for pattern and colour combinations I have carried on doing duplicates of the blocks that Debs has already covered and then I found some blocks on a US blog that I realised I could re-create using my current templates. So they just started to grown like Topsy - and now I discover that I am up to a grand total of 50 completed blocks. Either I am officially a patchwork addict or I definitely need to get a life!

So here they are and if you click on the picture to enlarge it and then look closely at the red and white images you should be able to read which FW templates you would need to make them up yourself. I also did another of the Card Tricks block, because I like that one too!

And yes, I have rectified the mistake on the above and it looks much nicer!

Here is the applique elephant that my nephew brought me back from an England Hockey Tour in Delhi because he thought I would like it - which I do. It cost him the equivalent of £1 and is all hand stitched!

And then I just needed some more fabric, honest!!

And I have discovered on EBay someone in South Korea of all places who is hugely efficient on the postage and has a good selection of fabrics all at reasonable prices. So I bought these:

A metre of this

And rather more of these because I thought they might be useful for backs......................

This week I also go on the first of two sessions to make me friends with the old sewing machine that lives in this house but I can't use. Heaven knows what will happen if the machine and I become friends and start to create blocks together!