A wedding quilt ...

Done by my good friend Deborah Jarman of Bromyard (one of the people who got me into this quilting lark), for her daughter Kate's wedding to the lovely Mark last weekend. Kate wanted a wholecloth quilt and, after her initial panic was over, Deb rose to the occasion designing a quilt as you go concept with each block containing a motif personally relevant to Kate and Mark. I gather that the last stitches were put in on the morning before the wedding!

 

 

 

 

 

And an experiment!

From Doug, who set himself the task of replicating a quite complicated geometric pattern at it's original size of A4. I think he's done incredibly well, but he now appreciates some of the lessons I've been trying to impress on him about having too many points meeting up and the way that you construct sections in order to avoid horrible joins!!

 

 

 

Gina's (very late) Birthday Owl

My good friend, Gina, had a birthday in May and I promised her an owl cushion. In typical fashion I then procrastinated big time about the design and when I finally found one I liked, I was frightened that it would be too complicated because it was a stained glass pattern, etc. etc. But of course, when it finally came to the crunch, Himself helped me to simplify the pattern and then jigsaw making with Heat and Bond proved to be not as hard as I feared. Whilst I couldn't remember how to do blanket stitch, the outlining looks pretty good and, in fact, even though I say so myself, I am pretty pleased with the outcome. I have done one of my unique Towse handsewn labels for the back of the cushion and sent Gina a teasing email telling her that it is finished!! Now I just have to get it to her. Next I move on to starting the sashing bars for my Farmers Wife quilt (I now have 100 blocks - I must be completely mad!) 

Back to normal quilts - now finished

Here is the finished 'sqashed hexie' quilt. I finished the top late last year and decided to back it with fleece to turn it into a coverlet so that I could also practice simple machine quilting - just straight lines. Not bad! It has now gone to my good friend, Caroline, who loves to snuggle and is also the owner of the smaller version from 2013.

I have also now completed the 'found in pieces and screwed into a rag bag ball in a charity shop' that I put together in the spring. Again, I have kept it simple and backed it with fleece with ties in the centre of each flower and double hexi to hold it all together. I will create a suitable label for this quilt - perhaps with it's green shield stamp backing papers included - as the museum curator in me feels it's important to capture its history!

And now on to the next project, which is the applique owl cushion I was supposed to be doing for Gina's birthday on May 9th, but I somehow got frightened by the prospect of heat and bond and blanket stitch and kept procrastinating!!!

NEC Festival of Quilts time again!!

This year Towse went off with a coach load of other quilters from Amersham arriving at the NEC just as the doors opened at 10am. Just as gob smacking an experience as ever but at least I managed to see far more of the whole exhibition including displays of Fine Art Quilts and 3D objects that I never even got a glimpse of last year! Although I didn't need to buy anything I still managed to come back with a little more to stock the stash plus a pattern and fabric to attempt my first stained glass style panel in due course (which was all the excuse I needed to buy some wonderful bright batiks from Doughtys!

Here's some photos: of some little 12" panels from groups around the world on the theme of Seasons:

Random quilts that caught my eye. This year I realised that I was less interested in the samplers of my first visit and more taken by colour and patterns, particularly the use of 3D and optical illusion:

Like these fish. If you look closely you will see that the curves are an illusion. This is something I think I want to experiment with at some point in the future.

Loved these two as well - the way the first one has a sense of falling away. It took me a while to see the skull too! Up close it was like a fiddly log cabin.

Loved the colour in this Australian aboriginal design - ended up with some wonderful fabrics from a similar designer too. And lastly my beloeved celtic inspired works. Still rather too intricate for me to tackle I reckon.

Didn't expect to find a Tudor doublet! And the wonderful 3D purple velvet dog's head so reminded me of our lovely Teazel:

Glynis managed to find some of the winning entries, so here they are in all their wonderful variety:

A long, (our coach had a dead battery and we were two hours late leaving the NEC), but lovely day,plenty of inspiration.

Interesting Pictures

Firstly a hexagon dressing gown dated from WW1 that I came across in a flyer about a museum conference!

Next, a giraffe from an American quilt blog that I found quite interesting.

The lack of posts is nothing to do with a lack of sewing - more a lack of time to make posts!!

 

 

Charity shop quilt top

 

It's been a long while since my last post - been away working quite a bit and it also feels as if an awful lot has happened. Just before Easter we got away to Cornwall where I was able to finish off the charity shop hexagon EPP quilt top. Luckily I had enough floor space to lay it out. I'm going to turn it into a coverlet by backing it with fleece and tying the layers through the centres of some of the flowers. Posting this picture also gives me a chance to say bye bye to our lovely girl Teazel, who was helping me with the lay out of this quilt at the time. We lost her to a sudden heart attack on the 10th June and there is a big golden girl shaped hole in our hearts right now.

 

 

Doug's sewing journey continues

Doug has been continuing to sew and experiment with printing - he is on to curves now and realising the delights of Drunkard's Path!

 

 

 

 

 

These show you what you can print with potato, butternut squash cubes and lemon slices!

 

Doug and Becky bought me a little friend for my birthday, Doug has also discovered a skill making hats for lemurs! Currently, my friend is known at The Cardinal.

 

 

A visit to The American Museum in Bath

Various traditional quilts - note my finger as a scale for some C19th Amish hand quilting! - and some from the Kaffe Fasset exhibition which was a riot of glorious colour

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last but not least!!

 

Jane's wonderful super sized monkey wrench quilt - isn't it amazing? - and she did all her own calculations and everything. Didn't we have a brilliant teacher to make us all so good, Debs?

 

 

I hope to get back to some more regular posting now and I know that various of my fellow Sew 'n' Chatters also have stuff to contribute ... Bye for now