Another week flies by!

 This week seems to have flown past.  Leaving aside the hours that I spent on prepping applique pieces over freezer paper (yes, Love Entwined - another part issued this week, but my work was all on the previous section!) most of my limited sewing time was spent on 'Bathers' blocks.

I need design a table runner for my next C&G project and thought that I'd tie in the design thoughts with a challenge from my quilt group, which was to take an 'art postcard' and use something from it to make an A3 quilt.  I've chosen Seurat's 'Bathers at Asnieres' - it hangs in the National Gallery and is always worth a look if you are in the area.  These 'teachers notes' make interesting reading.  I'm sure that I wasn't taught how to look at art and think about pictures in this way when I was at Primary School - its great! 

My start point was to take the main lines / colour blocks from the piece and sample different layouts (changing the positions of the different values). 

Then I played with the quilting on the blocks.  When I've finished my course I'll have four ready made quilted postcards, with the addition of a plain back and something to finish the edge off!

I played with different layouts in QuiltPro, and decided that flipping alternate blocks upside

down gave me what I wanted for the runner.  Not these bright greens and greys, of course, but I used them so that I could see what the pattern was doing!

Of course, I'm no further forward with the quilt group challenge, but I can't have everything!

My real quilting loveliness this week wasn't my sewing but a talk by Sheena Norquay about seasonal inspiration and quilting.  Wow!  Amazing quilting.  I bought two packs of cards and have been poring over them re-examining how she uses the quilting line.  Astonishingly brilliant work.  Unfortunately I've come to the conclusion that the only similarity I have with her is the use of Auriful threads, which I love too!  I just wish that I was as proficient at using them as she is!  Still, it's always lovely to have something to aim for!  If you ever have the chance to see her work then you should take it.