Show's Over!

 Our group quilt show is over.  For three days the cathedral like space of The Landmark Art Centre was filled with quilty colour, inspiration and outright loveliness - but now it is over. 

Avril, of Stitchinscience won the visitors choice award for her 'Bigger Australian Splash' - congratulations Avril!  Apologies for the poor photo - you can see a much better one on her blog here.

 I had the chance to see my 'Ultimate Sampler 365' quilt hung for the first time - the bottom was still draped on the floor, as it is such a monster quilt, but I was pleased to see it on display.

Big thanks to the committee and all the other group members (and their families!) for making the show happen.  They did a great job of hanging so many lovely pieces and giving over 600 visitors pleasure, as well as raising money for both REACT and the British Heart Foundation.

 There were many other quilts in many styles.  Lots to think about.  Apologies in advance, but the photos of the hanging labels that I tried to take were of even poorer quality than the quilt photos, so I don't have attributions for all of them.  My photography skills in the low light level of late Sunday afternoon were not quite up to the task!  If you recognise your quilt here without your name then please let me know!

I suspect that this was foundation pieced.

 This quilt had been hung at the Sisters outdoor quilt show too.  Isn't it gorgeous?

 Love a jelly roll play - I think that this was by Karen.

 Another piece of beauty by Avril - wonderful piecing and quilting shown here.

 Fabulous art canvas by Karen.  Lots of different techniques drawn together with their palette and theme.

 Benta's Ferris Wheel. Paper pieced.  Love the colours and the quilting on this too.

 Back in the sewing room (after a good rest!) I sewed these two Aves Quilt blocks.

This is number 40 - a 6.5" block.

Number 41 brings me back to up date - another 6.5" block.

Love sewing!  Love the friends that I've made through sewing!  Love playing with fabric in all sorts of ways!

Show Time!

RICHMOND AND KEW QUILT EXHIBITION  

26^th -28^th October 2018 

Friday & Saturday 10am-5pm  Sunday 10am-4pm                                      

LANDMARK ARTS CENTRE  FERRY ROAD, TEDDINGTON TW11 9NN   Admission £3, Children free    

Lots of quilts to see (including several of mine), traders, raffle, quilter bric-a-brac, and a café for when it all gets too much and you need to sit down! 

If you have a chance do come along and visit - there are some really lovely quilts to see and lots to inspire you!

A finish!

 These little 3 1/2" squares made up the requirement for week 39 on Aves block of the week.

Cute, but I'm a bit worried that I'm running short of my light colours already, and we still have several weeks of lights to go, I think!  It's going to be 'nip and tuck' - although at least as I'm making a scrappy version I'll be able to add in additional fabrics if I need to - although I'll need to hit the shops as anything from my stash is already in the pile ready to use!

My finish is really a 'group quilt' finish.  Made for DD1's form teacher who is about to go on maternity leave, the girls decorated the required blocks with good wishes, colourful motifs and their names.  I merely helped by putting it together and finishing it off.  Dreadful photo, but in real life, a lovely meaningful quilt!

I'm now at a pause - I need to decide which of the many options I have I choose for my next quilt.  I think that I might have a look in my scraps drawer and decide whether its going to be from scraps or yardage before any other decision can be made!

Wee Braw Bags and more

  First of all, my weekly block for Aves Quilt.  Another fun design by Kathryn Kerr for our Block of the Week program.

 My other sewing has been bag related.  After making one 'wee braw bag' as  part of the baby shower gifts, I made another three - getting ready for Christmas....

....and then another one this morning for a birthday that is coming up.

I'm enjoying trying to choose the fabrics that I think the recipients will like.  Turns out that my stash of liberty type fabrics wasn't as extensive as I'd remembered.  On the plus side, I rediscovered some lovelies that I hadn't seen for a while, so my head is busy again with ideas for another quilt.  Isn't that always the way?!?

Sewing Small Things

 Week 37!  It really feels as though we are getting through the blocks quickly now - and these eight 3 1/2" blocks were nice and simple to produce.

 I've been sewing small things over the last week or two - from the scraps of what will become a baby quilt (once the rest of the team have decorated their blocks).  Three different types of bag, a covered notebook and two tissue covers...

 ....and this baby taggy.  My best attempt at a heart on this side (and words like 'baby' and 'hugs' quilted into it)

 whilst using the same bear fabric used in lots of the other small items for the back.  it's going to be the baby quilt backing too.

A fun way to use up some of the left over fabric.

My other textile ventures have been into crochet.  A cowl (which my DDs suggested I could wear as an ear warmer if I wanted to) and a flower, which I'm assured can be turned into a star with a bit of fabric stiffener and some blocking.

All good fun, but I'm starting to think that I really need to get my teeth into another 'proper' quilt project.  The only thing is, I've got 'real world' stuff to be doing instead!  It's never as much fun as sewing, though!

More blocks

 Most of my sewing this week has revolved around these fabrics and a collective project by my DD1s class to make a baby quilt for their form tutor.  Always fun to work on a project with young people!

With the left over fabric I will make a few little bits and pieces to be gifted with it, including this, my first 'weebrawbag' from a pattern by Laura Zuckerkuss.  Fun and faster than I expected to make.

 It was a birthday week for me - these were some of the lovely cards that I got.  These particular ones are all fabric postcards from a swap group that I'm part of.  You could probably guess that my requested theme was 'penguins'!  Aren't they terrific?

Of course, I'm trying to stay on top of my Aves BOW too.

This set of 3 1/2" blocks are from Week 35.

This (rather over full) 6 1/2" block is week 36.  I may still have another go at this one, as it hasn't hit even my normal standards.  The argument against this is, of course, that I haven't remade anything else so far, so it seems a bit 'fake' somehow to re-make this one.  I'll let the idea settle for a while and see how I go, whilst making much simpler things which require less marking accuracy of the pieces!

Pleased with my Progress

 The start of the new school term means that I have more time and energy for sewing - so I've had a chance to catch up on the Block of the Week Aves quilt that I'm making.

Week 31 was these eight 3 1/2" blocks, made using the fast flying geese technique.

 A single 6 1/2" block for Week 32.

 Another set of eight 3 1/2" blocks for Week 33

Another single 6 1/2" block for Week 34.

I'm still learning about machine applique - and didn't manage to add these little pieces without them shifting quite a lot.  I'd decided against pinning - it seemed that there was lot of pin compared to fabric - but might think about a temporary glue to hold them in future to achieve a better placement once they are sewn.

Phew!  Pleased to be caught up!

A little further on...

 It's been a while, but here is Week 30 of my version of the Aves Block of the Week quilt.  These 6 1/2" blocks seemed to take an age to put together - partly because I didn't read the instructions properly and cut some of the fabric squares too large.  At least I could cut them down to the right sizes!

A lovely surprise for me last night, when the lovely Benta gave me my birthday present early! Very smart project bag and matching zippy pouch, and fab colours on the fabric.  I'm delighted with them both, thank you Benta!

I'm hoping to get a little more sewing done this week - it would be nice to start gaining ground on my block of the week programme with a view to being up to date by the end of the month, if I can!

More sewing

I'm running behind on my Block of the Week programme - but I've finished Week 29 now!  Lots of flying geese - each of the eight strips is 3 1/2" x 27 1/2"

It is so satisfying when each week is 'ticked off' my pile of 'quilty things to do'!

Finally!

Finally, I got around to embroidering names onto the white sashing between the photos.  I'm much happier with the cushion cover now!

The birthday gifts are all together now and ready to be passed over to the birthday girl.  Deadline met!

More Progress!

Week 28 of Aves - a construction week - is complete!  A little after I'd hoped, but it's done now with all five roundels in place.  Most certainly a 'finished is better than perfect' piece!

I'm happy with how it is coming together and looking forward to the rest of the blocks.

More summer time

Some weeks there isn't much time for sewing during the holidays!

This is week 27.  Week 28 is an assembly of the centre - all five roundels will be together for the first time which is very exciting.  All carrying on my hand in the background....

Happy summer sewing!

Another summer week

 Made to go with the quillow, this is a family photo cushion.

I remembered to leave a reasonably large border so that I didn't lose too much photo when the cushion pad was placed inside, but I think that I should have made the sashing narrower in the centre.  I'm toying the idea of adding some embroidery to it so that the white isn't so stark.  Wish that I'd done that before making it into the cushion cover!

 I also used some of the trimmings from the quilt to make this little zippy pouch.

 And, of course, I've been carrying on with the Aves quilt -  this is week 26.

School summer holidays, so lots of non sewing activities going on - but ideas for other projects stacking up in my head!

Summer

 I have the same problem as last week, in that the colours of this quilt are much softer in real life - the wide border is a soft creamy calico, for example.

I'm really pleased with this little quilt.  Its A3 size, made for my quilt group challenge which was to represent the season which I pulled out of a hat.  Mine was summer, and this piece is called 'Norfolk Summer'.  I was trying to get the lazy golden fields and the big skies - all from the remains of my scrap collection!

Thanks to Benta for my 'hedgehog' (which is really an Australian echidna, sorry for transplanting it!).  I think that the quilt really needed that and the tiny bird embroidered at the top too.

My other crafting fun has been to make these paracord key rings.  As a result of misunderstanding some paracord bracelet instructions, I had four short lengths of cord with no particular use for it.  A gal pal, Nicki, suggested that key chains might be the way forward, and she was right.  I love it when I have the fixings on hand to make something from almost nothing!
Thanks for the idea!

School summer holidays are in full swing, and I'm going for the relaxed vibe!  I hope that you are able to enjoy some relaxed crafting too.

I beat my deadline!

 Quillow complete!

The photos don't do the soft colours justice - I may try some more photos on a day when the light is different.  However, the quillow is finished three days earlier than my self imposed deadline.

Here is the quillow in it's cushion form, using the same sort of quarter square triangle blocks that are on the quilt, but a smaller scale.

 Here is is unfurled as a quilt.

 Then I tried a 'flat' photo - but at 60" square it didn't quite fit into the space on my sewing room floor!

Lastly, folded up.  Technically it isn't truly finished as I haven't made and added the label yet, but that will happen when I have my printable fabric out in a couple of days time. 

Another project complete!

Another week disappears!

 Week 25 in our Aves Block of the Week journey.  Another lovely pieced block.

 The rest of my sewing week (when the sewing room was cool enough to be in!) was laying out this quilt....

...and chain piecing to form the quilt top.  I'm pleased to say that I actually got further than this and now have a quilt ready for hand stitching the reverse of the binding on.  I'm pleased that I was able to make good progress on it!

Making Good Progress

Another nice easy pieced block this week for Aves - although it still had 57 pieces to include within its 6 1/2" square!

I can see now that I could have made a better fabric choice for what became the central star - the 'bookbinder' fabric which I love should have been swapped for something with a smaller pattern.  Never mind - its all a learning process!

It gave me plenty of time to work on my other current quilting project - which needed 50 quarter square triangle blocks.

Which need to be added to 50 plain fabric blocks.  I love a bit of chain piecing!

Soon the quilt top will be made and I'll turn my attention to the 20" cushion front for the quillow. 

Enjoying the simple repetitive sewing.

I've also used a few of the scraps from the quilt to make other projects - covered notebooks and tissue holders.  More simple sewing, but very satisfying to be able to give homemade gifts away!