Drawing class

I'm quite surprised that the drawing class I signed up for has actually gone ahead. There are only 7 of us in the class and usually they have a minimum number before it can run and that's usually more than 7. But don't think I'm complaining - I'm not. Being a small class means our tutor, Mike, can get around to see us all.
I won't be showing my first attempt - well not yet - I might share it later to show any progress I've made. The first class was drawing a still life of various shaped bottles. The idea was not to draw all of the items perfectly, but to get their arrangement right i.e. the proportions, relationship between items and distance between each item spot on. I did have to make a bit of an adjustment - but I got there in the end. It was very interesting to see how drawing styles are as individual as writing styles. And the best part was we all seemed to be really happy with what we drew in our first class.
I'd love to hear if any of you are attending drawing or art classes.

Quilter's Guild day

Well here are a few photos of the Quilters Guild day at Kenilworth.

The first photo shows the hall where the neo-natal quilts were displayed and where the traders had their stalls. Really for the size of the event there were a really good number of traders - such as Monkey Buttons, The Quilters Den, White Cottage, Corner House Crafts, African Textiles, Asding - a quite a few more - sorry I can't remember them all.
Here we are outside of the traders hall having a bit of time sewing.

And here is everyone gathered around the front of the area where the talks were given by Rosalind Johansson and Barbara Weeks.

Rosalind spoke about her time in East Africa and had a number of examples of traditional textiles and dress - some members even got into dressing up mode... sorry no photos of that.

Barbara described the techniques she used for dying and had a good range of examples of her work. Many of you may have seen at the FoQ her piece based on the Gherkin. She bought his along and as it was hung with natural light behind it the transparent panel she'd inserted was shown off the great effect.

And finally here's the infamous cake - it was actually quite good.

You'll be pleased to hear we did of course have a raffle - and yes I won 2 fat quarters of fabric.

For all of you based in the UK - please do have a look at the Quilters Guild website and see what's on in your region - it's a great opportunity to see and hear what's going on.

Hello...

... sorry I didn't realise I hadn't posted for so long.

Not been up to too much lately. We had our class at Bramble Patch and our tutor, Bren Boardman told us about an exhibition she has on in Rugby - have a look at her site for more info. I'm hoping to be able to go along next week.

Tomorrow I'm off to a Quilters Guild Region 11 day at Kenilworth - I'm even baking a cake for it - bit of a rare event. I'm not too sure what to expect as I haven't been to one before - but as it'll be full of quilters I'm sure it'll be great. I'm going with a couple of the girls from our group so it's bound to be a great day. We're also going to hand over the neo-natal quilts we made for their challenge - it'll be great to see what other people did.

I also got the latest issue of Selvedge yesterday - it's such a lovely magazine. Please do go and have a look at one if you haven't seen a copy before.

Did any of you notice Patti's blog being reviewed in the latest British Patchwork and Quilting magazine? She didn't know it had been included so I've posted her a copy of it - I hope she'll receive it early next week.

Sorry they're aren't any photos - but I'll take one of my cake (if it looks OK) and some of tomorrow's event.

Hope you all have a great weekend.

Autumn signals its arrival

We all have misconceptions about the people of certain countries. The Brits are very polite and queue ( we are and do - but not always). The French are good lovers (I have no idea so can't comment). Well, another views of we Brits is that we're obsessed with the weather - this I'm afraid to say is very true. And with that in mind I thought I'd share some photos I took that I think show that autumn is on its way - although I have to say the weather at the mo is better than it's been for most of the summer.

Fallen conkers

Acorns

Leaves changing colour

Fallen leaves

Quilting Open Day

We had a great day yesterday at our Open Quilting Day and hopefully we've got a few new members - we'll have to wait and see.
I'm sorry to say I forgot to take any pictures - although I did have my camera in my bag. The day was very relaxed and we just sat and chatted to all the visitors about what we did and about the samples we'd taken and what we were working on. I'd taken my free machine embroidery samples, the new Sunburst quilt and my raggy cushion. Barry was working on his applique and the rest were at various stages of cutting, binding and making up blocks and adding them to their sticky sheet. I think between us we had all stages of quilting covered.
Everyone was asked to bring along cake - and it was all very, very nice. Unfortunately it didn't all go so DH had to have some when he got home - he thought it was all very good too.
A great day - but boy was I shattered when I got home.

Dennis...

...well unfortunately Dennis died last month. Although we were very upset at the time we realise he had a very happy long life (18 years) and he spent his last day in the garden sunning himself.

Everyone who came to the house met him - whether they wanted to or not; he was very friendly. So here are a last few photos of him looking like the fat happy orange cat that he was...

September already

Well it's September already and tonight is our first meeting of the Market Bosworth Quilters. We've got to discuss the open day on Saturday and sort out what we'll be doing.

I didn't mean to leave so long until I posted - but as you can see from the photos I have been busy practising free machine embroidery. Really I wanted to be able to wake up one morning and just be really, really good at it. As that hasn't happened I thought I should get on with some practise. I've been using my Ineke Berlyn little book that I bought at the FoQ. I've also found that if I doodle on a piece of paper I can then replicate this with the machine - by doodling I get to see where the pattern is going and how I fill the space I need to. And by practising this on paper I don't up wasting material.

Thank you all so much for the lovely comments about my quilt I finished. I went to Kisko on Sunday with Angela and I bought some material so I can finish off another top I started at Quorn.

After buying material we went to the Picasso exhibition. Now I know many of you may have seem great collections of his work across the world and may be a little surprised that Leicester has a collection on a par with new York - but it's true. It's been donated by Sir Richard Attenborough in memory of his daughter and grand daughter who died in the Boxing Day tsunami 2004.

Finished!!!

As you can see I did have some 'help' with my 'Sunburst' quilt. Fluff decided one evening that it was hers and no-one else was going to get near it.

As you can see it's done - and I feel a bit sad because I thought it would take longer and I've got nothing to hand quilt. But unlike the last HUGE one this one measure approximately 61 x 50 inches. It was machine pieced and hand quilted in the ditch with YLI variegated thread - called Sunset...

I'm really pleased with how it's turned out.

Thanks to all of you for the good wishes you sent for both my birthday and anniversary. DH is now very keen to read any comments on the blog as he seems to think they're all going to be about him. LOL.

Thanks

Anniversary surprise

Well I knew we were going away for a night at a very nice hotel in Newmarket, Bedford Lodge Hotel. I also knew my husband had a surprise in store for me - but I had no idea what it was. It was so lovely to find out he's arranged for us to have our wedding vows affirmed at our local church. He's such a romantic at heart. All I was told was he would be wearing a suit and I should dress smart. As the day approached I realised it didn't involve food ( as we'd be eating a nice meal at the hotel that night). It was lovely - just the two of us and I had the biggest grin on my face during the proceedings. I still can't stop grinning when I think about it. I know I'm a very lucky girl. The hotel was fantastic - we stayed there last year for a night to celebrate his 40th.



I also meant to say who I met at the NEC FoQ. I went with some of the Market Bosworth Quilters and we met another member there too. I also bumped into a few people from the Brenda Boardman class I attend at the Bramble Patch. But I also had the good fortune to meet Liz - Florence's Attic - and a fellow blogger. It's always so nice to meet the person behind the blog (as it were). We had a great chat and I hope we'll be able to meet up again.



I promise I'll post some photos soon of the quilts at the NEC FoQ. I've got rather a lot - so they need some sorting.

Festival of Quilts - shopping

Well - I did buy quite a bit.

My excuse (DH if you're reading this) is that it was my birthday the day before and it's when I make most of my purchases.

So first off - 'The painted quilt' by Laura and Linda Kemshall is a great book - well worth the money. And Linda and Laura were there demonstrating most of the time. As usual they were very generous with sharing their techniques.

Next are a couple of books I've been after for a while. 'The beginners guide to machine embroidery' by Pam Watts is only a slim publication - but is really great.

The 'Art quilt workbook' will be very useful - the idea is that you work through the exercises and produce work as you go along. I'm sure this will help in conjunction with my class at The Bramble Patch.

I then got rather carried away at the Art Van Go stand. So we've got another lot of Koh I Noor watercolour paints, foils that can be added to fabric with PVA, Markel sticks and finally some metallic rubs (they aren't to be used if you're going to wash the fabric).

Janome bobbins - the cheaper version never seem to work as well.

A small pack of 3 eighths from Oakshott - their fabrics are so beautiful.

And finally some thread that I'm sure I can use as bookbinding thread - I think I bought it from Empress Mills.

Now a few bits for dying - scrim and muslin from Art Van Go. Plus some soda ash.

Silk threads and cocoons from Stef Fabrics.

Some beads for embellishment from Kate's Kloths.

I can't remember where I bought the braid maker from.

'The Little Book of machine quilt patterns' by Ineke Berlyn - I know I need to practise.

I managed to get this catalogue from the 3rd Annual European Triennial exhibition for half price - my only deal on the last day. I'll try to show you more of their work on a future blog.

My free gifts from renewing my British Patchwork and Quilting magazine.

I also started a subscription with the Quilting Arts magazine - I got a great bag. The subscription was a great saving on the standard price.

The top card is from an exhibition of Jenni Lewis's work - she was very chatty and the work was very good.

The bottom postcard is of a piece worked in both glass and textiles inspired the The Gherkin - it was great to see both next to each other.

And finally (honest) some buttons.

As you can see the Festival of Quilts is a great opportunity to see traders you just can't get round to visiting. I promise on the next few blogs I'll share some photos of the quilts - there was over 1000.

But tomorrow it's my 20th Wedding Anniversary (yes I was a child bride ;-)) so I'll be out and about.

Hope those of you who visited the NEC had a great time - I'd love to hear what the highlight was for you.

It's my birthday...

Yes - it seems to come around so quickly these days - I'm 39 today.

So it started with lovely cards and great pressies (plus DH has paid some drawing classes at a local college for me)

Thank you everyone.

And then we went out for the day at Hoar Park Craft Centre , and we drove past lots of fields like this:

And then I fed the baby goats

And then the deer

And the chickens didn't want to be left out either...

Lunch and we drove home.

We then had a lovely walk around The Park and somehow we ended up in the pub garden for a drink. The Italian was shouting - so we had a pizza and then off home we went. I've watched 'Layer Cake' (with Daniel Craig - very good) and had just a couple of glasses of wine and now I'm shattered and off to bed.

I've had a really great day.

Night all.