Festival of Quilts 2017

Hello. Well, I survived 4 days at Festival of Quilts.

I had a great time, met lots of lovely people and am really inspired to crack on.

I was particularly excited this year as I'd been selected to represent Region 10 of the Quilters Guild in the 'In the Spotlight' exhibition. The theme was 'No place like home'. I decided to use the postcodes of all the places I'd lived.

Although I was really pleased with my quilt, I was a little nervous about it being exhibited and how it would look next to the others.

I must say I was very impressed with how it was displayed.

 Also exhibiting in the same gallery representing Region 14 was my friend Sarah Humphreys. She chose to use house numbers to illustrate the theme of 'No place like home'. Another really great example of a modern quilt and as ever amazing machine quilting.

 As well as participating in the 'In the Spotlight' exhibition Sarah Humphreys also managed to make another amazing quilt that she entered into the Modern category and won third prize.

 Rachel Care entered her work into the Art Quilt category. The attention to detail was breathtaking in the piece. 

Hilary Jackson entered a beautiful quilt into the Modern category. I love the continuation of the design in the negative space.

 My photographs really don't do any of the quilts justice as they were taken on my phone. They do show their impact, but not the detail.

I feel very fortunate that these artists are my friends and that they inspire me to push myself further with my work. Thank you xx

Where does the time go! It's August already.

Not much sewing done as Millie and Pebbles provide all the entertainment at the mo.

Yesterday I received my catalogue and show guide for FoQ 2017.

Getting the catalogue early means I can find my friends competition quilts and also read about all the specialist galleries.

I'm looking forward to seeing all my textile friends during the 4 days I'm there.

Have fun

 Hello all,

Apologies for yet another delay in posting on my blog - but as you can see I've been a little distracted with Pebbles (Silver tabby) and Millie (brown tabby). 

They arrived last week and they've wrecked my sewing room but are absolutely hilarious. So no sewing done for a few days.

Flo is unsure about her new energetic friends and we hope to get the together very soon. She does know they have arrived and has enjoyed sniffing where they have been. 

But I would like to let you know that I have a quilt being exhibited at the Festival of Quilts - I'm in the 'In the Spotlight' exhibition. If you follow the link there's a photo of my work in progress on the webpage. It's the first photo - grey improv pieced. 

I'm very excited about seeing it on display as I haven't been able to take a decent photo of it.

I'll be there for all 4 days so hope to bump into you during that time. 

I'll be stewarding on the 'In the Spotlight' on Thursday 11 - 12 and Sunday 11.30 to 12 so feel free to pop along to say hi. 

I hope it looks OK now I've told you all about it.

Market Bosworth Festival 2017

Hello all,

I had a lovely weekend sewing, talking, drinking tea and eating cake. What more could you ask for!

I saw lots of friends and met lots of new people too.

I'm also hoping to teach later in the year - making your own fabric with fabric paint, stamps and screens. Keep your eyes open and I'll post details as soon as I have them.

It would be lovely to hear from you if you visisted.

A gentle reminder...

Hi All,

Just a gentle reminder that I'll be demonstrating this Saturday and Sunday at the Parish Hall in Market Bosworth.

I'll also have work on display and samples and work in progress for you to look at.

I hope to see you there.

Long time, no hear

Hello all,

It's been far too long. 

I hope you're all OK and that you'll have time to pop along to my blog to my blog to see what I'm up to. I have some exciting things coming up.

The next exciting event is taking place in our village and I'll be there on the demo stand, free motion quilting. I'll also be able to show you all some samples of free motion quilting I'll be using in classes. So please do pop along to say 'hi'.

I'll be posting more soon so keep your eye out...

Jean Littlejohn class

The Lutterworth Embroiderers Guild were very fortunate to have Jean Littlejohn teaching.

I think most of the class managed to finish their morning piece - which was a small stitched picture that we then embellished.  For me it was a first with an embellisher and Jean generously let us use her machine. 

The second piece was stitched with a more open weave fabric than many of us were used to sewing with. Jean generously provided this fabric that was dyed and she also provided a size 14 Chenille needle - again much larger than we were used to, but the big eye enabled us to use a thinker thread to fill the space. We then bond webbed and foiled over the stitches, 

So - a great class.

Here are some photos from the day:

      

I'll post more photos as the work progresses.  

More stuff

Hello all.

Where has the year gone? How come it's July already? And apologies for not having posted for some time. I've been very busy so hope you'll like some of the photos I have to share.

So, I was very fortunate to attend a class with Jean Littlejohn with the Lutterworth Embroiders Guild.

Here is my work in progress:

  

  

 And here are the pieces at the end of the day

  And here is a piece I finished from my last class with Jean:

I had a fab time last weekend.  It was the village arts festival and I was asked by the Market Bosworth Quilters to demo FMQ on the Saturday. Well - sitting sewing, drinking tea (which was brought around by the lovely Andy) and talking - it was a no brainer.  I had a lovely time.

I also had a quilt on show.  A little blue Disappearing Nine Patch that I hand quilted. I do love hand quilting - but it's a little too warm at the moment to have a big quilt on your knee.

I also attended the West Midlands Embroiderers Guild Regional Day that the Leamington branch organised.  It was a great day. The location, North Leamington School was great - all one level, lots of parking and a great lecture theatre.  The talks were given by Professor Giorgio Riello of Warwick University, titled "Decorating Textiles" and Nicola Jarvis, talk titled 'all that glisters'. Please do look at their blog as it has some great photos.

I also attended a presentation by The History Wardrobe on 'Women and the Great War'. As ever they were amazing and I leant so many things about the war, womens role in the war and, of course, textiles.

So you can see - I have been rather busy.  But the days are less packed and hopefully I should get some of my own work done.

Are you all ready for the Festival of Quilts. Not long to go now!

Exhibition and Elizabeth I

So - yet again a bit of a gap between posts - but I do have some photos at least.  The photos were taken on my phone and I'm rather impressed with the quality. Much easier that lugging a camera around.

So, on Friday I went to the Bramble Patch for their annual Strawberries and Cream Exhibition.

The main part of the exhibition was work by two of my favourite artists: Edwina MacKinnon and Catherine Nicholls. The premis of the exhibition was they both produced a piece of work based on a visit to a location they made together. 

The work was very interesting and showed their breadth of skill really well. 

A very thought provoking exhibition.

 Also at the exhibition was examples of English Paper Piecing. The Bramble Patch launched a mystery club at the start of the year - which is still open now. Here is a photo of one of the examples:

I also went to an event by the Tudor Tailor: Dressing Elizabeth I. It really was fascinating. It was amazing to see how they got dressed and how the costumes were constructed.

In addition, I have been doing some sewing - when it's finished I promise to share.

Sewing retreat

Hello everyone. I hope you've made the most of another Bank Holiday.

I've been very lucky and have been at a sewing retreat.  It's great fun - an opportunity to sew and socialise and learn new things. So here are some photos of what I got up to:

Still to be quilted but nice bright cushion covers

 A 'doodle cushion' which looks very complicated but as it was well thought out was actually as easy or as hard as you wanted to make it

 Disappearing nine patch with a lovely charm pack - Persimmon by Moda, plus a few of my own and the spotty fabric to pull it all together.

 Cut and come again - a workshop by Edwina Mackinnon which I keep on at. I really like the results.

And finally a bowl I am very very pleased with. The original fabric was truly horrendous and this is a massive improvement.

Now there was a catastrophic event on the retreat. My machine broke on Saturday morning - not even half way through. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Thank goodness for the amazing Sarah who saved me by letting me use her machine and for the fabulous Heather who let me finish the bowl on her machine.

I am very very very very happy to report the machine has been to see the fantastic Steve and the timing is now back in sync and I am a happy lady. DH is also happy as we had a number of talks about buying a new machine.

So thank you to all the lovely ladies at the retreat and for those who organised it.

Workshop with Christine Plummer

Hello all.

So, yesterday I attended a workshop with the Leamington Embroiderers Guild with Christine Plummer. And, amazingly it's one of the first workshops where nearly all of us finished the item we were making - and those who hadn't finished were very near to.

Another added bonus was that if you wanted you could buy a kit! Happy days. So here is my offering:

Off to put all the stuff away ...