Checking in again

Hello Everyone. Sorry I haven't been in Blogland for quite some time but I've been having a very busy time. I visited the US in October for a month before, during and after the birth of my two beautiful new twin grand-daughters,  Rachel Elizabeth and Eva Lee. Back home to the UK  for about a month. I'm writing this from Virginia , here to help out for another two weeks.
Quilting hasn't stopped though- two butterfly quilts for the babies and a snuggle-up quilt for a friend who's ill. Then there's a block of the month and of course a whole flock of dragons in progress. Hopefully some photos will follow soon. So if you've been interested in my blog and been a bit fed up with me, I'm sorry!

This is the first group to have a go. It was good to see that quite a few men wanted to try too.

A New Venture

Had a lovely time lately playing with flower hammering. I've seen Jane Rollason at lots of shows and did some as part of my City and Guilds Course. Now I'm heavily involved in starting up a social group for retired and semi-retired people which will contribute to living well in the third age. We hope to provide lots of opportunities for social, physical, creative, spiritual, charitable and intellectual pursuits, meeting together on a weekly basis.


Hammered and waiting to be stitched



Free motion quilting stitches

Thursday was Launch Day and I'm pleased to say 20 people attended. I decided to teach flower hammering to a group and I was
delighted at how many people wanted to try. This is my sample which I stitched with free motion stitching. I've spent this afternoon doing some more hammering to take as samples next week. Would you believe, the leaves of some weeds gave really nice results!

Harrogate Show

Had a lovely day on Sunday at the Great Northern Quilt & Needlecraft Show at Harrogate in Yorkshire. This event is much smaller than the Festival of Quilts but a good day out none-the-less. What's really good is meeting up with lots of friends. A bonus this year that 3 of our Circular Seagull Group Quilts were being exhibited. Well done to everyone who got them finished!

Anne's Seagull

Davina's Quilt

Michaela's Quilt

A few of us went to a demonstration about Wonderfil Speciality Threads.  Wonderfil is a Canadian Company which had been recommended by some Skipton friends. This was very interesting and , I have to say, I learned a lot about the different weight of threads. So I am now armed with a selection of lovely threads and dying to try them out.

I took lots of photos, of course, and ,as usual, Sheena Norquay's work caught my eye. I fand her a most inspirational craftswoman who creates the most beatiful work from sea and sand. Have a look at these.



Sources of Inspiration.

This is a gift bag which I think would make a lovely cot quilt.
I've got a passing interest in cot quilts since I'm soon to be a granny to twin girls. Now that is inspirational! 

I took these two photos of pictures in a friend's house. I love the colours and patterns and I'll save them for the day when I've got loads of free time  as a source for quilts.

Here we go again!

Today I am going to start planning and designing a new quilt. This is for Emma, my great neice. She is 5 and has told me she'd like one with dragons! So I've been on a dragon hunt and I've come up with some quite nice friendly dragons which I think will do the trick. What do you think?

Dragon 2

Dragon 1

Dragon 5

Dragon 3

Dragon 4

They look a friendly lot. I've started designing the quit layout and as I go on I'll choose my favourite dragons....or they might all end up featuring!

Hurricane

Thinking about our family, friends, quilters and others who may be anxious today with the hurricane threatening the Eastern seaboard. x

Having a new machine means lots of playing to try out all the different features. Playing with the stitches is just Phase 1!

A Surprise!

Look what was delivered today. Grace's mum and dad have sent these beautiful flowers to say thank you for Grace's quilt. How very kind and very unexpected.

The Next Project?

I snapped these at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham.  They were on the Brother Sewing Machine stand as samples of stitches. I thought they were lovely - the simplicity and colours and , of course, the stitching.

I'm sure some pretty pictures could be made for the arrival of my twin grand daughters in October... and I've got just the machine to make them! 

Souces of Inspiration

This arrangement of lobster pots photographed on Lindisfarne is just waiting to be used as inspiration for a clamshell quilt!

This was captured in Alnwick castle in the North East of England. Home for somebody!

Earthquake

Just had an email from my son in Virginia telling me about an earthquake there. Hope everyone's ok. We're thinking about you.

The New Machine!

At last I've got it unpacked and I'm ready to go. Going to assemble some of the trickier attachments like the circular attachment and the Bobbin Work Kit which will allow me to sew decorative stitches using thick threads.
But first I need to focus on the touch screen display so I get used to it. My plan is to play with the dozens of stitches and see the different effects by altering their size and width-ordinary calico for that. Then I'm going to make a lot of small quilt sandwiches and try the different quilting feet using a variety of threads and stitches. Next it's going to be using the machine for piecing and applique. After that it'll be using the circular attachment and Bobbin Kit. A big session on free motion quilting and then it'll be time to start a new project.
So I'd better get busy!

Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting Tutorial

This site is well worth a visit if you want loads of ideas for designs.

http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/

Job Done-Grace's Quilt Finished!!!

The  finished article - the colours work well and in some lights you can really see the relief formed by the quilting. I've done a lot of free motion quilting on this and am getting better, but want to take big strides forward in this. I really enjoy Leah day's 365 day tutorial, her demos are very clear to follow. I'll put the link in in my next post.

I added a hanging sleeve so the quilt can be used as a wallhanging, a single bed quilt or a play mat...and of course, a label.

Hope she likes it!

 



It's Been a Busy Week

How exciting, the new machine arrived, now just got to work out how to use it! But no time for now-off to Andrew's 40th BBQ then lots of preparation for various other things and must finish Grace's quilt on the old machine so I can deliver it to her for her birthday and entertaining good friends for dinner on Friday and on it goes.

A Good Afternoon at a Proper Agricultural Show

I did notice that the Agricultural Show had exhibits from all the different animals,  poultry, pets, lots of baking, flower arranging and crafts. BUT there was only one quilt - what a shame. Maybe I should summon up the confidence to enter next year...food for thought! 

I had to photograph the tractor for my Fabulous Virginian grandson

The Champ!

Whilst I've been enjoying myself, Mr. Fixit has been basking in glory. He has won first prize in the Beginners' Class at a local Agricultural Show...what a star! I must point out that his first introduction to dry-stone walling was at the same time and college where I was doing my City and Guilds. 

Exhausted, but Home!

Now safely home from the Festival of Quilts where Judith and I had two wonderful days-the highlight for us was the purchase of two new sewing machines! Judith was in a state of shock for the rest of the day! Sylvia did a wonderful job demonstrating these all singing and dancing machines. We are now really excited and waiting for the courier to deliver them in a couple of days.

Disaster!!!

My trusty, workhorse sewing machine broke as I was finishing Grace's quilt. Off to the repairers and fixed - hurray!  But then it happened all over again. Oh dear, looks like Grace is destined never to receive this quilt. However, I haven't lived with an engineer for 40 years for nothing-so I got busy on the mechanism, patiently watching how things move, when and why and  guess what? It's working again but I'm going to have it serviced while I'm away-did I mention that I'm going to the Festival of Quilts?

Getting Ready!

Time to start making my shopping list for the Festival of Quilts at Birmingham.
Now let me see....do I need anything? Yes. Do I want anything? Yes. Will I be tempted by things not on the list ? Absolutely! So...

1. A few rotary cutters for the '3rd Ager Group' satring in September.
2. A couple of cutting mats for the same.
3. A lot of wadding.
4. Threads for Emma and Jennifer's quilts(still in the planning stage, i.e. my head,but fabric brought home from US).
5. Some 'Pink Pig' books for making journals, if I can find them.
6. All the other things I can (a) carry
                                                 (b) afford
http://www.twistedthread.com/

So excited...the tickets arrived today for the Festival of Quilts at Birmingham. This has become an annual event for Judith and I, staying in a very nice hotel so we can have two full days of indulgence.

Miniature Patchwork

Miniature hand-stitched, paper pieced yacht.

Flower Basket and Suffolk Puffs

I loved doing this. Wax drawing covered with ink and then the surface scratched to reaveal the colours underneath-very therapeutic! 

Representational Patchwork

Using  Clarice Cliffe pottery as a source, various techniques were used such as rubbings and graffito - wax crayons rubbed over string blocks and then scraping away the surface.

This was my first attempt at paper piecing which I did not enjoy. However, I am now a convert!

Blogging!

Wish I knew how to make my blog more interesting with links and a personalised pictures and things. I look at other blogs and the layout on many are SO MUCH prettier than mine! I'll get back to some free motion quilting - that'll cheer me up!

Grace's Quilt

So onwards and upwards with this quilt/playmat which I'm making for a friend's granddaughter. I have a finish date for this so really HAVE TO knuckle down with no side-tracking to other projects. I'm at the quilting stage so hopefully I'll finish it in time...I've got 12 days! Wish me luck.

A Great Day Out

 What better to do on lovely sunny day than visit York, one of my favourite cities and home to the National Quilt Museum? A two hour train journey brought us to York, a city bursting with history, vibrancy, interest, beauty and splendour.
I've visited the Museum before and looked forward to seeing the present exhibition on ' Celebrations'. As always, I come away inspired and hopeful that one of my quilts might one day be classed as a family heirloom! I felt a bit special on this visit because it's the first time I've been there as a member of the Quilters' Guild and as such could use the members' room. Lucky Keith was allowed to come in with me for a cup of tea- and a sneaky forty winks!!!

Then out for a walk on the dity walls, lunch and a stroll down the Shambles, voted Britain's most picturesque Street in 2010. http://www.york-united-kingdom.co.uk/shambles/

This is on the 'definite' list for my American friends and family when they visit the UK. A nice late lunch, further strolling in the street market and then it was time for the train journey home.

.

Across Borders

Across Borders we are because we are a group of people from Yorkshire and Lancashire and we are also a group with members from England and Scotland. Everyone's happy!
We are now in the business of making our blocks into quilts-some will be ready for the Harrogate Show this year and some will need to wait until next year. So the seagulls are coming home to roost - until another one takes off!

...ACROSS BORDERS!

...first, we'd need to think of a name for our group. We'd been together as a group since starting our City and Guilds course in September 2008, had become really good friends and loved getting together. Davina led us into the extremely arduous business of finding a name-much harder than you'd think! We ended up with a huge list of suggestions then carried out a straw poll, checked on Google for anyone else with that name(as far as we could) and came up with...

 

Helen couldn't make it in Reveal Day and so we were a parcel short. We spent the day making the last block because and talking about the possibility of entering the finished quilts in the North of England Quilt Show, however...

It was so exciting opening these packets when they dropped through the letterbox! Seeing all the different approaches and techniques used was great-it never fails to amaze me just how creative people are.
Taxed with the same instuctions, there is never the same outcome by two people-wonderful!

And so, month by month,  the postmen were busy helping our seagulls on their way to the next destination.

 

The block finished, it was then posted to the next person in the circle who bought another fat quarter and made the next block.

...who bought a further co-ordinating fat quarter and made a block according to specific instructions - Month 1 - include squares, Month 2 -half square triangles, Month 3 - applique. Month 4 - curves, Month 5 - stripes, Month 6 - points, Month 7 - crazy patchwork, Month 8 - star(s) Month 9 - square within a square.

The Circular Seagull Reveal Day

...and so the Circular Seagull Reveal Day arrived. The blocks designed and worked by all the members our City and Guilds group had been completed and it was time to see them all. We met up for a day and with great excitement opened our parcels. Remember, we'd started off 8 months previously, by sending 3 fat quarters to the next person in the circle...

 Thought I'd post a selection of

photos of Kalymnos and some of the

places round about.


Very good friends enjoying

one of many meals together.

               A quick burst of 'Dancing Queen' was needed

         from time to time.
 

 

Looking across to Telendos at dusk.