Stitching on a Hanging Sleeve

Ready for the show...

There's nothing like thinking ahead.  The Quilts UK Show is on in Malvern in May and I have decided to put in a quilt, or possibly two.  I have just finished the job I love to hate.  Why do I find hand stitching so tedious?  It is supposed to be the path to serenity.

Fortunately I found a nice long strip with a selvedge, so the machine hemmed edge is tucked out of sight under the fold at the top edge.   

However the strip wasn't quite long enough, so I have ended up with a pieced hanging strip, giving it a nice thrifty Amish look.  I might take advantage of the paler section and scribble on my name and the date for posterity.

A Splash of Colour

On Wednesday last week I had the great pleasure of being a steward at the most recent exhibition at Midsomer Quilting. On display was a collection of work by two quilters, Gillian Travis and Sheena Norquay, who both have 40 years' experience of quilting.

The first time I had seen Gillian's work was at the West Country Quilt Show in Bristol in November 2014, and I was struck by the vibrant colour, so last week I was delighted to be able to take a few photos of some of her quilts.

Many of the pieces were based on Indian textiles.

This quilt is padded horizontally to resemble a pile of folded quilts.

Gillian has a great love of travel and photography, and produces beautiful picture quilts.  This is a detail of a quilt showing a street scene bedecked with washing.

This picture of bathing ladies is definitely one of my favourites.  There are five ladies altogether on the quilt, but I just photographed these three.  This scene is so realistic that I could almost feel the chill of the water around my middle - bathing can be such a chilly business!

Free Motion Mavericks - Week 25 - A Sampler and An Exhibition

Now that I am on the third thread sampler I am trying to persuade myself that I am not getting ever so slightly bored.  However the daylight is so short, and often so dull, that inspiration is lacking for a new free motion landscape, so I am getting on with the thread samplers because they don't exactly tax the imagination.  When the next burst of creativity comes I will be able to choose colours by just referring to the samplers.

The great highlight of the last fortnight has been two visits to the exhibition of 12 x 12 quilts at Midsomer Quilting.  Here is just one of the quilts that was on show...

... Midnight in Moscow by Olga Cottle...

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... which has a fascinating story attached to it.

The entire exhibition can now be seen on Midsomer Quilting's Flickr page.  Enjoy the show!

Here goes for week 25...

Many thanks to Maartje, Leanne, Beth, Carole and Linda for linking up last time.  

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post and/or grab the linky button for your blog's sidebar.
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3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for four days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Monday.

So far quilters from USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand and France have taken part.  The first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.

Linking up with Kelly's blog My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thursday
and Sarah's blog Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Whoop Whoop Friday

Hilary's Quilts on Show

Last week I had a trip out to the West Country Quilt Show, held in Bristol.  Very handy for me, but not for Hilary, who couldn't get there.  I went with my friend Jo, her mum and her gorgeous little niece, who is posing so nicely in front of Cosmic Split.

Three of Hilary's quilts were on show, and the great excitement on arriving was finding the rosette for Best Machine Quilting pinned next to her quilt Going Round the Bend.

Congratulations Hilary!

Hilary's quilting is truly superb, to be seen to be believed.  The Judges must have had a job deciding which of her three quilts should have the ribbon.

Out of Darkness Cometh Light

Some of you will remember reading about this quilt before in my post of 1st December last year. Today I am entering it into the Art Quilts section at the Bloggers' Quilt Festival so I shall tell you a bit more about it.

This quilt was made for a doll quilt swap where the theme was to show where you are from.  I decided to represent the town where I grew up, Wolverhampton.  The sunset behind the factory is based on a view I would see from the bus on my way home from school.  All the fabric was already in my cupboard - I didn't need to buy anything new.  I absolutely love the rusty brown, which is a shot cotton, which together with the black is perfect for a quilt showing an industrial town with lots of old red brick buildings.  The smoke from the chimney is a batik, which has swirls which were just right to show the billowing, and the top strip of the sky is a section from a print cut so that I could use the dark patches as clouds.

All the piecing was done on my Serata treadle machine, and the appliqué was done with my 1927 Singer 99K.

The smoke, sun and feather are all stitched with three lines of stitching around the edge to prevent fraying.  For the sun I used red cotton to make it glow.

For the town's motto (which appears on its coat of arms) I used the Singer 99K to do two lines of straight stitch.  One line didn't stand out enough, so I had to do a second line immediately next to the first. 

To get the flow of the writing, I made a stencil on greaseproof paper.  First I wrote out the words in pencil on a piece of ordinary paper, then laid the greaseproof paper on top, then "stitched" (no thread) along the line of the writing with the 99K using a thick, blunt needle.  This gave a perforated line in the greaseproof paper, which I then laid over the pink material, and then I sewed in the writing with black thread.  The greaseproof paper tears away easily afterwards.  

For the quill in the border I added the appliqué by machine, with a few machine stitched lines for detail, and hand stitched on a piece of cord down the centre and a few little wisps at the base of the feather.  I put the quill at the right, to balance with the chimney and smoke on the left hand side of the picture...

... and the button is on the left hand side of the border to balance with the sun.

All the quilting was done by hand, and the three birds in the sky were stitched at the end, so I could judge exactly where I should place them.

This quilt now belongs to Peggy in Georgia, so I can only tell you from memory how big it is.  So far as I remember, it is roughly 21 inches by 17.

If you are slightly puzzled by the quill and the button in the border, here is an interesting video for you to enjoy, and you will see why I asked for a partner in Georgia.

Welcome to the latest follower, Mireille Solbes - thank you for joining!

Day Trip to Malvern for Quilts UK 2013

Today was my first chance to get a picture of the whole of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Quilt.

It was quite a thrill to see the Judges' Merit rosette attached to it.

There are lots of firsts associated with this quilt - first large quilt with appliqué, first large quilt quilted entirely at home, first quilt made using the quilt-as-you-go method, first quilt show, first ribbon...

When watching Leah Day's videos I remember her saying that to really get to grips with free motion quilting you just need to jump in and do a whole quilt, even if you just use one pattern on the quilt. I'm so glad I took her advice!  The meandering pattern I did gave the quilt an all over texture which set off the colours and shapes of the appliqué in a way I really liked. 

I often wonder whether Leah ever imagined that people would watch her videos and then get started with free motion quilting on a treadle! 

The show is well worth a visit if you can get there.  So many fabulous quilts!  I took loads of photos, but at the moment I'm not sure whether I will be able to post them here.  Show rules...  

Update Friday 17th May

This post is now being linked up to Leah Day's blog for Free Motion Friday.

Welcome to the latest follower, handMADEina - thank you for joining!

Thank you everyone for your lovely comments!  They are greatly appreciated.

Love, 
Muv

Boring Picture, Tedious Sewing, Exciting News

Well it's not that boring, it's rather pretty - a close-up of the material I am using to make a hanging strip.  I bought yards of this stuff, a nice fresh furnishing cotton, in a sale a couple of years ago.  It is ideal for the hanging strip that I have to sew to the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Quilt.  I am not looking forward to all that hand sewing.  Dull as ditch water. 

What I am looking forward to is a nice drive to Worcestershire on 13th May to deliver the quilt to the Three Counties Showground for the Malvern Quilt Show.  I've never entered a quilt in a show before. It's a bit scary really.