Getting Prepared

Next month we are having an embroidery workshop with Liz Hands at Country Roads Quilters.  We need to prepare the work ready for a day of hand stitching.  

The title of the workshop is "Mini Delft" and the sample piece from Liz is a lovely blue and white mini quilt with four different styles of flower in blue appliquéd and then embroidered on a white background with blue and variegated threads.  Now, I love blue and white but had to make my piece more Japanese-looking!  I pieced three pieces of Japanese fabric and then used almost plain fabrics for the appliqué.  I chose the lotus flower from Liz's pattern, and drew my own maple leaf.  Using Liz's instructions and help from Wendy at Camelot Crafts I faced my fears and used invisible thread!!!

The flowers were attached using Bondaweb and then zigzagged around the edges using the invisible thread.  The embroidery will hide this, and any wobbles!  But what will hide the wobbles in my embroidery?  I can't say I enjoyed machining with the invisible thread but I am happy with the results.

These are the number 12 cotton perle threads I will use for the embroidery in July.  Please come back then and see the results.

A Quilty Day Out

I have had a lovely day today joining over 60 quilting ladies at a Quilters' Guild Area Day held in Nottinghamshire.
After a good journey in early autumn sunshine we arrived at Epperstone and were greeted with a cup of tea, a name label and an invitation to hand over the quilts we'd brought with us for the show and tell.  It had been decided to display the quilts in exhibition-style and to celebrate the creative skills of local quilters.  The range of quilts was amazing and I would have happily given any one of them house room.  They made the hall look splendid and were a reminder of all the possibilities in this art-form of ours.

There was a lot to keep us occupied once the day got underway.  Jenni Dobson gave a demonstration on how to produce a perfect binding, with perfect mitres.  There was a table where we could try our hand at mono-printing -

and there was a trader, the Guild stall (with lots of exciting new products available) and a sales tables with secondhand books, magazines and bargain bundles of fabric.
Two speakers had been invited for the meeting.  Before a "faith" buffet lunch Greta Fitchett made us very peckish with her talk, "Don't Count the Calories".  Firstly she showed us some journal quilts depicting foods of various kinds and then showed how this developed into the creation of a whole series of realistic looking, larger than life, cakes and chocolates.

 

In a complete contrast to those fabric confections Gillian Clarke was welcomed to speak to us after lunch.  She had brought a wonderful collection of her hand pieced, hand appliqued and hand quilted wallhangings and quilts based on illustrations in medieval manuscripts including the local  Luttrell Psalter.  There were quilts representing the months of the year, the story of the Nativity and the Pilgrimage to Compostela de Santiago 
and Gillian explained how she created her designs by taking elements from various sources, by adding floral borders and by using the curlicues of the calligraphy as quilting designs.

Gillian also showed us a wholecloth quilt.  White with dragons, interwined lovers' knots, flowers, with a binding and backing in a glorious bright red.  The quilt looked wonderful from both sides.  However, in the top right hand corner of the white side was a red, pink and orange dye bleed.  The quilt had been exhibited and suffered from a leak in the ceiling above.  Surely someone as experienced as Gillian would have pre-washed her fabrics when combining red and white?  Indeed she had.  The stain was from the thread she had used for the quilting!  I don't think I would have been quite as calm as she was but maybe she's got used to it now and it's a good story - we can't really consider pre-washing our thread, can we?
To top off a well organised and stimulating day I had to quickly silence my mobile during Greta's talk (how shameful but fortunately few people heard it).  Checking at lunch time I found it had been my DS phoning and we have now arranged to get together with him and his fiancee for lunch tomorrow, I'm very excited.

Mother:  (answering phone), Hello?
Son:  Hello Mother dear, how are you?
Mother:  Not so well darling, I feel quite weak, I haven't eaten for 38 days.
Son:  My goodness Mother, why not, what on earth is wrong?
Mother:  Well, I didn't want to risk having my mouth full when you phoned.

Boom boom!!

Finally, here's a couple of photos of one of the most praised quilts on show today, this crazy quilt that was a celebration of love and associated memories:

Cherry Blossom and Maple Leaves

The Oriental Fabrics Competition at Chilford was for a quilt of minimum 24" square and maximum 84" square and include at least 60% Oriental fabrics.  Such a wide brief led to a variety of quilts but I was surprised with how few there were on display.  Here they are:

Secret Rendezvous 

by Elisabeth Green of Worcestershire. 

I took a couple of close up pictures to show the detail of all the applique blossoms and leaves and those wonderful koi.

Kimono

by Christine Davey of Norfolk

This quilt included both hand and machine quilting and I liked the fabrics Christine chose to use.

Madam Butterfly

by Megan Bradfield of Carmarthenshire

This lovely quilt was an "idea" for eighteen months so none of us need to give up on those projects on our to do list.  Megan combined hand applique and quilting in her design which was inspired by books by Suzanne Marshall and Kumiko Sudo.

The Last Samurai

by Susan Briscoe of North Wales

A strong combination of Oriental prints with a Japanese craft panel depicting Samurai armour and quotations from 'The Art of War'.  The design was inspired by narrow Boys' Day banners and the blossoms and leaves contrast with the armour to show the fragility of the warrior's life.  You can read more about the making of this quilt on Susan's blog (at the end of the post).

Geisha Dreams

by Margaret Brett, Kent

This calming quilt is the result of many hours of fussy cutting,  hand applique and hand quilting to create a fantasy maple tree bearing cherry blossom.  Again I took a close up to show the detail.

Of course I had to have a little retail therapy after admiring all the quilts and being inspired.
Euro Japan Links just happened to have a stand at the exhibition and this is what tempted me:

This gorgeous length of fabric.  I bought 2m and am planning ...

A couple of half metre pieces of Japanese cotton fabric that I haven't got in my stash.  Those are hares on the indigo piece.

These folded flowers are going to be appearing everywhere when I get the hang of them.  I bought two as I was thinking "Secret Santa", I wonder who would appreciate them the most?
That wasn't too extravagant was it?  I feel one has to make the most of these opportunities (and there were one or two other purchases on the day which I have put on Online Quilting.)