Fabric Postcards, Improving

I have so many ideas fighting in my head after Festival of Quilts that I hardly knew where to start this morning.  I put away all my purchases and tidied my sewing room a little and then decided I needed to start and finish a complete piece of work today.  I have recently joined the British Quilt List Postcard Group and am having a little swap with the co-ordinator, Claire Scott, before I get going on any of their full swaps.  Inspired by Gail Lawther's New Zealand quilts and my own time in that wonderful country I decided to make a postcard which would be the "Final Day at the Beach this Summer".

I enjoyed looking at some of my photographs over a nice cup of mint tea and then created this:

It's much more successful that the ones I made with a card backing, this one has iron-on pelmet vilene as the middle layer and I applied the fabric to a base of muslin.  The edges are not as good as I would like but I'm getting better.  I hope it survives the postal system.

Been Stitching

I'm shocked to see how long it is since I last wrote a post.  I have several excuses, would you like to hear them?  No? Oh well, fair enough!
I haven't done a lot of stitching but what I have done has been of the extremely noble kind - I've been working on my UFOs/WIPs.  I do seem to recall promising that I would finish one project for each new one I started....
So, I've been working on journal quilts from my trip downunder earlier this year, I'm making good progress on a quilt for my daughter and I've done another block for my sampler quilt.
As far as new projects - I've joined the BQL postcard swap group.  I had lots of information from Sue about this group and decided to go for it as the swaps are small (7 other people maximum) and optional - so no pressure.
I have nothing much to show you but I can't do a post without a photo so how about this one?  Wouldn't these tiles in Jerusalem be a great design for a quilt?

Secret Santa's Delights

These are the lovelt Secret Santa gifts I got from my pals on BQL. We could sign up to make something, to buy something or both!  I did both!  The scissor spot is amazingly strong, it will hold a large pair of scissors in place on the machine.  The gifts were wrapped in the tartan fabric which I've put in my Christmas box ready for next year's festive projects!  I sent some Australian design fabrics as my bought gift and as my made gift a sashiko pincushion.

The made gift that I received (and I do hope to find out who from so that I can thank them properly) was this gorgeous notebook and needlecase, plus a beautiful handmade Christmas card.  The front of the notebook cover has a hearts design

and the back has a cat design

and there is a gorgeous beaded bookmark inside

I shall be using this notebook when I attend workshops and exhibitions and I will (eventually) try to have a go at the technique Secret Santa used on the cover - is it called "faux chenille"? I love it - I  remember seeing a gorgeous bag made with the same technique.  Thank you to my Secret Santas, I hope you had a lovely Christmas.

Quilty Christmas Presents

BQL is having a Secret Santa event.  Thus will be great fun - we can buy and send quilting-related gifts, or make and send a quilty pressie.  You have to subscribe to take part and all gifts have to be in the post by the beginning of December - which is not as far away as we think!

Click to join BQLSecretSanta

Log Cabin Challenge

The BQL challenge this month is a Log Cabin quiltlet made up of twelve small blocks.  I've never done Log Cabin but have always admired it, there seem to be some many variations to be achieved by use of colour and position.
I've developed something of a phobia about this block but yesterday I finally made my challenge quiltlet.  I admit to cheating as I only made four blocks, and of a larger sixe than in the BQL challenge but I decided to make mine following Lynne Edwards' instructions and in the fabrics of my ongoing sampler quilt so that I didn't have the added challenge of choosing colours!  I chain-pieced my block but I understand Log Cabin can also be foundation-pieced.
I'm pleased with it, so here it is for your consideration:

Transformation

This is my version of the June challenge quiltlet designed by British Quilt List http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BQL/
co-ordinator, Kandy Newton. I'm pretty pleased with the result - a fairly simple method to produce intriguing results, a great combination.

Machine Quilting

I went on a wonderful workshop on Friday and just want to share some of the day with you, dear reader!
The enthusiastic and very knowledgeable and skilled tutor was Ruth Jarman and the workshop was held at Sew Creative at Wroxham Barns in Norfolk http://www.sewcreativequilts.co.uk/ my "local" quilt shop.
Ruth started by showing us a range of her work, and then it was down to work for the ten of us on the course. What a pace she set, we achieved more than I thought possible in six hours (with a quick 20 minutes for lunch) and any single thing I learned would have been worth the day's fee!
Our aim was to create sample pieces of machine quilting and Ruth showed us how to work with just the top layer and wadding, adding the backing later. This made the process easier with less likelihood of nips and tucks! Layers were pinned, then machined. We started with straight stitch, then zigzag and then explored the more decorative stitches on our machines. It was interesting to have a peek at the other machines, Ruth is a Berninaphile but others had Pfaff and Janome machines and I was pleased with how my Silver performed.
We learned how a grid of 2" squares can be used in many different ways to mark up cloth for quilting and I got quite carried away with marking up diamonds - well, they are a girl's best friend! Ruth recommended some marking tools but also showed us how well a sliver of soap worked, even on white fabric - just remember to wash any marking off your fabric before you iron it!
On to more complex quilting, involving the use of twin needles and changing our feet!! I loved the results from a simple wavy line with two differently coloured threads but my favourite stitch had to be the Italian style quilting. No stuffing with a bodkin, just a wide twin needle and an embroidery foot, beautiful. Then it was time for FMQ - the dread of most ladies on the course! Free motion quilting made easy - relax, remove the shoulders from around the ears, remember you can stop sewing so no need for panic, go with the flow.... Even though this was the last part of a busy day, not the best time for a "difficult" skill, I have to say everybody produced a sample that they were proud of and everybody was promising to go home and do more - practice, practice, practice. I even feel confident about tackling the Trapunto challenge set by Kandy at BQL this month.
As soon as Sylvia at Sew Creative publishes the next list of workshops I'll be booking up for another with Ruth - she does a lovely one on Heirloom Quilting I understand, and I highly recommend her to you.
http://www.ruthjarmantuition.co.uk/JarmanTuition/Home.html

Quilting Groups

Thank you for all your lovely comments - both about my quilt and about blogging, it is really encouraging.

The internet seems a great way to share our great passion for quilts and the online festival has certainly brought a lot of quilters together.

There are lots of online groups too, I belong to British Quilt List http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BQL/

which is a very active group and has an exciting monthly challenge. I joined recently and wasn't too impressed with my first challenge quiltlet on a handbags theme- tried to do too much but learned to KISS (keep it simple sweetheart) - but it's great to see everybody else's interpretations of the challenge.

I also belong to the KiwiQuilters

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kiwiquilters/

where all the talk at the moment is of the Symposium, the New Zealand quilt show which was held in Wellington this year.

At present I'm learning what I like to do in quilting and what I'm not so keen on. I really enjoyed the foundation piecing process for the BQL challenge but wasn't so keen on the applique aspects!!