Absolute Unbroken Continuity - May 2015

This is my journal quilt for May.  The words, "absolute unbroken continuity", come from a poem my sister read at Daddy's funeral earlier this month.  It was Death is Nothing At All by Henry Scott Holland.  The quiltlet is similar to my usual style, and adheres to my rules.  The text this time was printed rather than written and I overlaid the fabrics with some sheers.  The stitching is all done by hand.

Today I remembered why I don't often make large quilts these days.  I spent a few hours layering this sampler quilt from a thousand years ago.  All that crawling on the floor, smoothing, adjusting, phewy.  The quilt itself is not terrible square (it was one of the very first quilts I pieced, using Lynne Edwards' Sampler Quilt book), and I like it but it has many, many faults.  I felt bad for it, sitting there in my sewing room, thrown over for more "arty" pieces and decided to layer it, quilt it and then use it!!

Talking of "arty" pieces, today was windy and sunny and a perfect day to rehang my prayer flags in the garden.  DH put the re-proofed gazebo up yesterday, complete with fairy lights, so we are all ready for balmy summer days and evenings.  The prayer flags from friends have been joined by a classic set I bought when we were in New Zealand last year and are all fluttering away beautifully with the prayer:

"May all beings everywhere receive benefit and find happiness".

The Quilters' Guild published a link to this pattern on Facebook and I loved it, possibly because it's blue and white/Japanese/indigo fabrics.  For whatever reason, it has inspired me to make a similar quilt with some of my indigo fabrics.  It will be for our bed, so a king size.  I have obviously forgotten the lessons of earlier already, but have been having fun pulling out all kinds of blue fabric.

http://www.selvedge.org/uploads/how-to-items/downloadables/How-To-Make-a-Strippy-Quilt-Instructions.pdf

http://www.selvedge.org/blog/?p=10754

http://www.selvedge.org/uploads/how-to-items/downloadables/How-To-Make-a-Strippy-Quilt.pdf

Quilting in Front of the Fire

Today was indeed a quilting day.  A couple of ladies were working on Drunkard's Path blocks for their sampler quilts at Country Roads Quilters on Tuesday.  This reminded me that I enjoy doing these blocks with curved seams and so today I made a Corner to Corner Curve block (from Lynne Edwards' Sampler Quilt book) for one of the Global Piecers for their birthday.  I stitched the curved seams by hand and then pieced the completed squares by machine.  I hope she likes it.
I had some quilting "admin" to do.  Minutes for the CRQ Open Day meeting and a draft constitution to be written.  If we have more members we will have more monies in and out and need to be more official - so more paperwork and not of the English paper piecing type either!
I managed to do some quilting while speaking with visitors on Tuesday and now have four finished corner blocks for the next round of the wedding quilt.
The temperature never got above freezing today and is forecast to be about minus 10 tonight.  Fortunately we had a load of logs delivered this morning so quilting in front of the fire is the order of the day.

Friday Night Sew-In: Saturday Morning Report, April 15th

After a sunny day yesterday it turned chilly in the evening and so DH lit the fire, an excellent setting for this month's FNSI last night.  I worked on my Patchwork in Perspective piece that I started in Exeter last weekend.  It was the opportunity to join this great workshop with Lynne Edwards that was the main reason I was attracted to the Quilters' Guild conference in the first place.
I started my patchwork and quilting journey with Lynne, working through her two sampler quilt books to learn skills and techniques and discover what I liked (and didn't like) doing.  You can see my sampler quilts in the right hand side bar if you scroll down a bit.
It was a brilliant workshop.  Lynne is funny, talented and a very generous teacher.  We all came away with an accurately drafted block pattern for the Ohio Star in perspective and the skills and knowledge to draft other blocks in the same way and also to develop them into larger designs if we wished.  We sewed one side of the block - and they looked great displayed together on the wall (mine is on the far left and I'm sorry that the photo is a bit out of focus).

If you would like to learn more Lynne has written about Patchwork in Perspective in a new book called, "The Quiltmakers" and this is her sample piece for the workshop:

I also did a little design work and thinking for the current BQL fabric postcard, I need to get a wiggle on with these as they're due by Easter.  I'm basing them on a stained glass window I saw in Jerusalem, more about that later.  Hope you all had a good FNSI, I'm off to see what you got up to, have a good weekend and if you want to join in my 2nd blogiversary giveaway (on 19th April) please go to the post here, good luck.

Mediterranean Nights - My Sampler Quilt

Having finally finished my sampler quilt yesterday all I had the energy to do was fall asleep under it but today I'll share the pictures and what I learned.
The sampler quilt is now named "Mediterranean Nights" in reference to the colours I chose for it.  I've seen the doctor today and he said I have RSV, Human respiratory syncytial virus, (science bit here) and that he couldn't give me anything but a couple of weeks of sunshine might help.  I wonder if sleeping under this quilt will do any good!
Anyway, I digress.  Here's a photograph:

I am pleased with this quilt and love the way it looks on our bed and the colours and bright, liveliness of it.  It has been a steep "learning curve", a teach myself to quilt process, and the blocks are as they worked out, I didn't remake them and tried not to worry about the imperfections.  I used different quilting methods too in a quilt a row as you go way which worked well for me - it was easier to handle a row of four blocks on my machine than a whole quilt.
So what have I learned?

That I will never let a quilt project last so long again (I started this quilt in August 2008).
That I must buy sufficient fabric at the beginning.
That 1/4" seams mean just that, something near enough isn't good enough.
That I like foundation piecing.
That I don't like applique.
That I should never handstitch when I don't feel like it (unless I want all the stitches to be of various sizes and pointing in various directions).
That I enjoy English paper piecing.
That reading instructions carefully and then following them is often a good plan.
That I'm not afraid of colour.
That I'm proud of what I have achieved (although the quilt police wouldn't agree).
That Delectable Mountains aren't always delectable.

Thank you to everybody who has advised and applauded on this quilt's journey, I appreciate all your support.  Thanks to Lynne Edwards' for her very thorough Sampler Quilt books, she gave me the courage to attempt this quilt.
Okay, what's next?!

To Do List Item Two - Ticked

1. Quilt and finish Wiggly Nine Patch.
2. Complete Sampler Quilt - sashing, assembling, layering & basting, quilting, finishing, phew.
3. Japanese Round and Round the Garden quilt project.
4. Kanzashi (portable project)...BQL Fabric Postcards...Global Piecers swaps.

1. New Zealand projects.
2. Blue and White quilt for DS.
   

Walking in the Sunshine

Today it's been very cold, but sunny.  Ideal for wrapping up warmly and going for a little walk with GS Sam.
He walked better than I did!
I'm all ready to take it very easy this evening with a gentle FNSI.  DH is just fetching fish and chips and then I'll put on my cosy red dressing gown and be ready to make a few kanzashi brooches and work on my sampler quilt.  Photos in the morning. 

Oh and just before I go, Jessica posted a design quiz. 

I came out as,

Results: You most resemble a "California Country".

Details...

Cozy… not oversized - a hand crafted gem. Your kitchen is your prize. Decorative, finished… elegant. A tailored bedroom rewards a hard day's work. Art that definitely does not match the sofa. An Asian asthetic intrigues your dinner guests. The graceful ceremony of sharing. 1,000's of hours of handcrafted detail provide your decorative foundation. Wild and crazy days in your wonderful home..

Suspected "California Country"

- Sandra Bullock
- Harrison Ford
- Jeff Bridges

I'm not sure how accurate that all is but it was fun!  Have a good FNSI everybody.

Progress and Process

This is how far I've got with item 2 on my to do list (see right).  I have twenty sampler blocks so I'm creating five rows of four blocks, adding sashing, layering and tacking them and then I'm going to quilt each row before joining the whole thing together.  I hope this will mean I have manageable pieces of work to quilt.  I've got three rows done and I've run out of basting pins.  Oh dear, I'm going to have to make a trip to the LQS.  Do you think I will simply buy a couple of packs of pins and walk away?
I haven't used the "quilt as you go" method before, which I understand is usually block by block, making it very portable.
I've looked at Leah Day's great FMQ ideas and her suggestions for quilting a sampler quilt, making it a sampler of quilting as well as a sampler of piecing techniques.  You can see Leah's ideas here:
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4
It's very inspiring but I think I'll do something rather more straightforward...

I've had a little discovery today which pleased me considerably.  For this quilt I'm using a wadding made from recycled plastic.  It's very easy to work with and sort of "sticks" to the fabric, making it easy to smooth the layers together.  I'm doing a happy dance.
Here's the science bit, taken from Asding's website:

 Quilters Dream Green Poly, Mid Loft (Select) - Green - 122" wide £10.95 per metre.

Select (mid loft) - Dream Green is a soft, cozy wadding made 100% from recycled plastic bottles! Dream Green meets Quilters Dream's highest standards of quality, function and performance. Your needles will glide through this unique eco-friendly batting. Finished quilt may be machine washed and dried with little to no shrinkage. Dream Green is wrinkle resistant.

Each pound of Dream Green wadding keeps 10 plastic bottles out of our landfills. Plastic bottles are cut into chips, washed, melted and extruded into fine polyester fibres. These recycled fibres are indistinguishable from “virgin” polyester fibres yet are made without depleting our precious natural resources. To avoid additional processing Quilters Dream have kept the soft “natural” green bottle colour – but you can rest assured that Dream Green is colour-fast and compatible to all your finest quilts and projects.

Dream Green has been carded, cross-lapped and needlepunched for uniformity, strength, and resiliency. There is no scrim or resins yet you can stitch up to 12” apart! Utilizing eco-efficient recycling, Quilters Dream has developed a wonderful quilt wadding that truly accomplishes the meaning of “green.”

GREEN FACTS (supplied by Quilters Dream): Studies show that the energy saved by recycling a single plastic bottle – as compared to producing a new one from scratch – is enough to power a single 60-watt bulb for six hours. The amount of petroleum saved annually by using post-consumer bottles instead of virgin materials in the manufacturing process is enough to supply power to a city the size of Atlanta for an entire year! It is reported the process of recycling plastic bottles results in a 66% reduction of energy consumption, nearly 90% reduction of water usage and reduction of carbon dioxide by 2.5 times.

To Do List Item One - Ticked

I have completed the first item on my new year to do list.  I'm pretty impressed with that!  I tried to make the edge of the quilt wiggly to tie in with the theme of this little quilt that was started at a workshop with Magie Relph and it ended up straighter than my intentionally straight edges usually are!

So now I can cross this quilt off my list

1. Quilt and finish Wiggly Nine Patch
2. Complete Sampler Quilt
3. Japanese Round and Round le Jardin Quilt
4. Ongoing projects:  kanzashi, Global Piecers swaps, BQLPC

and add a new project to the list.

1. New Zealand projects

You can see the fabrics I bought in New Zealand here and I have to say it surprised me to look back at the post and remember some of those fabrics and what I planned to create with them! 

I've also just signed up for a wonderful BOM project, like I need more projects to do :)  I just couldn't resist, go and have a look at what Jenny's offering in her wonderful "Give Thanks" BOM.

Before any of that though I have to finish my Lynne Edwards' sampler quilt...

This morning we went to the coast for a bracing walk,

followed by a great cup of well deserved coffee at the Gibraltar Point visitor centre.  Home now and off to the sewing room!  Have a relaxing Sunday afternoon and I hope you keep warm and dry, or cool, depending where you are :)

Progress on a WIP

My shopping at Festival of Quilts seems to have spurred me to new efforts to complete some WIPs.  I did promise I would finish something started each time I wanted to start a new project...
This is what I've done today.

It's the final block in my Lynne Edwards' sampler quilt project which has been going on for quite a while.  I love the Mariner's Compass but have been very nervous about doing it.  I'm happy enough with the foundation piecing but haven't set the compass into the background very well (my excuse is that I was running out of concentration by that point), I will re-do it.
I still have to put together all the panes for the Attic Windows block and two blocks, Bear's Paw and Tumbling Blocks, need some background fabric.  To inspire me further I have laid all the blocks out on the guest bed so that I can consider the layout each time I go in there.

What do you think?
I have to decide on sashing and borders, backing and quilting, but I can see the end of this quilt.  It is destined for our bed so my intention is to finish it before the weather turns really chilly.
You can see some of the other blocks here:  Log Cabin September 2009,  Drunkard's Path September 2009, May 2010,    Couthouse Steps January 2010,  
and here is the post of some of the fabric arriving, back in August last year!

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:

Great week

I had a great time away in Norfolk last week and, among other things, managed to get my Lynne Edwards' (book 2) Sampler Quilt top finished. I'm only doing nine blocks as that's the right size to go over the sofa but I think I'll do the other blocks eventually, it's a great way to learn.

While I was away I joined the Dayspringers Quilting group in North Walsham. What a great group of very friendly people. Lots and lots going on, they had a mini workshop making a pin cushion with Brenda, Ros led the block of the month which was Strip Rail (from Lynne Edwards' first Sampler Quilt book), there was a library, fabric sales and a raffle. I came away with French beans in the raffle and borrowed Jennifer Chiaverini's "An Elm Creek Quilts Album". I've never thought about reading novels about quilting before but I finished the first book in the album, "The Runaway Quilt" (about the Underground Railroad) and it was a brilliant read which I would heartily recommend to anyone, quilters and non-quilters alike.

While mooching round North Walsham I found a traditional haberdashery shop - I thought they'd all vanished off the face of the earth. Brilliant. And of course I made a visit to Sew Creative for a few things!!

My birthday today so I think I'll do a little sewing before my daughter and grandson arrive for lunch :)

The Bargello fest continues

An excellent day's sewing yesterday and, inspired by my recent bargello work, I decided to tackle the bargello block in my Sampler Quilt. A long, on-going project using the great Lynne Edwards' second sampler quilt book, New Sampler Quilt Book, which is great for learning new techniques and trying things I never fancied before - I actually enjoyed the Celtic Knot, to my surprise (although I did cheat and buy the bias tape ready made, and iron-on!!) and will do some more of this style of work soon. No sewing today, except for salad seeds, I really must get out into the garden...weeding, beans and courgettes to pick, potatoes to dig up for this evening, it's a lovely life, we are so blessed.