Quilts 4 London

At the first meeting of "Crafty Time Out" yesterday we agreed to take part in the London Olympics in 2012.  No, we won't be knitting ourselves some legwarmers and pounding the streets, we're going to make pennants.
Below is a copy of the poster promoting the project and the basic information, taken from their website at http://www.quilts4london.org.uk
I'm not working on that today though.  DH has gone to look at aeroplanes at Duxford with SiL so I'm sewing all day, and doing a happy dance.

Make a Pennant for a London 2012 Olympic and

 Paralympic Athlete

Size A3 (12" x 16");  14,000 Required; Closing date December 2011

 Quilts4london has received the Inspire Mark by the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad
The Project's Supporters include Lynne Edwards, Gail Lawther, The International Felt Makers Association, Batik Guild, Cross Stitch Guild, UK Hand Knitting Association, Guild of Silk Painters, The Quilter's Guild of the British Isles, The Braid Society & The Woodturners of Great Britain.

     Individuals can make one - or make more than one if you like! 

Dates for your Diary 2011 - Collecting Pennants 

Stitch & Creative Crafts Show (QG Stand), Sandown, Sat 22nd January
Quilts4london Workshop, Patchwork Corner, 7th March 
Stitch & Craft Show, Olympia 2, London, 17th-20th March
Music on the Moor, Hemel Hempstead, 9th & 10th July
Festival of Quilts, NEC, 11th-14th August
The Knitting & Stitching Show, Alexandra Palace, 6th-9th October
 

Express your support through the medium of fabric, fibre and stitch, and become part of the whole Olympic event in London 2012. Pennants can be any shape, any design, made by anyone regardless of their level of ability or age (children welcome) and using any textile media. Our aim is to present a Pennant to each Olympic and Paralympic athlete, a personal gift from you to them. Check out 'How To Make One' for guidelines. We will be 'stringing' them together for some amazing exhibitions in the time leading up to the 2012 Games. Twitter or Register to receive regular updates.Quilts4london Education Pack. Feedback from teachers is that it is brilliant for Ofsted. Lets get kids playing with Textiles. Scouts & Guides (Craft and Partnership Badges); Schools & After-School Clubs - create your own Olympic displays.  Quilts4london encourages schools to register with the London 2012 Get Set Network to receive access to resources & opportunities and to receive exclusive rewards & recognition for your school's Olympic inspired work. To help you, check out the Olympic Sports; Design ideas for Children's Pennants ; Forum and Web-Links for a fantastic source of contacts and ideas.

Olympic Branding Restrictions - 
'2012', 'London 2012', Olympic Rings, MMXII, etc  cannot be used on Pennants. 

Please Read  

Please post to: 'Quilts4London', 39 Hunting Gate, Hemel Hempstead, Herts. HP2 6NX, UK. Add a 4" Sleeve and a Label to the back with a name, date, location and a message too if you like. Please enclose a Cover Letter with contact details, it is for our own use and will not be passed on with the Pennant unless requested. Check our Gallery to see if the Pennant has been uploaded or call 01442 404234 to confirm we have received it. A label - 'Made by .......of..... for quilts4london, a project for The London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. (date)' has been approved by LOCOG.

Our Scottish Coordinator is based in Southern Scotland. She has requested extra support covering other areas of Scotland. Please e-mail if you can help.

We receive no funding from the Olympics or any other organisation to cover the running costs of this project. 

Quilts4london is non-profit making.

Friday Night Sew-In

It's time for another great Friday Night Sew In.  I'll be working on my sampler quilt and looking forward to sharing my progress and seeing what you get up to. 
Get the warm drinks, yummy snacks and comfortable dressing gown ready and join Heidi, Bobbi and the rest of us for FNSI.  Click on the logo on the right to sign up.

A Gift of a UFO

This French General table runner in the making is on the way to me courtesy of lovely Lara who had a UFO clear out.  I love the fabric and when it arrives I'll decide whether to proceed with the table runner or maybe create something else.  The only problem is where to put this on my to do list, I didn't reckon on adding UFOs to the list!!  Thank you Lara.
Today I've quilted the first row of blocks in my sampler quilt.  No photos as it's been a horrid, wet and grey day here today (although nothing like the wetness that others have been suffering).  The forecast is for the temperature to drop by the end of the week, yippee, more sewing!
I hope you're all enjoying a relaxing weekend.

Landscape Challenge Quilt

I am a member of a small, worldwide group of quilting friends, the Global Piecers.  We have regular swaps of fabricy things between ourselves but I have just launched a challenge quilt project.  As this will be to make a quilt for ourselves and not for a swap I have decided to open it to non-members of Global Piecers.  You can see the introductory information on our blog here.  Please leave a comment on that post, with your email address and I'll let you have the deadlines and details, and you'll be very welcome, the more the merrier.

New Year Projects

I've just launched two new projects for the start of a new year.
The first is a Fabric Postcards swap.  We all enjoyed the fabric postcards we made last year and for spring/Easter we're going to make cards with the theme  "Spring Green".  It will be fun to see how we all interpret the theme.  We'll post them out by 1st March and I'll share my set here when they arrive.

Our second project starting now is a Landscape Quilt Challenge.  This is not a swap but a challenge to make a quilt for ourselves but to share the thoughts, processes and the final outcome with the Global Piecers and on this blog.   Participants will email regular reports and photos to me which I'll upload to the blog for us all to see and comment on.  We might also get thoughts and encouragement from non-GPers (I'll put a link on my quilting blog).  In fact this challenge can be opened to non-GPers, we'd love to share as much quilty work with you as possible.  Comment below to be included, I'll email you the "deadlines and details".
We'll start by sharing a photograph of a landscape, by the end of January.  The photo will be the inspiration for our quilt.
I remember Alex Anderson did a landscape challenge on "Simply Quilts" and the results (all from the same photograph) were amazing.  Some of the results are here and here if you'd like a look. I couldn't make the video work but it's on hgtv.com if you'd like to try.
Looking forward to seeing all the inspiration - as soon as you like, you don't have to wait for the end of the month to email me your photo.

Help for Australian Flood Victims

On Monday 17th January,

Toni at Make It Perfect  will have a master list of bloggers who will be running auctions from their blogs, selling products that they make or from their stores.  You will have one week to bid on these auctions, and hopefully be the lucky winner of these great products.  Auctions will be open for 1 week, and will close at midnight on Monday 24th January.

All of the money raised at these auctions will go directly to the Queensland Government Flood Relief Appeal.

There are details on Toni's blog (click on the logo above) about how you can hold an auction and get even more involved.  Here's a reminder of why: 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12158608   

At Gumtree the girls have come up with a very practical plan.  They are aiming to create "New Beginnings" sewing kits to give out to those who have lost the means to enjoy their craft.

This is what they'd like in each kit:

1. A handmade sewing caddy, complete with needlebook and pincushion.

2. A pack of embroidery scissors with a scissor keep.

3. Six individual skeins of stranded embroidery threads.

4. Embroidery needles.

5. 1 fat quarter of fabric.

If you can help, please email Jenny at - jennyofelefantz AT yahoo DOT com DOT au  for the address in Australia to post these kits to.  Click below for all the details:

http://www.gumtree-designers.com/2011/01/we-need-your-help.html

Give Thanks....for Germs!

I had a very pleasant Sunday curled up on the sofa in front of the fire doing the stitchery for Jenny's "Give Thanks" BOM.

Then this morning I woke up with the beginnings of a cold - the horrid sore throat bit that feels as if you've swallowed razor blades, and pins and possibly a seam ripper too. 
Feeling very sorry for myself I returned to the sofa and the comfort of the fire and am delighted to say I have finished my little wall hanging this afternoon. 
My beloved made me a little wire hanger for it and here it is, all ready to go on 1st February when Jenny will reveal the first mini quilt to go in that cream space.  Thank you Michelle for sending me the link to this lovely project. 

Here it is in situ by the fire - why didn't I notce those coffee mugs when I was taking/uploading/selecting/cropping/copying the photo?  Maybe they just appeared as I added the photo to this post!

Before I was struck down I finished layering all the rows of blocks for my sampler quilt so I'm ready to get quilting as soon as I have the strength in my arms and brain cells.  How was your weekend?  I hope it was a good one.

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.

A Short Drama

Scene 1
Lis is in her sewing room applying sashing to some blocks for her sampler quilt.

Lis (shouts):  Aaagh, Al, Al, Al.
Al (rushing upstairs): What is it?
Lis:  There's blood, aaagh, blood.
Al:  Where from, what have you done?
Lis: I don't know, I'm bleeding.
Al:  Sit down sweetie, I'll get a flannel and the first aid box.
Lis:  Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
Al:  Just sit down.
Lis:  NO!  Take the blocks and get the blood out, I'll get a plaster.

Al (mystified) exits to the bathroom with an armful of bloody fabric.


Scene 2
Sometime later, Lis is in her sewing room pressing bloodless fabric blocks..

Lis (speaking to herself):  I must blog about this, I think I might have become a real quilter!

Image from the Graphics Fairy.

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 :)