Thursday 11 December 2014

Raffle

we have made £1250 for the Motor Neurone Disease Association after raffling our art nouveau quilt. We are thrilled that it made so much and it was particularly poignant that it went to the wife of a local man suffering with MND. Thank you to everyone who supported us.

Tuesday 11 November 2014

Art nouveau quilt

Back from USA where I bought far too much fabric. Have now sold well over £500 worth of tickets for the raffle.

On a workshop with jan Hassard I learnt one good tip - do not mix sewing machines when completing a quilt especially when doing strips that are cut and sewn together again! They do not come square unless you really test the seam widths first.

Friday 31 October 2014

Shopping USA style

I am in South Carolina but sadly coming home tomorrow. I have visited at least 4shops along the way and have bought too much. When the price per heard is only 5 dollars, what can one do? So I shall have loads of UFOs to complete for next year. The nice thing is that one gets ideas for teaching - so watch out!

Thursday 9 October 2014

Belsey Bridge visit

My last day here at a UFO holiday ( unfinished objects). Except I started something new - a Jacob' s Ladder pattern in rather bright colours for me! We need a bigger quilt so this will be it I think. A present to us for our wedding last Monday. A fabulous day made memorable by our friends there. I shall upload a picture when're turn.

Sunday 21 September 2014

Cromwell quilters exhibition

Just visited this exhibition in St Ives north of me, in a lovely church setting. I forgot my camera! But I took some photos on my camera and will attempt to get them off ASAP. It was a nicely presented show with many well crafted quilts, colourful, amusing, and inspiring. Why I had to buy another book at the ever wonderful Home Workshop book stall I have no idea, nor why I need more fabric. Ever useful, that's my motto. Watch this space to see whether I get the photos or not.

Wednesday 17 September 2014

more talks on applique

Have just given my third talk on the history of applique: horrors with technology. The slide show stopped half-way through and it takes a bit of time to get it up and running again. Don't know why this happens. I dread the lamp giving up in the projector!

Anyway it went well other than these hiccoughs. Spent most of my hard-earned fee on the group's lovely sales table, filling up my stash of lace/fabrics etc to use in my landscape workshops!

Next week I shall giving a short talk to the local Motor Neurone Disease Society about the quilt we are raffling (now amassed nearly £300 on my way to over £1000!). It does look nice hanging up and I have made a cushion to go with it as second prize. Hope to sell more tickets then.


Sunday 10 August 2014

At the festival today

Lovely quilt show as usual and surprise of my life to find that my two-person quilt had earned a highly commended! I texted the quilter's daughter who was thrilled. sadly I shall have to return it to her this week. It has been a privilege to work on her mum's quilt.

Saturday 9 August 2014

Off to the festival of quilts Sunday, despite the threat of the Bertha storm! I have a two person quilt on show, a whole cloth quilted one, started by a lady in Suffolk. her daughter asked me to finish it for her. I know it hasn't won anything but it will be nice to see it hanging up.

Tuesday 15 July 2014

talking about applique

One of our local groups became my guineapigs last week when I gave them a talk on the history of applique. Lots of pictures of traditional old quilts, then newer ones, and some on how to design your own pictures. Then some show and tell quilts at the end. They seemed to enjoy it - not too many closed eyes, although it was only the afternoon!

I gave it again two days later in Luton - having arrived in the town, I then took another 45 minutes to find the place. I must buy a sat nav. It's easy to go from A to B using any old map, but getting from B to a particular C such as a friend's house or a bowling club (!) is not map friendly. One of the quilts I showed was my buttonhole-type applique. And fortunately another two had come back from the Ailsa Craig exhibition in Canada (lovely to have been included in this show - I am looking forward to seeing some pictures in the magazines).  This is one from there:


Sandown exhibition

A crowd of us went to the Sandown exhibition in June. It is always a nice venue - you can eat your lunch sitting on the stands overlooking the race course! My girls in the Thursday group were disappointed that our Art Nouveau quilt didn't get a prize or rosette. It looked stunning hanging and at least we know ourselves that it looked better than some of the winners! Sorry, just greeneye there, but a bit of publicity might have helped with the raffle!

Here's a picture of me by the quilt and the one on the right is the overall champion quilt - an obviously non-traditional quilt, but lovely nevertheless:







Sunday 25 May 2014

Chelsea inspiration

I have just come across another blogger's comments on Chelsea while I was Googling for silk factories in Suffolk. I want to visit one in July on my way to 4 days of bliss patchworking and quilting in a village hall with four other like-minded friends. This blog also had something about Chelsea and it was so well written and with loads of lovely photos that I thought I would share it too!

http://purplepoddedpeas.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/rhs-chelsea-2014-who-am-my-to-judge-and.html#comment-form

Tuesday 13 May 2014

Exhibtion quilts

Not been blogging recently - sorry about that.  Our raffle quilt is now up and running raffle-wise. Tickets are £1 each in aid of Motor Neurone Disease - do get in touch if you want to win this quilt. Those who have seen it reckon it's wonderful - so pleased about that! It will be on show at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham in August. I also have a quilt in the Sandown Exhibition in June - a quilt that I finished for a lady whose mother died and left a load of unfinished beautiful quilts. This one on show is a whole cloth and I finished off the quilting. Do look out for it when you are there.

Wednesday 9 April 2014

8th International Prague Patchwork Meeting

I've just come back from Prague!! A wonderful exhibition in a lovely city. Lots of international exhibitors from Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark and UK. Our own UK Quilters Guild was there with some beautiful wallhangings from  the Contemporary, Miniature and Region 7 groups. Very well displayed and hung, with great traders with fabric at £3-£5 per metre. Unbelievable. Here are some you might enjoy. The first is done with really small pieces of fabric machined over to keep them in place. I have done a similar style to this some time ago - it's a nice way to demonstrate landscapes, flowers etc.




Thursday 3 April 2014

Here's the art nouveau quilt

Nearly there. I have just a few of the sashing pieces to quilt. I have started to sell some raffle tickets, but there's loads of time and the MNDA people say they will put a newsletter article up with a picture so I hope to sell some there. Meanwhile here it is to view. Hope you like it!



Monday 31 March 2014

More on the Art Nouveau Quilt

I am having problems with landlines and email at the moment - really annoying. BT does everything very slowly and via an ethereal voice down the line on my mobile! I hope to be properly connected by Wednesday. We shall see. Meanwhile I am madly quilting the Art Nouveau quilt. I know I have until December to raffle it, but I am going to enter it into the Sandown Exhibition as a group quilt and I need to get a move on. Now just onto the borders so not too far to go now. I shall post a picture up here soon. Tickets are £1 each if anyone out there is interested. Just contact me here.

Tuesday 25 March 2014

Exhibition done and dusted

Well the weekend was a great success and we have a good profit, despite the hall costing around £650 to hire. I had a good Saturday - won a judge's choice rosette for my Bento Beauty quilt , sold a bed runner, and met an Australian who had seen my article in an Australian patchwork magazine and visited us while she was on holiday!

Our War journal quilts were also well received - especially by the men who came to visit. We had 13 and the winner was a beautifully made piece by Stephanie Pettengell of various styles of helmets worn in WWI. I shall put some photos up soon. But here is my sold bed runner and Bento Box which is winging its way to Cyprus!



Tuesday 18 February 2014

Ever seen a poem quilt?

I am going to run another poem quilt class in the not too distant future. The fun is researching a poem that you like, or a couplet or even a saying. I have made 3 so far - one on tulips, one for the vicar (We plough the fields and scatter), and a garden through the seasons (You're nearer God's heart in a garden...). I plan to do my fourth on a John Masefield poem (Cargoes) as this has a lot of imagery in it suitable for making quilt blocks out of. I have taught the method over a year to quite a few students. Here is one of theirs, all to do with holidays taken over the years (We have no time to stand and stare...). If you want a class on this, contact me in the usual way.


Thursday 13 February 2014

wholecloth quilt

Here are some photos of the wholecloth quilt - finished save 2 sides of binding. The owner and myself are going to enter it into the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham in August.




Monday 10 February 2014

Wholecloth Quilt finished

Last year a lady asked our Quilters Guild Traditional Group if there was anyone who could finish her mum's quilts - she had died a couple of years before and had a stash of unfinished quilts. I did one last year for her - an Irish Chain  and half of the money she paid me I gave to our local hospice- but she asked me to do another and this time it is a wholecloth quilt (but with a grey star and one of the borders also in pale grey). I am really pleased with it - I had to do four big borders but am so glad she had marked it all up. Lots and lots of curly whirlies and feathers. I hope to put it in to the Festival of Quilts at Birmingham this year. Photo will be uploaded soon!

Friday 31 January 2014

Raffle quilt for MNDA

Motor Neurone Disease Association - Raffle Quilt

Last year I had my Thursday group in my village make me some beautiful blocks for an Art Nouveau Garden quilt. I have done the borders and will be doing the quilting any day soon. The design is from a book of the same name (see the link) but we have used different colours. It shold look stunning when it is finished.

One of my closest friends has developed MND - it is the most dreadful disease with no cure. Because of this, our quilt is to be raffled for the MND Association just before Christmas. Tickets will be available later this year at £1 per ticket. I do want to raise over £1000 but it will take a lot of hard work! Do contact me if you want to purchase a ticket. Here is a picture of some of the blocks I have begun to put together to make the whole top.

Mimram Quilters Exhibition

Mimram Quilters Exhibition


I have been busy in the past few weeks publicising this exhibition in March (22-23). We shall be open from 10-5 (10-4 on Sunday) and there are two lovely quilts for the raffle. We normally get over 100 items for the exhibition from our members so the show looks fabulous. We also have enormous sales tables with quilts, books, small items etc., and this is very popular. Also try our great cakes - Mimram is renowned for the choice. Husbands/non-quilters can come in for free and sit and have a coffee while their partners look and spend! 

We have three traders: Home Workshop Books (made famous by the father of the young couple who now run it - he is always in red braces); Secret Garden Quilting run by Lucy - she often has pop-up shops in our area (Herts); and Threads and Patches (who have their shop in Fenny Stratford south of Milton Keynes - loads of workshops run from there). We shall also be running a 3D raffle - bags/cushions etc. Choose the one you want and put your raffle ticket in it. 

Finally we have three competitions running for our members - a journal quilt (A4 size) entitled 'War' commemorating the outbreak of WWI; a wallhanging entitled 'Memories' - I have done one illustrating my parents' garden with its two plum trees which I can remember from being a toddler; and also a Traditional Quilt (this has to be a handquilted bed quilt).  The pictures below show some of the winners from 2011.

Do come and visit if you can. Details of where and when are on my sideline on the Home page of www.rosemaryrabbitquilts.co.uk