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.

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!

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.

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.

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!

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