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

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.

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.

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!

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.