Amys Quilt Festival

Discovered this event via Mogs Blog and thought it sounded interesting.  Amy is hosting an online quilt festival and if you visit Amys Blog you can not only see (at the present count) 252 quilts but you can also share a picture of one your quilts and its story. 

Here's mine.

I'm not cheating - it is only one quilt but I made it double sided.  I made it for my daughter and started it around 4 years ago when she was 13.  She chose the animals she wanted from A Quilters Ark by Margaret Rolfe and I set to work piecing them using freezer paper templates.  When the animals were finished I then took a while to work out how to place them and also in finding a fabric that would blend with them all.  By now she is 17 and, although she says she still likes it, I am worried that it is too childish.  In addition we had been collecting fabric for this quilt at all the quilt shows we have visited together and I hadn't used half of it - it must be the most expensive quilt in history!  I decided to use some of the stash to create the backing, keeping the animal theme but in a more (I hope) sophisticated way.  I was pleased with the second quilt but it did give me a headache when I came to quilt.  In the end I free machine quilted leaves on the top using a varigated thread but put invisible thread on the bobbin so the quilting did not detract from the pattern on the back.  I know patchwork and quilting is traditionally about using what you have and improvising but I would have made life easier if I had followed a pattern or at least created my own plan when I started.  It was fun though and she still uses the animals on top - at least for now.

Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Here is mine:-

"the most dazzling treasure recovered, the Tiffany diamond necklace of its day, the ne plus ultra for the dazzingly rich girl about town, was the fabulous gold scarab, the only one ever found in Asia Minor or the Aegean bearing the cartouche of Nefertiti, the famously beautiful wife of the eighteenth-dynasty, heretically monotheistic  Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten."

page 44 -  The Way of Herodotus - Travels with the Man who Invented History by Justin Marozzi
.
Find more teasers  here
 
This is a change from my usual reading choice and was inspired by reading a review my son had written about it - here and the fact that I visited some of the countries the author visits last year.  I read the review (being a supportive parent!!) thought it sounded interesting and am now enjoying it.  I think it will appeal to anyone who has an interest in history and its interpretation through the ages.

Dandelion Days

I've not posted for a while because I have had a really busy couple of weeks.  The week before last we were in London visiting music colleges with my youngest daughter who is hoping to apply soon but I managed to squeeze in a visit to the Quilt Exhibition at the V & A.  It was well worth a visit, especially if you like to see antique quilts.  The quilts on display date from 1700 to 2010 and range from large bed quilts and bed hangings to small sewing accessories; domestic and commercially made quilts and some specially commissioned quilts from current quilt artists.  More details of the exhibition here http://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/future_exhibs/Quilts/index.html  Linked to the exhibition is the Quilt of Quilts website where the general public are invitied to post pictures of their quilts and all the images together form a virtual quilt.  409 have been up-loaded so far so there is the potential for many happy hours browsing! http://www.vam.ac.uk/microsites/quilts/gallery/patterns
Whilst on the subject of exhibitions, I have been asked to mention an exhibition by Foggy Furze Quilters.  This will take place at Foggy Furze Library, Stockton Road, Hartlepool on Thursday 10th and Friday 11th June.  Entry is free and there is to be a raffle (first prize a quilt) in aid of the RNLI.  If any readers are in the area on those days I am sure it will be well worth a visit.
Finally, to the dandelions.  I had a friend staying with me last week and spent lots of time out and about visiting local attractions and, thanks to the mainly good weather, country walks.  Is it my imagination or are there more dandelions than usual this year?  Some roads were lined with them - very sunny and cheerful - and I wondered if our cold winter and late spring has perhaps provided good conditons for them.  The down side is that they also seem to have taken over our lawn! 

Inspiration strikes in Sunderland!

My husband was working in Sunderland this morning and as I have been wanting to see the exhibition of local textile group Fusion, which is at Sunderland Minster until 14th May, I cadged a lift and spend a most enjoyable morning there.  I visited the Minster first and as I was early I had the church and the exhibition to myself and was really able to spend time appreciating both the beauty and peace of the building and the work displayed.  Here are 3 of my personal favourites.  From left to right -Bede by Melitta Butterall, which is an exquisitely worked goldwork piece, Save our Soles by  Donna Cheshire, and St Mark by Victoria McLeod whose robes are worked very effectively in chain stitch.  After a visit to the Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens, I finished with a stroll in Mowbray Gardens where inspiration struck!  I'm not a fan of the regimental planting that is so often seen in parks but the colours combinations here were amazing and I think could translate into some stunning quilts.  Here are the pics.

Star Cross Patchwork

I started this at a workshop with Celia Eddy in March and have just finished it this afternoon - part of my blitz on UFO's!  I didn't like it much before I quilted it - I think I should have reversed the fabrics which would have made the stars more prominent - but it has improved with the quilting and I am going to make it into a cushion.  It was constructed from two templates which needed to be very accurately cut.  I haven't been quite accurate enough and some of my stars are a bit wobbly.  I think I prefer rotary cutting and strip piecing.

Teaser Tuesdays

I came across Teaser Tuesdays on Mogs Blog (link on the right)  and thought it was such a good idea I would feature it here and join in.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read


Open to a random page


Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page


BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)


Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Here is mine:-
 
"Marcus folded up beside him and watched, vividly remembering another war-spear whose collar had been the blue grey feathers of a heron.  Esca stood leaning one shoulder against the rowan wood doorpost, watching also."
 
Page 133 The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliffe
 
This is a book I have had since I was a teenager. I suddenly got the urge to read it again and I am enjoying it even more 30+ years later. 
 
Find more teasers here

Finished!

I posted some photos of Fiona's quilt last year when it was a WIP.  I actually got it finished a while ago now but didn't get round to photographing it until today so here it is together with the cat that spends a lot of time on it.  Today she is surveying the world from the shed roof but I digress!   The quilt is  two sided which made me think long and hard about how to quilt it particularly as many of my quilting friends thought I should make two separate quilts (but I couldn't face that as I desperately wanted it finished).  In the end I used a varigated thread to machine quilt freestyle leaves on one side but used an invisible thread in the bobbin so the quilting pattern did not interfere with the crazy log cabin on the reverse.  I prefer the reverse (log cabin) but Fiona still likes the animals so we are both happy!  I found the strippy border in a brilliant book called "Sensational Sets & Borders" Rodale's Successful Quilting Library which has lots of excellent ideas for borders.