Trip to Chilford

Ruth has kindly organised another trip for us. It is to visit the quilt show at Chilford and is on Saturday 7th November (unfortunately my husband's birthday, so that counts me out!)
Quilt shows are always muh more enjoyable if you go with like-minded people, and if you don't have to drive, it makes for a very enjoyable day!



This is a view of the hall - looks great! There are still a few places left on the coach (and the more people who go, the cheaper it will become) so if you would like to join the party, please leave a comment on the blog, or contact me. The coach costs £15.50 at the moment, with entry to the show as an extra charge. Pick up points will be in Lutterworth and Market Harborough. You could be lucky enough to pick up some Christmas presents - what a great idea!

Evening to dye for!

September's speaker was Linda Rudkin, an expert in using natural dyes. Now, I have always been very happy with using Dylon dyes for the bit of dyeing I do, but Linda was so inspirational that I wanted to go out into the hedgerows (and supermarkets) straight away and have a go!

Here she is after her talk, giving Chris some advice about using dyes for her forthcoming art foundation course. All the different substances Linda has used, from the ubiquitous onion skins to osage orange bark, have been carefully documented and the results mounted on beautiful boards to display the effect on different fabrics.

I thought that using non-commercial dyes required lots of equipment and chemicals, but apparently you just need a large pan, a spoon or stick, water, alum and then plant material. Good results can be obtained from onion skins and marigold flowers and for those wanting to really go back to basics, she had some packs of woad seeds on sale.

She brought copies of her book as well as other goodies, which were eagerly snapped up on the night.

Show and Tell was as varied as ever. Stephanie showed a quilt she had made for her daughter. the patchwork Irish Chain was quite straightforward, but it was the cross stitch motifs which took her three years to complete! It was well worth it though, as it's a beautiful quilt.

Stepahnie has made her Flutterwheels challenge of curves and circles into a cushion. It looks stunning.

Chris also had a cushion, but this was made from the blocks made with Jenny Raiment. Each one was different, and beautifully embellished with mother of pearl buttons.

Chris, Beverley, Sylvia and some friends have been making quilts for injured servicemen. This one so simple, but striking.

Here is another one - a kind of grown up I-Spy, with novelty fabrics!

Ruth had used some recycled fabrics (shirts and pyjamas) to make this quilt for the charity. It looks very sophisticated.

I spent time in the holidays making this French Roses quilt which is the first time I have used raw edge applique. The results were very attractive.

I also finished a quilt from my UFO box. I made some Elly Sienkevicz Baltimore blocks a few years ago, and have finally layered and quilted them. I quilted feathers all round the borders - all good fun!

Carolyn had made some items for the exhibition sales table. Aren't they cute?

Doreen showed this Sudoku quilt made from squares of fabric. Very effective.

Ann treated us to another showing of this wonderful old hexagon quilt. it had been made in the 1920s but still looked fresh and pretty. The planning of the design is clear and beautifully done.

And, last, but not least is Elaine with her piece made at a Pat Deacon workshop called 'Working with irregular shapes'.

What a masterpiece!

Exhibition!

The exhibition is coming up fast, and all the arrangements are now in place. The hall will be open to the public between 10 and 4 on Saturday 10th October and Sunday 11th October. Obviously the quilts will have to be put up the day before, and the hall will be open from about 3.45 on Friday for receipt and hanging of quilts. The quilts must have a hanging sleeve of about 4", either sewn or safety-pinned on, ready to hang. You can either bring your quilts to the meeting tonight, bring them to the hall on Friday 9th or to my house in Lutterworth if that's more convenient. E-mail me for the address.

All quilts must have a label, telling the name of the quilt, the maker and a brief description, eg.

Fried Egg by Freda Bloggs.

I made this quilt for my husband's birthday, used lots of yellow as I thought it was sunny and bright and called it 'Sunshine'. He took one look at it, and said, 'All that white and yellow makes it look like a fried egg!' so the name was changed!

Bring the description to the meeting, or email it to me and I'll forward it to the relevant person.

Refreshments will be a popular feature of the weekend, and members are being asked to make cakes to sell. These can be brought to the hall on Friday or on the day.

Bags and cushions can also be brought at the same time, as can the items for the sales table. Make sure your sales items are clearly labelled with a removeable label (can be sticky or pinned) giving your name and the price of the item. 10% of that price will be retained by the group. If you are willing to donate all the proceeds to the group, just write 'DON' on the label instead.
The show will end on Sunday at 4pm, so please come and collect your quilts then or arrage for someone to do it for you.

Get ready for a wonderful show!

No sour grapes

Today I have been to 'The Festival of Quilts' at the NEC. It's such a fabulous show, and I was realy looking forward to the quilts, the shopping, the demonstrations - and to see how our group quilt fared!

Here I am, standing in front of it, and blending in well with the landscape! It was looking very good, nicely hung in a well-lit position, but had received no accolades from the judges. We didn't really enter the show thinking we would win, but you never know. Well, in fact we did know, because the rules on the qualifications for a 'group quilt' have changed this year. To enter this category the quilt has to be made by at least two people. Yes, TWO! So the three prize-winning quilts (all absolutely lovely and very deserving of merit) had been made by just two people. Here is the winning quilt for you to see.

It's a lovely design and the machine quilting is absolutely stunning, but it's not a group quilt, in my book! While Stephanie and I were discussing this state of affairs, two ladies joined in to agree with us. They had entered a quilt in the traditional category, but because one had pieced and one quilted, they were moved into the group category, where they clearly felt they did not belong! Ruth and I have already commented to the organisers of the show about this situation, and would be grateful if group members could do so as well. If the situation remains the same next year, we will have to think hard and long about whether we enter this unfair competition again.

Visit to Hemmingford Grey and Wimpole Hall

Last Saturday 25 of us went on a coach trip! Ruth had kindly organised a fabulous day for us, and arranged for fabulous weather too! The day was warm, but not too sunny, and Ruth even scheduled the only shower for while we were on the coach!

Our first stop was for coffee and biscuits at The Cock Inn at Hemmingford Grey (and a toilet break!) which was very welcome, since the Lutterworth and Rugby contingents had left home around 8 am.
Then a short stroll along country lanes to The Manor, former home of famous author, gardener and patchworker Lucy Boston. The house is the oldest continuously inhabited house in the country, the old part dating from the 1100s and the new part from the 1600s. Here are a group of members in front of the house waiting to begin the tour.

The garden was absolutely magnificent, and seemed to go on and on. It was an old fashioned cottage garden, with lots of paths, nooks, crannies, lawns and magnificent herbaceous borders. Here are Muriel and Chris being dwarfed by plants I have no idea of the name of! Incidentally, they haven't just struck out amongst the plants, but are on a path, albeit a narrow one!

Here is Chris, seemingly being left behind by her friends - I'm sure it wasn't quite as it looks!

While everyone enjoyed the garden, it was the patchworks which really interested us. We were not to be disappointed. Diana, Lucy's daughter-in-law, told us that when Lucy had first moved to The Manor with her husband, she had bought a couple of hexagon patchwork quilts which were the perfect size for blocking draughts from the lounge windows. One of the quilts had a label saying 'started in 1801, finished in 1803' and due to their age, the draughts and smoke from the fire, the quilts eventually started to wear. Lucy repaired the quilts and this started her interest in making patchworks of her own. Unfortunately Diana did not want me to take photos of the quilts,

but I have found this picture of her most famous design, The Patchwork of the Crosses. The block is completely made over papers, and consists of lozenges and squares (some on point). Due to Lucy's clever use of value and pattern, no two blocks look alike, and several are almost unrecognisable as being the same design. If you would like to look at some interpretations of this block, look here. Lucy's coverlets were made over papers last century, but retained a vibrancy and modernity which excited us all (especially Sylvia, of which more later!). This quilt was made for The Astronomer Royal, and used lots of celestial motifs. If you would like to find out more about Lucy Boston and Hemmingford Grey, I can recommend a visit, or if all else fails, look at Celia Eddy's wonderful article here. After a very pleasant lunch overlooking the water, it was back on the coach to visit Wimpole Hall, a stately National Trust property.While we enjoyed the house, the gardens and surroundings, it was again the patchwork (this time an exhibition) which had drawn us. No photographs allowed again but we enjoyed looking at others' work, although some pieces were a bit arty for our tastes, and some of the prices were a bit mind boggling! Still, we decided that it was the time which had gone into the pieces (mainly wall-hangings) which was important.

By this time, many of us were taking refreshments in the courtyard. Ann was determined to make the most of her day and was on her way to scan the second hand books! Many thanks to Ruth for organising the day, and we look forward to the next trip!

June meeting

After the excellent speakers we have had recently, it was lovely to have a more social evening, so people could catch up and have a good chat! The meeting was used to discuss the forthcoming exhibition, explain the format and have a selection of bag patterns available for people to take.

The exhibition will be on Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th October from 10-4 each day. Volunteers will be needed to help set up on the Friday evening, and to man the exhibition on both days. There will be plenty of different jobs to do, from taking money on the door (£1.50 per person) to serving refreshments - and of course making the cakes which will make up the main part of the refreshments! - serving on the sales table and bag raffle, to generally being welcoming to people, and answering questions. Even if you can only spare an hour, your help will be much appreciated. If you haven't already signed up, you can let Di know or leave a comment on the blog and we'll get back to you. A new idea this year will be a bag and cushion raffle. We are asking members to make either a bag or cushion (or hopefully both!) for the raffle. Each item will be displayed, and people will be able to buy a ticket for the bag or cushion of their choice. Each set of tickets will be placed in a separate container for the cushions and in the bag itself for the bags. At the end of the day, a ticket will be drawn from each container, thus ensuring that every winner will be thrilled to get the item they most wanted! What a clever idea! This means that you won't see the item you've made donated to another raffle next week!

There was much excitement when Ruth unveiled the finished group quilt. Everyone was amazed at how good it looked, as several people secretly confided to me that they had been a bit skeptical when the background and balloon blocks had been first displayed! Apart from the fact the 27 people had taken part, the assembling had been done by Ruth, Lynda, Di and Paula. Many thanks to them for all their hard work. (And also thanks to my talented daughter, who gave us design inspiration when we were all stuck!)

On 26th September, Jenny Almond will be running one of her very popular workshops. She brought along various ideas for us to choose from, all with a Christmas theme. The two most popular ones were two lovely wall-hangings, one with houses and reindeer (above) and the other with four different sections (below).

Jenny will teach both items at the workshop, but needs to know how many people want to do

each one so she can prepare the patterns. If you weren't at the meeting, but would like to do the workshop, please decide which is your favourite and let Ruth know. (I like the reindeer one personally!)

Then it was time for show and tell. Brenda Lincoln (a founder member of Piecemakers) has become involved with 'Quilts For Heroes', an organisation which makes quilts for soldiers who have been wounded on active service. She and a group of friends have made quilts and sent them to a military hospital in Suffolk. Apparently when the first quilts arrived, the sergeant took them into the ward, put them in a corner and just made a general announcement that they were there for anyone to take. Since they were all tough soldiers, he wasn't sure how much takeup there would be. When he next went into the ward, the pile of quilts was gone, and there was a quilt on every bed or chair! No one is too tough not to appreciate a quilt!

Brenda is hoping for donations of fabric in red, white, blue or masculine colours and old shirts.

Chris brought several quilts for us to see.I had looked through the donated Linus fabric, and found a lot of dark plaids, which have been put together beautifully in this quilt. Keep up the good work, ladies!

Stephanie had made some cushion covers which were all made from strips of fabric sewn into squares, then chopped and mixed up. This ensured that they all match, as they are all made from the parts. Stephanie and Sharon had finished their hand quilting which they had started on the Sandie Lush workshop. Beautiful work.

Di had made three different bags for the raffle. One was a tote, one a shopping bag and the other a little purse. I'm sure people will be buying lots of tickets to win those.Last year, Flutterwheels's theme was stars. These were choppy stars, which Chris won. She fell in love with the fresh colours and quirky look of these blocks and has made them into a quilt for herself. Perfect colours for a dreary day, I would say. Nearly every meeting sees Paula presenting me with a quilt for Project Linus! This one is dancing gingerbread men (or star jumping gingerbread men as I prefer to call it!) Many thanks Paula. You're a star!

And finally, here is my Mystery Quilt which I made at Rocheberie Quilters in March. It's totally scrappy, as you can see, and quilted with feathers in all the cream spaces. I love it!

Visit to Forge Mill Needle Museum

It was on a warm and pleasant summer's day that 6 members had a visit to the Forge Mill Needle Museum. Our main purpose was to view the exhibition 'Quilting Yarns' which comprised some of the quilts owned by Jane Cobbett, ranging from the 1860s to the 1950s. Here we are in front of the museum. Left to right there is Lynda, Alison, Paula, Ruth, Eileen and Ginnie.

The exhibition was very good, and while it wasn't huge (about 20 pieces altogether) it was lovely to have the time to view and discuss them all in detail, with like-minded enthusiasts. Here are photos of some of the quilts.

This one was entitled 'Woollen Comforter' and was made of feedsacks, recycled clothing and dressmaking scraps from the 1920s and 30s. It was made in Pittsford, New York, USA, and was particularly delightful in the motifs embroidered on many of the patches. Some were initials (including, strangely, Ruth's initials of A.R.W) mostly ending with S, some dated and having ages added - one as young as 3 months, so perhaps not done in person! Some were animals, rabbits, chickens, geese etc., and some little scenes, such as a beehive and returning from milking and other motifs including several hands and a guitar. There were some interesting stitches joining the patches together too, mainly feather stitch but with some intriguing variations. The quilt had cotton wadding and a woollen backing, and six people who all wished they could take it home with them!

This is the Pease quilt. It belonged to the Pease family of Darlington UK but was not British, and had probably been brought over from the USA by them. It was made in the 1880s and the block is called The Star of Alabama. We really liked this quilt, but wondered why the maker had included the two very dark star fabrics in the top blocks. Maybe it was all she had, but we also wondered whether all the fabrics had had the same intensity originally, but the rest had faded. This is where we wished we had more knowledge of dyes and their effects on fabric!

This was a small unfinished fragment called Fussycut Stars. It was Scottish and had been made in the late Victorian era. It was all silk, and the fabrics had been meticulously cut and pieced to make beautiful patterns in the centres of the stars. Some of them (on the bottom right for example) looked as if they had been embroidered, but on closer inspection, it was the pattern of the fabric which had been used to full effect. It had probably been shut in a cupboard for years, as the colours were sumptuous.

Here is another quilt made of silks, velvets and other fabrics. This one is not of the same quality, but when you realise that it had been made by a 12 year old girl called Elizabeth Brown as a doll's quilt, you can appreciate it fully. It was made in Barrow upon Humber, UK in 1877. The unusual arrangement of blocks makes the design look rather like flying geese.

Here is another log cabin, his time in the straight furrows arrangement. This quilt had been made of feedsacks in Nebraska in the 1930s. It had been tied with blue wool, and the ties make a pleasing pattern over the surface. Unusually for an American quilt, it had not been bound, but the edges had been folded in and whipstitched.

This is a Welsh quilt, or at least, what was left of it! The date was not known, but it was made in Glamorgan. Both sides had been cut off for some reason, leaving it in a sorry state. Just imagine if that was your quilt, and someone had taken the scissors to it! It's just too awful to contemplate!

This beautiful quilt is a Bow Tie design, made in 1880, with blocks finishing at 4". We spent some time examining this at close quarters, trying to work out if it had been made over papers or not. (We didn't decide!) But when we had moved on and looked at it from further away, we were able to appreciate the soft colouring.

This Redwork quilt was made in Nantucket Island in the 1940s, probably from a commercial kits or pattern. It charmed us, and intrigued us in equal measure. Most of the blocks were cute designs of Sunbonnet Sue-type figures, but in the centre of the quilt (the first complete row in the picture above the bar) there were the initals V and K. We wondered if these were the initials of the maker or recipient. then we spotted another initial, I, in the second row, second block. Why were these letters included? Were they significant, or were they ones supplied with the kit, or ones she felt like making? There were no answers but we loved the freshness of the quilt.

Once we had viewed the exhibition, we went downstairs to see the recreation of a Victorian needle factory. We were amazed to find it took 30 different proceedures to turn a piece of wire into a needle, and the most skilled part, that of pointing the needle earned its workers a guinea (£1 and one shilling) a week, but gave them silicosis of the lungs, meaning that their life expectancy was only 30 years! Some young people had come to show the workings of the factory and were kind enough to let me take their photos. These young men were doing the shaping and stamping of the needles,

these young ladies were filing the edges of the eyes, and the overseer was keeping a stern eye on them! All in all we had a great day out. The museum is well worth a visit, and there was a lovely picnic space with tables and a children's play area with plenty of space to play and run about. The exhibition runs only till the 28th June, so if you would like to see these quilts (and others) in person, then go quickly or you'll miss your chance. If you can't go but would like to see more of the quilts, look on my blog here for the rest of the photos.