July meeting

I was really sorry to miss this meeting, but luckily Di managed to take some photos of Ferret and her quilts. Apparently, Ferret was like 'a breath of fresh air' as she was so down to earth and full of common sense. My kind of quilter!

Here she is, displaying one of her fabulous quilts (with others in the background!) Don't worry if you think your eyes need testing since the photos look a bit blurred, because the photos are a little fuzzy. Di obviously hasn't got an anti-shake device on her camera! Never mind, at least it gives an idea of the goodies which were on show. (Also, it means that Ferret doesn't have to worry. When Di asked her permission to photo her quilts and put them on the blog, she asked whether it was possible to click on the photos and enlarge them. Di was able to reassure her that I'm not clever enough to have worked out how to do that yet! Ferret was pleased, as apparently some Japanese quilters have been finding her designs on the net, enlarging them and stealing her patterns! I can hardly believe that quilters would stoop so low! Still it's reassuring that not only can you not enlarge these photos, but the details are also fuzzy! Sleep easy, Ferret!)

This is Ferret's latest quilt - absolutely fabulous, and well worth a close scrutiny!

The group quilt is looking splendid, and was presented to the Leicestershire and Rutland Air Ambulance as a fund-raiser. Can you spot your blocks?

Doreen is not only talented, but prolific. Here is a beautiful wall hanging which reminds me of a sunset. (I'd like to see it unfuzzy some time!)

Sue had made her Jennie Rayment tucked and twiddled pieces into lovely cushions.

Elaine showed this bag which has lots of useful pockets.

Last year's theme at Flutterwheels was curves, and Stephanie has made up these striking red, black and white curves into this sophistciated Linus quilt. Thank you Stephanie.

The year before last's theme at Flutterwheels was stars, and Bunty has made an excellent job of assembling these gorgeous Mariner's Compass blocks into a fabulous quilt. The orange background really sets the compasses off to perfection!

Gaynor had made this lovely poppies wall hanging. The blue border sets it off well.

This quilt, made by Liz, was from a pattern in MacCall's Quilting magazine. Liz had seen it and fallen in love with it, and knew it would be perfect for her Dad. It's turned out perfectly, and I'm sure he'll treasure it.

No more meetings now until September, so I wish everyone a good summer, and look forward to the show and tell in the autumn!

Beginners' workshop

On Saturday September 18th Lynda Hill will be leading a beginners' workshop. This is for complete beginners, although those with some knowledge will be very welcome. It will be at the Village Hall, Walcote from 10-4. Here is the pattern we will be making.

It is called 'Mount Hood' and is from 'Nickel Quilts' by Pat Speth and Charlene Spode.
We will cover all the basic skills, such as rotary cutting, seam allowances, pressing, chain piecing, thread savers, making four-patches, half square triangles, flying geese and hourglass blocks.

You will need to bring your sewing machine (so long as it sews a straight stitch it will be fine) with a quarter inch foot or a small piece of masking tape, scissors, pins, a soft pencil, thread which is either neutral (grey, tan, lilac, khaki) or to tone in with your colour choices, rotary cutter, ruler and mat (if you have them) and a mug.

You will need fabrics which are dark and light, and the more different fabrics the better! The smallest piece must be at least 5” square.

For a lap quilt (61”x68”), you will need 6 fat quarters of different light fabric (a total of 1.5 metres) and 6 fat quarters (a total of 1.5 metres) of different dark fabric plus fabric for borders, backing and binding.

For a small double (75”x99.5”), you will need 12 fat quarters of different light fabric (a total of 3 metres) and 12 fat quarters (a total of 3 metres) of different dark fabric plus fabric for borders, binding and backing.

To choose your fabrics, I suggest you think of a theme, eg a season - spring (creams, yellows, purples and pinks), summer (green, cream, red, yellow), autumn (gold, brown, red, green) or winter (blue, grey, white, red). This quilt would work well in monochrome, shades of blue, green or red or Christmas colours of red and green. Or, of course, you can just bring a mixture of fabrics which you like.

If you have not booked on this class and would like to join it, there are spaces left. Just leave a comment on this blog and I will add you to the list. For members it costs £10 and for non-members £12. This includes tea and coffee all day! Bargain!

Susie Corke

We were very pleased to welcome Susie Corke, and see her quilts, as she is a traditional quilter, like most of us. Her quilts were all beautiful, and she shared tips on how to achieve accuracy - such as 'measure your borders carefully, and then the quilt will hang flat' - which were very useful.

Here she is in front of her prize winning Sunburst quilt, which was designed, pieced and hand quilted by her. Since the shape is an oval, all the rays are different shapes, and had to be cut individually! It was worth it for such a fabulous result.

She was very generous in allowing people to examine her work after the talk, and give advice.

I particularly liked this triangles quilt, which, with its blue background, looked very 19th century. It was supposed to be a sugar quilt. The blue was blue wrappers for sugar cones, and the top row of every set of triangles was white, to represent the white doily on the edge of the shelf. Lovely.

This quilt is a miniature - hard to believe as the stitching and machine quilting are meticulous.

I think people have been working hard in their gardens lately (or holidaying!) as there were only a few quilts for show and tell. Never mind, what we lacked in quantity, we made up in quality.

Here is one section of the group quilt, all quilted and ready to be joined together.

And here is the rest of the section! It's a 7x7 block arrangement, so is rather large. We'll be putting it together on Wednesday 23rd, and it will be presented to the Leicestershire and Rutland Air Ambulance for them to use in fund raising.

While I was on my feet, I showed this Linus quilt which had been made from blocks donated by Rocheberie Quilters' members. They recently had a games day, where each person was invited to make a 25 patch to use in a bingo game. After the game, people could either take their block home or donate it to charity. Most people donated their blocks, which were divided between Linus and Rose's Alzheimer charity. I divided my blocks into three groups. Ones which were less than the required size of 12.5", brights and pretties. Here are the brights.

And here are the pretties, waiting to be layered and quilted. The smaller blocks have been added to the Linus Orphan box, ready for another project.

I also showed this Linus quilt, made from blocks sewn by Y9 Textiles students at a local school. For more information about this quilt, click here.

Gaynor proudly showed this lovely jacket, made from scraps of flannel - very cosy!

And, it's fully reversable! How clever is that!

Doreen showed this lovely table runner. She loved the subtle greens, but felt it lacked something (don't ask me why!) She's pointing to some painted spirals which echo the fabric design, and add a unifying touch.

Ruth had been busy making a Linus quilt - how sunny and cheery is that!

She had also been busy making maple leaves to take as a present to a relative in Canada, no less! What a fabulous gift!

Stash-busting demos

This month's meeting with stash-busting demos was really interesting - so interesting that I forgot to take any photos until the demos had been packed away! I showed my scrappy hearts demo, where I had a heart quilt made from a bag of Andrea's left-overs. As she quite rightly says, other people's scraps are much more exciting than your own! I also showed a lovely scrap quilt made by Jane, which was simply 3.5" squares joined randomly to 2" by 3.5" bricks (you can do it using leaders and enders) and made a stunning quilt.

Ruth showed how to use scraps to make book covers, and gorgeous apple pin cushions. Fran and friends showed lots of fabric postcards, several of which had actually been posted! Tilly showed fabric flowers (so cute) which were very realistic.

When it came to show and tell, my camera was at the ready.

Doreen was first up, with the beautiful cushion she had made from the Jennie Rayment workshop at Rocheberie Quilters. It's given me some encouragement to do something with my blocks! She also made a couple of the lovely bags which Jenny Almond showed us. They are quite versatile, and can be used on lots of occasions.Has Gaynor been making attractive bags? No, they're two quillows, to which she has cleverly added carrying handles! A quillow is a quilt which folds up into a cushion (the Americans call cushions 'pillows', hence the name).Both quilts are made from jelly rolls in the same way, and it's hard to imagine that they fold up so neatly! Gaynor had also made this quilt in her favourite pastel colours in a kind of French braid design. This is another stash busting idea for using up fabric!

Stephanie had been to Jennie Rayment's workshop on Textured Landscapes, and had had a great day making this landscape of her own.

She had also made this quilt fpr a present. Apparently it was 'easy', as it was quilt as you go. Well, quilt as you go certainly makes the quilt sandwiches more manageable, but the extensive quilting can't have been all that simple!I showed this baby quilt for a colleague's imminently expected first grandchild. It was a Quiltmaker pattern, and went together very quickly. Fran had been making bags, using left over blocks. They look so different and interesting.We had some visitors from Daintre Quilters, who had thoughtfully brought some show and tell, 'just in case'. Ann said she wasn't a traditional quilter, and when having been given some fabric for a challenge, made this piece which she has decided is a garden! Can you see the path on the left of the quilt?

This quilt was one of a series of quilts inspired by World War 1. You can clearly see the devastated fields and the poppies. Lovely.

Her friend Mo was a more traditional quilter, and had made this stunning whole cloth quilt. I was lucky to get a photo which shows off the quilting designs so well. Thank you ladies for visiting, and we hope to see you again soon!

April meeting - Angela Madden

This month's meeting was a talk by the well-known quilter Angela Madden. Angela is well known for her fondness for and skill at Celtic patchwork, but I had no idea how talented she was in so many different areas! She was very generous in showing all her beautiful quilts (I wish I'd got some photos of them!) and also in passing them round so we could see her wonderful quilting and excellent workmanship. She is particularly keen to banish stippling as a quilting technique - or at least, open people's eyes to all the other possible quilting designs. She certainly inspired me to try something new on my next quilt!

Here she is in front of some of the quilts she shared with us.

Here you can get a flavour of the variety of her work.

Her quilts made from photos were fabulous, and very worthy of the prizes she has won with them. Sue, Doreen and Ann are examining the quilts in the hope of picking up some tips. They looked just as fabulous close up as they did from a distance. Lots of people were keen to buy her books, which looked clear and easy to follow.

The show and tell was as varied as ever. Eileen had made this little wall hanging as a present for a new baby.

Ruth had been intrigued by the little bags Jenny Almond showed us last month, and had made several different ones. They're addictive!

She had also finished her little wall hangings from last month too, in a positive and negative design. Lovely.

Bunty had made this Chinese Coins quilt from a jelly roll. A perfect choice of sashing and border colour! Ann had used the same jelly roll to make a completely different quilt! Amazing! Chris (she of the 'wall of shame' with photos of UFOs on it) has finished this lovely top for Project Linus. It really looks good!She also completed this charity quilt made from four quarters of the mystery quilt which we did at Rocheberie Quilters last year. It's hard to realise that each quarter was made independently by a different person!

This is another of Chris's UFOs (she really has a lot of them still!). She bulked out the appliqued centre with scrappy fabrics which play nicely together because they are all blue. The border looks wonderful!This cute child's quilt was made by Di from a panel, but so cleverly!

Tilly had been experimenting with Seminole, and had made this lovely lap quilt.

This quilt is rich and autumnal.

This project bag has been made from leftover blocks. What a clever idea!

This quilt is a log cabin variation. The log cabin block is so versatile, and the different values in this quilt exploit the design to perfection!

Unfortunately, some of the activities we have scheduled have not been as popular as we had hoped and have had to be cancelled. The Patchwork Schoolhouse and Ferret's workshop have both been cancelled due to lack of numbers. However, there are places on a Christmas-themed Schoolhouse on July 17th, and anyone who would like to go is urged to contact Sally directly.