At the beginning of August I spent two fantastic days at a workshop with Katherine Guerrier called Houses with Attitude! I went because she is one of my quilting heroes – I hugely admire her kwirky style -
and enjoyed a workshop with her at the NEC some years ago when we made art wall hangings.
It was a really fun two days – playing with fabrics, being free to create and improvise. I made two houses with some fillers and trees -
And having thought originally I’d just do a wall hanging, I think I’ll make some more and make a fun lap quilt to bring a smile on those dull days. It’s a great scrap user uppers and makes a nice change from making blocks.
A friend of mine who is involved in the River Waveney Trust has been organising an auction of items and promises to raise money and asked if I had anything I was happy to donate.
I made the Irish Coffee quilt a number of years ago – it was exhibited at one of the Roothing Valley quilt shows and has covered one of our beds for a number of years. It seemed time to let it go to a new home.
I was delighted to hear that it had been bought by a man for his wife who is largely bed ridden. I so hope she gets pleasure from it as well as keeping her warm.
I was recently in the US and realised that I wasn’t a million miles from Jinny Beyer’s Studio in Great Falls, Virginia.
I have huge admiration for her fabrics as well as the wonderful book she took 10 years to produce which catalogues lots of patchwork blocks. I find it a wonderful resource if I’m looking for inspiration or am looking for a particular book.Jenny was at the shop and it was lovely to meet her in person. They were taking part in a shop hop across North Virginia and Maryland so the place was buzzing with ladies who were visiting all 10 shops and picking up free patterns and other goodies.
Knowing I was unlikely to be back – at least for a while – I bought some lovely kits of her fabrics which I’m now itching to start.
Earlier this week, we went to the American Museums just outside Bath. It’s 30 years since I last visited – the quilts there were the inspiration that resulted in me eventually starting to quilt myself.
The Kaffe Fassett exhibition was wonderful, quirky and had a tremendous feel good feeling right from the start
I particularly liked the way the exhibition pulled together the various medium he has used into the different colours which showed how the same tones have run through all his work.
Like many, I first came across Kaffe Fassett with his designs for Rowan Yarns – I loved both the yarns and the wonderful designs. Then I rediscovered him when he moved to needlepoint – I’d done tapestry since I was a teenager and very much welcomed his colours and freer designs.
And of course, now I enjoy making quilts from his wonderful fabrics. What a talented and inspiring man!
Yesterday a friend and I made our annual trip to the NEC for the Festival of Quilts. It’s always such an inspiration to see the variety of ideas, interpretations and just beautiful quilts.
I was really pleased that Philippa Naylor had won the traditional quilt category and thought the quilt was superb
Last summer the canopy on our swing seat finally got to the stage when it needed replacing. So in the expectation of some lovely sunny days, I took advantage of a rather wet weekend to use up some of my scraps and make new one.
It was all rather iterative – ie I made it up as I went along! which was very relaxing and then lightly quilted it with leaves and flowers.
After the rain stopped yesterday afternoon, I was able to sit back and enjoy the garden.
We’ve recently been on holiday in Germany and spent a couple of days in Hamburg. I took the opportunity to search the Internet and found a quilt shop to visit!
The Quilt House (www.quilthouse.de) is located quite close to the centre of Hamburg and while there isn’t a great deal of fabric to fondle, there were some super quilts on display. Both the owner, Andreas, and his mother are long arm quilters so we found much in common!
He also designs templates and patterns – the day we called in they had had a delivery of plastic templates and were busy making up the instruction packs. Needless to say I bought one together with some fabric and a magazine to give me a fix after two weeks of patchwork abstinence!
We’re having an Open Gardens & Scarecrow Show in our village today. Rather ambitiously, we decided to make Hector and Hessian jumping over our hedge. It seemed like a good idea before we started!
It has taken much studying of pictures of horses jumping over fences, quite a bit of hessian and straw and lots of invention! Getting him in position over the holly hedge last night was a challenge but a bit of bribery of male family members with a BBQ first seemed to do the trick
Enjoying the exploration of all patchwork and quilting has to offer
