5th February – We have been working on our new year project for three weeks now. This is the brief:
Modern Quilt Project 2020
Think about contrasting families of fabrics. This could refer to the colour groups or the style of the fabrics – the type of print or plain or colour woven fabric. Here are some ideas:
Multi-coloured stripes / Bright batiks / Black and white prints
Spots in bright colours or in black and white
Plain colours – One particular colour or taupes, brights, creams, pastels, etc
Plaids and checks / Black prints / Writing/graphic prints
Large bright florals or very dark florals / Prints in a very definite strong colourway
Ombre – one ombre fabric used across your quilt / Retro prints
Others that you find or happen to have
You need to select 3 or 4 contrasting fabric families to include in your quilt. If choosing 4, one might be a background fabric.
So, just as an example, you might choose a group of black on black prints (group 1) with some black and white spots and stripes (group 2). Then include a group of busy prints ranging from Lime/yellows through oranges to bright pinks (group 3). Finally, a soft subdued plainish colour – a greyish mauve or a taupe perhaps (group 4).
A family can consist of many fabrics that fit in together to form a cohesive group – or it can be just 1 fabric repeated across the quilt. So, you could have 2 – 3 groups, each consisting of quite a few fabrics and then the final group might be just the one fabric
The quilt is going to have an all-over geometric design, with repeated 12¨ x 6″ blocks. Where you place each fabric group within the blocks will radically alter the look of the quilt.
15th January 2020 – Happy New Year everybody.
9th November – We had a fantastic show. It was a superb team effort with everyone working really hard and enthusiastically. It was such a positive experience.
I liked Wendy’s comments: “what a lovely event it was to be part of. Everyone really worked hard as part of a team, everything done in such a spirit of friendliness, helpfulness and constructiveness”.
We couldn’t have managed without all the family members who helped out setting up the night before and afterwards, taking down the exhibition. A special thanks to Marcia who was on her feet all day, running the kitchen.
What was really nice was how busy and buzzing the show was throughout most of the day. We had over 190 visitors. They were very interested and complimentary and what’s more, they bought nearly all the gifts.
30th October – A planning evening. We made lists of quilts, lists of cakes, lists of timings and lists of everything else we could think of and then we folded a thousand raffle tickets. Only 10 days to go!
26th October – Had a good day at Marcia’s and achieved a great deal. We made 4 lovely wreaths, 6 cute Santas, plus we finished off all those niggling little jobs that still needed doing – then we made a start on folding the 1,400 raffle tickets we have sold! and we beat the All Blacks in Japan – what a day!
16th October – It was an exhibition planning evening, mainly. Plus we were wiring components to decorate Christmas wreaths and arranging the strawberries for our strawberry quilt.
I am madly trying to finish quilts for the show. Why don’t I finish each quilt that I start, before moving on to the next one?
14th October –
Made lots of strawberries! Why? Well, we do live on the strawberry line…
9th October – We were working on the layouts (our favourite job) of our 2 new quilts: Aeroplanes, which we are going to make using the quilt-as-you-go method – Each block is sandwiched together with the batting and backing fabric, then it is quilted, before joining all the blocks together.
and Strawberries, for which we are using a staggered layout. We cut all the sashings this evening (those are the strips of background that separate the strawberries) from a very fresh white fabric. So far it is looking very pretty.
and we took this photograph which included a couple of the gifts we will sell at our show in November (only four and a half weeks away)!!!
25th September – We began making our strawberry quilt this evening – It seems like a good idea, as we meet on the Strawberry-line and strawberries form an important local industry. This is the first strawberry…
There will be 25 strawberries in a range of juicy pinks and greens dotted around on a white ground.
10th August – I think it was the first Summer Saturday that we’ve had at Marcia’s – many thanks, Marcia. We made table runners and started on the Christmas wreaths. Lunch was delicious!
13th July – We have had a good day and a very productive one, great lunch! Thank you to Joan for kindly hosting. We have been making evening bags, googly eyed reindeers and Christmas Table runners to sell at the Show in November. We are going to try to fit one more Summer Saturday in before we resume in September.
29th June – We chose the hottest day in the year so far for today’s Summer Saturday workshop!! We made evening bags and wilted in the heat.
15th June – Country Garden Festival at the Bishop’s Palace, Wells
We have spent 3 days at the Garden Festival and although the weather was not good, we had lots of great feedback and interest in the quilt. Visitors were most interested in its construction and loved the colour scheme. We made just over £570 for Guide Dogs and that will really boost the total raised from our quilt raffle.
The atmosphere was relaxed and friendly and the gardens looked absolutely gorgeous!
Tiggi and her lovely Guide Dog, Jackie visited us every day and charmed the visitors.
Summer Saturdays – Had a lovely warm sunny day for quilting. Some worked in the garden, finishing off the snowman buntings, snowmen at the end of May! Others made advent calendars, cushions and worked on ideas for evening bags.
Reindeer cushion Advent calendar – 1 of 4
Snowmen bunting
Janet’s Cottage Garden Quilt – nearly finished
Summer Saturdays – It was nice to see Anne on May 4th. We had a very nice lunch and made good progress with advent calendars and snowmen. Next meeting – May 25th at my home.
Summer Saturdays – Our first Saturday workshop of the summer is coming up – this Saturday – the 4th of May – and we are going to be very busy making advent calendars and snowman buntings. The raffle tickets for our charity quilt have arrived, so we just have to work out where we can sell them. Any ideas?
Easter onward – As is our habit, we plan to meet every few weeks, at each others houses, throughout the summer. We meet for the whole day on Saturdays (roughly once a month) and we get a lot of work done. This summer we will be making gifts and Christmas decorations to sell at our November show, to raise money for Guide Dogs. There is a great deal of laughter and we share a delicious lunch – we all contribute a dish.
Easter Break – We’re making strawberries! You may well ask why. Draycott, where we meet, is on the Strawberry-Line, which was a railway running from Yatton through to Cheddar and Wells. It was known as the “Strawberry Line” because it carried locally grown strawberries to the London markets. Strawberries were collected from the Cheddar Valley villages sheltering under the southern slopes of the Mendip Hills between Cheddar and Wells, transported to Yatton Junction and from there to London. It was in use for roughly 100 years until the 1960’s. Now it is a popular route for walkers and cyclists.
We are going to make a few more!
10th April – Finished the quilt at last!
Tonight was our last Wednesday evening meeting until September. We took a few photographs, enjoyed some delicious nibbles and a cup of tea and made plans for our summer Saturday workdays – Lots of gifts to make!
3rd April – We had a visitor to our group. Tiggi Trethowan kindly came to speak to us and brought her lovely guide dog, Jackie, who is two years old and has been with Tiggi for about a year now. Tiggi described to us how having a guide dog has transformed her life.
The quilt is very nearly finished – Photographs to follow soon!
Janet’s hollyhock applique for her Cottage Garden quilt
As we live in cider country we thought we should make something on the theme of apples for the November show. These stacks of teetering apples are appliqued on linen. We are planning to stretch them over wood to make pictures
27th March – We had a week off this week – a good opportunity to catch up and work towards finishing things. Our members took bits of homework last week. I am working on my cottage garden quilt. It is coming together. We are also making fabric pictures to sell at our show.
20th March – Working on gifts – Mouse doorstops and cushion covers with a definite Christmas feel! I think they just need some eyes.
What is the collective noun for a group of mice? Any ideas?
11th March – Collected our charity Quilt from Midsomer Quilting today – beautifully quilted (as usual) by Yvonne. Many Thanks to Yvonne and to De at Midsomer Quilting
Some of the blocks
6th March – Whilst working on the Folk/Garden quilt, we are also planning our up coming show in November. Time to make gifts and Christmas decorations again. Such fun!
Mouse doorstop
February – I think I should rename this quilt “Cottage Garden” . I am hand quilting, which I am finding quite therapeutic. I can sit and hand stitch while listening to the radio or with a group of fellow quilters.
February – Project going well – This is the plan of the background of our quilts. The fabrics used are quite close together in terms of contrast. The central plain area is where images can be added, mostly appliqued – Yes, the A word! – not popular with all our members. Some are using machine and some, hand applique. There are cats, birds, flowers and insects appearing. More pictures to follow
January 2019 – Our last project was very angular, inspired by winter trees, bare, with lots of fractured lines – not cosy at all! So, to follow, our new project is a complete contrast, with elements of folk quilts or the cottage garden. The background is traditional, square in a square, towards the margins of the quilt. A plainer section zigzags down the centre of the quilt, a focal space for pieced and appliqued images, individual to each member of the group. Photos coming soon.
13th – March – technical hitch! more news and photos to follow soon!
6th March – We had a week off due to severe weather warnings! It was quite dramatic for this part of the world. There was a foot and a half of snow outside my house, but we brought lots of wood in, lit the wood burner, and I settled down to watch the very unusual array of birds (I threw a lot of food out for them), and did some sewing. I dug out an unfinished project from a few years ago
So, this is a project, that I set for the group. Each person had to design or find a basket design. Then they had to make a pattern (to the given dimensions) and write instructions for making their basket block and copy these to each member of the group. The result was that everybody was able to make a quilt incorporating blocks designed by each group member, but made by themselves.
I wanted mine to have the designers names embroidered on each block. This was quite fiddly, which is why it was abandoned for a while – well, a few years actually! – Sometimes it’s hard to get back to things when you’ve put them down for a while.
14th February – This is my quilt top on the left (might have a border added yet). Wendy’s quilt, with bold twigs in yellows and purples is in the centre and looking really good. Janet’s quilt, on the right is very different in look. She has used heavily printed denim coloured fabrics and the twigs are very subtle and less twiggy!
Marcia is working out which blocks to work on and how this will distribute colour across her quilt. She is using warm yellows, greys and ecru.
7th February – The background rectangles are joined into pairs (just in selected areas of the quilt) 4 joined pairs are lined up on top of each other and slashed into 4 sections, which are rearranged and rejoined using fusible interfacing and homemade bias strips (using a bias maker – although our bias strips are cut on the straight, not the bias, as they do not need to form a curve)
30th January – Everyone’s WINTER quilts are coming on really well. It is so interesting to see each person’s different interpretation
17th January – Wow some lovely colour and fabric choices – really exciting!
10th January – Group – Happy New Year! it’s good to be back to Wednesday night meetings and with a new project WINTER – a project inspired by bare trees in winter. The background is made up of rectangles smoothly blended from light to dark or from one colour to another. The shapes are fractured, broken up into geometric shapes, scattered and rejoined with twiggy outlines.
19th November: Helen – Finally recovered from the show – ie started sewing again. I have a quilt top ready for quilting. I’m thinking of quilting it with circles and squares. Circles in the center squares and the first surround and then squares outside that, in black when it is on bright and medium colours and in brights when on black and white. The pattern is a square in a square in a square, sliced into quarters and then mixed up and reassembled. It has 3 definite fabric groups, vivid brights, black and creams and finally colour wovens in fairly neutral colours.
2nd November: Helen – Elephant doorstop – nearly finished – this will be one of the gifts for sale at our show – it only needs its eyes now
23rd October: Helen – Leaf brooch to sell at our exhibition. Panne velvet and batik fabrics onto a felt base, machine stitched and then embelished with beads.
19th October: Mary – I have used transfere dyeing and experimentation, including dyed crimplene to make these 2 containers. The pyramid cushion uses “stitch ‘n’ flip”.
17th October 2017: Sue – I am close to finishing this quilt for a colleague’s wedding. I always piece my quilts by hand. Just the outer borders are added by machine. This is sandwiched with the backing and batting now, ready to quilt.
11th October 2017: We are working hard making gifts to sell at the exhibition in November. Had fun creating these little snowmen, made from fleece fabric with hand-knitted hats and scarves
Nude snowmen “Brrr…” Dressed snowmen “Ahhh…”