And another!

Last week was a busy one. There was Alwoodley Quilter's AGM on Tuesday,(will the committee heed our pleas for some inspirational workshops/speakers!).
Wednesday I had my first session of accupunture at the Jade centre with Louise. I wasn't sure what to expect, but was very impressed and returned home very relaxed and a bit less itchy!
Thursday Sandra, Chris and Val came round and we spent a very happy few hours talking about the process of designing from a source. Inspirational photos were very abundant as was the lovely food they had brought with them. My DH made us some of his excellent curried parsnip soup with cheesy croutons. Always a treat! After lunch we all set to with paper, scissors, coloured pencils and paint and had a throroughly happy hour or two before they departed.
I am enjoying these sessions with our little informal group, but ideally Sandra and I would like to set up a larger group and include members of the Contemporary Quilt group. This is a hot topic around the country at present with lots of local groups starting up and was raised at the Contemporary Quilt Group AGM in London which Sandra, Julie and I attended yesterday.

The meeting was held at the American Church in Tottenham Court Road and after the business was finished and we had had lunch and mingled a bit, Jo Budd gave us an inspiration talk about her work and how it has developed. It was wonderful to renew my aquaintance with friends I hadn't seen for a while and to meet new people. There was a lovely buzz around the room and some lovely work on display which gave us plenty to talk about.

Here are Sandra and Julie squinting against the bright sunshine waiting to go into the meeting. We were in the shadow of the GPO tower and I couldn't resist taking a snap. What memories this brought back!

Although the meeting itself was very enjoyable, the venue had it's problems. There were a lot of other activities going on and so there was some noise from outside. The room was also quite hot and stuffy which did detract a bit from the enjoyment of Jo's powerpoint presentation.

I don't think I will venture down the same path as Jo, but her work is stunning with some smaller pieces as well a some very large ones. I have to confess to not having been too impressed with her exhibits at the Quilt Exhibition at the V&A last year, but I think now that this may have been partly due to the fact that they were not very prominently displayed. In fact I think we almost walked past the side gallery where they were hung without realising they were there. Having heard Jo talk about them I would now like to see them again. I feel priviledged to have had the opportunity of seeing her work, hearing her talk about it and be able to admit that perhaps I was wrong about it!

Life has some hard lessons to teach us!

I was also priviledged to meet Helen Parrott especially since I was lucky enough to get a place on her workshop at the CQ summerschool.
All in all a truly grand day out and a good journey home as we found that more CQ friends were travelling in our compartment. I'm not sure what the other passengers thought of our conversation, but we enjoyed ourselves!

A grand day out

Although I've been a member of the Quilter's Guild for some time, apart from a few visits to the Museum in York, I haven't done much in the way of Guild activities. So, with some feelings of trepidation, I decided to go to our Regional Day on Saturday. I have admired Ineke Berlyn's work for some time and she was the speaker for the day and I didn't want to miss the opportunity of seeing her and hearing about her work.

The meeting was held in a church hall in Kirkheaton near Huddersfield which isn't a part of the country I know very well, but the directions were good and we found it with out difficulty. Parking was a bit iffy because there weren'y many spaces left and the overflow car park was a very muddy field that noone really wanted to venture into. So we bunched up and parked where we could!

Everyone was very friendly and there was a lovely buzz about the day. Ineke's talk was so inspiring and she is very generous and happy to talk about her work and share her methods. This lovely quilt is made with transparent fabrics printed with ammonites. Ineke also brought her sketch books and these were truly wonderful. She works in her sketch books a lot before deciding on a final design for her quilts. I must say that I don't do anywhere near enough work of this kind and so I've started to address that. It's a good way of using up all those old magazines, photos etc.

After lunch we set about hand stitching some little blocks that will form part of a group quilt next year. We had been asked to take some blue fabrics in dark and medium shades. Even with all my stash, I was a bit doubtful that my fabrics were suitable, but as usual, they were and I needn't have worried. In fact, everyone had taken lots more fabric than I had, so there would have been plenty to go round! I didn't get mine finished on the day, but here are some that were!

So, a truly grand day out and I came home with Lutradur, a new book and lovely memories!

Making it lie flat!

I seem to have become a Contemporary Quilter without knowing anything about how to sew pieces of fabric together so they lie flat! Having been a dress maker and embroiderer for longer than I care to remember, I thought it was time to start making quilts! Easy, or so I thought, but I have realised that in doing things the way I have done, I've missed out on learning how to get the basics right! It's not really a question of matching corners and points, although that would be nice, it's getting my seams organised so that there aren't lots of lumps and bumps where there shouldn't be.

 So here is my ninepatch block which is lying much flatter and below, the little sample that isn't!

I wouldn't have known how to go about this, had I not met a lovely traditional quilter on Saturday who was so generous as to share her tips and tricks with me. Now of course, I know how much I don't know, I'm thinking I will have to do something about brushing up my basic techniques before I can call myself any kind of quilter!  Just when I thought I was about to become a textile artist too! 

Our new group of Contemporary Quilters met for the first time over in Cadisham on Saturday. We have decided to call the group Textile without limits because we wanted our name to reflect our diversity of talents and didn't want to be seen as "just another quilting group". It was a lively meeting and not only did we all get on very well, we all seem to have similar objectives. This isn't going to be a group where we turn up, drink tea and chat. We already have a challenge to prepare  and are planning on spending time mark making and mono printing at the next meeting! It was a longish day, but very rewarding and I'm so glad I went.  Am I really going to spend a lot of time on patchwork for it's own sake? Somehow I doubt it!

Belated New Year Resolutions

So Christmas came and went and the colds and coughs seem to be going too. As we were not able to have our visit to Cornwall for Christmas as we had planned, we went last week and have only just got back. We had rather a lot of rain, but also three glorious days, one at the Lizard, one at St Ives and Cape Cornwall, and one in Bude for my sister's birthday. Our last afternoon was spent sitting looking at the sea. It was a very wet and windy day and the waves were large and crashy! Sometimes we do this when we have big decisions to make, or when we just want to take time out and let the rest of the world go by. So while sitting watching the sea, we were able to decide that we are not moving to Cornwall this year, that I am going to make more time for my weaving, we're going to get the garden sorted out, the garage reroofed and the drive blockpaved! I am also going to get more exercise so that I am ready for our holiday in the Outer Hebrides in May.

Last years CQ journal quilt challenge was completed, but only by the skin of my teeth, and I was only able to upload the photos on the day we actually drove to Cornwall! The photos are not brilliant because I dropped my camera and it seems to have resented it!
For some reason Blogger won't upload Decembers JQ, but here are September, October and November.

Do I really want all the hassle and pressure this year, or shall I concentrate on my weaving as I had promised I would?

My CQ newsletter arrived yesterday with details of the Summer School workshops and also the Journal Quilt Challenge for 2011. Having already decided not to sign up for the challenge, I found myself drawing out a 10 inch square (this year's size) on a piece of paper. That's as far as I got before the ideas started to arrive. But no, I am not doing it!!! I have a warp partly wound and I am determined to get it on the loom and finished before we go to Scotland! But there was a full moon last night, and other circular ideas keep trying to float to the top of the muddle in my head! Who knows where it will lead!

I decided I would apply to go to Summer School this year, so my form and cheque were posted this morning. No more decisions for now and it's back to the warping frame!

Stir crazy

We have had snow on the ground since Monday and as it has been very VERY cold, we have not ventured out much. An ideal opportunity to get all my journal quilts, christma postcards and UFOs finished. Well that was the theory! I did get one journal quilt finished, so just three to go. Must get a move on!! My postcards are also getting done gradually, but on Tuesday I ran out of pelmet vilene so there was a brief halt to proceedings. Never mind, we'll pop into town on Wednesday morning and get some more!

The best laid plans etc!! Wednesday started OK, but soon deteriorated and it snowed heavily all day. As we were confined to barracks yet again, and no pelmet vilene could be got, I improvised with some calico and bondaweb! Actually, I think I prefer the slightly more flexible result this gives.

Here is an interesting view of our doorstep which gave me some ideas for my December journal quilt. I treated myself to some new threads at the Knitting and Stitching show and I'm going to try using them for free machine embroidery and give the supreme slider another run out. White on white sums up what we've been subjected to this week!
There were some more snowy photos, but for some reason, blogger won't let me upload any more!

Anyway, the sun is shining today and it's not so cold, so I'll be vernturing out later to soak up the sunshine!!

Catching up

So, that was May and it's now November! Oh dear, very bad blogger!
However, I have not been idle. I have started three small quilts, have actually finished four journal quilts, finished and delivered seven postcards, done two more workshops, visited the Festival of Quilts and have been busy thinking up new ideas for the final four journal quilts and the Alwoodley Quilters Christmas Challenge! There are also eight more Christmas postcards to do. Phew!

This morning my Supreme Slider arrived, so this afternoon, I'm free machining rather than blogging!

So that's all for now, but watch this space!

Out and about

So, Monday dawned after a really hot weekend in the garden and on the allotment and off to the station to catch the train to London. Val and I were off to the V&A to see the quilt exhibition. London was hot, noisy and dirty, but it felt so good to be there after a long time away. Shame I forgot to take the AtoZ and wore the wrong shoes, but I managed to have a great time.

We got a sandwich and found a shady spot in Green Park to have a picnic. Then we set off to walk to the V&A, but it was so hot, and without the AtoZ I wasn't sure of the way, so we got a cab and arrived well in time for our start time of 2.30.

The exhibition was womderful. There was a good balance between the ancient and modern and we took our time going around. We had chosen a fairly quiet time, so we didn't have trouble getting close to the quilts. The old quilts were very impressive, especially considering that they were all done by hand. No photos allowed, but my favourites were King George reviewing the troops, the quilt made by prisoners in Wandsworth prison for Fine Cell Work and Pauline Burbridge's Applecross quilt. So then back out into the sunshine for a cup of tea in the courtyard in the company of a Black Backed gull and various small children cooling themselves in the fountain before we headed off to get something to eat and the train home.

The least said about the journey home the better, but we did get back at last,  an hour later than we should have done and feeling very jaded.

So then to Alwoodly quilter's on Tuesday morning where Sandra was showing us a technique she called shattered flowers. This invovled using a large floral print which was cut up and arranged on a grid. Keeping track of all the little pieces was tricky, but I managed to get the grid covered. Will I do anything with it? We'll see, but for now it's going on the WIP pile where no doubt it will gather quite a bit of dust!

Then in the afternoon, Sandra and I went up to the Quilt Museum in York to see a demonstration by Alicia Merritt. Alicia was showing us how to  use curved piecing techniques and creating wonderful blocks of coloured squares and rectangles. Sandra and I met up with her friend Julie who is also a blogger and very busy indeed. There was a lot to talk about, and another chance to look at the Breakthrough exhibition before we headed for home.

So, no photos, but today I'm recovering by doing a little gentle stitching and catching up on the Chelsea Flower Show!