Tuesday 4 September 2012

CQ14 at the Harrogate Show


Undoubtedly CQ14 star of the show was Heather Pratt, seen here with her award, well-deserved, for Best Machine Quilting, for her quilt Mingulay - a Hundred Years On, which also came third in the Large Wallhanging category:


Heather has also sold her first quilt - parting with it must have been difficult but it has gone to a good home.  Her other quilt came second in the Theme category - again well deserved - pipped to the post only by Hilary Beattie's quilt which was runner-up to Best in Show.  Congratulations Heather - good to have such a talented quilter in our midst!


Other successes - Janet Bottomley came third in the Cot Quilt section with this lovely quilt using the crumbs technique (improvised piecing using leftover scraps).


Congratulations Janet, both on this and on the Judge's Merit for the group quilt made using leftover blocks from your group's International Quilting Day event earlier this year.


And to my delight and amazement I got a Judge's Choice for my Green Fuse hanging:


I also entered Sea Edges (having actually managed to finish it in the end!)  Kate Smith was kind enough to say she liked it best of my quilts (it's my favourite too, I must admit, but it tends to hide in the background in quilt shows).


 ...and a miniature quilt, Just for Fun, which to my amazement got third in the Miniature group


... which left me feeling rather embarrassed as I really felt Davina's mittens should have won the Miniature prize (it is much, much better than mine)


 Davina also got my vote for the piece with the most entertainment value - her theme entry contains numerous items beginning with 's' - how many can you see?


I think we've done pretty well especially for a new group.  But we do need more people to enter next year...

Tuesday 21 August 2012

Hi Everyone.
Sorry I missed the last meeting, but am feeling much better now.
Good to see lots of you at Festival of Quilts.  I had a couple of days working on the Guild stand and a day round on the Saturday.  Here are a couple of items I made (well started) at Festival.  I went to a quick and easy workshop with Karin Hellaby where I started the 'hexapillow' with woolies fabric and felt applique.  The seahorse postcard was made at the Region 14 breakfast which was really excellent.  Congratulations to the organising team.  Hazel Williams was leading the postcard workshop done with the wax crayon method, hand embroidery and beading. Both items just a bit of fun and relaxation after the hard work setting up and manning the Guild stand.  See you all soon.

Monday 30 July 2012

July meeting

Another really good meeting at Clifford, beginning with a talk from Davina, who is also a member of the Miniature Group (one of the other QG specialist groups).  She brought along a huge range of beautiful pieces, some of them very tiny indeed:

A number of the pieces above are inspired by the work of Janet Bolton.  They are amazingly tiny


A range of tiny miniatures, some made as presents - birthday, housewarming and so on.



One of my favourites - love the colours!


And this one won an art competition: a picture of the windmills near Denholme, Bradford, set onto the Ordnance Survey map.


And this is Davina herself, with her quilt (in the shape of a teacup) based on Clarice Cliffe.

She also brought along two quilts, including a theme quilt for Harrogate and a beautiful piece also destined for the Miniature section in Harrogate.  Not shown here - you'll have to wait for the show!

A great deal of the remainder of the day was taken up with discussion of the numerous items people had brought along for the Show and tell:

Margaret M and Carol had been to Kate Smith's Disappearing Nine-Patch workshop



and are continuing to explore the many and varied ways in which this technique can be used to produce designs...
and being the prolific people they are had also produced quilts/tops from a workshop on Japanese design given by Gene Bowen:


 

and Leah also attended this workshop and produced two pieces:



And Val Barnard, Andrea and Kath Morrison brought quilts they had made for other people:




Jackie brought a selection of fabrics she had made:  unfortunately one of the most intriguing, made of crumpled brown paper painted red - intended originally for a "red rooster" journal quilt, did not photograph well, but here are the others.  The first has fibres layered with organza (?)


and three pieces of discharged fabrics using different types of twists/folds:




I really should have taken notes then I could have provided more exact details.

Heather showed two beautiful quilts - not shown here because they are bound for Festival of Quilts and the Harrogate Show where they should do very well.  Heather has also offered to bring her work to present to the group at a future meeting.


I brought a couple of unfinished pieces as well, but again these are going to Festival of Quilts so I would prefer not to show them here.  But here's a teaser (this quilt eventually had hop leaves and tendrils added to the vines) complete with quality tester (note the matching eyes!)

Look out for the names Davina Adams, Heather Pratt and Sandra Wyman at the shows this summer!  Django the cat will not be going...

We had intended to discuss ways of approaching designing your own quilts, and there was to be a session on using weird and wonderful fabrics, but the first had to be deferred  because of lack of time, and the second seemed redundant (after seeing the amazing fabrics people had used in their quilts.

And Jacke reckoned it was worth coming from Staithes for: you can't say better than that!

Thursday 28 June 2012

A fond farewell

Just to let you know that sadly I will be unable to come to the next meeting on the 7th because I will be in Cornwall. We were unable to find a house to buy so we're renting for six months or so.

I am thinking about my "Treasures" piece and I hope to be able to come to the meeting on the 8th December to show it off.

As if I haven't got enough to do, I'm doing another online course at Craftsy which is taking me back to some more traditional patchwork making things from Jelly Rolls. It's good practice for me because I missed out on the basics and went into "ART" before I really knew anything. So I'm taking time to learn  a  few basic techniques in between packing boxes!

These pieces are the first things I've made





Next up is the quilting, but that will have to wait until we've moved in to our new home.

It has been a real pleasure getting to know you all and I will miss you. Sandra has my new address which she will let you have if you'd like it, but we don't yet have a phone number. My email address will stay the same.  Please keep in touch and if you happen to be visiting Falmouth or nearby, please call in. I will be at Festival of Quilts until the Saturday and am staying at the Holiday Inn Express so I might run into some of you then.

Bye for now!

Penny xxx

Sunday 24 June 2012

Stencilling on Fabric

I missed the session when CG14 members did stencilling on fabric with markel paintsticks - so I had a go this week.  I did the first layer on Wednesday morning and was late leaving for work.  I drove about two miles down the road and realised I'd forgotten my lunch - so I was even later!!  Quilting rules! 

This is the first layer of stencilling ~ I did it on hand dyed cotton fabric.

After a second application the colour is a little stronger - it is now layered up and ready for quilting!

Saturday 12 May 2012

Postcards

Here are a few postcards developed from the printing/drawing fun session we had a while ago.  Just some simple hand stitching, machining and beading.  Good fun.   

Monday 7 May 2012

Pulling ideas together




I was really inspired by Janet Bottomley's Liberated Quilting workshop and driven to see how the techniques would develop on a larger scale. I made the Diamond Jubilee in asterisk squares and even got the T-Shirt. I went on to make the pointed stars in some very challenging colours which I am calling Commonwealth. I mused over Sandra's workshop products that we created using wax crayons, acrylic paints and then embellished with fabric pens. I could not find a way to pull them all together so I dyed them with reactive dyes and created my Raspberry Delight. It was all great fun and I learnt so much pulling the Liberated Quilts together whilst incorporating the other techniques that we have explored so far. Can't wait for the next meeting.