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

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!

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.

 

 

 

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.

Treasure

Treasure is the theme of the challenge for the group decided on at last week's meeting.  It came from someone saying they would love to work on something related to the Staffordshire Hoard (the picture shows a piece from the hoard, a fitting for the hilt of a sword, made from gold and set with garnets).  Fairly speedily we swooped on the theme of treasure (having decided that a broad theme that could be interpreted in various ways would be the most likely to inspire us).  So: challenge details as follows:

• interpret the them in any way you choose
• any size from postcard upwards
• as many or as few pieces as you like
• flat or 3D
• any techniques
• deadline is the last meeting of the year, which is on the 8th December

All these things have been kept deliberately as open as possible to enable people to join in in any way they like.

Also at the meeting we decided that sharing and learning were our priorities, though which of these came first varied from one person to another: some wanted to get on with making whilst others wanted time to explore new techniques.  The upshot of the discussion was that meetings would be more flexible: with time for people to come and sew and share ideas but with the opportunity, as an optional activity, for people to have the chance to learn new techniques/try out new approaches and materials.  Hopefully this will cater both for people who are suffering from technique overload as a result of doing City and Guilds recently as well as those who are relative newcomers to contemporary quilting.

One are that came to the fore was the need to have a new approach to the "Show and Tell" sections of meetings, including not just finished items but also works in progress,  either as a means of sharing with people the ways in which things happen for each of us, or asking for advice when we get stuck: again what we share is also optional - if anyone feels the need to eep their work under wraps until it's finished that's OK too.

This has been a long post - sorry - I'll conclude with the dates of future meetings: all Saturdays, all at Clifford Village Hall:  July 7th (sorry about the distance between meetings here, but the hall is undergoing renovation work on the date we'd originally booked); August 4th; October 20th; December 12th.  Hope to see you there!

Hello from Sandra

Hi there - thought I'd better introduce myself.  I'm Sandra and I am the convenor of this group (for those who don't know me!).  I did my first patchwork (a maxi-skirt in large hexagons, pieced over paper) in 1971, continued with it intermittently until the mid 1980s when I learnt how to do it properly.  When I had to retire prematurely from teaching through ill health (ME/CFS) in 1993, it was a lifesaver: even when I couldn't do much else (at the time I couldn't even knit because my hand-muscles gave out) I could always do a bit of hand-stitching and it really helped to be able to play with colour and design.  A few years later I was once again able to sit at the sewing-machine again and I was off, eventually taking City and Guilds with Christine Shaw at Askham Bryan College and some time later starting a business dyeing fabrics for dyers and quilters, which lasted for about three years before I had to give it up (good at dyeing, hopeless at running a business especially the finances!)

Nowadays I'm properly retired and spend a lot of time sewing and the remainder of it procrastinating. I joined Contemporary Quilt in 2008 and really enjoy it especially the companionship of like-minded people.  I'm based in Leeds and am also a member of Alwoodley Quilters, as well as occasionally attending CQ groups in Manchester and Cheshire.

As well as quilting I read a lot and do the occasional bit of drawing and painting (not very good but I learn a lot from doing it!)

HELLO

Hi val trying out my first ever blog, before I start on my C&G folder I am a little behind and folders go to tutor next month so it's all go. Will be able to attend CQ14 when this is over at the end of 2012