A Colourful Journey

The Easter holidays have flown by in a flurry of days out, painting the boys bedroom and completing my City and Guilds module.

Before the Easter madness started, I sneaked off to Bath for a bit of time to myself. Whenever I am in Bath I have to visit Country Threads. It is my favourite local quilt shop and is a MUST if you visit Bath.

After a little shop I headed off to The American Museum to visit the Kaffe Fassett exhibition.

In the garden leading up to the exhibition space there is a huge tree that has hanging lanterns and pompoms in a riot of colour:

 It really made me smile and is a great way to start the exhibition!

Once inside, nothing can prepared you for the riot of colour! 

When I started patchwork many moons, Kaffe's book Patchwork was one of the first books I bought. It was a real treat to be within breathing distance of some his amazing designs and be able to see the detail of his fabrics up close.

The exhibition is organised into colour sections with pieces of ceramics, paintings, knit wear, tapestry and quilts in each section. 

My favourites were the quilts, which were so beautiful.

This room was so calm and relaxing, with gorgeous greens and pinks. The designs are simply amazing and the wall hanging at the end of the room took my breath away!

Inside the museum proper they have his original fabric design sheets framed and hung. It is fascinating to see how he went from a painting to a full fabric range. Also the bold colours are just gorgeous!

I took LOADS of photos, but these are the ones I love the most!

If you get a chance to go, you must! The exhibition runs until the 2nd November at The American Museum in Bath.

Making Medallion Progress

Last night for the first time in 2 weeks I was able to sit down and do some sewing!

It is kinda strange not having the time to sew when I spend my days teaching others to sew...

Last night it was so nice to go to my studio and shut the world outside for a little bit..

I posted a couple of weeks ago about trying something new. Last night I got back to work on it.

So we started with this:

And last night is turned into this:

Don't look too closely though - the star points aren't perfect but the seams match up in the middle of the block.

I am using 2 fabrics from the bundles by Katy Jones and Rita Hodges, but also adding to it from my lovely stash!

Now onto the next border - 80 small triangles!

The cutting is my job for this evening, but right now I have to get on with my City and Guilds coursework.

Q3 Progress and 2 winners!

On my Q3 list a quilt for my dad that I started 7 ish years ago.

It has been sat bundled up in cupboards in 3 different houses waiting to be loved!

Finally it has been basted and made it to the sewing machine for some Free Motion Magic!

I love the pin wheels and decided to quilt swirls in the spaces around the stars, swirls remind me of wind blowing the pin wheels.

There are some spaces between the pin wheels that are trapped in so I have been putting parallel lines into the triangles. I am using variegated Aurifil thread number 3320. It is perfect for this quilt!

It is a massive under taking to get this quilt done, but I plan to finish it as soon as possible - I think my dad has waiting long enough!

Now to the winners!

Sorry has been a couple of days - time seems to slip past me in the summer holidays!

So the two winners are: Hannah and Helen Lay!

Congratulations!

Can you email me so I can send you a copy of the pattern each?

Off to Festival of Quilts on Thursday - I can't wait!!!!

FAL Q3: my 3 quilts!

How on earth has it got to setting the targets for Q3 of FAL?

This quarter I am going all out..... 3 massive quilts to finish..

Bookcase quilt from the Quilting Bee I organised. I love this quilt and so want it finished!

My dad is travelling back to Penang soon and I would love to have this quilt ready to follow him....

Then there is my Swoon quilt. This needs to be on my bed for the autumn!

So those are my 3 very ambitious projects that I want to try and finish in the next 3 months!

Fingers crossed they all get done!

Linking up with She Can Quilt, FAL Q3.

FAL Q2 - Trip Around the World!

This week has been a momentous week with 2 quilts from my FAL Q2 list finished!

The first one has be delivered to the boy's school this afternoon!

I loved making this quilt top, but I don't like the finished design!

The process of making the scrappy along is so much fun and super quick!

To quilt it I decided to practice writing using FMQ. It is for the older children at the school so I quilted reading quotes into the quilt.

The thread shows up on some fabrics and not on others so the kids will need to look closely to find the words:

I loved quilting it! Putting words into quilts was great fun!

The quotes I quilted were:

"Once you learn to read, you will be forever free" Frederick Douglass

"I have always imagined that paradise would be a kind of library" Jorge Luis Borges

"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read" Groucho Marx

My favourite is the last quote!

Along the bottom I put the words Enjoy, Read and Learn.

It has turned out pretty fun!

Hopefully the kids at the school will enjoy exploring the words and snuggling under the quilt in their new reading den!

Beginners Patchwork - How to Piece

A tutorial for beginners to patchwork: How to Piece Patchwork.

Cotton fabric generally has 2 sides, the right side and the wrong side. The right side is The side where the pattern is brightest:

For solid colour difference is much harder, if not impossible, to see. My motto is 'can't see it, don't care'!

Place one of the squares on top of the other one, right sides together:

Match the edges all around the square and pin, perpendicular to the edge that you are going to join:

Your sewing machine should sew over the pins, if the pin heads are placed on the inside of the block.

Using a 1/4" patchwork foot you will sew along this seam.

A patchwork foot has a metal guide on the right hand side that allows you to line the fabric up against it to give you the perfect 1/4" seam.

Sew this seam, ensuring that the fabric is lined up with the 1/4" guide, remembering to back stitch at the beginning and end:

Back stitching ensures that your stitching won't come apart, so make sure you always back stitch.

Once the 2 blocks are sewn together, the seam needs pressing. You will need a really hot iron.

I prefer to press the seam open, but you can press them towards the darker fabric - experiment and decide which way you prefer.

First spread the seam with your fingers:

Then use the iron to flatten the seam completely:

Turn the piece over and iron the other side too. 

I hope this helps you on your patchwork journey!