Festival of Fun

Charity Begins At Home 

I started 2022 meaning to post a blog at least every other month. But somehow I just haven't found the time. Much of my quilting has been for charitable causes this year. I undertook this mammoth quilt on behalf of Connecting Threads group in Elstree. Apparently, it was 'inherited' partly completed. 

The appliquéd panels are actually printed, but look very effective and were fun to echo. And the large pieced blocks were interesting designs that I had not come across before. Hopefully it will be auctioned or raffled in aid of NSPCC. 

I went on to do four more charity quilts for Connecting Threads, as Anne Sykes had asked the ladies to do some scrappy blocks and she had been somewhat overwhelmed by the response. It was fun and also a good opportunity for me to try out a few different designs. For example I had never done ‘wood grain’ before. 

Many other colourful quilts have passed through my studio so far this year, as I continue to receive beautiful tops by post, from all my talented friends in Hertfordshire. Here are just a few :

Beautiful teal colour by Jackie - her best yet!

Huge Pretty Liberty fabric quilt by Jean Smith.

This lovely 

Japanese fabric stunner by ‘novice’ Denise Pearson.

Red and grey contrasting - so dramatic. By Jean Hall.

Bubbles on a white background on this very different strip quilt by Val

 

And this was my parting challenge to the ladies of Studio Quilters. I left them with a pile of scrap strip sets, some orphan pinwheels and a background fabric and they turned out this fascinating scrappy quilt top which I have quilted and returned for them to sell for NSPCC.

Now I am just recovering from yesterday’s super Festival of Quilts with a head full of ideas (and a bag full of ‘too pretty to pass by’ PINK fabric). I also met up with all my dear friends from Connecting Threads and Studio Quilters and collected FIVE quilt tops from them before they left on their coach!

 

Phew! That’ll keep me busy for a while.

Happy Quilting Everyone - Stay safe and keep cheerful! 

Thank you for visiting my blog and for leaving your comments. Please share on Facebook, Pinterest  etc.

www.englishquilter.co.uk

Challenge started

 Happy New Year

 

Well I didn't find time to post a blog before the end of 2021 - so I thought I would start off 2022 as I mean to go on! 

The Quiltathon at Pinhole Quilting in October ended up being a great success. By the end of day 2 we had completed nearly 70 quilts. These were distributed to be given to young people leaving care at special dinners this Christmas. 

I managed six, all with different free motion designs and it was so inspiring. I was in such a groove that I carried on with the last design the next day, and quilted these large 'double  bubbles' on this cool monochrome quilt for Marion.

I delivered my Peter Rabbit quilt for Benjamin, my gorgeous little grandson, who arrived safe and sound in November.

  

 Lots of Fussy cutting of the Peter Rabbit motifs.  

       

Poor little lad is getting the full Beatrix Potter treatment before he gets old enough to object! 😂 But his Mum seemed to like it. 

Here are some of the other lovely quilts I got to work on lately.

Another charming little nursery quilt by Jean Smith. I just love what she does! 

And this is 'I SPY' by Innes at Childswickham Quilters, a local group I have just joined. So much fun to look at while I quilted it.

Last year I told you about the vintage quilt kit I have taken on. so far, I had only managed to sort out all the fabrics by colour, list the numbered shapes and put them in separate bags. That was enough to make me realise what a daunting task this is going to be! 

But today I have started to tackle it. I can now appreciate the problems faced by the original (unknown) sewer when she started it. All the hundreds of shapes are stamped (with their corresponding numbers) onto the various coloured fabrics. Some of them were rather blurry, especially on the dark green and red fabrics and they were difficult to read. The fabric is also very thin and flimsy and was all scrunched up. I doubt whether she had such sharp scissors as I was able to use. 

 

So, I sorted out the right pieces to work on just one flower head. It has taken me all day just to do this.

Some of it is looking a bit aged and I am hoping to be able to give it a gentle wash before I get to quilt it. 

But that could be a few years off yet!

Happy Quilting Everyone - Stay safe and keep cheerful! 

Thank you for visiting my blog and for leaving your comments. Please share on Facebook, Pinterest  etc.

www.englishquilter.co.uk