Quilt show, Teddington 5- 7 Oct

If you are in the Teddington area next weekend, do drop in to the Richmond and Kew Quilters' biennial show at the Landmark Centre. Easy transport from Waterloo ( no parking there, I'm afraid) , over 100 quilts on display, craft stall, quilters' bric-a-brac, raffles, traders, tea, coffee cakes - not much more needed for the perfect day out. See this quilt live and come and say hello. I'll be there on Saturday and Sunday.

Completely finished and ….. I am in a book

Off to be presented, after a bit of a disaster with dye running. Salvaged by using Synthrapol in a machine wash. I forgot to mention before that this quilt is double-sided. Lots of learning in this one.







And, I received a copy of the CQ@10 book this week and one of my A4 pieces is in it. REAlly exciting to see it in print.

"Finished is better than perfect" weekend

A rare weekend with no family responsibilities gave lots of time to finish some WIPs that were eating into energy that is needed for other creative endeavours. First up, a ' Hawaiian quilting meets Scottish iconography" cushion.



Hand-appliqued with my own design, after a lesson several years ago from Maggie Davies.. Machine quilted.




This will be in the Richmond and Kew Quilters exhibition, on the craft stall or on the cushion raffle.

Next up, quilt as you go pinwheels, which featured here some time ago. Turned into a bit of a "shambles-as-you-go", as once again I launched into the sewing without a complete plan and had to adapt as I went. Hand and machine quilted. Machine quilted with Bottomline thread, which is incredibly fine, so much so that I had to use the Bernina bobbin case finger extension for the first time. Worth exploring if you are having a problem balancing top and bottom tension.


Details of machine quilting

Bank holiday in Dresden,...so to speak

May Bank Holiday, which always means mixed weather.

Lots of good stuff: visitors, boys away pursuing their own interests ( camping and manga respectively), lunch at The Petersham for a significant birthday, charity fair ( with the most obscure charities I have never been aware of).

When is was raining, I spent time stitching Dresden plates, using the technique shown in Karin Hellaby's " Sew a Row" book. I've never been attracted to this book from the cover, but there are lots of really good techniques inside, well illustrated and explained.

Fabrics are from stash: Ricky Tims convergence fabric, bought about 6 years ago in Boston; unnamed fabric from John Lewis sale about 5 years ago, hand-dyed gift from a fellow BQLer. One of them has a stitched motif in the middle, trying to pre-embroider, a la Philippa Naylor ( as if!). These are 12 inch plates, cut using a wedge shaped stencil.