Tulips

Having gone through the Easter weekend and back to normal again, the weekend just whizzed by, how did that happen! We did see members of the family over the holiday weekend and managed to get a trip into Bournemouth, though the weather was awful with high winds, rain (some places had snow!) and cold. I did get a bunch of tulips from Peter and Diane (my brother in law and his partner) in lovely colours and this was the influence in a postcard that I made.

This postcard, which is a shadow applique sandwiched layers of organza and some Angelina fibres trapped is going to the US in a swap with Susan Lenz for the Cyber Fiber exhibition. She sent me a gorgeous card with velvet and chenille which is shown here.



I also finished off a hydrangea wallhanging, from Kumiko Sudo's book Fabled Flowers. It's only taken me since last summer to finish this. Because it is mainly hand sewing I've saved this project for when I've needed something to sew at quilt meetings. Having quilted it the last bit was getting the borders on. I pleased with this it has been worth the wait.

International Quilting Day

On Saturday 15 March my friend Brenda and myself held our fourth IQD at Sturminster Marshall near Wimborne. A very successful day with almost 60 quilters and 4 traders including Pauline's Patchwork and Winifred Cottage. We had 3 demonstrations - one about "fussy cutting" applique, another about the embellishing machine and the third about Suffolk Puffs (aka yo-yos). With lunch, show and tell, a raffle, people also found some time to sew as well! It is a nice sociable day meeting with quilters from different groups in the area. Any profit made from this goes to our chosen charity, which this year is Macmillan Cancer Care.

On a sad note, though, Brenda and I won't be organising another, however Pauline and Sarah from Pauline's Patchwork of Weymouth will be taking this on. It has taken a lot of organising to get to this day each year, so I hope that next year it will be our turn to sew with others.

I will be uploading photo's which another friend, Penny, had kindly taken of the day and they can be linked to here. Meanwhile here is one photo during the show and tell in front on Brenda's quilt with Brenda to the right and myself in the middle, while one of the ladies from Longmeadow Quilters describes her Willow Pattern quilt.

Pictures loaded

Further to my post yesterday here are the pics I was going attach yesterday. The first one shows the goodies that I bought at Exeter on Saturday. The second shows the bag that I finished as part of the bag challenge. Looking forward to the next month's challenge.

Exeter Exhibition and Another Bag

On Saturday I went with other quilters from Poole and Wimborne to the Spring Quilt Fair at Exeter. A nice clear area to view quilts and plenty of room around the traders, local as well as national it made a lovely day out. I've taken a photo of my purchases and you may wonder why I got a Christmas book when it's only March. There were some quirky items which could be adapted to any time of the year, not just Christmas so I think that this book would come in useful. I couldn't resist the "tape measure" tapes and thought they could come in useful on postcards and that fabric with quilters' sayings on, I just had to buy it but not sure how I'll use it just yet. And of course fabrics - I found some with calligraphy, and a dark pink batik. Also some quarters of Japanese fabric which was on special because the designs were discontinued. I've now found that Blogger doesn't want to upload photos, so I'll try again tomorrow.

This evening I've just finished the March bag, well ahead of schedule. Using black and white strips using the "flip and sew" method, with a narrow red band to separate that panel from the top of the bag which also makes the lining. I've enjoyed doing this one as I quite like the quickness of flip and sew.

This week will see me getting ready for the International Quilting Day which my friend Brenda and myself have organised for the past 3 years to celebrate quilting. This will take place on Saturday 15 March (gosh, halfway through March already!)at Sturminster Marshall near Wimborne, Dorset. Here's a link to the photo's from the previous IQD days.

February Bag

I seem to be trying to catch up with myself and in the process have been late with deadlines. I missed an embellisher swap earlier this month and had to drop out, which I hadn't done before. I'd also managed to be late with the February bag challenge on BQL (see the link on the right). Had the month been 31 days long instead of 29 I might have made it! Anyway here it is, all done without the hearts that feature on most of the bags for Feb. A batik fabric, like January's bag, decorated on one side with some couched metallic stranded thread. Already in use, I've taken it to a committee meeting this week and just the right size for folders.

So far I've made 4 bags this year and am on a 5th with the BQL March bag which will feature black and white fabrics with a bright red strip. When I went to one of my quilting groups last night the others there were also working on a bag, but although a nice design I think that one will wait.
This year definitely seems like the year of the bag!

First Postcards of 2008

I've been a little tardy with posting on the blog lately please do excuse me but I have been productive and more will come later. I've made postcards for a Scraps and Stitches swap on Arts In the Mail Yahoo Group. I had 3 to make with 2 going to the US and one in the UK. Having made a batch as one whole piece before I decided I would take this approach again.

In my scrapbag I used odd square of fabric and tried to look for pieces with pictures on them. I've used selvedges before and added them in too. I also found some triangles and made them into quarter or half squares.

I thought how the back looks more interesting than the front and took a pic of that before it was covered with Bondaweb, Pelmet Vilene and backing fabric.

The next pic shows the cards separated and with false binding on them. I hadn't tried this before as I normally use a zig zag or close buttonhole stitch to neaten then edges. The technique was easy, though fiddly but left a nice neat edge so I'll use that again sometime.


The 4th pic shows a different card which is a
February challenge card, using a plain fabric and one thread for the same Yahoo group. I cut the fabric 7" x 5" and marked a 5" x 3" rectangle and stitched twice around it in variegated thread. I then made a wave pattern in the smaller rectangle. With fusible tape around the edge of the fabric this was fused onto the back of the Pelmet Vilene before the backing fabric was fused onto that. A wholecloth quilt on a postcard!

It was great to get back into the swing with cards again and there will be another swap this month
for a different Yahoo Group and that'll be fastenings. Will have to get my thoughts together on that one.