A Village Quilter

Well here we all are at the Bramble Patch on a Linus Day. We all had a great time - very relaxing but you know you're making a small contribution. Next are my bargain books from Amazon UK. The three large ones were only £3.00 each and I just thought that 'Zen and the art of quilting' would be a fun book to look at. And finally - I've been very envious of those of you who have been re-vamping their craft rooms - well this is my small effort. DH very kindly put up these two cork noticeboards so I can use them as mood boards for me to look at whilst I'm sewing. The weather has been very strange lately - freezing on Sunday - humid today and just lots and lots of rain.

Thought I'd share a few photos with you of more things I've made for the festival in June . As you can see aprons have made an appearance - McCall's 2947. There's really 2 aprons - both with the apple fabric but one with matching pockets and ties and the other with contrasting ones (as I ran out of apple fabric). Next are yet more bags - made from the remnants I bought from Fenwicks - I'm rather pleased with them. Hopefully it'll all sell. And finally I said in my 7 random facts that I love a cup of tea - well in the UK you can get a cup of tea in a pub these days - very civilised. And I can't wait until the 1st July when the smoking ban comes intro force and the pubs will all be smoke free. Hurrah...... Well this one of the pubs in the village Ye Olde Red Lion - very traditional looking with a good menu and great guest beers - it's in the CAMRA book. If you're passing, pop in - it's well worth a visit.

Hi to all of you out there. I'm still getting very excited about the red dots on my blogging map. So thanks for looking and I hope you like what you see. I'd love to hear from you all. Flo is having a great time now in the garden - without being supervised on her harness. She still hasn't worked out that plants aren't solid and she can't use them to stand on. It's very funny to watch her running around and bouncing chasing bees and birds. As this is yet another Bank Holiday weekend so it's raining - but she doesn't seem to mind it at all. I'd also like to highlight a new forum to you all - The Quilters Toolbox. Please have a look and have a chat with fellow quilters. I thought I'd share a few more photos from Malvern - this time I'm going to focus on those exhibits that used hand dyed fabrics. You'll see they've been used in lots of different ways - I'm sure you'll like them: Oaks & Ferns - by Mary Button. A great examp...

I thought I'd go through some of the photos I took at Malvern to illustrate some techniques I noticed. Brenda suggested that when we visit a show we should be clear why we are visiting it - what we want to gain. Now if all you want is a nice day out - great - but if you want to see what techniques are used and how they are used, then that's what you should take note of. Malvern isn't the biggest show going - it's not on the same scale at the Festival of Quilts at the NEC ; however, don't think this means the quality is any less. I really enjoyed the day out and saw lots of different techniques used in very different ways. So in this post I'll include some photos that I think show the ways in which photo transfer have been used - you may like some more than others, but the idea is just to see how they are used. Please excuse the quality - I'm still getting used to our digital camera.

Well - a very exciting post day as my first package from the Fabric Swap 3 came through - it was from Penny . It's all really nice - I'm really pleased and I'll share with you all what I make with them. Next is the log style cabin I made with the potassium permanganate fabrics made at Edwina's class at Bramble Patch together with the photo transfer fabric from last weeks class with Brenda Boardman. I was really pleased with the results so far - there is still some work to do on it. Can you see the fabric I made the other week has also been incorporated? And finally here's a photo of Flo's first outing (without harness) into the big wide world of the garden. She really enjoyed chasing the bees. I hope you can see her peeping out.

Well I've had a request to give a few more details of my purchases - so here goes: From Art Van Go : Xpanaprint Crayola Fabrc crayons Pentel Fabricfun Pastel Dye Sticks The Silk Route: Noil Gauze Silk Niol SIlk Dupion Ario Ario cold water soluble fabric pipettes Acrylic gesso Also from other stalls I can't remember: Texere Yarns variety bag linen of some sort 3 bits of bargain fabric Needles - very important as you should replace them very regularly. I've been thinking about the show at Malvern and have edited my photos so I'll be able to post details tomorrow.

Well what a great show - I'm sure the fantastic weather helped. As you can see from the photos we like to do these shows in style - so we start the day with coffee looking at the Malvern Hills, have salmon sarnies, salad, champagne and fruit for lunch and then Victoria Sponge cake and tea in the afternoon. We were lucky this year the weather was great - last year we sat in the car passing food around and steaming up the windows. The show itself was very good - I'll give you more of an update when I've collected my thoughts and they're more ordered. I did buy a few things - but I don't think I was too naughty.

Well - a really quick blog tonight as I need to sort out my shopping list for Malvern for tomorrow. I thought I'd post a few photos of my class today at The Bramble Patch. The first on is of the class gathered around looking at Leanne's work as she was trying to decide how to put her quilt together. The next one is an empty class room - it shows the work Brenda has put up to illustrate the photo transfer technique we were using. The last one is of our work pinned up for 'show and tell' - my work is top right - the brown log style cabin. I think we all had a great day and learnt lots. I thought some of you might like to see Flo in her blue velvet harness having a walk around the garden. She's not very keen on the outdoor life at present - she'll have to get used to it. She was also very naughty as instead of being subdued after her little op - she decided she'd like to run up the curtains, just to see how much my blood pressure could take.

Many thanks to Jade and Jessica for tagging me. The idea is that each person tagged gives 7 random facts about themselves. Those who are tagged need to write on their own blog those 7 facts as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag seven others and list their names on your blog. You have to leave those you plan on tagging a note in their comments so they know that they have been tagged and to read your blog. So here goes: 1. Whilst at senior school I inadvertently dyed my hair pink. It was in the days when Toners and Shaders were just on the market. I thought the old one had washed out - but it obviously hadn't as it reacted with the new one and went pink. Luckily it did wash out over a period of time. 2. I got married (very young - child bride) in an emerald green dress. I looked like a corpse in white as I'm so pale. 3. I used to work in a bingo hall. I hated it - smokey, very static carpets and terrible hours. I was so glad I only had to give 1 weeks notice. 4. I a...

Sorry I've been away for a few days - been busy playing with my Bubble Jet Set 2000. I must say it was really easy to use and there was no mess. I used a whole range of fabrics to test it out - linen, scrim, calico, silk fine, silk coloured, dyeing cotton and a synthetic silk. I treated the fabric, let it dry and then ironed it to the freezer paper. It was easy to put it through the printer - I printed 2 A5 images on each piece of fabric. When it was dry I cut each piece in half and washed one half in a gentle solution and then washed it at 30 degrees. I wanted to do this to see how the ink faded with washing and what the fabric felt like. I must say I was rather pleased with the results. When I've got it organised and in my sketch book I'll take some photos to show you. But honestly it was very easy to do. Yesterday I happened across a really good art installation at the Leamington Spa Museum . It was by Jo Roberts , and was titled 'Finding a Way Through'. It's...

Thought I'd share a couple of recent purchases I made. The first photo are my purchases from Wilkinson's - yes humble little Wilkinson's . I've learnt there are lots of good crafty things in the kids art section in lots of shops and Wilkinson's was a real find. You may wonder why on earth I bought them - well they're for my dying and printing classes - and as they were from Wilkinson's they were really cheap. I think this lot cost about a fiver. Unfortunately I've rediscovered E-bay - but what a find these black Bakelite buttons were. I don't think my poor photo really does them justice but I'm really pleased with them - they're so delicate and beautiful . I've also been playing around with some machine embroidery. The book I've been working from is 'Beginner's guide to machine embroidery' by Pam Watts . It's a slim but practical book . The first sample has a backing of calico, with a piece of silk with va...

As I'm still plodding on (but making progress) with hand quilting my large quilt I thought I'd share photos of a couple of cushions I've made for the raffle at our festival. The idea is that we each make 2 cushions and those buying raffle tickets can pick which cushion they'd like to win. We'll be raffling at least 5 cushions on both the Saturday and Sunday. We hope that all of the cushions will be very different and so they'll be lots of choice for people. The orange and purple one is a colour combination I wouldn't usually use but a cushion is ideal for trying out new colour combinations. The brown one has fluffy edges - it was a bit hit and miss how it was put together - I'd seen one in a shop and made it up as I went along. I'll be demo-ing this at our quilting retreat - when I do instructions I'll share them with you. Thanks for all of the comments from the last post - I'll give the magnetic clips a try later this week or at the weekend ...

As promised here is the pattern I'm planning to follow (from Popular Patchwork) but adapt for my orange and blue scheme. As you can see it's a diagonal pattern. As I said before I think I need to plan this very carefully otherwise it will end up a real mish mash. The weather this Bank Holiday weekend isn't going to be great and DH is working Saturday and Sunday so I've got the perfect excuse to sew and only stop to eat. I'm really cracking on with the huge quilt - I've only got about 7 blocks to finish before I have to contemplate the borders. I'm going to machine some of it in the ditch - as it's at the edge it'll be manageable. I also need to make some more bits for the sale table for the festival in June. I bought some magnetic catches for bags today - but I'm not entirely sure how you put them on... so any help would be great. I also want to say again a big THANK YOU to all of you for looking at my blog - I'm still getting very excited wh...

Well - I did say I'd get some good ideas when I went to quilting last night, and I wasn't disappointed. The idea is to use more shades of orange and more patterned blue and to have the colours moving across the quilt. I promise this would make allot more sense if I'd posted a photo of the pattern, I'll do that very soon. So now I'm going to start planning it as if I don't it'll just look a total mash. On another point I wondered if any of you out there had used Bubble Set Jet 2000? If so have you got any tips or trade secrets? I've got some tips already off the web but, being the practical lot you are you may have some more very interesting comments. And for all of you weather watchers, yet again the weather in England is simply gorgeous. Just like July - you watch we'll have a hose pipe ban again soon. I'll also still plodding on with the large quilt - but I do seem to be making good progress.