A Village Quilter

Hello all. Aplogies.  I'm rubbish at posting at the moment. Anyway, I had a very nice day out recently at Chatsworth House.  It was a beautiful sunny bright Autumn day. Here are a few photos of the interior and interior. I have been sewing - but can't share the results as the majority of it is for Christmas presents... Take care

Hello all. Apologies again for the lapse in posting.  Work really does get in the way. But, don't think I've been sitting around not doing anything. I had a lovely day yesterday meeting up with 3 other like minded ladies (yes ladies) who I find inspiring.  I'm sure that by meeting them on a regular basis I will be inspired to be more creative.   We had a very nice time, talking, drinking great coffee, eating biscuits and cake and showing each other our latest work.  One of the most interesting things to come out of our meeting was that each of us has a distinct style that the others easily recognised, but the individual did not.  So now at least I think we all know our style. No photos this time - but I promise I'll have some for next time.

Well - autumn has finally arrived. That means I need to make a quilt so I can snuggle under it in the evenings ,hand quilting it to keep me warm. My Walk series has hit a creativity block, well I think most of my creativity has.   Work really does get in the way. But I do have something new coming up that I'm sure will help to re-spark my creativity.  I'll be sure to share this you all. I did attend a really interesting talk at the Lutterworth Embroiderers Guild by  Karen Parry from John James .   One of the most interesting parts of her talk was explaining the different needles and their uses .  We also had the opportunity to buy some of the needles she'd explained to us - remembering that we all need to change them more often. It was very interesting and useful talk - so if you have the chance do attend. Hope you've managed to attend a fireworks display. I went to the LOROS event at Mallory Park.  ...

Hello all.  Hope you're keeping nice and warm in this drab damp weather. Well.  As you know I'm a fan of sampling before I make a piece.  So here is the starting point for a sample - its very yellow.   I promise to show it you when I've made some progress.  Whilst at the Festival of Quilts I subscribed to a new magazine called Love Patchwork and Quilting and issue one has now landed.  It's great to see more contemporary fabrics being used.  If you get the chance do have a look - here's a little preview. Promise to post again soon.

Hello all. Apologies for the lack of recent posts, but we've been on holiday.  So, I thought you might like to see some photos of my holiday. The beaches in Tenby were amazing.     So it was great for a paddle. We had a really lovely meal at the Ocean Restaurant . On our way back we stopped in Hereford at a really great b&b called No 21 . It was relatively close to the centre of Hereford so when we'd parked up we walked into Hereford to look at the cathedral.  I knew it would be interesting to look around, but it was even better than I expected.  If you ever get the chance, do go. As there was an ordination service taking place we started with a cuppa and a sit down in the cloister garden. We then went to the museum where the Mappa Mundi is on display.  Obviously I couldn't take any photos there. After the service we did look around the cathedral - here are some photos.  If you do go, have a look at the text...

Well - here is my piece of work - Walk I. I'm really pleased with how it's turned out. It's just over a meter long and is about 30 cms wide. The majority of the fabrics I've used are ones I've dyed myself. I've also used stencils made from freezer paper with markel sticks.   Foiled with bondaweb and painted with metallic paints.   I've used both machine and hand stitching. I did lots of sampling - which I really enjoyed. I've taken more photos and and am starting to design the next one.

Well, it was my birthday recently and with the money I'd got burning a hole in my pocket I went to Jessops in Birmingham and bought a new camera. A Sony Cyber-shot H200 , with 20.1 mega pixels and 26 x optical zoom. So far I've managed to put the batteries and memory card in and switch it on and off.  All the rest is a bit of a mystery - and will take some concentration. I promise to show you how I get on. If any of you have any tips - do let me know.  I need all the help I can get. Hope you all enjoy your Bank Holiday Weekend.

I've been up to so much, I don't know where to start. So - first of all I'll start with the Open Studios at Bramble Patch with Edwina MacKinnon and Catherine Nicholls.   I didn't time my arrival too well as a coach party had just arrived.  But I bided my time and waited so I could have a chat with them both.  So here's a photo of a more relaxed open studio. And just an aside about The Bramble Patch - they now have a weekly newsletter, so just subscribe on their  website . And then I went onto The Splendour of Stitch at Wycliffe Memorial Methodist Church in Lutterworth. This is an annual exhibition by the Lutterworth Embroiderer's Guild and it's a great opportunity to see all the members work. They also had lovely tea and cake on offer.  here are some photos from here too:  These are from our Carol Naylor class. These are our aprons from our class with Jamie Maldon from Colouricious . A great way to display them  I lov...

Well - what a show. I hope that those of you who managed to get there had as good a time as I did.  It was great to travel to and meet up with lovely people. Here are a few highlights. Here is the lovely  Jo Lovelock demonstrating how to get fantastic results with tray dying. You can see how it started with soda soaked fabric and developed into this amazing try of beautifully dyed fabric.       I also bought the most beautiful threads from her too.  Do have a look.  I have taken quite a few more photos but need a little time to recover and sort out who make which quilt, so I'll post these over the next few weeks.  

Hello all. I hope you're enjoying the changeable weather we're having.  It seems to go from bright sunshine to a torrential downpour in seconds.  Well, it does give us something to talk about. I was visiting the Handmade Boutique in the Western Arcade in Birmingham and was chatting to Tiger Lilly , we were chatting about the  Embroiderers Guild . It reminded me of the preconceptions people have about the Guild - that you have to be an amazing embroiderer and if you aren't you can't join.  I really can't emphasize enough that all you need is an interest in textiles and or sewing.  You can literally just come along to the talks and not go to any workshops.  It's worth researching the branches websites to see what they do, when they meet etc to see if it fits in for you.  And you can always test any group by popping along as a visitor.  Don't worry about going on your own, many groups now have a buddy system, so the way the groups work can...

Hello all. Hope you're well and are enjoying your weekend. As promised you can see below some photos of how 'Walk I' are developing.  I'm now at the point of almost having the material stitched together - so it's almost ready for sandwiching and then sewing. I'm really pleased wit the samples I've produced - well worth the effort as some of my initial ideas really didn't work at all.   I promise to keep you up to date with how this work progresses.