Nine Patch Quilt for Tasmania

This year Launceston Patchworkers and Quilters in Tasmania have been celebrating their 30th anniversary, culminating in their recent exhibition which by all accounts was an outstanding success with 160 quilts on display. Flowerpatch Quilters of Launceston in Cornwall, UK decided to send them a small quilt as a token of our friendship. Presents have been exchanged in the past and include quilts, fabric and most recently some wonderful bunting from the ladies in Tasmania. This is the "Flower-Patch" quilt that we sent and which was hung at the exhibition.

Each red flower was appliqued by a different Flowerpatch member onto a 3½” calico square.

This is the quick method used to make the nine patch blocks:
Sew with ¼” seam allowance.

Cut strips of fabric ½” wider than the finished size of each square in the block. (in this case 1½”)

Sew three of them together which will be cut to make the 3 squares on each side of the block and three others together which will make the 3 squares through the centre.

Press the seams away from the middle fabric on one set of strips and in the opposite direction on the other. This helps when you come to sow up the block.

Cut through the sewn strips at right angles making the set of three ½” wider than the finished squares (in this case 1½”)
TIP: When working really small if the seam allowance turns out a bit bigger than ¼” it makes a lot of difference. When these strips with seams in are sewn together the bulkiness can be a problem so it may be a good idea to cut these sets of three just a tiny bit over 1½”.

Sew these together to make the block, carefully matching the seams.

With a 1" border, and the binding, the finished quilt measures approx 30" x 24".

At Flowerpatch we do so love sewing our group projects - quilters are such a friendly bunch.

Happy stitching - Anita x

Miniature Row Quilts

At Flowerpatch Quilters last year we made Miniature Row Quilts. We sewed one row each month starting in April 2014 and were given instructions each time, ending up with a quilt approx A4 size. Each row is just 6" long! These little dears are the result:

Dawn's and Jane's

Karen's and Dy's

Liz's and Anita's

Mary's and Melody's

...and Joy's

These were the instructions that we were given:

FLOWERPATCH MINIATURE ROW QUILTS

Add seam allowance to all sizes

APRIL

6” x 2” Appliqué     

MAY

Three  2”x 2” pieced blocks joined to make 6” x 2”

JUNE

6” x 1 ½ “ – repeat pattern across the width

JULY

6” x 1 ½ “ – Appliqué on a pieced background

AUGUST

6” x 1” Use 5, and only 5, different fabrics one of which               

you haven’t already used in your row quilt  

SEPTEMBER

6” x 1” – At least one circle and one pieced curve                           

OCTOBER

6” x ½ “ – Any design of your own choice                                         

NOVEMBER

Sew your rows together, adding a ½ “ spacer row here and there if you like. Sew on a 1” border and finish with ¼ “ binding.

Our friends from Launceston Patchworkers and Quilters in Tasmania also did the miniatures and these are their sweet quilts:

Diane's and Marie's

Kay's and Diane's

This is a link to the instructions if you'd like to print them off: miniature row quilts

How I love a challenge that gets me out of my comfort zone!! - Anita x

Barbara Chainey at Flowerpatch

The Epworth room was packed with members and friends for a real treat at Flowerpatch Quilter's November meeting - a visit by renowned quilter Barbara Chainey and her talk "It's all in the Stitch". What a lovely self-effacing lady she is despite being an international speaker and quilt teacher. 
Barbara had brought along her private collection of old quilts many of which she had been given by other quilters who simply wanted to share their treasures with the wider quilting community. Barbara obviously adored her many and varied quilts some of which dated from as early as 1840, and each with their own particular personality, merits and faults. Some of the tiny, tiny quilting stitches had to be seen to be believed, and Barbara allowed us to inspect all the quilts closely and even to handle them. I took just a few pics:

We were delighted by the English paper piecing, machine quilting from 1880, info about dyeing, etc, etc all delivered with a great sense of humour. Thank you Barbara for a great evening.

St Marys Christmas tree festival in Launceston is almost upon us (4th to 13th December) and Dawn has designed some quirky decorations with an Antarctic theme for the Flowerpatch tree - all made by the members.

The next meeting is on 10th December at Cowslip Workshops. Please bring along sewing kits and a small embroidery hoop, if you have one, as Jo has devised some exciting sewing for us.

- Anita x

Wildlife Habitat Stack

The inspiration for a quilt can come from many different places and some of them seem quite unlikely. I was reading a book by Christine and Michael Lavelle called "How to create a Wildlife Garden" (although my garden is quite wild enough already - what it needs is taming!!) when this picture caught my eye.

I loved the idea of making a home for the myriad of insects, mammals, reptiles, etc in one place, even though my garden already has all the things they suggest like dry stone walls, log piles, rock heaps, trees, hedges, shrubs, ponds ........ . But it wasn't just the idea that attracted me to the picture - does it make you think of a row quilt, too?

I set too and built my very own wildlife habitat stack. I've put it in a hole at the bottom of the back wall of our old privy - I leave it to your imagination as to the original purpose of this hole! I've put some leaves in the back in the hope of attracting a hedgehog. It will probably be a luxury home for slugs and snails!!

So I didn't do the row quilt after all, but used my own habitat stack as inspiration for this little quilt, measuring 12" x 9".

The circles are made over circles of card as in the Four Corners post and I've sewn them on using the blind hemming stitch on my machine. I've also quilted by machine, contouring the largest circle.

I really like the very narrow edge of black fabric. This is achieved by cutting the binding strip 1½ “ wide, folding in half along the length and pressing. Sew on to the quilt as usual. Then you take the folded edge and the quilt seam around to the back of the quilt leaving as little of the binding showing on the front as you wish - none of it if you like. You can pin the binding to the back of the quilt and sew it on from the front by machine - I usually do two lines of stitching.

The weather has been very dismal and drizzly so it's been wonderful to be in my sewing room working with all these bright colours.

Sew Happy - Anita