A Fabric Christmas at Flowerpatch

Despite a very misty evening there were plenty of members at the Flowerpatch Quilters December meeting and we had a relaxing time sewing some simple folded Christmas decorations, chatting and eating yummy mince pies.
These are the three designs that we sewed with links to the methods for making:

Folded 5" circle making a square

Folded 5" pentagon making a star

and this is a link for printing out different sizes of pentagon


Folded triangle with 5" long sides

Below are some pictures from the Flowerpatch 2016 exhibition last August, where the theme in one of the rooms was "A Fabric Christmas"

Happy Christmas all - Anita x

Eva Owl - lino printing

A while ago I had a brilliant day at Cartwheels Craft Centre doing a lino printing workshop with Louise Nichols. (Louise gave a talk at the last Flowerpatch Quilters meeting which you can read about in a previous post.) We could draw our own design to print and I decided to do Eva Owl from my wall hanging "It's a Hoot" for my first attempt.

This is how she has finally turned out!

On the workshop day we did the drawing, then lino cutting and finally printing all with helpful and friendly advice from Louise. This is one of the prints that I did then.

After embellishing with a little applique and lots of stitching I ended up with this picture - Eva is 5" tall.

I felt that she was a bit lost in the background so I changed the lino and cut more away to give me extra areas of white like this

So here she is again with less, and simpler, stitching than before - mostly straight stitch, fly stitch, couching and french knots.

I'm really happy with the result this time and feel encouraged to try some more designs.

When I started blogging I was determined that I would write about sewing and only sewing, but as Christmas approaches I just have to show you these cute wood slice snowmen 

..... and Father Christmasses, all made from our homegrown wood.

I got the idea for these on Pinterest which is a wonderful resource for all things crafty.
Oh! what fun! - Anita x

PS. Flowerpatch's 8th December 2016 meeting has moved venue to The Epworth Room at Central Methodist Church

And there is a brilliant Craft Fair at Upton Cross, nr Liskeard which starts tomorrow (Friday, 2nd December, 2016) for 3 days

West Country Quilt Show

I had a wonderful day recently in Bristol at the West Country Quilt and Textile Show and would like to show you just a few of the beautiful quilts that I saw there.

Firstly, these by Gillian Travis really excited me - parts of the quilts are shown here.

..... and not just sweaters, Gillian had hats, mittens, jugs, vases, beetroot, pomegranates, etc, etc all equally small and appealing. Do visit Gillian's website to see more of her work.
I also really liked this wall hanging by Gillian, particularly the washing and flowerpots.

These two are by Brenda Thomas who's quilts are a delight - they are always happy.

The Quilter's Guild Contemporary Group had completed a challenge "On the Edge" and these are three very different one's that I liked by Barbara Weeks, Sandra Grusd and Greta Fitchett.

Finally here we have just four bed quilts:-
"Journey" by Annelise Littlefair. The squares are reverse appliqued. I love the way that Annelise has machine quilted each one in an individual style to suit the applique design.

"Polkadot Garden" by Bridget Gillespie. The circular flower design compliments the use of shirt fabric beautifully.

"Nearly Insane Quilt" by Frances Meredith. The title says it all - tiny, tiny pieces in the blocks! An amazing sampler quilt!

And lastly a gorgeous quilt made by Jo Colwill of Cowslip Workshops

I only wish that my photos could do these last four justice - I remember the colours as lighter and brighter.
A super day and a big thank you to Denise Pearcey of South West Quilters for organising the coach.

Happy Days - Anita x

Trunk Full of House Quilts

Soma of Whims and Fancies is hosting the "Trunk Full of Quilts 2016" and I've decided to collect up all my quilts featuring houses to show - not that they would fill a very big trunk as the largest of them is only 27" x 34".

Below is the most recent which features my house and all my husband's sheds. You can read about it in a previous post here.

Then in chronological order starting with the oldest and smallest first, this is "Wash-day at the Nook"

I was rather keen on lines of washing in my quilts because at one time it seemed that all my friends were getting tumble dryers - well, it does rain a lot here in Cornwall. I love to see washing blowing dry on a line.

This one is called "Sew a Row to Grow a Quilt". The houses and trees are foundation pieced.

The final and largest quilt shows some of the things that I love about living where I do. It was a challenge to sew the crazy patchwork border - much more difficult than keeping everything nice and straight and tidy!

Do go along to Whims and Fancies to see the other Trunk Fulls on display - Anita x

Louise Nichols at Flowerpatch

How lovely to get into the swing of a new Flowerpatch Quilter's year with textile artist Louise Nichols and her talk on pattern, design, printing and stitching. 

Louise started her career with upholstery and wallpaper design after graduating with a degree in Fashion and Textile Design. She then went on to produce designs for cards, stationary and wrapping paper and we were delighted to be able to see some of these. She spoke of her excitement at seeing her work on sale for the very first time in a large chain store.

Louise's next project was to be making wedding and other cards with some stitching and making simple stitchery gifts. This led her on to purses and pouches etc. under her "Loula Bells" label. 

Also articles and designs for Sew magazine.

Never one to stand still, Louise's latest foray is into lino printing on fabric and she now makes beautiful framed prints embellished with applique and stitching, and has a range of coordinating purses and pouches.

Below you can see one of Louise's lino prints before adding any stitching, a lino cut ready for printing and the resulting embellished print - this is a sample piece.

Thank you to Louise for a super evening of varied delights and infectious enthusiasm!

Other news from the Flowerpatch November meeting - Liz set the brain cells going with this year's Chairman's Challenge which is called "From Tree to Match" - lots of quilty possibilities with that one. Monica B handed out the last of the packs for our charity quilt - these have to be back for the January meeting at the latest.

Flowerpatch 8th December meeting is at Jo Colwill's Cowslip Workshops where we will be doing some Christmas sewing so please bring along a basic sewing kit. Also just a reminder about the Christmas Fair at Cowslip 18th to 20th November 2016 which is always a delight.

Happy Crafting - Anita x

PS. Riverside Quilters have an exhibition at Ashtorre Rock, Saltash, Cornwall, PL12 4GT on Friday 18th and Saturday 19th November 2016, raising money for Cancer Research.

Christmas Circles

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Well I'm really getting ahead of myself this year!! Most years I sew a little something to add to my collection of homemade Christmas decorations, but this is usually a last minute affair when there's less than a week to go!

I've recently seen two lovely tree decorations that take my fancy especially as they both involve a folded circle and I have tried them out already - Angels and Squares

I used a circle 4" across to make mine but this does make the squares a bit teeny at only 2", so possibly a 5" or 6" circle would be better (depending what you have handy to draw around).

I cut two contrasting squares of fabric ½" larger than my circle (the corners of the square give you something to hang onto while you're sewing) and marked one of them on the back using my circle template - a small bowl. When you mark fabric with a pen or pencil it's helpful to lay it on a piece of fine sandpaper to stop it moving about.

I put the two fabrics right sides together and sewed by machine on the marked line, starting and stopping with a back stitch to secure, and leaving a gap through which to turn the circle the right way out. Curves like this are easier to sew if you use a small length stitch.

I trimmed off the excess at the corners and turned the circle the right way out, giving it a bit of a press. Then sewed up the opening.

With the circle you can make either an Angel with this link from Selimut-ku

(For my angel's wings I used a heart cut from cheap 2oz polyester wadding which I had ironed between two sheets of paper to make it stiff and thin)

or a folded decoration with this link from Katrina's Tutorials - do have a look, Katrina's are so pretty.

Both of these are really quick and simple to make and might be ideal for Christmas craft stall sales. 
Happy Sewing - Anita x

Ashmead Designs at Flowerpatch AGM

I so enjoyed entering two of my quilts - Scrap Quilt and Large Quilt, in the Blogger's Quilt Festival. The reason? I got to visit so many different blogs that I wouldn't have otherwise discovered. In fact I have spent many, many hours reading interesting quilt blogs and not had the time to write my own!! Bloggers are so generous with their methods and tutorials - my head is spinning. Thank you to everyone who left me lovely comments about my quilts.

October is the start of a new quilting year for Flowerpatch Quilters and begins with our AGM. We gave ourselves a big pat on the back for another successful exhibition in August and for raising £2,500 for the Motor Neurone Disease Association with our quilt raffle and stalls, etc. Karen Lang came to the meeting to accept the cheque and gave a very informative talk about MND and the Association, for whom she has raised funds in the past. Here is a link to our picture in the local paper

AGM matters were dealt with swiftly and then Suzi Argent told us about her new venture - Ashmead Designs. She has developed a new method for doing English Paper Piecing using her pre-cut templates (called Hexiforms) that don't have to be removed after sewing and before quilting, as you do with the paper ones. A brilliant idea! It made me think about the foundation pieced hexagons that I have done as I can see that I'll have a tedious time removing the papers from them.

Suzi had brought along lots of different shapes of Hexiforms, some delightful kits to make Christmas decorations and examples of some of the English Paper Piecing that she has done.

Thank you for taking time from your busy schedule, Suzi, to pay us a visit.

Dy V showed us the progress that has been made with our entry for the Cowslip Workshops "Through the Window" exhibition in June next year. So good to get things started nice and early and Dy has a small team of ladies to help her.

Monica B is organising the making of the charity quilt this year and has a beautiful design in Autumn colours including apples, pears and grapes. Members collected packs to make up parts of the design and I think there are still some packs left over which will be available at the 10th November meeting. Subs are due at this meeting and remain at £15 per year.

We are delighted to be welcoming Louise Nichols in November to give a Talk about her designing, sewing and fabric printing experiences. Not to be missed.

Happy Stitching - Anita x

PS Cartwheel Crafts Centre have their Christmas Craft Fair on 5th and 6th November.

Large Quilt - Blogger Quilt Festival

Just in time to enter another quilt into the Blogger's Quilt Festival - this one in the category for Large Quilts (finished size 79" x 86"). I love this quilt and it's the one most often on my bed. I swap it for another sometimes but always come back to it - those cheerful quirky flowers make me smile.

I like the way that the pattern is so much simpler than it first appears with the square blocks being sewn into a larger square of four before the quilt is put together.

In my original post I have explained how each of these is in turn rotated and I show another quilt sewn up in a similar manner. Rotating Flower Blocks Quilt

Here is a small A4 quilt called Liquorice. Although it isn't actually made up of square blocks, I have arranged the "sweets" in the same way as the quilt above.

So these are the four sweets in the top left hand corner and you can see that next to them I have sewn the same four sweets but have rotated them, and next to these another four rotated again. So reading from left to right like the lines on the page of a book, the white circle with a button in the centre appears in a different corner each time (for four times) and then you start over. 

I think this method produces a nice balance to the quilts without me having to make lots of difficult decisions about placement.

Do go along to the Blogger's Quilt Festival and see all the lovely quilts entered.

Happy browsing - Anita x

Scrap Quilt for the Blogger's Quilt Festival

I've just been reading about this year's Blogger Quilt Festival run by Amy and thought I would enter one of my scrap quilts - possibly my favourite still and such a simple design.

Yet again it's one of those quilts that I started without knowing quite how large it would end up, just sewing a few 4", 5" and 6" squares; adding in more different fabrics as I went along, until finally I ended up with sufficient for a double bed quilt! I waited until there were enough squares (and a few rectangles) before I sewed any of them together, so that I could move them hither and thither until I was happy - that was an exciting hour ......... or so, then very carefully put them in piles, one pile for each strip, ready to sew them up.

This is my original Simple Strippy Quilt post and a link to a printer friendly PDF Design a Simple Strippy Quilt

Do click over to the Blogger Quilt Festival and feast your eyes on some of the entries - there are lots to choose from.

Be inspired - Anita x

Farne Designs at Flowerpatch

Valeri Bennett of Farne Designs came to Flowerpatch Quilter's September meeting and gave her talk "Quilting through the Years" and there were 50 years all told so a lot of beautiful quilts and textile artworks to see. Valeri started patchwork by accident when, whilst teaching textiles and embroidery at Beaford College, she was thrown in at the deep end and asked to teach a patchwork course too. She hadn't done any before and learnt as she taught, eventually doing her own designs as she gained confidence - exciting times! 

These are some of the works that Valeri showed us:

An exotic pincushion in cathedral window design

Three very different bags - the bottom right is decorated with beautiful ribbon embroidery

and another great love of Valeri's - crazy patchwork, where she can indulge her two passions in one - patchwork and embroidery

I love the leaves appliqued on the blocks and across the sashing. These are just two of the blocks so you can see the wonderful embellishing stitches

When making patchworks in the 1970 and 80s there weren't the selection of fabrics that we now enjoy so Valeri started to dye her own and dyeing fabric is still one of her favourite things. She brought along a huge selection for us to see and purchase along with dyed ribbons, crazy patchwork packs, kits, etc. All in all a most enjoyable and interesting evening and I'm definitely going to do some more crazy patchwork this winter. Thank you, Valeri for the inspiration.

Valeri's patchwork group Falmouth Progressive Quilters are holding their second patchwork exhibition at Bosvale Community Centre (off Hillside Road Boslowick) on September 23rd and 24th, 2016 from 10am - 5pm. 

The next Flowerpatch meeting is on 13th October 2016. We will be presenting a cheque to Karen Lang for the Motor Neurone Disease Association, and she will tell us a bit more about the charity. Ashmead Designs will be there to tell us about their innovative templates for English paper piecing. Also Monica will be handing out the block packs for next year's charity quilt.

Sew much to Sew :) - Anita x

PS Cartwheels Craft Centre have a patchwork and quilting exhibition from 16th to 18th September 2016, 10am to 4pm at Penhawger Farm, Merrymeet, Liskeard, Cornwall, PL14 3LW. All in aid of Little Harbour Children's Hospice in Cornwall.