Sleepless Doodle

This is my wall quilt called "Sleepless Doodle". It measures 27" x 34".

Sometimes my head is so full of stuff that's happened during the day I just can't unwind and get to sleep. Usually it's annoying and I'm thinking about conversations I've had, and things I should have said or done, but occasionally it's actually a good thing because I'm excited about artwork I've seen and I'm feeling inspired. After reading Di Wells's blog one evening I felt I had to do some sketching (doodling). I always keep pen and paper handy by the bed - usually for writing lists etc. I really liked one of the collages that Di had done and put on this blog post. Lots of the shapes and marks appealed to me and helped me to begin drawing.

Come the morning I had a look at what I'd drawn and liked almost all of it except for a mess in the middle. A bit of tracing and altering and I was happy with the result so I scanned my little drawing and enlarged it to fit on some A4 sheets which I printed out and sellotaped together.

After that it was pretty simple to do the applique - most by machine and some by hand. I had traced and cut out the shapes in freezer paper then ironed them onto the various fabrics. I either cut around the edge of the freezer paper to get the exact shape and sewed this on with a machine blanket stitch, or cut around leaving a small hem for needle-turned hand applique. I did change a few things as I went but not a lot.

The lattice lines in the two corners are embroidery thread machine stitched in place with zigzag. The green thread is sewn down with a similar stitch, but it has a solid line of stitching along each side. I really ought to explore all the stiches on my machine more!

With all the fabrics in place I did a little hand embroidery, 

hand quilting and machine quilting.

This hangs on the wall in my sitting room and I've made it so that it can hang any way up with half square triangles on each back corner.

It's certainly not like anything I've sewn before - that has to be good! :)

Happy Sewing - Anita

And yet more from Flowerpatch exhibition 2023

 My final post about our Flowerpatch Ruby exhibition shows all the smaller wall quilts, etc.

Our Chairman's challenge this year was "Ruby Red" and there were lots of entries. This is a pic of them all -

Iris L excelled herself by making 4 small quilts - she had been inspired by a Flowerpatch evening meeting when we viewed the miniatures from the Quilters Guild Special Interest group. Other entries included wall quilts, cushions, a bottle bag and even a "Ruby Red" cow.

Pippa made two miniature quilts to exhibit. The first is "Spring Flowers" and uses hand dyed cottons.

The second is "Seminole Miniature" and for this Pippa used Liberty Tana Lawn fabrics as they are fine and cut down on the bulk in seams.

Pippa also made a Shibori Quilted Jacket having dyed the fabrics herself.

Karen's wall quilt is called "Lola Llama" - made for her grand-daughter and inspired by a Laura Heine pattern.

Iris M is continuing with her wall quilts representing the months

From left to right and top to bottom they are April - Easter, November - Fireworks, March - Spring Leaves and May - Maypole.

Lois sewed two pictures featuring houses. The first is "Cornwall"

and this is "Amsterdam Remembered".

Jennie used inktense pencils to create the first of her "Little Blue Bird"

and metallic fabric paint for the second.

Many of us made teddy bears this year as Jennie C had donated two huge rolls of fur fabric. I was completely out of my comfort zone with this, but found that I actually enjoyed it! Chris's instructions and tips were brilliant. I'm only sorry that I didn't get a better pic of them having their picnic.

Finally, at our October meeting we gave Children's Hospice South West a cheque for £1500 which was the money raised with our Ruby quilt raffle and sales at the exhibition, etc. Such a good charity to have supported. This is the link if you'd like to read more about them - CHSW

Thank you for reading and happy sewing

Anita x

More Quilts from Flowerpatch 2023

Here are some more quilts from Flowerpatch Quilters, August 2023, exhibition:

This is a very special quilt, made by Marie, for two reasons. It is her first quilt - and what a difficult pattern to be starting with! Also it is in memory of her Father who served in both the Merchant and Royal Navys. Well done, Marie.

Next we have two quilts by Elizabeth. The first is called "Something Blue"

and the second is "Rainbow Moments" - lots of scraps from 20+ years of quilting.

I complimented Elizabeth on her unusual whipped quilting in circles and she said that it was to hide the marking which she couldn't remove!! Now there's one to remember :)

This is Chris's "The Quilt the Grew" - she just couldn't bear to leave any of the cat panels out and the quilt "grew" to accommodate them all.

Here is Anita H's "Round Robin" quilt. she made the centre square and her friends sewed the borders. I love this soft green.

This is a quilt that we made for the Linus Charity. We started it at one of our Flowerpatch evening meetings by sewing the small circles divided into quarters. Once we had all these and the larger quarter circles I sewed the quilt together. I quilted along the seams by machine and around the circles by hand.

Next is Iris L's "Buds and Blooms" which is based on a design by Angela Attwood

and Margaret's "Hearts and Flowers" made for a grand-daughter and quilted by Sandy Chandler

These two are both made by Ruth. the first is a "Softly Falling Snow" - a pattern by Fi Bowman

and this is the "Alphabet Quilt" which is a pattern by Helen Godden and is painted using inktense pencils.

Finally two from Jo - "Zarafa" the giraffe who I just had to look up on Wikipedia having not heard of him before. It's a wonderful, true tale which you can read about with this link: Zarafa

and a medallion quilt "Regency Blues"

Two lovely quilts both beautifully quilted by Sandy Chandler.

More smaller sewing from the exhibition next time

Anita x

Larger Quilts at Flowerpatch 2023

 Here are some of the larger quilts on display at Flowerpatch Quilters exhibition in August 2023.

This is Liz's "Colourful Host of Diamonds"  - a cheerful quilt made during lockdown

and her "Hearts 'n' Flowers" - inspired by one of Jo Colwill's quilts and machine pieced by Sandy Chandler of the Quilting Company.

Here is Melody's "Windermere" - a Di Hall Ford pattern and a quilt made in her memory. It was also beautifully quilted by Sandy

and another of Melody's quilts "Coming Home" - made for her grandson who is a Liverpool FC fan.

Two quilts that couldn't be more different!!

This is Pippa's "Mosaic Garden" - designed by Louisa Goult of Sewmotion. I love Pippa's wavy line quilting to contrast with the squareness of the design.

Here is Ellen's "Lockdown Squares" which was quilted by The Quilt Room in Dorking. I love the graduated grey fabric as a border.

This is Ruth's "Countryside Animals" which was inspired by a Janet Clare monthly quilt-a-long. It is a very large quilt and I apologise that I couldn't get quite far enough away for a good photo! Ruth free motion quilted it with her domestic machine.

One from Jennie: "It kept growing bigger!" - this was machine quilted by Jennie on her Bernina

and finally, "Christmas" by Anita H - a quilt that she designed herself.

Lots of lovely little details in this quilt.

Yet more quilts to come next time - Anita S xx

Flowerpatch Ruby Exhibition 2023

Last month Flowerpatch Quilters held their Ruby exhibition at Cowslip Workshops. It was quite different from our usual exhibitions as we were celebrating our 40th year which gave us the opportunity to be nostalgic and indulgent. Here are some of the older quilts that were on display:

These two are very special as they were both sewn by Flowerpatch members in the 1980s and each block is signed by the maker in embroidery, so it's a lovely reminder of past members.

This basket of flowers quilt was sewn in the early 1990s and still looks so fresh. It is a past charity quilt and was won at the time by Karen who is still a member today.

This photo shows, from left to right, another member's raffle quilt in "Snowball" design, Dawn's quilt with drunkard's path and applique wildflower designs, Dy's Hawaiian Quilt and a quilt made by Daphne Turner who was a founder member of Flowerpatch.

Flowerpatch Quilters started as a group in the summer of 1983 in the garden (the flower patch) of Daphne and her husband, Pepe, at Windmill Patchwork shop in Launceston.

These next two (L to R) are made by Dy and by Margaret. So different and both beautiful. On tables in the foreground are a few of the many small items that we have made as challenges over the years.

There were many more that I didn't get to photo, but these last two are both past charity quilts. The first from 2011 called "Forget-me-not" and won by Melody.

and the second from 2018 called "Rainbow" which was won by Ellen.

I have written about "Rainbow" in two previous blog posts. You can read about it here and here

On a table in front of the quilt are photos and other memorabilia from the past four decades of Flowerpatch Quilters.

More pics from the exhibition to come. 

Until then, happy stitching - Anita x

Flowerpatch Quilters Exhibition 2023

After a super evening at our recent Flowerpatch Quilters meeting showing the quilts etc. that will be in our coming exhibition, we look forward to the beginning of August with much excitement and anticipation.

Our exhibition will be at Cowslip Workshops again this year and runs from Tuesday 1st August to Saturday 5th August, 10am to 4pm each day. We're raising money for Children's Hospice South West - such a worthwhile charity "making the most of short precious lives". This is the charity quilt that we have made to raffle:

It has been quilted by Sandy Chandler of 'The Quilting Company'.

The colour of our quilt is very relevant as Flowerpatch have been going as a group for 40 years. This year's Ruby exhibition is a celebration of our many years of quilting and friendship. 

Ruby Quilt comprises 3 main blocks:

block1 is made from 2" squares and 2" half square triangles

block2 is made from 3"squares and 3" half square triangles  with a nine-patch in the middle using 2" squares

block3 is made from 3"sqares and 3" half square triangles. It is turned through 90 degrees for some of the blocks

Around the edge are rectangular blocks which are halves of blocks 1&3.

Here is a reminder of our exhibition dates, etc. 

Hope to see you there

Anita xx