Flowerpatch Quilters 2025 exhibition is less than 2 weeks away and begins on Tuesday 5th August, running until Saturday 9th when we end with our charity quilt raffle. This year we're raising funds for HF Trusts "Chy Keres" in Tregadillet who support adults with learning difficulties and their families.
Our exhibition venue is the barn at Cowslip Workshops near to Launceston in Cornwall (PL15 8JX) and we're open from 10am to 4pm each day.
Anita xx
Our Flowerpatch Quilters exhibition for 2024 rapidly approaches. We're in the barn at Cowslip Workshops, near Launceston in Cornwall, from Tuesday 6th to Saturday 10th August, 10am to 4pm each day.
As usual we've made a raffle quilt and this year we've chosen to support the Mustard Tree Cancer Support Centre based at Plymouth Hospital.
All the fabric for the top of our quilt has been donated by a friend of Monica, who has been having cancer treatment at the hospital, and the backing fabric was donated by Cherrie. The quilt has been beautifully custom quilted by Sandy Chandler of The Quilting Company.
The quilt is made from two different blocks set on edge. One applique block and one pieced.
Hopefully you can see Sandy's lovely quilting design in these pics.
At the same time as our exhibition there is an exhibition by Creative Stitchers - Launceston embroidery group, so well worth a visit to Cowslip in August. We look forward to welcoming you.
Happy Stitching - Anita xx
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
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
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
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
