Wonderland sampler progress and a trip to Harrogate

This month has seen a little progress on the Wonderland Sampler quilt and a slightly unexpected trip to the Knit+Stitch show in Harrogate.

I’ve completed seven more of the EPP blocks for Wonderland Sampler quilt and a couple more (not shown) have been partly completed in that the EPP part is done, but they require an additional part to be appliqued.

These blocks gave me the chance to try some fussy cutting and, as with the first three blocks I completed, I have tried to keep to the same or similar fabrics as in the book. Again, I have made some minor changes to the shapes to reduce the number of hexagon shaped blocks.

Looking back at the blog, I think it has been 5 years since I last went to the Knitting and Stitching (now renamed Knit+ Stitch) show in Harrogate. This show can be difficult for me to get to by train but one of the sewing/quilting groups had late availability on a coach trip and I took the opportunity to go.

As usual, I didn’t particularly “need” anything, but I did manage to find some bargain items that will be useful and I was able to get some Schmetz Super Universal non-stick needles for projects involving bondaweb etc. One thing I did need to get was something for the quilting group Secret Santa and after much looking I finally found something that I hope will be well received (not shown in the photo just in case anyone relevant is reading this!).

As the show also covers embroidery and yarn crafts, it does mean that once I’ve looked at the sewing/quilting stands, there is time to go into Harrogate and get some cakes from Betty’s to bring home. This year’s choice was a mocha torte and two fat rascals.

 Going as a group makes the ticket prices reasonable and I think with this show, I regard it more as trip to Harrogate with the added bonus of a small sewing show on the side.

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Sewing has finally started on the Wonderland Sampler quilt

After many weeks (or even months) of preparation, I’ve finally started sewing blocks for the Wonderland Sampler quilt!

At the start of this month, I went along to one of Alice Caroline’s pop-up shops and topped up my Liberty stash with a few fabrics for the Wonderland Sampler quilt and some small pieces of plain lawn. There were no Liberty bargains, but I did find some other bargains - 1.5m of sage green chambray with a printing fault for £10, Aurifil thread with a 25% discount, a Merchant & Mills point turner for £1 and a pack of Tulip needles for £1.

 

This month’s Waterloo Quilters meeting was a free sewing session and I took along some of the English paper piecing (EPP) blocks from the Wonderland Sampler quilt to stitch. I managed to complete three blocks during the meeting and the rest of the EPP blocks are all now tacked to the papers ready to stitch together.

As you can see, for two of the blocks although the fabrics are different I have kept to the book’s designs, but for the other block, I decided to omit the outer diamonds to reduce the number of hexagon shaped blocks.

It’s been a while since I last did any EPP, but I’m hoping I can get into the habit of doing a little stitching each evening now that the clocks have gone back.

 

 

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Giant(ish) microbes and more

There’s been a little bit of sewing and quite a lot of preparation for sewing this month.

The month started with making some felt disease-causing microbes for a work public engagement event. These were to accompany commercially-available “giant microbes”, so I guess that makes them “largish microbes”.

Next was a great morning at Waterloo Quilters listening to Maureen Crawford talk about 50(ish) of her quilts in 50 (ish) minutes. There was lots of inspiration for quilt patterns and quilting designs and it was interesting to see examples of quilts made with fabrics other than quilting cottons.

There has also been lots of preparation for my Wonderland Sampler quilt. I’ve gone through my Liberty stash and picked fabrics as close as possible to those used in the book. I’ve decided to set the blocks on point and so I won’t need to make 100 blocks as in the book and I think I have prepared kits for each of the blocks I am planning on making.

There are a few fabrics where I didn’t have a close substitute, but Alice Caroline is having a pop-up fabric shop in Port Sunlight next month which will give me chance to get a few new fabrics.

 

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If it’s August, it must be Festival of Quilts

This month started with a trip to Festival of Quilts in Birmingham. Unlike last year when none of the workshops or talks appealed to me, this year I booked two quick and easy workshops (one at 8.30 am!) and one talk which meant a two day trip and an overnight stay in Birmingham.

My first workshop was a no-sew introduction to Bargello in which double-sided fusible stabilizer was used to create strip set and arrange them into a panel. Making a Bargello quilt is on my wish list and this was a great way of understanding the process and seeing how the patterns can develop.

The second workshop was early morning which meant an early departure from the hotel in central Birmingham, but had the advantage of being able to go straight from the workshop to the exhibition halls for the start of the show. This workshop was for making earrings from Dorset buttons and we were able to complete one earring during the workshop. I now need to make another earring while I can remember how.

My final activity was a talk on the history of Sylko threads and how they now have collectable status. This was interesting and amusing (how many shades of pink can there be?) and, after hearing how much some of the rarer colours can fetch, I should really check my few Sylko reels to see if any could fund next year’s trip!

I get the feeling I only took in a fraction of the quilts on display. After many years of going, I still find the quantity of quilts overwhelming, though one quilt in the 5-9 age group in particular did make me smile. The theme was “My Hero” and from a distance it made sense, but then I saw the title - the hero is not Godzilla!

Fortunately someone with a show guide was able to share the description which explains the link between Godzilla and Grandma.

As usual, I didn’t come away empty handed and my purchases this year saw bargains from the Project Linus stand (including So Fine Thread for just £1 per reel); 3m of interfacing to give a tana lawn quilt some oomph if needed (from Lady Sew and Sew) and some rings for Dorset buttons; an ombré remnant and a cat panel from Allison’s craft emporium; a free bag and some other goodies from Aurifil.

The rest of the August had been mostly sorting and preparing fabrics for my Wonderland Sampler quilt, though sewing has yet to start on it. I did manage a bit of sewing at Waterloo Quilters where we tried the Accuquilt Qube system to make some 12”blocks. It was great for cutting half square triangles as no trimming was required, though cutting squares is probably just as easy with a ruler and rotary cutter.

Trying the Accuquilt system reminded me to check my Sizzix dies and it looks as though I have the correct size dies for half square triangles and quarter square triangles that might be suitable for a few of the blocks in the Wonderland Sampler. Hopefully this weekend will see the last of the preparation and next month sewing can start.

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Planning a new project

After finishing my Tiny Nine Patch quilt earlier this year, I’ve realised that I miss have a ready-to-go long term quilt project and I’ve decided to try to use up some of my Liberty stash by making the Alice’s Wonderland Sampler quilt from Alice Caroline.

The quilt in the book is made from 100 blocks which use a variety of piecing techniques. My quilt will probably be only 81 blocks as 20 of the blocks are use raw edge applique designs, a technique which is not my favourite.

The quilt requires 6 metres of white/cream background fabric which I don’t have in my stash. However, I was able to find on Ebay two “new old stock” single cotton sheets for less than £7 each (including postage). They have some discoloration at the edges, but if this remains after washing, it will be easy to cut around it.

The sheets were made by Horrockses, a Preston based manufacturer which is quite appropriate seeing as most of my Liberty stash is from when it was printed at Standfast and Barracks in Lancaster. My plan is to cut and package the fabrics for most of the blocks in advance so that I have my own quilt kit ready to sew.

 

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An unlikely pattern source

At last month’s meeting of Waterloo Quilters we had a workshop on using children’s colouring books as a source of patterns for appliqued blocks. The member running the session had done all the preparation work for us – tracing the patterns on to bond-a-web, choosing the fabrics, ironing the pattern pieces on to the fabrics and cutting out the individual pieces. It made for a very relaxing session as all we had to do was iron the pieces on to the backing and stitch around them.

I take a basic machine to the meetings and used one of the buttonhole stitches as a satin stitch to stitch around the pieces. Although it is a basic machine, it does have the ability to do free motion sewing and so I was able to add facial features. However, I seem to have given the elephant a more mischievous expression than on the original illustration.

Many of those with machines with a greater range of stitches chose to use a blanket stitch and enough blocks were completed during the meeting for a Project Linus quilt.

I think fabric choice is the key to this technique and it is clear that the member running this session had a very good eye for patterns and colours.

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My quilt show conundrum

Last month I visited the British Quilt and Stitch Village show which is held at Uttoxeter race course. This is the closest show for me to attend, though Festival of Quilts is easier to get to by public transport. It is a very “manageable” show and everything can easily be seen in one day. It has exhibits and competition for both quilting and embroidery, various workshops, a good range of traders and a free show guide!

After have a quick look around to determine what I would have time to do (I had a fixed departure time as I was on a coach trip with my local quilting group) I realised I would have time to do a workshop and booked an embroidery workshop with Sew Thimble Wood. It is long time since I did any embroidery and this was an hour long workshop to introduce tips and hints for embroidering on sheer fabrics. Everything we needed was provided and we made good progress in the hour and were given enough supplies to finish the project at home (which I have yet to do).

Even though an hour was spent in the workshop, I still had ample time for shopping and added to my stash with some Aurifil thread from Oakapple Haberdashery, some continuous zips and pulls from Ooh LaLa Crafts, a bobbin storage ring and seam marker from Quilteez and a little log cabin book from the Project Linus stand.

I think my favourite quilts were to be found in an exhibition by Wombourne Quilters which celebrated their Ruby anniversary. This comprised 15 “round robin” medallion quilts, all in ruby and cream, though each lap quilts was very different. Each quilter made their own centre block and the borders were add by other members of the group. Some quilters wanted a limited range of fabrics and provided these, whereas others left the choice of fabrics open.

My conundrum comes from the quilt show and competition part of the show. I last visited the Uttoxeter show 10 years ago when I first entered a quilt into a show and until now, I had not entered any other quilts into shows. Our quilt group was encouraged to support this show by entering quilts and seeing as I had a quilt in progress that would be finished in time thanks to the extended dead line, I was persuaded to enter it. My tiny nine patch quilt had been an on going project last year which I was plodding on with at my own pace and not being too concerned about mismatching seams, etc. However, I noticed that once the entry forms had been sent, I stopped enjoying making this quilt and started worrying about (and unpicking) misaligned seams, wonky borders, uneven quilting and such.

This was not intended to be a show quilt when I started it and I knew the borders were the weakest part of the quilt, but there was a difference of opinion from the judges with one scoring them “very good” and the other scoring them “satisfactory” with an additional comment that began with “What a shame …”. It was also a bit disheartening looking back on my entries from 10 years ago to discover that I had gone from mostly “very good” to mostly “good” this year. I do realise that judging quilts can be very difficult, especially when a show class encompasses all abilities and techniques.

When talking about supporting quilt shows, not everyone can support them by attending the show and buying from the traders and entering a quilt into the competition. There are signs that the quilt shows are recognising the barriers that people might encounter when thinking of entering a quilt into a show.

Costs such as entry fee and getting the quilt to/from the show can soon mount up and I’ve had a look at costs for this year for some of the main UK shows that have a competition element to their show and have tried to summarise them in the table below. The entry fees for a single full sized quilt (up to ~60” or 2 kg) range from £10 to £22 and then you have to consider getting the quilt to and from the show. If you live close to the venue or logistic agent, delivery in person may be the cheapest way to deliver your quilt, but this still comes with transport costs and even administration costs in some cases. The cost of posting your quilt will depend on the size/weight of your quilt and which service and level of compensation you chose but with the Royal Mail this is approximately £8 for 48 h delivery or £14 for next day delivery. If you are unable to collect your quilt in person at the end of the show, return delivery costs range from £10 to £23. The shows do offer some options to reduce the total cost, such as free in person delivery or collection, a free show ticket or, in the case of Festival of Quilts, a limited number of bursaries, though these cover the entry fee only.

Show	Entry Fee	Delivery in Person	Return (Collection)	Return (Posted)
Festival of Quilts	£22	£8-£10	Free - show ticket for last day included	£23
British Quilt & Stitch Village	£10	Free	Free – show ticket required	£15
Scottish Quilting Show	£15	Free	Free – show ticket for all 3 days included	£10
Quilts UK (Doncaster, costs may  be similar for Malvern)	£12	Free	Free – show ticket required	£13

The competition element may also be a barrier for some to support a quilt show by entering a quilt. The lists of winners and quilts for the shows can feature the same names and same quilts and knowing that you could be in the same category as previous winners could be off putting, however, this may be being recognised and addressed by some of the quilt shows. For example, Festival of Quilts have a “Joy of Sharing” category which is not judged and the Scottish Quilting Show has a Professional Maker category which includes any persons who have won an award in a major national or international competition.

As I mentioned before, quilt shows need our support if they are to continue, but what makes a good quilt show – is it the number and variety of quilts on show, the types of traders attending or having workshops on offer? If we go to a show and buy from the traders but not enter a quilt, is it the case that, in the words of Meatloaf (!), two out of three ain’t bad?

My experience this year has just confirmed that entering a full sized quilt into a competitive quilt show is not for me and perhaps I need to see if there are other ways I can support the show part of a quilt show. I’ll end this longer than usual blog post with a photo of my tiny nine patch quilt drying on the washing line. I’m much happier seeing it hanging there freshly washed and crinkly ready to use than seeing it hanging as a competition entry.

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April – a busier than usual month

This month has seen quite a lot of sewing and sewing-related activity.

First of all was the arrival of the new Millefiori book by Willyne Hammerstein. This book is published by Quiltshop Leur in the Netherlands and I was wondering how Brexit would affect things. I'm pleased to say the whole process went very smoothly -  it was shipped on a Saturday and arrived the following Friday. I received an email from the Royal Mail to say that the parcel had been posted in the Netherlands, another when it arrived in the UK, and a final one with the expected delivery date and time. I was expecting to have to pay a customs charge, but was pleasantly surprised when one was not required. I’ve yet to make any of the Millefiori quilts, but now I’ve another book from which to choose when I do start one!

Next was lots of satisfying sewing over the Easter break making syringe driver bags to be distributed by Waterloo Quilters to local hospices. This was a great opportunity to use up fabrics from my stash that were not really suitable for the quilts I make, such as poplins and embroidered cottons. We had been told that football-related bags were very popular and I managed to find an LFC single duvet cover on eBay which had enough fabric to make 9 bags. (My search for Everton fabric was not as successful, but someone else in the group found some Everton curtains for making bags, so the red and blue sides of Liverpool will be covered.) In total I was able to make 34 bags and used over 10 meters of fabric from my stash.

Finally, I finished my tiny nine patch quilt and sent it off to the British Quilt and Stitch Village show. When I started this quilt last year, I didn’t intend to send it to a show and it was only entered due to encouragement from fellow quilters and an extended deadline. The quilt has over 500 tiny nine patches made from half inch squares (finished size) sent on point, and the inner border is made from individual half inch squares also set on point. The backing is a Liberty print made for the V&A museum and has been in my stash for at least 10 years.

I’ll write more about my trip to the show in another post.

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March’s mixed sewing

I’ve a variety of projects to report on this month, starting with some secret (at the time) sewing from January.

I mentioned that I was pattern testing and I can now share that it was for Jodi from Sewfearless and was for her Rafka box. Way back in 2013 I tested Jodi’s Mommy Poppins bag and it was lovely to work with her again. This is very clever pattern – the large size box opens out into a useful tray thanks to the curved zip. The pattern went together really well, though I made things difficult for myself by not taking the zip apart. I would certainly recommend deconstructing the zip (as in Jodi’s instructions) or using a separating zip if you make this pattern.

In something completely different, I attended an afternoon workshop and evening talk at Waterloo Quilters by Jennie Rayment. The workshop (Texture into Sudoku) saw us making nine blocks using a variety of folding techniques. I took photos as I went along, but I don’t think they will be much help if I wanted to make the blocks again. There are still finishing touches needed and I will share more photos when these have been completed.

My final update for this month is for the Tiny Nine Patch Challenge and the end is in sight for this project. The borders have been added and the top sandwiched for quilting. Fortunately the backing (which has been in my stash for at least 10 years) was wide enough not to need piecing. However, I did run out of pins when basting the layers and had to find my emergency supply of smaller pins for the borders.

I’ve now completed the quilting and binding and just need to work out how to get a photo of the completed quilt as I think it might be too big for the usual washing line photo.

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Barnyarns "Mystery Box"

Last month I received an email from Barnyarns stating that their mystery box was “back and better than ever”. Always on the look out for a bargain, I ordered one and was keen to see what it would include.

My expectations were somewhat managed when the box arrived as by its size I could tell there would be no cutting mat, wadding or thread boxes inside. (To be fair, it is clearly stated that the image is for illustration purposes only.)

The box contained a variety of items covering a range of crafts, some of which will be useful but many of the items duplicate what I already have.

Cutting mat not part of mystery box

I think previous mystery boxes may have had specific themes (perhaps quilting, dressmaking, embroidery) and these may have been a better option for me than a general box such as this.

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Tiny nine patch progress

Good progress has been made on my Tiny Nine Patch Challenge quilt this month. It has gone from this:

To this:

The tiny nine patches have been replaced by making tiny Seminole style strips for the borders.

Who knows, maybe next month there will be a complete quilt top to show.

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The tiny nine patch project continues

In several of last year’s posts, I mentioned the blocks I was making for the Tiny Nine Patch Challenge. These blocks are tiny - each block is 1.5” finished size (UK 5p and 1 cent Euro coin for scale!).

The original timescale of the challenge was to get the quilt top completed in a year, but I only managed to get as far as making all the tiny nine patches (~550) I need and cutting over 400 setting squares. Good progress has been made this month and all the tiny nine patches have been assembled into larger nine patches. This means that I am now ready to start stitching the rows of the quilt together and working out what size edge triangles to cut for the on point layout.

However, I’ve taken a brief break from tiny nine patches to gather some supplies from my stash for some pattern testing. I pattern tested for this person back in 2013 and I'm looking forward to trying her latest pattern.

 I’ll update you on the project and show the finished item once the pattern is available. 

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