Being a swap momma

I'm September Momma for Siblings Together Bee2.
Unfortunately I didn't realise that I was going to be the swap mom in two days time when I agreed to swap but Hey... Here goes!

I have the most enormous scrap pile which must be reduced:

Therefore, String blocks please, similar to Jenny's but as they are a nice asymmetric block have lots of possibilities for setting.

Therefore, String blocks please, similar to Jenny's but as they are a nice asymmetric block have lots of possibilities for setting.
You need:
one 10" white-on-white square cut diagonally to make two triangles
two dark 1.25" blue strips 14" long
Assorted scrap strips in assorted widths from 12" in length
I didn't find a need for a paper foundation.
1. Add the dark blue strips to each white triangle
2. Sew strips to each block until they are big enough.

I tried checking the length the next strip needed to be by folding over the end of the previous one...

and then had the bright idea that folding the whole block in half would give me the line to trim on!
Happy to to receive these untrimmed though..
two blocks please to
Heather Hasthorpe
Okehaven, New Road
Catfield
Great Yarmouth
NR29 5BQ

Summer fun with Indigo

A great afternoon exploring indigo dye and woad.
Straight from the Vat before oxidisation.

And afterwards! Magic to watch!

Lace dyes well, these belong to Ros.

And Ros was persuaded to dye her cotton cardigan too..

Thanks to Dee who provided the dyes and venue.

Spring Quilt Retreat

I'm at Belsey Bridge on retreat with an amazing bunch of buddies. Every so often someone hangs up a quilt for a little show and tell!
This is Julie Barnes's beautiful feathered star, which she has long arm quilted.

And this is a great star quilt in modern fabrics made by Mary Cunningsworth:

Contemporary Group

I decided at the last minute that I would respond to the pleas to make an A3 piece for the latest suitcase challenge. This is what I wrote to go with it:
Contemporary Group Suitcase Collection 2017
My Favourite Artist
I had a problem with this as my favourite artists are textile people: Yoshiko Jinzensi, Gwen Marston, Kathleen Loomis, Cindy Grisdela, and Erin Wilson. I spent an instructive half an hour online researching artists who use stripes and came up with 8 names whose work I found interesting: Annie Albers, Karl Benjamin, Paul Klee, Bridget Riley, Mark Rothko, Sean Scully, Frank Stella, Victor Vasareli.
Having looked at their work I thought I would put together some stripes where the Juxtaposition of colours interested me, so not really influenced by only one artist I’m afraid!
and here is the piece I have sent off:

January Journal

11"square this time, and we can pick our own theme so I'm doing improv which is what I like to play with.

Modern Quilt tutor box sample

Just finished this small quilt teaching sample for the Modern Quilt specialist group of the Quiilters Guild. This will be added to the others available for borrowing, with free instruction sheets, so that group workshop organisers can run some of their workshop sessions in house without the need to bring in teachers and pay fees and travel.
http://www.mqgb.org.uk/tutorboxes.html

Modern Crosses

Patchwork Patterns in Fijian printed textiles

There is an exhibition of Fijian artefacts at the Sainsbury Centre, an excellent museum at the university in Norwich. As there were few raw materials available to the islanders their skilled artisans made beautiful objects in wood and whale ivory, and textiles were made from plant fibres. Their barkcloth is beautifully stencilled and painted to produce large cloths which were used in ceremonies and given as treasured gifts. The patterns are geometric and there is lots of repetition..

There is a large bark cloth hanging in the reception area.

And a last piece that seemed to remind me of Diana Harrison's work.

Finishing

This year's first completion... Climate Change. My entry for the International Stash Challenge using four fabrics donated by a Dutch Quilter, and four of my own.

Ancient Trinitarian church at Ingham

There is an amazing 14th century church at Ingham, near where I live, with a wonderful tomb of a knight and his lady. Although it has been vandalised since 1380, and their arms have been broken off it is thought that they were lying hand in hand. There are very faint coloured lines just visible on the side of her dress. They would have represented the rich embroidery that would have decorated her dresses in life and there are good explanations of how beautiful the tomb would have been when first made and newly painted.

Contemporary v Modern part two

Generally speaking I believe Contemporary work is made as an emotional response to something - the environment, illness, struggles against adversity, close observation of something, historical events, and the like. Whereas Modern quilts are more playful, with an exploration of colour, line, pattern, scale, and made without any  deeper meaning attached... Just because I enjoy doing them!

My Quilt Eccentric Crosses was made because I had become interested in Modern Quiltmaking and saw lots of different Crosses quilts on line. I had a pack of Oakshott eighths and cut them into squares using the strips left over at the ends to make the crosses. They are free cut in slight curves, through both layers of fabrics RS up. I was playing with the colours so that each square had a different colour in the cross. I laid them out and only felt the need to move one square before I was happy with the layout.

Adding wide borders of uneven widths completed the modern look 
and super quilting by Mandy Parks helped us to a 
Judges Choice at this year's Festival of Quilts.

Below is another of my Modern quilts, Modern Wheels. Again, beautifully quilted by Mandy Parks in an interesting modern pattern. This came about because a group of local quilters wanted to do a block of the month in one of the new patchwork magazines, designed by Lynn Goldworthy of Lily's Quilts. I liked the wheel block but thought the rest uninteresting, so I just worked on that. 

Modern versus Contemporary Quiltmaking

I've belonged to the Quilters Guild Contemporary Group for a long time, and have been part of the setup of the new Modern Group.

I would class my Contemporary work as Art. It involves a great deal of mind as well as method.
I made a piece for the Stretching Art Challenge in America called Illuminated Letters and this is what I wrote about it for the submission.

Stretching Art Challenge 16 Illuminated Letters

SAT16: Hidden by Heather Hasthorpe http://www.stretchingartandtradition.org/SAT16/H2-1.html 

Artist: Heather Hasthorpe, Norfolk, UK  

Letter H Half-Understood

Inspiration 

I made a sketchbook based on books and writing for The Sketchbook Challenge and spent a lot of time considering how meaning is conveyed through text and imagery. I have now collected a variety of printed text in different languages, most of which I cannot read! I am using these partly for their value as pattern, but also holding in mind that the meaning is obscured both by my lack of knowledge, and the fracturing that the technique produces.

Technique explored

I am using an image transfer method I first saw at Houston being demonstrated by Claire Benn, which I have further explored and developed following workshops with Christine Chester. I have screen printed medium to attach papers to fabric, using thermofax screens.

Techniques used

Image transfer, layering, machine quilting, facing, appliqué 

This is the quilt

More on this in the next post..

More from Hever Quilt Show

Jackie Norris Who is the Contemporary Quilt
Coordinator came with me and found herself
looking after the CQ Journal Quilts.

I sent a picture of the stall to my husband who responded with, "Nice pic, here's one of me"

And there he is in all his shooting kit...

Well you do need to keep occupied when retired!

And I've taken up dressmaking again, lovely pattern seen at the Festival of quilts, and some nice stripey linen from Wightmans in Bungay which cost less than the pattern!!

Hever Quilt Show

I spent a happy three days at the Hever Quilt show demonstrating and showing the Modern Quilt Group sixty degree challenge from last year.

New Work

At quilt retreat.
I've been attaching bindings, sleeves, and sewing on labels.
I've now got four quilts ready to take to the Quilters Guild Conference next week.
Modern Sampler, designed by Helen Butcher and Helen Howes with one or two additions of my own, also quilted for me by Mandy Parks.
Arrowtail, quilted with an amazing leaf pattern by Mandy Parks.
Modern Improv, that I wrote about in my previous post.

Quartered Moons, nicely quilted for me by Julie Barnes of Quilters Friend.

Now to get on with my Modern Challenge piece.

The Making of a Modern Quilt

More scrappiness and leftovers-using-up.

I was anxious to make a quilt that I could enter in the new Modern Category this August at the Festival of Quilts, and picked up a link online to Jenifer Dick who blogs as 42 Quilts. she had run a sewalong on modern Improv blocks called Modern Monday, so I started to play with the idea.

My first block was quite big so I trimmed to finish at 7" rather than 6" which caused some difficulties later! 

I really enjoyed making these however and using up some of the fabrics left over from the Modern Sampler Quilt I'd just finished. See that one here.

Adding in a dark pinky red for contrast helped to spark up the design and a few of my own blocks began to appear... here is a wonky tree, and my version of the winged square.

I made a tall ship, and an improv Oho Star to steer her by. I enjoyed making the oriental lantern, the hashtag,
the apron and Jenifer's lovely original block that she called Santa's Belly! My last block was the improv basket - more of these wil be appearing soon, they are such fun to make.

It isn't very big, as it has to be at least a metre long, and will be about 42". I'm not going to attempt quilting anything bigger.

The next problem is how to quilt it. I haven't quilted anything bigger than a cushion for at least 15 years....

Because the piecing is quite complicated I decided to completely ignore it and go for simple diagonal lines, using masking tape as a guide.After layering the top over the wadding and backing, having pressed everying very well, I pinned across the centre of the join around each block with straight pins. My hands are weak and find safety pins difficult to manage.





I made sure that I started from the same edge each time and stitched down each side of the masking tape. I stabbed myself on the pins a few times and ended up with plastered fingers, but no blood on the quilt! It certainly isn't perfect, but it was manageable and has given a very nice soft drapey finish.

The binding was the next hurdle. I made a flange binding with one-and-a-half inch coloured strip and one-and-a-quarter inch white strip sewn together along their length and pressed in half to make a two inch strip with a small flange of colour just showing. It is attached to the back of the quilt in a continuous strip and I like to join it on the bias. I managed a perfct join but somehow twisted the strip and had to undo... It is then brought to the front and machine stitched down neatly on the coloured flange, mitreing the corners as you go.

And here is the finished quilt. Blocks worked on over three weeks, light relief sewing, and quilted one afternoon, bound the following morning.
A quilt I can enter... and hopefully one that people may think, "I could do that!"

Scrappy Projects

I love Scraps.. I collect tiny pieces and can't bear to throw them away!
I'm linking up to Scraptastic Tuesday

Here are some of the things I've been working on lately, the first two are with the long arm quilters so that I can bind them when I'm on Quilt Retreat in three weeks or so.

This is a Drunkards Path in Modern fabrics. I've seen a few around on the interweb and thought I'd have a go as it is a block I've never spent much time on. I've made quite a few Winding Ways like the quilt at the head of my blog, and have another cut out, but it is a much simpler block with much shallower curves. Circles are always an interesting design element, and I find that more and more I am attracted to restricted colour schemes.

 This is my version of a Quilt designed as a teaching sample by Helen Butcher. Three of us have made it now and they are all totaly different! Helen made hers in sophisticated greys and red/orange, and Helen Howes made hers in a stunning rainbow. Mine as you can see is a rather restricted palette again, but I really like it. It was an interesting project because some of the blocks are traditional, some are pieced over papers and deadly accurate, and some are free-cut modern blocks like my crosses bottom left. There is also the freedom to add in touches of your ovn like the two little pieced hexagons cut from pre-joined strips that I was teaching last year... can you spot them? Each of us also arranged our blocks differently, so from the same start point we have quite different results.

 And these are some free-cut Modern Blocks from Jenifer at 42 Quilts which is another Scrap project.

I have long been a fan of Gwen Marston and these are such fun to make, and a great "light relief" project to fit in some short sewing time in between other activities.

I've also been working on more Zippy Purses for the Quilters Guild Tombola at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham in August, and developing patterns for them in the hope of persuading people to contribute.

We have set up a blog to show pictures of our makings and there are links to our free patterns there:
Zippy-Purses

These are great for using up those really small scraps!!!
These are from my pattern Pretty Patchwork Purse.