The binding's on!

Getting things finished is always a problem, but I got the binding done on this quilt today, just have to stitch the sleeve on and label it!
The binding was all done by machine, stitched to the back of the quilt and then turned to the front and stitched along the fold to secure it. I used five similar jelly roll strips but trimmed them to 2" and joined on the bias. Nice and quick and perfectly adequate as I am not planning to enter it into any competitions.

This is my Serpentine Curves quilt which I have shown before. It has been quilted with a raindrops pattern designed and quilted by Mandy Parks.
 
It will be my sample for the class I am teaching in September.




Here are pictures of my two quilts that live in the villa in Spain. (Two more to add to the tally..)

 This one is a bordered four-patch and can be made with jelly-roll strips.

It is quilted with an all-over pattern of dragonflies.

The second is a rail fence and quilted with a pattern of sailing boats, both done by Judith Fells. They finish to about 52" square.
It was so hot in Spain that we had them on the bed with just a sheet and dispensed with the duvet!

Fun in the sunshine

Having a restful holiday with lots of reading and swimming.
Planning some paper lamination and collecting Spanish text to go with the other languages I have been gathering, to make my piece for the Stretching Art Tradition group.
Here's a sample of what I have in mind, from Christine Chester's workshop for Contemporary Quilt, at summer school.

HSTeria two

New half square triangles - envelopes!

Check out the HSTeria link to see what other people are making.
I need a quilt that is one metre square, so this has gone off to be quilted and I confidently expect it to lie flat! Because the blocks are set on point they are on the bias. I did make sure that I cut the setting triangles with their edges straight on the outside of the quilt and the small borders also help to stabilise it. This is some more of the lovely fine cottons called "Houses Drift" that I won in an online competitionfrom "The Fat Quarter" shop in the USA.

I am away now for a couple of weeks so may not be able to post.

Yorkshire

Lovely day in Yorkshire today. We went to the quilt Museum in York where they have some costumes from Downton Abbey, The Duchess (my that Keira Knightly is slender) and some related to the Bronte sisters. There were interesting old quilts from the same time, 200 to 100 years ago and the fabrics used are fascinating.
One had been rescued from being a tractor warmer and another from covering a motorbike!

We then drove through the beautiful countryside to Harlow Carr, the RHS garden on the edge of Harrogate. Not only beautiful gardens, especially the kitchen gardens which were imaginative with innovative willow weaves, but also an excellent shop full of very reasonably priced hand made goodies produced by local artisans.
My talk tomorrow..

HSTeria

I'd like to have a go at the Half Square Triangle challenge HSTeria.  I've been thinking about this:

Arrows.

Do I make it bigger, or make another in a different pattern? Is it the start of a quilt or a cushion top?

Dyeing.. and Cambridge Botanical Gardens.

Dyed and painted linen.

Well it was desperately pale, so along with some other strips of fabric I threw it in a bucket with some mixed colours of dye, then after rinsing, through a cool machine wash. It looks much better to me and I've pinned it to the design wall for consideration.
I like the idea of using different weights of fabric to give the kind of contrast I think the idea of dislocation needs, but I'm also playing with the idea of dislocation in space with my doorway.

I'm liking it much more now.

Here are some pictures from my trip to Cambridge to the Botanical Gardens. Lots of inspiration in colour combinations and pattern.

Birch bark.

Fir in flower.

Euphorbia.

Speckled Wood Butterfly.

A new tack.

Trying something else with the dislocation piece as it began to seem overly complicated.
Found some thin Linen and have been painting a piece.

It looks desperately pale here with the light shining through but will be different with wadding behind I expect.