putting the quilting hat back on

After what must be a good 18 months of no quilting (if you don't count buying fabric!) I have finally assembled my weapons and am ready to wield the needle and thread once again! I have a WIP that is a rainy day theme and it's about a quarter pieced so far ... with the help of mum the pieces were all laid out and assessed, namely that I need to cut 3 more pieces but there's fabric for that ... I need to pop to the quilt shop in Monmouth to buy some white fabric (which forms part of the top) but there shouldn't be too much work ahead to get the top hand-stitching finished :)

Unfortunately we paired up the pieces for my immediate sewing tasks before I thought to take a photo ... but I promise next time the pieces are laid out I will snap them for another post ... this will probably be mid-next week once the white fabric shopping expedition has taken place :)

... for now I'll just say that it's good to be back in the quilting sphere with needles threaded and fabric waiting!

The Mountain Grows ...

It was one of those Cash n Carry days ... take as much cash as you have to the quilt show and go home with as much fabric as you can carry! OK, it was a bit more than that, being a lovely chance to meet up with Lorraine from Monkey Business and Quilts and Amy from Magpie Mimi

First things first, let's talk fabric ... and I even have a photo for you! :) First of all Amy gave me my Christmas Present (what can I say, it's tricky catching up with me since I'm not very mobile and keep popping in and out of hospital!) and it comprised a big bag of Liquorice Allsorts (no photo of those but I can assure you they've been opened and are rapidly vanishing!), a absolutely gorgeous piece of velour fabric, and an equally lovely pack of fabrics with colours and contrasts that I have a chance of being able to see :)

... and although I certainly am not in urgent need of buying more fabric, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to do so .... especially when there was a beautiful selection of Liberty print fabrics ... so I bought a pack of "very fat eighths" ... I'm hoping each piece might be large enough to make a cushion from, maybe using a different fabric for the backs.

The sharp-eyed amongst you will have spied a couple more fabricky-looking things in the photo ... yes, there's a piece of thick red felt that still feels really wooly in texture - it's fab and the plan is to make a tapot to applique onto my Yorkshire Tea quilt (more on that in a mo!) ... and right at the top of the pic there's a Japanese fabric that I could see since it has good contrast between the dragonfly motifs and the dark background ... no plans for this yet but it may work with a half yard of Japanese prints I bought in a shop sale about a year ago!

And finally, in the centre of the photo is the Yorkshire Tea towel that is the theme for a quilt ... The Yorkshire Tea folk on the Orient Express trip liked hearing about my quilting so sent me 5 tea towels to turn into a quilt. Now this is where the questions start! I'm open for suggestions about how to make this quilt ... please bear in mind my low level technical skill though!

Question 1: Pattern suggestions:
The tea towel could form a centre panel with other as-yet-to-be-acquired tea-themed fabrics around it ... or it could be chopped up and used as smaller blocks as part of a traditional or modern style pattern ... What do you think might work? Bear in mind I can use anything from 1 to 5 of these tea towels! ... Plus on ebay there are other tea towels with scenes from Yorkshire villages that I thought might add nicely to the quilt.

... actually that's the only question at this stage, I kind-of combined two questions into one - how many tea towels to use and then pattern suggestions. Any and all ideas gratefully received!

:)

Assuming the rain stops...

Malvern is definitely on! I'm going on Saturday ... Of course if it continues to rain the way it is right now then I may be canoeing to get there ...but hopefully by Saturday all will be dry and sunny and soft clouds of batting will be floating in the air ...

I'm delighted that Lorraine from Monkey Business and Quilts and Amy from Magpie Mimi are confirmed attendees so lots of crafty gossip will be had along with cups of tea while feet get a rest from wandering around the rather large quilt show!

If anybody else is thinking about going to Malvern but isn't quite sure just yet (maybe you're waiting to see if the floods will subside before you leave your house uncertain whether it'll be 20ft under water by the time you return?) ... then do keep your eyes pealed for a quilter wielding a white cane ... there probably won't be too many of us in one spot at the same time! Do say hello ... and if you know in advance that you're going do leave a comment or email me and I'll let you know my mobile number so rendez-vous can be planned at the watering hole! :)

quilt plans

It had totally slipped my mind, but it's Malvern Quilt Show this week! Thursday 16th to Sunday 19th ... is anybody planning to go? I met up with Lorraine from Monkey Business and Quilts last year, and I think Magpie Mimi is going with her sewing class one of the days ... leave me a comment if you too plan on going, or drop me an email and maybe we can meet up for a coffee there!

In other news - and I apologise for this being a little slow in appearing! - the Orient Express trip was absolutely fantastic! A really perfect day! Here's an annotated photoboard page ... it was so much fun to dress up 1930s style!

... and the Yorkshire Tea folk enjoyed hearing about my quilt-making and have sent me 5 of their tea towels to make into a quilt! Unfortunately they're all the same design, but I plan on adding a tea towel with some Yorkshire village scenes plus some tea cup and teapot fabrics ... I will post pics later and consult you all for advice on making a from cotton tea towels ... I'm assuming it'll be like using t-shirts for quilts but having never done that either I don't know what precautions to take etc! ... The aim is for the end of the year I think, and hopefully Yorkshire Tea can find a suitable event to auction it for charity ...

No updates on the transplant ... had I had the false alarm middle-of-the-night phone call to go in for surgery in my last update? Well that came just a week before the Orient Express trip, but I got a reprieve when the organs didn't make it to the hospital in good enough condition to use, so I got sent home again! There have been no phone calls since then, but I suspect there'll be one before too long - one per month seems about what to expect with my blood group!

Hope this post hasn't been rendered too unintelligible ... Internet Explorer and my screen reader don't seem to be the best of friends this afternoon! ... I blame the weather which is hammering down and according to quilters around the country is likely to bear hail at some point!