Show and Tell

Earlier this month we had another lovely sit and sew day with 16 of us spending the day sewing and chatting, sharing projects and enjoying a delicious 'Fuddle'! Our show and tell was as spectacular as ever with stunning quilts and works in progress. Janet and Jackie treated us to an explanation and demo of crumb quilting with lots of examples to admire. The photo above is of Janet's finished Trip Around the World started on a previous SASD and made entirely of 2" squares of red, white and blue fabrics.

Here are some of the crumb and scrappy blocks on display:

Davina also brought her Trip Around the World to show:

And here are more fantastic quilts from our show and tell:

Sewing machine cover

Pumpkin Table Runner

Medallion Quilt from a pattern in 'Love Patchwork and Quilting'

Whacky Houses

I'm afraid I didn't get photos of all the quilts so apologies to everyone I missed. You can see more on our Facebook page where Liz is keeping us updated with news, photos and events. If you have photos to share you could add them to our Flickr page.

Our next SASD will be on January 18th, 2014 at Deepdale Community Centre Bosoton Spa. I'll be posting more details in the New Year. So until then

Merry Christmas!

Hazel

Crumb Piecing on Saturday 7th December

Our next Sit and Sew Day is this coming Saturday at Deepdale.

This month I will be showing lots of examples of crumb quilting with some block patterns for you to try if you wish.

If you want to join in just bring some scraps to play along!

We are also having a bring and share lunch as well as the usual awesome show and tell!

Here are some examples of crumb blocks:-

 Also a lovely example of a crumb quilt.

Hope to see you on Saturday!

Janet x

Sit and Sew Day News

Hello! Hazel here. Sorry for the long silence but I've been busy enjoying the summer and I'm afraid I've been neglecting my blogging duties! The Harrogate Quilt Show starts tomorrow and that signals the start of the Autumn term is imminent!

We'll be meeting more frequently from now on - about once a month. The first will be on Saturday 21st September at Deepdale Community Centre,  Boston Spa just south of Wetherby and a stone's throw from the A1. We'll meet from 10am to 4pm and you can either work on your own project or have a go at making a quilt similar to Andrea's quilt pictured above.

For those of you planning to stock up on fabrics at the show the requirements for Andrea's quilt are:
For a small version (30" square approx) you'll need 11 pieces of fabric 13" square in neutral prints or solids and one 13" square in a bright colour. Andrea added sashing and a border to hers so I guess a metre for the sashing and half for the borders should just about do.

For a larger version  (60" square)  you'll need 33 neutral 13" squares and three in the bright fabric. You would easily get three 13" squares from a half metre of fabric.

Please let me know if you are planning to come to the SASD as space is limited at Deepdale and we don't want to run out of tables!

Enjoy the show if you're going. Hopefully I'll post lots of photos in a few days time.

Hazel

A Scrappy Trip Around Yorkshire!

Yesterday was our third Sit and Sew Day and a very productive day it turned out to be! We started out with strips:

The sewing machine's whirred as the strips were sewn together:

Then we cut the strip sets up into sections and wielded our seam rippers to create our Trip around Yorkshire blocks - to everyone outside God's own county they might be known as Trip Around the World!

If you'd like to make your own Trip Around Yorkshire then follow this link to Bonnie Hunter's tutorial. If you really can't face making something quite so scrappy then this one might suit you better!

A couple of people were working on their own projects:

Of course there was lots of chatter and laughter along the way with plentiful supplies of tea and biscuits. At lunchtime we had a show-n-tell of lovely quilts:

 Time flew by so fast we really could have stayed much longer!

We're looking forward to our next get-together when Andrea is going to show us how to make her quilt which we all loved:

There'll be more details soon of what you need to bring if you want to have a go. Our next SASD will be on September 21st at Boston Spa so put the date in your diary!

In the meantime if you have blogged about any of our SASDs or have blogged about making a Scrappy Trip Around the World please leave a comment below with a link to your post. We would also welcome some guest posts on this blog so let me know if you'd like to contribute!

Happy Stitching!

Hazel

Sit and Sew day 3

Liz's Trip Around the World quilt

At last I have dates for your diary! Our next Sit and Sew Day will be on Sunday June 16th at Clifford Village Hall, Albion Street, Clifford (view maps here: http://www.clifford-pc.org.uk/google-map12) from 10am to 4pm. As usual we'll have a show and tell and lots of lovely chat interspersed with a cuppa and plan to do lots of sewing!

Last time we met we decided to have a go at the 'Trip Around the World' which Liz had brought to show us. She promised us it is very quick and easy! The instructions are from Bonnie Hunter and you can read more on Quiltville's Quips and Snips. If you want to join in the project bring along strips 2.5" by at least 16" in light or dark fabrics and we can swap fabrics to have more variety.

There will have to be a limit on the number of quilters attending so it is essential that you book in advance. To do so please send  an email with your name and contact details by clicking here. We will charge approximately £7 on the day to cover the room hire costs and refreshments and a couple of draw prizes.

From the Autumn we plan to start meeting more frequently. Here are the dates for future reference: September 21st, October 19th and December 7th. These are all booked at Deepdale Community Centre in Boston Spa.

A Question for You

Hello again! I'm like buses - silent for ages then 3 posts in quick succession!

I have a question for our members following a mention of modern quilting and young adults taking up quilting on the Yahoo group for the Quilters Guild Contemporary Group. A newly elected Trustee of the Quilters Guild has emailed me to ask:

What you think The Guild might do to make itself more attractive to this age/interest group?

I'd really welcome your input on this so please  leave a comment below if you have any suggestions or comments or email me (quilthaze at gmail dot com).

Just to be clear - some of us in YMQG are members of the Quilters Guild but we don't mind at all if you're not . If you're not a member of the Guild you could take a look at their website to find out more: http://www.quiltersguild.org.uk/

Love Quilting

Here's a quick update on printing templates from the ipad version of Love Quilting Magazine. I got a quick and helpful reply to my email question from Jenny the editor of the magazine. Here's what she said:

Hi Hazel

Thanks so much for buying the mag. I've just been over to your MQG site - what a fantastic blog - you must be inspiring so many quilters!

The ipad printing IS a bit of an issue. As you noted on the blog, it only connects to an Air printer which so few of us have.

I don't have an online download for the templates in this issue (but I plan to include this for any future issues...)

However I did test the screen shot method myself here in the office and found it worked as follows:

1. Hold the ipad in the portrait position (ie with the home button at the bottom) so that only one single page at a time is visible.

2. Take a screen shot of the single page (hold down the power button and home button together). The image should automatically save to your image library.

3. Email the image to your desktop computer (are you still with me!?) and you can print it from there.

I tested the Marcelle Medallion templates in the office, and found that by enlarging the document I opened from my email by 132% before printing gave me the correct size (but do make use of the test square on the printout of any of the templates to ensure it is the correct size - I added them with this process in mind).

I do hope that helps - please do let me know.

Do also check out the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Lovequiltingandpatchwork as I'll be letting readers know if/when a next issue is confirmed (fingers crossed).

Thanks again for your and the Guild's interest in the mag, and keep in touch!

With warmest wishes

Jenny

Editor

So, thank you Jenny. I'll do a trial run later using Jenny's method and I'm pleased to hear of the plan to have the templates online in future. Let's hope the magazine will be published more frequently in future!

Have a great weekend!

Hazel

Catching Up

Well it's about time I posted some more news so here goes with a quick catch-up! Some of our members had a get-together at the International Quilting Day hosted by Janet's group in Barnsley and had a fantastic day with lots of other quilters. One activity was a Block Lotto with blocks in black, white and lime green. Quilters made blocks and were given a raffle ticket for each one donated then lucky winners were drawn out of the hat and each won enough blocks to make a quilt! The photo above shows just a small selection of the blocks which made a stunning display. Check out the Block Lotto website which organises monthly lottos -http://blocklotto.com/

Janet's button tree - one of the mini workshops

There were lots of great shopping opportunities with a bring and buy and silent auction plus a raffle and homemade cakes. There were also two mini workshops to take part in and all the profit went to Barnsley Hospice - a total of £1900 on the day! Well done to Janet and her group for an amazing total.

The Quilt Con exhibition in the US organised by the Modern Quilt Guild has produced Tons of inspiration on the internet. You can watch videos of the lectures on Craftsy - I've added the link on our sidebar and enthusiasts have been posting photos on their blogs and Flickr. Luana Rubin has over 200 photos to view here.

Recently I've been investigating digital versions of quilt magazines for the iPad and discovered many of the American magazines are much cheaper to subscribe to this way than buying the printed versions. e.g McCalls Quilting cost only $1.99 and issue through the ipad app instead of £4.99 at my local newsagent! I am a fan of Fat Quarterly which can be downloaded as a PDF for tablets and is great value. I also came across a new UK title Love Quilting and Patchwork from the publishers of Molly Makes and Inside Crochet which contains some lovely modern quilts and small projects:

I can't find any information about how often this will be published. If anyone knows more please  leave a comment below.

I've been busy with classes and workshops and have managed to finish a couple of small projects! 

This is a close-up of my staggered Flying Geese table runner which includes some of the fabrics from Riley Blake's 'Hello Sunshine range and I made with freezer paper foundation piecing. Here's a photo of the whole thing - sorry about the photo quality.

I recently found some lovely grey chambray which I intend to use to make a shirt but in the meantime made my driver instructor hubby a tablet cover:

What are you working on at the moment? Why not send me a photo and I can share them on the blog or upload them to our Flickr site.

I'll be back very soon with news of our next SASD.

Happy Stitching!

Hazel