A simple modern quilt in time for Christmas?

Yesterday I visited the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate. It was lovely to meet up with Hazel and Anthea of Quilting Antics.

I purchased some Alexander Henry fabrics in order to make my youngest son, Rob, a University Quilt.
The poor lad started Uni in September without a quilt, what sort of a mother am I? Sad to say that Rob is a victim of that well known condition, second child syndrome. I have made loads of things for his elder brother but sadly Rob has missed out.

I have decided to set myself the challenge of making a simple modern quilt for him in time for Christmas (or maybe New Year!). I thought I might chart my progress here on the blog and perhaps even inspire some of you to make a similar quilt. After all there are some lovely fabrics out there!

Here are the fabrics for starters

It is my intention to cut these half metre pieces into 10 inch squares.
I will then join these with sashings of a lovely grey/blue solid.

Hope you are all enjoying your quilting!
Hazel and I will have news of the next YMQG Meet Up soon!

Janet x
  

31 Days of Walking Foot Quilting

I love Pinterest. I can spend hours exploring and pinning photos of gorgeous quilts which in all honesty I'll never have time to make and all that time browsing doesn't help get my pile of UFOs finished!!! 

Today I came across something which might help - 31 Days of Walking Foot Quilting. I've not looked at all the 31 posts on this Petit Design Co Blog series, but what I have looked at had me sitting up and 'wowing'. There are some useful basic tutorials in the first few posts but then there are some really novel suggestions for walking foot quilting designs. One of my favourites is 'Topography' - a variation of echo quilting done large across a pieced quilt top. There are some great shots of finished quilts in the 'Sunday Inspiration' post too.

Happy Quilting!

Hazel x 

Our First SASD!

Andrea's Tablemat

Well our first SASD was fun or, as Davina posted on Facebook, 'Awesome'! You'll need to make a cup of tea and settle down to read all about it as we have a lot to share.

Although there were only 7 of us there was plenty of activity, stitching, chatter and laughter. In fact it felt like we'd known each other for ever! We got started with introductions and a show and tell of beautiful quilts. 

Andrea is a newbie to quilting but has already been practising FMQ on this lovely bag made from tea towels:

Here's a closer view of the amazing echo quilting:

Helen brought a finished quilt and a work in progress. First her spools quilt:

This has a fabulous labels fabric on the back

She's working on an appliqué quilt from a 'Don't Look Now' pattern and planning to add a flying geese border. BTW You can buy someDon't Look Now patterns from The Skep in Farsley.

Liz brought a selection of dintricate patchwork quilts - she likes small pieces!

 The three above are doll quilts so quite small and below is the back of the Hearts quilt:

Davina had been making some village quilts with a young quilter she teaches:

and a Christmas wall hanging made with paper piecing. You can find some free block patterns on Carol Doak's website.

Janet brought her scrappy hearts quilt to show and her prize winners from the Harrogate show.

Phew after that inspiration it was time to get on with some stitching. Janet showed us how she made her table mat from strips of fabric in a Moda Scrap Bag. Some of us then started on our own tablemats while others worked on their own project. I've shown you Andrea's mat at the top of the post and here are some others.

Susan worked with black and white

Davina had some bright Halloween fabrics

Davina has already written about our day on her blog Cotton Confetti with more photos of her work.

 Liz worked on these fabulous stars:

Helen completed a stunning sailing ship block:

Janet provided us with a steady supply of tea and spooky cakes and made us have a break for lunch. She did manage to sew a little and I did some quilting on a Jelly Roll UFO. 

We finished the day by deciding to meet again in February or March in Boston Spa. I'll let you know the details when I have confirmed the date. We also set a challenge to make a word with liberated pieced letters. You can find instructions for making all the letters of the alphabet on The Patchery Menagerie blog and everyone can join in by posting photos on our Flickr group: Yorkshire Modern Quilt Guild. We hope to see you at our next meeting.

Happy Stitching!

Hazel

Workshop sample for our first SASD!

I have made a sample for the Modern Quilted Placemat workshop which will be an optional part of our first Sit And Sew Day. It is made from Moda 12 Days of Christmas fabric by Kate Spain. The strips are 2 inches wide as they come from a scrap bag rather than a jelly roll.

So far we have had a great response to the SASD but there are still places left if you want to join us. Details are in the previous post but I am going to give some good old fashioned directions for those without a Sat Nav!
Come off the M1 at Junction 37 and follow sign to Manchester. You will pass a Toby pub called Dodworth Valley and come to a small roundabout. Turn left at roundabout and then right at the next mini roundabout, passing a Costcutter shop. You will continue past the Holiday Inn and turn left just past the Bannatyne's Health Club. Continue until you see Curry Mahal and Budgens supermarket on your left and turn left just after Budgens. You will pass Dodworth library and Dil Raj restaurant on your right. You turn right a few yards further on opposite the Thornley Arms pub. This road is called Strafford Walk and the Pollyfox Centre is just on your right as you turn. Turn right onto Pollyfox Way to park - there is plenty of space if you turn right at the end of the street.

Hope to see you there! Don't hesitate to get in touch if you need more info.

Come to our Sit and Sew Day!

I have exciting news - we have fixed a date for the first Sit and Sew Day for the Yorkshire Modern Quilt Guild! Janet has booked us in for Saturday 27th October at the Polly Fox Centre, Polly Fox Way, Dodworth, Barnsley, South Yorkshire S75 3QR which is very close to Junction 37 of the M1 so very easy to get to. We hope lots of you will be able to join us for a day of sewing, meeting new friends, sharing ideas and inspiration. 

Talking of inspiration Janet has offered to do a mini workshop for anyone who wants to join in, to make the tablemat shown in the photo above.This is an optional part of the day and we hope you'll also bring a project of your own to work on, as well as something for show and tell. 

We'll charge £8 for the day to cover the hire of the hall plus tea and coffee but don't forget to bring some lunch. If we have any surplus funds we'll organise a giveaway. We do need to know how many will be attending so please contact me if you would like to join us for the day. I'll reply as soon as possible with the requirements for the tablemat workshop.

Little quilts from table scraps.

Last Saturday at the string hearts workshop I couldn't help myself - I collected up all the table scraps which would otherwise have gone into the bin. I have made 5 little quilts out of these scraps.



First, I sorted them into colour groups


Then I pieced according to the sizes I had. Of course, most of them were strings. The only fabric I added was for the borders.













These quilts are all around 8 inches square. I am looking forward to quilting them all and then hope that they will become AAQI quilts.

String Hearts Workshop Report.

This workshop was held yesterday at Boston Spa. Although it was one of the hottest days of the summer, everyone soon got into some serious sewing.

Hearts were made in lots of colour combinations -

There were also lots of crumb blocks

Thanks to everyone who came - it was lovely to meet you all. Special thanks to Hazel for keeping everyone supplied with tea and biscuits, and to Tuesday Quilters for organising the workshop. Looking forward to seeing some lovely heart quilts!
Keep on quilting
Janet x
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