Quick post

Hello all,

Today we started our Begin Patchwork course and what an enthusiastic group of ladies we have. They got straight down to it, finished and quilted their first block, even with all our waffling. That's the beauty of the Quilt-As-You-Go method, once the block are completed and quilted you're not left with the huge task of quilting a large piece.
When we get some photo's we promise to put some up for you to see.

Here is a sneak peep of the wall hanging we have just about finished for our Retreat Weekend.

Ever Decreasing Squares

It's a play on the saying, ever decreasing circles, so we've printed circles over the squares and then quilted squares in the circles, and yes, all those ends have to be tied in.

Ever Decreasing Squares



Here's another view with yet more ends to tie in. Once that's done we've decided to put a facing on this one as it's a wall hanging.

That's all for now, I'm off to pack for a Painted Bondaweb workshop we're doing at Tresillian tomorrow.

Back soon

Sue

Dead line...........

Hi everyone

At last I've completed the yellow JQ's, but only just before the dead line! Must do better starting next month on the 'blue' challenge and keep up with Carolyn, loving her yellow JQ's.

The hand painted tiles I've been using as my inspiration, which I showed you in an earlier blog, had a lovely free style about them, I wanted that feel in my third and fourth JQ. To get that look I decided to use bondaweb, which when painted creates beautiful textures. I fuse the shapes to a transfer dyed background, which I covered with fine tulle.
I also wanted to re-create a sketchy look, so I outlined the shapes with two rows of free machine quilting, I free machined the background for added texture and interest. The edges are finished with satin stitch and painted with gold acrylic, the tulle was distressed with a heat gun.

Sicily Tiles 3

I think these are my favorite two so far, I love working with mixed media.

Sicily Tiles 4

On the final one above I also added seed stitching and french knots on the background. 

Now I need to start thinking of a 'blue' theme and hopefully get moving on it, I will definitely be heading down the mixed media road though.

Hope you enjoyed seeing both mine and Carolyn's JQ's.

Back soon

Sue

Well here I am again, not such a good blogger as Sue, but I thought that it was time I said hello again.  

We had a brilliant day on Thursday visiting the Festival of Quilts at the NEC.  It was wonderful and so inspiring to see the work and meet the artists that created it.  Our heads were buzzing on the way home, we just need several 'Turtle Tuesday's' now to play!!

 

Anyway, I have now finished the next 4 months of the Contemporary Quilt Challenge and thought you may like to see them.  I had intended to use the “whole cloth” method for the next 4 months but I got distracted and only used that method for 2 of them!  

May - Exciting News

My son returned from a 6 month tour of duty in May, just as this next part of the challenge was starting.  He was given a yellow “smiley face” balloon by my sister, which really summed up all of our feelings having him home safe and sound.  This had been such a overwhelming time in our lives that I just had to use his safe return and our feelings regarding this, as the theme for the next 4 months. So……..

  

Exciting News

We have had the date for his return to the UK, and the excitment is tangible.  

I had played with my selection of Derwent Inktense Blocks on a piece of calico, when my daughter was home and loved the resulting colour.   I decided to use a couple manipulated fabric techniques, which I then cut and re-assembled into this wall-hanging.  The furrowing and seed stitches and pin tucks make me think of the excitement and happy chaos in our family at this time.

June - Homeward Bound

               Homeward Bound

On our son's return, I showed him this piece of fabric and he immediately went onto Google maps to bring up the aerial view of where he had been for the past 6 months. It was amazing how similar my base fabric was to this view.  So for me this piece had to present the view from aircraft window when he was on his way home. 

 

I started with a piece of calico that I covered in Gesso and acrylic paint, with strips of torn fabric, scrim and threads, laid on top and also covered with Gesso.  I very lightly quilted this with extra seed stitches and straight machine stitch.

 

 

July - Busy Airwaves

Busy Airwaves

This is another piece of calico covered in Gesso and acrylic paints with strips of torn fabric, scrim and threads, laid on top and also covered with Gesso.   Derwent Inktense Blocks have also been used to add extra cover.  The use of Gesso makes the fabric quite difficult to free machine so I machine stitched wavy lines that became the airwaves from all our happy and excited chatter when he got home.   

I have added more seed stitch and several small brads to the piece to give even more texture.  I was un-certain of this one while I was making it, as I loved the base fabric and was concerned that I would ruin it, but the finish effect is very pleasing.

August - And Breathe!

And Breathe!

My final piece in this Yellow section is made from the same fabric as ‘May’, calico painted with Derwent Inktense Blocks.  I love the vibrant colour that you can achieve but also the subtle effect of the lighter shading too.  I love the calmness and order of this piece.  The pin-tucks, bow-ties and prairie points are lovely to make and the finished effect is very tranquil. 

 

 So we can all breathe again……until next time!

 Here's to the next part of the challenge......Blue!!

'turtle' day

Yesterday we worked on the Ever Decreasing Squares quilt we're making for a workshop at Coast and Country Crafts and Quilts on 29th November and thought you may like to see it at an early stage.



Here is a glimps of a few blocks pinned to sheeting in no particular order, loving these muted colours.

We're putting that on hold for a day or two and we're very excited to be off to the NEC for the Festival of Quilts. The last time we went was about three years ago when we exhibited the final quilts we made for our City and Guilds Level 3 Diploma. We have our pennies, our shopping list, the camera is charged and ready and a list of exhibits to look out for. So, it's as early night and try to get some sleep, although it feels like being a child and waiting for Christmas morning!

Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed seeing the quilt in its early stages.

Sue

Antique Rose Quilt

Hi everyone,

We can now show you the quilt we are teaching at our Begin Patchwork course starting September 4th 2012.

Antique Rose

We're so pleased with it, hope you like it too.

Anyone interested in enrolling for the course can find all the details on our web site www.beyondpatchwork.co.uk

We mentioned in an earlier post that we welcome experienced quilters to join us on a day basis, to brush up on existing skills, learn a new technique, or make a block they haven't tried before. Here are the names of the blocks we made for this quilt, top row - Log Cabin & Rocky Mountain, middle row - Building Blocks & Rail Fence, bottom row - Courthouse Steps & Prairie Queen.

Thanks for reading,

Sue

2 JQ's

Here are two of the journal quilts I've finished and posted onto the contemporary web site. I used transfer dyed, hand dyed and indigo dyed fabrics to try and recreate a painterly feel.

                                                        Sicily Tiles 1

Sicily Tiles 2



I mentioned in an earlier post that we had been away, we took ourselves off to Sicily, it was a special holiday to celebrate our silver wedding anniversary. As usual my camera never stopped clicking and I came home with some lovely images to use as inspiration for a very long time. Two such photo's were of beautifully hand painted tiles that adorned the weathered walls everywhere.
I used an A4 sketch book to draw the designs so I had the right size for the journal quilts, it meant I had to elongate the square tiles but that didn't affect the patterns.

I thought painting the designs and useing hand dyed fabrics, gave them the same hand painted look as the original ones. Now I have the designs I can get started on the next two JQ's.

Back soon

Sue

Progressing nicely

We had a fabulous 'turtle' day and stitched all day and I remembered to take some photo's. These are some of the blocks from the sample quilt for our Begin Patchwork course. 

They are now quilted and waiting to be stitched together. As we are doing a Quilt-As-You-Method there is no massive amount of quilting to do at the end and the pieces are small enough to fit easily under the machine.

                       

We think it's going to look lovely and will show you as soon as it's finished.

We also heard today that the Retreat Weekend web site has had over 200 hits in just a few days, what a wonderful response, thanks to everyone who's visited the site.

That's all for now, speak soon

Sue