Open Day

Come and join us for a day out and have a nosey at where you could be enjoying a relaxing patchwork retreat.................

Anyone for a Cappuccino?

Coming soon we have our Ever Decreasing Square Workshop and 'Cappuccino' is our sample quilt.  

Cappuccino - October 2012

After popping a photo of the quilt that Sue made for her Great Nephew on the blog, we received a request for a workshop, so this is it.

The quilt was fun to make and as the colours reminded us of coffee, it just had to be called 'Cappuccino'.

We hope you like it.

It is going down to Coast & Country Crafts & Quilts at Perranarworthal tomorrow to be displayed before the workshop.  We are also doing a version of this quilt at our Weekend Retreat at Degembris Manor Farm in December 2012 and February 2013.

 

Unexpected visitor...........

Hi everyone,

I was busy in the attic today when my daughter shouted up that we had a visitor, so everything was put on hold as we haven't seen our visitor for such a long time, why the fuss, well look who it was.......

Mr. Pheasant

Isn't he looking splendid and such long tail feathers. The last time we saw him in the summer he was looking very unkept, obviously had a family keeping him busy, so when he stopped calling I thought that was it, but it was such a lovely surprise today.

Back soon

Sue

A little walk on Dartmoor!

Badgers Holt - Dartmoor

Well.........the weather wasn't brilliant, in fact we had mist and rain, but Dartmoor was beautiful.  It was lovely to have a few days away walking in perfect scenery, eating fabulous food and enjoying the odd glass of wine!


These are just 2 of the photos that I took, but hopefully they will give a flavour of views and the amount of water that we saw.

Yar Tor - Dartmoor

I now have some lovely new inspiration to get busy with.





 Once I have someting to show I will pop it on the blog, but in the meantime I need to catch up with a few other projects and get ready for the first meeting of 'Textile Maids' on Tuesday 6 November

Strange forces at work?

Hi,
Recently whilst reading a blog I follow, I was lead to another persons blog and discovered my January Journal Quilt has been featured on the same page as her JQ in a new book. It came as quite a surprise to say the least.

The book has been published to celebrate 10 years of the Contemporary Quilt group and contains work from past exhibitions as well as the journal quilt projects.

Here is the page from the book with my journal quilt, last one bottom right.

Strange forces, coincidence, whatever the reason, trawling through the blogs gave me a nice surprise I may never have known about.
Sue

Variation on a theme

Hi everyone,

I've just made pasties, so while they're cooking I thought it would give me time to show cushion number two I managed to finish today. It's on the same lines as the Quilted Cushion I showed you on Monday, but this time I've used fabric to add some colour. Took me a while to fiddle with ideas on how to vary the design, but that's the fun of it.

Fractured Squares Cushions

The stitched pattern and fabric pieces are free machine quilted the same as the first one, here they are together.

I used the same colour thread but how different it looks when you introduce another colour.

I'm happy with those two, it's always good to try something new. I'm off to check on the pasties now, thanks for dropping by.
Sue

Keeping busy..............

Hi everyone,

It's my turn to be home alone this time as Carolyn is having a few days off. So, I thought I would keep busy and do something I've wanted to try for quite a while.

Many years ago I bought a book by the quilt artist Yoshiko Jinzenji. Some of her work used a limited colour palette with free machine quilting creating pattern and texture.
At the time I made notes in a little 'black book' I keep, on the first page I write -
thoughts.....
ideas.....
notes.....
remember.....
To Do........one day!

In the past I have taken great pains to make brightly coloured patchwork cushions for our conservatory, only to have the sun bleach all the colour out. So, having to re-new them I thought this would give me an opportunity to use Yoshiko's method as my inspiration.

I used calico fabric and added colour, pattern and texture with Madeira thread and free machine quilting. What a wonderful way to spend a wet Monday afternoon............

Quilted Cushion

                                             
I like finshing my cushions with the pillow case method so the ties pretty them up and the cushion behaves much better. Cross fingers the sun damage will not notice so much!!

I must just tell you, we had a lovely Manipulated Fabric workshop last week, thank you Margaret for leaving a comment on our guest page, we will pop some photos up soon. Also, we will be having our first get together soon with Textile Maids, how exciting.

Now back to my little 'black book' for another cushion idea.
Thanks for reading.

Sue 

Mixed Media "Taster Day"

Hi everyone,

We've mentioned in the past how we like to use mixed media in our work whenever possible. This month and next, we have 3 Mixed Media "Taster Day" workshops.

The first is one of my favorites, making Fabric Paper, it's a wonderful way to use those lovely papers that we've stashed away, wrapping paper, painted papers, tissue paper etc. It can then be used as fabric, painted, stitched and embellished.

We like using Fabric Paper for our books and that's our second workshop. We use a variety of papers to construct the book and make a covering, either from fabric or Fabric Paper, incorporating paint and stitch, the books make ideal gifts.

You may have seen on one of our 'turtle' days, we used trappings to create a piece of fabric. On our third "Taster Day" we will use this method in our Card Making workshop. This fabric can also be used for book covers or small tiles to add to a piece of work.

All the details and dates can be found on our web site.

In the meantime, I'm really looking forward to tomorrow, we are taking a workshop with another one of my favourite techniques, Manipulated Fabric. We'll try to remember and take some photo's to show you.

Bye for now,

Sue

What a week!

Well, that was a very lovely, but busy week, meeting new Quilt Groups and running Workshops!

We had a lovely day on Friday at the Craft Show at Westpoint.  There was lots to see, purchases to make, and cuddles to have ( my mum, daughter and grandson joined us for the day!!)

Although it wasn't a quilt show, the quilts that were on show were lovely and got the fingers twitching again.

We are missing our 'Turtle Tuesday' today, but I am hoping to pop into my sewing room for a few minutes, and I am sure Sue will be hoping to as well.

Receding Tide - 2012

Recently I found a small wall hanging, that I started at college (oh so many years ago) and that I had never quite finsihed!!

It is inspired from a photo of rubbish washed up on the beach.  I used reversed applique and included a variety of mixed media.   
I think it is just about there now........

I am pleased to say that we are having a good response to our call for 'Textile Maids' and are hoping to get together shortly for a coffee and a chat.  

We will keep you posted of its progress!

Carolyn