Life is always busy and Spring has certainly sprung at Strictly Quilting HQ. My youngest son is getting married soon, less than three weeks now, and we’ve all been wrapped up in preparations. It has been fun but hard work and the quilting has slipped.
Some bad news was that Cecilia Slinn, who I collaborated with on the sewing retreats, passed away peacefully at home last month. We had so much fun over the years running retreats and I’ll certainly miss her. It was she who talked me into Queenie, my lovely Free Motion Sewing machine and she will always be on my mind when I sit down to quilt. Retreats are continuing with one in November and another in January next year. She may be gone but never forgotten. You can find the retreat details here.
On a positive note, my patterns have finally made it to the website for purchase online as PDF downloads. Some of these brought back good memories from working on the magazine and one of them, the guitar pattern, was recently displayed at one of the Scottish quilt shows earlier in the year. It was so exciting to see it posted on Facebook and was one of the last ones published in the magazine.
Talking of shows, Malvern is coming up quickly and I’ll have two quilts in the show this Spring. One wall hanging and one full sized bed quilt. If you go, have a look and see if you can spot them! Two of my students also have also entered into the competition and I can assure you, their quilts are stunning. As Quilts UK is a competition, I can’t really show you what’s entered yet but I’ll let you know how they all get on… Show is running from 14th to 17th May at the Three Counties Show ground, Malvern.
A group of students and myself did have a trip to the American Museum in Bath where the Gee’s Bend exhibition is on until 21st June. ‘Kith & Kin: the Quilts of Gee’s Bend’ is certainly worth a visit if you can get there. These quilts are made by necessity and demonstrate what patchwork and quilting is all about. Using up and recycling materials but still capturing beauty in simple form.
Quilt on the left – ‘Sweeps’ by Loretta Pettway Bennett, 2003
Quilt on the right – ‘Grandma Stripes’ by Mary Lee Bendolph, 2009
Another recent little project was a little reversible bag using a nifty little gadget, the Clover Slashing Tool. (It does sound like an implement from a horror movie but no..) Easy to use, it’s a rotary cutter with a shield which means you can cut through layered fabrics and create slashes which, when washed, leave you with a chenille finish. I trialed it with a rectangle quilt sandwich (fabric top, wadding layer, fabric back), then decided to do something with it and so a simple little bag was made. I do know a certain little girl who will love this filled with goodies for her birthday!
Well, I’ll wrap up for now but I’m sure you will be asking if I’m making the lovely couple a Wedding Quilt? Yes, of course but it certainly won’t be finished in time! I’ll be following in the family tradition. My Mum, some of you knew her, started a cross stitch for our wedding. A stunning work which is quite large. We always joked that it would be our 25th Silver Anniversary before it was finished and you guessed it, it was framed just in time! I’m sure I’ll finish the quilt gift before then and I’ll certainly share progress. There may even be a workshop!