More pictures

Still catching up, but I’m determined to load up some more pictures from my quilt-hauling last week.  There really wasn’t time to look at each quilt carefully, take good pictures and write out the basic details of size, age, provenance etc – Pat already had all of that information in several hefty files.  We were more concerned with selecting quilts she wanted to keep, then sorting through quilts to pass on to family and friends and making neat(ish) stacks of quilts that will ultimately be sold on.  So, my pictures are really about eye candy rather than serious documentation and detail, but I think you may find something to enjoy nonetheless … and you should know that there are still plenty more to come!  Before we get started on today’s batch, I just wanted to welcome all new friends and followers – I really appreciate your company.

and, for everyone who enjoys “small” …  (Lori, I think this may include you!)

Domestic chores await, more pictures soon – happy quilting!

Back home

Reporting in that my US quilt sorting duty is now complete – it’s a tough job but someone has to do it.   And it has been a lot of physical effort but very well worth it.  While I adjust back from the megaMac I’ve been using recently to my dinky laptop and pick up domestic and teaching responsibilities here are a few pictures to give you a flavour of what a lot of  last week looked like …

Outside

Inside

and several more stacks just like this one, containing quilts assorted and various ..

The Hexagon Baskets is included especially for Shirley over at Stitcherydo to enjoy… and, knowing Shirley, she could probably whip up something like this in no time at all.

As you can see there was plenty to keep me occupied.  There will be more pics in the next few posts as I catch up with everything – right now there’s laundry to do and errands to run before we can eat tonight!

From a distance

I wanted to start this year’s posts with a heartfelt “Thank You” for all the support, sympathy and kindness from everyone over the past few months – all the comments have been greatly appreciated even though I haven’t felt able to respond individually.

This will be brief, just to start things up again, as I’m not yet back to blogreading and keeping up with what’s happening with everyone.  And no pictures for this post – I’m currently away from base, staying with my dear friend Pat Cox and helping her sort through her lifetime collection of vintage quilts.  (But I have got the chance to play on her state of the art Mac which is a whole new learning curve!)  We have been so busy gathering up, selecting, making heaps and categories, moving heaps and making decisions that there has been no time to take pictures.  However, pictures will most certainly be taken – and shared in manageable amounts when I get home.  So, if you enjoy vintage quilts, I think you will find something of interest here over the next few weeks – after all, we are working our way through 500 this week!   Yes, you read that correctly, five hundred vintage quilts – almost quilt heaven, except that there’s a lot of fetching, carrying, deciding, removing, rehoming and stairs involved … but its great exercise!

More soon ….

Everything changes again

A brief post to say “no posts” for a while – I’m spending most of the time at the hospital where my mother is critically and terminally ill. Back online when our lives have entered calmer waters.

November slips away

I distinctly remember clearing and tidying spaces and surfaces in my room and I’m sure it really wasn’t that long ago.  However, as everyone knows, nice clear surfaces are only lying in wait for stuff to re-group and re-gather and so it has proved.  Over on the cutting board there’s squares cut and part-pieced ready to get going on a 30th Birthday project for my local quilt group

At the side of the cutting board a jumble of strips left over begun as class samples has appeared and seems to be a few steps further along the way to becoming a real quilt top that could, in time, join the to-be-quilted pile

On the table there’s a growing number of almost-finished things, starting with 2 samples from the lovely volunteer team – Maggi and Liz have already sent their “homework” back and very fine it looks too -  here’s a glimpse of Liz’s homework with the Oakshott fabric I think I will use for the border

and a glimpse of Maggi’s piece with the fabric I’m considering for this border

You can imagine how delighted I was with these samples – huge thanks to both of you.  I shall show them in their full glory (and with full credit!) once the borders are in place.  The fabric shown with Maggi’s piece may get used a second time to frame an old sample that I never bothered to finish properly

- or I might use some Cherrywood fabric, now that it has been liberated from its hiding place under the table

These two balls of yarn also re-appeared and are hard to resist – I may need to follow Shirley’s example and use them to crochet something useful

Hiding somewhere in the next few pictures is a whole set of designer Kindle and iPad covers – all that’s needed is a few decisions and some of that elusive time that is in such short supply.  The Liberty/Grayson Perry fabric with the faces will probably get used for ritzy linings for the covers.

One thing that desperately needs some order restoring is the cheap document case that carries my handsewing essentials.  After a term of heavy use for classes it has achieved a record level of messiness and clutter

Some really useful fabric was added to the heaps last week – all sorts of piecing projects come to mind just looking at it, the printed strips are 2 1/2″ wide, the colours are yummy and the difficulty will (as always) be deciding what to do first – split hexagons, split triangles, split diamonds…??

All the Tentmaker stuff had be taken out of the upstairs cupboard last week and sorted and packed for a talk and class.  When I was putting everything back again I couldn’t resist adding this piece to the must-do pile.  The colours remind me very much of the work of William De Morgan, and four of these blocks would look really good together don’t you think?  Which is another reason why the sewing kit needed to be sorted out……….. I need everything to be rather more organised than it was if I am going to make any progress.

So here we are at the end of the month and the festive clock seems to have started ticking.  Thank you for all your kind messages on the loss of our dear old collie – no further news to report as yet. but in the meantime there’s lots of sewing to do, lots to enjoy and look forward to.

happy stitching

Untitled …

Zero stitching for the past few weeks, lots of life’s ups and downs instead.   My view of the great outdoors no longer looks like this -

-and there’s not much to say except that she’s gone after 14 good years, there’s a huge gap in our lives and the house feels very empty.  We may explore the possibilities of taking on an old-timer who needs a home, but its early days yet.

In search of consolation we spent a day in our favourite city – Liverpool – and visited the excellent Maritime Museum down at the Albert Dock.  Warm sunny weather (what a treat for November in England!) helped too.

Lots of interesting shapes and textiles in the Museum – here’s a sampling

A reminder of how we got the nickname “Limeys” ………

and a reminder of other costs -

No new stitching of my own to show (but thanks again to the volunteer crew who, I know, are beavering away behind the scenes on samples for next year) but a quick look at some old stuff.  I needed to supply images to accompany teaching contracts as well as purple prose to describe some classes – Cording & Quilting, Tentmaker Applique for the Open European Quilt Championships next May, and Essentials of Hand Quilting in various UK locations.

So, it’s rather light on text this time around but lots of positive plans taking shape – watch this space!  Happy stitching …

Two more quilts

Just as I was starting to feel some sense of progress and organisation with all the projects in hand, two more vintage quilts arrive and require attention – in a good way. Two quilts needing a new home – almost certainly that cupboard upstairs – and worthy of inspection. They will almost certainly join the pile of “quilts to make patterns from” which is one of my 2012 projects.

Both quilts date from the 1930s and are considerably worn, both measure 74inches by 90inches (approx), both are cotton sateen top and back with cotton batting. Made by different hands but both probably made somewhere towards the North East of the UK judging by the patterns and layout. I’ve taken some quick pics with The Gadget and made preliminary rough sketch plans so you can get an idea and “proper” pictures will be taken later on.

So I have something to work on in the next few days before leaving for Quilt Market in Houston ….
happy stitching
posted from The Gadget again

inspirational day out

I was overwhelmed by the generous responses to the request for volunteers in my last post. Thanks to everyone who offered to help – the instructions will be mailed this week.

Sunday was a day off – lunch with very dear friends and then a visit to one of the many historic houses we have here in middle England – Packwood House this time. Armed only with the trusty Gadget rather than the camera I couldn’t resist taking quick shots of some of the wonderful wood carving and textiles – fabulous bargello and crewel work in abundance.

Lots of elegant woodwork too -

Here’s my idea of a really lovely room to write and sew in

– ornament on the outside too

So, after good weather and good company its back to work, but I wanted to finish this post with a couple of pictures of a piece of Portuguese applique that can be seen at Packwood House. Date unknown, my guess is middle 1700s. Fabrics handwoven and hand dyed, mostly wool. Raw unturned edges with couching still visible on some of the edges. One of the many unsung and unremarked textile treasures …

happy stitching
posted from The Gadget

rather ginger

Autumn creeps on – lovely early morning skies here in deepest Middle England

and the colour are just about at peak

A lovely day last week at The Bramble Patch teaching Essentials of Hand Quilting – full class but, because there is so much space, it doesn’t look that way in the pictures -

Somehow I seem to have done a lot of this recently -

and, as you can see above, I found a perfect circle template for the Welsh quilt pattern – why didn’t I think of this before?! The cleaned up new patterns are ready to go to the printer, a title page is the only thing missing. So this is progress. Next thing will be to find some volunteers to stitch samples .. any offers?

Looking at the pictures from the last week it seems that our battling felines have been rather more settled and visible at home. Actually they’re just desperate for their few minutes of fame and have been hanging around determined to be noticed -

no surprises for the reading matter this week (see above) – it’s the time of year to be making travel plans. Off to Houston in a couple of weeks and winter will probably be under way when I get back, so lingering over books like these helps keep the winter blues at bay as well as re-living previous trips. And I really need to get back to Egypt, I’ve been away far too long – maybe February 2012… which is only a few months away.

Happy stitching

posted from The Gadget

Welsh quilt again

A lovely sunny day with Market Bosworth Quilters – they’d requested a specific class which involves LOTS of cutting and similar amounts of piecing. Everyone got all the cutting done – 24 blocks worth – and got well under way with the piecing. The cutting is very straightforward, as is the piecing, but its a bit unnerving to come up against “cut 48….”, “cut 24…” if you’ve not cut multiple layers before. So, a big Well Done to everyone – and the cake was truly excellent!

Car unpacked, most things put away – there was enough space on the floor to take a second quick look at the Welsh quilt I unexpectedly acquired the other day. Here are a few more pics, really just to show the early stages of approximate measurements and scribbled impressions of the design. As the layout is reasonably symmetrical I think its easier to fold the quilt into quarters to do the measuring and scribbling.
On second inspection, its still not a stunning quilt but its going to be fun to produce the design and I can certainly see lots of possibilities – maybe a scaled-down full pattern, maybe elements re-arranged, and all sorts of  good stuff ….

So, I’m off to pack boxes for various classes this week – happy stitching!

posted from The Gadget