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

Domestic chores await, more pictures soon – happy quilting!

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!

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 ….

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

-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 …

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

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

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

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