Festival fun.....

I went to the Festival of Quilts yesterday with my daughter. A 3 hour train ride away, it was a very worthwhile trip, and we both came away with fresh inspitration for new projects! The exhibits were, as always absolutely amazing, so I thought I would share a few of my favourite exhibits.
Just to give you a tatse of the calibre of this festival, we saw Tula, Kaffe Fasset, Brandon Mably, Nel Whatmore, Anne and Stuart of BBC,s sewing Bee, all in person, and on the train back, Mike Bushell of BBC Breakfast.

A stunner by Luke Haynes- thrilled to see this in the flesh so to speak!

Believe it or not this is a miniature quilt.

Love plaids

must tackle circles soon!

My favourite artist there- Mandy Patullo

and again- very much based on Japanese Bora- she uses all recycled materials

The Godharis of Maharashtra- these quilts are from rural India , all hand pieced and quilted. 

You wouldnt catch me posing like this!

These mini log cabin squares were stitched together to form a large hanging, each one about 2x2 inches or maybe a ittle smaller. 

stunning cathedral windows-utter perfection for sewing but way out of my league!

Loved this quilt but didnt get the details of the maker. 

Good practise for applique!

Maybe post a few maore pictures in my next blog!

hx

Weymouth away day!

I had a day off today and decided to take a little trip o the train to the home of the Olympic sailing events last year- weymouth in sunny Dorset.

Banksy look-a-like or the real thing??

And finally, I managed to sniff out the only fabric shop for miles- and added to the stash!

Back to work tomorrow x

African waxed prints.....

I have finally got around to making use of the gorgeous African waxed prints that my daughter  brought back from Ghana for me. As the prints are large I used 10 inch squares to show them off!

Although they looked good on  a light background, I decided to go with a darker one to bring out the colour . 

Ikea came up trumps with a great backing fabric, just the right colours!

And a turquise binding just to finish it off!!

And today-our summer finally arrived and I took a trip to Mottisfont National Trust gardens. This is famous for its rose gardens, at their best or just over at the moment. 

And finally- you may recall tht I won 4 great Kaffe Fasset charm packs from Creative bug- well decided to experiment with one pack. I wanted to try out the snowball pattern- heres the result: 

lots of badly matched up seams, noticeably in the inner squares that are spotty fabric- too noticeable! This will need a lot of practise! I think I may come up with a different plan for the rest of the charm packs....

Thats all for now folks- beach time tomorrow!!!x

Catch up time ...........

Another couple of weeks gone and a bit more sewing under my belt! I have this great urge at the moment to finish off quilts, as you know I dont like the quilting bit but I do love the binding.

Here are 2 small baby quilts complete:

This one is i "oh deer" by Moda. I love these colours. 

This is seaside by Riley Blake. Very calming for a baby, lovely soft colours. 

Last week I took a trip to Gunwarf Quays at Portsmouth- could I have chosen a duller and more blustery day???

It was my best frends 60th so I gave her the purple log cabin quilt I made and decided to make a card in her favourite KF fabrics-

And I am such a lucky sewer- I won this bundle of 4 charm packs of Kaffe Fasset fabrics from Creative bug. They were having this fantastic giveaway and I got lucky

!!!

Not sure what to make yet but will come up with something divine!

And finally- planning a quilt with the gorgeous African waxed print that my daughter

bought back from her trp to Ghana

As it is large prints I thought I would showcase them with a pale sashing, wider than in the photo. 

Have this pale grey text print fabric, but may look for something a little more colourful. 

Have a great weekend folksxx

Busy bee....

Well, a bit of catch up from me- just havent had time to keep up with the blog recently! And now the sun has appeared I may have some time out from sewing - beach hut is calling!

2 quilt tops finally backed and bound- the bento box and my purple Jane Brockett! The latter is for  a 60th birthday present and has 2 little corners and tag in order to take a baton for hanging. I am still not happy with my machine quilting, I would love to take a class in it to improve. 

Although you cant see the back of this rag quilt, it is in denim recyled from a plus size skirt I found at the car boot sale for 50pence! I love rag quilts but boy do they make a mess!

Last Saturday I was asked to do a workshop for a small groupl of ladies - my first ever!! I showed them how to tweet- no not the twitter sort, but fabric birds. I made these a while back thanks to the pattern from spoolsewing.com. They are so cute and everyones came out a little bit different! 

It was a great day, the skills ranged from beginner to serious embroiderer ! Everyone enjoyed it and went away with lots of ideas on making some more for gifts. 

And finally, I wanted to make a baby quilt with  set of fabrics by Riley Blake-Seaside-  I bought them on my last trip to The Eternal Maker with my daughter . So I ran the top up today -

Have a great weekend in the sun!

Hx