Sunday 23 October 2016

The Big Reveal

Well, part 1 of the 'big reveal'; the first eight mystery quilts from the mystery block challenge that 17 members of the original group took part in over the two years to January of this year. We were given 10 months to turn the 12 blocks into a quilt or other project of choice. As you can see, so far, it's quilts.

So, six completely finished quilts, one almost finished (quilted, awaiting it's binding) and one pieced quilt top. They are all very different and it's lovely to see how they've been personalised - and the backings are lovely too. 

What's also great to see is how those who were absolute beginners to patchwork and quilting when the challenge started have progressed and how confident they are now.

Here's a sneaky preview:



We'll reveal the quilts fully once we've seen the other nine mystery quilts which hopefully will be before Christmas.

Sunday 9 October 2016

October's Show and Tell

A small group met this time, but still some lovely things to see and two yummy cakes for our tea/coffee break. We have a very talented bunch of group members who don't just patchwork and quilt as you will see.

Front and back views of some very pretty Christmas baubles. A different technique to the baubles we made last month, these use folded fabrics.



A quilt, Christmas table runner and mats and a finished gold work piece from the mini tutorial a couple of months ago. The latter looks lovely mounted in a box frame.






And a lovely rag doll. One of our group members has just completed 2 months as a volunteer for a charity based in Malawi. The children there have very few, if any toys, so a few of us will get together to make dolls similar to this one to raise funds for the charity and to send to Malawi.



Do you recall that back in January we all (well, the 17 of us that were around at the time and took part) got back our mystery block challenge folders that we'd been working on for 2 years, one block every two months to learn and practice a different technique, and that we then had 10 months to put the blocks together into a quilt? Well, the 10 months is up at our next meeting. Surprise, surprise, there's a flurry of work now needed by some to get their quilts finished - they've only had almost 3 years notice!!!!!!

Fearless Machine Quilting

On 1st October, Janice Gunner visited the group to get us started on free machine quilting. Having asked everyone to prepare a number of small quilt sandwiches Janice then had us practising squiggles, circles, doodles of all sorts, points....you name it, if you can draw it, you can quilt it. We also tried different thread combinations.

A fab time was had by all. Here are the first results.


And, if you're lucky enough to have some time to practice at home, your free machine quilt lines become smoother, the stitches more even, and your work more artistic. 

Keep practising ladies!