Linda Straw workshop

Last weekend I was lucky enough to go away for the weekend with 5 friends for a weekend of creativity.  I'd like to say that it was a weekend of quilting - but that was just a small part of it....

It was run by Linda Straw, who was an amazing bundle of energy, and an absolute inspriation (I just hope I have that much get-up-and-go when I get to her age - she left us all breathlesss!!).  She describes herself as a qulter extraordinaire - and when you see work like this, it's no wonder:

Yes - that's all done in silk, and with a sewing machine. 

As is this:

a dress with designs based on Revelations.

As Linda says herself, "Every stitch on the surface is by machine. Initially, the work is drawn on paper and transferred to fine vilene, the latter being incorporated within the work. Sewing from the back, through the design, the wadding, the silk fabric and appliqué silk the work takes shape. Only when all appliqué is in place do I turn over to embellish and embroider on the front. Large pieces are made in sections and then joined".

It would be lovely to report that after two days we were able to create similar works- no such luck!!
 

Stage 1 was drawing the intial design.  Now, I'm not really artistic at all - every now and then, when the nephews come to visit, we have a drawing competition, and I usually come last, even when no allowance is made for the fact that I'm 30 years older than them.....

Luckily, there were a lot of books to glance through for inspiration - otherwise I would probably still be there, chewing the end of my pencil and looking out of the window for ideas (just like being at school again!).

And this is what I ended up with!!

Not in silk - but in polysilk - a lot cheaper for practising with.  Still unfinished - but I'm hoping to crack on with it during the World  Cup football matches this afternoon.

I enjoyed it so much that I'm hoping to be able to sneak out of the house today to see if I can locate a purveyor of polysilk in Sheffield, to make another one.

And this is what everyone else came up with (please bear in mind that these are all unfinished...):

by Avis

By Janet - based on a stained glass window -

by Tisha

by Karen

by Di

And I now have so much more confidence in my machine sewing skills - I can't believe that all that stitching was machine produced!!!

The weekend included full board - and I mean FULL board - I was absolutely stuffed with excellent food and drink- and home made and home prepared.

This was my bedroom. 

Yes.

Really.

SO - if you fancy doing something similar, I can heartily recommend it - in fact, I'm hoping that we can go back again next year!!

Malvern

I was lucky enough to go to the Malvern quilt show a few weeks ago, adn  two posts ago I put up a photo of a quilt that I hope to get started very soon. 

I really like going to the Malvern show - it's a much more manageable size than the NEC, and it always seems so friendly.

The weather was fabulous, and I wish I'd had enough battery power left in my camera to take some photos at lunchtime of the array of people scattered over the benches outside, nibbling at their packed lunches - the frugal and thrify quilters had come prepared - and then there were those who had decided to splurge on an ice-lolly.

I must have taken oodles and oodles of photos - here are some of my favourites:

The winner forth theme section - use of colour.  The attention to detail was fabulous.

I liked the playfulness of this one, done in varying fonts, all appliquéd on...

 The winner for best large wall hanging (I think), but Susan Brisco, done in sashiko.

This one I liked, as I have been lucky enough to visit New Zealand twice - but have never managed to create anything like this as a souvenir. 

Based on a Christmas card of 'The 12 days of Christmas' carol.

This last one won a certificate, along with a judge's comment about lovely choice of colour.  However, this quilt was run as a Block of the Month quilt by Antique Angel - maybe this particular person did it on their own to their own design, as it certainly wasn't listed as being a BoM in the show notes - but at least 1 person with whom I went had the whole set at home - in these colours - waiting to be assembled. Hmm.  There were plenty of other quilts in the show that had been made from kits /Block of the Month / commercial patterns - and they had cited it as such in the programme. 

This one was a group project - I liked the way it all seemed to blend together, yet each section was individual .....

 

This was the winner in the miniature section, and to show you just how small it was, here it is with the other miniature quilts.  Those aren't giant rosettes - theyr'e normal size - but those are teeny weeny quilts!

Quilted by the amazing Ferret  - on leather......

 A lovely pictoral quilt.

Derbyshire in late spring

I'm not sure whether it's actually summer yet - or whether it's still late spring.  The weather has been dreadful again today, and quite haphazard - one minute it's glorious sunshine, and the next, it's bucketing down.

Two weeks ago we met up with 2 friends for a (very) short walk in Derbyshire, at Over Haddon.  It was one of those days when you feel as if you could carry on rambling for much longer, but there was a pub, so we stopped to have a drink.  And then lunch. And then pudding.  By which point we were too full to walk much more without a little break....

View of Lathkill Dale

After the aforesaid repast, we tootled over to Birchover, for another (very) short walk - again, only about 90 minutes.  This time we went up to the Nine Ladies - a Bronze Age stone circle up on the moorland. I'm ashamed to say that it's one of those places that I have read about, and know that I should have gone to many years ago - but isn't it always the way, that the places right on your doorstep are the last that you visit?

First stop was the Cork Stone - so called because (apparently) it looks like a cork.  Not sure myself.

And then on to the Nine Ladies.  Now, at this point, I was very glad that I was in a small group, because, despite all the notices about 'no camping' and 'no fires', there were about 2 dozen or so people with campfires a-blazing, and with tents a-pitched.  They were lying and lolling about in the middle of the stone circle, and it almost felt as though we were the intruders - I felt as though I was trespassing - which is ridiculous, as this is open access ground -but there you are. 

Mr Z&Z told me not to be so silly, as I scuttled through - but I'd prefer to go back another day when I can have time to wander about a bit more and not feel as though I must rush through*.

It's quite unusual for a stone circle in that it's the middle of woodland, and is very quiet and contemplative.

According to legend, the nine ladies were turned to stone as a punishment for dancing on the sabbath, with the King Stone (set a little distance from the circle) being the unlucky fiddler who had been providing the music.

And at the end of the walk (well, not really - just before a slog up hill through woodland), here were these beauties:

Lovely Alpacas.

*After writing this, I googled Nine Ladies to check that I'd got the legend right - and apparently these are eco-protesters, who are campaigning against the expansionof the nearby quarry which would result in the destruction of the the area.

Halfterm project completed (well, the top anyway...)

I started this last week (it was half term), and spent 4 hours today sewing on the borders. It's from the Eleanor Burns book Quick trip Quilts and is made up from 24 fat quarters. It went together very quickly and painlessly, as all her patterns do, but once again I seem to have misread the dimensions. As you can see, it takes two people to hold it up (thanks Ann and Anne!!).

But there is no way that I can cram this through my domestic machine - well, I could, but it won't be a pleasant experience. So once the finances are a bit more secure (there was an emergency dentist trip last week which proved to be VERY expensive), it's going off to a long arm quilter. I had planned to give it to one of my siblings, but Mr Z&Z seems to think it's staying here. We'll see, once it's complete.

This is the wall hanging being done by Carole, as part of her City and Guilds course. I wish I was as artistic as she is - the flowers have been done with some sort of fabric paint (I don't know which because I wasn't listening properly...),

 

and today she was adding stitched detail:

She wasn't too keen on these pictures being taken, as she hasn't quite finished, but I love the detail that she's managed to create.

Her City and Guilds exhibition is taking place in Marple library from 3rd July to 10th July, in case you're in the area.

And Anne was making some elephants:

These were in Patchwork and Quilting magazine a few months ago, and it's a Lynne Edwards pattern.

It seemed quite contrary to be inside sewing on such a lovely day - but as ever, it's so nice to have a day off to just get on with a hobby......

Update

Once again I ended up spending far too much time at work, when I could have been at home, playing with fabric and ignoring the housework.

At the start of May my sister and her family came to visist, and as the weather was so glorious, we travelled to Castleton:

This is Winnats Pass.

Of course, when you go out with two lively children into the hills, it's compulsory to try to climb up as high as you can.  I'm not as fit as I was, or even as I should be, so only went a short way, but had a lovely view of the pass itself:

That teeny tiny dot is a car making its way along.  There were also a number of (very) keen cyclists out and about, huffing and puffing their way along.

As far as sewing goes, there's not been a great deal going on.  I went on a course to learn about freemotion quilting, and this is my attempt:

To be perfectly honest, I had no idea what to do with it once completed - there's a couple of glaring errors in it, and I'm not too keen on the colour  - it seemed a shame to use some of my favourite fabrics to practice on - so I bound it and have given it to the 5 year old daughter of a colleague to use with her dolls.

I attended a workshop run by Ineke Berlyn, making a bag out of a pair of jeans:

I didn't have enough material to make the bag the correct size, so had to scale it down a bit, but it's still ENORMOUS.  It was designed to be big enough to put a sewing machine in to take to classes (though I'm not too sure that I trust my sewing skills to carry that much weight!!).

I managed to get to Malvern quilt show, and saw this:

I bought the kit to make this two years ago at the NEC - but have never got round to doing it.  Seeing it 'in the flesh' has given me a kick to get on with it now.  I still love the colours, but I'm not sure about the appliqué - this one has been needle turned, and more of a Bond-a-Web kind of person. 

It had been long arm quilted in the USA, and I know that there's no way that I will be able to manage anything similar: