September - a busy month!

September has been a very busy month on all fronts - work (yes, not near retirement yet!), quilting and bellringing. I am really looking forward to our BQSG seminar in York this year - and seeing "our" exhibition, It's All in the Making at the Quilt Museum. Only ten days until I go off to York....and the following week is a Guild Training Day in Wakefield. I am handing over the BQSG Treasurers Post and just doing the website updates. 

I was pleased to see a picture of my Piilani Hawaiian quilt in this month's Patchwork and Quilting magazine, which had a report on some of the Malvern winners....

 Two of my quilts are also going to Canada next year for the Ailsa Crag Exhibition in Ontario Canada. When I was a child, we spent several summer holidays in Ontario so I have fond memories. This is my Amish Cake Stand quilt, one of the quilts that went to Olympia with the Traditional Quilts group exhibition. Named after my Mennonite great grandmother Maria Dalke. This photo actually shows the original quilt, which I sold  (what a mistake..) ... something very unpleasant happened to it, so I made a second one for me to keep...

I am also sending the pink Allendale quilt, this is the one that I think is really British and better represents what our quilting history is all about.

On Saturday, Mike and I went on the Hollesley outing to the Ely area...we pulled off the road so that we could take a photo of Ely Cathedral...no bells there, but St Marys does have eight bells....

 Earlier in the day, we rang at Swaffham Prior (yes, the same village that had the quilt study day). This village is unusual in that it has two churches sharing a churchyard. One church became dilapidated, so another was built...it is the older one that has the bells, they were on plain bearings and a really oldfashioned ring...

 Here in Suffolk, near Felixstowe, we have a similar situation with the Trimleys....Trimley St Martin and Trimley St. Mary. The two villages each had their own church, which shared a churchyard. Two sisters built the churches, each vying with the other to have the better church. As at Swaffham, today one is used and the other is redundant (the nearer one is the used one and the farther one is the empty one....)

...but Reepham in Norfolk beats these villages, it had three churches sharing a churchyard. Apparently it was a major site of pilgrimage in the Mediaeval times. You can see St Marys and St Michaels here - St Michaels is the one with a ring of eight bells. The third church is little more than a ruined tower now, but can still be seen....

The day ended with a bang! as the car picked up a nail and there was a very flat tyre. We had to pull over, I handed Mike all the things he needed and made suggestions....while he changed the tyre. Luckily the light was still good....the same thing happened on our previous outing to this area some years ago, so watch out for nails if you ever visit this area!

Art Quilts - Festival of Quilts

More quilts from the Festival of Quilts held in August 2013, various classes, ones that caught my eye....

Anne Maundell of Brunei, Tumbling Birds. Inspired by a piece of traditional Indonesian fabric, machine applique with hand embroidery and machine quilting. Judge's choice.

Diane Cowell, Huntingdon, Tomorrow I am Sixty. Improv piecing, applique with embellishment, images of things that mean a lot to her.

Linzi Upton, Banchory, Imbolc Betula Trio. Curved piecing, free-hand longarm quilted, hand sewn gems, fitted and hand sewn to foam bolsers. Judge's choice.

Alicia Merret, The Island. Machine piecing, fused collage, applique, machine quilting. As always, I liked the colours in Alicia's work. Award of Merit.

Janneke de ries-Bodzinga, Hurricane, Applique, machine pieced, machine quilted. Silk and hand dyed fabrics. 3rd in Art Quilts.

Rebecca Collins and Ferret, St Asaph, Pinya Hardin. Machine pieced and longarm quilted. Bali batiks in hexagonal pineapple. Two person quilt.

Detail of quilting of above.....

Stephanie Crawford, Bristol, Chinese Journey in Three Parts.
Paint, applique and stitch.  A trip to China inspired this quilt.First, pictorial quilts.

Kristy Daum, St Louis, USA, The Tenth. Pixel patchwork piecing. Kona Cotton, Dr Who's David Tennant...

Janette Orr, Gather Ye Rosebuds. Machine applique onto wholecloth. Machine quilted on domestic sewing machinee, embellished.

Alison Bramley, York, York 800. Raw edged applique, machine stitched with invisible thread. Machine quilted.

Grace Meijer, Berber. Raw edge applique. Screen printed, painted, markal stick definitions, hand embroidery, machine stitched. From a photograph taken at an early morning market in Tunisia.

First Quarter Peal after Rededication at Clopton, Suffolk

On Friday the 20th September, a band of  ringers (local to the Brandeston/Pettistree/Ipswich areas) rang 1260 Grandsire Doubles at St Mary, Clopton. This was the first quarter since the rehanging of the bells. A service of rededication was held on Sunday 8th September, which Mike and I attended and rang the bells for. Subsequently, Chris McArthur, who had helped the bellhangers from Nicholson's, was invited to ring a quarter peal.

The ringers: Chris McArthur, Diana  Pipe, Hilary Stern, Mike Whitby, Pippa Moss and Timothy Stanford. The other two people were two locals who had elected to stay in the belfry and videotape the bells as they were being rung!...luckily they had ear defenders as the bells are still loud.....

The bells go easily now that they have been rehung in a new bellframe. They are no longer anti-clockwise, having been rehung in the usual clockwise manner. Three of the bells were found to be cracked upon their removal from the tower, and were welded by Soundweld. The other bells were tuned by Whitechapel Bellfoundry.

Clopton Church sits on a small hill, not far from Burgh Church. It has American connections, as Debach Airbase was built nearby, one of many airfields built in East Anglia during World War II.

We call from tower and steeple,

Upon the day of days,

All faithful Christian people,

To worship, prayer and praise.

We ring with joyous gladness 

When man and wife are blessed;

We peal in muffled sadness

For loved ones laid to rest.

Our lives, like bells, while changing,

An ordered course pursue;

Through joys and sorrows ranging,

May all those lives ring true.

May we, through Christ forgiven

Our faults and failures past,

Attain our place in heaven,

Called home to rest at last.

Catalogue - Its All in the Making - Patchwork and Quilting Unpicked

It's All in the Making - Patchwork and Quilting Unpicked

The publication accompanying the exhibition, is beautifully designed and illustrated throughout in full colour. As well as a catalogue section with images and descriptions of all the exhibits, It's All in the Making contains five informative essays by leading writers and researchers in the field of quiltmaking.

Bridget Long writes on the ground breaking research into the 1718 silk patchwork coverlet while Dorothy Osler, Carolyn Ferguson, Rachel Terry and Dr. Sue Marks each give insight in the four themes in the exhibition: making to earn money; making for gifts or to commemorate special events; making out of necessity, and creative making.

The price is £12.50 and the catalogue is available now via the Quilt Museum Store in York:

http://www.quiltmuseumshop.org.uk/product/1209/Its_all_in_the_Making

..and More Quilts from FOQ 2013

....More quilts from the Festival of Quilts 2013. We are leaving the Traditional Quilts behind, and looking at Contemporary and Art quilts....

Here is Philippa Naylor's quilt, Tumbling Blocks. Hand dyed fabrics. Machine quilted on a domestic machine. Very complex piecing, including small 3D cubes which are pieced on to the quilt top and appear to be exploding from the quilt. This quilt rightly attracted a lot of attention!

Margaret Woodside of Larne, Northern Ireland, Agapanthus. Includes some fabric painting.

Double Wedding Ring, by Carole Wood and Kathy Lee, Northampton. Foundation pieced and longarm quilted. 2nd Two person quilt.

Jean Ball, Gravesend, I Love Fabric, 3rd Contemporary Quilts. Bonded lettering.Colours allowed to flow without prior planning. Bamboo wadding

Nina Lise Moen, Stavanger Norway, Whatever You Say I am. Painting with fibre technique worked layer upon layer. Judges Choice

Marian Hall, Welwyn Garden City, Lago Maggiore. Layering of dyes, quilting and embellishments. Judges Choice. Again, colours much better in real life!!

More Quilts from FOQ 2013....

More quilts from the 2013 Festival of Quilts. If I have made any mistakes, please let me know. These quilts are from various categories. Once again, there were many quilts in Traditional and Contemporary that could have been in either category; there seemed to be a lot of overlap....

Jenny Harper of Buckie, Scotland, Pickled Geese, in Contemporary Quilts.

This quilt was attracting a lot of attention......based on Fibonacci series...

a little applique quilt in naive style...

Danish quilter Janne Juul 

Two person quilt, Stardust by Helen Brookham and Sandy Chandler Launceton

Detail of the quilting (machined)...judges choice...

Sandy Chandler, Grace,   a wholecloth by an expert longarm quilter..second in traditional quilts.

detail of above, to show the dense quilting...

This quilt did not photograph very well, it was a stunning colour contrast in real life, a deep purple with bronze, embellished with a great many (20,000) hotfix crystals in a bronze colour. It is called Shooting Stars and is by Birgit Schuller of Riegesberg, Germany.

A detail to show the sharp piecing and very good quilting....and crystals which did glitter nicely.....very colourful even if this does not show under the sodium lamps...

Liz Jones of Leominster, Love in a Mist, button hole machine applique and  free motion machine quilting. Third place in Traditional Quilts.

More quilts to come...

Traditional Quilts 2 - Festival of Quilts 2013

More photos from the Festival of Quilts - hope that I have got all the details correct. Any changes to be made - please comment and I will correct!

Liz Nally's Sanderson Star quilt - pattern taken from Barbara Chainey's book, but scaled down so that it smaller - half size?

Detail of Liz's quilt - lighting a bit funny, was more contrast in the fabrics than this shows...

Tatyana Duffie, Bathgate, Scotland, Christmas Lights

Andrea Ashwell, Westbury, Green Belt, made with North County quilts in mind for her daughter's bedroom

Fusako Takido, Japan, Garden of Dreams

Jean Ball, Gravesend, Little Stars

Detail....

Winner of Contemporary Quilts, Tuula Makinen, Celebration II

2nd Contemporary Quilts, Jacqueline Amies, Hip Hip Hooray

Traditional Quilts 1 FOQ 2013

Here are some of the quilts that caught my eye on the first morning of the Festival of Quilts. I wasn't very organised that first morning and didn't write down many details, so not all will have names, If you can help fill them in, let me know and I will add the names. (Later batches of photos will be labelled better!) It's nice to be an exhibitor and to be allowed to look at the quilts before the gates open - very quiet, and easier to take photos.

The winner of the Traditional section and also best in show - Thank You Father, by Kyoko Yamauchi of Japan.

Detail of one of the flowers- the "lace" was reverse applique with very fine stem stitching embroidery.

Andrea Strache's wholecloth quilt , Citrin, a detail only. Wholecloths are difficult to photograph, especially in the poor lighting of the NEC!

Another nice strippy quilt....this is "Swaledale" by Caroline Hewlett, of Richmond, a wedding quilt.

Album quilt in an unusual colourway...this is "African Album" by Barbara McCraw of the USA, to reflect an Afro-American Heritage. Highly Commended.

Another wholecloth - these always look striking no matter what the quilting is like...this is "Cymru Dans Montreal" by Linda Forey of Derby. Welsh motifs.

"Glistening Roses" by Patricia Cole of Hensfield

"Itsy Bitsies" by Sandra Edwards of Garsington

Detail of above quilt...

I think this is a BOM quilt -- from the Quilt Show? I know I've seen it in different colourways. Unlike the US shows, there seem to be more original designs and fewer kits of BOM quilts in the British shows. Nice colour array here, in greens and yellows. Yes, this is "Summertime" by Jeanette Orr of Holsworthy, and it is a Susan Garman BOM. Quilted on a domestic sewing machine, highly commended.

A quilt that I had been looking for - Kay Bell's Flower of Scotland,

Detail of the quilting (Kay is a longarm quilter)....

...and the use of Inktense pencils to highlight the quilted areas.

More lovely feathers.....