Thinking Ahead

Now that the two quilts have gone off, I have been thinking about projects for the coming year.


Molokama has come out of its storage bag - its about 1/2 finished (applique). You can see how crumpled it looks!



I have also put Pilani back in the frame and will resume quilting on this.

I would also like to start on another wholecloth - a Welsh one this time. The program Inkscape has been loaded onto my old computer and I am going to start preparing some patterns with that. I can use my light table to trace the patterns onto the cloth - not how the old time quilters did it (they drew with chalk in the frame) but it works for me.

I have also been thinking about making a frame quilt. I have very little patchwork in my collection of old quilts and I think a frame quilt is out of my league money-wise - so perhaps I will just have to make one. The V & A was an inspiration of course.


This quilt looks very jolly and colourful...

and this quilt had some beautiful Welsh quilting on it - the light was very subdued so hard to see....

So with that in mind, I am going to start buying a few repro fabrics - here is a start - Maison de Garance squares. I am also going to look out for "Lately Arrived from London". Not overly impressed with the quality of the cloth - sigh....does anyone have any favorite repro lines that they could suggest to me?

Finally, I did some baking yesterday - this is a coffee cake from a blog that I follow, Mennonite Girls Can Cook at http://mennonitegirlscancook.blogspot.com . As you know, my great grandmother Maria Dalke was a Mennonite and this type of food was what I grew up with (although nothing so fancy!) so I enjoy this blog.
This coffeecake got taken into one of my jobs in Ipswich where it didn't last very long....

Mike and I are off to Northamptonshire for the weekend for some walking. I will set out soon and hope that the traffic, especially the bottleneck around Cambridge, isn't too bad.

A New Year - 2011

Happy New Year! I hope that the coming year will be a good one. I know that for many, this past year has been a struggle. So I hope that 2011 will be a happy and prosperous yearfor everyone.

I had a good holiday period, apart from the four days I spent in bed as part of the UK swine flu epidemic! All recovered, with no after effects.....Sophie and Tom came back to Suffolk for Christmas and I enjoyed hearing all their news.

Tom has been working in an architects' office at Tower Bridge and uses powerful vector drawing programmes - part of his job is turning plans into 3D images. He is going to install an external hard drive for my computer, and also will show me how to use the drawing programme. Not only will I be able to draw patterns, but I will be able to scan in and redraw tracings. I will also be able to scan in photos taken at an angle, and then reorient the plane to horizontal - it sounds good and Tom will teach me to do this - now we just have to arrange a weekend.

I also have plans to look at the Hake papers this spring at the V & A archive in Kensington and I will be able to stay at Sophie's flat while I do this.

I finished the Pilani applique top- here is the centre cut out and ready to applique. I have ironed the top and resewn a few bits that didn't look right...

And here is the wadding that I bought at Quilters Haven yesterday - I will get the backing sewn together and baste the three layers in the next few days - then this quilt can go into the frame.

Also over the holidays I realised that I missed not having some applique on the go so here is the next Hawaiian project - it is called Molokama (a different pattern to the red and white quilt which was Molokama O Na Kaui).

Here is the paper pattern pinned to the extra wide cotton, ready to cut. I could not find my good Gingher scissors! - I obviously put them away in a safe place - so safe that I could not find them - luckily I had a pair of light weight Gingher scissors (given to me long ago by my friend Kay Michalak) and those made a good job of cutting the pattern out.

I have made a start on this quilt top. You can see that although I like the red and white colour combination, here I have used navy and cream fabrics, which I hope will be a good pair. I have been extra careful this time and have also pin basted each "lobe" with a safety pin.

These are the books that I have enjoyed reading over Christmas - the American Museum book has lovely photos, although of course I have the two smaller books that had been published previously.

Today, I ordered some fabric - pink and white Kona cotton - to start work on my Northumberland sawtooth centre diamond quilt. I traced the patterns from the antique top onto polythene over Christmas and can use those to mark the quilt once the top is complete. One of the twist borders is very wonky (it looks as if a cardboard template was used to trace the outline, then the interior lines were added none too carefully) so I may have to redraft this. The free hand scroll and flowers are very attractive.

And finally, here is Monkey enjoying the winter sun. The piano he is sitting on is going to a new home soon, where it will be retuned and played once again (it was the one Sophie used) and I will be able to replace it with bookcases and cupboards for my fabric. December and January are good for making plans!

Progress so far with Hawaiian Quilt

I have been steadily working away on the applique of the Pilani quilt. It is about 2/3 complete and I am enjoying working on it. When it is all complete I shall go back and resew any bits that don't look smooth or nice. Then it is ready for quilting.

Cissy emailed me and told me that "Pilani was the greatest and most well known King of Maui and it is beleived that all great kings descended from him including King Kamehameha the Great. Google him and you'll learn more of this great king".

She also posted photos of my two quilts on her web site and you'll find them at www.poakalani.net/quiltsaroundtheworld.html

Several people congratulated me as they thought that my quilt was used as publicity for the Festival of Quilts - alas it was not my quilt but another vintage red and white Hawaiian quilt - one I think belongs to the American Museum in Bath.

I was able to download and print off an excellent booklet on storing and cleaning quilts from the York Quilt Museum and Gallery, under FAQs look for Cleaning and Storing Quilts and click on the highlighted link.

Subject to the necessary checks and references, I am looking forward to being the new treasurer of the BQSG - the British Quilt Study Group. This group does very valuable work and I am looking forward to getting more involved.

I am also starting to draw up a pattern for my Welsh quilt which I want to get started on. I also measured the Sawtooth Northumberland quilt top and will buy fabric to start to piece a replica of that. The quilting patterns will just be taken from the stamped top (I will trace the designs onto polythene and then just trace off with the light table) so that all seems fairly straightforward.

Its that time of year that everyone is thinking of the holiday season! I did not think that Tom and Sophie would be home this year but plans have changed and it seems that both will be home for at least part of the time, which will be great!! Time to think about my Xmas letter - last year's never got sent out as things were generally very hectic so I am going to start earlier this year...

New project - Pilani Hawaiian quilt

Pua Pake, or Chrysanthemum
Pilani, a village in Kaui, Hawaii (I think - will ask Cissy)

I have started a new Hawaiian quilt - Pilani from Poakalani. You may remember that I already had one that I was working on - Pua Pake, or Chysanthemum. But that applique was not nice to work on - the yellow fabric was not good quality,thus harder to work with, and there was not enough contrast between mid yellow applique and light background - I really need a darker fabric in gold or apricot I think. So I may start again later with a different coloured Kona cotton.



In the meantime, I bought some cream Kona cotton as a background, and used some extra wide purple Kona cotton that I had brought back from Florida. As the Poakalani patterns are traced onto rather flimsy newsprint, I usually iron the newsprint onto freezer paper to stiffen it up a bit before cutting the pattern out. In this case, you can see that there is a "negative" centre - ie, a hole. I knew that this would cause problems in placing the cut out pattern onto the background fabric - so I have left the centre uncut and intact for now. I will make some freezer paper templates and complete the centre applique with the "freezer paper on top" method when all the rest is finished.






Cutting out the pattern through eight layers of folded fabric is a lengthy process - thank goodness I have my Gingher scissors (still very sharp as they were carefully hidden away when the children were small).

I was also horrified to see that there was a faded patch in one area of the applique fabric when I came to use it - it looked as if the bolt corner had faded in the shop. Luckily, it was on one side of the cloth only and the right side was unaffected. And, in fact, much was cut away when I cut the pilani pattern out.

Placing and pinning the cut fabric onto the backround (using the placement creases) was more difficult this time and took quite a while. My two "helpers" thought that it was great fun. Monkey helpfully brought a large pheasant's feather to join in the fun, which had to be confiscated...finally it was finished.

What a difference using good fabric makes - the applique is much easier as the fabric "behaves" itself and turns under nicely. The whole effect is crisper and much nicer with smoother edges. I'll enjoy this more - later, I'll make a decision as to whether I continue with the yellow applique, or cut my losses and unpick and recover the nice background fabric, and use a darker and better fabric for the applique. I still have the Pua Pake pattern folded away...

I also bought some silk thread at FOQ - it is nice to use, but I think it is the thinness which is good - the thinner good quality cotton seems just as good to use - so not convinced about the extra expense of silk thread. Instinct tells me that cotton might be sturdier in the long term.

Getting ready for FOQ

Progress being made on the trip to Birmingham in three weeks time. The red and white Hawaiian quilt was posted off for the competition. And the other two quilts are ready to go - will need final defurring session, I know. Here is Snowy testing the antique Allendale quilt - it has gotten cool here (not really like August at all, but that's England for you) so cats are back to heat-seeking activities.

I received my three patterns from Cissy at Poakalani yesterday - I ordered sunflower, Molokama and Pillani - these should literally keep me busy for at least three years...not small quilts....I am going to have to bring back some extra wide fabric from my trip to Florida - it seems more satisfactory than seaming together panels - the joins are unsightly and also difficult to deal with.

Here is the latest project - Pua Pake or Chrysanthemum - it is all pin basted now and next has to be thread basted before applique can start - otherwise the pins get in the way of the applique and also tend to drop out - I am not too happy with the quality of the yellow fabric, it is a bit skimpy. It does seem to be difficult to find suitable fabric these days - not so many plains about. Fabric of better quality is especially important with wholecloth and applique quilts.

My next project will be to design and then mark out my Welsh quilt; Jane Rollason has also asked me to loan her some Welsh quilts for her French expo - eight I think - her Durhams are all pastels and she wants some strongly coloured Welsh quilts to contrast - I think finding brightly coloured quilts will not be a problem! I will deliver them to her at FOQ - getting them back from Jane who lives in Yorkshire may be the greater problem - however, a trip to Macclesfield for the BQSG weekend meeting might be the solution.

Poakalani - Hawaiian Patterns

Just to let people know that Cissy has put the store back up on the Poakalani website - have a look at the large quilt patterns at

http://stores.poakalani.net/StoreFront.bok

Fantastic patterns!!

Ps - Cissy says that she will be adding another 30 vintage patterns on Friday, so you might want to hold off ordering until then....

Hawaiian Quilt - Very Nearly Finished

Here is my Hawaiian Quilt - I am sewing on the binding and then will put on the sleeve and a label. I am using a double binding cut on the straight grain, I find this the most satisfactory treatment. I had a bit of a panic, I wasn't sure that there was enough fabric left to make a double binding. It is nearly impossible to match plain coloured fabrics, especially as the cloth is a brand which is not available in this country, having been bought on one of my trips to Florida. I was considering the alternatives - but luckily, after careful measuring I calculated that there was enough fabric to make 4" strips - a bit narrower than my usual 4 1/2" strips but near enough! This will result in a 3/4" finished binding.

The quilt has to be posted off to the Festival of Quilts soon (to arrive by the 30th July), so I am glad to be making good progress on it. The most difficult process is to defur the quilt - I have to do this with sticky tape and it is a very long process.

The two Allendale quilts do not have to be posted - they will be taken up to Birmingham on the 18th and hung on the Wednesday afternoon, but I still have to make and sew the sleeves for the two quilts. They have also been given the defurring treatment - cat hair gets everywhere...

Hawaiian Quilts

Here is my current project which I am hoping to have completed in time for the Festival of Quilts in August. It is a red and white floral design called Kaui o Na Molokama. The size is 108 x 108 so it is a large quilt. I am also including a photo of last years entry,Lei Neriali or Silversword. And I have a third design cut out,Pua Pake or Chrysanthemum, which is waiting to be basted to the background fabric.

These large quilts do take a lot of work to prepare. First I sent for the designs from Poakalani of Honolulu. The required fabric is 9 yards each of applique and background colour - and it is sometimes hard to find a good quality fabric! If the fabric is not extra wide, it has to be cut into lengths and resewn into one larger piece. Next you have to carefully iron the fabric into eighths (thinking carefully about wrong and right side). It is a long job to cut the design out with sharp scissors - then an even longer job to unfold and position the design and attach it to the background. First you pin the applique down with straight pins, then you have to baste it into place. Traditionally the basting was done by hand a set distance in from the edge, but I free machine basted the applique to speed up the process and "nail it down".

But finally you can enjoy doing the applique. This takes some time! I must admit to using a tiny whipstitch rather than "invisible" applique. Part of it is that this is the really traditional method, seen in the antique quilts. But part of it is that I really like the appearance of the closely spaced little "teeth" stitches. Very attractive.

Once the top is appliqued its time to quilt. I have gone over to using wool batting as it really shows off the quilting stitches so much better than cotton wadding which just looks a bit flat. Last year's quilt was echo quilted by "eyeballing" at about 3/8" spacing - but this year I am sticking to a 1/2" spacing. I am not marking but using the old-fashioned trick of using stick pins to measure the half inch distance - no markings to remove so all very fresh looking when the pins are taken out as you quilt.

I have discovered that Luixan Newman (the Thimble Lady) is now into applique so I am planning to send off for her new book. I like the fact that she really does her own thinking and experimentation rather than simply pass on received information. Even if I don't choose to use her techiniques, its an interesting read - which is becoming increasingly difficult to find these days! I'm also planning to try the silk thread that she seems to like on a sample piece.

My next project will be a welsh quilt with hand prepared wadding and a vintage paisley backing. I've got the welsh fleeces, the yellow top fabric and the salvaged paisley reverse. And, I've traced a lot of my Welsh quilts so will have fun designing the top. More later.