BQSG Committee Meeting in York

On Friday, I went up to York to take part in the BQSG committee meeting. Our other two meetings are at FOQ and our autumn seminar.

I shall be going back to York next month for the Quilters Guild Treasurers Meeting.

First, the good news. The quilt museum has had a three year reprieve as the rent has been reduced by the owners, a buildings conservation trust. Perhaps some of the suggestions on making money made by members will be acted on. The signage certainly needs to be improved - some banners or bright flags? It is still hard to locate.

York has a new attraction, a wheel similar to the Eye in London.

York was very busy this visit, as it was race day at York race course. There were huge crowds of punters in the evening, the men in suits and macs, the women in tight dresses and 6" heels (how do they manage to walk in those?)All very merry as they had been drinking all day...

I stayed in the Abbeyfields Guest House which was very pleasant - I immediately changed my booking for next month's stay so that I could go back! The breakfast had to be seen to be believed, with home baked bread...

 Betty's tea rooms were doing a roaring business....its very spacious inside, so you don't have to queue for very long....

Of course the Minster still dominates the town.

We had a really good meeting and got a lot of work done. Afterwards, many of us shot off to the Quilt Museum; I had to buy a few items and look at the exhibits.....then off home on the evening train - two changes but home safely.
It felt good to get back to Ipswich and then Woodbridge.

Walk to Blaxhall

Last weekend we had a walk in the Suffolk countryside - from Blaxhall to Little Glemham and back. This church is Blaxhall church; it has a ring of six bells which is pretty typical for a smaller country church. The plant in the foreground is "Alexanders" or Smyrnium, an Umbellifer. It is a handsome plant, brought here by the Romans from the Mediterranean. At one time it was used as an herb or salad plant, as it is midway between celery and parsley.

Another view across the fields to Blaxhall Church.

The bluebells were just coming into flower and made a lovely carpet of blue.

And - a field with two donkeys....we are able to see all sorts of unusual livestock on our walks, and also some wildlife if we are lucky.

Red Paisley Fabric

I recently bought a throw to use for its turkey red fabric. I had previously planned to use  the printed panels for a backing, but now I don't think that I can bear to use them! Too special! So I think that this fabric, which is in fairly good condition, will have to do instead.

 I know that it is possible to buy reproduction fabrics, but I haven't seen a good turkey red for sale when I have been looking for it. And, this is less expensive than the modern imitation.

I did have to do some unpicking, though!

 There are about eight yards of fabric, all in the same pattern. The fabric is only 36" wide, however.

 In the middle was a very worn blanket, very shredded.

I have also bought some vintage cotton wadding from Christine at the Linen Cupboard. It has a slight skin on one side, just as mentioned in the books.

Once I finish my Hawaiian quilt, I want to get started on another wholecloth  the pattern will be the tricky part - what to choose? I do have some ideas...

Post WWII Quilting patterns

I have been buying these post war books of quilting patterns recently - there seem to be a whole series and I only have a few so far. Post war, the emphasis seemed to change away from making bed quilts to instead, making smaller beautiful items for the house decor. Pattern books and classes were the starting point.

I still have not found the book with the exact patterns seen in my corded cushions - but some of these are clearly very similar. especially the Penelope patterns.

These books presented attractive photos of the patterns and also gave exact instructions on how to make the item. The next step was to buy a transfer of the desired pattern, so that the markings could be ironed onto the cloth. This could be the right side of the fabric, for embroidery or quilting, or the reverse side, for corded quilting. Of course this sent me off to my corded cushions - success! There are the tell tale blue marks of a transfer having been used on the reverse side, a rather coarse white cotton - so I can definitely say that commercial patterns were used in their making.

I have nearly finished the quilting of my Piilani Hawaiian quilt - only the binding to do. But I have to leave that for the moment - my next project is to make 17 hanging sleeves for the Durham quilts and the remaining Welsh quilts. I am planning to make them in prepared for dyeing fabric and then dye them a matching colour with my Procion dyes - I thought that would be quicker than searching for a matching fabric. Of course a serious washing will be needed to remove all traces of dye!!

Welsh Music CDs

I often listen to music while I am hand quilting or sewing on my machine. I have a small collection of Welsh music which is very pleasant to listen to, even if I am not a Welsh speaker (I cannot understand the words - but no matter...)

Of course Wales is renowned for its choirs, musicians and singers; one of the best known is Bryn Terfel - an absolutely wonderful voice. One CD is a collection of Welsh songs...

...while another features a young Welsh tenor, Rhys Meirion.

Harp music is very Welsh too - I remember, during our ecology field work in the Elan Valley in 1980, Pat Wiltshire pulling over to a scenic lay by and putting on a tape of Welsh harp music...this CD is a pleasant collection.

Another CD is this one of Gwenan Gibbard, an Eisteddfod winner who plays the harp and sings as well. Again, no idea what the songs are about but very cheerful to listen to. I had this and the above CDs on a player at Quilters Haven for my first exhibition of Welsh Quilts several years ago and it provided a nice background for the quilts.

Another favourite is this CD of John Taverner's music....

And my absolute favourite, the German countertenor Andreas Scholl singing English folk songs. I would love to go to one of his concerts.

Quilts sent off to various places....

It feels as if I have been supporting the Royal Mail single handedly recently! I even had to go down to the office supplies store in Ipswich to stock up on cardboard boxes....

First to be boxed up and sent off were the trophies from the Malvern quilt show. It was interesting to look at the past winners for the Hand Quilting award - and nice to know that both will be enjoyed by other quilters in the coming year.

I also sent off my New Northumberland Sawtooth Quilt to this year's Malvern show. Just hope the folds drop out of it - at least the cat hair is gone after last year's intensive "defurring" session. I love those cats but they certainly leave a lot of fur flying around...

 Then last week I had an emergency call from Ruth at the Loch Lomond Quilt Show in Dunbarton, Scotland- they needed more Turkey red quilts in a hurry. I was in a bit of a dilemma as at least three of my red quilts will be going off to Llanidloes soon. But I sent off this lovely Welsh red paisley quilt with orange peel quilting....

 and this Durham quilt made from preprinted panels.... worn but still striking...

and the zig zag strippy from Northumberland. This is an old quilt but has some fantastic quilting in wholecloth pattern with feathers and ferns.

Before we went away to Staffordshire I also submitted articles (with photos) to the major patchwork magazines to publicise the Minerva 12 summer exhibition at Llanidloes - haven't heard anything further about these but it will be interesting if they do appear.

Plans are afoot also to revamp the BQSG website - perhaps put it onto Wordpress to make it more user friendly - a "Quilt of the Month" and a Blog will hopefully draw more viewers to the site. It looks as if I will be charged with the blog; I will hopefully have some co bloggers on that. If not, I will have to put on my thinking cap, so as not to repeat myself. It seems to me that there are plenty of topics to investigate in the Quilt History vein..

I am also having an exhibition of antique quilts at Quilters Haven, in Wickham Market, Suffolk, the first week of June - there will be some Welsh quilts but I hope to showcase my Durham quilts this time. More details soon on the Quilters Haven website.

Jen Jones - Catalog and DVD

Recently, I sent off for Jen Jones' latest catalogue and also her new DVD which shows the three previous exhibitions.

Here is the DVD. There is a "walk around" with Jen and Gwenllian Ashley (the exhibition's designer) in which they discuss selected quilts. In addition, there are still photos of other quilts in each of the exhibitions. I enjoyed watching this DVD, the only thing that bothered me was the music; it is a modern song in an indie/folkie sort of vein and as there are no credits on the packaging I could not find out who the musician was. Liz N said that she turned the sound off when she was watching it!

Here is the newest catalogue for this year's exhibition - "A Quilted Bridge". It shows the great similarity between the Welsh quilts and the Amish quilts. There are lovely examples from Jen's collection, as well as Amish quilts on loan from the American Museum in Bath.

The format is the same one as before, with lovely illustrations, and at  a reasonable cost.

A Welsh quilt with lovely Welsh stitching from Jen's collection.

This exhibition is of course complimented by Dorothy Oslers' recent book publication, Amish Quilts and the Welsh Connection, which sets out clearly the results of Oslers' research on Welsh settlements in the USA.

To get your copy of the catalogue or DVD, copy, just email Jen at quilts@jen-jones.com

Price of the catalogue is £5 plus P and P, the DVD £11.99 plus P and P.