Search This Blog

I am a quilter living in Woodbridge, Suffolk who has made quilts since I was a teenager. I also ring bells! Both are great British traditions....I will try to feature some of my antique Welsh and Durham quilts, the quilts I make myself, my quilting activities and also some of my bellringing achievements. Plus as many photos as I can manage. NB: Double click on the photos to see greater detail, then use back button to return to the main page.













Saturday 30 July 2011

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.

7 comments:

  1. Good luck skirting the traffic! Those quilts of your at the top look amazing - how long have you been working on them?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I use designer curtaining, usually samples and the quality is excellent- you are getting v. expensive fabric cheaply. Of course it takes time to build a collection which is why reproduction fabrics are tempting, but I never use them. Fabric manufacturers always seem to scale down their patterns for the patchwork market but the patterning on curtaining is, I think, more authentic. I can't recall the quilt in the first picture? Was it at the V&A?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Um, those are last year's projects. I like to have some applique on the go, as I find it relaxing - not the fiddly kind - papercut blocks or hawaiian works best for me. I guess thats why I like wholecloths too - after all the initial preparation, you can just come home in the evening and do a bit of work without having to think too hard!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Mary, both the quilts are from the exhibition and are shown in the V & A book published about the exhibition. Good point about the furnishing fabrics - I will have to look but there are not too many places selling remnants anymore...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Are those Tivaevae quilts? They are just stunning. Looking forward to the updates on your progress with them. I have a sort of similar one - okay so its totally different, lol, but you have inspired me to get mine out and chip away at it some more. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Kirsty, they are Hawaiian quilts - traditional patterns from Poakalani of Honolulu - see their website for lots of beautiful patterns, isn't the internet wonderful!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. All the French General fabrics for Moda have been lovely to work with - I've been using them on my brown & red repro, also a medallion, also based on a quilt in the V & A. Must get the final cornerstones in place, so I can add the last two borders.

    I've been hankering after making a version of the Joanna Southcott quilt too, as it is so colourful - the first of the V & A ones you showed. There is something very satisfying about making a medallion quilt.

    ReplyDelete