Bunking Off

The tartan quilt top for the Bernina stand at FOQ is complete. I could not figure out why I seemed to have two spare sections but the mystery was solved when I tried to join the 3 main sections together and discovered that one side was too short because I had missed something out! It is a bit larger than I had planned because I had not included the side borders in my rough sketch. I am torn between wanting to do some variation of traditional Welsh whole cloth quilting or sticking to the tartan weave theme and only quilting with diagonal lines. I expect there will some sort of mash-up of those ideas when I get the new Bernina Q24 machine set up and ready to quilt.

I was pleased that “Bifrost Bridges” was awarded a Judge’s Merit ribbon at Malvern. At least it shows that the quilt is skilfully made even if if does not wow the judges with its design. It is the only suitable piece that I have available for FOQ this year and I will probably enter it but at this stage I don’t intend to enter it into any shows overseas since the shipping is too expensive for a quilt that does not appear to be a “contender”.

While I was waiting for the painfully slow internet to upload my quilting photos I decided to do a simple quilt from my basket. Although I have a couple of quilts that have been waiting their turn for ages, I chose the Paducah hexie quilt. It was extremely stretchy and seemed to have different numbers of hexagons or half hexagons on all 4 sides but it was big enough that it could afford to have a bit hacked off. I was just going to quilt soft, wavy horizontal lines but when I noticed that some of the piecing was coming adrift, I decided to turn the quilt once I reached the bottom and go back the other way as well. I am delighted with how good it looks with its curvy ¾” allover grid. It looks even better now that it has had a good wash so all I have left to do is trim it to a regular size then find it some binding.

I thoroughly enjoyed a 2 day workshop with Jamie Malden from Colouricious that was organised by the Aberdeen P&Q Group. We had plenty of space and light in a large workroom at Papeterie, a paper-craft shop at the paper mill near Dyce. I have not taken part in a workshop for ages and it was great fun just to play with Indian wood block stamps and stencils for two whole days. We produced several fabric samples using a combination of stamping, stencilling and mono-printing using Gelli plates. Jamie was enthusiastic and got us working at a great pace. I already had a few blocks and paints that I had bought at quilt shows but I had never experimented with them before. It was great to learn the techniques properly and to be told about the best paints to use. Printing with the wood blocks was simple and serendipity played a large part, making it a great craft that children would enjoy. I think it is fantastic that Colouricious  is able to provide work for 40 traditional Indian carpenters and their families because of its successful online shop and textile tours of India. I came away feeling inspired, with a few more paints and blocks that I can use on some of my leftover plain fabrics. I just need to decide what to make with my samples. It would be easy to get completely carried away and start creating dress fabric, T-shirts, scarves and lampshades. Perhaps I should start thinking about making some Christmas presents;)