Tokyo Quilts

No, I haven't been to Tokyo but I wish I could have gone.

This lady went and has taken loads of photos - and I do  mean loads - for our delectation and is still adding to them.  I am always so grateful that we are able to see photos of things from the other side of the world, where I will probably never go.

Her blog - http://bemused.typepad.com/bemused/

and her flickr photos - http://www.flickr.com/photos/22514067@N00/sets/72157623288481576/

Enjoy looking!

And tomorrow, I am off to the Ardingly Show with Chris.  Last year it snowed the day we went and while I am sitting here I can feel the temperature going down - hope the weather behaves itself...... I might need some more solids - will go upstairs and check but I have the feeling the only variant is the colour - bet they are all similar values.

Meanwhile back to making my pattern and figuring out the order I am going to piece things....

Pictures you can grow in a rice field

http://blog.quiltmania.com/?m=201001

I have no idea if these are real or photoshopped.  But they are pretty neat, don't you think?

I like Quiltmania magazine and one of the reasons is that it isn't American and you do get to see what is going on in Europe.  It is expensive, though, but aren't they all now?

Another good evening...

Below are various posts with pics of what some of us have been up to.  It is lovely to see such variety.

Of those I didn't photograph - Lesley, newly returned from New Zealand and looking tanned and serene was unpicking some quilting she had done before she went away.

I was adding to my Petits Bateax collection http://petitsbateaux.canalblog.com/archives/petits_bateaux/index.html.  Jenny was the French lady who inspired a whole load of these.  I keep sewing away off and on and one day I will have a quilt.  If you poke around the archives you will find lots of other inspirational petits bateaux.  She has since gone on lead other quilt making endeavours but I am rather too slow to keep up!

Wilma was making another Dresden Plate.  She uses the technique where you turn the top to get the point.  I found a tutorial - http://loftcreations.blogspot.com/2009/04/easy-dresden-tutorial.html which shows you what it looks like finished.  Wilma wasn't using a machine, though.

Norma and Chris were doing their  triangles.  Chris is putting hers together and Norma has a couple of rows to go before she starts that.  They are all gorgeous.

Linda was hand quilting her dresden plate quilt - it's a big quilt and she is doing really well.

A lovely evening.

Christine is a new member...

...of the Breakaways.  Welcome, Christine !

This little Cathedral Windows quilt was given to her for her little boy when he was very small.  It is gorgeous and Christine thought she might like to try this technique one day.

This is a doll's quilt in a rail fence pattern.  Christine said she didn't know what she was doing, but we reckoned she had made a very good job of it.  I wouldn't have made something so small and it is very pretty in real life - the colours are a bit flat in the photo; perhaps it is the beige table deadening the colours (or my photography)

She spent the evening perusing the magazines Jane brought in and has taken a pile home, along with the addresses of various quilty places - hooked, do you think? LOL

Libby's things

Libby brought this older quilt in to show Christine and explained how it was made.

This piece was given to Libby - exquisite stitching

This is the book by Patricia McLaughlin.  Libby is doing a course with her.  The block above is from that book

This is Libby's first block!

And Libby kindly made me one of her bags.  I have stuffed it full of my hand sewing things for making my Petits Bateaux.  It is lovely.  Thanks, Libby!

Jane's stuff

Jane has a new machine -a  Megaquilter - and has been busy sewing...

Nice

Scraps

Wintry new picture - gorgeous

and very colourful Dresden Plates

Kim's Christmas Quilt

Kim's Christmas Quilt, originally uploaded by cazh.

Found this lurking at the bottom of Kim's bag when she popped in this evening to say hello. Some people hadn't seen it - really nicely done and great embellishments on the cookies and gingerbread people

Triangles

Somewhere on the net I have seen this sort of thing - all you do is create these triangles (most of mine were pieced on a treadle) and then flip them back and forth to get a pattern.  I drew my pattern out on squared paper and I still had trouble getting it right.  I hope to goodness that I stacked them all the right way or I shall be in such a mess when I start putting them together.....

Furnishing fabric offcuts or samples or similar - Blendworth Fabrics I think.  It looks quite big so perhaps it will be borderless - we'll see.....

Wilma's dresden and hexes

Wilma came along to visit and has decided to stay :)  Welcome, Wilma.

She was working on these hexes.  I really like the counterchange with the colours:

Her sewing is pretty neat, too!

And here is one of her Dresden Plates - a few more blades than Linda's but equally lush....

oops, excuse the sweet wrapper; we had some sweeties left over from Christmas

Kim's Embroidery

Kim brought along her runner.  She got the patterns free from  Kelly Fletcher.

Kim has made a really good job of these and they look great in this runner

and a closer look....

Libby's stuff

Libby has been making bags...

Here is her Star Quilt which has moved along a bit

The stars have an extra layer of wadding behind them....

and there are neat little pinwheels in the corner as well as some along the borders

Pauline's borders

Pauline has been making applique borders for her quilt.  I hadn't seen them before and I think they are lovely.

A closer look.....

Linda's Dresden Plates

Linda's Dresden Plates, originally uploaded by cazh.

Linda hasn't been quilting very long. She's made a smashing start and over Christmas put all her plates together. She's now quilting around the plates by hand. I think she's been bitten by the bug.....(Linda on the left and Norma at the back admiring them). Camera was rather cold and a bit fogged over. This was the best pic of the 3 I took.

Feltmaking 2010

Well it was nice to get together again.  We talked a lot!  We made a list of what we would like to try making over the next few months and we looked at books, particularly one Janine had brought, which had a few things in it we hope to have a go at.  And I practically forgot I had my camera with me so all I have to show is a pic of the egg cosies Bren made.  Janine made a nice pair but I forgot to take a pic - perhaps she will bring them next week.  Mine are destined to be  fairy hats.I completely forgot to turn them over and only had one layer on one side so they definitely look a bit odd.  Maybe I can make a flower or a bow out of them.

Anyhow, here are Bren's

I like the colours and the twist on top.

Bren tried them on real eggs, as opposed to polystyrene ones and one fitted better than the other.  We did them using a resist - mine buckled in the microwave.  I don't think I was paying attention...

I think perhaps these are something I would use when food becomes more of a ceremony than fuel on the run LOL but you learn from everything you make, anyway, don't you?

Farnham

A few pics :

This was part of a mouthwatering quilt.  A final piece and oh, I covet it!  The lady who made it (and whose name I have forgotten, sorry - email me if it was you)- was inspired by Tivaevae quilts.  It was luscious.

This one

I liked because it's a positive/negative and at least one is on my todo list.  Pauline was quite interested in this one, too...

This one was nice and simple but very effective:

 and these 2 were placemat sized.  The blue and white was my choice and Pauline liked the other one

Farnham Maltings

Another pictureless post.  Well, I did take a couple of pictures but they were just a detail to remind me, sort of picture.

5 of us went and met 2 others at the Maltings - well I didn't actually see Libby, but she was there because she took Jane.  I did briefly meet Kate North, (courtesy of Jane Andreoli) who I once (or several times) bought a lot of books from and also seemed to win a few things at one stage when she was doing giveaways.  She was also instrumental in my acquiring a treadle machine.  Met another ex-member of the group most of used to belong to and had news of someone else.  And so it goes...  the place was packed and next year we will probably go later; don't know why we went so early.

I had taken a top with me to Antique Angel as I needed more fabric but they hadn't brought any of those lines with them, it being a 'sale', so the ladies said to telephone and discuss.  Hope I will be able to get hold of them before they close one evening this week.

Had a good look around at the exhibition upstairs but as it was lunchtime most demonstrators were having their lunch and not about.  We didn't win anything in the raffle in the afternoon, either.  I think the ladies read out just about every number that skirted our tickets, but not ours, LOL.  Still it was good fun and I did get some solids, or near solids, for my QU class. Once I found a stall with those, I just read out my list and the kind gent said  yea or nay, so it was quite a painless way to shop!  The trouble with going to the Maltings with a shopping list is that you don't often get what you want and one of the things I was after, and didn't get was fusible vilene.  Hope I can get some by next weekend from somewhere not too far away, but I finish late too much at the moment to be able to get into town.


Before I forget to mention it, and I did intend to earlier on - I bought Bren a calendar from The Book Depository and when she opened it, the stand was broken.  I had a short correspondence with the Customer Service people who refunded my money promptly  - stand up calendar being no good if it doesn't stand but also said we could keep the calendar - the pics are nice and are fine, it was just the stand. I don't suppose it was worth posting back if they would then have had to pay my postage, but still, it was a nice gesture. I was impressed with the promptness of their response and the speed of the refund.  I don't know if they were working from home as it was during that snowy period and I really wasn't expecting to hear from anyone for a while.  So, I was really pleased, although I use the company anyway and will continue to do so.

Tomorrow night, feltmaking and I will take my camera, because I have a couple of books for Bren and Janine will be bringing some from Germany. Wonder if we will actually make any felt?

Quilt University

Well, what with all the snow etc I had decided to do an online course with Quilt University; booked and paid for it and then we all went back to work.  Typical LOL.

The course is with Dena Crain and is called Crystal Quilts.  It's more a design course and very interesting. 

Gosh I am learning a lot - the particular way these quilts are designed, and then all the taking of photos (straight is not my strong point) and manipulating them a little - probably very simple, but not something I've done before, and dh and ds6 both helping out as best they could with that bit. It is really hard to find the time at the moment, but the beauty of these courses is that you print off all the lessons and anything else relevant, the classes stay open a little longer than the course, and you can keep on doing it in your own time.  There is a discussion board as well, just for each course and that's quite interesting.  Ladies from all over the world are on this one - I don't think any men have surfaced.

And for me, because I'm reading, looking and doing, rather than just being told, I think things are more likely to stay in my poor little noddle.

Anyhow, this is a very interesting experience and one I  will be able  to repeat because......QU are having a weekly draw as this year it's their 10th Birthday and my name came up for the first drawing! So this set of classes are free! How wonderful is that?  It was like Christmas!  Lots of exclamation marks, I know, but it's so exciting :)

I don't have everything on the supply list, but am going to Farnham Maltings on Sunday with a shopping list and hopefully I will be able to get some of the things I will need. Farnham Maltings  is well, I don't know what it is, really, because I only ever see it at the fabric sale we are going to.  There are lots of rooms of varying sizes and the Maltings houses all sorts of theatre, exhibitions and other stuff.  This fabric sale is very popular; people come in coaches and it is horrendously busy as a rule.  Lots of traders, fabric is usually cheaper and there are quilts and exhibitions from local groups on show as well, upstairs.  So it should be a good day; there will be 5 members of the Breakaway Quilters  in all and I'm so glad the roads are mostly clear now, 'cos I'm driving!

Fat Cat Patterns

http://www.fatcatpatterns.com/  Sindy creates many free blocks.  She is starting another monthly quilt - a row quilt this time.  Very cute.

and quilts

Having had an outing to the shops courtesy of ds3 who drove me, he then requested a lift into town.  Well I could hardly say 'no', could I so with great trepidation I backed dh's car out onto the icy hill and crept down it, wiggling around the side roads until I reached the main road.  Flatly refused to go down any side roads in town - narrow streets, cars both side, icy track up the middle - no thanks, call me a wuss if you like, I don't care.  Dropped him, turned around and got home in one piece. Hurrah!

So today the sun shone and I was thinking that it was the 2nd Saturday of the month, wonder if Meon Valley Quilters is still on.  An email to the only person I knew and a reply back and I asked permission to borrow dh's car and set off via the motorway.  There were about 40 people and the speaker was Ann Bartlett and she had loads of quilts (by no means all of them apparently) and so many different ideas and techniques.  We were able to look through the quilts afterwards and ask questions and I helped fold them up which meant I got another look at some I particularly wanted to see.  It was lovely to see such variety. Ann used to be the organiser for Region 3, I think, but she has now stepped down from that post. She's also a member of Bourne Quilters and Maureen Thomas's Studio.

There was also a show and tell - some great pieces - and a young lady (7 years old I think) had brought along her work - a book cover and a placemat.  Well done that girl! (I also bought a bit of fabric, but we won't go into that, ahem).

Got home in one piece, though the hill was a bit slushy and slippy by then and felt pleased with myself that I'd done it all by myself LOL (as you may gather, I am not good at driving in snow and definitely not in my car which is an old automatic and not very tractable).  However, if the road is still like this on Wednesday, I will need to borrow dh's car again for quilt group, assuming we actually manage to meet this time.  We'll see...

Something I hadn't realised is that Bourne Quilters in Emsworth will be having their show this year, and also Maureen Thomas's Studio will be having a show as well.  Something to look forward to!

curtains,

The food has been put away and a length of curtain track installed in the kitchen, replacing the one that I broke.  Oh dear, there was I cobbling together curtains out of other curtains one evening and I get it into my head to hang one set up but could I get the track down?  No, and when I did, it turned out I'd been pushing the wrong way and broken all the little bits that hold the track to the window.  Dh was not very pleased with me.  However he duly replaced the broken track with a new one and some very bright curtains are now in the kitchen.  It has made a difference to the temperature, I think, but it has also made a difference to the kitchen which immediately looked smaller and cosier.  And a lot darker in daytime.  The very bright curtains were destined to supplement the sitting room curtains but when I spread them out somebody had taken a chunk right out of the middle, so I chopped them off to roughly kitchen window length.  If nothing else, it did make me tidy up the window sill a bit.

The other pair of curtains went into the back room, as they are more bedroomy.  I measured one and that was fine.  Took down the others, hung up the first of the new ones, then the second one.  Hang on, what's happened here?  One  long curtain and one short curtain.  By now I was getting seriously fed up so the long curtain has a huge hem on it and perhaps in the summer I will take them both down and shorten them properly; maybe line them if I get ambitious LOL.  The extra pair to put in the sitting room (which was the pair which came with the sitting room 20 years ago) is now waiting to go back into the sitting room.  Next will be a pole to go across the hall in front of the front door which is mega draughty despite the fancy addition of strips of plasticised table cloth stapled to the edge of the door.  It does help, but not enough.  By the time all this lot gets done, the weather will probably have warmed up.....

Outings,

No pics and therefore probably not very exciting to some :

We had been visiting the local Co-op regularly to get some milk - no deliveries, predictably.  I did spend over an hour waiting in the shop with many others for an expected delivery and then got fed up with propping up a freezer and went home to cook dinner.  Good thing I did as the driver's tachograph had run out and there wasn't a delivery in the end.  The milk turned up eventually, I believe, the next day - the staff have a list of regulars and keep back one of whatever has been requested.  If that isn't service, I'd like to know what is.  Seriously, they are a lovely bunch and deserve a pat on the back, all of them.  Perhaps I should write to Head Office and say so.

It was an interesting atmosphere inside the shop; very wartime in patience (except for me, obviously LOL), almost party'ish in a way.  Definitely this weather has brought out the nice side of many people, particularly young people, who have been helping push cars and dig people out.  I am sure there are many other unsung incidents.  I suppose if this goes on for too long people might revert to their normal selves, but for the moment, it is nice, and so many people on foot to talk to and smile/wave at instead of us all driving about in our little tin boxes.....

A visit to Asda yesterday resulted in the weekly shop and a side-trip to B&Q resulted in curtain track and pole being acquired.

A couple of links

No snow today but the side roads are like skating rinks. The schools are still closed. I might try visiting my daughter in law today but it is very slippery on the pavements.

Portsmouth's The News has a snow blog which is quite interesting and very useful if you live in the area. Also up to date!

http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/custompages/custompage.aspx?pageid=81376  If for some reason this doesn't work, you go to the main page and there is a box on the left of the main page.

Thoughtful reading if you make quilts, Judy Martin's journal

And an interesting post from Olga Norris at The Ragged Cloth Cafe Ragged cloth/Olga Norris.  Other interesting posts to be found on the site also.

Right, off to get dressed, find some boots and a washing pole for a stick and then to visit my grandson

Snow again picture heavy, blogger permitting

Snow!

Kids are all excited, schools are making contingency plans and we have had quite a lot of the white stuff coming down.  Daughter in law came to collect gorgeous grandson and slithered her way up the hill in her little car.  Though at the time I texted her at work in  Littlehampton there was no snow and she drove into it coming to us.  DS3 has, quite madly, walked off down the hill to do his fitness training.  If it's not on when he gets there then he will walk home again and that will have to do.  But the weather in our part of the world is often quite mad, being over the hill makes a huge difference - we had snow, a couple of miles away they hadn't.

My car is an old automatic and I am not driving it anywhere I don't have to, tomorrow.  If the schools are open then I will walk; if not, I will cover some books and quilt.  Dh will work from home.  He kindly collected some milk for me on the way home and ds2 commented that there was a huge queue at  the big Asda and it took him a long time to get out of the car park - he'd only popped in to use the loo LOL.

Speaking of snow, if you like cute snowmen, Bunny Hill Designs are doing a block of the month for this coming year, beginning now.  Please visit them here  http://bunnyhilldesigns.com

The British Quilt List on Yahoo Groups (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BQL/ ) have another series of challenges this year.  They have so far done bags and a perpetual calendar and this blog (http://bqlbagblog.blogspot.com/ ) showcases the lot.  You can spend an enjoyable amount of time going through the various bags and calendar pages.  The next set of challenges is more a series of suggestions but in any case the amount of expertise on this list makes it a very useful place to be and somebody usually knows the answer to any question you may have.  And the inhabitants are nice, the mods efficient and pleasant and the whole thing is run by Kandy Newton.  So if you don't belong, might I suggest you join - another pleasant activity on a snowy day.

Dh has just come in to say it is still snowing so I have sent him out with a camera - there may well be a plethora of snowy photos in blogland ere long......

New Year 2010

Well I would like to report that we had a riotous party, but we didn't.  We did have 2 strays who remembered the house but had forgotten where the party was and ds6 wasn't answering his phone by then.  So they came in and eventually found a bed, but ds6 rolled in at 9 o'clock this morning.   I didn't hear the rest of the family come in

I spent today driving around Berkshire and Wiltshire collecting things from Dad's flat, from the home he was recuperating in, and taking them to the Great Western Hospital whence he had been despatched by ambulance with chest pains.  Those turned out to be caused by not being able to get enough air into his lungs and it would appear that perhaps his sleep machine is not working properly.  In the meantime there he is in hospital, looking disgustingly healthy now he has oxygen, particularly in comparison to the other, rather ill, people in the rest of the ward.

Got home to be greeted by the gorgeous grandson, shown here watching TV with granddad before he went to sleep.  Hope he stays asleep tonight LOL.

Spinning Wheel

Had a very nice day in Dorset on New Year's Eve.

Went to visit my friend Angie who kindly thrust a mug of coffee into one hand and dragged me off to the sitting room to unpack the wheel she has been kindly babysitting for me.

We - mostly Angie - put it together and I spent a while being patiently taught to spin and managed to, off and on, much to my astonishment.  Lots of chatting, very nice h/m soup for lunch and a trip to Lidl's later and I packed the Babe and some wool up and drove home .  I spent the evening trying to do spin on my own.  I managed a bit of plying, just out of curiosity and then got in a right mess.  I ended up carding some grey stuff which I got from Angie and tried spinning that; some worked but mostly no dice.  And the wheel squeaks where the treadle moves against a screw, which was driving dh mad - I think I have developed a lead foot LOL.  So I put everything on the dining room table to prevent the GG from attempting to either climb up it or dismantling it and I will leave it for a bit and have another go later.  Will need some more wool to practice with though.

Here is a pic of the new wheel on top of the table. The boxes in the corner are full of wool for feltmaking but I expect some of it will find its way through the orifice of the Babe......