16/03/2009 by Debbie.

Hooray, today I received a piece of work from Liz our long distance member in Pakistan. The post has been very unreliable but this was sent recorded delivery. Now I have all the pieces have to figure a way to bring them all together.

Debbie

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16/03/2009 by Anna.

Dont forget the regional day on the 25 April and the work shop the following day. i have booked the saturday to here the speakers Jenni Dobson and Eliza McClelland, but not the work shop.
The competition is ” Oriental Jewels” which fits in just right with my City and Guilds piece that i have just finished! how jammy. the only thing that might not be so jammy, is that i might have to miss the whole event, as still no date for my opperation.
The Region day is held at Colden Common Community Centre, Winchester. 10-4 , share a lunch,£ 10 members and £15 non-members. Details Jenny Chalmers 01329-231790

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09/03/2009 by Erica.

No more finished pieces but this seems to be a time for inpiration. Is it because it is spring? Maybe this is when the ideas flow, summer and autumn I develop them and in winter I actually finish. Spring is my favourite season.

Loose Threads had a meeting on Friday, everyone could make it this time (no snow!) except Liz who is still out in Pakistan and there was a lot to discuss. Mary had been putting together our Ice challenges, and everyone brought their tree pieces. We talked through a lot of ideas and I came away feeling so inspired it was difficult to sleep. The next morning the sun came out and for me the sun always inspire a need to dye for some reason. Of course life is getting in the way and I won’t be doing any this week - family visits, other projects, other work. This morning I need to finish a row for a Row Robin quilt I am making with my other group but maybe this afternoon I can get a couple of ideas down in my sketchbook. I might also make a few more leaves - an idea I have for the Nature in Art exhibition in 2011 that will require a few hundred of them. Watch this space.

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07/03/2009 by Anna.

Just reading in my popular patchwork, an exhibition by Grenville Quilters at Grateley village hall (between Andover and Sailbury) station road, Grateley,Andover,Hampshire. Open 10am-4.00pm, Admission £1.00, free parking and trader is New threads.

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26/02/2009 by Erica.

The evenings are noticeably lighter now, and although its not exactly warm it is a lot warmer than a couple of weeks ago when we had all that snow! Which means that it is finally starting to feel like spring. Does everyone feel inspired to sew by the mere sight of the spring bulbs coming into flower? I certainly do, and not just to use bright colours. I have been working in browns and greys, trying to represent tree rings and bark - mostly I just feel the need to create something. Just like the birds I suppose!I have finished a wall hanging that has been waiting about two years, mainly for my skills to improve I think! It is taken from a David Hockney print ‘Above and Beyond’, I found the image on the web, cut it into six pieces and each member of Loose Threads made one section. I sewed them together, added a border and quilted. I am thrilled with it and would like to enter it into competition but I need to check out the legal position - it is a copy and not simply ‘inspired by’ Hockney’s original picture - although obviously very different. Any information on this would be gratefully received! I hope to get a picture of it on the site soon.

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08/02/2009 by Erica.

I was thinking that I had not done very much this week so I decided to review - and I have done loads! It started last weekend when I taught a workshop on Contemporary Approaches to Hand Quilting to Tove Quilters. I did a workshop on traditional hand quilting for them last year but contemporary approaches really lets people’s imaginations start to run. Much as I love traditional hand quilting, many people find it hard - the rocking, the evenness - whereas thicker threads and bigger needles and almost no rules means everyone can find a way to suit them. It was very satisfying for me and I got some very positive feedback.

This week I had my boys at home on three days as the school was closed, but I still manged to finish no less than three projects! The first was just a row for Potter Patchers Row Robin project - I pieced some stars, not my usual sort of technique but I was pleased with the result. The next project was the January challenge for Loose Threads - Under the Ice - using lovely blue and turquoise sheers on lutrador. I had lots of samples which worked beautifully. Unfortunately when I used my technique on the bigger piece it looked like the frilly waterproof knickers that baby girls used to wear over their nappies! Back to the drawing board, a new technique and it is done, remarkably quickly - I work well under pressure.

Finally I finished a double bed sized kaleidoscope quilt that I started in November 2007 at an Edwina MacKinnon workshop. It is hand quilted (traditional style), I used blue and brown batiks and wool wadding that was a joy to stitch. As I always bind my quilts as early as possible - always way before the quilting is finished - over a year of quilting seems to finish with a quiet sigh rather than a fanfare of stitching the binding. But I shall take it to Show and Tell at Hexagon Quilters which is on 19 February. The speaker is Jan Hassard and I am going to her workshop as well - one big quilt finishes, another starts? We’ll see….

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06/02/2009 by Anna.

Having spent all morning carefully cutting out my pieces for a very complex basket design, my husband looks over my shoulder to point out that i have done part of it wrong! of-course he is right!

Half triangles and quarter triangles are driving me up the wall,  i will think twice before using triangles and admire the work of others so much more!

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05/02/2009 by Kevin.

Anna seems to give very high level statements about what she does with very little detail - more like bullet points of what she is doing. I have got used to clothing terms during the year and can quite happily talk about blocks, bias, etc.  Now of course patchwork has another realm of terms.So in Anna’s catching up on course work, I can illustrate what I have learnt from her working.  Anna has been working with half squares and quarter squares.  From a mathematician’s point of view - they are the same - both are right angled triangles with 45 degree angles, it is just a matter of size. Of course this is not mathematics this is the world of patchwork. So instead of the logical approach you need to remember that these are fabric - and fabric is not an even material.  It has a grain (or weave direction as I would see it- going across and along the length of fabric).  It appears in patchowork world - on quarter squares the two equal sides (non hypotenuse side) runs across the grain, while on the half square, the hypotenuse runs diagonal to the grain.  (Or to think of it another way if you cut a square of material out logically (sides along the grain) then if you cut it diagonally you get a half square (and hypotenuse is diagonal to the grain) if ou cut it into 4 (across the diagonals) you have guarter triangles - the hypotenuse along the grain)So you see, unfortunately when you are not even in the world of patch you still have to still an listen to all this  - and I do listen.

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04/02/2009 by Debbie.

February 16th Heather Hunter is talking about Handmade Artists’ Books in the Age Concern Room Community Centre, Meudon Avenue, Farnborough, GU14 7LE. 7.15pm for 7.45pm £4.50

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04/02/2009 by Debbie.

Yes Girls, I am still Alive & Kicking.  In all this snow I have been working on the Village Green Quilters Block of the Month project so I will have a quilt by the end of the year.  I have also been busy working on a quilt for my parent’s Golden Wedding which is a simple log cabin in browns and creams more for expediency than anything else.  I am having it Long Arm Quilted.

I have a very important deadline for work for the end of February so the sewing has had to be simple for relaxation rather than anything too challenging at the moment.

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