Loose Threads' Blog Pages

Hexagon Quilters

Anna — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 16:51:07 +0000

As a member of Hexagon Quilters it gives me great pleasure to tell you all about their 20th anniversary exhibition, which takes place on the 10th and 11th April 2010. 10am-4.00pm at Highdown School and sixth form centre, Surley Row, Emmer Green, Reading,RG4 8LR.

Another great show will be at the V&A from 20th March to 4 July. www.vam.ac.uk/quilts

Cargoes

Anna — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:53:33 +0000

Heather Quilters “Cargoes” Exhibition is 24th-25th April 2010 Sat 10am-5pm Sun 10am-4pm.

Admission £2.00, accompanied husbands and childen are free. Collingwood College, Kingston Rd, Camberley, Surrey, GU15 4AE.

Novembers exhibitions

Anna — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:52:00 +0000

The first one on now to the 15 Nov is called Quilty Secrets. At the gallery, Winchester Discovery Centre, Jewry Street, SO23 8SB. Free entry Fri-Mon 9am-7pm Sat 9am-5pm,Sun 10am-4pm.

24th-28th is the Stitch Witches exhibition called Moving on 10am-4pm at the Farmham maltings.01252 726234

Last but not least is my City and Guilds exhibition 27th-28th at Fleet Library 9.30am-4pm

Curved log cabin quilt

Erica — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 07:58:39 +0000

At the beginning of the year I took a one day workshop with Jan Hassard to learn her technique for curved log cabin and below you can see (I hope) the quilt that I made. It is nice if you like that sort of thing but I really know no that I don’t! This was a last try to see if I could not just learn to love log cabin - but I can’t. But the really important lesson with this was that I no longer have any desire to follow someone else’s pattern. I finished this quite quickly because it was very easy to do - if tedious stitching all those blocks - but I didn’t have to think about it. But lack of brain engagement resulted in a lack of much pride in the finished piece, other than the technical aspects ie accurate piecing and reasonably good quilting. So now its definitely the design-from-scratch route for me, and workshops are strictly technique based rather than projects.

PS This quilt has been made some months and not stored properly before the photo was taken (see how much I love it?) but I have only just got to grips with publishing photos.

Bowls for Freedom

Erica — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 07:42:49 +0000

This was an idea from Liz. She made a bowl and sent it to the rest of the group (she is still living abroad) with patterns to make smaller ones decreasing in size. Each bowl represents a freedom of some kind - Liz started with hers expressing Freedom of Expression in Cambodia. A group project actually finished!

Region Day

Anna — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 10:37:38 +0000

Just to let you know we still have places left on the regional day on 3rd Oct 09 at John Hanson community school, floral way, Andover, SP10 3PB . the speakers are Dilys Fonks and Christine porter, it starts at 10.00 and the cost is £10.00 to members of the guild and £15.00 to non members, you are welcome to turn up on the day, dont forget to bring lunch.

summer hoilday

Anna — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 10:29:29 +0000

Summer course with the WI

Part of my Sue Belton award was spent on a residential course at

Denman
College this summer. I thought you might like to hear about the college, as I found it a wonderful base and the teaching facilities and my tutor were amazing. The course I choice was called overlocker magic, not exactly patchwork I know, but I have used it already, in a piece for a loosethreads exhibition in 2011!

Denman
College is run by the WI and set in the most beautiful part of Oxfordshire, from fleet it took less than an hour to drive up. If you can’t drive they will pick you up from the train station with no charge as part of there green policy. How fabulous is that.The main house and 17 acre’s of garden dates back to Georgian times. The bedrooms in the main house are mostly for shared accommodation as most of them are substantial in size. (Single beds only by the way and all rooms have ensuite.) This is also were we have our meals and drink in the comfortable bar.The rest of the bedrooms are set in houses surrounding the teaching block. Each bedroom is named after a county and is looked after by the WI of that county and therefore each room has a different personality.The teaching block is very impressive; our room had plenty of room, light, machines, cutting mats, rulers, along with plenty of sewing books you could borrow.All in all it was a fantastic break. If you want to check out Denman college www.theWI.org.uk/college they are open to all –members and non-members, men and women and run short residential courses and day schools.I have all ready booked my next course with Ray Slater doing machine Embroidery with water-soluble fabrics.

A plea for worse quilting…

Erica — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 06:05:05 +0000

I went to Quilts UK at Sandown a couple of weeks ago, lovely show, I like having quilts and traders all together and being able to get outside for some fresh air with lunch. But I saw more evidence of a trend that I do not like very much at all: pieced quilt tops quilted with an all-over pattern on a long-arm machine.

I have nothing against long-arm quilters, only these awful overall patterns that bear no relation to the piecing. Why spend all that time carefully choosing fabrics and colours and making perfect points for a perfect pattern and then completely ignore the lot by having a random pattern superimposed? Quilting should enhance the piecing and even really bad quilting does that far better than these patterns, however good the stitching is. Is it a lack of time for the piecers? Well by all means have the piece long-arm quilted but put in a little extra thought (and money I suppose) and have a quilting pattern that uses the piecing design and really suits the top. But better still quilt it yourself, by hand or machine. Practice really does make perfect and besides hand quilting is the best therapy ever for calming down after a stressful day. (If itdoesn’t feel that way you, try taking a class or two to hone your technique.)

We all call ourselves quilters - please can we all justify that title by more care with the actual quilting?

Transatlantic sewing challenges!

Anna — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 08:04:58 +0000

Myself and Erica met Liz on Wednesday for coffee, she was on a quick tour of England and her home in Portugal. At the moment living in India, (we can call ourselves an international group.) It was great to see her looking so well, she left us with a sewing challenge, bowls that fit into each other which we will get our teeth in to as a group workshop.Later in the evening we met Mary at her place and at last have set ourselves another challenge to produce a finished piece of work by september with the view to show at our next exhibition in Feb 2011.So my summer looks busy with my C&G work, Loosethreads and the transatlantic challenge that I have entered with Christine Porter. I have also started teaching a new garment making class which has got me making clothes again, sitting hear writing in my new shirt that my neighbour picked up the fabric from a charity shop for 50p. She is going to be green when she sees it, funny that the title of the transatlantic challenge. Going Green.

Trying a new wadding - wool/cotton blend

Erica — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 08:44:03 +0000

I have been quiet lately because I have not done much sewing - family life takes over sometimes as does the admin of sewing - I seem to have spent a lot of time at committee meetings for quilting groups! I have done some spending though, including a new (to me) kind of wadding - half cotton, half wool. I got it from the Cotton Patch, who brand it, but not sure where it is produced ie which country. I love wool wadding for all kinds of quilting but it is expensive, especially with the current exchange rate. With raw wool prices so low in this country I have never quite understood why we cannot produce it here, although there may be an issue with the breeds farmer use here. Anyway, I hope to layer up a curved log cabin quilt in the next few days so I will report back on how it performs.