The members had put on a lovely display of quilts, great work from one quilting group.
The photo below was my favourite quilt, simple and graphic but it caught my attention more than any of the others.

And what a location - probably the most scenic in the UK if not the world!

Kath's Quilt.

Kath is an experienced quilter and also helped me greatly when I started quilting. She is a very precise quilter so I was not sure if she would like the liberated blocks but she has really enjoyed making them and has produced this lovely quilt for one of her great-neices.

Ann's Quilt.

Ann is really pleased to have completed this quilt for her grandaughter. She had started patchwork a few years ago but never really took to it. Some of the blocks on her quilt are ...

Carol's Quilt.

Although Carol has done lots of sewing and crafts in the past I think this is her first quilt.

It has been made as a sofa quilt for her lounge. Beautiful choice of colours!

Liz's Quilt.

Liz was another beginner and is ...

Judith's Quilt. Judith, another complete beginner, hand quilted this little quilt while on her holidays. She has done a lovely job with it and I love the use of the scraps in the borders.

This quilt will be a gift for her sister's cat - good job I am a cat lover!

Joan's placemats. Although Joan has done loads of sewing in the past she really enjoyed making ...

Jo's Quilt. Jo used ...

If only this slogan reflected some of the teenage / parent ...

We have spent the last few days in Northumberland with my parents and yesterday we visited the Farne Islands which are a paradise for bird watchers.
Although the weather was cloudy it was very warm - here is a photo of me with my parents, waiting for the boat to collect us.

Then we did a liberated version of Courthouse Steps. I used a little orphan block for the centre, using up my cut strips as before. I had loads of striped strips cut so I used them to make a border. I even pieced the bottom border as I did not want to ...

Week 5 was Flying Geese - such an important ...

Sadly we had to have Chloe, one of our rescued, ex-battery hens put to sleep this morning.
She had almost two years of freedom since she left the battery farm in June 2008.
I have not been keeping you up to date with the chicken situation, Bonnie died a few weeks ago and we lost Maggie last September.
Here is a photo of Bonnie and Chloe from last Autumn.


This is not meant to be a sad post as all three girls enjoyed their freedom to the max and we were so pleased to have them as our pets.

I ...

Each week I have been producing three sample blocks for my students. Week 2 was the good old shoo fly block. I decided to use this block to demonstrate how to make half square triangles out of two squares - a skill that every new quilter needs.

For the more experienced quilters in the group I made a block out of four six inch blocks. I love the way that secondary patterns appear in this block.

I know I haven't blogged for a while - one of the main reasons is that I have been going through a mini crisis with my City & Guilds course.
The main highlight of my quilting life at the moment is teaching my classes every Tuesday.
We have just completed week 7, the progress that the students are making is excellent so I thought it was about time that I shared some of their work. Apologies to anyone whose work does not appear but my photographing of blocks has been a bit random!

When we all returned for week 2 I ...

This quilt is called 'Chinese Dream' and is made by Susan Stockwell ...

Click on the photo to enlarge it and you can read about Elizabeth's life.

If you click on the photo to get a close up you will be able to see some of the girls names embroidered onto the patches and the Girl Guide logo.

On loan for the very first time from the National Gallery of Australia,the Rajah quilt was made in 1841 by women convicts aboard the ...

Two of the exhibits at Quilts 1700-2010 have been made by contemporary artists rather than quilters and the presence of these exhibits will prove to be controversial among quilters I am sure.
The first is another bed by Tracy Emin - made famous by the 'other bed' of course. Lots of people do not like her work but I must confess I am a fan of hers - I even walked right through the exhibition to find this piece as I was keen to see it. It is not a quilt - I don't think any of it is actually quilted but ...

This is a famous quilt, apparently often shown in books but rarely on display.
I have to admit I did not know about it until yesterday but I will not easily forget it! Made in 1803 you will be hard pressed to find a finer example of applique and piecing anywhere.
This is another one that you must go and see!


This is the central applique motif.

Just a couple of photos from our celebrations last night - mainly for family members who read this blog.
Back to quilting soon!