Whirlpool

At last I've got round to finishing a college sample I started ages ago! It was difficult to photograph as it has a layer of bronze coloured sheer fabric on top so the colour is better in real life. We had to use one automatic stitch on our sewing machines and experiment with different stitch lengths and widths using a variety of threads. After I'd embroidered I layered it up with wadding and backing and added some simple quilting.
It  was based on one of my husband's photos:

I hope you can see the resemblance! It's not too bad I suppose but I'm really hankering after making a real quilt!!

Wednesday Web - Common Craft Show

Do you find yourself trying to explain blogging to friends and family? I find it really hard to get across to some people how blogging works and why it is such fun. Lee Lefever has produced some fantastic simple explanations of the wonderful web and things like blogging, twitter, online photo sharing etc. Just search on Youtube for the 'Common Craft Show'. Here's his take on blogs:

Also this week I've added a new free tool to my blog posts called 'Link Within' which shows links to some of my previous posts. Do you like it?

My Busy Weekend

 Fumiko Ohkawa: Log Cabin / Kaleidoscope II

Festival of Quilts Winner - Traditional Quilts

Phew, what a busy few days!
Friday:  Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate
Saturday: stripping wallpaper at my son's newly purchased house
Sunday: at college
Monday: back to work

The Knitting and Stitching Show covers a wide range of crafts which includes some quilts. They did have on display some winners from the Festival of Quilts and the nice thing was you could get a closer view than in the original show and I managed to get better photos of a couple of my favourites. The one above was the best in show and the workmanship was amazing - so many tiny pieces!

Here's another I admired for the machine quilting:

Sheena Norquay: Pearls are not Always White

Festival of Quilts Winner - Contemporary Quilts

These close-ups show the lovely circle patterns - I like circles!

Next I visited a lovely display of quilts by  Janice Gunner who specialises in quilts using fabrics dyed with indigo:

These were beautifully quilted to emphasise the patterns created by the dyeing. I treated myself to her book 'Shibori for Textile Artists' and chatted with her about the workshops she teaches - they are now on my list for future reference. We are doing indigo dyeing at college next month so the book was an essential purchase!

There weren't may other quilts on display apart from this one made from cans from a famous Irish brewer- very clever but not a cuddly quilt:

Drunkards Path by Beck Knight

There was plenty of lovely embroidery on display too. One stand featuring the work of the East Anglian Stitched Textiles group - EAST. I spent a lot of time looking at their sketchbooks and completed work as it was just the sort of design work I'm doing on my college course. They very generously allowed visitors to photograph their sketchbooks and finished pieces which were gorgeous. Here are some photos of their work:

You can learn more about the group on their blog and also see more photos of their exhibits here.

So there were some very clever and talented people showing their work - well done to them. There were also, of course, hundreds of stalls selling fabric, threads, beads, supplies etc plus other incongruous items like floor sweepers and manicures! I was pretty restrained and didn't spend much - well the entry cost and parking charges were enough! I may be turning into a grumpy old woman but I do resent having to pay so much for entry to events which give far more space to a large shopping mall than exhibits. I have to admit that despite that they are extremely popular - someone must be getting very rich from them but no the stitchers!

Wednesday Web- Picnic

Picnic is a free online photo editor. You can use it to adjust your photos for your blog or for printing e.g you can improve the colour, crop the photo or change the size.  It also has some fun special effects which I think are great to play around with to give you ideas for quilts.

The photo above is one which my sister in law took and is it very beautiful so doesn't need any basic adjustments, but here are a few effects I used:

 Pencil Sketch

I uploaded the photo and clicked on the 'create' tab and scrolled down to the 'Pencil Sketch' option. This is a great way to show up the outlines of the petals which I could trace to make an applique pattern. I also think it gives ideas for possible quilting designs. A useful feature is the 'Undo' button as you can go back to your original photo and try another effect.

Pixellate

Hex Cell

These two effects could be used as patterns to piece a quilt - if you are very patient!

If you like strip piecing try the 'Waterfall' effect to play with stripes using the colours in the photo:

Waterfall

Now I forgot to click 'Undo' after the waterfall and went on to try 'Smudge' - look what I got!!

I love this!

And finally for something completely different try  'Hypnotic'

Hypnotic

Wow that was fun!  There are more things to try out too - slideshows and collages and tons more special effects. You could pay to have more options but I think there is loads to keep me busy on the free version.

Try it for yourself by clicking here!

Coffee Morning

 Members small quilts on display.

Well Tuesday Quilter's coffee morning was a great success. We had lots of visitors who came for tea or coffee and scones. They admired our quilts and bought cakes and quilted gifts to take home and complimented us on our friendly welcome! We raised lots of money for group funds and charity too.

Here are more photos:

 Members manned the stalls and sold raffle tickets

 I had my own stall selling gifts , fabrics and books

Christmas Quilts and Gifts

Beautiful Quilts!

This sweatshirt jacket was admired by lots of people.

 Several people expressed an interest in our group and Jean had enquiries about her monthly beginner classes. What a great morning!

Wish List - Go Cutter

I've had a little play with Quiltsue's new toy - the Go Cutter. She let me turn the handle and make tumbler blocks - it's amazing! They're not in the shops here in the UK but she managed to get one shipped over from the USA. I think they could really take off. Visit her blog Quilt Times to see more of this must-have gadget! It's on my wish list - will it be on yours?

Wednesday Web - Wordle

This is the start of a new series of Wenesday posts which I'll be using to show you some fun things which are free on the wonderful web. Since my day job is supporting the use of  IT to enhance learning in primary schools this will be a good way for me to pass on things I use in my work.

This week the subject is 'Wordle'. You can use this free online tool to transform text into beautiful displays in an instant! The example above was a description of patchwork and quilting for beginners on Quilter's Cloth.

I copied the text then went to Wordle and pasted it into the box. Click 'Go'and hey presto your words displayed in a fun colourful graphic! You can change the font and colours seperately or just click on 'Randomize' to see different combinations. Here's another using this same text:

You can also type a blog address into Wordle and see a display of the frequently used words on the blog. This is a really interesting way of seeing what you've blogged about recently. Here's mine:

Now you need another little free program to quickly save the image for your blog - a screen capture tool. You could use the Printscreen button on your keyboard but then you would have to crop the image - too fiddley!! There are lots of free screen grabbers out there but the one I use is 'Screenhunter'. This is so easy. Once it's installed, just launch the tool, then every time you want to grab a portion of your screen press F6 on the keyboard, drag a rectangle around the image you want and Screenhunter saves the jpeg in 'My Pictures'.

Now I've told you about 2 cool freebies so that's a bonus one for starters! Please let me know if you try it or use it in your blog and tune in next week for more free fun from the web.

PS I was browsing through the gallery on Wordle and came across this - just right for today: 'Lest We Forget'