Ingrid Press Quilts

 

I was intrigued by the exhibition of Ingrid Press's quilts. They were beautifully simple in design. Most were on a cream background with tiny shapes arranged in a grid with quilted detail. I think they are wonderful. Here are more:

 

 

 

  

  

  

 

I can't find her blog or website but I have discovered she is a member of the 'Hanging Together' group and there are some more pictures of her work on their website. Click here to visit it.

EQA Celebrations

  

Sweden 

The Festival of Quilts has an international atmosphere and walking around you hear many different languages. One area which caught my eye was a display by the European Quilt Association which is celebrating it's 20th year. Each country had put together a display of 10 narrow banners with spectacular results. I didn't manage decent photos of all of the countries participating ( the show was very busy!) but here is a selection in no particular order:

UK

Netherlands

Italy

Belgium


Denmark


Finland


Ireland

Festval of Quilts Photos

Felt Flowers by Gillian Travis of Sowerby Bridge
Winner of Quilt Creations category

I'm home! After a wonderful week at Knuston Hall I'm back home (with 2 new blouses, 1 jersey top, and 2 dresses!) sorting out my photos from the Festival of Quilts. It's taking me a while but here is the first batch. The Felt Flowers above which won the 'Quilt Creations' category were stunning. I took some close up photos of individual flowers:

Wouldn't you love to have these on display in your home? I would!

Next some more detail of 'Mother Earth' by Helen Godden of Canberra, Australia which was the winner of the Art Quilts category. The detailed quilting on this bleach painted quilt was amazing:



I do love bright colours but this year I was drawn to simple colour schemes and clear patterns and designs. Here are a few of my favourites:

Andamooka Flower by Gay Jenkins and Nic Bridges

Little Thin Blue Line by Mai-Britt Axelsen. Winner of the Miniature Quilts category


Mothernity by Antonia Moncelsi of Roma, Italy


Ephuma E Afrika by Jenny Johnson of Sutton Coldfield

Finally for now 3 members of my local quilt group had beautiful quilts on display - well done to them!

Pippa Wardman's quilt in the Pearl Essence Category

Pippa's daughter Rosie made this lovely 'Pearls of the Orient Quilt'


Heather Pratt's quilt 'Maritime Memories' was inspired by a holiday in Canada

The Fabric Man

The fabric man brought us loads of cloth to search through and most of us bought something! Jeanine our tutor actually climbed into the van to reach a piece of fabric for me and also found one for herself! I bought some beautiful purple wool boucle and a grey wool for jackets - fantastic!

Knuston Views

Another bright and sunny day here at Knuston Hall. Here are some more views. The cottage is the resident woodcarver's workshop. The other view is of what were presumably stables now converted into workrooms and a conference room for business. The council uses Knuston for meetings and last night the local Rotarians had their meeting and evening meal here too.

Today our sewing group will be having a visit from our 'Fabric Man' John who travels down from Selby with his van packed full of gorgeous woollen cloth. I never intend to buy anything BUT.......!

Relaxing Retreat

I'm spending a week clothes making at Knuston Hall near Wellingborough in Northamptonshire. It's an annual indulgence where I can completely relax, eat wonderful home cooked meals served expertly by friendly staff and do something practical. Jeanine our tutor was trained in Paris and is an expert at altering dressmaking patterns to fit our not so perfect figures. She also teaches us beautiful details which make all the difference to the finished garment. It's not all work - there is a bar here and lovely grounds. The photos above were taken from our sewing room.

Knuston Hall offers a wide range of day, weekend and week long courses on music, crafts, art, history etc. Have a look by clicking here.

Festival of Quilts

On Thursday I made a flying visit to the Festival of Quilts. I can't edit photos very well from here at Knuston Hall so appologies for the quality of the picture. Here is my favourite from the show - the winner of the Art Quilts category. A stunning bleach painted quilt. More pictures to follow....

August Linus Quilt

I set myself a target of doing one Linus quilt per month and here is the latest. It's pieced but not yet quilted - that may have to wait a week or two. The design is from an old issue of Quick Quilts (Sept 07) and is really easy to put together - essential for a charity quilt I think! I changed the dimensions slightly. The large squares are cut 6 1/2" and the smaller 3 1/2" and made up the blocks with one large and two small squares. There are 6 by 6 blocks so the quilt measures 36" by 54" but I may add a small border. Anyway it was quite relaxing to do lots of chain piecing and I'm really pleased I could use up more of my stash!

When Jen the Vet came to stay at the weekend I had to clear my 'Studio' which doubles as a bedroom. Here is a rare glimse of it tidy after I got my sewing machine out again.

The machine folds away into the Horn cabinet which can be pushed to the side to allow the second bed to be wheeled out from under the bed you can see so in theory it's very quick to do. Of course this doesn't allow for clearing the fabric thread UFO's etc etc which normally adorn both the table and bed!! The storage cabinet was a christmas present from Mr Photographer and is fantastic - it holds 6 artbin storage boxes and just fits perfectly under the table. Click here for a supplier.

I also have an iron permanently set up which is a great timesaver. This one doubles as a steam iron for my tailoring projects. So a compact but functional space. Now if only I could get rid of the beds......

Red Square and Two Boxes

After a busy few days with family (and dogs) I had a bit of me time this morning and went fabric shopping. This time I was looking for fabric to make clothes and went to Bradford to 'The Suit Length Centre' which as the name suggests sells fine woollen fabric. It's suberb quality and still in demand the world over the proprietor told me. Anyway I succombed to a couple of rather nice trouser lengths to make up next week during my little retreat to Knuston Hall.

On my return I again sorted through photos and found some more to post. The one above is a quilt I made for my City and Guilds Certificate. The design is pretty simple and the inspiration came from a stunning exhibition of ceramics from St Petersburg which I saw in London. The exhibition was entitled 'Circling the Square'.


The box shown above was another City and Guilds piece inspired from a cruise along the Norwegian Fjords and has a mariner's compass inset in the lid. The book beside it is my presentation about the development of the piece with samples of fabrics and threads on tags in pockets on the pages.

Finally another box with a sunflower appliqued on the top. I've made this design a couple of times and because these are made with Timtex they are very quick and easy.

Dogs

Here's another quilt made in 2006 from a pattern by Daisy Chain Designs. It features some adorable doggies with bones and pawprints. I didn't do much quilting on this and looking at it again I wonder if I should add some more now.

Today we'll be dogsitting while Jen the Vet goes to her friend's wedding. She now has two dogs (Pringle and Fudge) as she recently got a new puppy. We have two of our own - well really two more of hers which she decided we should have before she went to uni! Only Meg is a recognisable breed - a farm Border Collie, the rest are 'lurchers' of varying heritage. All have unique and (sometimes) endearing characters of course!

Fudge the new puppy is a Whippet and Bedlington Terrior cross.

Meg and Pringle (Greyhound and Saluki) posing.

We persuaded Kate to join them.