What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

I have not done much social media since pre-Pandemic and I have not missed it! With courses to promote at Quilt Direct in Devon, I have really had to push myself to get back on Instagram, Facebook, and Youtube to remind quilters that I still exist. It is more time consuming that you might imagine, searching for photos, coming up with a caption and checking back in for comments. Freya told me that I needed to learn how to make cool online posters as well as making short movies about what I am up to. Hopefully, my classes will be ...

When I was little if you were “At your Auntie’s / Granny’s House”, normal rules did not apply. My sister and her boys came to visit for their half-term hols and they were allowed to do pretty much what they liked;) Luckily, we had decent weather almost all week so we went for long walks with Nessie and had a trip to Aberdeen on the wet day. Other than that it was very relaxed with video games, crafts and snacks. The boys thought my cluttered house was great as it contains every known gadget, book and musical instrument yet ...

Well, Festival of Quilts 2023 has already been and gone! I arrived at lunchtime on Wednesday for set-up after an overnight stop in Glasgow. It takes quite a team effort to set up a longarm stand where we had 2 Bernina Q-Series frame machines and 6 sit-down machines. Things can be a bit fraught until everything is all sorted out. When you finally get dinner and a long awaited beverage you wonder if you will be able to get up bright and early the next day. Of course, you always do;)

Imagine my surprise the next day when people said ...

Help Ma Boab is finished! My finger tips were burning after all of the kantha stitching and hand binding. I took my friend, Ellen’s advice not to tinker with it further and packed it into its box ready to send to FoQ. I took outdoor photos and think there is a bit of a bow at the bottom end, although I am telling myself that is an optical illusion since I used a wide-angle lens.

We had Freya here for 3 days which Nella loved. She is finding it hard being here in the countryside without any friends, reliant ...

It was a bit of a damp July week here so Nella and I undertook more autumnal activities including jam and bread-making. She altered the neckline of a dress that she had made and worked on some impressive crochet. 

I spent my entire week getting the binding done on Help Ma Boab. I had planned to finish the edge with silver machine blanket stitching but the edges were as bulky as a carpet so I settled for some kantha-style hand stitching. I am still wondering about adding beads to the outside edge (I tested this on a small sample) but ...

This week has been high summer for all of the UK and even here it has been in the mid twenties with clear blue skies. I stood no chance of getting sunburnt because I have been in my workshop all week pushing on with “Help Ma Boab” aka the mirror quilt. I am off to Norfolk next week so I knew that I had to get as much done as possible before I go so I don’t have to stress about it while I am away and then rush to finish it when I get back.

My original vision ...

Since the nights are light and none of my kids are home just now I have been working long hours on my Circles quilt. The deadline for the FoQ competition entry is midnight on Monday and the quilt has to be finished and sent to the show by about July 24th. 

Suddenly I needed to get it going and order the backing fabric and decide on further embellishments. I had to decide on a name, write an artist statement, list materials and techniques, declare the size, and upload a photo – all on an unfinished quilt. 

I used my industrial heat ...

Almost my whole week was spent stitching around a seemingly never ending supply of circles. Some of the circle-squares had 8 processes – reverse appliqué circles, stick silver lame to reverse (some with ricrac), blanket stitch around the silver circles, sew in thread tails, cut and heat press coloured and metallic rings, zig-zag or triple stitch around the coloured rings, sew in thread tails, stitch around the big zig-zag rings twice with silver thread, kantha-style stitching around many circles. Finally they can be carefully pressed and trimmed, then pieced together. 

The next dilemma is whether to add blue sashing as “punctuation ...

I decided that since I only officially had one customer quilt to do last week, I would crack on with making progress on my circles. I finished all of the machine stitching but the large zigzags did not seem very stable to me. I had reduced the tension substantially so the bobbin thread would not show on top. I decided that the answer was to secure the zigzag stitches with a double trip around each circle edge with silver thread. The process for each circle square is quite long-winded and I wonder if anyone will even notice. It took almost ...

My wonderful blue fridge conked out after 26 years and I got fed up with traipsing across to the garage every time I wanted milk so I ordered a new, orange one. It is NOT the same. I guess I will get used to it eventually but it has reminded me that the last time I painted the kitchen was 23 years ago. I really ought to freshen it up but that will highlight the disgusting ceiling, covered in stains and cobwebs, and that is a job I do not wish to tackle until it collapses.

I had also considered ...

I have to admit that I was both excited but also dreading the Scottish Quilting Show at the SEC in Glasgow. It is a long time since I have had to set up a booth and do a talk. I had my checklist of things to take and felt very well prepared yet I managed to leave behind 2 big quilts! Luckily, I had spares so there were no gaps on the wall. I was glad that I had decided to take the old Mac computer with a rolling slideshow to let people see some of my other quilts and ...

There are still quite a few households without electricity following Storm Arwen, over a week later. Soldiers were deployed to check on remote properties – maybe they supplied hot food and blankets. At least we had the wood burner and a camp stove when we were without power – many homes are fully electric and have no alternative means for cooking or heating. 

I went for my Covid / Flu booster this week and felt that I could have been in a Dystopian TV Drama. The Aberdeen vaccination centre is now in the ex John Lewis department store. There was a queueing system ...

Nella and I drove down to Birmingham last Friday in Freya’s VW Beetle and it was probably the longest that trip has ever taken. There were roadworks, hold-ups for an accident and a ridiculous volume of traffic since many British holiday makers are staycationing in the UK. We made it in the end, picked Freya up from the train station and heated soup using the microwave that I took for Nella to be able to cope with the food situation. The girls explored Birmingham and visited the show, which they enjoyed.

It was a very different FOQ to normal ...

Nella and I watched several YouTube videos by “Preppers” in their Doom Rooms in a quest on how to use our new food dehydrator. I do not actually intend to lay down stores for the End of Time – I just want to dry some berries, dog treats and make crisps. The machine is bigger than I anticipated and I could do with some major Feng-Shui to create space in my workshop for this new “hobby” and the produce it creates. We practised on raspberries and thin slices of sweet potato and got good results. It can even help to rise ...

I actually had two customer quilts to do this week, all dropped off and collected at a respectable social distance, of course! One was a large hexagon shaped Hexie quilt, all sewn by hand with edges that went off in all directions. I used a Honeycomb all-over pattern which I knew would incorporate all of the pieces and I think it set the piecing off nicely, without being busy. 

The other quilt was for a young couple, made from a jelly roll so I used a spiral-ish design called Dizzy-Izzy which I have to say is another of my favourites ...

Another week has gone by and I have finally finished the seed stitching on the Warli quilt. According to Facebook, I started the quilt a year ago! I have to admit that I was actually getting a bit bored with the seed stitching so I am glad that part is done. I am at the stage when I am not sure whether it is a quilt that I love or just want to be done. I have made a hanging sleeve for it so I will get that done next as that is a stage that I don’t really ...

Honestly, all of the days are exactly the same these days. There are no appointments or commitments to distinguish between them but I do have a bit of a routine. All meals and snacks are scheduled, of course and I make bread most days, particularly now that I have half a kilo of yeast that I ordered online. I have to do some Duolingo German quizzes since I now have a 102 day streak, even though it can be extremely frustrating as nothing is ever really explained in depth. 

I have to sew something every day – sometimes I can make ...

I decided to put the seed stitching around the glittery warli figures on hold in order to get the binding onto the Warli quilt as I was bothered about the multiple layers at the edges fraying as I move the quilt around. I used foot 20D and the 9mm stitch plate on the Bernina 710 which meant that I could add a narrow flange of silver lame then a half-inch double- fold binding by moving the needle position.

The binding was constructed from lengths of 3 of the quilt’s colours – turquoise, orange and bright pink. Since I intend to ...

Just as we were put into Corona Virus Lockdown in the UK we were very lucky that the Scottie breeders decided that all of the puppies could go to their new homes a few days early so we were able to dash to Dundee and collect Nessie. We were dreading not being able to get her so were delighted but totally unprepared and did not manage to borrow a puppy play pen. She is absolutely fantastic except when she tries to chew cables and nip our ankles.  Nessie seems to be very clever and we have already taught her to ...