Carolyn Forster's Quilting-On-The-Go

We spent some time in London over the last week. One of the things I wanted to fit in was a visit to the Fashion and Textile Museum.

It is a short walk from London Bridge Station. If you visit on Friday or saturday you have the added bonus of Borough Market being open and you can feast on the food and coffee there first! You can feast with your eyes too as I always think these markets look so great!

There are some interesting buildings and features to see in this old part of London:

The Museum is unmissable!

The exhibition was lovely, showing off the scope of Kaffe's talent in the field of art and textiles:

These are the some of the art work for the fabrics:

A wall of fabrics and knits to touch and feel:

Needless to say I then went and brought some fabrics in Liberty! The Cloth Store along the road was closed, and that was probably just as well !

Back home now, with more inspiration than time at the moment!

I am back from my adventures am Jersey. I had a great week meeting lots of keen quilters who live on Jersey in the Channel Islands.

Everyone was so enthusiastic and friendly! The weather was not great, but we were inside making quilts so that was not so bad!

I had taken some quilting to work on on the Ferry and in the evenings. In the end I did it in the evening as the crossing was VERY choppy both ways!

This was a pretty house on the way up to my hotel:

A view from the harbour  at St Aubin up towards the hotel:

Corbiere Lighthouse:

A wonderful post box at someone's house:

And the sewing! These blocks were from the Perkiomen Valley (split nine patch) day:

This is part of Sue's quilt from the Wagga Wagga day!

There were five classes over the six days I was there, so lots of ladies will have plenty of sewing and quilting to keep them occupied now! 

Sue Bone took some pictures too and has blogged about them HERE. She then scooted off for a flying visit to Knitting and Stitching at Ally Pally. Hope ypu had fun Sue!

Thanks for having me ladies, I had a great time!

I was at Quilt Market last weekend to promote my books and especially Utility Quilting. This really seems to be hitting a chord with people, so if you think you want quick simple ways to had quilt, stitches and designs, then check it out! Have a look over at Karin's blog to see a picture of me in action!

One of the best bits of news from Quilt Market this spring was that Liberty cotton will be out in August! Yeah!

Just look at all of the clours. We are hoping for Charm packs, so let them know if you think that would work!

I had another chance to meet Marcia Derse and see her great fabrics:

Check out her website as you can buy directly from her, so no wondering how to get hold of the great fabrics!

And Lotta Jans Dotter had a new line, Bella! Had to have that. And so I thought you might like some too.

I  will do a give away for the bag and the 5 fat quaters  below:

I think this has a nice summery feel, so tell me your thoughts on sewing in the garden! I will do a drawing next Friday.

Enjoy the sun!

Amongst all the pictures I took of doors, knockers and door handles that I took in Nantes, there are pictures of drains, drain pipes and stair rails. All things that I find endlessly fascinating when I am in France. 

I also love the chance to see some old textiles, and this shop opposite the castle was not a let down!

I treated myself to a couple of paper patterns from around 1906, and a reel of thread. But these are the things I left behind:

So today with the rain coming down, there is plenty of time to stay in and have a good stitch!

One of the highlights of the Nantes show was that Kathy Doughty from Material Obsession in Australia was visiting.

She has a new book out with Quiltmainia.

Kathy's quilts just always contain such a wonderful selection of fabrics:

Talking to one of the many visitors to her Maison at the show:

And here in her class on Friday showing us how and where to place the templates for different effects the fabric would give:

These are a few of the completed blocks from the afternoon:

Left to Right- David, sorry don't know your name, me, lady from Hagen Waagenmakers, Holland.

We could choose from pre selected fabric packs, and as ever it was interesting to see how people put the fabrics together. David had the same pack as me. His block was great, it made me think of a New York skyline in his fabric selection!

And this was Kathy's quilt from a great Denyse Schmidt line:

And needless to say, the book is just great, get yours ordered now!

I am back from France, and ready to try to share with you what a great time I had!

I flew out on the Wednesday morning and bumped into Sue and Sue on the bus going into Nantes. I was so surprised to meet two English ladies, and then to realise that I read Sue's Blog! You can see what she has to say HERE.

The show has three main parts, the shops, the Rooms with the selected quilters in and then some quilts from a challenge in a gallery area.

Today I will show some of the shops to give you a feel of the place, and what to spend your Euros on.

There were lots of stands with knitting and crochet as well as patch work fabrics. This is something that the French seem to combine very well.

There was a lot of lovely linen fabrics by a company called Stof.

And there was this stall which had vintage motifs printed onto linen:

There lovely things from the English magazine Selvedge:

And there was a stall which had beautiful old linen and monogramed linen:

It is interesting to see what is popular in France compared to here. At this show there were vintage linens, and bright Kaffee Fassett fabrics and yarns to knit and crochet with, but not a Jelly Roll in sight!

The show is very stylish as many of the stalls have strong identity. They had tempting bundles and I loved the fact that 'Fat Quaters' were called 'Coupons'!

I''ll tell you more next time, but look at these blogs for some other views of the show:

Quilts in the Barn

Material Obsession

Davidscottage

Well, we are all back in one piece from our skiing trip to France.

I had time to relax and read and sew whilst the Men skiied. I took a few pictures of some carvings that might inspire some quilty designs:

And I went armed with some projects, and made good head way!

I put some surrounds on my Circle Game blocks:

So that's six down and only ten more to go! I think these will be worked on when I am away in the Summer. As much as I would like to surge on as the end is in sight, I have some other things that are taking my time at present. 

I was asked to do a book for an English publisher last year, and it is now at the proof reading stage. There have been glimpses of the projects in one or two posts, but more will be revealed when all is 'done and dusted'! 

And although I am only just back from France, I am off again next week to Nantes (hence the 'quick turn around') to the quilt show run by Quiltmania magazine! I am so excited about this. I have wanted to find the time to go for a few years now.

The other excitement will be that one of the teachers this year is Kathy Doughty from Material Obsession in Australia. Look on the above link and you can see the classes that are offered, and if you click on the books on the side bar, you actually get to see the quilts in the book!

So I have my supplies list for my class with Kathy to pack, and maps to print off so that I can visit La Drogourie the wonderful french knitting and craft shop!

Hopefully lots of pictures when I get back!

In the meantime go over to HERE to see a quilt I so wish I could have designed and made! Do you think Alicia would produce the pattern if we asked nicely?

Back from Houston now, and trying to get sorted with stitching and projects. There are some great fabrics coming up in the Spring. The Denyse Schmidt will be out in March, but she has a book out too, so that will be a treat!

The Charlotte Lyons fabric looked great:

I liked how some of the designers are embellishing on their fabrics:

This was Prints Charming:

Birch Fabrics made some fun cushions:

Marcia Derse always has a great booth, the whole thing looks like a quilt to me:

And some sweet fabrics for the spring from Makower:

I''ll show you some quilts next time!

I was at Quilt Market last week to help promote the Utility Quilting book I am doing with Landauer, and I was excited beforehand, but now I have seen the great job they are doing I cannot wait until August when the book is due out!

It will be even more exciting at Fall Market when the book is really there!!!

In the meantime I got to chat with lots of people including this lady:

This is Jennifer Kingwell whose shop, Amitie, in Melbourne Australia  I get a BOM from! I was so surprised when she came to chat about the book and Big Stitch quilting after School House, I just had to introduce myself….. as one of her subscribers who has not been keeping up with the stitching!!

Later in the show she came by when I was on the Landauer stand and we had a good chat. She is so lovely and so talented, I am sort of pleased that I do not live close to the shop, as I would be spending all of my money in there! Her choice of fabrics and the way she puts them together is just wonderful!

However I seem to be doing a good job of parting with my money to her anyway, even from this distance! 

Fabrics wise, there was some great stuff. Things that caught my eye were:

Lecein , Tudor Lane

Moda, Basic Grey, Curio

Marcia Derse

Paula Prass, Botanica

Anna Maria Horner, 

Anna Maria also did a lovely little workshop cum chat about quilting with thicker thread and bigger stitches on her quilts, and painting by numbers with embroidery stitches on her lovely fabrics, so look out for her threads and stitching ideas on her blog!

Yeah! for hand quilting!

Earlier in the month we were in New York and I made the usual visit to the American Museum of Folk Art. There are two sites and each had quilt exhibits so it was areal treat.

Amongst the pictures that I took were some great examples of Utility Quilting.

Amish Waves all over these lovely stars.

A tied quilt.

Amish wave border.

Horizontal lines.

Utility quilting has been a passion for a long time. I've been teaching classes and sewing quilts, which have now turned into a book! This is being published by the great folk at Landauer this summer. My other book on Quilting-as-you-Go is also now being printed by them so we are looking forward to a busy Quilt Market Spring and Fall!

Whilst I was in New York I popped in for a quick visit with Victoria from Bumblebeans blog. It was great to chat in person! She really does get so much done. And now she has a lovely exhibit at a local gallery. It looks great! That 'Kitchen Sink' quilt is still my favourite!

Thanks for taking time our for me to visit Victoria!