Carolyn Forster's Quilting-On-The-Go

There has been lots of stitching going on here.

I am still quilting my 'square waves'.

I am hand piecing.

I am finishing off some book projects.

I am finishing off some book instructions.

My camera has been looking at this:

Most of my photography has been documenting the re landscaping of our garden. It doesn't look much as yet, but this is about week 5 out of a possible ten! The guys are working really hard and it will be great!

What I can show you though that  are finishes, are the tops from some of my beginners class that finished recently:

Karin:

Denise (and she complete her MA! Yeah!!!!):

Sarah:

Sat next to Sarah (email me your name, as I have a complete blank!):

Stephanie:

Suki:

These look so great! Well done Ladies!

New Beginners will be starting again in September.

And from me, here is a rolling star block:

Hope you haven't had too many distractions from your stitching?

This quilt was stitched a while back, but I had it quilted this week. I am so pleased with it!

The colours look very tropical seas. I always really enjoy working with that aqua marine palette.

Especially today when it is cold and grey!

I do unashamedly love it when it snows.

Having a dog means that you can't just sit inside and look out at it. So I have been out there twice a day, and it is lovely. 

I don't like all the mud and slush afterwards, but Hay Ho, can't like everything!

Just before the snow came I finished  a little quilt , 'Dogs at a Dog Show'. I have another planned where they are playing and have bones and a ball. But here they are in their best and standing straight.

And this is my dog Bosco having a sleep! You know he is asleep, because if he had been awake he would have been in the middle of the quilt, not the cushion!

Don't worry, He doesn't get this cushion or quilt to play with as they have buttons sewn on, and as we all know, that is a choke hazard.

If you have Dog you would like to sew a quilt for, or even make them a cushion, then pop along to The Patchwork Dog and Basket for date and time, and we can sew one together in their new class room!

Morning!

Thanks for the lovely comments on the Jersey post.

Nicky might have recognised the rest of the quilt that the applique was going on to. It borders a quilt made from Mariners Compass blocks that I teach on my Intermediate Patchwork and Quilting class.

Some more border:

Some border and some blocks:

This quilt has been a long time in the making, but I am having a surge to complete it!

I stitched a block from Amitie in Australia, as you do when you have the odd moment to fill! The pattern comes with the stash club fabrics, and I took the opportunity to use new fabrics to sew this quick block:

And I have been looking over here at a new(ish) Block of the week from Barbara Brackman. I am very tempted, mainly as I like block number 7! I printed off the pattern this morning, we will see how we go. I do not have a very good track record with this sort of thing. I am amazed that I have sewn the two from Amitie!

Another thing I found that I wanted to share was this lovely old Kaleidoscope Hexagon (or Endless Chain) quilt over this blog from Una. I just love the colours, so soft.

Have good quilting week!

A while back I was asked to make a quilt from some simply lovely French fabrics, that are available to us over here in the UK.

Some cutting and sewing ensued:

Some laying out on the 'design floor'!

Some stitching and quilting:

And now if you would like to see the quilt in full, pop along to The Eternalmaker in Chichester, or visit them at Festival of Quilts  in August and have a free pattern sheet so you can make your own from the great fabric that they are stocking!

The pattern will also be available as a free download from Search Press later in the year. I will let you know when!

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!

There's a little bit of everything in this post!

I had a great day last weekend when I taught the Spools workshop at Natterjack Quilters.

One of the questions I was asked in the day was 'How many spools do most people get sewn in the day?'

Well I said then that I had not really ever been counting, but I can tell you now, no group had made a whole quilt top in the day. Until the Natterjacks did!

Here is the top:

And here are the lovely ladies:

They were sewing it from donated fabric and were aiming to complete it and the raise some money for Cancer Research and their local church. I think that is right, such a lovely group and great causes!

Around here the sewing has been a bit on the slow side. However, I am to catch up over the next fews weeks as we are away to France to ski, and I take some stitching to do too!

I will be working on these 'Rose Star One Patch' blocks from The Quilters Album of Patchwork Patterns by Jinny Beyer.

This is what I have done so far:

I plan on sewing about nine, but I will see how it goes, as they are very large. I should have put a ruler for scale in the shot!

For more quilty inspiration whilst I am away go take a look at what Jane has sewn this week from the Blue fabrics!

And a quilt I have long admired as Lori has been working on it is this. I just love this, and she has done such great job!

See you all after Easter!

I had a fun day teaching at Shirley Quilters, Croydon on Saturday.

We were working on string quilts and blocks, which fitted in nicely with the Utility Quilting in my new book. Both give quick results, and are quite relaxed and forgiving in their working methods!

This is the array of work done by the end of the day:

In the meantime, Angela had brought along her Japanese Stars and Lanterns quilt which she made from the tutorial I did for Justhands-on.tv. It is a lovely quilt!

And Shirley brought along her spools quilt which she started on a class with me before Christmas. Quick work on these addictive scrap blocks!

Don't forget to catch up with the Blog Tour on Monday, and see what folks say about the new book!

Leave a comment, and you could be in with a chance to win the goodies bundle!

Teaching for 2012 kicked off with a great start this last weekend with ladies at Three Bridges, Crawley stitching 'Japanese Bag of Squares'. A busy day, with most ladies stitching all four bags – Well done!

This Wednesday 'Start with Stars' begins at The Quilt Room Dorking. And to get you in the mood for that, this is what the ladies from the course at the end of 2011 made:

Well done Ladies!

And on Friday, the Spring Quilt Show is at Ardingly. So come and say 'Hi!'

What a great quilting start to 2012!

A couple of quilts that i have been working on recently:

I have sewn this over the Summer and really been enjoying it. It is the quilt for my basic applique class at The Quilt Room in Dorking. I had pondered sewing this for a while, and am really glad I did!

This is the most recent in a line of Spools quilts that I stitched. In fact this was sewn from the blocks that did not work out in a Quilting-on-the-Go version of the quilt. They were all too yellow. So I made a few more to have a top 36in square, then added the deepest border I dared! I really like this look. You see it in quilts from the turn of the 1800's.

Go over and see what Nicky had to say about the workshop she came to to sew the spools quilt. She also has a better picture of the above top!

And last but not least:

These blocks have been sitting around for a while, as I was not sure when I put them out to view them, they were too heavy looking. So I used some more cream on the corners, and was pleased with the simple transformation. However, I now would like a border, probably applique, so I guess they will be sitting around for another year now. Talk about slow burn!

And now here are some quilts, some of which are finished from some lovely ladies who attend some of my classes!

These Kaleidoscope Hexagon quilts are both from Nicky (Mrs sew and sow blog):

These are by Tracy:

Japanese Stars and Lanterns:

Kaleidoscope Hexagon:

And this is by Sandra:

A version of the Japanese Stars and Lanterns that she had sewn prior to the workshop!

Aren't they all just great!!!

And lastly……..

Those of you who know about my love of the Material Obsession Blog, will realise who excited I was to see Kathy has a book coming out next year. She has worked with Quiltmania, and we all know how great their books are! I can hardly wait.