Carolyn Forster's Quilting-On-The-Go

Well, here we are, back from a gloriously sunny Brittany in France. I sat on lots of beaches, and we ate lots of French food, and generally relaxed. So now I am back I am rearing to go, tidy up, sort stuff out and get ready for the schools to go back and for my teaching schedule to begin.

I stitched in France, and brought a few magazines, but where we were was not ‘patchwork central’! I did however see this lovely floor in a restraunt that made me think of patchwork.

I was however very close to a great patchwork shop in the UK each time we drove in and out of Portsmouth for the ferry. We drove right by Chichester which is where Eternalmaker has their shop. BUT, they have just moved, and what was good before, is just amazing now:

The new address is: 41, Terminus Road, Chichester, PO19 8TX.

Check out the website , but if you can, visit the shop. They do lovely buttons and fabrics, and they have a School House coming up in October, where you can try out lots of different classes over the weekend. It is such fun! But I have not yet set foot in the new shop, due to ferry times, it was closed! (Anna let me use her picture from the blog to show you here.)

And as if to compensate for the lack of patchwork shops on my visits to France this summer, I will be seeing plenty when I go to Houston in October! I am visiting for Market and Festival, so I will definitely have my fill then. Are any of you going?

Well, it seems that others of you out there might quite like their Hera markers too! Amy and Anita like theirs, and Lori has now brought one, so I hope she likes it too! Take a look at Lori’s Irish chain quilt that she has finished… in 2 weeks flat. I definitely think it is pretty fast!

Over here at Linen and Raspberry, Jean shows how to use the Hera to mark grids for applique placement. And this is a picture that I found in my files of a Hera being used to help make really narrow bias stems.

PLEASE let me know if this picture is yours, or you know whose it is? It was a really helpful tip, and for the life of me I can’t find where I noted its source…. and I would have preferred to give a link.

Although the Hera I use most often is the Clover one, I have alovely Japanese one that I brought from here.

In the same vein as the Hera marker, North Country and Welsh quilts have been marked by scoring the fabric, and these women would use a bodkin or tapestry needle stuck in a cork (to act like a handle). And if you are really desparate I have marked the odd line with my thumb nail…. it does the same job, but I wouldn’t want to do a lot with it!!

I am off to the land of Marie Claire Idees and Quilt Mania  (ie France) for a holiday, so I am busy packing. The Boys have wet suits and body boards, while I have an ever growing pile of stitching!

While I am away I have a quilt in Fabrications Magazine. It is the Antique Hourglass. I can’t wait to see the article, as they always do such a nice job!

Enjoy your August!

Lori was talking about how she marks the lines for diagonal or cross hatch quilting, and I wondered if she had ever used a Hera marker.

So many people have not experienced the wonder of a Hera marker!

You must excuse me as I can become almost evangelical about this tool. It is originally from Japan, and the one I use is made by Clover. It is an inexpensive tool for marking given the fact that it will never run out!

I use it to mark grids so that I can follow the line to quilt, either by hand or machine. It is great as it is non invasive, and if I mark a wrong line, when the quilt is finally washed, it will just disappear.

The lines last along time, so there is no rush to quilt once they are there. I mark the lines when the quilt top is on batting and backing , and if I am saftey pin or tack gun basting I do this afterwards. But if you hand baste or use 505, then you can do this once the quilt is all together!

This is a Burgoyne Surrounded quilt that I am working on, that I mark with a Hera for the cross hatching. It is such an easy desigh to quilt, but soooo useful and effective!

Anita has been busy with her shirt quilt blocks! Go and take a look….

Here are some of the pictures I wanted to show in my last post, but I was experiencing some difficulties with the resizing site, hence I only had one picture to show!  Here are the others:

And here is a star from a string quilt I made this year. My husband’s shirts were just the right colour for the background of the string stars!!

Still needs quilting ( and basting) as you can see! Obviously ‘no peace for the wicked’ ( or the quilter!)

There have been some creative people out there starting some lovely projects with mens shirts! Go and take a look:

Mrs Schmenkman Quilts

Bloominworkshop

Over the years I have had phases of saving my husband’s shirts. Sometimes he would discard one and I would selvedge it from the charity bag, and other times when ironing I would comment that the collar or cuffs were looking worn, and perhaps he should replace the shirt. This is my ploy when I have my eye on a particular shirt for a particluar quilt!

I first made this LeMoyne Star quilt about 15 years ago (or maybe longer! Gulp) from a range of paids by Roberta Horton which I liked because they looked like old shirts.

You might be able to see that I was using the Baptist Fan quilting for the background of the quilt way back then! And I am still sewing string quilts now!