Carolyn Forster's Quilting-On-The-Go

A while back I saw this quilt on Ebay… and I REALLY wanted it!

Needless to say, I did not ‘win’ it. I was disappointed, but thought that one day I would sew one of my own! One day!

Then this quilt was drawn to my attention:

This time I didn’t bother with the anguish of loosing, I just set about sewing my own! Those of you who have seen me lately will have seen me sewing the blocks, and if you want to make one with me then look out for classes in 2010 at The Quilt Room, Dorking!

I loved this quilt that Ann Champion showed a while back on her blog.

So much so that I have started to sew my own version!

As you can see it is yet another WIP…….. as I also have started these as well!

I had my copy of Sew Hip this week with the second of a series of quilts that I designed for them. They are based on the ideas in the Nancy Brenen Daniel book ‘Slice ‘em Dice ‘em’, but I used 5″ squares throughout. This means they are quick to start with the charm packs! Look out for this quilt in issue 11.

Some more pictures here of quilt blocks I brought when I was in Houston. I think that they will inspire some nice quilts in the distant future!

A cute Dresden Plate:

A Propeller Block (I seem to have a circular theme going here!):

String Tulip:

‘Unknown’…..just what was this poor woman trying to sew?

This last block that I have labelled ‘Unknown’ reminds me of some great work that I have been seeing in this ‘Quilt  Along’ that’s going on at the moment. If I had some more hours in the day I would be joining in!

One of the biggest concerns that comes across from my students, is ‘Does this Fabric Go Together?’

With all of the great collections of fabric that come out now, it is easy to work with those and get a quilt that ‘goes together’. So I find this is a simple starting point, and then you can add some other fabrics to spice it up and really make it your own. Each student will add something different to the basic mix, and this is what can make quilts exciting, even if the process can be a bit scary!

Help also comes from looking at lots of quilts. The more quilts that you see the more ideas you get. I am mostly drawn to old quilts, as I do believe that there is really nothing new, and whatever bright idea I may have concerning a colour combination, block size or placement,scale of print etc… I will usually find something similar happened 100yrs ago! So really I am stilll catching up!

This quilt by Toshiko Mitsumori of Saitana, Japan that was on show at Houston, is a great example of a quilt that looks great! It was one of my favourites of the contemporary quilts.

But when you look close up there are so many different fabrics ….. yet it all ‘goes together’. United by the pattern, the background and sashing in the neutral fabrics. Food for thought!

 I find lots of things to think about concerning what ‘goes together’ and hence what makes an interesting quilt, on these sites:

Barbara Brackman, Loads of great research into fabrics from old quilts.

Ann Champion, old quilts to get you thinking about the fabrics the maker choose.

Deb Rowden, vintage quilts from thrift shops!

I moved my sewing room this week so that my son could have the room I usually work in. I can see it is going to take a while to get reorganized! I am hoping that I can use this move to sort through and declutter. But isn’t that what anyone would say! Here is the last block I sewed in that room before the move:

This Japanese Lantern block is one of my favourites at the moment! So good for using up the leftover bits.

This next picture is from Quilt Festival, Houston. It is part of a Trip Around the World quilt by Satoko Okamura from Yokohama in Japan. The thing that I really liked here (apart from that great combination of fabrics) was the quilting.

What you are actually looking at all over the quilt (all those little white marks) are thousands of little cross stitches!!! This is a stitch from the Sashiko style of quilting. I found some information on it on Susan Briscoes website. It is called ‘Juujizashi’, ’10′ or Cross Stitch. The texture it creates on this quilt is amazing. Sigh. Yet another technique to find time to have a go at!!! And I can see great possibilities with it in my ‘Utility Quilting Class’.

P.S.

Lori, this is a much better photo of the quilt and this one is in the same vein!