Carolyn Forster's Quilting-On-The-Go

We moved the clocks forward yesterday, so for a brief moment we have lost and hour! Just think what I could have done in that hour! I will have to save that activity and do it in the hour when we move the clocks back again in the Autumn. So now it is Summer Time and Spring is here. There is a lot of greenery fighting through in the garden, including this Thyme plant. Getting bushier by the day!

That yellowy green has been a favourite for many years, and over those years I have collected some great fabrics in those colours.

And yesterday seemed the perfect time to use them in a fresh quilt for the Spring!

This will be a great quilt to finish off with some Tying and Big Stitch quilting. If you’ve not yet tried this then look out for a class, and find out how quick you can quilt your quilts. There is a new one day class at The Wandering Line in Purley, Surrey  on Tuesday 13th May. So if you are in the area, book the date and come along!

I just love HUGE applique! I made lots of these 16″ blocks last Spring. It is a Ruby McKim pattern.

But back to what I wanted to share, some more links to information about the quilts at the V&A Museum.

Here on the BBC and here on Channek 4 News. Enjoy!!

Although I ‘work from home’ I think of my main work as my teaching, which takes me all over the place! But when I am at home my most frequent trip out seems to be to the Post Office. Where I live there are lots of Victorian houses, and I mean streets and streets of them. We live in one of them! And although they are lovely what often catches my eyes as I walk are these signs that were painted on the sides of buildings. The signs are from later times and show signs of wear:

And I like this railing where I cross the road:

And even the post box is Victorian:

My trip out this week will take me to London to see the Quilts at the V & A Museum. There are lots of blogs about it, and one I especially like is Susan Briscoe. She is so insightful!

The V&A have lots of information  and I enjoyed this video clip. Thanks to Samsy for pointing it out!

One thing that I do find strange is that the Curator  has been quoted as saying that she thinks the show is so successful with pre booked tickets because of the  reinterest in sewing skills due to the recession.

I think it is so successful because quilters like me have waited their whole life to get a chance to see the quilts that the V&A have never shown but we have always known were there!

 Is it surpising that we were pre booking tickets and will probably go to the show more than once!

(And will buy the book and the post cards and the fabric…. and have lunch in the cafe…. and buy more bits on my second visit…. and go to Liberty to see what they are selling ….. all in the recession)???

If you can get to the show, make the most of it as I don’t see these quilts coming out again for the next 30years!!!

A busy week has just gone by in a flash!

I finished off this quilt:

I inserted ric rac into the binding for that lovely wavy look on the edge!

I now have to think of more ways to use this amazingly huge ric rac now that I know it comes in so many great colours! It’s available from The Eternal Maker, if you can’t find it on line, just give them a call!

And all of this before I went to give a talk and a workshop to Vectis Quilters on the Isle of Wight! Yes, across the water on the ferry:

They are a great bunch of ladies, and it was great to see so much quilting happening on the island. We made Wagga Waggas (Australian bush quilts)  in the workshop which are great fun for a quilt top to finish in a day!

 And who knows, I may think of a use for the ric rac on  one of my next those too!

Kathie wondered what the whole quilt looked like from my last post. So here it is!

And if you have time, go and look at the old pattern book that is being shared at Q is for Quilter. What a treat!

The blocks in the last post are a ’type’ that has appealled to me consistently over the years. I collect pictures in files and notebooks, then every so often look through for any common themes. The square surrounded by HSTs is a common theme for me! I wonder how many blocks there are and how many names they have aquired over the years. Jan has been sewing some in this vein for a while. They are just great! Here is the similar format in ‘Wind Blown Square’ from my book Quilting-on-the- Go.

The combination of the browns with a bit of pink has long been a favourite. Kathie is doing some fun things with her brown fabrics on her blog at the moment. Brown is one of the largest stashes I have! This is one of the first fabrics that I brought.

It has been in the stash so long as it’s in that catagory of ‘too precious to use’….. I am still waiting for that special project! Good Grief!!! I have it in turquoise too, but have nearly used it all up!

I put this little hanging up in my sewing room last week. This too is something that I have had a while!

 I came across it in a file of information on Janet Bolton. I so love her work, and a few years ago I attended one of her workshops. Her scale of work is quite small and mine seemed to be a bit bigger. This is about A4 size, and compared to Janets pieces it is HUGE!!!! But I love it, it reminds me of spring!