quilt show photos

Finally I have pulled myself together and I am sharing some photos of the Harrogate quilt show with you all.  There have been quite a few of the festival of quilts show so not planning to add any unless requested to do so.

these are my favourites from the applique ones,  the first one was the overall winner, I was lucky to meet the lady who stitched it and she was interesting to listen to how she did the quilt. I do like the applique ones and will one day try and do a small, very small one

A selection of the tradition block patchwork,  I am really drawn to the ones that use lots of different sizes in their blocks,  I plan to one day have a go at one of these  notice the word plan!

 such skill here I love a quilt that is pictorial,    the face when seen at the show did not strike me as being a face rather two horses on their hind legs but when looked at through the camera a very clear face appeared,  so very clever.

a couple of cushions and a lovely miniature in the boutis technique,   have not tried this but there were a few quilts done in this way

I also took quite a few photos of quilts done by Ferret a quilter from London, will post about them another day they need to go on indiividually

how do I calculate fabric

Today my friendly bloggers I am hoping you will help me out in how I calculate how much fabric I need to finish the tula pink quilt.  I want to put borders on each block I think in black and then cut them on a slant,  here is a picture of what I am trying to do just using a bit of poly cotton for the trial piece.

The green piece is cut 8"  and the pink 7",  sorry the pink looks bigger must have had the camera closer as it is smaller really,   I used a 2 wide strip on each block,  think I need to do them 8" as if I use the smaller one there might be very little border or no border at all depending on how I cut them,   or maybe I need to make them larger,   advice please.

I do not think I will get them all cut at the same angle,  well I know I will not be good enough to do that but wonder what they will look like if not all the same?

I have tried to calculate how much fabric I will need    200 strips 6.5" and 200 9.5" if I make them finished to cut down to 8"square  so they will end up 7.5 when put together,  am I doing okay with this calculation so far?
Maybe I need to make them a little bigger but that will make the quilt so much bigger, this way it will measure 75" square plus a border and binding.  Oh yes need to add the border which will be in the black too,  not sure how wide to do that but that will need 2 strips 75" long and 2 well depends on how wide the strips are. maybe 3" so that would be 2 strips 81" by 3" or do these need to be a bit wider?  Then I need fabric for the binding, think this will be done in the black too not sure how much I need of that,  but sure you will all help me there. Well now to work out how much fabric I need, not sure how I go about this so the ball is now in your court   please help me!!

I trust this is understandable and please help if you can, hope to go to York on tuesday to get the fabric, there is a man on the market there who sells a good quality plain fabric which is better than my local supplier or do I need to buy kona fabric, that seems to be very popular and think I can get it on line,   price permitting of course. Think I am going to be in for a bit of a shock with cost.

Alfie and Tula

I thought I would share a photo with you all today of Alfie,  he is my daughter Helen`s cat and he comes to stay with me when she is away. I had him for 2 weeks in august whilst she was suning herself in Portugal.  He is a very large or should I say fat cat and last week was under the weather, as Helen was on a 12 hour shift, she is a nurse I took him to the vets.  An expensive visit £88 and a big ticking off, he weighs 7.5 kilos which they say is twice what he should weigh!  He is now on a diet, 2 pouches of food a day, no biscuits or treats and if he does not lose any weight his food will be cut back further.  Just as well they did not see him a couple of years ago, I am sure he was fatter then!!

Now for Tula,  I have 2 weeks of photos to add blocks 46 to 51

We are working on triangles at the moment,   well at least we were  |I have now done all 100 and they are spread out on my lounge floor,   a good excuse not to hoover don`t you think! I cut loads of them out  early last week and then over from friday to sunday stitched 40 so was very pleased to get them finished, now wondering what to do with my time!  I do not know what I will do with them but wondering about adding a border to every block, this way they will all be exactly the same size as some are  not quite right. Maybe grey would look good, it will be hard to pick a colour that will go with everything , I do not want to use white or cream as I think it will be too pronounced, what does anyone else think?   Thought I would also off set them but no hurry as we only load 3 onto the site a week. Here is a photo of them on the floor. They are in number order but will move them around to get a better effect when I join them up.  If I am honest I am hoping my good friend Cheryl will help me, I will have to arrange for her to come and stay as she is  in London and I am in Leeds. It will be lovely to have her here and might even be able to unload some books onto her! Cheryl is an excellent quilter and a great friend who I met up with at the festival of quilts, we also met Queenie who I am sure a lot of you follow on her blog.

This is the 100 blocks, just as well I do not use my lounge isn`t  it.

I still have not posted any quilt photos, will do soon but her is one of Queenie with her quilt and with me.

I am the one on the left in the orange tee shirt!  It was lovely to meet with Queenie and she shared so much info with me as she is a far more experienced quilter than me a mere learner. Her quilt is really beautiful

crazy quilting

At last I have got round to doing a blog.  It has been about 4 weeks, sorry will not overload you with things just my september CQJP piece and the latest Tula Pink blocks,, I have posted them every week on the web but not updated here so I have 12 to add.

CQJP september.

Not much happening in the garden now, just greenery but do have an apple tree so the centre block is just a branch of it with a couple of apples!  The hedgehog visited and was investigating the apple that had fallen. Sharon`s stencils have been useful again and a tatted josephine knot has taken up the top left hand corner block.Somehow this block looks rather dull not sure how to lift it, have used quite a bit of yellow, will see when they are all finished as to how to liven it up a bit.

Tula Pink blocks 34 to 45

 I have done these as a collage as there were so many, if anyone wants to see any in further detail I can let you have an individual photo.  I now have all 100 blocks cut out so ahead of myself which is good.

Two wonderful quilt shows will post some photos soon, sorry I have been lazy with my blog.

Yesterday I went to a group in Castleford, thought it was a quilting group but   well it is but it is linked to a flour mill that is being restored and the group meet to stitch things that are sold in the local market shop to raise funds to restore the water wheel etc.  I have come home with some blue fabric to make a cot quilt but will pop into the market this morning as I need some white to make up the blocks, They are using half square triangles in 2 fabrics 6" each a total of 15 squares so will see how I go on, if successful a photo might appear here.