Reverse Applique finished, Lone Star progress, City and Guilds?

The reverse applique project from Jenny Lester's workshop for Gwent Quilters turned out to be a terrific match for my Dad's dining room so he now has a unique mat for the dining suite that he loves

and it matches his chairs a treat!

The lone star has been fun to do and rewarding so far. Choosing the colours was a challenge and I'm really pleased how they'e come together. I did the first Y seam perfectly - in the wrong place. This shows where I went wrong and is an impression of is how it will look eventually.

Next are decisions re the border, probably multi coloured strips. Inevitably there's not a lot of one colour, the green, left....Originally I did want to do flying geese as seen on an exhibit at Malvern, but don't want to detract from the impact of the stunning centre.

I was so inspired by the exhibiton of City and Guilds Patchwork students at Brynglas House in Newport, that I'm considering doing the course for the next 3/4 years, Fiona has been encouraging and reassuring me. Does anyone have any advice on this?

Jenny Lester's Reverse Applique Worshop

This lovely workshop at Gwent Quilters was just right, it taught me a great new technique and wasn't too tricky or time consuming to finish.

Two layers bonded and cut with a turquoise under layer, partly folded back

The full pattern folded in position before stitching down the layers

Stitched and pinned into approximate shape - it will be round

The colours are perfect in my Dad's dining room so it will end up as a round mat in the centre of his dining table. The stitching isn't perfect so don't enlarge it too far. After all the first time is only a practice!

Thanks Jenny

Calabash Revealed

My quilt history is working backwards. This is my second full size quilt and so far the last. Gwent Quilters' library provided the inspiration with the appropriately named Quilting Inspirations from Africa by Kaye England and Mary Elizabeth Johnson. A fabulous book, everyone who has seen it has been knocked out by the gorgeous interpretations using fabulous African fabrics. It went back to the library after 10 months but only after I'd bought my own copy!

 Kalahari Calabash was chosen because I loved it.Also it was a simple large log cabin 14" block and only needed 12 so seemed achievable. I had fallen for the batik fabrics at last October's Malvern show without anything in mind and as you can see they were an instant success teamed with the brown.

 Adding the vine part was fun and friends who popped round helped with the arrangement. It was good to use some scraps from Harriet's quilt, my first, for the leaves

Of course a few extras were needed for the border and an inner frame. All from the same shop (am I allowed to say that one in Hereford?) who were hugely helpful

As a beginner I found the shadow quilting of the blocks not at all easy and there was a fair bit of undoing before I was satisfied. 


Michelle our teacher at evening class suggested big stitch quilting in a thick variegated thread (Stef Francis ?5) to highlight the leaves of the calabash vine which really made all the difference.


Compared to the straight line quilting, the last minute vermicelli  free motion infill on the brown was a breeze.










It's on my bed now and I sleep under it every night and love it every day.  Technically it's not finished as I still have to make a label, something else new to learn....