Machine Quilter Retreat

We're hosting our first ever Machine Quilting Retreat, featuring guest quilter Trudi Wood. This is an opportunity to focus on machine quilting using a table top frame in a gorgeous rural setting, tucked away from the interruptions of daily life. We're keeping the numbers down to 5 participants so there will be plenty of one-to-one attention. All are welcome, whether you just need some help getting started or some inspiration to move up to a new level. The food will be delicious, the rooms comfortable and the conversation rewarding.

dates: from Friday to Sunday, February 25-27

venue: the award winning Chaplin House B&B

Martin Village in Lincolnshire

cost: £225 for a single room or £200 for a shared room.

Prices include 2 nights accommodation, meals, snacks and all quilting materials.

Update:

All 5 places for the February Retreat are now filled! We will let you know how it goes and post the dates for future Retreats. Please do contact us if you are interested in reserving a place or have any questions or suggestions: 01526 378057

martha@machinequilter.co.uk

Twelfth Night

In our house we keep the 12 days of Christmas. This means that I get to enjoy the Christmas tree for one more night! It has been so good to be able to savour such good times with family and friends.

All the kids are now back at school and the new year is well and truly started. I am very excited about this new year. Looking ahead I find myself engaged in activities and projects that are close to my heart.

The new DVD 'Beyond the Sea' is coming together as we prepare for the next filming session later this month. There are new and exciting changes to the New English Quilter frame soon to be revealed. 2011 is shaping up to be a great year. Tonight I will be nostalgic, grateful for this happy Christmas season and hopeful for the year to come.

And then some

For the feather on the last stripe, I used this tonal Diamond Head LAVA # 215 from Superior Threads. The fabric was busy, so I wanted a thread that would blend in.

I let the fabric pattern guide the line design for this stripe. I've machine quilted a double scallop skipping along the edge. Then I wove the feather along the flower garland in the centre. For the red stripe, I used a holly leaf and berries with the deep greens of King Tut #989 Malachite. This time I coupled it with a loop design for a bit of variation. That all the stripes! I've ordered some rik rak for the finishing touches. I can't wait to have it on a bed!

Feathers

I haven't quilted feathers for ages! But watching Trudi at the Festival of Quilts this summer inspired me. The next stripe had just enough room for two wavy feathers, with an echo round the edges. Now I'm hooked.

I chose this variegated King Tut #914 Ramses Red. Even the back looked pretty. You can scroll back and see another photo of the feather stripe on last Wednesday's post.

Thread Choices

For the next 3 stripes, I used the same quilting pattern; the Filigree Scrollwork design that I used on the table runner. In the first red strip, I added the holly leaf motif.

I used a King Tut #989 Malachite - a lovely rich green tonal. Since I've already given a doodle design for that pattern in a previous post, I'll focus on the thread choices.

For the 'houses in the dark' stripe, I used this new King Tut called 'Holy and Ivy' that I picked up on the Houston Trip. It was so like the Boughs of Holly tube of cookie sprinkles that I just had to photograph them together.

For the red and green 'fir forest' stripe, I went for a larger looser version of the same scrollwork line design. After a bit of thought, I went for a gold Metallic for this one. By varying the thread and scale, and throwing in a motif, the same line design played out quite differently across the three stripes.

Lines and Spaces

In quilting, the un-quilted spaces are just as important as the quilted lines. In fabric like this, with a large motif, I like to stipple quilt around the motif. In this case, it makes the roses pop up. I chose a fine thread that would blend in with the background colour, so it would create texture without drawing too much attention to itself. Here I used MasterPiece # 158 Moccasin from Superior Threads.

Then I was tempted to accent the roses. Again I chose a colour that would blend in; Rose Garden #832 from the Rainbows range was ideal.

The tonal variation of the thread was just like the fabric.

All together it made for a fun first stripe. As ever,

clicking on the images

will give you a clearer view of the stitching.

Gingerbread Stripy

I'm calling this a Gingerbread Stripy, because the brown with the red and green reminds me of the gingerbread Christmas cookies that my Nana used to make.

I love buying Christmas fabric! But I don't always manage to do something with it before Christmas. I pieced this stripy top years ago but this year, the snow days last week gave me the time I needed to quilt it.

Stripy quilts are a great opportunity to use up Christmas fabric. They're good for practising machine quilting too . I like to do a different stitch in each stripe and play with different threads as well.

I used a super soft red minky fabric for the backing. Although I often use fleece, this was the first time I tried this thinner minky as a backing. It worked well. I'll be using it in other projects!

I've used this post to introduce the Gingerbread Stripy Quilt. I'll spend a bit of time going into detail, stripe by stripe, in the next few posts. Meanwhile, clicking on the images will give you a better view of the stitching

I've struggled to get a photo of the whole quilt that is true to the colours. The smaller individual stripe details are better, but this one gives you 5 of the 7 stripes and a sense of how it all came together.