(Arlington Square quilt by Emma Newman)
Hi all, and thank you for reading this after a deplorably long absence by me from blogging - and indeed from sewing, alas.
'Never apologise, never explain' someone once said: that always seemed to me to be quite rude, and as annoying as 'Love means never having to say you're sorry', which really irritated me even as a naive teenager watching the film of Love Story which had just come out (that dates me!).
So I will apologise as I had made a sort of commitment to blog regularly, and I will explain - briefly -
that since January my life has been overtaken by heaps of admin, principally the organising/co-ordinating of our village show. This is not an annual event, it usually happens every other year, but the last one was in 2016 and there were some changes this year which meant more work.
It is all run by volunteers and I was happy to do it, but it did end up being rather more complicated and time-consuming than I had anticipated. However the good news is that it all went off very well on Saturday 6th July: everyone came, helped and had fun and we raised £6,300 for our small local charities - church, infant school and community nursery.
Since then, over the past month there has been a certain amount of post-Fete admin, a LOT of catching-up-on-all-the-jobs-which-weren't-done-at-home admin, my younger son's graduation, the decorators painting two bedrooms (more in a later post) and a number of fun outings including some sewing related ones.
And because you are really (and quite understandably) only interested in sewing matters rather than details of my domestic circumstances, I will crack on.
Yesterday I had a splendid day out at Pincushion Pantiles in beautiful and historic Tunbridge Wells. It rained all day but we didn't care as we weren't there to enjoy the beauty or the history of the town, but for a workshop with the lovely Emma Newman of Emma Mary Designs and owner of Queen of Fabric, a quilt shop in Melbourne, Australia.
I went with my friend Sylvia and as ever Jenny, who set up Pincushion almost exactly a year ago, made us incredibly welcome. This is the most gorgeous shop and if you are anywhere near Kent in the south-east corner of England (but easily accessible by train from London), I urge you to visit. You will not be disappointed.
Jenny has organised some star quilt makers and tutors from Australia to come and teach - I am so lucky to have been able to attend some of the workshops. I met Susan Smith (author of a lovely book, Quilts Somewhat in the Middle) in April and Emma's mum Judy Newman for a class on Friday last week, but yesterday was Emma and we were hand piecing her Arlington Square design which was featured in Quiltmania issue 130 a few months ago.
I am so much more comfortable with hand piecing than with applique (which Judy was teaching on Friday and which I will post about separately) and I really enjoyed the class. Emma did a great job sharing tips to improve our skills and her actual quilt is fabulous: bursting with colour and lots of interesting quirky fabrics - you just see something new every time you look at it. I'm afraid my photos don't do it justice. The hand quilting with perle thread is simple and functional and keeps the quilt lovely and soft.
We all made good progress and completed one block and were well on the way to finishing a second. This wasn't bad considering the amount of chat going on and the regular pauses for coffee and cake and the fabulous lunch which had to be allowed for. Emma has plastic templates available to buy with the pattern which made cutting out and marking the sewing lines and registration points really easy, so the block was straightforward to put together once we knew the order, and very accurate.
Pressing is important too to minimise bulk where the seams intersect. There are 17 pieces in each 10 inch block (finished size) but leaving the seam allowances free to rotate means you can adjust the layout on the reverse and press as suits best once the block is complete.
Below is a selection of the blocks we made in class: although we did not butt the blocks up close, you may be able to see from the photo that when the blocks are put together a secondary four-pointed star is created which adds to the overall interest and complexity of the design. The last picture in this post which is taken of Emma's quilt features that star.
I have come home and sorted out another stack of fabrics from my stash which, together with the ones I bought at Pincushion, will, I hope, make this quilt suitably scrappy, if not as gloriously vibrant as Emma's. My intention is to cut out and mark lots of patches so I can take them on holiday in September and spend evenings piecing quietly by hand. What could be nicer?
To make the cutting process even better I treated myself to a pair of Karen Kay Buckley's Perfect Scissors as they came so highly recommended by Emma and Jenny and I had a chance to try them out - fantastically sharp and precise, a joy to use. I also bought a small grippy design mat which helps to keep all the pieces in place and feels a lot nicer than a sandpaper board. (Both items and Arlington Square pattern and templates are available from Pincushion Pantiles).
So thank you Emma and Jenny for a great day with excellent company too. I am inspired to get back into the quiltmaking saddle and really try to organise my time to make space for sewing every day if possible. I hope you too all find time to enjoy your own sewing.
(Arlington Square quilt by Emma Newman)
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