where is the North Star? - Farncombe

This weekend I was the tutor for a residential (well mostly) course at the Farncombe Conference center (Cotswold Conference center now I think). The students were making their versions for my North Star quilt. The quilt is all foundation pieced and then joined using partial seams giving it a very random/organic look which is supposed to make you think night sky.

Having a mixture of abilities different parts of the class started in different ways. The experienced table went straight in with the borders. As these need the biggest pieces of fabric it makes sense to do them first. This way you know you will have the large pieces to do them and the off cuts can be used for the smaller blocks. However they are large so for the beginners I decided we should start with the simplest block the sky blocks.

The students did very well with the sky, most of them completing 2 sky blocks in the first session after dinner on the Friday. From there the beginners went on to the star blocks so I could teach them the partial seam technique. Again, as you can see, they did really well. Some of the 'beginners' went home with sky, star, and a decent chunk of border. The quilt at the bginning of the post is a combination of work from all the students. The four most experienced got their borders done and those are the ones in the mock up and the partial stars are mostly theirs as well.

I was surprised at how well all the pieces work together. The colour schemes are so different yet the play well together. I am very taken with the monochromatic red version of the quilt, which I wasn't convinced by when I first saw the fabrics. Now the border is together you can see it will be ver striking and effective when it's finished. My concern, other than my p**k issues, was that there just wasn't enough contrast to make the stars pop. I was wrong, there is and I can't wait to see the finished quilt.

Sorry this post (and others) are late. Life has been getting in the way. The posts will arive though, in their own time. I still need to get some images off cameras so I can share with you the highlights of this years FoQ, the gallery of Brigitte Morgenroth, her work was just stunning and I do have the photo's to prove it, if I can just get them onto the computer.