My and Oh My!

You have probably noticed that bad things tend to come in groups. You rarely seem to have one thing go wrong you always get a cascade right. Well I would suggest that good things can do this too. I don't know if you remember me talking about a quilt I worked on that was to raise money for Macmillan nurses? Well it raised over 2000 pounds! How cool is that? I am thrilled to have been involved in it. It looks like I will have to ask them nicely for a picture of it, it seems I forgot to take one. Doh! I was really pleased with the quilting on it too.

The other good thing today was very unexpected. I am teaching a masterclass at the Festival of Quilts this year. I wasn't sure about doing it at all but I took the plunge. Well my class sold out in 4 hours if I am reading the email correctly. I am staggered. If you are one of those who has signed up, thank you and I hope I will be able to deliver you a good class. I have to admit I am now feeling the pressure. It is a class I have taught many times, but I've never felt it was so important to get it right. These people are keen, very keen, and organized. They were on the ball and booking as soon as it opened. Well if you don't see me after the class, you'll know I failed to deliver :)

Charity Raffle

I've finally had time to look through my pictures and select some to show you. This is a quilt that has been made to raise funds for a children's playground in Essex. Perhaps not the most glamorous of causes, but still important, and I love the fact that the community is working together to improve things for all the members. The quilt is a group quilt made by people who live in the area. very few are experienced patchworkers, but they have done an amazing job on this quilt.

The quilt is liberty prints and natural calico/muslin. It's isn't what I would consider to be my colours, but I fell in love with it instantly, and I really enjoyed quilting it. The large areas of plain fabric let me play with feathers, which I now love. The feathers carry on through the larger sashing.

The customer asked for fairly open quilting so the finished quilt is quite soft and drapy. I think I achieved that. I left the narrowest sashes unquilted to help with this. The patterned fabrics are all quilted with the same variegated thread, I was stunned that one thread could match so well with so many fabrics. It certainly helped speed up the process, just as well as this was a quilt on a tight schedule.

If you would like a chance to win this quilt use the contact link to send me an email. I will then give you details of how to get tickets. I completely forgot to ask when the draw will be, but I will find out and add an update. Don't forget you can click on any of the pictures for a larger version. If you do you will see that the quilt has flashes of many colours in it. The idea is that it will fit with as many interiors as possible, personally I think it should be very successful, in that goal.