Finished wholecloth

I should have taken a picture of this hanging before sending it off to Grosvenor Shows for the Great Northern Quilt Show this weekend. This was it blocked out on the carpet a few weeks ago.

Would love a picture of it hanging if anyone spots it at Harrogate?

Sandown National Quilt Championships 2011

This is my entry to the theme competition at Sandown this year which is Art Deco Revival. I called it "Clarice".

I didn't get a decent picture of it hanging straight against a wall before posting so this is just a collage including pictures I took as it was being made. The applique designs are pretty closely based on Clarice Cliff plate designs. The fabrics are nearly all from the Moda Marbles range, the only patterned fabric being that small strip of black and white stripe in the central block which is echoed in the border. The smaller plain circles were fun to do using the Bernina Cutwork tool!

The quilt itself was quite a challenge as the Art Deco period isn't my favourite design period and I am much happier working in other areas of the colour spectrum. It made me realise how infrequently I use orange and yellow fabric. Why did I enter the competition if I don't like the colours or the period I hear you ask? It is the challenge I think as well as the opportunity to do something different. Each quilt I do makes me learn something new. By the time it was finished I was comfortable with the designs and I realised that I shared Clarice Cliff's delight in trees and skylines. I still prefer Art Nouveau and Arts&Crafts movement stuff but perhaps I now look at Art Deco with a slightly different eye?


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Sandown will also see the last showing of a collection of my quilts titled "Does it need beads?"They have been touring around since autumn last year with Grosvenor Shows. I felt very honoured and to be honest quite overwhelmed to be asked if they could be shown!

We will have to get the wheelbarrow ready to go and meet the courier when they are returned as our lane (damaged in the Cockermouth floods in November 2009) is still unmended. The good news is that work should start next week and should be finished by September! :o)

Scottish Quilt Show at Ingliston this weekend.

---------and I am really disappointed.  :o(

I feel very honoured that some of my quilts are being displayed by Grosvenor at the Spring Shows and Sandown this year. The nearest they come to Cumbria is the Ingliston show and I had hoped to be able to be there but it was not to be.

I do have the write up in the current Fabrications magazine to prove that it really did happen though. :o)
I do know I have seen all my quilts before (!) but it would have been thrilling to see them all hanging together wouldn't it?

Water

This last week has been quite drippy and the river came up quickly but it is dropping fast again. The Cocker is reputed to be one of the fastest rivers in the country . It is only about twelve miles long and drains quite a large area of the fells. It rises very quickly but also drains down very quickly too. As it rises it changes colour from crystal clear ,dark green, sandy brown and then dark brown but as it falls it includes this wonderful almost blue colour. At this particular spot we frequently see the heron and kingfisher and it is a favorite place for the red squirrels to cross the river high overhead through the trees,

While I had the camera out I thought I would take some pictures of the damage done to our lane by the Cockermouth floods in November 2009. This collage is what we see as we set off walking towards the town


This one shows the same lane only returning from town. You can see the last bit of riverwall still standing but also just how narrow it is ,where a couple of metres of the width of the road has been washed away. Incidentally you can get an idea of the height of the floods at this point. The river is nearly three metres below the road here and at the height of the flood the water was through that hedge on the right and well up that telephone pole.


When all my quilts were parcelled up and ready to be sent to Grosvenor Shows ready for Malvern and the Spring Shows they had to be trundled along here in the wheelbarrow to meet the courier.
Fun!
:o)