Cambridge Quilters Workshop with Anja Townrow

Following on from my last post I thought I would write about the brilliant workshop we all enjoyed (if that's the right word) with Anja Townrow.  

The topic of the day was 'Curved Piecing' and Anja had put together a project to teach us how to do curved piecing. That is, the entire background to the patchwork was pieced either around leaf shapes or a fish.  If time allowed we could then add applique and/or built in embroidery stitches. So this is what were were aiming for!  Most of us chose the flower, top left,  but a couple of brave souls chose the fish.

There followed five hours of intense work......I found this, by far, one of the most difficult things I've ever had to do in my 'sewing' life.   So this is the design I picked...

We had to copy the design (not the flower) and trace the shapes onto freezer paper. We then laid out the shapes in the same orientation as they appeared in the design (for straight of grain).

We then added a seam allowance and some balance marks and cut them out. 

Much careful pining and sewing later to put it all together again. 

We eventually pressed it all and cut off excess fabric. Here's Pam with hers.

 Voila! This looks brilliant! Just add flowers...

And the fish....just add decorative stitching.

My efforts were less than perfect although after five hours of intensive work, I did manage to finish the background.  I found this to be one of the most challenging workshops (in a good way) that I've ever attempted. Got home, put my stuff away, made cauliflower cheese, ate dinner with my husband and was fast asleep by 9pm.  I can now look at pieced quilts with a much greater appreciation of the skills involved. 

Pam Southworth posted a picture of her finished piece on the Cambridge Quilters' FaceBook page.  Well done Pam.

Anja Townrow wows Cambridge Quilters

Cambridge Quilters had a special treat recently when Anja Townrow was our guest speaker.  Anja was born in The Hague, Holland and moved to England in 1974. She developed her skills via the more widely available American books and magazines but in 1993 set up 'Dutch Quilts' to sell her first patchwork quilts. She has won many prizes and is a published author. 

Anja explained how when she started doing patchwork and quilting she found it impossible to do the 1/4" seam.  This is how she ended up doing the foundation piecing (with templates) method which is very accurate, though time consuming.  

Here is a close up of one of her flowers made with foundation piecing.  Anja draws out her design full size on paper. Adding the border is no guess work or jiggling to make the 'bars' fit. Anja works out on paper what all the measurements should be which ensures a white block in each corner and the blue bars coming next in the arrangement. 

Anja's 'Flower Festival ' quilt, mainly foundation pieced, 88" x 88" 

'Abundance' made with curved piecing, foundation piecing,appliqué, broderie perse and embellishments. It is huge! Anya's classic 'Dutch Tile' blocks are set in the border. 

'Floral Compass'  awarded a judges merit at Quilts UK Malvern 2014

I took this close up photograph which shows Anja's classic 'Dutch Tile' block

Aren't these colours stunning?

Finally an example of one of Anja's pattern called 'Pond Life'.  Brilliant 

appliqué and piecing.  

Watch this space for our experience at Anja's workshop the next day. For me it was the most challenging day's sewing ever..but challenging in a good way! 

Christmas Table runner workshop

I had a very warm welcome from some lovely ladies from Priory Quilters in Royston last Saturday. Marian, Alix, Maureen, Sue, Vivien, Beverly and another Sue had bravely signed up to do my Christmas table runner workshop. 

I supplied most of the fabric which was designed by a Cambridge lass called Jo Clark. Jo's Festive designs were printed by Cloud9 and I pre-cut 60 degree triangles. I used my Accuquilt Go machine which meant every piece had notches to join them together and all the 'dog ears' had been removed. Quilters will know what this jargon means!  

So the ladies laid out all their triangles to mix up the eight prints. 22 triangles in total.

This lady used traditional Christmas fabric... gorgeous rich colours

Lots of pressing

Place the triangle strip on wadding and a base fabric then quilt as desired....

This one was quilted with a red zig zag to mimic the lines of Christmas lights you see on trees. I think beads might be added at a later date.

A very precise layout 

More zig zag quilting

Next, adding appliquéd 'tree trunks'....quite time consuming.....

Placing  the trunks, holly prints...

Red trunks with stars....

Silver trunks...

and green ones . 

This one was almost finished when the long tree trunk strip is stitched onto the triangle trees....you can quilt in the gaps.

The final steps are to complete the quilting, add the backing and stitch on the binding.  Here are the ones I made earlier! 

Onto writing all those Christmas cards, buying presents and thinking about the festive menus.  No pressure then.

  

Visiting Priory Quilters and Graffiti Quilting

Quite a full on week so far.  Started teaching a beginners patchwork and quilting course at Coleridge School with four days notice! The teacher engaged to teach the class was no longer available and they asked me if I could do it instead. More of this another day but the class were lovely and not at all phased by the unfamiliar sewing machines and no bobbins. We somehow managed and made a start on finding how to sew a 1/4" seam followed by a bit of crazy patchwork. Everyone said they would come back next Monday!

Tuesday was fully occupied in getting ready to speak to Priory Quilters at Royston Town Hall. Several bags of Ukrainian textiles and various quilts were used to illustrate my talk (otherwise known as ramblings about my life in textiles).

Here are some of the items on display..

and more of the pile. 

I had a very warm welcome from the group and the talk was well received. Well they laughed at my little jokes and clapped at the end. The best bit, for me, was that many ladies came to speak to me at the end and they poured over my quilts with great interest. 

I am running a workshop for the group this Saturday so more on that another day. We are making a Christmas table runner. 

In between all of the above, I had treated myself to a new book called 'Graffiti Quilting' by Karlee Porter. I found her on U-Tube and thought I'd have a go at this technique. Looks easy? 

First go where I did use a water soluble pen

followed by....

I added in the graffiti 'trademark' of an arrow...then this one.

I clearly need to spend a fair bit more time on this but I did enjoy this free motion stitching technique.  Something to work on during the winter months! 

Visit to the American Museum in Bath

Now and again I visit family in Bath and on my last trip I fulfilled a wish to visit the American Museum.  So on a glorious Sunday I made it to Claverton Manor close to the University of Bath.

If you are at all interested in American history it really is well worth the trip. I went to see the textiles but there are many other rooms devoted to early American history. The lower level has a large screen explaining the early exploration of the country, displays about the Declaration of Independence, the American West and Native Americans. The ground floor has a lovely Country Store, a Folk art gallery and rooms set out in different periods.   Many rooms include bed covers and clothing. 

I saw a very nice embroidery sampler made by Hannah Taylor dated 1771. 

The first floor has more period rooms but here you will find the textiles collection.  The quilts range from the eighteenth to the mid twentieth century. They hold over 200 quilts and the collection is considered to be one of the finest of its type in Europe.  The quilts are displayed in special hanging frames which you can turn like the pages of a giant book.   You can only take photographs without a flash so apologies for the quality of my pictures. 

This one is the Baltimore Album Quilt from 1850 and was made by a group of ladies and a close up next

This next one is called the Chalice Quilt for obvious reasons..

And this splendid black and white coverlet was made on a Jacquard loom

Finally I came across the Shaker Room with it's delightful slender furniture. The Shaker people wanted their communities to reflect their notion of heaven. since there is no dirt in heaven, there could be no dirt in Shaker villages. cleanliness was, therefore, an important part of everyday life.

"Clean your rooms well: for good spirits will not live where there is dirt. There is no dirt in heaven". 

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