Patchwork

My final post for this evening.

As I said previously, January also involved some patchwork. Aunty Barbara, Linda and I continue to do the Mystery Quilt Block of the Month from the Fat Quarters. So far we have just completed our fourth block.

Here you can see all my four blocks laid out together. The top left dresden plate design was completed over Christmas: I pieced it by hand and then appliques it by hand. I'm not very good at needle turn applique, so I attached it with some blanket stitch and I'm really pleased with the result. Bottom left is the latest contribution, also pieced by hand. The two on the right were both pieced by machine.

Whilst we at the shop to get our fourth pattern, we signed up for a couple of workshops. The first is a series of at least 6 workshops (one a month) based on the Essential Sampler Quilt book by Nikki Tinkler. It's 25 blocks, each different, and we learn a different technique each month, spend the day making up the first block and as much as possible of a second, then take the next two home for homework. The first class was mid January and I have so far completed four blocks:

The first block was Lady in the Lake. Unfortunately a small measuring error means that this block has turned out slightly smaller than it should. The fabrics for all the blocks have so far come from my stash. On this block the pink fabric was an offcut I got from the shop in Barton, and the green fabric was a free fat quarter from Just Quilting. My triangles are also not quite right. I may...... redo this block as there are quite a few errors.....

This second block is called the Bear's Paw. The pink fabric is the same as in the first block. The dark blue fabric came from the same place and the two green fabrics, one with a large print pattern and one with a coordinating small-print pattern, came from Harrogate. I used a small amount of the Fabric for Aunty Barbara's phone case.

The third block is called Trip Around the World. It's made up of 121 1.5inch blocks. The pink frabic in the centre ties it to the two previous blocks. I have then used a dark fabric with a small purple flower print and a mauve farbic with flecks of yellow and pink in it and then a yellow frabic with small white spots. All these fabrics came from Just Quilting, but i hadn't bought them with any particular purpose! I really enjoyed doing this block - with that many seams it is soooo easy to make a small error, but I was very pleased that only in a couple of places do my seams not match perfectly, and even then the error in minor.

The final block this month was Goose in a Pond. This one was a bit fiddly, with the corner squares only being 1.25inch square. I also had a slight measuring error here - a couple of the pieces were off by half an inch, but by squeezing the seam allowance the block didn't suffer.

The pink fabric came from Harrogate (I used it already on the needlecase for Aunty Catherine), the dark blue came from the shop in Barton, the mauve fabric came from Just Quilting and I put a small square of the green fabric used on the first block in the centre of each corner - but it's a bit of a small piece to see the contrast well.

We also signed up for a scrappy log cabin workshop at the start of March.

I have also been planning my next two projects and collecting fabric for them: a blue and brown themed quilt following a pattern I got in a magazine last summer and that I tested already on the cushions I made for Jane for Christmas (though with a slightly different colour scheme). The second quilt is coincidentally by the same designer and uses a similar technique, but I am planning to do it in greens on a brown background. Some birthday money may be put towards the sashing and background fabrics......

That's it for January....onto February.