A WEEK IN REVIEW

Savage Beauty

Unless you live under a rock, you will know that there has been a huge retrospective exhibition of Alexander McQueen's work on at the V&A, what you may not have known however is that today was the closing day so if you haven't been, I'm afraid that's it. Thankfully I managed to sneak my way in (legally) on Friday with two of my fabulous friends - you know who you are!! What a treat it was, having frequented the museum on several occasions and seen a couple of previous exhibitions on McQueen, I can honestly say that this was by far the best thing I have ever seen.

My poor feet may never forgive me, we were in there for 3 hours and I'm still fairly sure I missed things. The exhibit itself spanned his entire career, starting with the 1992 graduate collection from his MA at St Martins all the way through to his final collection Pluto's Atlantis for Spring/Summer 2010. I have had many favourite McQueen's over the years but I have to say that his final collection was by far my absolute best!! From a fashion point of view, a design point of view and just all round beautifulness. 

And now it's even worse because I look at things (and by things I mean everything!) from a quilting point of view, like those dresses above they would make such a gorgeous, kaleidoscope, English Paper Pieced style quilt and the more I look at it so would this wallpaper......

This was the wallpaper in one of the rooms at McQueen, it really was a feast for the eyes, so many shapes that could be worked into the most wonderful of designs. Lately that is the eye I seem to have been using the most, my design eye, I have a few things in the pipeline that I am very excited about....watch this space, I will share them with you as soon as I am able. 

I would like to leave you with this image.......

I will explain in much more detail, I just have a few more kinks to iron out and a few more of the 2025 squares to sew together and then all will be revealed.

Have a great week, for those of you that will be joining me at Festival - whoop whoop- don't forget to write your list of must haves, mine may or may not be 2 sides of A4!!

Happy Quilting

Kerry xx

AFRICA DOWN UNDER

With A Colonial Twist

A couple of months ago it was decided that some of my family from Australia would be coming over for a summer holiday (lets hope they bring back the sunshine), they asked me to make them a quilt reflecting our African roots but that wouldn't look out of place in the classic, colonial style decor of the intended room. Being more of a reload than retreat kind of gal, I accepted the challenge and whilst I have still got a way to go, I thought you might just like to see my progress so far.....

small selection of African fabrics

My first thought was how am I going to mix these two rather different themes together? Starting with the obvious I went in search of African style fabrics, being careful not to make it to cliche I opted for small, fairly broad prints, in mostly neutral colors. My thinking was that I would use them in small doses, more as an accent rather than the feature, and use traditional block layouts and designs to bring the elements together.

I just love this block, it is one from the Modern Quilting Bee book I have blogged about before, but in case you missed that post, you can find it here. Surprisingly it comes together really quickly and with some fussy cutting the whole design can totally change.

 I have done and am continuing to do a lot of research for this project, part of the fun for me is in researching different ideas and trying something new, there are an infinite number of blocks and combinations out there to choose from, some of which seem impossible but as I said earlier "reload not retreat". I do so love a challenge and to push my skill set, so on occasion madness strikes me and I will try to make something I have seen without having a pattern for it....going old school with graph paper and a pencil!! Don't get me wrong I am in no ways a pro (yet) but this time I struck it lucky and the block worked.

The aforementioned picture

The finished result

You can never beat some classic log cabin either so I threw some of that into the mix as well. You may notice the African twist in there, although in terms of general color I have tried to keep it calm and neutral with a few accent shades to lift the blocks and bring the two themes together. I am not quite sure if it is working but I am pleased with what I have done so far, all the points and joins meet where they should so right now I am winning!!

I haven't exactly decided on a layout for this quilt, or where to place the blocks, however as I previously said I do so love a challenge, so below is a photo of the 2025 squares all 1 1/2 inches in size that I have cut out.....Kerry Q refused to help me, but whatever could they be for?? I am afraid you will just have to wait and see.

The point where madness set in

Happy Quilting

Kerry xx

MOTHER TRUCKER!!

And A Few Cars...

A while ago I set out to make a quilt for a very special little monkey, he loves bright colors, cars, bikes, trucks and more than anything diggers!! I began in my usual way with researching and came across this darling pattern 

PEAK HOUR

They are available allover the place but I bought mine from the lovely Isabel over at Creative Quilting I loved the idea of the rows of different vehicles and signs, but what it really needed was one almighty digger!!  So I set myself the challenge of creating just that! I started with a small A5 size picture that had to be scaled up to almost single bed size.....eeeeeekkk!!!

Once the overall design was complete, each section then had to be individually drawn onto Bondaweb and ironed on to the fabric choices, as is standard for general machine applique. In true blonde style I did have to start over twice.... the first time I put the chair "in" over the door frame and then the window "in" over the chair!! I amaze even myself at times!

I wanted to make it as realistic as possible, I mean go hard or go home right?!? So I spent quite a long time trying to get some shading into the teeth on the big scoop and the wheel arches, although not totally perfect I think it does make a difference. Life got in the way a bit and unfortunately this project had to be put on hold a while which meant I didn't quite make the deadline I had set myself.

A couple of birthdays, high teas, spa days, thunder storms, very long work days, a few fights with my sewing machine and a lot of fabric buying later rows of cars and trucks started to appear.

And eventually after a lot more late nights, fabric cutting, fights with the sewing machine and some words of wisdom from my lovely quilt group this emerged and found its way onto an African bound plane!! 

I wish I could be there to see my little monkeys reaction to it, hopefully he will love snuggling up in it as much as I loved making it for him and I will get some photos of that darling little face.

I have about 13 new projects that I want to start, 4 new projects that I have started and a good 25 more that I have seen that I totally need in my life, don't roll your eyes at me I know you totally have the same list going!! At the same time as I am typing this post I have another window open on my browser auditioning fabrics for Jen Kingwell's My Small World, which is available in Quiltmania's Spring 2015 special.

You know you want it......

Happy Quilting 

Kerry xx

TRELLIS CROSSROADS

A Popular Block Indeed!!

I have to say that when I first started my journey on this quilt bee, I wasn't really prepared for what it was going to entail or for the vast amount of talent, vision and creativity that I was going to come across. On first glance through the book there were quite a few that really didn't appeal to me, in fact out of the 12 possible blocks there were only 2 that really caught my eye. I started to think that I wasn't going to enjoy this at all and maybe had made a mistake in committing myself to not one but two quilt bees!! Luckily I couldn't have been more wrong, I have learnt so much from being part of this wonderful experience about fabric choices, color combinations and block choices. My eyes have truly been opened. 

One such block that really didn't appeal to me initially was the block for September - Trellis Crossroads, made for the purpose of this book by Jessica Kelly you can see her blog and her thoughts on her block/bee experience by clicking on her name.

This block has been a popular choice in a number of quilt bees all over the world, each one looking completely different to any other, some people used batiks or brightly colored prints whilst others have favored more muted, pastel tones.

I had to make 2 of these blocks recently, one in purple and blue florals and the other in black and white. The process is relatively straight forward and the instructions - when you work out what is needed for only one person rather than twelve - are well set out.

To start with you need to cut your selected fabrics into rectangles 2 3/4" x 5" and sew them together in groups of four, they then get cut in half so you have 2 columns of the same print measuring 2 1/2" x 2 3/4", the trick is to mix them up in such a way that when stitched together the same prints don't meet at the corners.

As well as the prints or 'main' fabrics, there is a background fabric to contend with - 1 long strip and 1 square which gets cut in half! One column of printed squares is attached to either side of the background strip and the square - now cut in half to make triangles- is attached to the middle of the printed squares...... admit it, I've lost you?! I've lost myself to but as they are not my instructions to share I thoroughly recommend you buy the book..... it explains all.

I escaped with only a mild disaster.......

Once everything is attached each section needs to be squared up to  6 3/4" by lining the 45 degree line of the ruler directly in the middle of the center strip, thankfully I had my wing woman - Kerry Q on hand to talk me through the muddle.

And then all the squares came together wonderfully and the blocks went together in a jiffy

Kerry Q also had to make Trellis Crossroads for her Queen Bee this month in lovely shades of pink and grey, it always goes so much better when you have a friend to talk it through with.