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

ON THE FIRST DAY OF CHRISTMAS....

Feeling Festive

Good grief there are only 64 days until Christmas, I am not at all prepared, I haven't even written my list for Santa! I have however been very busy making a special treat for my special little monkey, that looks a little like this

An advent calender that comes in the form of a kit from the wonderful Stitch Witch, they are just gorgeous and really simple to put together.

It all comes very neatly printed on one piece of fabric, which gets cut up into various sections and then attached as needed. To start with I cut out all the pockets, ironed flat the edges and top stitched the pocket top to create a neat edge. 

 The remaining edges of all pockets get turned in and finger pressed in place, pinned in the correct order and edge stitched down. It is quite a simple process with fast results - my favorite thing!! On occasion the pockets could be a wee bit fiddley but not unmanageable in any way.

Then comes the super fun bit of making up the sandwich and quilting it in your favorite style, finish by binding it in whichever method best suits you and add on hanging tabs as required.

A whirlwind post on how to put together a quilted advent calender for one little monster!! More Christmassyness to follow......

Happy Quilting
Kerry xx