Activities after France

So what have I been doing since I returned from France?

I went through the final preparations for and taught the workshop “Parquet and Patchwork” that I have posted about here.

I have been practising the piano a lot more than during the last year, which I hope my teacher will notice when I go to have my lesson next week... I made tons of quince jam and apple sauce as the garden season is coming to an end and last harvest activities need to take place.

I finally had an idea for a tight spot I had got myself into in May. When in Einbeck I saw that the German Patchwork Guild was having a little challenge for members to make a quilt 70 x70 cm, using pieces of two given fabrics that the president had brought with her from a trip to Malaysia. The quilts are to be shown for the first time at the AGM of the British Quilters’ Guild in Nottingham in April, and since I am also going to be there, teaching, I had figured I better get me one of those little packages. However, I had absolutely not counted on the kind of quilter’s block I would get upon looking at the fabrics. These are the two fabrics that were inside the package.

The package was called “checkered fish”, and somehow I got hooked on that combination – how do I do a checkered fish, do I really want to do that... But my idea came when I was thinking about the fact that I myself still had not done more in the parquet-style than sew the few samples for the workshop. Forget the checkered fish, just do a little parquet pattern using the fabrics.

This is the pattern I will use to make the quilt.

So I made plastic templates. Usually I cover up the numbers on the templates with scotch tape to prevent the mark rubbing off.

And this is the state of the project at this minute: pieces are cut, waiting to be sewn together, and then I will figure out how to do the border, although I do have an idea for that already.

These are the leftovers of the two required fabrics – I think I did use enough of them to meet the challenge requirements indeed.

So have I been doing a bit of sewing, too, or is the new machine just sitting there idly?

In spring I had seen on Bonnie Bucknam’s blog that she has started a continuation of her “100 quilts for an orphanage in Guatemala” project which she calls “Quilts for MayanFamilies” .

I had promised her I would make at least one top, but I had announced that I would not get started on it until after the exhibition in France.

Which I did during the parquet workshop – I started cutting the pieces for a quilt that would meet the size requirements, also a parquet pattern. In fact, it’s the first practice pattern that I used to get participants started, getting them acquainted with the half sewn seams.

This is how far I had got with the sewing before I had to start cutting some more pieces:

Which I have done, even sewn them together partly already, but I don’t have a picture of that stage yet.

And after these, I will return to Play of Lines and Shapes, I am sure.