Are You Liberated Yet?

(letters courtesy of Spell with Flickr)

2 posts in one day and today was supposed to be Wordless Wednesday LOL.

I just thought you might be interested to know what's happening in the liberated quilters world on Yahoo.

We are already up to 70 members - wow!

A challenge has been issued. We are making quilts for the Alzheimers Art Quilt Initiative, using the words "free" or "mind". Okay okay, I know the letter "M" is one of the hardest but I've got to kick-start these gals somehow! Anyway, we've got until the end of June so quite long enough I think to get the quilts done.

We are just about to hold our first virtual online retreat. Just one day to start with, but it should be fun.

We also have a few newbies who have never done anything like this before and are breaking out of the mould. Wooo hooo.

There are some great liberated quilters in this big world of ours. Not all of them have blogs, but some of the quilts are just awesome.

If you want to join in the fun, click on the link in the first paragraph, or the Join Yahoo Groups badge over there on the right.

Perhaps I'll see you there.

Oh and Tonya - your tutorials are getting a lot of hits.

Wordless Wednesday

Cold and Wet

Need comfort food. Time to play with the latest brocante purchase.

Back soon.

Sunday Sewing

Amazing what you can do in an afternoon. Not quite sure where this one is going yet as waiting to hear back from Hedgehog Jen and one or two others who are allegedly making quilts.

I won!

Just for fun I entered a caption for the Quilting on a Budget blog (see link in side bar in the right) and imagine my surprise when Joan selected it! I had a choice of two books and picked this one. I do need to practice machine quilting in order to get those tops finished, and thought this might provide some inspiration! And another woo hoo. Been eyeing this up for weeks and finally bought it yesterday. All in French, bien sûr, but love it! Isn't it lovely seeing photos of quilts that you've followed the making of on Bonnie's and Tonya's blogs

Wordless Wednesday

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Stars and Stripes

The minute I saw the announcement about this on Nicolette's blog (see post below this one), I knew which quilt I was going to show.

When I started quilting some years ago, I read about denim quilts and just had to make one. I only had my old hand crank sewing machine, some wooden templates made up for me by a friend, a proper rotary cutter, a cutting mat and not a lot else, let alone "experience". I was so naive I did not know you couldn't mix different fabric weights. What the hell - go with the flow and see what happens! (I didn't know then that that was liberated quilting :-) ) I started cutting up The Old One's jeans that were falling to pieces or too small and came across an old red and white stripped apron which I snapped up. A visit to the fabric shop produced the lovely heavy red and blue fabric and, to me now, that ghastly poly mix with the oak leaves which stretches. I even cut out and sewed on an old Pace Jeans label (do they still make Pace Jeans I wonder? They were my all time favourite - perfect fit!). Halfway through making this we got my new, but cranky (as in temperamental) electric sewing machine with embroidery stitches - woo hoo. You can see where I had fun using the zig zag stitch on some stars I traced onto the fabric. I sewed huge running stitches in the ditch round each block and some of the seams, most of which have since come out. I folded over the backing to create the binding (which surprisingly is still in place). This was meant to hang above our bed as a sort of bed head, but ended up on one of the sofas as a lap quilt/throw for those chilly evenings. I can't get near it. The Young One has taken over that particular sofa and the quilt. We had it on our bed this last winter - not really big enough, but it helped - and we loved the feel of it so much another one has been commissioned to be finished by Winter 2009. All in all - a lot of work and love went into this quilt. I hope as much goes into the next one.

Blogger's Quilt Festival

I've been to 3, possibly 4, quilt shows/expos, but nothing like the ones I've read about where there are stalls overflowing with notions, fabrics and books, not to mention quilts of every size and description. The local ones are typically French - lots of hand piecing, hand quilting and gorgeous hand appliqué - and nothing else. Just showcases. It is my dream to one day get to Houston, or even Paducah. So imagine my delight when I hopped over to Nicolette's new blog this morning and found this. I've copied the image that Amy put on her blog and added it to my sidebar (top left). I've already decided what quilt I'm going to show and you'll have to wait until tomorrow to see which one it is. In the meantime, a little bit of progress on Family Trees.

(Sorry. Not a brilliant photo. Light was dreadful)

This has been like putting a jigsaw puzzle together. It's got a mind of it's own and won't do what I want it to do, hence the orange strip bottom right. Goodness only knows why it is there, but it is! The top in two halves at the moment. I'm hoping to get them sewn together today and will then make a start on the border. A demain .......

Wordless Wednesday - Sad

Looking through the keyhole

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Spring has well and truly sprung

Wow! Look at those colours! That's not oil seed rape (I don't know what they call it in the USA). It's a mixture of cowslips and dandelions - hundreds of them.

and the most blossom we've ever had in 10 years. The tree to the right is the edible cherries and the one in the centre is those bitter cherries that we sometimes use for Clafoutis, or I bottle them in Pineau or Eau de Vie - yum!

Last but not least, a very spring looking top being put together.

I've taken the house out (may put it on the back), am going to fill in the gaps with trees and call it Family Trees. The Young One got quite upset when she saw that I'd added Jane's name. "She doesn't live here!" She may not live here, but she's a Worthy too. So there! On to the photo in the last post. Jane guessed it. It's a sewer/drain and the photo was taken by The Young One. She was standing on the river bank at Bourdeilles, a pretty medieval village near here, taking photos of shells in the river (and those are good too). She leant right over (good job she didn't fall in!) to take a photo of some shells under the river bank and took this photo "by mistake". She didn't realise she had taken it until she was going through the photos later! As it turns out, it's a goody! Weather forecast for tomorrow is dreadful so I hope to get the top finished and then I really really really must get out that big box of red and white blocks which keeps looking at me in a soulful way and making me feel very guilty! Have a great Easter weekend and eat lots and lots of chocolate!

Wordless Wednesday

Périgordian Trees

That's what I've decided on for the centre of this quilt (thanks for the idea Nicolette).

Got to add another one to the left and a few odd blocks to fill the gaps, then will start piecing the centre together. Looking at it again, I think the "Rex" has got to be moved about a bit. It's running into the "Alex" and "Jane". Jane is my step-daughter. She is the one who works for the BBC and is A Very Important Person. See you tomorrow. Got a stunning photo taken by The Young One. She's getting good at this camera lark.

Look! Oh do look ..........

..... what fell into my lap the other day! A friend and her grand-daughter from the States are staying and she bought it for me as a thank you for having us present. Whoopie! Now I'm a grown up quilter! And to prove that I'm a grown up quilter: I may make a bigger house for the centre. I'm also going to put in a few spikey stars and the odd wonky block or two, or three, or four, or 250! Thanks for all the input on Liquorice Lane. Someone suggested squiggly liquorice lines crossing over one another. I like that!

Wordless Wednesday - More Signs