JENNIE RAYMENT FLOWER

Flower wall hanging in progress

Black may not be a traditional background for a flower but I am thrilled with the look of this wall hanging which is very much still a work in progress.  The one that I started at the Jennie Rayment workshop had a mountain in the middle which I have managed to avoid this time.

Detail of the flower wall hanging

I've used two different batiks for the petals, alternating them around the flower and now I am working on the hand sewing, manipulating the fabric.  As you can see, I am working my way down the right hand side and still have a fair way to go.  A lot of the edges are rolled back in the cathedral windows style and I'm using invisible thread for this.  I'm not sure that it is intended for hand sewing and it's not very easy to work with, but it does give a nice - um, invisible - finish.  I think this wall hanging is going to keep me going for a day or two yet.

Completed Hereford quilt

Before I began I had to finish a quilt for a 90th birthday present for a friend of my father.  I chose my Hereford quilt for her (very traditional colours) and I've meandered the main body of the quilt.  I used a variegated dark thread for the red and brown and then changed to a light thread for the cream sections.  Around the border I used straight line quilting in zigzags to outline all the squares and triangles.

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Rose

THREE ACROSS QUILT BLOCK

Three across quilt block

The three across quilt block is unusual looking.  It uses four colours and I can definitely see this in a quilt.  You'd have to rotate the blocks so that the yellow squares weren't next to each other and then you'd get the dark blue squares forming some sort of a zigzag.  I've made it as a 14" block using 2.1/2" and 4.1/2" squares mostly.

Layout for three across quilt block

This is the basic layout and it's best to sew it together as large top and bottom rows with a single middle row.

On Saturday I went to the Quilt Guild Area Day over at Stourport which was really interesting.  In the morning we were asked to help making Japanese folded quilt blocks - it just reminded me of why I don't like making them!  The highlight was a talk by Jan Hassard in the afternoon.  She really is so talented.  Some of her quilt patterns looked relatively simple but it was the colour placement that made them extraordinary quilts.  Sorry - I forgot to take my camera so I can't show you any photos of the quilts that were on display.

Manipulated fabric flower

Last week I attended a Jennie Rayment workshop which was so interesting.  I made this flower which is a long way from being complete and has a veritable mountain in the middle where it should be flat, but I learned so much!  I've abandoned that one for the moment and I'm in the middle of making another one using batiks which I'm really pleased with (and it has a flat middle!).  I'm hoping to have enough of it done to show you more later in the week.

This morning I received a surprise package from Marelize containing some bobbin washers.  I had commented to her that I could only find washers for industrial, not domestic, sewing machines so she sent me some all the way from South Africa.  Thanks, Marelize - you're a star!

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Hope to see you again soon.
Rose