The Poetry of Decay

Day one of our course with Christine Chester creating surfaces and layers.  I'm going to let the photographs speak for themselves!

Summer colour

Watermelon and feta salad

Contemporary Welsh quilting

At InStitches these last five weeks we have been Welsh quilting with a difference, starting with the basic traditional patterns and giving them a contemporary twist!

Pleated fabric was appliquéd and couched as leaves in bold colour ways such as in Penny's block above.

Penny decided to construct her wall hanging using the quilt-as-you-go technique so that she can mix and match her backgrounds.

Sue has added a New Zealand theme to her Welsh quilt, her pleated fabric is some she bought whilst back home earlier this year and she's toning in all the threads used for the hand stitch and couching.

In the cathedral border she's added some hand dyed silk velvet spirals.  The pattern for the spirals was from some Maori inspired wooden coasters, whilst the zig-zag pattern comes from some braid off a piece of traditional fabric.

There is also a fan tailed bird corner design and other Kiwi motifs planned to complete the design.  I can't wait for her to finish it so we can photograph it for you to see!

Christina has made a leaf motif which looks beautiful in some blue/ purple mix silk velvet and combined with a trapunto stem is going to made a striking border design.  With plenty of hand stitching to complement the machine quilting, this is going to be a stunning wall hanging when it's completed.

Sue has chosen to design a cushion panel, so her motifs are scaled to suit the size.  See the corner fan design she has started to free motion quilt? Let's take a closer look

How's that for precision machining?  Pretty fabulous don't you agreed?  Sue has then repeated the motif in the centre to reinforce the design and added a dash of hand dyed velvet for the leaves.

Here is a flat shot of the whole panel, lots of hand stitching needed still, but it's going to look beautiful when it's finished.

Inspired to make a contemporary Welsh sampler of your own? Then look out for the next course dates by signing up to our monthly newsletter http://institchestextilecourses 

A ray of sunshine

I don't know what the weather's like in your part of the world, but here in Hampshire it's bleak, overcast and cold... doesn't it know it's the 1st June for goodness sake?!  Good job three boxes of sunshine were delivered to my door this morning from www.TheDandyArthouse.com 

Can you guess what they are??

TDah! ( as they would say?...)

Our first line of greetings cards, all packaged up and ready to sell at this year's Festival of Quilts and, when we've set it up, in our online shop!  So exciting to see my work in print... makes me feel like a real artist!