12 x 12 Quilt Exhibition - Think of a Number

Do you ever feel you have left Christmas preparations too late?  Here is a brilliant idea.  Make one quilt a month, and in December you will have a complete set of the Twelve Days of Christmas.

Last Friday I took a trip out to Midsomer Quilting to see their annual 12 x 12 show.  This ensemble of twelve 12 x 12 quilts, linked together with metal rings, was made by Claire Passmore.  Classes are being planned so Claire can pass on her skills and get people started on their own versions of these 12 x 12s in plenty of time for Christmas next year.

I thought the quilt for the eighth day with the smiling milkmaid was particularly delightful.  The yellow plaits are so pretty.

This quilt is by Marion Robinson, showing the seven swans a-swimming of the seventh day of Christmas.  The swans in the foreground are adorned with real swans' feathers, which Marion found by the moat around the Bishop's Palace at Wells.

This quilt is by Angela Knapp, showing a murmuration of starlings swirling through the sky.  The theme of this year's show was "Think of a Number", and Angela's solution was ingenious.  She specialises in stitched pictures of birds, and this quilt of starlings in the Somerset landscape is a real beauty.

This quilt by Irene Burgoyne is a riddle.  I failed miserably, had to read the description, and then felt really dense.  But is it The Thirty Nine steps, the novel by John Buchan, or The 39 Steps, the Alfred Hitchcock thriller, or both?   Irene has kept us guessing by putting the Roman numerals XXXIX in the top corner.

Debbie Hart made this wonderful quilt of a well known front door.  I dread to think how many times I have seen 10 Downing Street on TV or in newspapers, and I have never noticed the lamp.  The detail is amazing, even down to the shape of the boot scrapers.

Now time for tea and cakes.  Tea for Two is by Sue Daniels.  I love the dainty blue and white floral fabric that Sue chose for the china.

Liz Turner also went for blue and white, but a slightly different theme.  I didn't realise that a 20th wedding anniversary is known as a China Wedding.

Nor did I know that a 9th anniversary is a Pottery Wedding.  This fabulous 3D quilt by Hilary Timms not only has stuffed felt vases, but also tiny pots made of fired glazed clay.

Valerie Cole's quilt, Nine Patch, was an instant favourite for me - not just for the sewing machine, but for every little detail.  The tape measure and scissors are absolutely minute.

This quilt, with the title "I Saw Three Ships" is by Brenda Rowe.  The combination of colour, composition and clarity of line makes this picture stand out across the room, and when viewed up close you can appreciate wonderfully neat stitching and attention to detail. 

These three good time gals are waiting for the number 173 bus for a night out in Bath.  This hilariously true to life quilt is by Lynne Clement.  I wish I had seen Lynne at the exhibition.  I would have been quizzing her as to whether her quilt is autobiographical.

Finally, the prize for making my husband laugh goes to Salma Daniel, who made "Two Fat Ladies".  Truly priceless.  The longer you stare at it the funnier it gets.

This is just a glimpse at a few of the quilts on show.  There are over two hundred quilts in the exhibition, which is open every day until the 22nd December.  Most of the quilts are for sale by auction to raise funds for Dorothy House Hospice Care.  If you have the chance to visit, do so - it is an excellent exhibition in support of a very worthwhile cause.

Free Motion Mavericks - Week 205 - Three French Hens

This is the 12 x 12 quilt that I have made for this year's exhibition at Midsomer Quilting.  The theme was "Think of a Number", so I hit on the idea of Three French Hens.

The bold stitched outlines are chain stitched using my Willcox and Gibbs Automatic machine.  It took a while to set up the machine for use because the belt had slackened.  After cutting sections from the leg of an old pair of tights I finally cut one of the right circumference to adequately grip the wheel and give good traction. 

Each of the hens is based on photographs of French breeds of poultry.  I tried to make each hen match what it is saying, so the "oui" hen is this nice agreeable looking Ardennais cock.

By contrast, the big brute of a hen saying "non" is this rather intimidating de Pavilly cock.

And cowering down in the corner is the rather nervous looking yet conciliatory Gascony hen, which is by far my favourite.  It must be the slightly coquettish way she is showing her half-profile.
  

The "i" should have been dotted with a French knot, but I couldn't remember how to do them and was feeling far too idle to get a book down from the shelf, so it is just a little cluster of stitches, slightly lost amongst all the scattered quilting stitches in the background.

The hand quilting wasn't part of the original plan, but the light caught the surface, which was far from even, so I had to aim for some sort of texture.  I should have free-motion quilted it, but my sewing room became a temporary dumping ground while we were redecorating the front room, and I haven't got round to tidying it up yet, so my machine is surrounded with clutter.  I thought the hand stitching would be quick and simple, but I was wrong on both counts.  There, I've confessed.

"Non" is the only word I could sew in an uninterrupted line of stitching.

"Yes No Perhaps" would have been fairly straightforward to stitch, but French, being French, throws a hyphen and a circumflex accent at me just to make life difficult.  

I made sure I left this writing until last, by which time I was getting the hang of it.  The chain is the back of the stitch, so I had to work from the back.  I wrote the words backwards on the back of the fabric and stitched along the line, which was a little tricky because the foot on the Willcox and Gibbs hasn't got a groove in it, so I would lose sight of the line when it disappeared under the metal on its way to the needle.  Anyway, despite the difficulties I am immensely chuffed that I managed to stitch handwritten French backwards with a machine made in 1888.  The only bit I unpicked was the crossbar on one of the "t"s because it wasn't quite at the right angle, and that only took a moment because with chain stitch all you need to do is pull the end of the thread to undo it.

The rest of the sewing, that is the outline quilting around the hens and attaching the binding, was done with my 1916 Singer 99K.

I shall be delivering the quilt to Midsomer quilting next week and shall be kissing it goodbye because it is going into the charity auction.  Perhaps I will make another one one day.

Here goes for week 205:-

If you have no free motion quilting to show, feel free to link up and show any project you like.  Here are the usual rules, but feel free to ignore them.  To keep the original emphasis, however, preference will be given to free motion quilting when featuring projects from the previous week.

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post.
  
3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for four days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Monday.

So far quilters from the USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, France, Macau, Russia, Ireland and Brazil have taken part.  The first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week

Linking up with Sarah's blog Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Whoop Whoop Friday
and Nina Marie's blog Creations... Quilts, Art.... Whatever for Off The Wall Friday.

Free Motion Mavericks - Week 204 - And Another Hen

Almost finished... the hens quilt is quilted and bound, but still needs a little work on it.  There is a little fullness in the background, which shows up shadows when the quilt is seen from across a room.  Rather than leave it and be irked by it, I have decided to do hand stitching to hold the layers together.  So for the moment, here is a preview.  I quite like this particular hen.  She is calm and composed, whereas one of the other hens is an absolute brute.

All shall be revealed next week.

Here goes for week 204:-

If you have no free motion quilting to show, feel free to link up and show any project you like.  Here are the usual rules, but feel free to ignore them.  To keep the original emphasis, however, preference will be given to free motion quilting when featuring projects from the previous week.

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post.
  
3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for four days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Monday.

So far quilters from the USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, France, Macau, Russia, Ireland and Brazil have taken part.  The first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.

Lynmouth Cliff Railway

So lifelike, and instantly recognisable, I knew this quilt showed Lynmouth Cliff Railway as soon as I saw it.  It was hanging near the entrance to the Where in the World Exhibition, which was held last December at Midsomer Quilting.

It is by Lorraine Bourne, and the description she provided for the exhibition reads as follows:-

  "My quilt is based on a photo I took.  It's constructed with raw edge strip work and confetti work, together with a liberal amount of appliqué.  I apologise to my son-in-law (on the right) for making him appear bigger than he is!  A listed monument, the Lynton and Lynmouth Cliff Railway links the two towns.  Opened in 1890, it's the highest, steepest completely water powered funicular railway in the world.  The views from the top are amazing - we loved it!" 

So here is the slightly enlarged son-in-law, who seems to be feeling the chill around his ears...

...and the man in front of him in the queue, keeping warm in his quilted jacket...

...and the lady in the shelter with the perfect "get a move on" expression on her face.

The jumble of undergrowth on the hill is a combination of raw edge strip work and confetti work, with added stitched detail.

This bicycle print makes me laugh.  Even though it is totally the wrong scale, I always think the bike is chained to the railings.

This is just perfection.  How many outbuildings like this have I seen over the years?  Hundreds.  The colours of the stone, brick and paintwork are exactly right, and thanks to this video I now know that this is where the driver makes his tea.

Because many of the quilts were up for auction, I was spoilt for choice when it came to deciding which quilts to bid on.  I ended up bidding on just two, this one and the Osborne Bull.  I was delighted when I found out that I had won both.  Making a frame for this quilt is now on my husband's list of pending projects.

Thank you Lorraine!  You have made an absolute treasure!

The Osborne Bull

One of the sights that I remember from my first visits to Spain when I was a child - a great big black bull looming over the landscape.  I was young enough to think it was real, just for a second or two.

This delightful quilt was hanging next to my stitched field at the Where in the World exhibition.  I roared with laughter when I saw it.  Unmistakeably Spain, in fabric.

The black silhouette of the Osborne Bull stands proudly at the top of a distant hill.

In the best naïve tradition it dwarfs the turbines of the wind farm on the hill in front of it.

It is a dry landscape, so the hills are bare, with just a few scrubby bushes...

... a tangle of weedy plants with some yellow flowers at the roadside...

...and also some tall grasses.

This is such a life-like scene of a Spanish road that I almost expect to see a few smashed hub caps in the verge.

Instead we see stones and a signature - M. Capper.

This quilt was up for auction, I put in a bid, and was thrilled when I heard that I had won.  Soon it will be hanging on the wall here at home.

Thank you Marion!