Just a catch-up in case you missed this on our Facebook page. The wonderful Deborah Kemball’s long arm quilted Autumn Wreath, for which we say thank you for using Oakshott (and hope your eye mends well and swiftly).
Field of Poppies launch
We were contacted by Sarah Matlock in Jersey about supplying fabric for a great fundraising project she has devised for the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal.
We will be following the journey (which starts on Sunday 12 October 2014) as Sarah involves the community of Jersey in creating blocks for a quilt that will eventually be auctioned in spring 2015. Here is Sarah’s description of the start:
Pat Robson here on Jersey runs an amazing charity called “Art in the Frame” to support and promote artists. Pat runs The Harbour Gallery which is a fabulous space acting as the hub and window for the Foundation.
This month, there is an exhibition entitled “Remembering” at the Gallery. There are 100 pieces on display, all worked by local artists. The exhibition is part of a six week long “celebration” of the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War. During the six weeks, there are various workshops going on, all with the theme of WWI. My workshop is on Sunday and is entitled “Field of Poppies”. Michael generously donated 20 x 0.5m pieces of his fabulous Colourshott fabrics and Madeira UK have given us quite a few reels of Aerofil thread. I have spent the last few days putting together some blocks which I hope will inspire the delegates on Sunday to each make their own block which I will take away at the end of the day and make into a quilt which will tour each of the Islands’ twelve parishes plus other influential institutions such as the Library. Next Spring, the quilt will be auctioned and we hope to raise a lot of money for the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal. The delegates will each take home comprehensive notes and will hopefully learn some new techniques which, I hope, will lead them to want to experiment more with quilting. The list of delegates includes some year 13 students studying textiles for their A Levels, some complete novices and some ladies with a limited amount of patchwork experience. As I have been quilting for fourteen or more years, I am really excited to meet people who are interested in textiles but have little or no patchwork and quilting knowledge! I am looking forward to their input and inspiration.
And here is a quick glimpse of those first five, unfinished, blocks:
Steps to Chess on the Steps
Krista of Poppyprint in Canada has designed a fabulous modern quilt (featuring as pattern of the month in MQG‘s September newsletter). Her fascinating journey to the design, Chess on the Steps, is on her blog.
“This quilt was made entirely of the new Colourshott shot cottons …”
“… The quilting was all done with free-form (unmarked) lines with my Pfaff IDT (built in walking foot). I just followed seams in the piecing and went for it. There are 7 coordinating colours of Aurifil 30 wt thread on the quilt. Sewing with these shot cottons is so enjoyable as the colours are beautifully saturated – at times I feel like I’m working with sari silk!”
Just in case you’re tempted here are the swatches for the colours used
City Lights in a new light
Jacqui popped in to see us with her variation of the Oakshott City Lights quilt, so we took a quick photo. The kit is normally sold with Lipari/Colourshott fabrics. Jacqui has used the Ruby Reds.
Zest for colour
Put on your sunglasses to admire Monika Huelsebusch’s Zest of Life quilt for which she used 285 five inch squares of 30 different colours (fantastisch):
Butterly Flickr
Thanks to Juliet of The Tartanwiki for running her Butterfly Challenge
Have a look at the winners on Flickr and their blogs:
On a Gossamer Wing by Lisa in the USA as the winner of the Oakshott Cotton Fat Eighth Lipari bundle.
Mara of Secretly Stitching in Greece won the the Oakshott Cotton Fat Eighths Lakes bundle.
Jamie k.b. won the tartankiwi patterns and a little something from Juliet.
Oakshott Go Around
Ursel Josefs-Kirschbaum has posted a stunning picture of her new quilt (Oakshott Go Around) using Ruby Reds and New Colourshott on her Flickr stream (plus a couple of construction shots).
1718 Patchwork in 2014
Great excitement at Oakshott when our fabrics were chosen by the Quilt Museum in York for the kit to go with their 1718 Silk Patchwork Coverlet exhibition (5 September–13 December 2014).
The 1718 Coverlet’s 60 exquisitely sewn blocks use a mosaic patchwork technique and illustrate the maker’s surroundings. This is just one small section from the coverlet:
This is a rare chance to see a textile treasure which is normally kept in storage to prevent its deterioration. But if you can’t get to York by 13 December then you can still see the coverlet in detail in Susan Briscoe’s fascinating book The 1718 Coverlet. This book contains a fascinating history of the original and the story of how The Quilter’s Guild made a replica (also on show). If you want to make your own coverlet then the book also contains both original and modern instructions (and Susan is running a workshop on 11 October 2014).
The Quilters’ Guild selected 16 colourways from Oakshott’s New Colourshott collection. Describing their choice, Susan says:
“Oakshott cottons are perfect for a project like this because their quality and colour intensity produce a wonderful iridescence: they look like silk, yet they’re actually 100% mercerised shot cotton.”
The fabric selection is available from the Quilt Museum’s online shop www.quiltmuseumshop.org.uk as pre-cut Fat Eighths or Fat Quarters.
New Colourshott Fat Eighths Picks: Orchid
Jo of MyBearPaw described the Orchid bundle as
“heavenly”
and was immediately inspired to develop her take on a (Japanese) folded patchwork technique. Follow her thought processes on her tutorial and you too could be cuddling one of these:
New Colourshott Fat Eighths Picks: New Forest
We got a sneak preview of SusanClaire’s design for the New Forest bundle before the FoQ
While she provides a full tutorial on her Gourmet Quilter blog there is plenty of scope for your own creativity in the layout:
Do send us photos of your finished Lock Gate, we’d love to admire and compare.