Pat Train was the founder member of Hghnam Quilters, I will speak of her many time as she was an accomplished tutor who inspired us all to “Try it and See”  She sadly died in April 2017 after a short illness.

In 2015 Pat ran a course on using curves in block and the different methods that can be used from invisible appliqué. machine appliqué. machine curves and Celtic knots.

The fabric I used was from the Downton Abbey range

UKQU Mini swap 2015

There is an excellent Facebook group called UKQU Quilters, a closed group where members published there finished items, ask for advice etc.

A sub group was formed UKQU Mini swap, I joined and was asked to complete a questionnaire mainly on like and dislikes on quilting, colour choices and designs.

We were then give a partner to make a small mini quilt, it was secret so I did not know who was making a Mini for me. Lots of question were posted on the Facebook page and I noted by partners answers. She lived in the south west and like Celtic designs. So I designed this mini quilt. She was thrilled with and said I got her “likes” just right.

The picture below the Celtic design is the mini I received. my secret partner has discovered I like Norfolk and windmill and loved Basic fabrics. A beautiful mini quilt

A day making flowers

Lesley, Rose and myself had all bought a fabric flower kit by Gillian Travis, so we got together one day and made up out kit

I did a day course with Maggie Davies at her house in Highnam, Maggie is a member of our group, but also a very accomplished Quilter, you often she her with her own stand at shows. She is well known for her Hawian Appliqué, and turned appliqué. We did the pink flower on the workshop day, I enjoyed the process and while away in our Motorhome designed and did the darker red flower.

Charlie’s Quilt

My Daughter asked me to make something for her friend who was due to have a baby boy.  A quilt was the only thing I could thing of, so after scouring the internet for designs and ideas. The Dad is in the haulage trade and they live on a farm, hence all the machinery. I designed and put together this quilt, the fabric was from Higgs and Higgs. I machined appliqué the  vehicles onto the background.

Her friend was so please with it, she wanted it hung on the wall, so I put a sleeve on it for her

Book Covers

A member of our group Julia ran a work shop on the beautiful book covers, a good way of using the various stitches on sewing machines.  I made several of them for Christmas Presents, but these two I kept for myself

Christmas 2014

A friend who has a large cutting machine, had a dye with these swirling shapes and a design for a Christmas Tree.  The shapes were machine appliquéd onto the white background

For the Christmas Challenge at our Group we were asked to make a 12 inch block, I was fascinated by Julia Ganha’s work, so I tried to replicate her work.  The trees are fussy cut out of Christmas fabric and tiny squares and triangles for houses. The method is quite simple, place and glue  the small pieces of  fabric in the required position, cover the block whole block with sheering fabric and free motion quilt across the design.  I actually won the best block, voted by the group members, very pleased with that

As we tour around in our motorhome I like to take some hand sewing, so this was my project for the summer of 2014. Taken from the book Asian Elegance by Kitty and Sylvia Pippen

It hung on my living room wall for three years

After doing the Farmers Wife which contained many small pieces, I just wanted to sit at my machine and sew. So I found a pattern in the Patchwork Magazine, I already had a jelly roll in my stash. The blocks  went together in a afternoon, it took much longer to put the borders on and then quilt. Just straight forward quilting across the blocks.

The Exhibition was held in June, a very successful day. Our chosen Charity was the local Children’s cancer ward, we donate money to help decorate the ward. I helped to run the Sales Table

My entries were

Orchard

Kaleidoscope

Shot Cotton

House of Hearts

Field of Flowers

Farmer’s Wife

Three Angels

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This is probable my favourite quilt to date

This was Highnam Quilter’s “Round Robin” challenge. We were asked to choose a block and fabric.

My fabric choice was all batiks

My block choice was the “Honey Bee” from Lyn Edwards sampler book

I did the first block, put it in a bag and waited.

Each month the bag was passed to a different member of the group. I never saw the bag again until 12 months later. The following ladies each completed a block

Cathy

Linda Simmons

Vron Evans

Gabby Davies

Betty Baker

Pat Train

Mary Howard

Katie Sargent

Linda Kerswell

Hillary Egglestone

Ali Bates

A big thank you to all of them, I put the quilt together with some red sashing and am so thrilled with the results, exactly what I asked for a Field of Flowers

For Christmas this I made some personal gifts

A jewellery box for Karen

A book cover for Laura

A cushion for Wayne

And some ducks

At one of our group meetings we had a speaker Sadie Yoemans who introduced us to her quilt “House of Hearts”

This was my first main attempt at appliqué, the original centre block was Red Work, but I designed my own appliqué house

A member of Highnam Quilters suggested we do this, so a small group of us started this quilt. I chose fabrics in blues and pinks. As I went along it became obvious that I had two set of fabrics, so instead of making one large quilt, I made a reversal quilt.  Gosh! did  I have problems getting the two sides to marry up. well here it is.

My Second Highnam challenge – something for Christmas with an Angel Theme

From Nancy Halvorsen’s book “Angels Among Us” I made these three blocks