Another Phase

The top has now been sandwiched with the great help of my friend Jilly and her borrowed kitchen island (a long story) and I have begun quilting! 

I feel in my bones that it is going to take a while because I have decided to do another version in different colours.

Actually it won't be the same, as I have widened my net and am including blocks I have seen on quilts of the same era that I discovered since this saga began!

I have also bitten the bullet and bought Electric Quilt for Mac which was launched in April.  I debated long and hard about this because I had the pc version and really didn't want to spend more out on software.  I think I have wasted more money on software than any other single thing.  I buy a new programme full of optimism only to fall by the wayside when I try and use it.  I only wish there was someone who could give me some one to one tuition as I believe I only need the most basic application of this very sophisticated programme.

There was one block on the Sundial coverlet that I just didn't have a clear enough picture of to be able to draft a pattern and it really bugs me. 

So today I have written to the V&A to ask for their help!  Fingers crossed that they will be able to send me a better image?  To get this image I photographed the museum's image and enlarged it and it isn't bad.  It seems to be a sort of Dresden Plate but I would like it just a little bit clearer!

Watch this space for the results and for my progress!

Pegged out!

Today is a lovely sunny day with a slight breeze, so I grabbed this rare opportunity to take a picture of the coverlet so far -

I am very undecided whether or not it needs another border?  I feel it does, but for the life of me I can't find any fabric suitable, though I have auditioned quite a few.  But then I don't want it to end up too big, because it makes quilting a long and laborious task and borders take forever to do!  I know that because I am tussling with one at the moment!

I also feel that it needs a few bugs around the flowers in the baskets and on the large side ones,  so I am searching my fabrics for suitable bits to attach, but no success so far!

Sorry for the delay!

Thank you for all your lovely comments. 

I am sorry I am so slow in getting to the next stage, but I am having cold feet about cutting and mitering this border! I know this is quite ridiculous because I have so much of it, but have been quite hit for six by having a whole roll to play with!  Almost too much to cope with!

I have cut four pieces and washed them in readiness and when I have a quiet day I will proceed.  Hopefully it will be soon?  In the meantime I am working on other projects, quilting two quilts and piecing another two!

Please bear with me, I will get there eventually!

The border has arrived!

Well just look at this -

probably 20 plus meters of the much sought after border!  I am so excited!

My friend Sonia delivered it and we couldn't resist trying it around the patchwork -

Of course this is very roughly placed, but I am sure you will agree that it looks good?

I'm waiting for the weather to cool down a bit before I start cutting!  I don't operate well in hot weather and even with all this fabric I don't want to make mistakes.  I also need to wash the border pieces I cut, as the fabric that I already had, did shrink a little! 

I will also be adding an outer border of a favourite plum/purple Laura Ashley fabric - so still a way to go, especially as I will be sewing the blocks to the floral border by hand! 

Something wonderful has happened!

I have been in the Cotswolds for a few days celebrating my birthday and I received an email greeting and attached was a picture of the Laura Ashley border I needed to finish this quilt, asking if this was the one I was looking for!  It was the best birthday surprise! Later messages confirmed that a whole roll had been found amongst a collection of fabrics donated to a local quilt group by the family of my friend June Rees.

My dear friend June died suddenly last Christmas and her death has affected me deeply and I miss her dreadfully. I knew she had a collection of LA borders because at one time you could buy them very cheaply in their summer and winter sales and June was an early riser who would be there when the doors opened!  I lived further away in those days, so that was my excuse for not being there with her, but she would take my list of wants and buy for me!

A whole roll of border!  I can hardly believe it!  Now I have enough to mitre the corners if  I decide to and the fact that it came from June makes it so special to me.  I know you will understand how I feel?  This is a special project and it is now made even more special by being able to complete it using my dear friend's fabric.  It feels as if she has left me a gift that she knew I would particularly appreciate.  I am feeling very emotional as I type this!

Now I have to get on with the project, so watch this space!  I shall begin again in a few weeks, because next week I am visiting the Quilt Museum in York for the first time and am delivering my Charles and Diana quilt which is to be exhibited there in September and, because I have been away from home,  I have lots to catch up on before then!

I will be back as soon as I can!

On hold again!

I fear that this project is bogged down again! Though I thought I had enough border I am about 2 inches short and that is using every scrap and not even to try matching!  I am feeling very frustrated, so near and yet so far! 

I agree with Susan's comment that not mitering is more in keeping with the era the quilt was made, but the Sundial coverlet has mitering which is a bit annoying!

You can see it quite clearly in the above picture and it also has it in other places on the coverlet.

When I was searching for that image I found this one -

This was on Carolyn's Quilting Room blog as a Block of the Month project.  It's looking good - what a mammoth project!

I am still scanning eBay for more of this border -

If anyone can help I would be extremely grateful?

Corner solutions?

One of my friends has come to my rescue re the vintage Laura Ashley border I am searching for.  I could still do with another meter because at the moment I haven't enough to miter the corners.  I don't normally do this because, not only is it not usually done on English coverlets, but I hate the faff of it, but in this case I know it would look good.  However, unless another piece of border miraculously appears in a fairly short time, I am working on corner piece solutions.

Here is Bella, not helping at all!  I turn my back and this is what happens!

I have been trying out colours for the four corner blocks, you can just see what I have selected in this picture.

The large flowers are made of upholstery fabric and have had to be stablised with Fraycheck as they were fraying as I tried to attach them with herringbone stitch.

This is a close-up of the Liberty fabric I have chosen for the corners!

I am applying little hexagons to each corner piece.  They are slightly smaller than the others - I reduced the templates 10% on my photocopier - such a handy tool for patchwork!

I love doing these little hexagons to apply but a whole quilt would be a nightmare!  Sorry about the creases, they will all have a good press eventually!

My publisher wants me to do a little book on this quilt and I am working on ideas, but first of all I have to finish it!

Progress and problems

It is a few weeks since I last posted. The bereavement I had over Christmas has left me with no interest in sewing, in fact no creative spark at all.

I have, however, attached the baskets to the corners and have now started applying various hexagons and flower sprays to the inner border.

The sprays are still in their paper form as I need to feel a bit more creative than I do at the moment, to tackle them.

I have been auditioning fabric for a border to surround the blocks and this one would do the job beautifully -

but I only have this fairly small amount.  It is a vintage Laura Ashley border and though I am looking on eBay, I very much doubt if I will find any, but I live in hope.  I have a vague Plan B but it won't be nearly as effective, so I will hang on a bit.  If anyone out there knows or has this border I would be most grateful to buy some - I need about 10 yards.

Baskets finished - well almost!

It has been such a long time since I last posted because progress has been rather slow.  However, I have very nearly finished the four baskets which are to be the corner pieces of the blocks.  If you look closely you will see a needle because I have just one flower to attach.

I have chosen to do my applique in herringbone stitch because that was traditional on early English quilts.  I enjoy doing this stitch but I am not a fan of applique.  I know some just love doing applique but I really don't enjoy it and much prefer piecing, but this coverlet needed applique baskets so I have persevered.

The next stage will be to piece them in and then try and work out what fabric will be best for the surrounding border.  That will require some auditioning which will of course mean a very untidy workroom until the choice is made!

Sampler dated 1795

It's slow progress at the moment.  I am filling the first basket with flowers and finding it rather tedious and I have three more to do!  I will post a picture as soon as one is finished!

In the meantime, following my policy of showing things contemporary to the Sundial Coverlet, I found this sampler by Martha Grubb dated 1795 via the Needleprint blog.

 
It's being sold at  Roseberys on 10 November ( Lot 627) and I apologise for the not very good pictures. The one in the catalogue was small and couldn't be enlarged so I asked for better ones and this is the best they could do.  However, just look at the content!  I think it gives a real flavour of the era and it thrills me that the maker of the Sundial could have sewn a similar one!

Portrait of a Lady.

I came across this portrait while browsing the Internet and couldn't resist showing it.  The dates chime with the Sundial Coverlet so MCB, the maker whose initials are on the coverlet, could have looked very like this lady. 

While I am working on my quilt I am constantly looking for late 18th century links as I find it helps to keep me motivated and it's amazing what turns up!

The portrait is of Deborah Richmond and it is in the Abbey Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum in Williamsburg.  I was surprised to see it  described as a portrait of a young lady - it certainly isn't very flattering!  Do you think she would have done patchwork? 

If you would like to read more about her,  here is the link

Filling the Basket

There are to be baskets on the four corners of the quilt and I have based the design on one seen on a similar quilt to the Sundial, dated 1799.

I  photocopied the fabric I intend using and auditioned the cut out paper pieces on the square of background ticking -

The handle won't be white - this was just the ordinary paper template!

Sorry this picture  is a bit out of focus, I took it hurriedly this morning,  it is just to give an idea where the baskets are to be placed.

 
You will notice that I have at last sewn all the squares together - no more Block Butler!  I I did it by hand as many of the pieces needed a bit of easing in.  I couldn't do this on the sewing machine as I am not a good enough machinist, so I think it will all hand sewn - apart maybe from the very outer borders - but a long way to go yet!


  

Cottage Orne Continued

It is now just over a year since I began this blog recording my tribute to the Sundial Coverlet at the Victoria and Albert Museum.  I put it on hold this March, simply because I needed a rest from it and had other projects that needed my attention.  Do any of you feel like this on a long project?  Sometimes I simply run out of steam and need a break, however I do admire those who stick to one project and pursue it to the end.

Well now I have begun again - here is the centre of the quilt still floating freely -

and here it is being auditioned (on my sitting room floor) with surrounding border -

Do you ever have a fabric which you want to included in a quilt but no matter how you try it just won't go?
Well I regularly have this problem, this is my current "no it really doesn't work" fabric -

It's a piece of lovely G.P. & J Baker curtaining called "Parrot and Pineapple" and has the same delicate colouring but so far it keeps being rejected.  Rather than cut into fabric I usually photocopy a section then cut out pieces and audition that -

It's a slow process and I envy anyone who has a design wall and doesn't have to use the floor with cats wandering around!

I also have another problem - my patterns, notes and some already worked bits are in one of these boxes  which have been packed prior to having the tiled floor in my workroom restored -

 
This was done before I decided to return to the quilt.  They are too heavy for me to explore so I am waiting for a willing pair of hands to appear!

Sorry - project on hold!

I am so sorry I have been absent this year.  In truth I have had to shelve this project because of other commitments but when time permits I am sewing the little blocks together.  I have certainly not abandoned it and as soon as I am able I will return! 

Last three small blocks

Sorry that I haven't posted for a while but here are the last three small blocks -

As I mentioned in my last post, I did consider including a rather complicated star block which I found on an old Dutch quilt - I even drafted in on graph paper, but then decided against it.  These blocks are taken from an English quilt dated 1799 and are fairly simple.

As I have a few Christmas projects to work on,  I am now going to take a break and begin again in the New Year, when I will be starting on the four corner basket blocks. 

Tune in again in 2012 when I will continue on my journey! 

Bit of a set back - not the last four blocks!

Though I haven't updated this blog for a while, I have been working on the quilt, albeit a bit spasmodically.  I suppose it is inevitable that the pace lags a bit on this sort of project, because life gets in the way and life in the form of a collapsed drain has managed to intrude! 

The set back wasn't that though!  It is simply that I miscalculated the number of small blocks.  I thought these were the last four -

but when I laid everything out on the spare bed this morning, I discovered that I needed three more, making a total of sixty six.

As I said in a previous post, I am now not drafting exclusively Sundial block patterns, but taking ideas for blocks from other quilts made around the same time e.g. in the first picture only the two top blocks are from the Sundial.  I have just seen a lovely star block in a picture of an old Dutch quilt and I am going to draft that.  Back to the drawing board!

Another at last!

Apologies for not posting, in truth I had very little to show and even now I only have one complete block, the other, as you can see, is nearly there but not quite  -

The completed Compass Rose Block was based on one at the centre of a quilt made in 1799, with a similar layout to the Sundial but with very much simpler blocks. 

The secondary spokes of the compass, which I did in brown, really aren't strong enough and don't hold their own with the outer ring of pieces.  I should have chosen stronger contrasts but I actually quite like its subtlety.  Just to liven it up a bit I pieced it into a striped background which gives the block a bit of zing!

The unfinished piece is from the Sundial and I'm struggling with the piecing of this much more than the Compass Rose.  I can never understand why these Compass blocks are considered difficult because they are all straight piecing, you just have to get the fabric choice right!

After these two, I have only four small blocks to work and I have cut out two today, so will be able to settle down this evening and piece while watching "Downton Abbey"  (UK favourite Sunday Evening Drama).  It's  on ITV unfortunately because it there are so many adverts that one needs a diversion!

When I finish the little blocks I then begin the four larger corner blocks and of course the internal borders, so a long way to go!

One Simple and another a bit fiddly!

As you may have read on my Little Welsh Quilts blog, I have been gadding around lately!  I have also been having a few house problems which have rather wound me up and I haven't had the concentration to draft and cut out blocks with such tiny pieces. The sewing part is relatively straightforward but even that lapsed and I have been quilting the edges of  my "Little Welsh Treasure"  which is a much simpler job.  I am teaching this at the Jen Jones Quilt Centre in Lampeter next April.  I don't think it has been announced yet but if you are interested keep an eye on this link -http://www.jen-jones.com/QuiltCentre/Workshops.html

 I have, however, completed two blocks I prepared before my travels began-

The above block, which was the fiddly one because it has so many tiny pieces, was taken from The Jane Pizar quilt in the Cheltenham Museum, which I believe was made around the same time as the Sundial even though it has a later attributed date.

and this much simpler one based on a panel dated 1786 in the V&A quilt collection which was exhibited last year.

I have cut out a Compass Rose block based on one at the centre of a Cumbrian quilt date 1799, so perhaps I will start it this evening while watching Downton Abbey.  This would be good entertainment if it weren't being completely spoiled by so many adverts which makes it difficult to watch - piecing keeps me from getting too irritated! 

Another three!

I have been catching up after a few days in the Cotswolds.  I didn't take any blocks with me, as one needs a good light to sew these rather fiddly pieces and that is not always guaranteed in a holiday rental.  So on my return last Sunday I finished these three and cut out the next block.

I was so busy making sure that the cat on my cushion was in the picture, I didn't notice that the blocks were facing the wrong way, so I have cropped and turned them around! 

Only the block with green in it is from the Sundial.  The Sunflower block is a variation and the one on the right is from the Ann Randoll quilt dated 1802 which was also exhibited at the V&A last year.

Now I am tuned in, I am finding interesting blocks from quilts of the same era which I may well include.  At the moment I am drafting a Compass Rose block dated 1799!   

New piece of Liberty Lawn

I have been away for a few days and there has been no progress on the quilt.  However, I thought you might like to see the piece of fabric I bought last week which I mentioned buying whilst writing my post?   I think it has possibilities?   I am now not sure where and how but it might well work?  The largest flowers are about an inch across and some are smaller, which is useful.

I folded the fabric and photographed both sides - the bottom half of the picture is the reverse of the fabric,  you have to look hard to see the difference, but it is there.  The colouring on the reverse is ever so slightly blurry which is useful - sometimes you need a bit of subtlety.


I might do some Broderie Perse with it because each flower is well defined which works best with that technique.  Too many printed flowers have indistinct edges which aren't ideal because then you have add definition with embroidery which is a chore and sometimes doesn't work.