I have been very busy recently and have let my blog slip. I can only apologise. There are plenty of posts coming up which I hope will go some way to make up for this.
I am starting with the pieces that I entered into the Bristol Quilters Exhibition earlier this month. The first of these is Wreath Wraith. I have no idea why I chose the word ‘wraith’, here; it should have been Wreath Wright, as in someone who makes wreaths. But I think that I might have done so much of this that it made me feel like a wraith or a ghost. My idea was to show how you could make Baltimore style wreaths part of a contemporary quilt.
The appliqué here is all by hand, but the construction of the pieced elements is done on my IKEA sewing machine to show that you don’t need a fancy one to piece. I had to fall back on the Bernina for the machine quilting, though.
I have blogged about making this piece before: (https://annjrippin.wordpress.com/2017/04/17/further-adventures-in-wreath-making/, )and so I thought I would say something about seeing the quilt in the show.
The first thing was my horror in seeing it hanging. About as straight as a dog’s hind leg, as my mother would say. The right-hand-side of this ripples gently and is probably about three inches shorter than the left. Now, I put this down to rushing to finish it, and not hanging it up myself. What a nightmare. Note to self, try the measuring and using a set square the way they tell you to in quilting manuals.
The second thing was my ‘delight’ about being hung next to the totally glorious and perfect appliqué piece by the international championship winning quilter, Sandie Lush.
Just stop for a minute and consider just how perfect this is. Here is a detail:
Not only is the appliqué of a standard to make you weep, but the hand quilting is perfection too. Then look at mine:
Just above entry level. But Sandie is a lovely, gracious and kind woman. She came up to me at the show and said, ‘I love your appliqué. It’s really vibrant and lovely. Mine looks dull and lifeless.’ It didn’t, of course, but very kind of her to say so.
Sandie has a great web page detailing her quilts and her activities. When you see that, you will realise why I was so crimson of mien being placed next to her, and why she is such an inspiration to so many. Her website is here http://www.sandielush.co.uk/
