Making liberating quilts

Me buying a quilting book is a rare happening these days, because most contain projects which use fast piecing methods and as you know that it not my thing at all.  However, I have just bought and read Gwen Marston's book "Liberated Medallion Quilts" and realised whilst reading it, that I have been making liberated quilts for years!  In fact most of my Welsh quilts and indeed most old Welsh quilts fall into this category!

Here is a little one I pieced a while back which is in the quilting queue.  When finishing the edges I intend to slip in a few Prairie Points - just a few groups not all round!  I think that will give it an extra zip?

The centre was begun at a weekend school taken by Janet Bolton.  I have always been a fan of hers but didn't do terribly well on the course.  I didn't want to copy anything she had done and I struggled a bit.  I pieced these free hand flowers there, but when I came home I rejigged it quite a bit and decided to add a few strips and then surround it with little squares.

I used to make blocks of little squares just for the fun of it at one time, not really knowing what I would do with them so they were pressed into service here.

Gwen has been teaching for many years and encourages her students to look at antique quilts and learn from them.  She maintains they are much more interesting to study because they are not perfect and encourages those who attend her famous quilting retreats to make liberated quilts, not perfect ones!  I so agree with this philosophy! 

EB Shelves

Well thank you all for a lovely lot of comments - such a treat to have them and read them and I am so glad you enjoyed seeing the dresser.

I seem to have more reaction to dressers than most things, so while we are on a roll and continuing on views from my computer, if I swing my chair around this is the view -

When I had a new floor in my workroom just before Christmas it was a big upheaval and the room had to be stripped out.  It lasted weeks, as it rained constantly and the floor took ages to dry.  When at last it was time to put everything back, I decided to have a cull of books and put some of my pots out.  This is the result!

These picture were taken a couple of weeks ago so are a little out of date as I keep adding and moving things.  There also is a top shelf but I couldn't get that in.

An ever changing collection of my favourite bits and bobs! 

A dresser from Pinterest

Thank you for your recent interest in my Pinterest posts and your comments - it's so nice to receive comments!  I know there are lots of you out there reading this who don't comment - please take time to leave a comment as I get so envious of other blogs where there are masses!  Dutch readers I know you are there, please say something!  I know many of you are EB fans too because there are quite a few Dutch stockists and I buy from a dealer there!

Well this is really a follow up to my previous blog about pinning pictures. As you know I love dressers and save pictures of them and I found this one on Pinterest recently -

Don't worry I'm not breaking the rules, I asked the pinner and owner of the dresser if I could show it here and she has given me permission to use it.  I just put a comment on the pin and she replied with another comment!

I don't know her but I do wish I did and could visit this dresser and question her on her collection!  What a wondrous thing it is! I especially like the double hung rows of mugs.  Just zoom in on this picture and drool!

Pictures of mixed dressers are few and far between, especially with EB collectors because everyone is matching and co-ordinating. They are also  obsessed with PINK.  Don't get me started on the current obsession with pink objects, that's quite another rant altogether, but sufficient to say that though I do like it as a colour and always have, I now avoid it because I don't was to be associated with  it's girly connotations.  One would think the 70s hadn't happened!

Sorry I did begin to rant, let's go back to this glorious dresser and just admire!

A wonderful May day

It's May Bank Holiday Monday here in the UK and for once the weather is glorious!  Our Bank Holidays are notorious for bad weather, but after such a cold Spring we are due a bit of sunshine.  All the blossom and bulbs are out together and I can't resist showing you my garden and especially my tulips!

This is my view as I sit at my computer typing this - the shot is a bit blurry but it is taken through glass - followed by my containers of tulips in front and back gardens -

I followed Sarah Raven's method of planting the containers - Tulip Lasagna!  It sort of works, as when tulips are planted in layers they do keep coming up and filling in!  However, I didn't buy any of Sarah's wonderfully chosen mixes, I wasn't that organised,  I bought packets of reduced ones in Homebase!

I also can't resist showing you the other view from my seat at the computer - Wilfred reclining on a pile of fabric of course!  As you can see I have been having a bit of a rummage!

Enjoy May, it's the best month of the year for gardens and we have the Chelsea Flower Show in a couple of weeks - yippee!

Thirty Years in the Making!

I am so excited!  I have just heard that my Charles and Diana Wedding Quilt has been accepted for The British Quilt Study Group Exhibition at the Quilt Museum in York.  The exhibition is entitled "It's All in the Making" and opens on the 6th September.  My quilt was chosen as there is a commemorative category! It certainly chimes with the exhibition title as it was 30 years in the making!

I have shown a picture before but here are some other images -

It was far too sunny for good pictures this morning, but I rather like the shadowy effect of the leaves!

Here are some close-ups of the centre and one of the Prince of Wales feathered corners which I based on those on the screen printed panel -

They were looking for quilts that had a story to tell and this one has a bit of a history!  Not only the span of years covered from start to finish, but what happened during that time.  Who could have foretold on that happy Wedding Day when we were all celebrating, that it would be divorce and death.  All so very sad!

Three or four late 18th century samplers

Sometimes I want to write about a subject and I am at a loss to know which of my three blogs on which to post. Well here goes - LWQ has been chosen!

Because I am working on my Sundial tribute which is dated 1795, I am particularly interested in things and happenings around that time as I find it helps to keep me motivated. These samplers were all made when MCB  - the initials on the coverlet - was making it and it's interesting to speculate that had she had the time to sew a sampler, it might have been one like these?

I saw this sampler on the Metropolitan Museum of Art website and though I find this museum's website just as irritating to negotiate as any other museum, at least when you get there they do do good pictures!

Though saying that I have had the most awful trouble trying to download one of a suitable scale! This is my fourth attempt and it isn't as good as I would like so here is the link for you to have a good look at it!  Do zoom in and examine it as it really is the most remarkable piece of needlework.  I marvel at the tiny scenes and the bows of plaited hair! It is English and made by Harriot Holt 1808 (funny spelling of first name) and the materials are quoted as silk, metal thread, paper, hair and mica on wool canvas.

It is very like this sampler that I featured on my Cottage Orne blog a while ago when it went to auction and it is now for sale again -

and this one which is in the Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York -

Lucky New York to have two of our stonkingly good samplers!

The one above  is by Mary Slatter who "ended this April the 29 1791."  The couples' faces are engravings which have been cut out and pasted in place. The windows of the house are mica couched in place. Quilled woven silk ribbon surrounds the bouquet of flowers.

Then there is this one also by Mary Slatter -

Sorry about the poor picture but this is one on the Worcester Art Museum website. Because I have seen a kit of it, brought to my attention by a comment on my blog, I had assumed that it was just a version of the other one dated 1791, but it rather looks that it was another done by a Mary Slatter a year later in 1792. This time she has omitted the house and concentrated on the figures and worked a more elaborate border!

Oh if only we knew more about these samplers!  I get so frustrated, not only because they are widely scattered without anyone recording their history, but I want to know who these girls were, where they lived and in which school they worked this design? The names Holt, Grubb and Slatter might be common in a certain part of England and it might be a clue.  If anyone out there could shed a light?

The floor at St. Paul's Cathedral.

I have just been watching the funeral of Margaret Thatcher on BBC1 and again marvelled at the beauty of St. Paul's - why haven't I been there? I used to go to London regularly but never spared the time to visit this wonderful building!  More fool me, but watching a television service there is the next best thing!

Of course even on a solemn occasion I am always looking for a patchwork opportunity and here it is -

The first image looks computer generated and displays almost the whole wonder of the floor, but doesn't include (crucial for patchworkers) the centre with its diamond surround.   The second one taken from the dome, is how it really is, cluttered by necessary seats full of people, but you can just make out the central diamond border!

Mrs. Thatcher, as most of us still think of her, is a controversial figure here in the UK and many people were against the spending of 10 million pounds on her funeral.  However and whatever we think, it was magnificent and I for one enjoy every opportunity of seeing a big service in St. Paul's, be it a funeral, wedding or thanksgiving service.  The architecture, music and ritual is of the highest order and as I get older I seem to appreciate it more.

Margaret Hilda Thatcher went out in style, she died in the Ritz and had her funeral in St. Paul's.  Very fitting for our first woman Prime Minister - good on her!