It seems like ages since I've blogged! Life has suddenly got very full indeed. I did get to the Quilts exhibition at the V&A, and was impressed by some of the pieces, but sadly not by others.

The older fragile quilts were beautiful, if a little difficult to view as they were laid out on a flat surface. However, the electronic guide was very helpful when wanting to see the detail... the tours are on i-Phones now… how times have changed! And you can zoom in and out on the images as you want, the commentary was also excellent! I do recommend it to anyone planning a visit.

It was a shame that there wasn’t more about the making of the quilts, there was one that you could see the back of thanks to some clever display work, but there wasn’t much about how the gorgeous pieces of cotton or silk were sewn together.

What struck me was the difference between the older quilts, most of which were made for necessity or in celebration of an event. The modern pieces however, had more of message, and some I thought lost some of their creativity in favour of ‘meaning’. But I guess, by modern artists using the medium of quilting in their work, they are reviving the craft and hopefully bringing it to the masses so more people can learn the joy of quilting, and possibly become as addicted as I am!

I’ve nearly finished my largest quilt yet, another one using Tanya Whelan’s prints, just got the binding to do now…. Watch this space.

I’ve also planned my first series of classes, the posters go up tomorrow, so fingers crossed I’ll get some interest.

After so many years of being scared of a huge quilt in a ring and not being able to figure out how to use my left hand underneath the mass of fabric, I’ve finally sat down and worked it out, and its actually quite relaxing! As you can probably tell, I’m quite proud of myself today. My Sunburst quilt is definitely one of a lot of firsts. foundation piecing, hand quilting, and now I’m just starting to make my own strips up for the borders using the scraps left over. This quilt has taken me a while, but I’ve loved every minute of it.

I especially love the effect of the white thread on the brown fabric, it really stands out. I think a next project may be some cushions covers with light embroidery on darker fabrics…

This week has also seen my first craft class!! Well, it wasn’t an official one as such, I work part-time in a large craft shop, and I had a mad idea that it might be nice for any willing staff to meet up for tea and cake and to share our crafting knowledge. Quite a few of us are obsessed with one craft or another, so I thought it would be fun… I went first with a demonstration on quilting basics – using a rotary cutter and grid, sewing accurate seam allowances, and so on, then I moved on to the Friendship Star block which I thought could show off the half-triangle square trick. The night went down really well, and everyone seems really enthusiastic about making their own blocks, which is fantastic news! The cake was rather nice too!