Essex Air Ambulance Cheque

The Dovercourt Quilters had a Quilt SHow on the 15th and 16th September to raise funds for Essex Air Ambulance. On the 24th October we handed over a cheque for £1060 and here are the pictures.

Sewing Machine quietener

My sewing machine is relatively new and doesn’t really make much noise, but I have always intended to make a mat for it to sit on. This helps to deaden any sound, protects the table and seems to hold the sewing machine in place better As most of the sewing machine mat will be hidden underneath the machine, I chose a really simple pattern for the patchwork. I rather like this quilt block because it can give the illusion of squares behind squares. My sewing machine base is broadly 8” by 16” so I made two 8” blocks and sewed them together to give the required size. The fabric came from my scrap pile and I chose white plus three fabrics that were basically light, medium and dark. Fabric requirements for both blocks are four 4.1/2” squares of the dark fabric, four 2.1/2” squares each of the white and medium fabrics and eight 2.1/2” squares of the light fabric. Lay the patchwork squares out as shown with the dark squares alternating with four patch units made with the other fabrics. Sew the small squares together to make the four patch units first and then sew the four patch units to the dark squares. Make two of these quilt blocks and sew them together. Layer them with slightly larger rectangles of batting and backing fabric. Here again I was able to use scraps. The simplest method of quilting would be to stitch in the ditch along the seam lines but there’s no need for a huge amount of quilting as this will be sitting underneath your sewing machine – unless you want to use this for quilting practice, of course. Trim the edges of the sewing machine mat and attach binding as for any quilt. I used standard 2.1/2” strips of fabric for the binding, although for such a small project I could probably have used a smaller width of strip. Sorry the pictures for this did come out.

Creative Net

Bag

June 2011

Well I wrote a whole spiel here and lost it all when I went to download the pictures, so only hope I can remember it all again, pictures first I feel.
It is June now and East Anglia has been declared a drought area as it has been so dry, have had to water my little veg patch every day, but am getting some lovely spinach, rocket and strawberries, so not all bad.
Have been quilting as you cans ee, the Fairy quilt is for my Granddaughter as it can get quite cold in Townsville in the winter months. then started a Hnad quilting project of a wall hanging, which had me doing some knitting with Kebab sticks which were only 3 1/2 inches long, great fun though. will take a picture of the bag I also made so I can take some hand sewing when we go out, as sat outside a camera shop for ages the other day, and was wishing I had taken my hand sewing with me, oh well next time I will be prepared.
I have also been down to Jaywick Martello Tower doing some Pottery, had a great day with friends Nick and Lindy and made a pot too, hopefully when it is glazed and fired I can put a pic on here.

Pics of Quilts

April already, goodness how time flies, I have been busy making Quilt squares for the Brisbane Floods, a lovely lady in Melbourne is sewing the squares together and then giving the finished Quilts to people who have lost everything, which is nice, also a quilt for Japan which I have yet to finish,
This first quilt is for my first Great Grandson Zack.
Also Pillowcases for a Cancer Chriuty in Oxford.

Quilts