Many of you will have bought some of former member Loryn Green’s fabrics at the January meeting. These were generously donated to the London Quilters by Loryn’s husband, Chris. Here is a photograph of one of Loryn's quilts called Rainbow which was used to decorate the altar at her memorial service in June (a colour version will be on the Notice Board and can also be viewed on the LQ website). Chris would like to commission a similar quilt and present it to the church to use as an altar cloth. While not an exact copy, he would like the quilt to be recognisably derived from and close to Loryn’s original creation. It would be a bit less than half the size of her quilt, about the equivalent of 5 squares by 3. Chris will talk to the vicar about the precise specification. He was wondering whether any London Quilters would be interested in this commission. If so, please contact him at 020 8348 0640 or cgreenery@blueyonder.co.uk Could you also please let me (Linda Seward: l.seward@virgin.net) know if you are planning to take up this commission.
FRANCES
KRUPKA A WINNER!
I thought London Quilters might be interested in how a former member fared at the Bernina Fashion Show this year in Houston, Texas. I'm sorry I wasn't able to show London Quilters the outfit I made for the show, but timing just wasn't right between finishing and shipping. "Black Tie Affair" was voted Viewers’ Choice at the showing for Market, the trade event scheduled the weekend before the International Quilt Festival. You can imagine my excitement at the end of the public show to find I was one of the 3 winners. I was thrilled to be so honoured! The Bernina Fashion Show will be at the Patchwork and Quilt Expo in The Hague April 29 -May 2, 2004. Thanks to all of you for your support the past 4 years! Courtesy of Bernina, you can see pictures from the Fashion Show and Festival on their website; the link below will take you directly to that page. http://www.berninausa.com/events/iqf2003f/index.asp?token=1068135721382
MILK
CHOCOLATE CRUNCHIES by Judith Roose
These delicious biscuits were served at the LQ Christmas party.
8 3/4 oz / 250 gm digestive biscuits
4 oz / 110 gm butter
3 tbsp syrup
2 tbsp cocoa powder
2 oz / 50 gm raisins
7 oz / 200 gm milk chocolate
Crush the biscuits. Melt the butter and syrup, then add the cocoa powder and raisins. Add the
crushed biscuits. Press the mixture into the base of a buttered and lined 7inch
cake tin and cool in the fridge. Melt the chocolate and pour over the base.
When slightly cold, cut into slices and leave in the fridge to set completely.
Enjoy!!
CHAIR
CHAT
Dear LQ Members,
I hope everyone had a great time over the holidays, whether or not you got any quilting done! As I write this, with an inch of snow on the ground outside, I find myself more inclined to curl up under a quilt than to work on one. By the time you read it, I will have completed the final border on the endless purple quilt - flying geese - and made another postcard sized Valentine quilt for my husband - not quite a yearly endeavour, but I try. So, what does the year ahead hold? Our group quilt, with the paper pieced houses and trees, is coming along nicely, thanks to all of you who have made, or are in the process of making, blocks for it! More news later on our plans for quilting it. Tricia has booked some exciting speakers, and a couple of interesting workshops. Charlotte has come up with a great idea for re-housing your orphan blocks - see elsewhere in this Newsletter. It’s also time to start planning our next exhibition. Volunteers for the Exhibition Committee are urgently needed! If reviewing exhibitions, rather than arranging them, is more your thing, London Quilters have also been asked as a group to review this year’s Birmingham NEC exhibition for Our Patch, the Quilter’s Guild Region 1 Newsletter. See elsewhere in this Newsletter for contact information. I hope we have provided something of interest for everyone - as always, if there is something you would particularly like us to do, or some speaker or workshop you would like to have, please let me or Tricia know! Happy quilting,
WANTED: REVIEWERS!
Last year Our Patch, Region 1’s Newsletter for The Quilters' Guild of the British Isles, invited Dulwich Quilters to write a group review of the first exhibition of the Festival of Quilts. This worked very well. This year, Our Patch has invited The London Quilters to send in a group review of the Festival of Quilts, NEC Exhibition Centre, Birmingham, August 19 - 22. If you would like to take part in this, please contact Margaret Scholey-Hill at the London Quilters meetings or e-mail dhill60@onetel.net.uk. The review will be in the September 2004 issue.
DO YOU LIKE HEXAGONS?
I have a handmade patchwork quilt which was started by my mother- in-law. She died in November. So much work has gone into it, we do not want to throw it away. I have all the pieces in Barnet, North London. Is there anyone who would like to take on the challenge? It is a design based on small 6 sided shapes. I believe all the pieces are cut out and nearly all are sewn onto cardboard shapes. About half have then been sewn together. I believe it would be a double bed size when completed. I just would like to find someone to enjoy it. We do not want the quilt afterwards. Thanks. Penny Baxter 020 8440 5546 Penny@jbaxter.waitrose.com
DIGITAL QUILTING by Tricia
Revest
I always have problems designing quilting patterns. I am often stuck with indecision and a fear of spoiling a good quilt and as a way of trying to move forwards have found a useful way to try them out first. If you have succumbed to the lure of a digital camera then there is an extra use that you can find for the camera and your computer. When you have finished your next top, take a picture of it and load it onto your computer. It doesn't matter if the picture is a bit rough. You just need to be able to see the patchwork pattern. My own digital camera was very cheap (about £30) and is at times quite blurry. As part of Windows you will have a program installed on your computer called Paint. Open your quilt picture in this program and size it to just fill the screen and then you can sketch your quilting design. It’s a good idea to save the image first so that you can always go back to the blank canvas (e.g. quiltname.jpg). If you want straight lines use the straight line tool and pick a colour for your quilt pattern. There are also pencil tools which you can use to draw freehand and a curve tool which does smooth curves called Bezier curves although these are more difficult to use. If you make a mistake you can either correct it immediately by using the undo (Edit ñ Undo or ctrl Z) or just by reloading the original image. When you've finished the pattern save it using another name (e.g. quiltnamequilting1.jpg). You can then reload the original and try again. When you've completed a few trial patterns you can print them out and compare them side by side. You can do all these things in other graphics programs such as Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop with the advantage that you can open multiple images at once so you don’t even need to print them out.
THE GROUP QUILT by
Tricia Revest
A big thanks to all the members who have contributed to the group quilt. After the January meeting, we have now collected about half of the blocks required. Some members have promised to do more blocks and some blocks are still expected. Hopefully by the end of the February meeting we should have most of the blocks completed. In order to match the outer border with the centre, could all members who have contributed blocks bring a few patches 2 inches by 4 inches. These can then be incorporated into the outer border. At a future meeting there will be a chance to sign your name on a fabric swatch that will be attached to the back of the quilt. I’ve always felt that this poem would inspire a quilt. Charles’s Wain is a reference to the constellation now known as The Plough.
The weather's cast its cloak of grey
Woven of wind and cold and rain,
And wears embroidered clothes again
Of clear sunshine, in fair array.
No beast, no bird, but in its way
Cries out or sings in wood and plain:
The weather’s cast its cloak of grey
Woven of wind and cold and rain.
River and spring and brook this day
Wear handsome liveries that feign
More silver stars than Charles’s Wain,
Mingled with drops of golden spray.
The weather’s cast its cloak of grey.
QUILTERS’ RETREAT by Jean
Nissan
Last autumn I found that Sunflower Fabrics of Bedford was advertising ‘Quilters’ Retreats’. This sounded like heaven - I have been on many quilting weekends, but all included intensive teaching and sewing - enjoyable, well worthwhile, but in no way relaxing. A retreat conjured up visions of an unstressed weekend, happily sewing at my own pace and with no other calls on my time. I hastened to book for the first one and to my joy it was all I had expected and more. The hotel - near Bedford - was quiet and comfortable and we had plenty of space. The weekend was based on using up scraps and although we mostly brought our own, Maggie White of Sunflower Fabrics brought a large binful of scraps from which we were encouraged to help ourselves. We were each given a pretty basket with fabrics, a pattern, and hand and machine sewing needles. Each basket was different, and the one on my table contained four fat quarters of Liberty small floral prints. This at first gave me a problem, since I don’t usually use small florals but I knew these were exceptionally good fabrics and that if I took them home they would stay in a cupboard unused. It was clear from the beginning that we could make whatever we liked so I decided I must use them there and then. This was my relaxed weekend, so I used the fabrics in the simplest possible way - four fabrics in blocks of 16 squares separated by sashing from beautifully soft washed calico I bought from Maggie, and cornerstones from the only scraps of my own fabric I used. Surprise, surprise. I had used fabrics I would not have considered, used calico for sashing at Maggie’s suggestion (another first for me) and I love the end result. Even better my son and his wife are waiting eagerly for me to quilt and finish it and give it to them. These are not weekends for people wanting a challenge, and one would be unlikely to produce an art quilt - though no-one would stop you. Maggie herself describes her own preference as "traditional, but with a twist", and that is what most of us were aiming at. As expected, it turned out to be a happy, relaxed and productive time. I think we will all go to one or more of the other retreats planned for the next few months. They include one on Small Quilts and another on Appliqué. Maggie makes very effective use of appliqué on her quilts, and I think I will book for that one. Details are on the Sunflower Fabrics website, www.sunflower fabrics.com Incidentally this a very attractive site, regularly updated as items go out of stock and new fabrics arrive. The mail order service is prompt and friendly.
ORPHAN BLOCKS
Let’s make use of our unwanted patchwork or appliqué blocks. The London Quilters is going to introduce a new idea, courtesy of Charlotte - The London Block Exchange. The idea is to deposit any UFO’s into a box at each meeting. For each block, you will receive a raffle ticket for that meeting’s raffle. At the AGM, we will group similar blocks together and have another raffle so the winner can receive a group of compatible blocks with which to make a quilt. So look through your drawers and cupboards and get rid of those unwanted blocks
QUILTERS’ GUILD NEWS
Dear Quilters:
The Victoria and Albert Museum is running 'Art of the Stitch' days on 19th-20th March, which includes a talk by Susan Denton on the Saturday. In addition there is a quilt exhibition in one of the textile rooms (room 101!) which includes work by Elizabeth Brimelow and Michele Walker. Confusingly also called 'Art of the Stitch', the Embroiderers' Guild show is moving to Hall Place and Gardens in Kent in March until May. Also in Central London the Opus School of Textiles is running a show called Prism at the Mall Galleries in February, and Quilts by Annette Claxton together with photographs by Robert Claxton, are currently on show in the Temple. The closing date for Quilts UK at Malvern is 28th February. In addition entry forms are already available for the next Festival of Quilts in August at the NEC with expressions of interest required by 28th May. Just outside London there is Hanging Together IV at East Grinstead in February, not forgetting the Quilters' Guild AGM in Eastbourne in April. We hope to see many Region 1 members there this year as it is not too far from the South East. Spring Regional Day March 6th: The speakers are Eliza McLelland and Sandra Meech and there will be the usual items such as Traders, Show and Tell and the Raffle. The challenge is 'Gothic' with a quilted item (either flat or 3D) up to 24"/60 cm across. Just bring your entries on the day, the winner will be the Visitors’ Choice. Booking forms will be enclosed with Our Patch but you can also come on the day. As well as the raffle we are running a quilter's tombola following the success of the last one. If you have any new or unused as new items that you are willing to donate please bring them and give them to us on the day. Suitable items would include fat quarters and small fabric bundles (not scraps), threads, books, patterns, needles and notions. Best wishes, Cathy Corbishley Michel, e-mail: qgrl@yahoo.com Members representative - Region 1 Website: www.qgr1.freeserve.co.uk http://www.qgrl.freeserve.co.uk
EXHIBITIONS
Hanging Together IV: seven quilt artists each with an individual approach to design, texture and stitch. February. At: Greenstead Gallery, Chequer Mead Theatre and Art Centre, De La Warr Road, East Grinstead, West Sussex RH19 3BS For opening times, phone 01342 302000
Piece by Piece: an exhibition of stitched and quilted textiles by Mavis Haslam 17 June - 3 July 2004 At: The Library Gallery, Blackheath Grove, Blackheath Village, London SE3 Open: Tues & Thurs 9:30 - 8, Sat 9:30 -5 (closed for lunch 12:30 - 1:30) Free entry Further information from Mavis Haslam tel. 020 8303 4069 jandm.haslam@ntlworld.com
DISCOVERED!: an exhibition of art quilts by Colour FX: Marlene Cohen, Claire Crocker, Margaret Jarvie, Alicia Merrett, Christine Restall, Stefanie Rickard. 30 June - 17 July 2004 At: Gallery Forty-Seven, 47 Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3PB (opposite British Museum) Open: Mon - Sat 10.30 - 4.30 Further information from Stefanie Rickard tel. 020 8455 7620 info@colourfx.org.uk
INTERNET INFORMATION The London Quilters web site address is: http://members.lycos.co.uk/London_Quilters/lq1.htm
It is
run
and
maintained
by
Tricia
Revest,
whose
e-mail
is: p.a.revest@qmul.ac.uk