Patchwork, Pudding and Peas

One of my favourite pastimes is sewing patchwork quilts;  I've been making quilts on and off for over 20 years.  I don't pretend to be brilliant at it or an expert but I do love it.  I handsew the quilts as I find something infinitely relaxing about quiet rhythm of needle and thread.

I'm lucky enough to belong to the village quilting group; a group of lovely ladies who meet up twice a month to chat, drink coffee and tea and sometimes enjoy cake - and yes some sewing takes place.  I'm an oddity in the group as most of the ladies use machines and produce the most beautiful work;  one of the joys of the group is the open hearted admiration and support for everyone's work, as well as the wealth of knowledge when it comes to troubleshooting problems with techniques.

At the moment I'm sewing a simple nine-patch quilt for a friend.

I'm using the paper piecing technique, where each part of the quilt is backed with papers (which are removed before the backing and stuffing are added). It's an old fashioned technique but very easy to learn and gives you nice sharp edges to the blocks.

 I'm using florals and cream to create the nine-patches which are arranged in a random colour way on an 8x8 grid with each colour appearing only once in each column and row - hence the carefully numbered piles of blocks, so I know what block goes where!

 Blocks joined into strips.

Strips being joined together.

The blocks all pieced together.

A close up of the colours which sadly look a bit washed out in the rain drenched light.  :-(

They look really crisp and pretty in real life - honest.

 Ironing edges in the first border strips.

I still have to sew up the simple narrow blocks for the outer border and then add the bias binding before I start to take out the paper pieces - a tedious task I have to admit -

and then the quilting begins; I'm going for a random selection of different sized heart shaped outlines.  

Hopefully our friend will love it.

Now for something completely different....

all this rainy weather with below average temperatures has meant that the usual salads and light quiches has given way to more autumnal meals and as it poured down last week I dug into the freezer for the ingredients for ....

 ...steamed steak and kidney suet pudding.

This sumptuous comfort food is a real favourite with Jean-Luc and takes over 3 hours to cook as you cook the filling first.  The great thing about this is you can make loads of filling and then freeze the excess for another day.  The recipe is from Nigella's  Domestic Goddess book; which, as you'd expect, is filled with wonderfully luxurious recipes to treat yourself with.

I had some leftover suet pastry and having found some leftover damson jam in the fridge which was a little past its best for smearing on toast but perfect for spreading over the pastry which was then rolled and baked for jam roly poly.  Oh yes we had it with custard and resulted in a very happy albeit very full Jean-Luc.

We served the steak and kidney pudding with light vegetables including our first small crop of home grown peas.  Hooray!  They are along with the lettuce, chard and hopefully broad beans are the few meagre veggies which have defeated both the slugs and the dreadfully cold and wet summer this year - unlike the kale and courgettes.

Oh well, lessons learnt I suppose but extremely frustrating, especially after my glowing visions of abundant produce filling the freezer for winter.  Pffeh as the Nu would say.

Glorious and delicious garden produce.

Harrogate Quilt Show 2014

Sadly we didn't get to Yarndale last weekend as we were still recovering from the plague.

However, I did make it to the Harrogate Quilt Show in August, with the village quilting group; and so here is a purely personal tour through some of the gorgeous works of art that were there.  

I do have to apologise as I stupidly didn't take any notes of the names of the talented artists who appear here.

Prepare to be amazed by the skill and sheer creativity that these quilts display.

The show had masses of top quality vendors selling an amazing range of  fabulous fabrics, haberdashery and equipment - heaven.

My favourite quilt from the whole show was this one.

It was stunning.  An amazing landscape that was redolent of  the stark beauty of the desert.  The level of skill this quilt displays just struck me speechless - I had to go back three times just to look at it again.

Here are some close ups of it so you can share it's gorgeousness.

 Pieced star and machine quilting

 A fantastic range of colours build up into rocks, mountains and vistas of startling beauty.

The quilting, embroidery and dew like crystals add to texture and sumptuousness of this utterly wonderful quilt.

Did I mention this one was my favourite?

 And then I found these jackets. Wow!

Wearable art.

There was a lot of tweed being used in really interesting and inventive ways and I bought some beautiful scraps to play with - really bright and cheerful colours, not the usual muddy colours we tend to associate with tweed.  A real eye opener for me and one of the best reasons to go to a show - to have your boundaries expanded.

 These two quilts were made by the same artist.  I love the landscape - it's so three dimensional and quintessentially British, with a really subtle use of colour and tone.

The one below is a masterpiece of piecing (unintentional pun there) made from hexagons and diamonds.

There were miniatures - absolute gems of loveliness.

Yes that quilt really is that tiny one on the middle left between the two ladies.

 This absolute miracle of piecing was stunningly gorgeous and for some reason reminded me of  blueberry ripple ice cream.  Just look at the precision and crispness of that piecing! 

 There was applique - this one reminded me of an Arts and Crafts tapestry.

Exquisite applique with bees and dragonflies.

.

And finally - I don't really do celebrity worshipping but in the midst of all this artistry and sewing skill I espied this man...

Stewart Hillard, one of the contestants from the 1st Great British Sewing Bee.  He was charming, polite and in no way fazed by my asking to take a photo.  Of course he didn't see me then dart behind a stall and frantically text my sister with the news - she was equally thrilled - whilst jumping up and down with glee.   

Some people are just a pleasure to meet and Stewart Hillard was one.

It was energising, inspiring and full of gobsmackingly, achingly beautiful quilts.  The women who made them are true artists and it was a privilege and a pleasure to view their work.

I've got loads of ideas, some fabulous fabric to try out...all I need now is some time to do it all in.

I hope you enjoy this small selection of a truly amazing exhibition.