Enjoying the Quilting Community

I count myself very fortunate to have found the quilting community – both here in my home town and on the world wide web. The key word that seems to best describe this creative community is ‘sharing’; people make beautiful quilts, devise wonderful new patterns and techniques and then share 🙂 A couple of weeks ago, Roundabout Quilters, one of the local quilt groups in my area (we are privileged to have around half a dozen within a thirty mile radius) organised a visit from renowned quilt maker Philippa Naylor. She entertained us with a lively talk on Tuesday evening and the following day we set up our machines in a comfortable Church hall and gained so much from Phillippa sharing her techniques for machine bias strip applique and raw edge applique. Philippa’s background in dress design and garment making was evident in the precision of her work and the details she imparted as she demonstrated and taught the applique skills. The workshop programme was all about learning and developing new skills; so no half finished project to bring home and join the ever deepening pile of UFO’s, instead just a little piece of fabric covered in samples!

I’m glad I treated myself to Philippa Naylor’s book, ‘Applique Mastery’ – there is so much detail regarding technique, materials and tools. Interestingly, she is a great advocate of the use of polyester threads in both piecing and quilting. In my relatively brief time as a patchwork quilter I’ve tended to be a bit of 100% cotton purist. It’s good to hear and see quilters sharing their experiences of experimenting with different materials. Certainly I now feel more open-minded about my choice of quilting threads as there is no arguing with the fantastic results Philippa has achieved in her quilting (including not one but three quilts on permanent show at The National Quilt Museum, Kentucky – here is a link to her Gallery page). 

I have more lovely examples of the sharing that goes on in the quilt community in the form of photos of North Hampshire Quilters recent exhibition (click here to see their exhibition gallery). It was so lovely to visit the exhibition, see the beautiful quilts, meet up with friends (including one who’d flown in from Canada), do a bit of browsing round the stalls and traders stands and then enjoy a cup of tea and a bacon buttie 🙂

And recently I’ve been doing a bit of sharing too, leading a patchwork table runner class at Purple Stitches. Since then I have become a little preoccupied with finishing my sample table runners to display in my selling space at the town centre craft shop which has ‘popped up’ just in time for Christmas!

What with all the above and trying to keep track of our children as they settle into their new occupations I managed to completely miss this blog’s second anniversary – way back on 16th October. There is quite a lot to reflect on in these past two years of writing but that will have to wait…

Ooo! And link ups are another example of the sharing nature of the quilting community 🙂 Today I’m linking with Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts for Let’s Bee Social.

Allison