Exeter Spring Quilt Festival

We got there way too early after a clear journey up. I think we were the 5th car in the car park! I'd taken a list to remind me what to buy, but forgot to take my camera so couldn't get any shots of the exhibition. This turned out to be a big shame as there were some great quilts on show. I particularly liked a 3-D poppy on a bed sized quilt, the collection of women's suffrage quilts in green white and violet, and the collection made by a group on the theme of "book titles". I've stored that idea away for a possible group challenge next year. They were 12" square, so not too big for even a beginner. I liked the entry for Moby Dick, a 3-D whale fluke with beads strung off it to look like water.

I needed to pick up a pre-ordered bolt of wadding from Lady Sew & Sew, and also bought a mini bolt of jade marble and a roll of pink and chocolate swirl from them. The jade thread is for a quilt I'm planning with the fabric from the BQL Secret Santa swap. I was given 10 pieces. I thought they were FQs but they seem bigger, possibly quarter metres? Anyway they're chocolate and pink, so the jade will give a nice vibrant contrast.



The creamy batik is for the backing of the two baby quilts. I've forgotten which stall I bought it from though.

Also for the baby quilts is this Moda Layer Cake and Jelly Roll. The range is called "Fig and Plum", and I've used 12 pieces from each of them, so plenty left for stashing and other projects. The other things in the photo are a pack of 99 4" squares from Susan Briscoe. All of them are different, and I'm thinking of doing a hand pieced Japanese folded patchwork piece with them. I'm pondering between all muslin backgrounds or varying between white and red.



The final pic is a metre of so of a lime green and chocolate piece. It was an impulse buy from the batik stall, and I've no idea why I bought it! I'm thinking of including it in my bag for the {top secret} with my quilt group on Tuesday.



Finally, but not photographed I bought Valori Wells' Vibrant New York Beauty book. This is to give me more practice in making curved paper pieced blocks ready for making a proper start on the mariner's compass quilt.

Off now to carry on with the Carol Doak March BOM and the baby quilt for Mrs M at school.

Progress

Looking good this morning. It didn't take so very long to piece, I followed Carol Doak's instructions for paper piecing, and found them great! I've done PP before, (of course, see my Dear Jane quilt!) but I'd always had trouble cutting pieces big enough so they covered the patch once they were flipped over, and also reversing angles kind of got me confused...reminds me of the time I was steering a submarine and got totally lost between left and right as the boat went in the opposite direction to the way I steered...anyway I digress.

Carol recommends measuring your patches first, then adding a nice big seam allowance and cutting each piece as a rectangle. You then pin your first patch in place on the reverse of your pattern (I found flower head pins helpful here) Next you fold the pattern back on itself along the first seam line (use a postcard as a guide) and cut the fabric using either the 1/4" line on your rotary ruler, or the add-a-quarter ruler. Next you line up your second patch with the newly trimmed first patch, flip it to make sure it covers all the pattern it's supposed to and sew it down.

My only trouble came when I realised I'd not got the pattern pieces marked out as well as I could have done with EQ6, I'd ended up having to sub-cut them into smaller pieces. Good to note with a small piece and not with the full quilt! It still came together reasonably well.

I need to applique the central circle in place then applique the whole thing onto a cream backing square and it's done. Maybe tomorrow?