Bletchley - The Quilt Exhibition - Part One

Well, what a wonderful weekend it was.  Fantastic.  Exciting. 

As we turned up the drive I squealed like a dolphin on acid … (to be honest I think I started squealing just outside Brighton all the way to Milton Keynes!)

Over 1500 people visited the Bletchley Park Quilt Exhibition on the Saturday and several hundred more on the Sunday.  It was packed!  We had to queue to get in to Bletchley … and then we had to queue to get into the house!  That queue pretty much continued all day …

There were two main exhibitions and over 100 quilts!  … The Open Category (where my baby was) which was judged with a people's choice each day, and the Secret Messages category which was judged by proper pukka Quilt Guild judges.

Any quilts in the Open Category had to have a general theme of Bletchley Park (house, buildings, history, gardens etc.) Unfortunately there were no names with any of these quilts (because of the people's vote) but I did manage to get a couple on the Sunday when I was in my stewarding role and had the white gloves on!

So, apologies if your quilt is here with no credit.  Personally, I think it would have been nice to have a sheet of paper with a list of exhibitors on it, but when I brought this up with the ladies of the Quilt Guild they were not impressed.  More of that another day.

For today I just want to show you the quilts that I really really loved …

Open Category


This won the people's vote on Saturday - an amazing computerised embroidery of various fab nerdy Bletchley machines …. It was absolutely stunning …






I loved this quilt to bits … I would have loved to have made it.  I wanted to take it home.  The detail was astounding; applique, printing, dyeing … you name it.

There were a few chenille cut quilts but this one was totally stunning.

This was my absolute favourite - hand dyed, screen printed with QR and bar codes and amazingly quilted … the back was stunning! (I can't believe I didn't get a pic of the back or the label, so I don't know who to gush at … grrr …)

This wonderful bicycles quilt won the people's vote on Sunday .. I think - it might have had a commendation, I'm so sorry, I can't remember, and it was only yesterday!  (Bikes were a really important part of life at Bletchley during the war).  The stitching on this was absolutely brilliant …

Oh hello … what's this ?? 

Yes … it's my baby … huzzah!  I thought it stood up pretty well … I was just so proud that it was hanging at Bletchley.  Still makes me a bit weepy!



The Secret Messages Category






Yes!  From a Primary School!  Really, I thought it knocked the socks off the rest of the competition!

There are more pics for another day (or maybe I'll just upload them to Flickr). But for today I'll just leave you with this piece of wonderment …




I thought it should have won outright … These teeny tiny tiny Liberty postage stamp squares had a Haiku encoded in the red and blue solid squares … Genius! 

I spent hours working it out … love love love … just wonderful …

I'm half way through a process post on my quilt … and I have other things to say about my experiences at the exhibition … but that's all for another day …

My Bletchley quilt and I are curled up on the sofa … thoroughly pooped but very very happy to have taken part …

One more sleep - packed and ready to go ...

Oh yes ... I can hardly contain myself I'm so excited ... Bletchley Park here I come ...

In case you've been snoozing under a rock for the last few months of my blogging life, there's a fantastic Quilt Exhibition at Bletchley Park this weekend ...

I've got a quilt there  ....

How are you baby? Are you dwarfed by brilliance?

 Have you made friends? Are the big quilts playing nice?

 Apart from two categories from the Quilt Guild on display there are also Canadian Red Cross Quilts, specials from the Holocaust Collection, talks, workshops and general nerdy heaven ....

Look at this wonderfully geeky quilt from the people who work at GCHQ ....

I'm all packed and ready to go ...

... a bit of English Paper Piecing for the journey ... Squares and HSTs for a baby Swoon Block ...  

all zipped up in my wonderful pouch from Nikki @ Sewquine ... 

I'll be taking a ton of photos ... and will report back after the weekend ... 

Hope your weekends are as inspiring as I know mine will be ... 

Swoon-Along-a-Weekend - updated

OK - this was a foolish endeavour in anyone's book.  Try a Swoon block with no pattern - and try to make it gigantic and in a weekend!  But I wanted to be one of the gals and join the (over) 800 swooners that Katy @ Monkey Do gathered together for the Swoon-Along on Flickr.

I originally wanted this to be made with 9" finished blocks, but I simply didn't have the stash for it, and I'm on a strict fabric budget as I'm trying to save pennies for the FQ Sewing Retreat in London this summer ..

This was my original sketch …

and this was my original stack

… Along with Sketch crosshatches from Timeless Treasures, and the Dahlia and Aster prints from Kate Spain's Terrain, I had wanted to use the Pezzy Prints that I got just before Christmas, but once I cut the mahusive squares they just got lost … so I had to swap them out pdq and find something else … 

Luckily I received some FQs of the Half Moon Modern leaf print for my birthday last month … so I went with them instead …




So, after much measuring and measuring again and finally cutting …. This weekend I got started on the HSTs … I also veered from the-pattern-I-don't-have and used jumbo squares for the Half Moon Modern leaf print, so as not to break it up (although it was a right royal pain working out the 7/8ths of an inch-ness for the flying geese!)


The best thing about this big block is that as I played with sizes so much before ending up here, I know the construction of the block INSIDE OUT!!  I can even count in 7/8ths of an inch now …  I also took plenty of advice from the discussions on Flickr.


I plumped for a lovely but infinitely slippery turquoise/white crossweave linen for the background … and threw in some Michael Miller Ta-Dots to bring in the Aster and Dahlia prints a bit ...





Have any of you used these Pilot Frixion pens for fabric yet?  A totally brilliant thing for marking the centres of HSTs for stitching …




The ink disappears when you rub it out with the rubber end (not like a traditional eraser, just literally a rubber end).   They're a boon for a teacher - means I can erase my marking and crap maths when converting to percentages! Also blurry brill for typing on my tablet!



… And for us stitchers, it also means that the line disappears when you press or iron (and doesn't return)!  Miraculous!!  I can't wait to have some fun with these pens …

stitched but not pressed on top … stitched and pressed underneath!

So …. this was where I was up to this afternoon  … after a LOT of trimming!

I find it really useful to draw a little sketch of the block I'm piecing on a post-it, so I don't go all upsideydownsidey at the machine …

(AHEM! of course it should say Top RIGHT! - lucky I noticed before I started stitching!!)

So, we're nearly there …  I used a tremendous amount of starch on this baby - I make my own - a good dollop of extra strong cornflour to about a pint of water ... This linen really really really needed it, as it is incredibly fine and terrifically slippery ...

Each square is 6" unfinished … so not as giant as I wanted but I have another plan …

 


I have some amazing pink linen from my linen man which I might use to complement the turquoise linen  background …  I may do some sashing and postage stamp /pinwheel stuff with the remaining prints, and maybe even bring in the Pezzy again … who knows ... I may just fold it all up and get on with something else!


I have to say that once I started using my Aurifil 50wt for the final block piecing, things went a lot more smoothly.  To say that my Brother Innovis has no oomph is a wild understatement.  Even with all seams pressed open, it struggles over any seam junction and just makes fur balls while marking time ...


It's amazing how accurately you can sew when you have TOTALLY LOST all three of your seam rippers!! I blame a certain four legged member of the Pings household ...  

who me?

So here she is ... in all her Swooniness ...  I'm sorry about the gloomy pic, but it's dark dark dark outside now, so no chance of a washing line shot!  *edited to add some washing line shots at the end of this post!!

That's me done with the Swoon Block for now.

I like it a lot.  I'll like it even more when I've sashed it and added some more business to it ... But I won't be making another one for a while ... I still think the block looks best with only two or three fabrics ... but then I'd have had to make at least four!!  If you haven't had a gander, some of the blocks on the Flickr Group are stunning!

I always imagine that making blocks on a large scale will be easier but, now I remember from making my giant Lynne Bob Square Pants block from Lynne@LilysQuilts ...  mistakes are even easier to see when it's big like this ... Let's not look too close, eh? ... some of those seams are a bit mismatchy, and the Ta Dots went a bit grrrr ... but all in all, not bad for that much linen.

Finished size of block: 46" square.  Huzzah!

Off to have a bath and to warm up ... Oh, it's nearly bedtime.  Goodbye weekend!

... and thank you to Jess, Linda and Nina for being the first three to comment on my last post ... I shall be PIFing something for you in the next few months ....

*edited to add ... here are some washing line shots!

Pay It Forward Loveliness!

Nikki from Sewquine sent me a wonderful little parcel - a PIF (Pay It Forward) enterprise! I had totally forgotten that I was one of her wonderful recipients! 

Feast your eyes on these total lovelies!!




Beautiful Ruby Star Rising has been transmuted into a wonderful pin cushion and a zippy pouch -  which I'm going to take to Bletchley next weekend with a little hand sewing project for quiet moments …

Thank you Nikki … Such welcome post on a rainy Saturday!  I love the pouch.  It's such a great size … I can see it doubling as a quickie handbag too!!  Is it wrong that I can't stop stroking the corduroy??




Ooh, there was some Scottish tablet too …. but that lasted all of 5 minutes!  Perfect sugar rush timing for some tedious HST trimming duty!

 

The pincushion has already been getting a pounding while I've been playing along in the  Swoon-Along!

So, now I must get on with my PIF endeavour too!!   I think this might be my opportunity to suck it up and embrace the zip … whaddya think?

What I love about PIF is that it has a nice 365 day lead time - my kind of deadline! (I promise that it will be at least 10 months shorter than that though!)

The first 3 people to comment here will get a little something (as long as you promise to PIF to another 3)!

Through a Glass Darkly - Bletchley Park Quilt -

This was the brief from the Quilter's Guild:

We invite you to be part of this special Exhibition by creating a quilt for our “Open” category.  We would like you to make a quilt on the theme of Bletchley Park.  You may take your inspiration from the parklands, architecture, exhibitions or collections to be found at Bletchley Park.  We are looking for quilts that reflect the history and work of Bletchley Park

So, it all started with this window at Bletchley Park ...

…. then a first ratty sketch ….

... followed by a bit of a brainstorm ...

ripple dissolve gazillions of hours later ...

Tada! ...  "Through a Glass Darkly" …My first exhibition quilt -  finished, despatched, safely received and waiting to be hung at the Bletchley Park Quilt Exhibition - February 25th & 26th …

... just a little dim winter's morningly lit peek - I'm going to do a longer process post - with lots of close ups, endless explanations of the nerdiness and pics of the busy back -  but after the exhibition  …

It's a bit puckered and appallingly quilted …very slippy linen ...  but loved muchly by me. Through every painful step it was a delight.







There's a great little programme of talks and workshops that weekend too …

So, if you're anywhere near Bletchley Park that weekend it would be great to meet up .. I'll be there both days.  I'm even going to steward a room for a couple of hours on the Sunday! ha ha ha …