next class please

Time to start pulling things together for our next Saturday class which is – on Saturday. We’re going to be exploring different ways of framing a block. Samples are made, worksheets done, just the essential things left to gather up – ironing boards, tea, coffee, biscuits….. Saturday’s class is the first of a fairly hectic sequence in Barbara’s calendar – the list includes Denver, South Wales and Scotland before the end of June. There have been a few mutterings about “absentee” and “never here” from a certain overloaded office in C & B Towers…..

While all this is going on here are a few random pics taken at Quilts UK last week, starting with one of our close-to-home traders Emma from Quilters Trading Post -

and finishing with the show view above that few see – this aisle is jammed with quilters and visitors from 10am onwards.
Back to preparations!

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Planning, planning …

Chris has taken a few hours away from C&B Enterprises and done a day course on garden design at Trentham Gardens. Very well worth while, lots of ideas, notes, scribblings on paper, and a good lunch included. But there will be precious little time to get going with any of her new gardening plans – a talk for Trinity Quilters on the delights of Electric Quilt, teaching in Eccleshall and a trip to Quilts UK all feature in her diary for this week. A little bit of muttering along the lines of ” over-scheduled, too much to do” has been heard. How long will it be before Chris’s garden looks like this? -

(image courtesy of Trentham Gardens Estate)

Barbara has much less to do, just get herself and the right bags down to Malvern to set up her stand at Quilts UK and then going on to teach at Denman College before being allowed back returning home next week.

We’re also trying to finalise our Saturday dates for next year – this is a task that seems to show up with great frequency, but we do have to book well in advance and try to avoid clashes with our other separate teaching commitments.

There’s planning to be done for our Not Block of the Month series -

some preparation for our next Saturday class

patterns and samples to make for Meadowside Designs

It’s probably time for more caffeine!

Another block to try

Here’s another “Not Block of the Month” for you to try – the free downloadable instructions are here.  This time we’ve chosen a simple traditional block, Goose Tracks, which looks good if made using just two fabrics  - this is the vintage black & white version from Barbara’s block collection -

Barbara made up her version using 4 fabrics – two closely-related main red prints and two backgrounds – putting more emphasis on the rectangles from the centre of the block.  

You can see on the right hand side above that Electric Quilt was it’s usual helpful self – Chris drew out the block and put it into one of our shared files (thank you DropBox!) and Barbara just selected the block size – 12 inches finished – and hit the print button for a complete set of rotary cutting instructions.

You could make various changes and substitutions in your version – let us know how what you decide to do!

Special quilts

Barbara has made it home from the show in Veldhoven just in time to pack her things up again to go to Quilts UK in Malvern next week. She is probably going to be missing from the corridors of C&B Towers for some time, there’s a trip to Denver, one to Stirling, one to S Wales all lined up for the next month. Chris thinks she will be much more sensible and stay home to enjoy the delights of her new roof. Featured at the Veldhoven show was an exhibit of Joyce Dawe’s quilts – Joyce is best known to us as the owner of The Contented Cat, and a familiar face at UK quilt shows for many years.

Many of her quilts have a circle theme, all hand stitched and hand quilted – we’re sure you’ll agree that they are quite special

Chris is teaching 2 classes this week and, somewhere among all this activity, we might find time to post the next “not block of the month”…..

Wordless Wednesday