Popping Up

Somehow we’ve managed to arrive at almost mid-September – this speedy year thing seems to be happening all over again. Where did August go? Why weren’t we informed? Who took it?

So, on to some autumnal plans and events. Chris is at the helm of C&B Towers and Barbara is currently at the Overseas Office. Our next PopUp class “Chop and Change” is on Saturday 9th October courtesy of Mr Zoom who makes all sorts of things possible.

We’re maintaining our traditional mysterious approach to the actual class content – this PopUp is more about techniques and ideas rather than “follow these steps to make this project”. Leave a comment below if you’d like more info.

Chris continues to Wander the Web each month for P&Q magazine and we understand that another article in our occasional series New Quilts from Old, also for P&Q magazine, will be published this autumn.

Barbara is inching her way into more Zoom activity for talks and classes – it’s a great solution to the problem of trying to be in 2 places at once and there has been plenty of opportunity to get to grips with it over the past year. So many changes for all of us.

Hope everyone is doing well – next stop Tile Tuesday!

Tile Tuesday

Something Barbara found during a tidy-up at the Rural Office –

A tourist purchase more than 10years ago this warrants further investigation!

Tile Tuesday

A slight difference for Tile Tuesday this time – an unashamed capture from Barbara’s Instagram feed. No affiliation to the company S W flooring but if you enjoy Minton tiled floors they post some inspirational before and after shots on their Instagram account – well worth checking out. And they’re probably on Facebook too (but we haven’t checked as we still don’t “do” Facebook).

Like so many tiled floors this is already a complete quilt – and what a fabulous border!

Tile Tuesday

Mostly blue – examples of classic tile from Istanbul and Portugal. So much to look at in such small spaces.

Doodles in Hawaii

Coming close on the heels of the Mystery Monday finale we have an updated EQ Doodles page and this month we’re featuring a Hawaiian style applique block.

Barbara has been moving things around in The Cupboard over at the Rural Office and picked out her first Hawaiian style applique piece dating back to somewhere in the mid 1980s –

We’re off to fold and cut paper to make more designs!

Tile Tuesday

Tile inspiration this week from the wonderful world of Roman mosaic floors – we can see cable patterns and (almost) a Dahlia.

Sunflower Doodles

Another new month, more Doodles over on our EQ Doodles page. We chose a traditional block Sunflower (sometimes known as Triple Sunflower) and remembered that Barbara owns a vintage quilt that features a very close variation of the same block.

The colouring was originally red, green and natural but over the years the green has faded away to a soft beige. Barbara made one block for a teaching sample several years ago –

There’s a colouring sheet to download over on the Doodles page, and a full pattern for the vintage Sunflowers quilt can be found at

https://payhip.com/b/eArR

Tile Tuesday

Tile inspiration from Cairo!

Missing student!

We’re busy putting the finishing touches to our PopUp Zoom class Virtually Versatile on Saturday 22nd May and now that bookings have closed we find that we have mislaid a student! We have not received a form with contact information for P Hancock. If you can shed any light on this mystery please leave a comment below.

Tile Tuesday

From garden tiles (somehow posted twice!) back to Mr Minton’s wonderful tiles – Chris was inspired to draft this bold strippy-style quilt from a local domestic floor.

The strong russet colour of the original tiles is not always easy to match exactly in fabric but there are plenty of “near-enough” options out there – this is what EQ came up with asked to turn the colours into fabrics

But you don’t have to stick with the original tile colours – go pastel or go bold . . . and while you’re at it you could change the design around a little!

You can find the pattern to buy in our Payhip shop.

The original floor photo also inspired the Lichfield quilt which can you read about on our Meadowside blog.