behind the scenes with 2 quilting teachers – plans, projects, progress & procrastination
It’s a given that too much fabric is an impossibility, but we are both beginning to think that we might have too much or too many of other quilt-related items – scissors, rotary cutters, pencils, quilting frames, stationery, gadgets, technology, lights – the list goes on. So much has been gathered up, acquired and accommodated over years of teaching, we are now confronting the issues of what (and how much) do we actually need? The scissor category alone is going to be difficult –
Our chosen block for the short month of February has an improbable name – French Silk Pie. Here’s the block as it appears in the EQ Block Library –
But, of course, it’s so easy to change things in EQ – here we just replaced the red with blue.
And then further blue tweaks and placement –
Time to try out some simple quilt settings before we end up with too many block choices!
Having added a smidge of red in the quilt setting above we decided to take the red one step further –
Turn on point without sashing –
Fill in those blank corners and borders but keep it simple –
And, finally, an arrangement of January and February’s blocks –
Download a block to colour, a quilt to colour and EQs rotary cutting instructions for the block – enjoy making your own French Silk Pie!
Here’s the back up sewing machine at the Overseas Office – a fleamarket bargain that was impossible to resist (and mega-useful during power outages!).
This is Chris’s beloved workhorse Singer, originally belonging to her mother. Many years and miles of stitching to it’s credit and still going strong.
Chris has been quietly Getting Stuff Finished for a while now – winter at C&B Towers is always a productive quilty time. At the Rural Office things have been more chaotic than productive but there is a hint that Getting Stuff Finished may be on the way here too. Barbara has emptied out storage crates, drawers and cupboards, shuffled project bags, rummaged through (lots of) fabric, sorted cables and chargers for cameras and assorted technology, cleaned things, counted things and made any number of plans. Further Fabric Management is required in the coming weeks! There has been a count of WIPs (WorksinProgress) and the total is far too embarrassing to reveal, so quite a lot of prioritising needs to be done – here are just four examples of the many starts that are waiting to be finished.
We love stars! One of Chris’s books was devoted entirely to stars –
and we’ve taken a star theme for our 2022 Doodles. Each month we’ll feature a different star block from the EQ and BlockBase libraries and show some colour and value changes to the block and then show the block in some simple quilt settings. Where possible we’ll include a free download pdf of the templates for a 12inch block. You could stitch all or just some of the blocks, multiples of one block, maybe even collect them all together to make a Stellar Sampler.
Here’s Block One – Double Windmill from the EQ Library. Download the PDF.
Some changes to both colour and value placement –
Significant differences emerge in simple quilt settings –
It’s always worth considering the “on point” option –
Sashing can make a real difference whether the setting is straight or on point –
If you would like to make this block or an entire quilt then download the PDF which contains cutting instructions, templates, piecing instructions and colouring-in pages!
Before we get into a whole new year we thought we’d look back and show you our pick of all the EQ Doodles we posted in 2021. In case you need a break from any New Year festivity we have put a few of these into a PDF of ‘quilts to colour‘ which you can download and print out.
(still the uncorrected version! Have you spotted the hiccup?)
Signing off 2021 and sending best wishes for the year ahead from all the staff at C&B Towers, the Rural Office and the Overseas Office
Chris & Barbara
All the staff at C&B Towers and the Rural Office join in sending warmest wishes for Christmas and the New Year.
chris & barbara quilts 