Heritage quilts

Chris has been beavering away in the IT Suite updating the Chris and Barbara website. It now sports a new drop-down menu for patterns with a separate page for our heritage quilts patterns. To buy these you have to visit our Payhip page (for the EU) or our Craftsy page but you can get a preview and information about the quilts on the new C&B page.

Some new patterns from Ann Jermey’s quilt collection have been added to the Payhip page (coming soon to Craftsy) and another quilt from Barbara’s collection has been added to both pages.

Ann’s quilts are this lovely1940s Windmill design (spot the mistake in it?)

and this little red and white quilt which (with our usual talent for stating the obvious) we have named Red Bricks.

Ann remade this quilt using some left over 2 and 1/2 inch strips in various reds and neutrals –

The quilt from Barbara’s collection is a Triple Sunflower. This is hand-pieced and Barbara has been remaking the block (but we don’t yet have a photo – or I can’t find it, Chris). One of these blocks would make a lovely cushion, or just make a few for a table runner.

The colours have faded somewhat – the green leaves and stems have all but disappeared – but it is still a lovely quilt.

More quilt patterns to come before too long, and maybe even some of Barbara’s quilting designs . . . !?

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Welsh quilts and kites

To Llanidloes with friends to catch the exhibition of antique Welsh quilts at the Minerva Arts Gallery. The exhibition closes Bank Holiday weekend, but if you can squeeze in a visit before that then do, it’s well worth it. We started with a coffee (as you do), went and looked round the quilts and took a few photos. Then back to the vegetarian cafe (The Oak Tree – highly recommended) for lunch, back to the quilts via the second-hand book shop and the antique shop, more quilt photos and back to the cafe for more coffee and cake – the most enormous slices you’ve ever seen – some of us admitted defeat and requested a ‘doggy bag’, others of us were enjoying our slices too much and ate it all (but strangely, didn’t feel like eating much later that evening!). Then from Llanidloes to Rhayader to see the kites. We’d seen one on our journey across the top of Wales (somewhere between Welshpool and Newtown I think we were), but the kite feeding station at Rhayader gives you the opportunity to see them close up. And they are magnificent birds – to see them swooping and diving only a few feet from you as they dodge the ravens to get at the food is amazing. They move so quickly and the camera takes photos so slowly that most of the photos taken were of empty sky or field with maybe a small black blob in the distance. We could have stayed for hours, but needed to wend our way home. We went the ‘scenic’ route – a tad more scenic than we originally intended when we missed a turning, but we got to see some beautiful countryside and lovely little towns and villages along the borders.

Back to reality today – preparing Blue Peters for tomorrow’s jelly roll class. What do you mean – they should have been done earlier?!

Shopping surprise

An (almost) emergency dash into Pollyanna Patchwork so that Chris could spend her voucher and Barbara could see if there was some fabric she needed – !!  Here’s one little bundle that came home with us

The surprise was the yummy vintage Welsh quilt that Alison had acquired and had carefully stashed under the counter.  We all had a great time poring over it and playing quilt detectives – the consensus was that it was a re-cover of a worn out quilt, but very well done  and with lots of care in fabric choices and arrangement. 

By the time we finally tore ourselves away Alison was muttering about possibly re-creating it with contemporary fabrics, so anything could happen!