Thursday 3 May 2012

Half Square Triangles and other scraps!

Last night we had a wonderful evening with expert member Ann Jermey. Most of us have made half square triangles is some form or an another in the past but Ann is the ultimate font of all knowledge on the subject.
She's also a super teacher!

She has gazillions of stitched pieces and trillions of triangles and we had fun making as many blocks, patterns and borders by manipulating them.
It began to dawn on us how many borders can be made this way.



She showed us hand piecing and machine methods of construction and encouraged us to find our own patterns.


 The image below shows how one could have light and dark blocks in the middle and unmatched medium tones as a border and it works:
 This is the same piece viewed using a reducing glass (the opposite of a magnifier) which is fabulous for showing up the pattern as seen from a distance:
and...

There was plenty of discussion...
Ann on the left below:

It soon became apparent how we could be using all our scraps up this way to produce intricate quilts from a simple block:

Above is one of Ann's machine pieced quilts and below are other block patterns constructed by manipulating the squares every which way:







And below a beautifully hand stitched and quilted quilt again made by Ann:

Ann gives regular lessons in Bridgnorth, Shropshire at the Quilters Quest Tel: 01746 766632

Also at the above venue Janet Bevan is running a workshop "Freehand Machine Embroidery and Quilting" on May 24th 2012. Call the number above for details.

A reminder that Kate Brierley's group "Eclectica" has a fabulous exhibition in Worcester - please see the Exhibitions page for details.

Subs are due in May - see the last posting for details....bring your cheque book next time!! 16th May is our next meeting which is the AGM. Please bring a plate of food to share!!