Skye Quilters’ Eye Candy

A few photos from a few recent meetings.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Linus Quilts by Ruby

Thought it was about time we shared some photos of what Skye Quilters’ Linus Quilt Queen Ruby McAllister has been up to … beautiful!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

What You Need for Monday’s Strip & Curved Piecing Project

Wall hanging by Jennifer Lewis. 36×24″

At Monday’s meeting we are doing strip piecing plus curved piecing, inspired by Jenny’s circles wall hanging (see photo to the right). You could just make up a few blocks and make a cushion cover, table runner or thinner wall hanging.

Fabric requirements:
Blocks, Circles & Half Circles
1. A selection of up to 15 – 20 fabrics;
a. that start with one colour and move through to another colour or
b. you could just have a selection of two basic colours or
c. a selection of just one colour – light to dark
For her wall hanging, Jenny used a mustard colour through brown to black.

The strips are cut 1¼“ wide and 20” long. Jennny says: “I cut mine from fat quarters and left over bits so they were a bit longer than this. I used 3 strips from each fabric for the blocks, circles and half circles and 1 strip from each fabric for the border.”

Background Fabric
2. A background fabric that is used for plain blocks, circles and half circles – depending on how big a quilt you are going to make a fat quarter or half metre will do. The background fabric should be a mix of all the colours in the strips (the long strips alongside the fat quarters in the photo).

Inner Border
3. This is cut 1 ¼” wide to match the strips – so amount will depend on how big a quilt you make. Jenny used less than 1/8 of a metre.

Other Items
4. Wadding
5. Backing
6. Natural coloured piecing thread
7. Quilting thread
8. Tacking thread

Other Items to Bring Along
– Sewing machine (don’t forget the foot pedal and plug) – make sure you have cleaned it and you have new needle
– ¼” foot
– Spray starch
– Pins
– Freezer paper
– Walking foot if you get as far as quilting
– Appliqué foot for your sewing machine to sew the half circles and full circles onto the blocks
– Rotary cutter with a nice sharp blade
– Rotary cutting ruler
– Cutting mat
– Iron and ironing mat
– Your basic sewing kit

Jenny will bring some plastic templates for use on the day and print off a few copies for you to take home with you and make at home if you intend to carry on with the project.

Hope to see you all on Monday!

Join Emma’s Textile Jewellery Workshop!

Textile earrings by Emma Siedle-Collins

Textile artist (and Skye Quilter) Emma Siedle-Collins of Heaven’s Ocean Studio is running a Textile Jewellery Workshop at West Highland College Learning Centre in Broadford from 29th January to 5th March, 6pm to 8pm, costing £40.

It’s an opportunity to try something new with an encouraging, creative and inspiring tutor. Several Skye Quilters have been on one of Emma’s workshops, which are always great fun and you learn a lot!

Here’s Emma’s workshop description:

Textile Jewellery – Come along for a stress free few hours and stitch your own collection of textile jewellery using recycled fabric, shiny ribbon and other embellishments. We’ll make a piece of reconstructed fabric large enough for a wrist cuff, a brooch, earrings and a pendant and explore the possibilities of making a flower for our hair or a ring for a finger, time permitting. Please bring your sewing machine and basic sewing kit – I will provide materials, but do bring with you any bits and pieces you’ve been saving for that special piece.

To book, contact: Colin MacDonald on 01397 874 530
Learning Centre Manager West Highland College UHI
Broadford College Centre
Pairc nan Craobh
Broadford
Isle of Skye
IV49 9AP

Textile cuffs by Emma Siedle-Collins

What You’ll Need for Our First 2015 Meeting!

Best wishes for a fabric- and fun-filled 2015 to all Skye quilters and our quilting friends worldwide! We’re starting the year with a workshop on Monday to create an Art Nouveau Thistle Wall Hanging.

Jenny will email instructions, but in the meantime here’s what you’ll need to bring:

Flower Head Petals: Colour 1 – 1 x strip 2” x 20” Colour 2 – 1 x strip 2½” x 20” Colour 3 – 1 x strip 1½” x 20” Colour 4 – 1 x strip 1½” x 20”	Centre of Flower: 4” square in either a green or a colour to match your choice of flower head
Stem & Leaves: 2 fat quarters in different greens	Background: Fat quarter in a light colour
Inner Frame & Binding: 22” x 10” (or half a fat quarter)	Threads Threads for piecing and quilting
Wadding 22” x 22”	Bondaweb 17” x 12”
Backing: Butter muslin 22” x 22” if you wish to quilt and embellish before adding the backing Fat quarter for actual backing Strip of fabric for the sleeve

Other Items to Bring Along

• Sewing machine (don’t forget the foot pedal and plug) – make sure you have cleaned it and you have new needle

• ¼” foot

• Walking foot

• Rotary cutter with a nice sharp blade

• Rotary cutting ruler **

• Cutting mat **

• 15 degree wedge ruler if you have one – I have some for sale if you find you enjoy making the wedges and wish to buy one

• Iron and ironing mat **

• Your basic sewing kit and paper scissors

• Pencil

** We do have these items in the group but it would help if you bought your own to save time waiting for your turn.

Photos: Skye Quilters 2014 Exhibition

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

poster for exhibition

Scrap Quilt Meeting

Sorted charm squares, matched, ruled & sewn. tricky layout, many hands make light work.

Watch this space!!

Some recent offerings …..

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Scrap Quilt Meeting Coming Up

Our next meeting is this coming Monday (7th July). The plan is to set to and make the top of the raffle quilt for our exhibition next month. So please could you bring with you fabric scrap 5” squares. If you have quite a few charm square packs that you have never got around to using perhaps you could bring those too. The idea is to mix and match all colours, dark and light fabrics.

Apart from the fabric could you also bring along:
– Pencil
– Ruler
– Sewing machine (with ¼” foot if you have one)
– Neutral colour thread

Hope to see you all!

Skye Quilters Meetings: May to September 2014

May 5^th – Jenny’s, Skye Quilt Studio

May 19^th – TBA

June 2^nd – Aros – Dawn Cameron-Dick workshop

June 16^th – Shirley’s

July 7^th – Aros (making small things for our exhibition)

July 21^st – TBA

August 4^th – Aros

August 18^th – Brenda’s

September 1^st – Aros

September 15^th – TBA

October 6^th – Aros – Hessian Forrest workshop

Please let Jenny know if you want to host a meeting on any of the available dates.