quilts in the vines

A week has already flown by and only now have I had a chance to write about  last weekend, when  I was lucky enough to join Bernadette and several like-minded quilters at the first (of what we hope to be many) Quilts in the Vines retreat at Bathurst in the central tablelands of NSW.

After a week of truly awful weather in Sydney, Friday dawned with torrential rain. Trips to the car to load supplies had to be timed carefully. By 9 we had the silver bullet packed and my car buddy Laurel and I set off for a quilt-shop-hop through Sydney and over the Blue Mountains where we rendezvoused with the remainder of the party at Leura for lunch and a little shopping.

A rather gorgeous silk scarf from Rhajistan selected me as her new owner...

By late afternoon Bathurst approached with crystal clear skies. Our accommodation was  located right on the famous Mount Panorama race track, (which outside two weekends a year is a normal road with a 60kph speed limit and amusingly we witnessed a few rev-heads who couldn't resist hooning around the track channelling Jack Brabham).

Lovely large, very comfortable and warm rooms.

After pre-dinner drinks we popped into town for a pub-dinner, then a little night cap in Bernadette's room before we called it a day.

Saturday started early with a brisk walk up Mount Panorama. Being a qualified Personal Trainer Bernadette put the rest of us to shame, barely raising a puff (must be those long legs) whilst striding up a long killer hill. By mutual consent Jean and I instigated a quiet mutiny and elected not to climb the second half of the "hill".

Beautiful views... we actually walked to Algona, the vineyard venue where we would be sewing for the next 2 days.

The facilities at Algona were excellent. Abundant space, light and tables a-plenty. Unending coffee and tea, sumptuous food from our in-house chef and rather lovely people.

Our tutor Marg Samson gave an overview of the quilt we would be creating over the weekend, based on Mary Jane Hannaford  (see my previous post for photos of MJH's quilts), however we would be interpreting her style in our own ways.  An integral part of her quilts are little scrappy strips of fabric appliqued to the quilt in lines, diagonals or circles, so we set-to cutting scraps and sewing them into long 2" wide strips.

 

Jean and Elaine being industrious at the cutting board

 

Sue wrangling 2" scraps

Soon little washing lines of scraps were emerging.

And soon little strips began appearing on backgrounds.

 Sue's watermelon linen background looks delicious

 Laurel went with the Aussie coat of arms

Our tutor Marg's , she had a head start...

Later that afternoon, we visited a charming and inspirational shop in Bathurst, The Home Patch. Jean has a lovely post on her blog, so pop over there for more details. Needless to say a little bit of shopping occurred.

Next post - Day 2..

4 more sleeps

Just four more sleeps until my long awaited and much anticipated quilting retreat in Bathurst.

Our tutor Marg Samson-George will be teaching a crib quilt in the style of  Mary Jane Hannaford.  Mrs Hannaford discovered quilting late in life and her style reflects what must have been a very unique, and perhaps rather eccentric personality. 

What a woman she must have been to have created these quirky, individual, and totally Australian masterpieces !!

Imange from http://artsearch.nga.gov.au

Image from http://artsearch.nga.gov.au

Image from the National Quilt Register http://www.collectionsaustralia.net

I'm so-ooooo looking forward to creating my own Mary Jane inspired quilt.

Read more about Mrs Hannaford here.

prince's feather

This four-bladed version of the Prince's Feather is a keeper - the many innies and outies were a challenge but proved not as difficult as first envisioned.   I particularly like the central pieced junction of the four plumes. The original from which this pattern is based is a quilt in Bill Volckening's collection.

Many Prince's or Princess Feather quilts were made with the first being seen c. 1840. The majority have an 8 point star as the centre motif with four, six or eight plumes. Some postulate the pattern honoured English Queen Victoria and her husband Albert while others attribute the pattern to have come from Northumberland, England, inspired by the sweeping plumes of the Cavaliers. Another interpretation gives the  design origins from the time when "ladies in waiting" were presented to the Prince of England as it was custom for the ladies upon presentation to be wearing a feather hat.

Interestingly, Linda Carlson hypothesises there could be a link between this pattern and the heraldic badge of the Prince of Wales - the Prince of Wales Feather and Crown which bears three ostrich plumes.

Although the pattern origins are now blurred by time, the pattern is a perennial favourite!

eagle amongst the cherry trees

My BTCT centrepiece is complete and I'm quite pleased with how he's turned out.  

This exuberant eagle has been taken from the cover of Crib Quilts and other Small Wonders by Thomas Woodward & Blanche Greenstein (1981). (Hmm maybe I should have got the iron out.) 

Sweetest little birds perched atop tiny trees, with the mandatory floating pot plant.

Block 20  of BTCT is done too. I actually enjoyed the chainstitch embroidered stems and stayed up ridiculously late last night just to finish them off.

Next up and prepped ready to start today, another deviation... a super dooper Princes Feather from Bill Volckening's glorious Mary Couchman Small (1800-1863) album quilt (with permission, thanks Bill). At the moment it looks like 4 whirling Christmas stockings, but check out the original - if mine is half as gorgeous I'd be happy.
 

Resizing images for quilt patterns

I will often draft a pattern from an image found in a book or on the net, there is such an abundance of inspiring and quirky potential quilt blocks or quilting motifs out there.  I adopted this method in my architectural drafting days.

To resize a photograph or image to the desired size, I photocopy either on my home printer for small jobs or at Officeworks for the bigger ones.  

My re-sizing formula is:       "what you want"        x 100
                                      "what you have"             1

So, for example if you want the resized image to be 45cm and your actual image is 8cm....

                                             45  x 100   = 562.5%

                                             8       1

Therefore, in this example the image needs to be enlarged by 562.5% (or thereabouts).  This works equally well with Imperial measurements. After the image is the correct size the individual components of the pattern can be traced off and/or re-drafted.    

Until next time,
K