Patches of Destruxion

Hello everybody! Something slightly different from me today. I made a block that's going to be used in a group quilt for the Festival of Quilts next year! The project is being run by Chris English, aka @ afullenglish . He is well known for his use of recycled and vintage fabrics in his improv quilts, which are often protests against the Tory Government. He is also very proud of being the source of this disclaimer at the 2023 Festival of Quilts. Photo credit: Chris English  They really need to hire me as their proofreader, I would not let him get away with this... stuff. This project is not sweary or overtly anti-Tory, but it does have recycling at its heart. He has asked people to send him bear paw blocks made out of (if possible) recycled and old fabrics and he is joining them all together to make one big quilt. I chose two fabrics to use in my block. The first is a blue water-lily style floral cotton, from a bunch of old fabrics given to me by my mother. It had pieces cut out of ...

Hello everybody! I have finally finished my blocks for last month. Naomi gave us a freestyle theme for the month so we could choose to do whatever we needed to make our personal quilt plans work. For a lot of people, me included, that was largely purple blocks, to round out the rainbow. I made 6 blocks in total for this month. Week 39 was identifiable motifs. I made 2 blocks. A bit of theme here! Purple is a perfect excuse for pulling out some of the Halloween fabrics I am using on my La Passacaglia quilt. First up, these mummies. I like the little mice that appear next to some of the figures. This is my second time using mummies with this shape, as I used some back in March, which was orange month. Which I haven't rounded up yet, due to the fact I still haven't made my International Woman's Day Block. So here is a sneak preview of a block that I am 8 months late in posting (yes, that sentence makes sense, really). And secondly, these spooky creatures. This is a Lewis and ...

 Hello everybody! September is over in the #focuscuttingsewalong and I have actually managed to stay on track for this month! The theme was Green and I made 6 blocks in total You can see I have joined an extra filler square onto one of the blocks, that's all apart of the plan to turn these into an actual quilt! Honeycombs don't tesselate by themselves so I am using squares as the extra shape. And, like in this photo, my layout allows for the blocks to be both 'multiplication signs' and 'addition signs' in their orientations so I can keep making blocks as the fabric suggests itself, especially when it comes to pattern matching. So on to the individual blocks. Week 35 was identifiable motifs. I made 2 blocks. First up the Hulk. Gotta have the enormous green rage monster in green month. This is actually Hulk's second appearance this year, as he has also featured in July, but I haven't finished that month yet so it's not on this blog. You can go see it o...

Hello everybody! Focussing on the Hats Off To You quilt for the Festival of Quilts meant I wasn't keeping up with the Focus Cutting Sewalong. I am starting to catch it back now, and I have finished all my June blocks, so here they are! The theme for June was Lines, which is always one of my favourite themes. I did 7 blocks in total. Week 22 was Vertical Lines. For this shape, that meant the lines along the length of the shape. I did two blocks. First up, this classic interpretation of the prompt. These pink and red stripes form a clear X shape with the paler stripe down the middle. And secondly, these blue lines. I went extra line-y on this one, choosing this fabric with extra chevron lines, in addition to the overall stripe effect. Week 23 was horizontal lines. These run across the width of the shape, making a square effect towards the centre of the block. Again, I made two blocks. First up, this blue block. This was the first fabric I pulled to use for this theme. You can see my ...

 Hello everybody! The Festival of Quilts 2023 has been and gone and it has been one hell of an event! I spent two whole days there, I exhibited myself for the first time this year, I attended two workshops and a talk and I took a grand total of 1619 photos, which I have had to dump onto my laptop because my SD card and my phone storage have finally told me enough is enough with my photo habits and I near to clear some space. Me on the train on the way to the second day of the FOQ. So on to this year's Genevieve Awards! The Genevieve Awards are awards I give to the quilts on display at the Festival of Quilts. The only prize for them is the knowledge that I like your quilt. I make up the categories, I decide which quilts go in to the categories, I decide who wins. These are now the third Awards (you can also read the ones for 2022 and 2019) and the categories change depending on what quilts are at the show.  For the first year ever, I have decided that some quilts at the show ar...