Gift and a little progress

Jean who blogs as Genies Art World has recently had a blogging anniversary and offered a giveaway for which I was one of the lucky winners!  The prize was the fun brooch which will brighten up my jacket or bag and Jean very kindly enclosed some extras for me which will come in very handy.  Thank you Jean!  I particularly like the little piece of blue fabric which has some lovely sky effects on it.

Recently at our monthly quilting group Jenny has been showing us the delights of making Turning Twenty blocks.  Making 20 x fat quarter sized blocks seemed like a lot of work to me so I aimed to make a Turning Nine quilt and have been working on it for the last couple of days.  

I can't find anywhere to photograph it so that I can get the whole thing in but this is the bulk of my design, photographed on our bed.  All of the fabrics, apart from the one obviously commercial wavy one, are my own hand-dyes and, apart from the fact that there's a preponderance of turquoise, I think the overall balance is working.  As usual I have jumped in with both feet and not thought through exactly where I am going as I wanted to include some of my own digital images.  As the blocks are now all made up I won't be able to pass the fabric through the printer so if I am to add images they will have to be with iron on transfers or maybe organza overlays.  

This is very much a work in progress and will continue to evolve but I am very excited about it and it may even end up as my Festival of Quilts entry (or have I blown that now by showing it here?).  One thought is to reduce it down to a 6 x block quilt which I think would work better as a wallhanging. That would leave me some blocks left over to maybe make a bag!

Talking of exciting, I am very excited at the prospect of tomorrow as I am meeting up with Susan Lenz who put on the Cyberfyber exhibition last year.  Susan is a prolific artist and I know I am going to feel overawed in her company but I am really looking forward to meeting her.  Hopefully we will explore one of the Victorian  churchyards in Nottingham as Susan collects images and rubbings from gravestones for her work.  If you are not familiar with Susan's work have a look at her blog, it is fascinating and you will see what I mean by prolific!  Mind you, the last I heard from Susan she had been delayed so fingers crossed that she has now arrived in the UK as she is watching her son perform in the Birmingham Royal Ballet tonight.  Also tomorrow we are meeting up with another Sue who works in Nottingham so it will be a regular bloggers day out!  I will try and remember to take a photo of us all!

Ooh! One last thought.......is anyone going to the Region 10 Quilters Guild meeting at Long Bennington near Newark this weekend?  I shall be going so if you see me say hello! (Its my first meeting).  Barbara Weeks is the speaker so I'm looking forward to meeting everyone and hearing Barbara's talk.