Kaffe Fassett A Life in Colour Part 2

It's half term.  And with two little monkeys at my side all day, it's made blogging pretty tricky.  Enough said!  There's been highs (theatre trip, the beach, Pizza Express, the park, the café, the park again) and some lows (cold, rain, a flat car battery.)  But now it's the weekend and I've finally had a chance to sort through the rest of my pictures from the Kaffe Fassett Exhibition that I went to a few weeks ago. (You can read all about part 1 here)

 

So without further ado, here's the rest of the pictures.  I don't think words do justice to how amazing it all was, see for yourself!

 

 

 

If you get a chance to see it for yourself, then I highly recommend it, it's only on until the 29th June, so there's not long left!  Here's the website, in case you want to know more.

 

http://ftmlondon.org/ftm-exhibitions/kaffe-fassett/

 

Thank you so much for stopping by,

 

Sarah x

 

 

 

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Second Entry

So I found out that we are allowed 2 entries in the Blogger's Quilt Festival!

 

If you haven't already seen my first entry, my Anchors Away quilt, for the Baby Quilt Category, you can read about it here.  

 

And for my second entry, I'm going for the Hand Quilting Category.  It's still a baby quilt, but I hand quilted it with my favourite no. 8 Pearle cotton thread, to give it a wonderful heirloom quality and to tie in with the vintage feel. 

 

Here it is from a distance.

 

 

Which isn't much good because you can't see the quilting.  So here are a few close ups.  Can you see how I stitched through the centre at intersections.

 



 

I then echo quilted around the points of the stars.  (The blue stitching on blue is there, honestly!)

 

 

And finally I did a loopy freehand design around the border.  This bit was my favourite part of all and I think it adds a really playful element to the quilt.  

 

 

For the back I used the gorgeous alphabet print from the same French General Petit Odile collection. 

 

I've put this quilt on display at the local gallery, The Harbour Gallery and you can read more about my display here.  Here are the finished quilt details. 

 

Category: Hand Quilted Quilt

Designed by: Sarah Ashford (Me!)

Size: 39" x 39"

Techniques: Machine pieced and hand quilted

Fabrics: French General Petite Odile for Moda

 

Thank you so much for stopping by! 

 

Sarah x

 

 



 



A New Project

On Sunday I wrote a post about the gorgeous fabrics that my lovely friend Chrissie sent me. 

And I have come up with a plan and put them to good use.

Here's a little sneak peek of them so far, all cut up and laid out but not sewn together.   I wonder what it's going to say...

........?????

 

And yes, in case you're wondering, that is an absolutely fabulous and exclusive New York Times print alternating with the black on white city scape print.  It really is to die for. 

 

I'm so looking forward to getting on my machine and sewing these 3" squares together.  All 234 of them.   I've had to put them all away for now, in a super organised fashion! 

In other news, I've entered the Blogger's Quilt Festival with my Anchors Away quilt, in the baby quilt category.  I even managed to get some 'on location' pictures.  I'd love it if you'd take a look, and I'd love it even more if you vote for me!  Are you entering??

I'll be back soon with more photographs from the Kaffe Fassett A Life in Colour Exhibition that I went to last week.  You can read part one here. 

Thank you so much for stopping by. 

Linking up with:

 

And

Sarah x

Blogger's Quilt Festival Spring 2013

I've been following with envy and delight, all the fantastic quilts and fabrics exhibited at Quilt Market.  It looks like such a cool place to be right now!

 

But thankfully, so the rest of the quilt blogging world don't feel left out, there is a wonderful online competition twice a year to coincide with Quilt Market, hosted by Amy's Creative Side.

 

I had a couple of quilts I was considering entering, but ultimately the quilt I love best that I've made this year is my Anchors Away quilt.  

 

I've been waiting for a sunny day to photograph it, (it's been a long wait!) and here in Jersey we are spoilt for choice with nautical locations, and I eventually went with a quaint little harbour just down the road from where I live. 

 

 

The anchor is raw edge applique that I designed myself, on a backdrop of 2" squares. 

 

I had great fun making the flying geese and I decided to add a further border of rectangles with white sashing between the borders.

 



 

For the back I fussy cut this adorable map of the world print, not just once but twice, and cut out 72 x 2" squares.  Yes for the back, I must be mad!  But I think it was worth the effort as they really frame the map prints nicely. 

 

 

Finally I quilted with vertical straight lines at  1 1/2" inch intervals and finished with some gorgeous, nautical navy stripy binding.



 

And it's not often I include photos of myself on my blog, but the sun was shining and I was feeling particularly happy that I've finally managed to photograph this quilt in a location more appropriate than my back garden ;-)  So here I am.

 

 

 I've put this quilt on display at the local gallery, The Harbour Gallery and you can read more about my display here.  Here are the quilt details. 

 

 

Category: Baby Quilt

Designed by:  Sarah Ashford (me!)

Size: Approx 35"x 41"

Techniques: Raw edge applique, machine pieced, machine quilted

Fabrics: Out to Sea by Sarah Jane and Kona Snow



 

Thank you so much for stopping by.  If you are new to my blog then it's lovely to meet you, do drop me a line to say hello, I'd love to hear from you.  I'm also on facebook and twitter so hopefully I'll see you there too :-) 

 

Now I'm off to check out all the other wonderful entries!

 

Sarah x

 



 



Sunday Stash #3

I have a very special blogging friend called Chrissie.  It's one of those friendships that has just grown and grown and although we've never met, (yet!) I feel like we know each other really well already.  We are always sharing quilting tips and ideas; or should I say Chrissie shares and I listen, she is such a wonderful wealth of knowledge I don't think there's anything I could teach her that she doesn't already know!  (Do check out her blog, it really is fabulous, and there's some great tutorials too).

 

So anyway, about a month ago, a huge parcel landed on my doorstep with a New York stamp on it.  Bundles of fabric do land on my doorstep rather frequently, as I always purchase online, but I was pretty sure I hadn't placed an international order recently...

 

Oh my goodness what a wonderful surprise.  As well as a beautiful card, there was a Flying Geese Block Lock (a really great gadget to ensure perfect geese every time) and not just a bit of fabric, but a mountain of fabric.  And not just any old fabric. Oh no.  Only some exclusive New York fabric only available at The City Quilter!!!

 

 

 

 

 

I can't tell you how excited I am to get started on making this quilt. 

 

And guess who this quilt is going to be for...yes me!  I am going to sit on it and under it and wrap around it, and think my friendship with Chrissie, and all the wonderful people I have met online through this thing called quilting. 

 

Thank you once again Chrissie for such a special gift, I love it, and I'm so happy to have met you.  I just hope I can do it justice.

 

Linking up with:

 



Sarah x

PS Back soon with more lovely pictures from the Kaffe Fasset Life in Colour Exhibition.  To see part one, click here)

 

 

 

 

Kaffe Fassett A Life in Colour - Part 1

Yesterday's post was all about my trip to London with my friend Sarah, (if you missed it you can read about it here ) and I promised that I would share some photos of the Kaffe Fassett Exhibition, called A Life in Colour at the Fashion and Textiles Museum in Bermondsey. 

 

Well I looked through my trusty Iphone and realised that I have just so many photos, I think I am going to have to write several posts! 

 

So this post is about the downstairs part of the exhibition, which mainly features the wonderful quilts.  I have done my best with the photos; it was difficult to photograph some of them as many were up high, and I'm vertically challenged at the best of times.  But I think you will get a good idea of just how amazing they are. 

 

Here they are.  Pretend that you are really there and enjoy!

 

 

 

Which one's your favourite?  I love them all but I do particularly love the second to last one, which you can also see in the corner of the photo above on the right hand side.  Isn't his fabric just fabulous, I just love that all his work is such a riot of colour. 

 

So much inspiration here, and what a talented man!

 

Thank you for stopping by,

 

Sarah x

 

 

 

A Wonderful Trip

What a fabulous day I had in London on Tuesday with my lovely friend Sarah. I'm so excited to tell you about it and share my experiences with you. 

 

 The main reason for our (day) trip, and yes you read correctly, we went for the day, from Jersey, (call us crazy) was to go to a very exciting exhibition. 

 

It was so completely fabulous, and I look so many pictures, that I am going to write a separate post all about it, and share with you all the wonderful quilts, knitting and embroidery that was simply an explosion of colour and pure joy.  So do come back soon to read all about it. 

But for now, I want to tell you about the rest of the day. 


Our first stop was the Tate Modern, where we spent several hours enjoying  the Lichtenstein Exhibition.  I don't think we were allowed to take pictures, so here's one of his more famous pieces that I found on the Internet. 

 

Given that we were on a tight schedule, Sarah and I spent far too long discussing how some of his works could be translated into quilts, but my goodness we did have fun and it was so enjoyable.  I highly recommend a visit if you are in London.  But be quick, it's only on until 27th May. 

 

And you'll never guess where our next stop was. 

 

Of course!  But by this time we were hungry and in need of refreshment, so there was only one place to go.

And what a good choice it was.  Pink Lemonade and home made pesto pasta.  Enough said!

Once we were suitably revived, we were ready to embark on some serious shopping.  I wasn't sure if I was allowed to take photos inside Liberty's so I just took a couple of discrete ones to share with you.

Just look at these fabrics!!

And look at these very beautiful Liberty birds. 

It was hard not to spend an entire fortune in the fabric department.  I did try to show some restraint, but not surprisingly, I managed to go over budget.  I just couldn't resist!  I'll be posting photos of my purchases soon, as you can imagine, they are fabrics to die for ;-) 

 

With time not on our side, we didn't make it to Berwick Street and all the lovely fabric shops that it has to offer.  So we headed straight for Bermondsey, the home of the Fashion and Textile Museum for the Kaffe Fassett Exhibition. 

 

I can't wait to share photos with you, there are quite a few!  Please do bare with me, it's going to take some time to sort through them all. 

 

I do have a WIP I want to share with you as well.  I've been working on a set of nautical bunting for some very good friends of mine and I'm pretty pleased with how it's turning out.

 

I'll be listing Nautical Bunting on my website soon  :-)

 

 

I am also going to be holding a giveaway very soon, so watch this space! 

 

 

Thank you so much for stopping by.  Linking up with:

 

 



 

 

 

Sarah x