Sunday 22 April 2012

Creating a quilt for the Festival of Quilts

Now, how did I find myself in this situation, you might ask yourself?  Well, I blame my students. Whilst visiting that awesome exhibition last year, the Festival of Quilts, I was encouraged to enter the competition for 2012.  Let me explain my background: I am a lecturer of Fashion but I can basically teach anything that can be made using the sewing machine or by hand (except upholstery, boy, I hated the state of my hands after those classes! More suited to a man!) because my interests, knowledge and curiosity extends far and wide.

I was encouraged and selected to teach the Patchwork and Quilting class (everyone did a Houdini disappearing act at the time, then miraculously appeared to congratulate me!) because I had completed a City & Guilds course which covered this aspect. I had never in my life made a quilt but there I was at the beginning of the term , advising students about the steps required to achieving this marvellous feat and in the Festival of Quilts 11 months later saying 'Oh yes, what a good idea. I will enter the competition!'.

Block making is an easy process for me, so with that I had no problems but I must say, watching alternative ways of putting pieces together on YouTube was enlightening and inspirational - a must for anyone. Teaching that part of patchwork was a doddle but the part which I dreaded most was the actual joining sequences (using posts and borders), sandwiching, quilting and finishing!  I decided to bite the bullet and make a quilt for my cousin's baby as that would furnish me with the knowledge of sandwiching the layers, quilting and finishing and, to make it before I came to the stage of teaching it! That was successful and I really enjoyed the experience and satisfaction of making an appreciated finished product, and was ready and raving to do another. And that enthusiasm was what my students honed in on!

So here I am, having posted my entry form and paid my £10, on the brink of a great creation (encouraged by the prize money) and not quite sure where to start!

2 comments:

  1. Well done aunty for going for such a challenge. You will be fine, everyone has start somewhere in their knowledge and artistic practice. Plus there are many ways to make a quilt and many types of quilt,so i,m sure you will have lots of fun with this functional artform. heck out the quilting arts magazines and Art Quilting by Stampington (give them a quick google.) Dxo

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  2. Good luck! I've seen you're following my progress (which is similar to yours- I decided on a whim 2 days before closing date to enter though I'd never done anything like it before) so I'm going to follow yours.... I want to see the sketch!

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