Chinese Whispers

[Rita C.]

Nancy, I wish I lived near you and then I could go to all your retreats! Have fun and don't worry about me, I'll be fine here on my own, in my little sewing room, just sewing away quietly....

Lotti, I am sorry to hear you have tendonitis in your right wrist. Did you try doing the exercises from the youtube video that Rosemary posted a while back? Is yours caused by over-use or do you have arthritis? Anyway, I hope your other health checks have good results.

And Lois, good on you doing the mock mola quilt, it's great. A technique I have yet to try.

[Rita C.]

A little bit of resting on my laurals here after (finally) finishing my Too Loud Man quilt. Wondering what to do next... (imagine the conversation between the vultures on the Jungle Book film - 'What we gonna do now then?' 'Well I dunno, what you wanna do now then?' etc. etc.)
I think that I should turn my attention to Caught Red Handed, if I want to get it finished for entering into this years Great Northern show, which means making some more diddy sized blocks for inserting into the wide border, coming up with a design for the reverse side (seeing what fabrics I have for it) and also since it is for competitions I am wondering whether using a blanket would be too heavy (postage etc), besides wanting a plain blanket, rather than a striped ended one which might shadow through. But if I didn't use a blanket what would I use instead? decisions, decisions!
Actually I think that I might just work on one of the sets of orphan blocks that I am intending to become an AAQI quilt and have a play with ess, followed up with some threadplay on it.

EG meeting this weekend so I get to meet up with my embroidery/sewing chums. Wonder what we are doing?

[Maureen A.]

Rosemary, have you ever thought of entering your quilt in the Open section of the Loch Lomond Quilt Show. It would be nice for us up here to see it. I have pasted below a bit about it. Go into their website and see all the rules.

Open Competition: "Re-Jigged"

'Let your imagination dance with ideas – re think, re make, re do, re invent or re use. Give a pattern, a block, an idea or your choice of materials a new twist.'

Your entry can be a bed quilt, a wall hanging, a decorative or wearable item. Please note the minimum and maximum sizes. If you need any extra information do e-mail us and ask.

[Maureen A.]

Rosemary, have you ever thought of entering your quilt in the Open section of the Loch Lomond Quilt Show. It would be nice for us up here to see it. I have pasted below a bit about it. Go into their website and see all the rules.

Open Competition: "Re-Jigged"

'Let your imagination dance with ideas – re think, re make, re do, re invent or re use. Give a pattern, a block, an idea or your choice of materials a new twist.'

Your entry can be a bed quilt, a wall hanging, a decorative or wearable item. Please note the minimum and maximum sizes. If you need any extra information do e-mail us and ask.

Nope, I can't say as the idea had ever crossed my mind. Which one were you thinking of? Too Loud Man weighs in at about 7lb, and being reversable which side would I put the hanging sleeve on :roll:

[Nancy R.]

Nancy, I wish I lived near you and then I could go to all your retreats! Have fun and don't worry about me, I'll be fine here on my own, in my little sewing room, just sewing away quietly....

I'd LOVE it if all of my Chinese Whispers friends could join me!! We could have a skype retreat, but it might be the middle of the night for some of us...

[Maureen A.]

Nancy, I wish I lived near you and then I could go to all your retreats! Have fun and don't worry about me, I'll be fine here on my own, in my little sewing room, just sewing away quietly....

I'd LOVE it if all of my Chinese Whispers friends could join me!! We could have a skype retreat, but it might be the middle of the night for some of us...

Wouldn't that be awesome :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

[Maureen A.]

Rosemary, have you ever thought of entering your quilt in the Open section of the Loch Lomond Quilt Show. It would be nice for us up here to see it. I have pasted below a bit about it. Go into their website and see all the rules.

Open Competition: "Re-Jigged"

'Let your imagination dance with ideas – re think, re make, re do, re invent or re use. Give a pattern, a block, an idea or your choice of materials a new twist.'

Your entry can be a bed quilt, a wall hanging, a decorative or wearable item. Please note the minimum and maximum sizes. If you need any extra information do e-mail us and ask.

Nope, I can't say as the idea had ever crossed my mind. Which one were you thinking of? Too Loud Man weighs in at about 7lb, and being reversable which side would I put the hanging sleeve on :roll:

Either of your quilts would work. If it is a reversible quilt they try to hang it so you can see both sides. When is the Great Northern show?

[Maureen A.]

The Great Northern Show this year is on from 30th Aug - 1st Sept, entries by 5th July, quilts in by post to arrive by 21st Aug or hand delivered on 27th Aug. Given my current track record for speed in finishing quilts I will need every last minute to get it done in time :wink: My dad doesn't refer to me as 'hot needle & burning thread' for nothing :roll: :lol:

I suppose I could make a light green hanging loop that goes off the top of Too Loud Man so that it toned in with the binding but doesn't cover the quilt on either side.

Or there is my Sottt's quilt - that would definitely have to be a 'group quilt' wouldn't you say... :wink: :lol:

[Maureen A.]

The Spring Quilt Festival is on this weekend at Ingliston, Edinburgh. I have organised a coach to take our group to it. That's got quilts to see and loads of vendors. The Scottish Quilt Festival in September is the one that has competition quilts in it. Both are run by Grosvenor, the same as the Harrogate one.

[E.M. T.]

Sounds like everyone is keepin' busy...sewing ,traveling and in general, having a fine February ! I finished one fair
sized quilt and finished a big top...it's pin basted now and sitting by the machine waiting for me to start. Nothing
fancy...a med. stipple large enough to still be soft...100 inches is a lot to push thru a machine...even Big Berni !
My other project is the restoration of Gr. Grandma Lillies' treadle ... It is coming along...I'm putting final finish on
the wood parts now. Considering that it was pretty much a box of kindling...it's not turning out too bad...not near
original but should be serviceable. Must say...I'm thinking of Limbania....

[Nancy R.]

The Treadle is beautiful! Can't wait to see it when it's finished!

Nancy

[Lois B.]

Marilyn, I've been thinking of Lambina all day. I bet we all are. We are all so far away from one another. It's hard to know how to help.

[Lotti D.]

Sending good good vibes to Limbania!

Beautiful treadle machine, Marilyn. I really should get up the courage to clean and oil my grandma's old Helvetia treadle! It's been sitting in my living room for a good ten years now, problem is, before that it spent a few years in a shed (dry and cozy, but still...).

Thanks Rita, I've been doing those exercises regularly since you first posted them, without them it would probably ly be much worse. I now have an anti-inflammatory patch on my wrist and an wearing a brace. Seems to help. As I'll be in the mountains this weekend, there won't really be any sewing to speak of, so it should get a little healing time

Go for it, Rosemary, get those quilts shown... We'll be rooting for you!

[Maureen A.]

Marilyn, I also have been thinking of Limbania, I think we all are.

I remember a treadle sewing machine when I was a child just like the one you are restoring. My mum taught my sister and I to sew on it. Interesting to know that Kilbowie and where the Singer factory was is not to far away from me in Clydebank

[Rita C.]

Yes Limbania is never far from my thoughts either.

Marilyn, I love your machine. The table is beautiful and so is the cover. What is the wood? I have one that was my grandmothers and the timber is oak. Yours looks like oak too. Mine is not as fancy as yours though. But I did look it up and discovered that it is from 1928 which is probably exactly when my grandmother would have bought it. My aunts had an electric motor attached in the 70s but it's possible to detach the electric part and still use the treadle. I keep mine in our house in Kerry and every time we go down I have a little play with it. It works perfectly. I also remembered that I have another one in the shed which I had forgotten about. But I stupidly gave the treadle table to my sister about 15 years ago because I was not using the machine. I really regret that now. That machine has a shuttle bobbin - I wonder does that make it an older machine?