Not small enough?

I love to make miniatures, I might have said this before but I am saying it again! I needed to make a class sample for the CUBITZ panel I am teaching at KIS Quilting (Ipswich) at the end of January so I can show the lovely ladies there how to face a quilt instead of binding it, since this panel has a shaped lower edge

The coin is just for reference: all will become clear soon

While sewing this panels I was idly wondering how small I could make it. My first instinct, when miniaturising a design, would be to foundation paper piece it, but this design just wouldn't work by that method. So it would have to be just done by accurate cutting and piecing (1/8th inch seams!)

Nailed it!

The fabric used throughout these panels is a lovely woven stripe by OAKSHOTT fabrics, sadly now discontinued. However the new weaving of LONGSHOTT is vibrant and gorgeous - I would recommend that you have a look at it.

A WEEK OF... Day 5

I have moved onto playing with silk for the last couple of days, and wanted to get this small piece finished before I signed off for Christmas (visiting in-laws; hand sewing only when not wrapping the sprouts and roasting the presents)

The pudgy fingers are just there to give an idea of scale. Not quite a miniature, but definitely small. When I get home, I might try it again half this size!

Freshening up Hidden Depths...

...the Exhibition. We went in on Monday, tidied up the quilts, re-arranged the roof, rehung the miniatures, hoovered, swept, and snuck away... It all looks good.
Open Wednesdays till Sundays, 10 till 4 each day, with accompanying coffee, cake, and lunches, until just after the New Year
at
Ravenous Cafe
The Raveningham Centre
Beccles Road
Raveningham
Norfolk NR14 6NU
Do come..

Triumphant Return

Well we have returned from the Festival of Quilts; in triumph in the case of HH, with her second "Judge's Choice" award in two years with this exquisite silk tree miniature called "Another Fair Copse". I watched Helen construct and quilt this piece while I was teaching a class on foundation paper piecing at her workshop and, apart from the breeze moving the tiny silk strips about at inopportune moments, it was all made in an amazingly short period of time.

As you can see the award is almost as big as the quilt!

My miniature had the distinction of being smaller than just one of the blocks on the "Ebb Tide" quilt that I had entered into the Modern category. It finished at under 8 inches square and includes 81 individual blocks! But then I am known for being a bit o.t.t. about miniatures.

I made this design  originally as a 3 foot square wall hanging (much bigger blocks) for Michael Oakshott to show off his new range Longshott cottons. Click on the photo below to go to the Oakshot Fabrics website