Sheila's Biog and Bee Block

Hello there, Sheila here, or if you are on social media, I'm @budsmam.

I have always crafted, my main passion for many decades was embroidery, I did a lot of hardanger and speciality embroidery. Much like this ‘Around the world in 80 stitches’ sampler I recently completed.

I hurt the tendons in my arm almost 10 years ago which put paid to the large amount of stitching I did. I now have to ration the amount of fine needlework I do. This took me into the world of patchwork, not too many tendon issues there!

I have attended many classes, quite a few of Jo's fab classes but also learned so much online from the various swaps and bees which are a constant factor of online life.

This is a quilt I made from the scrappy Trip Around The World quilt bee.

I love scrappy quilts and am so chuffed with my scrappy Farmers Wife quilt, took me 3 years but I love it.

I am so pleased to be in the Edinburgh Modern Quilt Guild, what a great bunch of ladies. My block is the traditional Scottish Plaid Block, there are many guides online to this block and in books of patterns, my block finishes at 12.5 inches, it has a centre square of 6.5 inches, two smaller squares of the centre fabric at 3.5 inches each, then two rectangles of 6.5x3.5 and two more of 9.5x3.5.

I asked that each block be made up of one colour, the choice is up to the chooser! The vast majority of my quilts go to Project Linus and this one will go too. A lovely bright quilt for some child to enjoy and cuddle.

Finally here is why I am @budsmam, sadly no longer with us but he was my best friend for 11 years, he was Bud and I was his mam.

Sheena's Biog and Bee Block

Whilst I'm a recent new comer to patchwork and quilting, I was brought up in a crafty household with a knitting and dress making mum (mind you, didn't all mums do this in the 1960's and 1970's?!).   Therefore I have always done some sort of sewing from making my own clothes as a teenager to lots of curtains and some upholstery more recently.

I did a patchwork evening class back in the early 1990's whilst living in Wiltshire and made a couple of things then including my first quilt: a lap quilt made of liberty fabrics that I went to the Liberty shop in London especially to buy combined with gold upholstery fabric (from the sublime to the ridiculous in terms of fabric - and better than it sounds, honest!).  And whilst really enjoying patchwork & quilting, life then got in the way.  Having said that I did keep going to quilt shows just to 'have a look' but I didn't do any more patchwork until three or four years ago when I moved back to Edinburgh and joined the Quilters Guild and attended every workshop that I could find.

I am currently working my way through learning different techniques and am greatly looking forward to having my attic converted in the new year as one of the rooms will be my sewing room.  Bliss!!!  I've also promised myself a new all singing, all dancing sewing machine with money left to me by my mum - a nice memory of her as she was a keen sewer.

For my Edinburgh Modern Quilt Guild B-block I have decided to try to design a quilt to raffle to raise money for the charity I work for (I run the marketing & fundraising for Legion Scotland, a charity that helps Scottish veterans, whether they left service yesterday or 50 years ago). This makes use of the charity's logo and brand colours which are two shades of blue and bright red (these represent the army, navy and airforce).

October's meeting

Just a quick post about last night's meeting. First of all thanks so much to Audrey for taking the minutes (unfortunately Jane couldn't make it) and all the photos here.

We spent a while discussing the charity quilt project and looking at the fabric that had arrived (plus some pieces from member's stash).

We decided to have 2 separate evenings to get to work on the quilt, Tuesday 4th November and Friday 14th November. This way hopefully everyone can make at least one of the evenings and if we split in to 2 groups there will be enough room in the studio for working. So can you please email me to let me know which date you can do or if you can do both dates. I will then produce a rota and let you all know which date to come. Fortunately our November meeting will be between the 2 evenings so we can discuss progress with all the group.

At show and tell Janice showed us her quilt top from her bee blocks. isn't it stunning??!! This is going to make an amazing quilt. I think everyone wanted to start a project using shirts after seeing this!

Sheena presented her Bee blocks (above), she is using the logo from the Royal British Legion Scotland where she works. There will be more info about this in a separate post later.

These are Sheila's blocks, called Scottish Plaid (I think), she wants you to choose your favourite colour. Again more details in a separate post.

Jackie also presented her block for November as she won't be here. We will recap next month for anyone that missed it, but it's Christmassy!

Audrey will type up the minutes and send out next week. Thanks again Audrey!

Luke Haynes Lecture

Last night our guild hosted it's first event, and what an event to start with!

We were so lucky to have Luke Haynes come and talk to us about his work and show us some of his amazing quilts.

Luke was an excellent speaker, very funny, charming, and really fascinating. He is a true artist who's just bursting with original ideas.

He's also a very skilled quilter. You can see Fiona and Lucy below, getting up close and personal with his quilts!

Luke was so generous in sharing his techniques and knowledge with us and answering all our questions, and afterwards he chatted to everybody over tea and cake. I think Pauline may have commissioned her own quilt before the night had ended!

I managed to get some photos of the quilts laid out on the table. I couldn't take photos of them being held up as I was holding one of the corners!
One of the most interesting things about Luke's quilts is that he only uses recycled clothes, so they are made from a huge mix of textures, as you can see by the furry areas above.

This is one of Luke's small, self portraits. You can see his straight line heavy quilting here which he does himself on a long-arm. He also likes to use a different coloured bobbin thread which gives a fantastic effect on the back of the quilt.

More recycled clothes, you can see a Gap label in the piece above. These smaller pieces are used for his workshops, which are about de-constructing clothes.

Here's Luke, clearly having fun during the refreshments.
It really was a fabulous night and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. I for one was bowled over by Luke and his art.

Thanks so much to Pauline, Fiona and Anne for making the delicious cake - I managed 2 pieces!

And a HUGE thank you to Pauline's husband Craig who, like a knight in shining armour, totally saved the whole event by rushing around with a spare laptop and helping us hook it up after a problem with the projector cable. The whole event may not have gone ahead without him!

And lastly here's to many more EMQG events!

A few more photos added by Lucy - thanks Lucy!