The Festival of Quilts 2015 – Part Four – Miniature Quilts

Every year I am drawn to the intricate beauty of these miniature quilts. Their detail and precision is mind blowing. The older I get the poorer my eyes sight is getting (yes I am past that wonderful age of 40). I aspire to have the ability to create a quilt of the caliber displayed at the Show, but for the time being I am happy to just look in awe at the skill of these stitchers. Each piece is a maximum of 30cm on its’ longest side (to be classified as a miniature), but many quilts shown below were much, much smaller.
Here are my favourite Miniature Quilts from the Show.

 

Guiding Star by Sarah Hadfield
Up North by Christine Jurd
The Observers Quilt of Birds by Sue Bibby

 

Box of Jewels by Dorian Walton
Maxiature by Rosemary Cousins
Red Circles in Red Squares II by Jane Wheeler

 

Amish Feathers by Judith Beevor

More posts from the Festival of Quilts to follow.

“Secret Messages” Bletchley Park Quilt Exhibiton 2012 – Enigma

For those in the know, Bletchley Park needs no explaining…..

For those who have yet to discover it, Bletchley Park (or Station X) was the hub of the British decoding and cipher unit in WW2 and it was here that the mathematical brains of many including the brilliant and gifted Alan Turing solved the puzzle of the German Enigma Machine and developed the first computer – Colossos.
I am a huge history buff and bore my family senseless with the facts and figures of historical events – it all fascinates me, particularly how one event leads and merges with another and why one occurrence is the catalyst to another larger event.

In 2012, Bletchley Park hosted a quilt exhibition – the theme was “Secret Messages” – celebrating Station X and the 100th anniversary of Turing’s birth. Anyone could submit work to the exhibition ….. so I did…..

This piece was inspired by the secret documentation used in operations and planning for the D-Day landings on 6th June 1944 – the ticker-tape design is taken from one used to feed into Colossos. The mathematical formula is part of Turing’s work in solving Enigma. The Union Flag was foundation pieced and formed the starting point of the design.
The piece was a joy to make – lots of surface design and messing about. I wanted it to look like a well used document….. Made using Irish Linen, the pillowcase method, top stitched edges by hand with no binding….. this is how I made it….. I wanted it to look like an old document.

 

A foundation pieced Union Flag was the starting point to the piece.
Turing’s mathematical formula
Bigot – is higher than Most Secret; ticker-tape from Collossos
‘ Operations ‘ that made D-Day possible.
The finished piece