Textiles – Amanda Jane Textiles

100th blog post!

100th post

Shortly before starting my small business Amanda Jane Textiles in Autumn 2014, I began this blog. Thus far, I have written 100 blog posts and included a 30-second video about my creative life. Click here to see it.

There have been about 13,000 hits on this website. Thank you for visiting.

The plan is to write original content each week which I hope you will enjoy, and also to give access to my gradually increasing selection of quilt and sewing patterns, to my stock of fabric designs and to information about our holiday house let in Durham, UK. I’ve created links to all of these: you should be able to see them either below, or to the right of the current post(s).

Over the two and a half year period, I have covered a variety of topics, the majority (but not all) textile-related. I also like to feature the beautiful North-East of England, where I live, and also to write about other things that have caught my interest. Here are some examples. Just click on the title to read the post:

Textiles:

Three upcycled dresses in three days

Tantalising quilt link at Beamish

Stitches and Sequins

How-to:

Save money, recycle a shirt

A Harris tweed brooch

How to layer up a quilt

Textile artists:

Meeting Michael Brennand-Wood

Lou Gardiner in London

Sue Dove in Harrogate

Small business:

Developing textile products for sale

Running a small business

Taking photographs of products

Skiing and Snow:

Skiing and silk (what to wear for skiing)

Springtime and Snow

Durham and the North-East:

Finding inspiration on foot

Lumiere lights Durham

Durham Surprises

I also wrote a useful post about how to replace a jacket lining which appeared on the Bernina blog. Click here to see it.

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If you enjoy these posts, then do consider subscribing so you get the weekly blog-post delivered direct to your email in-box. And please pass on the website address (http://www.amandajanetextiles.com) to anyone else you know who would like it too. Thanks!

And as a special gift to mark the 100th blog post: there’s a free single-bed quilt pattern for you! Click here to get it.

The best birthday cake ever

Photo taken from blog post Fire and Ice (and Meringue).

Travelling Trunks

By: Amanda Jane Textiles June 6, 2016

Quilt Exhibitions, UncategorizedExhibitions, Quilters' Guild, Quilters'Guild Northern Region, Quilting, quilting exhibitions, quilting gloves, Quilts, Textiles, Traditional Group of the Quilters' Guild, Travelling TrunksLeave a Comment

At the weekend I helped with an exhibition day organised by the North-East region of the Quilters’ Guild. My tasks included selling Tombola tickets (great fun seeing people win sewing-related items), and then later, looking after the sales table, full of quiltery-type items for sale: mugs, cards, address labels, patterns, etc and – most usefully – some non-slip quilting gloves. I’ve heard good reports of these, and have seen a friend quilting away with similar gloves on, gently stretching the fabric away from the needle on either side, the textured surface of the gloves providing traction. Looking forward to trying them out…

As the Quilters’ Guild no longer, sadly, has exhibition space in York, it has put together some travelling exhibitions which can be shown in different parts of the country. One of these so-called ‘suitcase collections’ , known by the name ‘Travelling Trunks’ came to the village of Hett in County Durham, so that 40 beautiful small quilts, all made by members of the ‘Traditional’ special interest group of the Quilters’Guild could be put on display. Here are just a few :

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These pieces demonstrated a wide variety of traditional patterns, and were a pleasure to examine. An accompanying folder allowed visitors to read each maker’s statement about their particular piece.

This small quilt by Lynne Johnson was a particular favourite of mine:

This is an interpretation of the centre section of a historic quilt, made in 1805-10 called the ‘Billings Coverlet’, from the Quilters’ Guild collection. Click here to find out more about the Coverlet. The notes accompanying the suitcase collection revealed that this quilter had not only made the small quilt, but also a full-size 80″x 80″ version of the full quilt!

If, dear reader, you belong to a quilt group affiliated to the Quilters’ Guild, you too could arrange an exhibition of these small gems. Click here to go to the Guild website.