Sue Jennings' Colourwash Quilts

As well as her amazing One Block Wonders, Sue’s Colourwash Quilts were also on display at the show, they too were quilts not to miss. As many quilters will tell you quilting projects generate a lot of scraps and Sue said she started to make colourwash quilts after watching technique videos online by the Canadian quilter, Terry Rowlands.

The quilts are perfect for using up lots of small scraps - which is the point in which I should stop reading (and looking) as this will only encourage me to save every last scrap, the challenge is though of course, where to store them and how to make them look as fantastic and as ‘put together’ as these by Sue.

Sue says she uses prints, solids, batiks, silk, wovens and in fact anything goes, and the only time she uses a ruler is to square up the blocks and the quilt, so everything can be rough cut, and any shape can be used.

This really isn’t what I wanted to hear!! But I agree and the lack of regularity makes the quilts more interesting and when Sue says it’s a joy to look at these quilts and remember which fabric was used in which quilt, I’m totally with her.

Her first colourwash quilt used all colours of scraps, and when it was done she wondered what was next. Let me tell you now, what came next was even more stunning, with her colour inspiration coming from artwork and photos, and you’ll see just what I mean.

ORIGINAL COLOURWASH, SUE JENNINGS

The inspiration for her Autumn quilt was the ‘wonderful fall colours’ she experienced while living for part of her childhood in Canada, and she thought ‘it would be a joy’ to recreate those using her scrap fabrics, and that resulted in another wonderful quilt.

AUTUMN COLOURWASH, SUE JENNINGS

WATERLILIES COLOURWASH, SUE JENNINGS

You’ll not be surprised to learn that Sue’s inspiration for the Waterlilies quilt was a photo of a Monet painting. It’s a vibrant but calming palette, and a fabulous quilt isn’t it?

SARIS COLOURWASH, SUE JENNINGS

The inspiration for the Saris quilt was photos of ‘beautiful bright Indian saris’ and Sue ‘particularly wanted to wash oranges, pinks and reds’ from her scraps. These are colours that I love together, though I veer more towards oranges and pinks with yellow, rather than reds - and this quilt does remind me of the colourful saris we saw women wear in India, particularly those when we visited a stepped well. The contrast against the natural elements was stunning, as is this quilt - and I think of all of Sue’s colourwash quilts, this is my favourite - which is yours?

Haberdashery of every shape, size and colour at MacCulloch & Wallis

I do like a mooch around a good shop when I’m in London, and this trip was no different. After a day in Islington I headed to a haberdashery extraordinaire just off Oxford Street. Now why I’ve just discovered this is a mystery to me, though it’s probably a good thing that I hadn’t found this shop while I actually lived in London!.

Yes, not that far away from Oxford Circus tube I found myself standing outside MacCulloch & Wallis admiring their window displays, and having an internal smile of how they’d displayed balls of wool on models of sheep.

There was every kind of haberdashery item you could possibly wish for, plus wool, plus fabric and with a lot of vintage charm.

I couldn’t help but think wouldn’t it be lovely though to have a similar unit for my own craft supplies, though the wooden storage unit above also reminded me of a school uniform supply shop, just me?

Throughout the two levels of the shop there was a rainbow of colour.

At the very back of the shop on the ground floor I found the cutting table, and even that was a cutting table with a difference as the centre was filled with buttons.

Thankfully though, buttons weren’t in short supply - just look at the range available. And to think I thought the selection in Liberty was extensive when I visited last year!

I was tempted by some of the Tailor’s Chalk, but I resisted - I have some, though not as beautiful as this, and well, there’s only so much of it you can use isn’t there?

In the basement, alongside the tempting Tailor’s Chalk were rows and rows of needles, cards of every type of fastening you could ever want.

And miles of zips.

With cotton and ric rac in an array of colours.

In fact the choice was vast, almost overwhelming - this is definitely a shop you need to go to with a plan. A browse is good, but just wow - it’d be even better with a plan!

Post Comment Love 6 - 8 March

Hello there, welcome to this week’s #PoCoLo - a relaxed, friendly linky which I co-host with Suzanne, where you can link any blog post published in the last week. We know you’ll find some great posts to read, and maybe some new-to-you blogs too, so do pop over and visit some of the posts linked, comment and share some of that love.

Please don’t link up posts which are older as they will be removed, and if you see older posts are linked then please don’t feel that it’s necessary to comment on those. If you were here last week it was great to have you along, if you’re new here we’re pleased you’ve joined us.

At last, we’ve had some glorious spring days here - and we’ve been making the most of them. We ate lunch outside at the local cafe which is a favourite with cyclists, and with us too - it’s where I took this week’s photo. MOH cycled there but as I was off to get my hair done I went in the car, which is more usual for me to be honest.

Then yesterday was even better, with warmer temperatures and the first gardening session of the year, it’s been a while! Long may this glorious spring weather continue, although I don’t think it’s forecast too, sadly.

Have a great week.

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