August and September Prize winners

The August join prize was won by Louise from Derbyshire. Louise won a copy of Kaffe Fassett's book, "Kaleidoscope of Quilts".

The blue/white pinwheel design is the

sandwiched and basted cushion cover which

Louise and her daughter Molly pieced

between us. It's for her bedroom, and she

chose the fabrics and made one quarter

of the design. Louise is in the middle of

hand-quilting it.

"I live near Matlock in Derbyshire with my partner and our three children (aged 11, 9 and 6), fitting in freelance work as a proofreader and copy-editor around our busy family life. I've done many different types of knitting and needlework in my spare time over the last few years - I've made cross-stitch pieces for my own and other children, clothes, tapestries, curtains, and various costumes for fancy dress and school plays - but I'm very much a beginner at quilting and patchwork."

"However, I used to do a lot as a child - I was taught by my mother and grandmother, and my sisters and I made all sorts of small items (probably all squirrelled away at my parents' house!). They taught me by the English Paper Piecing patchwork method, where paper foundation templates are basted onto fabric and then the pieces slip stitched together by hand with the templates still in place. Rather eccentrically I'm still working by this method now, and I also quilt by hand, so projects tend to take a while!"

Louise says, "The blue stars/diamonds

piece is very much a work in progress

- my 'forever project'. It's a Persian

Blue Stars design by

Kaffe Fassett, which I'm working

entirely by hand by the EPP

method. The finished top is so

big that I think I'll still be

working on it in about ten

years' time, but I'm loving the

colours and the construction process."

"After a twenty-year gap I caught the bug again about four months ago, and since then have taught my eldest daughter the EPP technique and we've pieced a simple pinwheel cushion cover together (I'm quilting it at the moment). My current large patchwork project is a blue/green quilt top with stars and tumbling blocks, designed by Kaffe Fassett and hand worked with my own twist on the choice of fabrics. There are also other projects at the idea stage and in the pipeline, mostly gifts for friends and family which I can't talk about in case they read this!"

"I found the Popular Patchwork site when I was looking for UK-based forums, and have followed many of the discussions with interest over the last few weeks since I joined the site. I love the Gallery and the Project pages - there are so many things I want to try! I've already learned an enormous amount from the discussions and articles here, and I look forward to learning a whole lot more."

Congratulations to Pat, who was the winner in our "Impatient Patchworker" competition! Pat won a copy of Jayne Emerson's book "The Impatient Patchworker", This is a brilliant book for those of us who like quick fix projects, there are more than twenty designs here, none of which take more than a few hours to complete. I hope Pat enjoys her copy, and finds the time to make one of the projects from it.

The Impatient Patchworker

by Jayne Emerson

Pat contributed this post to the forum, "My problem is not enough time, I find it very difficult to sew with pleasure whilst my family own and adopted disabled, need me to just do this, that or the other."

"When I sit down to sew (at about midnight, not the best time, but it's very peaceful!!!) I sew like crazy. In the morning, it's a different story, but interesting. Because I find it difficult to be creative whilst domestic/familly jobs need attending to, I need all the inspiration I can get, in the way of Popular Patchwork & any other book I can afford. I do need to prove/show my husband & family that it's really important for me to sew - to keep my sanity for a start. - Don't they say a happy mum means a happy household?"

"Whilst I'm sewing & getting good results from my labour I'm in seventh heaven, it's just bliss. So I would really need a book of inspiration to get the result I crave, for me to be happy & my family too!!. It would be great if I got organized enough to sew during the day time, but then I would feel awfully guilty getting caught sitting down & enjoying myself."

Thanks very much to everyone who contributed to this thread, it has been great to read your posts, and fascinating to see just how many of us are impatient and quilt obsessed in some way! The prize has been posted, but please feel free to continue to tell us about your patchwork personality. You never know, I might pick another winner soon!