This week we welcome a wonderful friend to Shropshire Quilters, free-motion quilting tutor Cecilia Slinn. Those of us who were lucky enough to attend Cecilia's trio of workshops last year will be looking back rather wistfully to those busy hours spent at Castle Court. Happy days!
How long have you been quilting and do you still have your first quilt?
Having retired early and moved from the South of England to the glorious border town of Montgomery I found myself looking for a new hobby. I have always sewn... like most quilters my dolls were always impeccably dressed! I came across a book by Lynne Edwards called The Sampler Quilt Book and embarked on working my way through the book learning numerous patchworking skills along the way. Well, what started as a series of blocks soon morphed into a king size quilt which is still in daily use today. I was immensely proud of making it on my little Elna sewing machine until it came to quilting it …
I soon discovered this was way beyond my capabilities then and not only because of its size. I had included Flying Geese, so edge to edge quilting was apparently not possible and i was told it would need to be custom quilted. The simple fact is I was really disappointed with the quilting on my quilt which led to the decision that I needed to learn how to Free-Motion-Quilt to finish my quilts for myself …. the rest, as they say, is history.
Do you have a favourite fabric style or colour?
I am open to all fabrics but do always seem to be drawn towards autumnal colours.
Cecilia's piece After the Party
What's your essential notion or tool?
I've never had too much luck with marking pens and am always trying new ones without great success BUT have recently come across Sewline's Styla Water Erasable Pens which have a ceramic nib. I'm VERY impressed and the markings seem to come out easily enough, although with all things like this TEST first.
And your favourite snack (or tipple)?
My husband is very good and keeps me supplied with cups of tea…. the only problem is I get so engrossed I often (very often) forget to drink them and then I am in the dog-house!!!
Daisies photographed against the wonderful landscape of the Shropshire borders
Do you listen to anything while you quilt?
I usually listen to the radio.
Cecilia's Mind the Gap was highly commended at The Festival of Quilts 2019 and exhibited at The International Festival of Quilts (Virtual) at Houston, Texas, USA 2020
Can you recommend a book?
I don’t have a favourite as such… just lots of books!
Great Grandad's Gold Pocket Watch made for her son after the watch was stolen
Have you had any quilting disasters?
I had a beautiful - albeit very dirty - antique linen tablecloth that I soaked in RetroClean and it came up wonderfully clean but I was afraid to wash/rinse it too vigorously and just gave it a quick wash after soaking. I sandwiched it, began quilting and actually got quite a long way with the quilting but it soon became clear that I hadn’t washed the RetroClean out sufficiently well and it really affected my eyes. At a loss as to what to do, I re-washed it carefully but it shrank and I couldn’t do anything with it, especially as I had begun quilting. Disaster! It went in the bin as I couldn’t bear to see it. In hindsight I should have kept it to salvage fragments to make some vintage pictures… Live and learn!!!
Do you have a favourite quilt block?
I've just bought Judy Martin's book Stellar Quilts and fancy having a go at ‘Aegean Sea’
Judy Martin's Aegean Sea quilt
Where can we find you online?
Website: Cecilia Slinn
Thank you Cecilia, its been lovely to get to know you better!
This is the last post in this series but, as always, we're keen to get to know our talented membership better and explore the things that interest you. If you'd like to share a quilting story, have a wonderful idea for a post or would like to write for the blog please send an email to info@shropshirequilters.org, we'd love to hear from you.
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