The Festival of Quilts 2012

I have returned home from the Festival of Quilts after having a wonderful time with friends yet again.  I was exhausted but very happy.

I saw some gorgeous quilts and some amazing quilting.  I hope my photographs do them justice.

'Autumn Blues' by Alexandra Nikulina
Russia

'Sun-turn' ("Kolovorot")
by Loskutnye Zabavy Patchwork Studio
led by A. Nikulina
Russia

'A Square, a Stripe, a Triangle'
by Loskutnye Zabavy Patchwork Studio
led by A. Nikulina
Russia

I seem to be a big fan of Russian quilts and this was true last year as well when I liked Marina Maminova's work.

When I saw this next quilt, I said to my sister that it was like the swoon quilt made by Camille Roskelley whose blog I follow. 

'Swooning' by Kay Bell

Well it is.  Kay was apparently part of the online sew along group with quilts made from Camille's pattern.  The quilting here is hand guided freemotion on a longarm and is amazing!

Hand guided freemotion quilting

This next quilt won 3rd Prize in the Group Quilts Category. 

'Scandinavian Journey'
pieced by Jo Colwill of Cowslip Workshops
and quilted by Sandy Chandler of The Quilting Company

I loved the neutral palette, stars and again the quilting was great.

Another onlooker placed her hand in front of the quilt to show how small the background grid quilting was on the quilt. 

I love the circles on the spine of the feather.

I got some lovely Aurifil threads from the New Threads Quilt Shop and as Aurifil is my favourite thread, I also bought a thread shade card.  I have used the card already to match thread for a baby panel that I bought at the show. 

They had an amazing selection of Aurifil thread.

'Greek Fossils'
by Ferret

 As always, Ferret's quilt was amazing!!!  Hand guided longarming and trapunto.  It won 3rd Prize in the Traditional Quilts section. 

'Flower of 13115 Pieces & Peace'
by Hiromi Yokota

This quilt was made by hand of 1cm hexagon pieces.  Each individual hexagon was hand quilted.  Amazing!!!

Well those were some of my favourites from the show.  I hope you enjoyed them.

 

And finally, on the way home from the airport, this is the wonderful sunset that we drove into.  What a lovely way to finish off our trip.

 

 

Bye for now.

Sandra

 

My Latest Birmingham Bag

As I'm off to The Festival of Quilts in Birmingham this week with my friends I have designed and made myself a new bag.  We make new ones each year and it has become a lovely tradition. 

This year I wanted something smaller which would only carry my essentials.  At the International Quilt Festival of Ireland in June, I bought some lovely linen fabrics from Village Fabrics.  I wanted to use these for my bag, so here it is.

I used the lettered fabric on the flap, the plain on the front and back and the red for the gusset, piping and strap.  Inside I used some of my favourite French General Fabric.

I put lots of pockets on the inside for my phone, notebook, business cards etc..  So now that it's made, I can concentrate on looking forward to our trip, seeing lots of amazing things and meeting lots of friends.  The craic is always great.

 
So if you ever get the chance to go the The Festival or you are still thinking about it, I would highly recommend it to everyone.  It's the biggest show in the UK and well worth the visit.

Must go now as it's getting late.
Bye for now.
Sandra

The Cotton Patch

Firstly I must apologise for such a long delay since my last post.  Lots of things have been happening here and I'll fill you in over the next few days. 

Since I began quilting six years ago, the shop that I have used most on the internet is The Cotton Patch in Birmingham.  They have a great website.  I used to spend hours browsing through their pages to see what was available for quilters, as at the beginning I didn't have a clue.  Their notions list alone is amazing.  I then was able to visit their stand at the NEC at The Festival of Quilts.  It was one of the biggest there, really impressive and they always had visiting designers such as Kaffe Fassett and Amy Butler.

Now, as free motion quickly became my favourite part of patchwork and quilting, it was amazing to be able to visit their stand each time I visited the show and be able to try out various quilt frames that they were selling, myself.  I dreamt of how much freedom using one of these frames would give whilst quilting, the sky was the limit.  Even though it was at the top of my wish list, I never realistically thought that I would be able to get one myself.  My friend Ann already has a Gracie and has let me try it out. It was great.

Well last week, Ann, myself and another quilting friend Jean, travelled over to The Cotton Patch. 

The Three of Us

A small selection of the fabric and thread

That would have been a treat in itself.  But whilst there, Geoff took us to their studio to try out the Gracie Queen Frame.  It was amazing.  Liz had already answered all my questions by phone, so going to see the frame was really only a formality.  As I'm sure you've worked out by now, I bought a Gracie Frame and a Janome 1600P.

I hope they won't mind me using their photograph. 

I have just completed my first practice piece on the frame and I think it is wonderful.  I will have many happy hours now spent quilting and the sky really is the limit.  Don't get me wrong, I have a lot to learn and I daresay when I put an actual quilt on the frame it will take a lot of getting used to. 

Here are some images of my first practice with the frame using calico.

I used Aurifil 40w green and 50w cream thread whilst quilting and both weights worked beautifully.

The Gracie frame and bigger Janome 1600P both make free motion quilting so much easier as I am no longer trying to shove my quilt through a tiny opening in my machine.  I am no longer trying to keep a four inch by four inch piece of fabric flat so that I can quilt.  It is amazing!!!

I almost forgot to show you the lovely fabric that I bought at The Cotton Patch.  I can't wait to use it.  By the way, I would like to thank Liz, Geoff and Denise for all their help.  We all had a lovely day at the shop.

Next time, I'll let you see the new quilt that I'm working on for classes next term.  Again it's from the book 'Layer Cake, Jelly Roll and Charm Quilts' which seems to be a favourite among class goers.  There are only a couple of weeks of the present classes left, so I hope to have pictures of everyone's quilts to show you.  We're also working on the new timetable which will be available soon.  I'll keep you posted.

Bye for now.

Sandra

New Quilt

I have started putting the sections of my new quilt together.  It's hard getting the time for this when the kids are home on their holidays, so I have been doing my sewing late at night.

Rail Fence & Flying Geese

3", 6" and 9" blocks

Friendship Star has been added

I have been thinking about ways to quilt it when I'm finished.  I bought a new foot at the Festival of Quilts for my Bernina which is for quilting in the ditch.  It's a sole plate which will click onto my walking foot.  It has a blade which will nestle into the seam and so, hopefully, make the job much easier.  So I'll have to try that out.

But as it's very late, I'll have to say bye for now.
Sandra 

   

The Festival of Quilts

I came back from the Festival of Quilts late on Saturday night, exhausted but happy.  It was fantastic as usual.  Lots of amazing quilts, exhibitions and stands.  I am really pleased with all my purchases and I will put some of these in a later post.  The holders of some of my favourite stands kindly allowed me to photograph them for my blog, so here we go.

Fiddlesticks Fabrics

 I bought some wonderful fabrics here.  Karen's shop is in Ballyclare so I'll have to visit soon.

The Aurifil stand had some good price deals for the show.  As I always use it for piecing, I treated myself to a cone and a couple of pretty 40w threads for quilting.  

Aurifil

I had a lovely chat with Sherry of Irish Quilting magazine which proved to be very popular.

Irish Quilting

 I also met the very gracious Jennie Rayment who kindly allowed me to photograph herself and her quilts.  I bought two of her books, 'Foldy Rolly Patchwork Pzzazz' and 'Serging for Softies'.

Jennie Rayment

The Irish Patchwork Society had a wonderful exhibition to mark their 30th Anniversary and one of my favourite pieces from this was by Elaine Doyle called 'Birchfield'.  I also met lots of the girls from the Eastern Branch.

'Birchfield' by Elaine Doyle

The Tentmakers of Cairo had a wonderful exhibition.  It was mesmerising to watch the gentleman sewing with such speed and skill.

Cairo Tentmaker

Cairo quilt

One of my favourite exhibitions was by a Russian girl called Marina Mamonova.  Her quilts had so much texture and I found her work very inspirational.  The photographs won't do them justice.

'Broken Dreams'

'Bay of Joy'

'Bay of Joy' close up

The circles above were made with woven strips.  It gave so much texture to the piece.

I was delighted to see that an Irish girl had made this amazing winning quilt.

'Dear Jane, It's the 21st Century'
Valarie Mullally, Ireland
Winner Contemporary Quilts
2nd Prize Amateur Quilt of the Year

My friend Margaret Ashford from Derry made this amazing miniature four-poster bed with the little married couple reading the papers.  One is our local paper The Derry Journal and the other is Irish Quilt and Craft Magazine from The Fennel Shed.

Relaxing

 And finally, the winner of the miniature section was a wholecloth quilt, with trapunto and free motion quilting.

Kumiko Frydl
'Blue like a Wedgewood'

These are just some of the things that I liked at the Festival of Quilts this year.  Another brilliant show. 

See you soon.
Sandra