Festival of Quilts 2014 Continued

As usual, I had a fantastic time at The Festival of Quilts.  I took the trip with my sister Claire, my friend Anne and my daughter Catherine who is living in Manchester, came down for the three days.  I met lots of friends, enjoyed the craic and wouldn't have missed it for the world.  So here we go.

 

The first quilt I would like to share was from an exhibition called Crossroads - A Middle Eastern Festival.  The design, the colours, the applique and the pebble quilting in the background which was done in such a way as to create a trellis for the flowers to almost climb up. I loved it all.



Arab Spring
Nora Al Shafi

Arab Spring

  The next quilt won 3rd Prize in the Traditional Quilts category and was made by Gwenfai Rees Griffiths.  A beautifully designed quilt with amazing hand quilting.



Cappuccino
Gwenfai Rees Griffiths

Cappuccino

I must however apologise for the colour of this quilt, the photograph doesn't do it justice.  This year more than previous years, I found that it was hard to photograph some of the quilts with the lighting in the hall.

This next quilt hung right beside the previous one.

Kutch Diamonds
Annelize Littlefair

This quilt was Highly Commended and it wasn't hard to see why. It was longarm quilted freehand and embellished with crystals. 

This next quilt was the winner of the Traditional Quilts category and was designed and made by Philippa Naylor. 

The Good Life
Philippa Naylor

Exquisite workmanship and attention to detail both with her applique and the free motion quilting.  As usual, it is incredible to see her quilts first hand and be able to see the detail.

 

 

 

Beach Huts
Tanglewood Textiles

This fun quilt was the winner of the Group Quilts category.

The detail was amazing.

Everyone huddled around it was smiling.

My friend Bridgeen Gillespie designed the fabrics and pattern for this next quilt.  It represented Derry-Londonderry as the inaugural UK City of Culture 2013.  A lot of the ladies in my classes got involved in piecing the blocks for the quilt.

 

Derry-Londonderry Heritage Quilt
Bridgeen Gillespie

Again, I must apologise in advance for the photography of this quilt.  I use a small point and shoot camera so didn't know how to cope with the lighting.

But in saying that, the quilt was amazing.

 

Sunshine and Flowers
Sandy Chandler

The judges gave this one a Highly Commended and you can see why with the hand guided longarm quilting.

 

 

 

 

 

I hope you enjoyed that small selection of quilts.

 

Bye for now.

 

Sandra

 

 

 

The Festival of Quilts 2014

I can hardly believe that another year has flown by and I am getting ready to head off to The Festival of Quilts in Birmingham.  I'll be going with my sister Claire, my good friend Anne and the best thing of all is that my daughter Catherine will be coming down from Manchester for the whole time.  I haven't seen her since the new year so it will be fantastic to spend some quality time with her.

As usual we are making patchwork bags to take with us.  Instead of the usual one bag, this year I decided to make two.  A handbag and a tote bag to carry my purchases.

Here is my handbag.

And here it is with the tote.

They are both made with fabric from the Paris Flea Market range by 3 Sisters for Moda and I quilted them with Aurifil 40wt thread 2845.



 

 Sorry about the photo quality.

 

I am taking a class with Kimmy Brunner about Sit-Down Long Arm Quilting so I'm really looking forward to that.

 

Then on Friday we're all going to the Designer Supper which features Nel Whatmore.

Claire and I went to this last year and it featured Tula Pink who put on a fantastic presentation and gave us all an insight into her design process and her work.  She was very entertaining and a lovely girl.  So my recommendation would be to go to this event if you can.

 

So that's all for tonight. 

By the way, I would have posted more photographs which were fine on my computer but then took on that moire effect when I put them on the blog and I couldn't get rid of it.  Anyone have any tips on how to prevent this as I've not had this problem before?

 

Bye for now.

 

Sandra 

 

 



 



 

Festival of Quilts 2014

To some of you it might seem strange that I'm already thinking of the Festival of Quilts in August but you have to understand that it's a whole expedition for my friends and I.  We go for three days and it is the best craic ever!  From the journey over, to the show itself, meeting in the bar at the end of each day comparing what each of us have bought and meeting up with old friends.   We are now officially booked both with flights and hotel.  So now it starts to get exciting.

 

Now we can't wait to see the class lists to see if there are any that we would like to enrol in.  We also start thinking about what kind of bag to make, as we always make a new one each year.  Here are some of mine.

Looking out for the 'must have' comfortable shoes or sandals so we can walk all those miles around the show.  And a big plus for me as well this year is that my daughter will be joining me for the three days. 

 

Catherine went to university in England, graduated last year and has now set up home in Manchester.  So she will be coming down to join us and it will be lovely being able to spend all that time with her.  She came last year for the first time but was only able to spend one day with us.  So this year I thought it would be nice if she could come for the three days.

 

I just remembered too that I haven't put any of my photos from last year on the blog so here are some of my favourites.

Diane Firth - Dry Valley

Sandy Corry
Together, sharing this great land

Sandy Chandler - Grace

The quilting was amazing on this quilt, it had to be seen to be believed.  Sandy won 2nd Prize in the Traditional Quilts category.  

 

Kay Bell - Solar Powered

I know this one may be difficult to see but that's just my camera skills, or lack of them. The quilting was amazing as always.

 

I'll keep you posted with some more of my favourites at a later date.

 

Bye for now.

 

Sandra