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 

 

 



 



 

Retirement Quilt

At around this time last year I was asked by the girls at Strathfoyle Women's Activity Group if I would make a quilt for one of their colleagues, Ann Watson, who would be retiring later in the year.  After some discussion and a bit of a Show & Tell they decided that they would like me to make the quilt called Stepping Stones from the book Layer Cake, Jelly Roll and Charm Quilts by Pam and Nicky Lintott.  Duck-egg blue, pink, grey and white were the colours decided upon.

So when I went to the Festival of Quilts last August the very first purchase I made was this beautiful fabric. 

Paris Flea Market by 3 Sisters for Moda

 

I quilted a stipple design with Aurifil 40wt thread.   This is my favourite thread and it quilts like a dream, no problems at all.

 

 

 

 

I didn't use the dark pink, yellow or green from the jelly roll.  Instead I added a couple of pale grey fabrics.

 

 

I must apologise for my photograph.  The lighting makes it difficult to see the pattern on the quilt.

 



 

So Ann retired at the end of March and here she is being presented with some of her presents and with all the girls, past and present, from the group.

 

 

Bye for now.

 

Sandra