Adorable applique.....

Sometimes as longarm quilters we receive quilt tops which are so hard to ship home again.

My customer lives in France but shipped this quilt to me while visiting in the UK....there are many different ways to get a quilt top to me....

This is a Joe Morton pattern appliqued and pieced with Joe Morton fabrics, it's fabulous. Sue asked if I would quilt it as in the pattern but did allow me to add one or two personal touches. Sue wrote out her requests in a wonderful letter, it's so unusual these days to receive a hand written letter, it's even more unusual to receive a letter so beautifully written, it could of won a ribbon at a country show.

Anyway, I stitched in the ditch all of the blocks, the flying geese, then all of the applique. Fremotioned all of those 20 square feathered wreaths, added a feather border, echoed all of the applique and added a few veins and flourishes to the leaves and flowers.

This quilt measures around 58"x58", I used Simply Cotton wadding, Superior Monopoly for the ditch work, Metro thread for the background echo work, with extra colours for the added details.  My thread choices blended in and let the applique shine....

I love this centre square with it's pebbles and echoes....

Wonderful isn't it, I love these retro fabrics and colours and also loved working on this quilt.  Thank you Sue.

Scottish Quilt Championships 2013 - Flower of Scotland is Runner up Champion

I had a great weekend at the Scottish Quilt Championships at Ingliston on the outskirts of Edinburgh.

My quilt Inner Circle - Flower of Scotland won

1st Theme Quilt
1st Longarm
Overall Runner Up
and Judges Choice from Jane Rollason

More photos and info can be found on these two posts Painting Flower of Scotland quilt- surface-embellishment and Design and quilting Flower of Scotland quilt

My  Quilt Cassie AKA Casseiopeia won 2nd Bed Quilt.... I was pleased that this quilt hung really well at this show as it was really badly hung and was also in very bad lighting when shown at the Festival of Quilts.

This is the Overall Champion winning quilt by Jane Rollason, lots of very small piecing, applique, painting, beading and crystals....

I came home with a lovely basket of goodies, including a voucher, 4 rosettes (again all golden yellow for this show with the winning status in the centre), a cup for the 'Theme' category, a Shield for 'Overall Runner Up' and a silver salver for the 'longarm' category (not included in the above photo but received later), spoiled again.  I will definitely have to rearrange my little shelf to take this new haul.

And.... already this box has left the building.....

Not so lonely Lone Star Quilt

It was a real pleasure to hand back this quilt to my customer Liz, she loved it, it was lovely to see it written all over her face.

Liz said she liked feathers but really left the rest up to me. That's good for me as I get to quilt as I like but then there comes a point when you wonder if your customer will like your decisions?

This quilt is a lovely mix of oriental type fabrics with a deep rust red border to match the bedroom decor.

The quilt measures 96" x 87" and came with Quilters Dream cotton wadding to which I added a thin layer of Soft and Elegant which is 80/20.

I used cream Metro thread in the needle and bobbin in all but the red areas where I used a deep rust glide thread. All freemotion hand guided by me with a little ruler work for the feather spines......

I think this is the biggest feathered wreath to date 25 inches in diameter, freemotion handguided....

We tried the quilt on my hanging frame, it hung perfectly....

And it looks perfect in the room it was made for.....thank you Liz.....

Update... This quilt went on to win
'Highly Commended' at Festival of Quilts 2014, Birmingham, UK
Best in Show, Best Bed Quilt, and Best Longarm, at The Great Northern Quilt Show 2014, Harrogate, UK
Best Longarm, Scottish Quilt Championships 2014
Exhibited at Sitges in Spain March 2015

Blues and Twos.....

OK, it's official, I'm addicted..... to tablet Pouches, and tablets, and laptops ..... and technology....

These two are made using different fabrics, the full sized IPad pouch is/was a silver water marked taffeta and the Mini IPad sized cover is/was a crinkled dark teal blue taffeta. Played with painting the feathers as usual and tried different layers of wadding, I usually use two layers but with the larger pouch here I quilted with one layer then added a second layer after between the quilting and a liner. I like it, feels like more protection but is puffier for your hand bag.

Liking them both.....

But these are my favorites....These two started life as the same piece of fabric, a gold piece shot through with turquoise....love browns and blues together..... that's the original fabric colour inside....

Sometimes I use a liner, sometimes I don't.... played with different colour washes for the background....

Adding a different binding changes the look and feel every time....loving both these combinations...

Believe me they are even nicer in real life too, very glitzy....You can see my original tutorial for making these pouches in the July 2013 issue of Machine Quilting Unlimited

Back to the dressmaking.....the back section....

It's invisible, can you see it? The zipper that is....

Using your design wall keeps you focused.....

So that's another finish....I was bad and didn't do a mock up to try out the size but did do a neckline trial to try out some edge stitching designs to get the corners to turn right....it looks good and the best thing it fits perfectly.  This tissue pattern is by Serendipity Designs. OK, another addiction rekindled, next one is already on the cutting board.

Keep meaning to make some proper old fashioned bed valances....quilted of course but in the mean time I made new bed skirts from some wide backing fabric offcuts.... still used the original flat base cover but cut off the old skirt.

Ruffled up and hemmed the new Rambling Dandelion fabric and attached it with my overlocker....a simple job done in no time....

I have been quilting too but can't show you just yet but will soon once my customers have seen them first....some big finishes....