Paducah 2015 - Meeting friends........

It's wonderful to meet up with friends, old friends and new friends. Lots of friends on Facebook stay Facebook friends but some become real friends.

Donna and I have been friends for a long, long time, first meeting on MQR, (Machine Quilting Resource) , then meeting in real life at MQX in Portland in 2013, now meeting again her in Paducah in 2015. That's Donna's quilt Purple Haze in the background.

II

I've also met Kim Stozenberg at MQX Portland in 2013 although only briefly as Kim was teaching and here in Paducah Kim was working on the A1 stand.....

Vicki Lovelace, I met in Heathrow Airport, again on the plane and then again in Chicago Airport

,we had a little chat and then went our merry way back into our own lives....

I have long read and admired the quilting of The Quilted Pineapple, Linda Hrckra, and was so pleasantly surprised when she called my name in Finkels at The Primitive Gatherings 'pop up shop'...we laughed and hugged as we called each other 'Rock Star Quilters', what a pleasure that was, then we met again in the very same shop when Linzi went back to purchase a quilt kit....

As I speak we have left Paducah and moved on to Nashville, 'music city'......so hot here I need sunglasses.......check me out.....

Checking out now, will be back with another travel update soon but will leave photos of Paducah till I get home.....

Like minds....

It was Mother's Day here in the UK a couple of weeks ago. Being like minds my Youngest sent me a card of a line drawing he made up from headshots from four different photographs.

It's my family, he followed up by sending me a dxf file. Once we got it figured out and into the correct format I played with it and turned it into a quilting file. You could do this with digitising software or with photos and tracing paper, which ever method is a little time consuming but worth the end result.

I added a frame and some feather spines....

And then freemotion quilted in the feathers for the borders. added some non stitch regulated feather meandered backing panels and turned them into cushions all ready to be gifted....

Photographs taken in the morning light are always much more defined....I still have a couple more panels to finish.....

French Braid, again and again....

Fabric choice and colour makes such a difference to a finished quilt, I am always amazed by it, take a look at these three beauties.  They are all the same design and size but have very different personalities.

Mary chose bright vibrant colours and 'tickle too' as an edge to edge design.

Adele shopped her stash and scraps for her quilt and chose 'florence' for her quilting.

This quilt belongs to Phylis and gives me a bit of a French vibe, love the darker colours, again we quilted this one with 'tickle too'! 

Over the Edge...

I'm having a little cessation from quilting just now. It's lambing time here on the farm and although I don't do night lambing any more there is still lots to do and important work to get through. I'm pushing on mainly because I can see a guiding light at the end of the tunnel. 

Just two more weeks till I leave for Paducah, Kentucky, I have it on good authority that my two quilts have already arrived. So I have to keep on going with important farm form filling, would really like to have that done by the end of this next week. 

There, it's not pleasant but I wrote it down so now I'll have to get it done!

I had the chance to own this quilt top, it was on offer at my local quilt shop in December as a flimsy to raise funds for a special cause. I thought it was too small for my needs so by passed it. Stupid me never thought to add borders. Isn't it lovely bigger and quilted with 'feathered leaves' by One Song Needle Arts. I love the colours and fabrics in this quilt, it's a  foundation pieced pineapple block.

Here is another that was on offer for the cause, I did pass this one by too but simply because I have a quilt of my own using the same navy and white jelly roll. Anne bought this top to use in her seaside retreat so asked for it to be quilted with an edge to edge design named 'surf' by Anne Bright.

Anne kindly sent me a photograph of the quilt in situ at there seaside retreat.....

I love this bright and cheerful quilt cut from a layer cake, Anne chose a lovely vibrant green spotted backing fabric, it really brightened up my studio on a very dull day. I chose a lime green thread and Anne decided on 'crystal maze' as an edge to edge design, it looks fantastic!

I still have one or two customer quilts to show you before I head off over the pond and a couple of personal small projects that I'm finishing in the evenings.