Scottish Quilt Championships 2016 /1

Just a little note to let you know my website is undergoing a wee revamp and will be up and running shortly on a new server.....

Overall Champion and Best of Show by the lovely Sheena Norquay entitled 'After the Snow Fall', beautiful!

It's always wonderful to meet up with other quilters at shows, my friends Linzi Upton and Rhianon Taylor photo taken by Billy Taylor.

Runner up Champion and 1st Large Wall Hanging my quilt 'Brewster Reflections', my take on the kaleidoscope block.

My Artist statement -:

Brewster’s Reflections 2016

47” x 59” (120w x 150h)

This quilt uses a simply pieced kaleidoscope block in a symmetrical layout using duplicate coloured and mirrored blocks to give the appearance of a star. The overlaid quilting designs were chosen to simulate the circular optical illusions and reflections that occur within the pieced kaleidoscope blocks. Hand guided, freemotion quilting.

I did enter one or two quilts, you have to support your local show, if there are no quilts there will be no show, please think about entering a quilt for next year.....

My quilt 'All Airs and Graces' won 3rd Bed Quilt made in 2016

67wx 73h (175wx185h)

This is the second in my series of wallpaper inspired quilts. This time the wallpaper is in my lounge, my finished design lends itself to a strippy quilt. Usually strippy quilts were quite plain with simple quilting whereas the quilting here is more elaborate, there is an element of ‘showing off’, hence the name. Hand guided, freemotion quilting. 

My quilt 'Interlaced' made in  2014 won 2nd small Wall Hanging (Celtic Basketweave)

20w x 20h (50x50cms)

This quilt is a study of Celtic basketweave, one fabric, one thread, one ‘ribbon’ in the border but two sides. I like the green side best, but even the binding is truly double sided. Freemotion, handguided with ruler work. 

My quilt 'Delightful Stars' finished in 2016 won a Judges Merit. This quilt is 'For Sale' leave a comment or email me if interested...

73wx89h (185x225cms)

I was enticed to start piecing this quilt top as a technique builder on an online forum some time ago. I pushed through and finished the top this year and popped it into the quilting queue. Pieced using hand dyes from Colours of Egypt

My quilt 'Grand Illusions' 2016. This quilt is for For Sale, leave a comment or email me if interested....

89” x 89” (225Cms x 225cms)

This quilt was a Bonnie Hunter online Mystery Quilt, I used yardage rather than scraps, although a little busy I still like the finished look  . The colour scheme is taken from the décor at the Grand Hotel Mackinac’s Island, Michigan, USA. At the time of entering this was still a top, undecided how to quilt it but it will be quilted in time for the Scottish Quilt Championships 2016

My Customer Carol entered her quilt 'Sugar Free Latte' which won Best Longarm for me. Lots of intense and complicated machine embroidery, don't be fooled into thinking machine work is an easy option there are lots of skills to be mastered......

Carol also entered her 'A-Z for Ewe and Me' quilt, a Janet Stone BoM from The Quilt Show.com, also quilted by me unfortunately no ribbons but well worth the outing....

My Customer Zeynep also entered her quilt 'Nearly Insane'  which won a 2nd Prize in Bed Quilts, all hand pieced and perfectly so, it's a fabulous quilt!

I know, I'm singing my own praises here, if time allows I'll be back later in the week with photos of other quilts entered by my contemporaries....

A mixed bag....

I was so pleased to finish Jan's quilt for her, it is a souvenir from New York, bought as a kit from 'The City Quilter' a world renowned quilt shop. Unfortunately The City Quilter is closing down, isn't that a shame, hopefully someone will buy the shop as a going concern.

There are lots of panels/blocks of famous landmarks as you can see in the photos. I quilted it with Surf by Anne Bright with black thread to match the sashings. I had a backing fabric in stock, a blue and green batik that was just the thing to finish it all off

This lovely charm quilt is from a new customer, it's Kathryn's first quilt made with lovely pinks, mauves and lilacs. Kathryn request an open design called primrose, we chose a silver grey thread, it turned out just lovely.

My DH and I had a trip up to Edinburgh last Saturday to help No 2 Son and his Wife move house, after we had finished lugging bags and boxes we took a walk around the new neighbourhood. This is the New Town, beautiful sandstone terraces and cobbled streets.

I love this old car, an Auston A20, I think?

 I love these cheeses, did you know the correct way to serve a stilton cheese is to spoon it right out of the top of those huge cheeses.

Just around the corner is this lovely Starbucks, took this photo for my friend Maryna, who has promised to buy me a 'pumkin spiced latte' when we meet in Houston in just a few weeks.....woohoo!

It wasn't long before we had wandered onto Princes Street, it was packed with people, it was difficult to walk around.

 This fantastic sand sculpture caught our eye, it was very lifelike, guess the artist just sweeps it up again at the end of the day...

I did a bit of hedgerow foraging at the weekend, I picked Rowans, Rosehips, and plums....

 I made jellies and jam and pickled some beetroots too....

 

Pickled beetroot, Damson jam, Victoria plum jam, Plum jam, Rowan jelly and Rosehip syrup, of course I've already tasted most of it, far superior to shop bought preserves....

September already.....

Time flies and all of that, what happened to the summer we are flying through September already? 

Took a day off to go look for a new car, that's harder than working.  So pleased to find a replacement on our first outing, left a deposit, arranged insurance and stuff then went back later in the week to exchange cars.  

You have to look closely to tell the difference, yes, different makes, the inside is terrific, all leather interior, the outside however is almost the same colour as my previous car, would have preferred another colour for a change but hey ho, lots of Elite bells, whistles and bleepers.

I had a wee ride up to the coast last week, had a wander around the harbour at Dunbar, it's a lovely quaint fishing village

I was amazed to see this Fisherman and Seal had such a wonderful relationship, the video is a little shaky in the middle but be sure to watch to the end....




Exciting news, my quilt 'Subtle differences' won 3rd Traditional at The World Quilt Show in Manchester, New Hampshire, USA....Thank you to Janet-Lee Santeusanio for sending me a photo...

On the way up to Dunbar I dropped of a couple of quilts. Jean's cute hedgehog quilt looked wonderful with a 'trillium' edge to edge design, the hedgehogs looked like they were peering out from the undergrowth.

Jan's oriental coins quilt will be heading off the the US soon, appliqued circles with sashing, and corner stones, I quilted surf as an edge to edge, it turned out lovely.