Roberton Show.....

This week is flying by, before going any further I need to post about my exhibition at Roberton Show last weekend.

I was asked to display and demonstrate quilting. It's a bit difficult, in a tent in the middle of a field to demonstrate quilting, so instead I opted to do a little piecing on my wonderful Singer hand crank machines. I had been a little anxious in case the field was wet and muddy for displaying my precious quilts.  I was really relieved that the rain blew away overnight to reveal a wonderful sunny day.

I love this photo taken on my iphone....not photoshopped at all except to add my logo....

I shared a tent with the Ladies selling local produce and raffle tickets for the tombola. I'm sure they all wondered what on earth I was doing when along with Robin, Kyle and Fieron I unloaded the stock trailer bringing a double bed, along with hooky and clippy rugs, rocking chairs, bedside tables and sewing machines to dress up the set?  At first it all looked a bit higgledy piggledy then all of a sudden I thought, 'there, that's it, we are ready'.

 Tents are not that high on the sides so my quilt frames needed to be brought in off the walls. I had to be doubly sure that no one tripped over the tripods so strategically placed quilt racks and pillows around to guide the viewers through the display....

I brought along two Singer 99K hand crank machines one dates from 1923, the other 1945. I also brought a Wilcox and Gibbs hand crank machine, no bobbin for this one, it produces a lovely chain stitch. I believe this machine to be dated around 1880's. The sewing machines, along with the hooky mats made by my Mother started lots of side topics and reminiscing....

One friend commented on the old fashioned phone sitting on the bedside table, I told him no one had rung all day to which he replied, 'that's because there's no signal in this valley', old meets new every time.

Fieron won a 2nd prize in the sewing category with her Kaffe top too....

 This is a small country show, the local farmers have a sheep show, we came home with a first and two seconds.....

 This is Robin setting up for his sheepdog demonstration, unfortunately I didn't get back outside at the right time to take photos of the actual demonstration.

I would have loved some photos when the quilt tent was full of people chatting but it seemed I was that busy chatting myself too and then the show was over and it was time to pack everything away and head home again, that's just up the road less than a mile away so didn't take long....

Cover girl....Flower of Scotland Machine Quilting Unlimited

I was going to post some customer quilts but events of the day took over.....

The Postman only rung twice.....but with special deliveries.....

Deliveries....of fabric for planned up coming quilts.....that's always exciting...

And then this....I'm calling this one my magazine....I know there are many wonderful contributors but there is only one cover and that is all mine.....lol....you can get your own copy from The Contented Cat here in the UK or direct from Meander Publishing in the USA at  Machine Quilting Unlimited either hard copy or download, it's really easy to order over the web.

You can see the original post for my Flower of Scotland quilt here, Inner Circle Flower of Scotland

Then my purple wholecloth Flourish arrived back from the USA too, it's been away since last July . After winning a 'blue ribbon' for Best Machine Workmanship at The World Quilt Show 2013 in Manchester, New Hampshire, the winning quilts went on tour of the Mancuso Quilt Shows for 6 months....great to have it home again....you can read my original post here, Flourish...

All in all quite an exciting day.....

Surprise, Surprise....

I have to thank Janet-Lee and Mary again....my quilt Inner Circle - Flower of Scotland came home quickly and smoothly, safe and sound with two ribbons.....yes, two Faculty Ribbons. The first from Sheila Sinclair Snyder and a second ribbon from the wonderful Irena Bluhm, a lovely lady....thank you for the recognition Ladies......and just look at that, everything is colour co-ordinated.

Well, stuff happens and I've had a few deadlines to keep but now back to reality....

My MQX West Portland 2013 Part 1

I know it's been a while, I've been a bit 'jet lagged' or under the weather not sure which.....

It wasn't planned that way but on my birthday I set off on a journey.....from Edinburgh via Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam to Portland Oregon.

My room mate and now good friend Maryna from South Africa met me at Portland airport. Maryna arrived 2 days earlier so was already rested and ready to go.....shopping, so more or less straight of the plane I was at the Lloyd Centre Shopping Mall. It was a beautiful Fall day, much warmer than cold Scotland, the warmth and the fact that I had missed a nights sleep took affect quite quickly. An early night was in order, we had a very quiet room at the Red Lion Hotel, just over the road from the Convention Centre.

Convention Centre Portland, this is the vied from our room at the Red Lion hotel

Monday found us shopping and sight seeing in the Pearl district where we found Powell's famous book store which takes up a whole block and then some and Dr Martens boot store on the adjacent block.  Maryna has found Starbucks, literally as there isn't a Starbucks in SA.
I had a plan for Tuesday to visit Fabric Depot, they were having a 30% sale....WOW, I knew this place was going to be big but never ever dreamt it would be colossal. I had told Maryna we were going to visit a quilt store, we were a little overwhelmed and wandered around aimlessly for a while. I'm sure we were wandering around with dropped jaws in awe of all the fabric. We quickly came to our senses and spent some money???? I met a long time 'internet friend' right there in the store, Donna and I just met and started chatting like we had known each other all our lives.....

On Tuesday evening we were off to the 'ice cream social', where we got a sneak peak at the classes, Tutors and new gadgets on offer and a bowl of delicious ice cream.  The highlight of the evening was of course meeting up with Janet-Lee and Mary and the belly laugh of listening to their wonderful singing.....

Wednesday was the start of classes, Maryna and I went our separate ways  but checked back later to discuss and share information.
On Wednesday evening we attended the Awards Ceremony and although a little disappointed not to receive an award  I was thrilled for the winners. We surveyed the winning quilts and met their makers and more friends along the way. There were some fantastic quilts, this is a very stiff competition.

The winning quilt 'The Shell Collectors' by Bethanne Nemish was awesome and Bethanne is a real sweetheart, she is another long time internet friend from MQR.

My good friend Donna with her fabulous wholecloth won a 2nd prize.

Me and my friend Jerry Granata (we go way back....lol...) and his fabulous mini wholecloth Petit Plume.

This is still Sneak Peak night, (I managed to catch Jerry before he headed off to classes the next day).

Me and my friend Jerry with my painted wholecloth ......

The next day I was very excited to be told by my friend Julie from Australia that my quilt was displaying a Faculty/Teachers Ribbon given by Sheila Sinclair Snyder of Licenced to Quilt in Eugene Oregon, so I rushed over to take a photo here with my very good friend and room mate Maryna Kat from South Africa....

More photos later.......

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.....

The World Quilt Show 2013 or What came next?

It's been an eventful week.....

Monday...Driven home by the ever eventful Linzi....some week that was....quilts and quilting arrived home safe and sound regardless of the fact that some of our packaging had gone a stray....Thanks for a great trip Linzi.....

Tuesday.....I took the plunge and entered 'Inner Circle - Flower of Scotland' for MQX in Portland, Oregon, just need to wait and see if she gets through the jury process......

Wednesday....Tested the water to see if I could find a roomy in Portland and found Sharon from Arizona who has already booked a room for the show....sounds like we would get along famously....I've been planning this all year but looks like I'm seriously going now....

Thursday..... had news that my wholecloth quilt 'Flourish' has been honoured with a 'Best Machine Workmanship' in the Traditional category at The World Quilt Show in Manchester, New Hampshire, USA......how exciting is that....WOOHOO....The show was very well represented by British entries which gained 3 winners awards and 3 honourable mentions.

You can read my original blog post here, Flourish


Click here for the World Quilt Show 2013 Results page

I sent out a plea for someone to take a photo with a camera, you know, as in high resolution not on a cell/mobile phone and guess what, JL (you all know JL right, Janet Lee co-owner of Machine Quilting Exposition as in MQX Quilt Shows). Well JL organised for her quilt show photographer Jeffery Lomica to take some photos for me at the World Quilt Show. Jeffrey took some high resolution photos for me to keep. Wow,  these are sweet people, I wonder, is this what happens when you become an international award winning quilter?

Seriously....Thank you Janet Lee and Jeffrey....

The two photos below take you to my Flickr page where you can get a closer look at the quilting....

The back....

That's what came next.....

Festival of Quilts 2013

What a great time we had....of course it was a working trip but we all get a long so well and laugh so much that we hurt sometimes.

Once the stand was ready and the show was under way we were all more relaxed. We had many International visitors to the APQS stand...Linzi, Ani, and I along with Lilly LaPink (our sidekick who is such a great help on the sales table and tea trolley that we just couldn't manage without her), and Ellen helped out too. We were kept very busy demonstrating the machines. We did a bit of 'Swanning off' every now and then to see who was milling around through in the main quilt show area. As usual we searched out the best food  available in the area and had a 'Brummy Curry', visited the 'Middle of England' pub and had a Carvery on two evenings.  Believe me we would never go hungry along with full english breakfasts at our hotel I have to say at times we were a little stuffed....

Lilly LaPink

Our Quilt show entries were very well received, Linzi won 2 x 1st prizes and a Judges choice

My Inner Circle - Flower of Scotland won a Highly Commended, I think may be two HC's are awarded per category rather like an Honourable Mention.....

My little shelf is starting to groan with the weight of all the silverware and rosettes etc. It's time to box up the perpetual cup from the Scottish Quilt Championships 2012....I'm afraid it needs to go back to Grosvenor Shows so that they can have it engraved with my name before it goes off to the next lucky recipient in September. It's been a fun year.....I wonder what comes next?