Everyone likes a quickie...

Everyone likes a quickie...

Well, here's two...

The first is pieced in a simple slash and sew technique, very quick but quite effective....

Quilted quite densely with a design called Kumo and a circle/popeye border...

The second is made up form a bag of remnants (I found while having a 'rummage' around in my workroom a few weeks ago). The scraps are from one of my award winning quilts. 'Still Swooning' won Overall Champion at The Scottish Quilt Championships and can be seen by clicking on this link for my blog 

Borderline Quilter Blogspot

and by clicking on this link for my website

BorderlineQuilter.co.uk

The scraps were already cut but not enough to do anything special with. I used lots of background fabric for negative space and quilted with a tight Baptist fan design. I love Baptist fan quilted tightly like that, it takes a bit of experience to get it all to line up but is vey effective.

I use these small quilts for 'arm caps' on my sofas to add a bit of protection, texture and colour, coz who doesn't like a bit of extra texture and colour

While I am going nearly insane....

While I'm going 'nearly insane' with the quilt on my frame at the moment I thought I'd show you a few more of the edge to edge designs that went home recently.

First up is Anne's quilt, this design starts out as a straight set quilt with columns and rows and is then slashed through with the rotary cutter at strategic points and then sewn back together giving a quilt which is set on point with diagonal rows. Quilted with Surf by Anne Bright and cream Metro thread.

Next up is Maureen's 'row by row' quilt, this was a Quilt Guild challenge and will be shown at The Abbey Quilters Bi-annual Quilt Show in July, again quilted with surf  and silver Metro thread.

And Liz's quilt, a huge one gives the look of inter woven strips of fabric or plaid, it will fit a super king sized bed, quilted with happy times and cream thread...

I love to see stacks of quilts waiting to go home....now back to the quilt that will have me 'certified!'

Miscellaneous ....

Busy, busy!

We had a trip up to Dunblane last week, staying at the Double Tree Hilton Hydro.

Our Grandson was nominated and received the winners award for Rural Skills for Schools,  Learner of the Year Award. Kyle received his award from Nick Nairn, TV Chef, Celebrity and Chef at the Dunblane Hydo.

The Kelpies...

There is alwasy lots to catch up on here at home, if it's not farm related, it's quilt related, there's always something going on.

Then there are quilts to be quilted....

Margaret had pieced this quilt as a gift for her Daughter, a rail fence with pinwheel corners. It's different with an unusual colour scheme as requested, I love the deer fussy cut corner blocks. Margaret chose Bushberries an edge to edge design.

Jane pieced this quilt as a block of the month and although not her usual colour, I think it works very well, I quilted it with Green Tea Leaves an edge to edge design.

Don't you just love a piles of quilts?

And my two quilts have already left the building and are on their way to Paducah, Kentucky, hope they are not too crushed when they get there.

Celtic Basketweave in Machine Quilting Unlimited

Look what dropped through my door here in Scotland....

My article on Celtic Basketweave looks terrific in print. I'm loving this issue of Machine Quilting Unlimited, have already read it cover to cover. Check it out to see my article on Celtic Basketweave. Here in the UK it's available as a hard copy at  http://www.contentedcat.co.uk/News.html or from  http://mqumag.com/ both hard copy and digital straight to your laptop or device....

Needle Stars with Paula

I recently took a trip over the border into England for Regional Day for the North East branch of the Quilters Guild of the British Isles, Region 15E.

It was a fun filled weekend, speakers for the day were Paula Nadelstern and Margaret Boe.

I just made it to the hall in time to here Paula tell her stories and show us her quilts too...what an interesting day, two very different styles but equally compelling.

Paula has been a long time piecing hero of mine, her quilts are intricate manipulations of fabric, even though we were told that it's the fabrics that make them look difficult...don't believe it....

Margaret too had travelled over the border from Edinburgh and took the afternoon slot and entertained us with her numerous tales of her quilting life.

Margaret chatting after her talk...

I was totally spoiled and had the pleasure of dinner out with Paula, Liz (our wonderful hostess) and Gillian on Saturday night.

Liz, Paula and Myself

On the Sunday I was lucky enough to take a class with Paula, I was so engrossed that we didn't take many treasured photos, most of my other class mates were already packing up or gone by the time I thought to find my phone....but this one is special.....

I did manage to finish my first block...at home....

Looks impressive, I'm not totally happy with it so my next block is cut out and ready to sew....need to get the technique down while it's still in my mind. Wish I had more time to spend on this but somehow my customers seem to think Christmas is coming, I have a few quilts to get on with....

I promise to show some customer quilts in my next post....

Helped to finish this one.....

I was contacted by the none quilting family of a hand quilter to ask if I would finish a quilt for their Mother who is in her 90's. The quilt was already sandwiched and the quilting was already started by hand and my clients didn't want the hand quilting removed. I finished the quilt the best I could even though the wadding was too short and needed to be pieced....This quilt is all hand pieced.....

All in all, the quilt turned out quite well with hand quilting and machine quilting blending together, I found some fabric that matched in well for the binding and off it went back to the forest.....

I quilted pantograph designs with Quilt Path on these next two whirlygig quilts in thirties fabrics, one with Primrose to match in with the border fabric and on the other quilt quilt with a piano key border we chose Wildflower.....

The same but different....

This is a view of the back of Edinburgh Castle from the Grassmarket, you can see the grandstand ready for the Tattoo on the right skyline. I spent a few days up there last week having 'patch testing' for allergies and sensitivities....had a major result too for a food additive....we'll see how that pans out in the near future. Trust me to have a major sensitivity to an additive that is in fresh foods, processed foods, fish, shampoos, tea....yes, tea, choclate, white flour...OMG.....it's in everything.....

A Girly DNP Quilt....

For the uninitiated that's a 'Girly Disappearing Nine Patch' quilt.  It's a very effective yet simple block, colour choices can make a huge difference to the over all look. I've had this pink flowery spirally fabric for a long while, it was waiting for this nice black to come along.

Well actually, I didn't intend to make this quilt it wasn't on my 'to do' list. A lot of what I'm doing at the moment isn't on my list, must be procrastinating, putting off doing something else that's a bit more intense...

This quilt measures 63x73, I used Hobbs 80/20 batting/wadding and a white Metro thread. The panto I chose is Trellis Hearts by Patricia Ritter, I used the digitised version on my Quilt Path system. I bound the quilt with matching black fabric and added a little machine embroidery in black thread for added interest in the border.