Great News.

And....good news for me....No, make the 'Great News',

I have had two quilts accepted for The Paducah Quilt Show. This is a juried show so first your quilts have to be submitted, it's a great thrill to have them accepted. It's more exciting to visit a show and know your own quilts are hanging there. The quality of workmanship in the American shows is so high that I am under no illusion that my quilts will ever win ribbons. I'll be shipping '1514 AKA The Horse' and 'Inner Circle Flower of Scotland' to the US very soon. I'm now getting even more excited about my trip with Linzi and Ellen...

Here is a link to the Semi finalists page for The AQS Paducah Quilt Week 2015, I can't believe that my name is along side all of those wonderful quilters....WOW......

1514 aka The Horse wins Best of Show

 I was totally blown away last week when Grosvenor Shows phoned to tell me my quilt 1514 aka The Horse had won Best in Show and Best large wall hanging. I'm always a bit stunned to get a phone call like that, I still can hardly get my head around the fact that I am an award winning quilter.You can see some of the process of making this quilt in this post 1514 aka The Horse....

Me and my Mum with my award winning quilt... 

Best Large Wall Hanging Award

I also won a Jugdes Choice award from Merrilyn Orr

Best of Show Award from David Drummond Sewing Machines.... David was actually born in Hawick

My Friend and customer Liz Villalobos also won Best Bed Quilt and I won Best Longarm Quilter for her quilt Astrum Pennequae

My quilt Strip Polka won a 3rd Prize ribbon in the theme category 'diamonds'.

My quilt Portland Points won a 3rd prize too in the large wall hanging category.

I had tough competition from Birgit Shueller from Germany who won runner Up Champion with her quilt Shooting Stars.

Hand Quilting from Andrea Stracke also from Germany

Andrea's Ribbons

My friend Rhianons quilt 'Fruit Salad' on the left with her ribbons

Rhianon's Tropical Fish

Rhianon with our quilts, you can visit Rhianons blog here

Loved this African themed quilt by Freda Oxnam

Fabulous Quilt commemorating  100 years since the 1st World War.... if any one can give me the name of the maker I'd be grateful and pleased to include it....

I finished off with a little retail therapy by adding to my collection of Bonnie Hunter books with Susan at the Kaleidoscope Books stand...

All in all a very enjoyable if not tiring weekend....

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....

Great News....

I had a wonderful phone call yesterday from Liz Villalobos. I was a totally surprise to hear that Liz's quilt 'Astrum Pennaeque' had won The Best in Show, Best Bed Quilt and the Best Longarm Award at The Great Northern Quilt Show, Harrogate, Yorkshire. UK. This quilt was pieced by Liz and freemotion, handquided (with the help of some rulers) quilted by me, Kay Bell at Borderline Quilter. I hadn't realised Liz had entered her quilt so I was totally amazed. Congratulations to both of us. Liz, thank you for choosing me to quilt for you.

Grosvenor Shows quickly released a photo showing how well a quilt can look when it's beautifully hung and lit and here it is..... you can also click on the following link to see close up photos of the quilting Liz's Lone Star 'Astrum Pennaeque'.

Festival of Quilts 2014

It's seems so long ago already....Festival of Quilts 2014. Spoiled again, Linzi drove four and a half hours from Aberdeen for lunch, picked me up with my suitcase and accessories for the stand then drove another five and a half hours to Birmingham. We chatted and laughed all of the way. We chatted and laughed all week, six days and six nights of chatting and laughing.

I'm guessing Ellen took this photo of the four of us, Ani, Linzi and Me (Kay Bell), with Sally our new helper.

 I was super excited that my quilt 1514 AKA The Horse won a 'Highly Commended'. There were over 800 quilts entered into the competition so that's a big deal to me.

The lighting wasn't good too many shadows for a good photo, this one had to have flash.

I was also super excited that my customer Liz entered her Lone Star quilt into the Two Person category, we won a 'Highly Commended' for this one too....and it was wonderfully hung.

My friends Julie and George of Heritage Keepsakes dropped by the stand, they had travelled from Australia with their daughter Brooke and her friend. They came bearing gifts of Koala Bear chocolate and  fabric....see the selvedge, 'Under the Australian Sun'. I am so bad at collecting photographs of special times like this one, shame on me....

Just look who I met on one of my walkabouts, my friend Bonnie Hunter no less of Quiltville.com , a fabulous Lady and inspiration to many, many quilters. So pleased to spend a few minutes with Bonnie, believe me Bonnie was in big demand for photo sessions

Linzi's Quilted Henge looked fabulous, such a huge amount of creativity and imagination in these 9 pieces, the stone circle is a quilt in itself . The Henge needs to be seen to be believed it's encrusted with semi precious stones, beads and bling. Subtle machine embroidery and laced leather skins enhance the quilted columns. See more of Linzi's work at The Quilt Quine

I love these ladies in Basques and DM's...

Janneka De Vries-Bodzinga never ceases to amaze me....this quilt is awe inspiring, I gazed at it many times over the six days I was at the show

My very good friend Rhianon had her fabulous butterfly quilt hanging too.

This ribbon worked miniature was a sheer delight to behold and only twelve inches square.

Had to buy some stuff too....

Two beauties hanging side by side by Gwenfai Rees Grithiffs and Annelize Littlefair

This is one of my all time favourite quilts of the show, the Gargoyles are 3D and made from cut, shaped and painted wadding. It's terrific, unfortunately the lighting made my photos of this a little yellow.

The UK APQS Representatives at Festival of Quilts 2014, I'm already looking forward to 2015....

Spring Quilt Show Edinburgh...2014

 Last weekend was the Spring Quilt Show in Edinburgh....I only had a couple of hours to run around and buy a couple of things I needed and spend sometime looking at the exhibits.

One of the 'Featured Artists' was my good friend Rhianon Taylor The Nifty Stitcher I took a few photos of her quilts and had a bit of a chat, then had to dash off to Borderland Fabrics Jedburgh, for a 'sew in', and a 'lock in' with a curry....

The hummingbirds are my favourite....

Rhianon had a wonderful exhibition.... I promise Rhianon next time we will have time to sit and chat and have coffee....