Jumping Through Hoops...

It's that time of year when us women feel like we are jumping through hoops we have so much to do....well, don't know about you but I do? Anyway, things are now feeling more organised, house is clean and tidy, tree is trimmed, presents wrapped and all promised quilts have gone home.

I started this little quilt (approx 20x15 inches) a couple of weeks ago as a piece of plain taffeta, quilted a 'doodle do' on it and spent a few evenings playing with different pens, pencils and paints to try out different techniques. I started to add some beads and may add some crystals over the coming days? We'll see what time is available later in the week but this is where it is right now.....it was fun, I may try another???

Very appropriate at this time of year to have these Red Legged Partridge feeding in my garden....most people have sparrows, thrushes and crows....I do have an old pear tree too but chances of seeing them there are rather slim. They are very timid though and if I venture outside to try and take a better photo they would soon scarper so a shot through the window is all I can manage at the moment even though I throw them a few seeds every now and then....

Photos of me and my 'Swooning' quilt in Fabrications magazine.....Overall Champion at the Scottish Championships 2012

Toot Toot....Scottish Quilt Championships 2012

Can I brag a bit??

My 'Swooning' quilt has won...

Best Bed Quilt.... 

Best Longarm Quilt....and...drum roll please...

Overall Champion Quilt.... 

And a Judges Choice from Maggie Davies

All Golden Yellow Rosettes with detailed centres

Woo hoo!!!!

And my Tudor Roses won a

2nd place ribbon in Large Wallhanging

That's 2 quilts with 4 rosettes and a Judges Choice Award...
I'm honoured and a bit shell shocked....but very grateful!

More show news to follow later....

FoQ 2012....Post 3

I had real difficulty choosing from my catalog of photos, but wanted to include a few more before I move on... 

Hawthorn sky by Roberta Le Piodevin

I love the simplicity of this quilt and the background quilting, very effective, won 2nd Pictorial Quilts

'In the Middle of the Night' by Angela Rudolf , Germany

Lots of space for quilting, it won a well deserved 'Highly Commended'!

This should have won a prize, look how the swirls were strung together with beads....

 Double Damask by Liz Jones Leominster

Perfectly executed border treatment, winning a 'Judges Choice'. 

Greek Fossils by Ferret

Close up of the intricate quilting done by Ferret.

Me with my Swoon taken by my 'Bestest Quilting Buddy' Janette

Of course there were many more beautiful quilts to see, I could have carried on forever if blogger wasn't acting up photo wise.

Still 'Swooning'.....

 

Remember this, it's my 'Swooning' quilt, well, it's now quilted and I sent it off to Festival of Quilts in a box!
That was more than two weeks ago now, it's a bit like sending your kids off to school for the first time releasing your quilts into the wild, I just hope that after being stuck in a box for a couple of weeks that it hangs well at the show, I'd be happy with that!

I thought you'd like to see some in progress photos so here you go, first on my Millie....

I used a ruler for the stitch in the ditch and straight line fill, drew out a template to get the placement of the spine in more or less the same position within the blocks, then all feathers and curved fills are freemotion, handguided.

Here it's being blocked, layered first onto a  sheet, then pinned into the carpet and sprayed to really soak it..... stand back and watch the magic happen when everything pulls together and lies flat.....hopefully? 
You can also do this by soaking your quilt in a bathtub too then laying out and pinning down. You would definitely want to soak in the bath tub if you had used a blue marking pen, this time I didn't so it wasn't totally necessary.

Still pinned down and drying off... I used a contrasting dark gold thread and double batting of Hobbs 80/20 and Quilters Dream wool. 
This will be a quilt to be used, I wanted a quilt a bit like a bedspread that comes down to the floor on my Queen sized bed and it really does that finishing at 96"x 92".

Last step was adding the piping and binding, I already have a really good set up for that but it still pulls on your shoulders quite a bit?

I forgot to take a full shot of the quilt with the binding all finished.  
Well, that's not strictly true, by the time it was bound I was running late and it had to be boxed up in a hurry ready for the courier.  All being well, I'll get a good photo of it hanging in Birmingham, that's as long as it isn't all crumpled from being in storage with the logistics company???

Going, Going, Gone!

Aren't Sat Navs great?

If you have my postcode a Sat Nav would bring you right to my door!

Well, unless you are a 'white van man' that is, for some reason it's then OK to say, 'sorry we couldn't find you'???

Annoying at the time but then once I had re-scheduled a pick up from my work in town everything was on track again and my Festival of Quilts entries were on their way!

Now I just have to hope they reach their destination as re-scheduling seems to have cocked up the tracking system.....nothing is ever simple is it?

Sucking Up!

This is 410 inches of piping with trimings and 410 inches of binding all ready and waiting......

Can't do anything with it until the 'major sucking up' and drying finishes.....from the blocking of the quilt!

But why does this always happen when you've taken the quilt off the frame for the final time and removed your zippers and trimmed the quilt......I couldn't possibly have seen it before then could I?


'Sod's Law' I suppose!


See explanation of that here ....lol....

Swoon #9

Forgot to post block number 9....

  ....and a mosaic of all 9 blocks....

Not one to be the same as everyone else I now need to decide on sashings and borders.  It may be a while....lol...coz I'm a bit busy!

#7, lucky for some?

My memory, it's my age, forgot to post Swoon #7, it's a really nice block too???

Swoon #8 Replacement

Ah, that's better, very romantic looking, it's put me back on track again!
Only one more block to go, maybe I'll still use the previous one changed up a bit???

Swoon #8

I'm not sure I like that one, what do you all think will I take it any further?




You do Remember 'Family Fortunes' don't you....or Family Feud I think in the US???

Swoon #7

Here's number 7 not many more to go now!

Swoon Blocks #5 & #6

Another two blocks done, that's past half way right, or half done depending on how you look at it, I managed to find and order more background fabric to match too so that's great!