Exciting times....

I know I'm a little bit slack lately to post news and updates about quilts and quilting events. A week or two ago I loaded this customer quilt and had all of the stitch in the ditch ruler quilting and outlining done, (this is such a time consuming slow job). Just as I was about to move onto the fun part, the proper quilting, I heard that Janet Stone had won Best in show at The Houston Quilt Festival, this is the bigget quilt show in the world I believe. Why is this relevant, Janet Stone also designed the quilt on my frame, it was a block of the Month design available through The Quilt Show click here for the link . All of Janet's quilts are designed around the alphabet and may have a sheep or two somewhere, this one is no exception and is named 'A-Z with Ewe and Me'!

Carol made a beautiful job of the piecing and appilique. This will be a gift for Carol's Grandson, it truely is a wonderful heirloom.

Carol supplied the backing and wadding, I used various coloured threads to suit the blocks and border fabrics but used a white thread in the background of the alphabet and white glide Magnaglides in the bobbin. I quilted whimsical feathers throughout the white blocks and then different samples of quilting in the pieced blocks, they are sampler blocks afterall.

It is a fabulous quilt!

This huge quilt was brought to me by Jenny, it was too big for me to show properly on any of my beds so Jenny supplied the photos on her beautiful sleigh bed. I quilted it with this lovely digitised design called 'Chocolate Leaves', I love this design, it shows beautifully on the wide borders.

Show News! 

My quilt 'Interlaced' has won an award, Best Runner Up in the minature category at The West Country Quilt Show, in Bristol, UK. This isn't a true minature, it's around 20"x20" I never thought to enter it in a competition, as I was filling in the form for the quilt below I realised that this little quilt would fit this category. I designed and made this quilt as a project for an article in Machine Quilting Unlimited magazine earlier this year to show step by step instructions on how I design and quilt the Celtic Basketweave. This magazine is still available here  http://mqumag.com/backissues/ it's March 2015 issue

The list of contents for that issue is here  http://mqumag.com/…/u…/2015/02/MQU-15-03-March-Cover-TOC.pdf

And my quilt Subtle Differences has won more rosettes at the same show.
That's 1st Longarm Quilting and 1st Large Wallhanging, that is just fabulous, lovely red rosettes, that is a 1st place to my US friends

And Late News, it was announced at the prize giving awards that Subtle Differences also won, (insert drum roll here),  'BEST of SHOW' too....Woohoo!

What ever will happen next???

Lots of stuff going on just now...

I'm still here quilting up a storm on customer quilts, I did a run of edge to edge designs before moving on to some custom work, here are a couple of photos....

Shop sample with Jessica's Swirls

Shop sample Zipper quilt with freemotion handguided feathers in the sashings and digitised designs up through the blocks

Back of the Zipper quilt

Shop sample Christmas panel freemotion quilted

Dresden blades quilted with 'crystal maze' in gold thread

I don't usually take photos of quilts with the sun on them but on this particular day it was such a pleasure to see the sun shining that I couldn't resist. The above selection of quilts had a personal delivery by me back to Kevin at Fabric Focus in Edinburgh .

I had a visit recently from the Jane Rae, the 'Features Editor' of the new magazine Today's Quilter. I'm excited to say I will appear in a future edition, probably number four or five, so look out for it in a couple of months on your newstand or sign up for a subscription here or take a look at their website Today's Quilter

I wear many hats, among them I'm a Rep for APQS (American Longarm Quilting Systems). At Quilt Market in Houston, Texas just last Saturday, APQS launched their new machine, it a true Entry Level 18"machine....

Meet Larry isn't he cute?

Find out more about  Larry here

I pulled out this UFO recently, it needs to be finished, I did make up a couple more blocks but feel I need to work on something a little more serious, I have a few ideas but I'm needing some motivation, maybe when I get that article written, finished and uploaded for MQU magazine I'll be able to concentrate on designing a quilt for next years competitions, or is that just avoidance tactics?

On the Edge...

I am very happy to quilt edge to edge or pantograph type designs on my customer quilts, not every quilt requires custom or heirloon type work. Utility quilts and especially childrens quilts are perfect for pantograph and digital designs.

I forgot to take a photo of the above quilt once quilted but couldn't resist showing the inside, the piecing was absolutely perfect and the seams so well pressed that I had to record this for posterity.  Of course it will never been seen this way again, it's not often we get to see the inside of a quilt is it?

Surf by Anne Bright suits so many different types of quilts, I didn't have a sample to show customers so quilted this one up just for that very reason, have to say it's still awaiting the binding to be added but it's nearly finished isn't it?

Another sample showing Dazzle but this one does have the binding on and even hand finished to the back.

Annette at Borderland Fabrics, in Jedburgh made this lovely Irish Chain quilt in such subtle colours that I knew imediately that I would quilt it with Sherryberry by Anne Bright, it's a delicate design just perfect for this nostalgic looking quilt, I'm sure this quilt is going home with Annette and not to the shop....