FoQ 2011....

What a wonderful time I have had....I've seen Festival of Quilts from all sides as a spectator and behind the scenes helping and watching what goes on when you rent a stall/booth.

I had the wonderful pleasure of being driven from my own doorstep directly to Birmingham by Linzi (Linzi Upton of 'The Quilted Yurt' fame), how lucky am I?

We travelled down on Wednesday to set up Linzi's stall demonstrating the APQS Lenni longarm quilting machine.

I went to lectures and took classes but most of all I had the whole four days to drink it all in. What a fabulous display of quilts, themed, traditional, art, pieced, wholecloth, hand quilted, machine quilted and longarm quilted.

What a privilege to be able to enter the show floor at 8.30 in the morning and study the quilts before the general public arrived.

I am amazed by the number of people I met and already knew through my blog and the forums, you know who you are, it was great to meet you all!

What a shopping experience too....I am not going to divulge all of my hoard here but there were many bargains to be had!

We attended the fashion show, what a wealth of talent, a spectacular show!

The Tent Makers from Cairo were amazing....the quilters sat cross legged and seemed to make quilts without patterns using huge scissors and sewed so fast, they can make a small quilt all by hand in around ten days...

Tent Maker's Quilts from Cairo

Here is a selection of my favorite quilts from the show....

I may come back later and edit in the names of the quilt makers!

Firstly from my travel companion Linzi.....

'The Hare'......

And 'Celtic Connections'

Winner of Pictoral quilts 'Hot Africa' by Janneke de Vries-Bodzinga

The Rhinoceros by Pam Holland....I attended a wonderful class with Pam....

 

Look at that eye in close up....all those tiny hexagons...

Ammonoidia by C J Barnes.....amazing, looks like leather but isn't!

Aren't these two handsome fellows?

If you know me then you know I have to include a wholecloth....but this little beauty is only around 8 inches square...honestly!  This quilt won the Miniature class and was made by Kumiko Frydl from Texas....Blue like Wedgewood!

Before I knew it was Sunday and time to dismantel the Lenni and pack it back into and onto the Landrover but we stayed on another night. 
We had been directed to the most wonderful 'Brummy Curry' House where we ate till we were stuffed on two separate occasions.....I would like to say how impressed I was by all of the local Birmingham people who we met during our trip, they were courteous and friendly, it was a pleasure!

I had a great time, Thanks Linzi!

And the winner is......

Guess where I am.....Festival of Quilts 2011, Birmingham, UK....the over all winner is 'Octopussy' by Janneke de Vries-Bodzinga from the Netherlands.....so very well deserved!  It's beautifully quilted too, I'll try and get a better angled photo in the morning????

I've taken a host of photos today but will post more a little later!

Lauder....

Lauder is the last of the Border Common Rings held on the first Saturday of August...

It isn't held to commemorate a victory over the English in Battle like many of the other Towns. The Cornet leads his followers round the Marches/boundaries of the Royal Burgh of Lauder with a halt for refreshments at the Waterin Stane and a Toast to Her Majesty. On leaving the Waterin' Stane the cavalcade makes for the Burgess Cairn, the only

surviving cairn, where the Cornet places a stone upon it and on return reports no encroachment on Burgh Land.

Again....here is Kyle with his Dad and Granda....

Following on behind were these three Hunt's Men with ten couples of hounds....not to hunt but to run along side....

Where's Granda???

  

At the Waterin Stane...looks like whisky.....must be to toast the Queen.!

Flourish!

In 2010 I took an online class with Adam Chenevert on MQR, Wholecloth Design and Execution...the white quilt here in my blog header and background was my first wholecloth from that class.

I designed three wholecloths at that time and intended to quilt them in order but my number three quilt was insisting to be the second one quilted.  I designed this quilt on Easter Sunday 2010 and originally named it Easter Parade, you can read about it in this post.

So, after much planning and deciding that's what I've been up to....Lavender Silk Dupioni on top and a paler lilac for the back, Glide thread in the needle and Bottomline in the bobbin, double batting of Hobbs 80/20 and Quilters Dream Wool.....39 x 39 inches...12 bobbins....  even on a longarm this takes time and patience, 67&1/2 hours including marking and binding but not the design work and printing, (but I am slow, I like to enjoy the experience).

Here it is, 'Flourish'...... 

Finished size is 39 x 39 inches....

The Back....

With permanently fitted hanging sleeve...

There were three main motifs...

Definitely feathers with a 'Flourish'!

Edited to thank you all for the wonderful comments....I appreciate them all, 'Thank You'!

Off to Langholm...The muckle toon!

The Langholm Common Riding always takes place on the last Friday in July. It starts at 5am as the flute band parades the town and ends at 9.30pm as the Cornet hands back the flag in front of the town hall.

But we left home at 6.30 with picnic and horses and after a bit of a hicup with horse tack all went well.

One of the features of Langholm Common Riding is the quaint emblems which are carried in the procession:-

The Barley Banock

First there is the Barley Bannock and the salted herring fastened by a large nail - a "twal-penny nail" - to a wooden platter and flourished aloft on a pole. The bannock symbolises certain of the privileges of the Baron under the obligation of thirlage, while the fish may be symbolic of the Baron's right to the fisheries in the Esk or merely of the necessity of having some "kitchen" or relish to go with the decidedly dry fare of the bannock.
Next emblem is the Spade , the very epitome of the Common Riding, used as it is for cutting sods at different points of the Common and for clearing out the pits which originally marked the boundaries on the Common Moss up Whita Hill.

The giant Scottish Thistle and Crown (look close)

Third emblem is a gigantic Scottish thistle, a most picturesque accompaniment. The origin and purpose of the introduction of the thistle is very obscure. Being the national emblem of Scotland, it may have been adopted as such, or possibly on account of its 'jags' as a warning to anyone who contemplated interfering with the Fair.

The fourth emblem is the floral crown. It has no historical significance, and may have been adopted as a symbol of loyalty to the sovereign.

8.45am and the crowds were gathering....
 

 For the riders the highlight was a gallop through this narrow street.... here comes the Langholm Cornet with his Right and Left hand Men.....

And gallop up this steep narrow hill....

Here come Graham and Kyle...

I was taking my life in my hands getting some of these photos...the horses were coming thick and fast in places....

Must get a copy of this photo.....

It looks great in a frame.....

Next time we saw the horses they were coming over the river.....

And onto the race course for a proper gallop...

Kyle had his first try on a race course although they did go steady....  another good  day out enjoyed by all.

Decisions... decisions?

I went with the dark in the middle, I want to call it 'puse', I love that word 'puse'!
That's lavender coloured silk dupioni for the top and a paler silvery lilac for the back.

I marked half of the quilt with a blue pen and then as it was really drying I realised I was struggling to see the marks so swapped out to another darker pen (or six) and did it again ...it took me a whole day to mark with blue pen...next day it was on the frame but under the lights of my Millie I knew that I couldn't see the marks and had to draw in with a purple marker as I went along....bummer.

 

This is at the end of day one.

Because I used a blue water soluble marker I had to give the quilt a good soak in the bath tub, I didn't want to take any chances of setting the marks so no soap and only clean cold water ...I left it there for about twenty minutes just popping back to agitate a little.

No sqeezing or hanging, you don't want to distort the quilt.  I blocked it out right on the carpet in my studio with plenty of towels to catch all the water and plenty of pins to pull it into shape. I left it there for a couple of days.

I was aiming at a nice flat square quilt to hang on the wall.

I know I'm a terrible tease...lol...when it's all bound I'll let you see it!

Not the crown jewels...

I know, I'm conspicuous by my absence at the moment but I have been busy...a bit of quilting and a bit of piecing....I've nearly got the body of the 'jewel box' pieced...putting in that green border design threw me a bit, geeze I'm easily confused...lol...but I did get the knack eventually! The rows in the bottom half are stitched but the top half is still blocks so there's still a little room to manoeuvre. On to the pieced border next..it will be a big double!

In my next quilt related post I will let you know what I've been quilting, so watch this space.

You could bank on it!

It was a good guess...twelve bobbins.... but you always knew this would happen.....

For those of you who have missed my quilting...I will be posting about this quilt very soon...promise!