Scottish Quilt Championships 2011

Well, it's been some week, a new website and 4 Rosettes for two entries...yes 'four!'

The Victorian Lady....1st for Machine Quilting

Flourish won

1st Wholecloth
1st Longarm Quilting
3rd Small Wallhanging....

All ribbons are golden yellow with a central disk with details....

I can hardly believe I won both of the machine awards...I am thrilled!



A Wealth of Talent!

Of couse there were lots of wonderful quilts, here are just a few of my favourites....

This was the Champion Quilt...wonderful choice of fabrics with fantastic shading and thread painting, I went back to look at this a few times, so much detail, it just draws you in! !

I know I'm a longarm machine quilter but I really appreciate beautiful workmanship of any kind, the colours of this quilt are wonderful, very precise piecing and fabulous hand quilting.

This applique quilt is wonderful, again amazing colour choices, beautiful!

Another beautiful quilt with many three dimentional elements and machine quilted motifs won 1st Bed Quilt!

My New Website is Live!

Well, there's been a lot going on in the background recently. My youngest Son has designed a website for me, I think it looks great and it's now 'Live' so, I guess that means I am in business!

Here it is www.borderlinequilter.co.uk

It is still a work in progress but is up and running, have a look around and let me know what you think?

Liberty Hunter's Star......

This quilt is made from Tana Lawn cotton fabric by Liberty of London, this is a very fine soft cotton with a high thread count. The pattern is a scrappy Hunter's Star using samples of lots of different fabrics from this very famous range.

It's amazing the difference a border fabric can make, there was really only one choice but I wanted to see which fabrics jumped out against these colour options.

I would have liked a real red but the blue fabric is the Tana Lawn, so we now have a blue quilt, that's what happens, see how the border fabric dominates and makes this a blue quilt.

I chose a white on white backing fabric and used Superior Bottom Line in white for the needle and bobbin. This is a fine thread, the white has a translucent quality which seems to mix with all colours and doesn't shout out against any of them, so the thread blended into the top of the quilt really well, I also changed down from an 18 to a size 16 needle. This quilt finished at 95" x 95", I used Quilters Dream wool batting/wadding as I love wool, but also because wool has a lovely soft drape to it, I was looking to keep the soft quality of the Tana Lawn cotton fabric.

Now quilting wise, I had many options, lots of custom designs came to mind, but in the end I chose a pantograph, 'Wildflower' by Willow Leaf Studio, it's an open design which keeps that soft flowing feel, and although it's a wool quilt it's going to be perfect for summer or an extra quilt for the bottom of the bed in winter.

It's that time again!

There is a definite chill in the air and the nights are putting in so.....

It's time for the big switch on...definitely an 'Arrrrrhhhh' moment!

At last....

Well, at last I've been to see the 'Quilted Yurt'....errected!

On Saturday I made the effort to travel up to Perth for the QGBI Regional Day to see the constucted yurt, this is the British Yurt as all of the American panels have been returned to the US, I have seen all of the US panels on a previous visit to Linzi's workshop when unfortunately the yurt was dismantled.
The panel that I quilted is the courthouse steps, below the navy blue roof panel in the photo below.

Linzi gave a long and humerous talk about the inspiration, developement and plans for the yurt and her future projects.

At lunch time there was lots of interest in all the quilted panels....I have to say most of these panels (well, except the one quilted by Janette of J-Quilts and the one that I quilted on my previous Mega Quilter machine) were quilted by Linzi....on her freemotion hand guided longarm....non of us have computers on our longarms!



In the afternoon we were entertained with a display of quilts from the collection of Jan Hassard.....here are a couple of my favorites...

Jan had some wonderful quilts in her collection, some with amazing history, but this 'triple wedding ring' was my favorite...isn't it wonderful?

When I saw some of Jan's own colourful quilts I wished that I had signed up for the all day Sunday class....

All in all an entertaining day!

Best to be on the safe side.....

What do they put in those colour catchers??? Synthrapol???

The colours of this batik wide back are perfect for this pieced top....I washed it when I bought it last year but thought I had better wash it again...threw in a colour catcher, washed it again and again and again...The first time was probably without a colour catcher, the next three times with a colour catchers....Then once with a piece of cotton muslin that came out tinged with turquoise and once with a colour catcher and cotton muslin, the muslin came out white this time but still lots of colour on the catcher.....well, proves that the catchers work. I think this backing has been washed six times in all...there's a lot of white in my top....wonder if I should wash it again????

I think enough is enough???

You'll just have to believe me?

It's now too big for my small design wall and my empty floor space so you'll just have to believe me that I finished piecing the whole of my 'jewel box' quilt.....

I know I could have done the pieced border quicker with strip piecing but you know I am pleased with how the border came together and 'seams' more accurate pieced in the more traditional way.

I also love how Karen colour co-ordinated her latest book to match my quilt....lol....

It always amazes me!

Take a look at this simple jelly roll quilt top....forgot to get a photo of the whole top before I started, sorry...but it's simple right, nothing fancy! Basically it's a colour graded quilt working with the colours from the jelly roll.

I had some glazed cotton that matched so well that I just had to use it for the backing and binding....I bound the quilt while still on the frame....even that little end bit, it can be done on the frame even though it's a bit tricky.....you have to be very careful of your fingures and take just one stitch at a time...mind you wouldn't want to do this on a show quilt....

But what really amazes me is the difference a bit of quilting can make.....

 

That's an all over 'freemotion jelly feather fill'....

Just goes to show....it's the quilting that makes the quilt!

Access all areas?

Well, when you're away from home you still have to have internet access, so for my recent trip I realised quite late in the day that I needed some kind of protection for my 'netbook'. I thought I would make a quick pouch, which turned into a bag, which turned into a quilted bag with double padding and pockets....not as quick as I had intended!

I didn't remember or have time to take loads of photos....

Here are the two main pieces already quilted.....

This inside pocket is made up from pieces of fabric from my first ever freemotion quilted quilt, it has wadding/batting and backing fabric and is stitched in the ditch, there's also an interior hidden full size pocket.

So there's room for my power cords and USB sticks, mobile modems etc. to be stored in a separate pocket so that my netbook doesn't get scratched.....

It's already been to Birmingham and back and protected my netbook well.

How can we live without the world wide web?