Stitchin' Heaven at Festival of Quilts 2012 ...post 1

It's stitchin' heaven here at Festival of Quilts in Birmingham.... UK, that is! The APQS stand/booth has been really buzzing and we've met lots of friends old and new..... Here we are on the stand.....

Mark Ani Linzi & Kay

Here are a few of the winners.....

Best in show....'The Dumb Belles' .....Quilter's Olympics

Best contemporary.....Byland Pieces by Linda Bilsborrow

Best Art Quilt....Silencis by Olga Gonzalez

Best Pictorail Quilt....Janneke de Vries-Bodzinga

Best Two Person Quilt....Nostalgia by Elke Voelker-Kobusch and 
Sabina Schroeder

Quilters Guild Challenge...Britain, what it means to you....Laura di Cera and 
Cherry Vernon-Harcourt

Some Quilts from Younger Quilters

Best Wearable Art.... Birgit Schueller....APQS

Stitchin' Heaven on the 697

I met some friends at their stall who looked extremely busy.....actually they were having a very sucessful first show....

Yesterday,  I had a class with Tula Pink, a very talented young fabric designer and got to see quilting by Angela Walters 

Pieced by Tula Pink  and Quilters by Angela  Walters

Today I had a wonderful class wiith Pascale Bebronne on pieced circles..... 

This one is by Pascale Bebronne

More photos to follow......soon.....


 

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???

Jelly Rolls and Pantographs....

A perfect combination.....
There are lots of lovely jelly roll patterns out there. I was lucky enough to quilt two recently for two different customers, they were both beautifully pieced and laid lovely and flat. I have a couple of jelly rolls lying around, doesn't everybody? After seeing these two lovely quilts I feel inspired to make a make a jelly roll quilt too!

First was Tricia's quilt in pinks and purples, Tricia chose Tickle and a silver/grey thread which really enhanced the backing fabric.

Gillian chose a Primrose pantograph and cream thread for her lovely 'cactus baskets' quilt which was a perfect choice.

Off to Lauder...

Saturday morning we left before the sunrise (5.15) with Kyle and Layla, we stopped off to pick up Millie and Beauty on our way to Lauder Common Riding.

We were there in good time (6.45) so there was no rush, it was a beautiful summers morning....now that is unusual!

It's now 8 am, here come the horses....... a whole street full of horses......

Horses as far as the eye could see.....

We are hoping that next year Kyle will be able to ride Beauty himself, Millie is making a lovely job of riding and handling her, she is a very competent young trainer.

We were able to see them up on the hill tops off on a gallop.....with Kevin behind on the coloured horse...

The hounds are keeping up the rear....

Here is the 'Cornet' proceeding back into town through the crowd lined streets ..... he had a tear in his eye, a proud moment for him!

Feathered Swirls....

I'm always trying to fit in time to make up a few sample quilts from simply pieced blocks to show how 'the quilting really makes the quilt'! 


This is a very simply pieced 'take 5' pattern with added borders, I used my much loved freemotion handguided 'feathered swirl' design and love how this turned into such a cute little quilt.

 I added the prairie points just to use up the fabric but love the added dimension they give to this little quilt.

Out to Lunch....

On Sunday we were invited out to lunch for a rather special birthday party, this is Langley Castle in Northumberland, great venue, wonderful food and lots of reminiscing. You can see many more photos and info about the castle here

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?

Continuing education....

Always something to learn but Millie is a very patient and quiet rider, just what's needed for a young horse.

Today at their first ever event at a Gymkhana Millie and Beauty brought home a red first for 'handy pony', a yellow third from the pony games and a cup.....well done!

Kyle had a bit of a walk and trot around too!

A recent finish...

Haven't had a lot of time to blog lately....busy, busy, busy!

Not necessarily all quilting but busy just the same.

Here are some photos of one recently quilted quilt, Sudoku in style with fabrics bought by my customer in Canada while on vacation. Happy times pantograph in the main body with a custom border treatment.

  It's now all ready to snuggle under with the binding already attached!