Delving into my stash

Since tidying my sewing room and stash I reacquainted myself with some of  my fabrics and decided to cut into them for my August and September Sunshine Guild blocks. Some were paired with scraps too. The 4 blocks pictured above are my August blocks: theme was "Boyish".

These are my 6 September blocks: theme is 4 patch. Mostly new fabric here except for the rows of Dutch people which has been in my stash for so long I really don't know who gave it to me. Some left too so the fabric may be used in future blocks.

In between I have been sewing a 4" Crumb block to a 4" square of fabric. These will eventually be sewn into fours and into little Premature baby quilts for our local hospital.

A Quilting Puzzle

Four picture clues: can you guess which quilt I am making?
Other clues: the quilt is from a book by one of my favourite quilters/bloggers, mentioned very recently on my blog.
I'm having fun making all the little units and hope to start putting the parts together into blocks. I'm only making 20 blocks, the actual pattern makes a much larger quilt.

So, can you guess whose pattern this is and can you work out the name of the quilt?

        

Finally finished, an outstanding UFO!

  

I started this little Premature Baby quilt last year - on 19th November, according to my blog. Using scraps gifted by a Quilting friend ( I still have more left, squirreled away somewhere).

It went into a cupboard as a flimsy and finally saw the light of day last week. Years ago the same friend gave me two pieces of baby -style fabrics which have also been waiting to be used. I thought this yellow and blue one was just right for the bright diagonal rectangles of the design. 

I hand stitched using various colours of Perle cottons and feel pleased with the result. I now need to make a few more of these small ( 15" x 20" ) Quilts so I can take them to our local Maternity Unit.

Heavens knows I have enough scraps and pieces of batting!

Glitter Quilt inspiration

                              

I spotted this quilt at the Festival of Quilts. It was made by Regina Maier from Berlin, Germany. 

She called it "Twinkling" and the quilt certainly twinkled, full of lovely scraps which Regina had lovingly sewed using the EPP method. The quilt is from a pattern called "Glitter" by Jen Kingwell. Regina made the quilt using a variety of fabrics, including many from old clothes worn by family and friends. What a lovely idea for a Memory Quilt.

                          

A Close up to show the blocks in greater detail. Each one made from different fabrics ( I think, I haven't studied it in such great detail).

I have seen this quilt on two blogs I follow:

Cathy of Sane, Crazy, Crumby Quilting finished her version earlier this year, a truly scrappy one.

Wendy of Wendy's Quilts and more is in the process of making hers but using a restricted colour palette, greys and lime greens I think I remember.

Cathy lives in the USA, Wendy in New Zealand and Regina in Germany - that quilt pattern has certainly circled the globe! I think that's one of the facets about quilting that appeals to me, the worldwide friendship and inspiration from other quilters who you will likely never meet but their work catches your eye and inspires you to do more sewing.

2018 Festival of Quilts spark memories

                  

The winner of the Art Quilts Section at this year's Festival of Quilts was this amazing quilt made by Jean McClean from Blenheim, New Zealand.
It's title  "And the sky danced "was so apt. Jean was depicting The Aurora which she says "is an amazing and exciting demonstration of raw energy as well as being incredibly beautiful ".
Having spent much time in New Zealand over the past 20 years this quilt really spoke to me, reminding me of so many memories, many of them actually in Blenheim. Congratulations, Jean!

..


In the Pictorial Quilts Section this quilt of an Indian Chief really caught my eye. The detail and the dynamic appearance of the Chief was wonderful. Made by Adricina Brianes Calleja from Spain.
Again, lots of memories were stirred - this time of a visit almost 20 years ago - to a Hopi Mesa in Arizona.

This little quilt in the Miniatures Quilt Section really called to me. Entitled "Memories of the Farne Islands" by Judith Bevor, UK. We lived in Northumberland for ten years and visited the Farne  Islands on several occasions. Visits in Spring are particularly exciting when the birds are nesting but puffins are gorgeous at every part of the year. This little quilt beautiful showed the bright colours of those funny birds.

On Thursday I visited the Festival with my sister and she immediately spotted this quilt was of Amsterdam. And of course it was, made by Juliana Teixeira and Isobel McBay from Wick in Scotland in the Two Person Quilts Category. Very cleverly and precisely made. My sister and I and our husbands spent a lovely few days together in Amsterdam back in 2014 so again a quilt evoked
some happy memories.
As we were  admiring the quilt three ladies approached us and very proudly told us the quilt was made by friends from their Guild. The three friends were staying for all four days of the Festival having flown all the way down from Wick.

I met Bonnie Hunter!

I am fortunate to live very near the NEC, Birmingham where the Festival of Quilts is held each year.

Two years ago I knew (through reading Bonnie's blog) that she would be visiting the Festival as part of her UK trip. I hoped I would spot her in the crowd of visitors so I could say Hello. Of course that didn't happen and I was disappointed.

So when I watched Bonnie's recent QuiltCam and knew she would be signing books yesterday afternoon I was sure to be there armed with my two books: String Fling that I bought a few years ago and More Adventures with Leaders and Enders which I bought at the Show yesterday in readiness. So, at last, after all those years following her blog I actually managed to meet her in person and I wasn't disappointed. Bonnie is as bright, bubbly and friendly as she appears in her blog and on her QuiltCams.

I told her that even my husband recognises her voice as he's heard it emanating from my iPad so many times! She laughed.

And here are my signed books. I'm now all fired up to make one of the patterns from my new book: 

Four-Patch X. I have quite a lot of 2" squares already cut but will need to go through my scraps to cut some more.