Festival of Quilts and sewing

I visited the Festival of Quilts on two separate days and enjoyed both days as I do every year. This is the first year I haven't been a Quilt Angel ( still receiving treatment so not up for all that physical hard work) so it was strange not to have seen behind the scenes before the Show opened.
Saw lots of lovely quilts, loads of hexagons including one which had zillions of tiny tiny hexagons ( less than 1" I would think!).

Hard to pick out a few favourites, but I'll try!

Loved the Group winner, "The Quilters' Games" which was a very amusing quilt reflecting the idea of quilters as synchronised swimmers!

This quilt was beautifully done, made from boxer shorts and socks! I have seen it chosen on another blog too so you may have seen this quilt before.

Also enjoyed the exhibition of Quilts created out of a British/German exchange of fabrics.  All really different and so clever with their use of the fabrics sent to them and combining those with fabrics from their own stash.

Two fabulous Pictorial quilts which caught my eye:

One of the competition quilts which was a wonderful representation of a little view of a Venice canal, all beautifully embellished so it was 3D.

And this was in a Gallery within the Festival of Quilts which was like looking a photograph of Darling Harbour in Sydney!

And my all-time favourite which I chose for my Visitors' Choice was this fabulous quilt showing a marvellous variety of faces, all created from snippets of fabric.  Absolutely stunning!

Entitled: This Many faces, This Many Cultures by Rita Dijkstra-Hesselink, Hengelo, Holland

As always, loads of traders and I enjoyed saying hello to Katy aka I'magingermonkey, busy working and doing demos.  Tried not to buy too much as I am still trying to use up fabrics from my stash.  But I did need more batting, and some Kona cotton in yellow and aqua, Aurifil thread and I couldn't resist a lovely turquoise fabric with a lemon spot which I know will be great for bindings and perhaps a border or two.

On the sewing front I have now completed my Siblings Together Top and I am pleased with it. It is now ready for pin basting and like most of the quilters I know, this is the part I dislike, so it is sitting there looking at me! But I do have the batting now and I have cut the backing to size so I just have to bite the bullet!

I have also been putting together a few little Premature Baby/ Doll quilts with some of the Crumb blocks I have been making.  I have finished two, another is ready for binding, another being hand quilted and two more ready to be sandwiched. I gave one to my daughter for a little gift from our Granddaughter to another 2 year old girl and just posted another to accompany a storybook for our neighbour's little granddaughter who is one tomorrow.  When I have a few more completed quilts I'll pop them round to our local hospital.

So a busy few weeks and lots of sewing to do and hundreds of ideas whizzing round my head!

I definitely like bright colours

I have been having a productive couple of days, continuing with my Siblings Together quilt, making more Crumb blocks (these are very addictive!) and putting together another Crumb quilt using the lemon Kona solid for sashing. I now have two similar Premature Baby quilts ready to be sandwiched ready for hand quilting.  I have even found a piece of fabric in my stash which is large enough to use as backing for both of these little quilts.  And I expect there will be strips saved from the trimming before binding for yet more scraps!
But this morning over tea and cereals I looked back at some of my Favourites on my Flickr photostream. Very interesting as the first impression is colour, colour and more colour!  Then I noticed several strands to my Favourites: Stars, Strings, Scraps, lots of quilts by the same quilters and lots of Granny squares.
So I think you could sum me up as being a very happy bunny if you give me a box of scrap fabrics........  as long as they are BRIGHT!  Perhaps that goes a long way to explain my obsession with making endless Crumb blocks!
Looking at my Flickr Favourites was a lovely start to my day and my head is now buzzing with loads more ideas for future quilts, using scraps of course!

A productive week

At last I have managed to find time for sewing this week and I feel I have accomplished quite a lot!

Firstly, I finished hand quilting the Baby Quilt commissioned by Gemma, put on the binding and popped it in the post on Thursday.

Here it is, all ready to be parcelled up.

When I embroidered the quilt label I changed the name of the quilt to Pastel Patches as I thought this better reflected the fabrics I used.

I hope Gemma likes it!

Then I managed to get a move on with the Siblings Together Medallion Quilt.  I added a few borders until it looked like this:

I then decided the next border would showcase some of the Fat Quarter designs in circles like I have used in several quilts based on a project from the book Scrap Republic.

Whilst I was busy at the sewing machine adding borders I also created more Crumb Blocks, sewing scraps of fabric together as 'Thread catchers". No scrap is too tiny for this project as you can see from this photo!

After sewing the borders I made quite a lot of 'new fabric' which I was able to cut into several Crumb Blocks like these:

As my Crumb Blocks tin was getting rather full I decided to take time out from The Siblings Together Quilt to make a little premature baby quilt top, using a Kona lemon for the sashing.

Oops, this photo is the wrong way round but I don't know how to change it!

I really like the lemon, I think it makes the Crumb Blocks stand out well. Previously I have used aqua and sugar pink sashing for making these little quilts.

I was on a roll so onto the next border for The Siblings Together Medallion Quilt!
Using an idea from one of my favourite books Scrap Republic I have started the side borders for the next round.  I am now hand blanket stitching them, an ideal job whilst watching the Olympics on TV!

So, all in all, a lot of sewing, a lot of TV watching and a great feeling of satisfaction!

Sewing time at last

Two finishes today as I found a little time for sewing.

Firstly, the long overdue replacement Wonky Star Block for my Siblings Together Quilt.

I didn't want to have to cut into any more of the Fat Quarters but couldn't quite manage that without having to cut ONE more 1.5" square! How annoying is that?

But I do think there is enough contrast now to make the star stand out from the background. I now have to find time to sew the Wonky Star blocks together to form two short borders for my Siblings Together Quilt.  Such slow progress is unbelievable for me but I have had a very "full on" time the past six weeks which has made machine sewing impossible.

And now the poor contrast Star block can join the other scraps in my Scraps for Crumb Blocks tin.

I have however, when time allowed, been plugging away at Gemma's Quilt. This evening I finished hand sewing the binding. I had in mind two spotty fabrics in my stash but when I auditioned them, they were both the "wrong" pink which shouted at the rest of the pinks.  So I went with the same sugar pink Kona Cotton that I had used on the inner border.  Really pleased with the whole quilt and I hope Gemma is too when she receives it.

Wonky Stars and being spatially challenged

For my current project, using a Gwen Marston idea of a Liberated Medallion Quilt, I decided I needed some small Wonky Stars for the border I am constructing at the moment.
I made a few several days ago and today jumped at the opportunity of having a little sewing time (the family were out!) to make the rest.
When I started quilting I realised that I was spatially challenged ....................   for instance I found Foundation Piecing an impossibility ............. and I really have to concentrate when making Gwen's Wonky Stars.

I obviously didn't concentrate when I made this block:

As you can see, I have muddled the lime Green Kona squares with the Savannah Bop fabrics so you can't really see the Star!  This block has joined my biscuit tin of scraps for future Crumb Quilt blocks!

When I made the last one I didn't want to cut anymore fabric strips, just wanted to use up what I had on my cutting mat.  MISTAKE!  I knew there wasn't an awful lot of contrast between the background squares and the star point fabric but thought it might work.

As you can see, it didn't.  So another consigned to the Crumb block tin!

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THEN I ran out of time! Lovely little Granddaughter back from her bike ride with Daddy, so all my sewing had to be packed away until another opportunity presents itself.

In the meantime I have these Wonky Stars (including the one with no contrast).

This is part of a Quilt I am making for the Siblings Together Project.  I won a set of Savannah Bop Fat Quarters from Katie Jones, of imagingermonkey fame.

Very behind on this one as my sewing time has been severely restricted over the past month due to little granddaughter living here temporarily with her Mummy and Daddy.

So, Katie, if you are reading this post, appologies but I am doing my best!

Great Giveaway

Just seen a Great Giveaway on Lily's Quilts. A wonderful box of 32 fat quarters of Oakshott fabrics!have a go and enter eith draw!

Retail therapy

Well, no cutting out and machining going on here at present as we have our daughter and family staying with us. An extremely lively 2 and 5 months old little girl (aka Little Beauty!) is not easy to work around so everything is on hold until they move into their house in about ten days' time.

But I did go to John Lewis and treat myself to some gorgeous Amy Butler fabrics in the sale ( a metre of the top 4 and 0.5 metre of the bottom one) and a new sewing machine. My cheap Toyota model finally bit the dust and I have been using my late mother-in-law's old Janome whilst I considered what model to buy.

I decided I didn't need anything fancy or too pricey as I do straightforward sewing for my quilts. Popped into John Lewis about a month ago and saw this model, liked the price and decided to go home and have a think about it.

However when I went back last week I had another look, still liked it, so here is my NEW Janome!
You can see my old Toyota lurking in the background. I wondered if my local sewing machine repair man might like it for spare parts.

As you can see my new machine is still in its box, I haven't even opened it yet let alone tried it out!  Not until Little Beauty is safely in her own house and I can concentrate on the instruction booklet!

I have managed a little hand quilting when Little Beauty is in bed.  I'm making a cot quilt for my daughter's friend Gemma. It is for her 6 month old daughter.  They are also moving house and Gemma requested pinks, blues and yellows so she could base her Baby's Room colour scheme on the quilt.
Gemma wanted a quilt in the same style as my Emerging Butterflies so here are the two versions:

Emerging Butterflies Quilt

and here is Gemma's Quilt, still being hand quilted.

The outer border and backing is Robert Kaufman's Paradise Pareaus fabric in a fabulous Girly Pink and white!

Now off to watch the Tennis!  My hero Roger Federer is in the Final at Wimbledon so I shall be rooting for him........................ I expect the rest of the family will be on Andy Murray's side!