Festival of Quilts 2016

I am very lucky to live near the NEC, the home of the Festival of Quilts. For the first 9 years of its existence I was a Quilt Angel, for some of those years a Team Leader. I enjoyed opening the packages, logging the Competition quilts, being part of hanging the quilts and getting the show ready for the judges and then the visitors. Now I enjoy being a visitor and seeing all the lovely quilts, galleries, personalities and looking round all the stalls. A little bit of Retail Therapy too!

Thursday was First Day of the Show and I took my sister. We always enjoy our day out together, marvelling at the quilts and marking our favourites in the catalogue.

Today, Friday, I went with my neighbour who is just beginning her quilting journey.  We bought basic equipment and looked at quilts as I pointed out some of the standard blocks. I enjoyed this as she was a great pupil, lots of questions and interest.

I also took lots of photos.

I was very excited to see 2 quilts made by my New Zealand quilter friend Jennie.
Firstly, "Labour of Love".  Well named as it took Jennie 4 years to hand sew this quilt.

 

 

 

She also showed her quilt called "Melinda", a quilt for her Grandma, Melinda, who had breast cancer. Jennie said" Despite surgery and being "patched up" she was still beautiful in body and spirit. The background is pieced in blues and greens to represent water as at times a cancer diagnosis can feel like drowning.

 

I had seen this quilt in NZ, didn't know it was being entered in the Show, so it gave me a lovely feeling to see it and know who made it!

Another NZ Quilter is Juliet who blogs as 'The Tartankiwi'.  She gave the heads up about the quilt she had entered in the FOQ this year, called "Hunted".  Lovely to see the actual quilt, Juliet!

 

 

 

So many other quilts I loved, so here are a few of the ones which caught my eye:

"Bullrushes" by Hilary Beattie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Walled Garden, Broughton Castle" by Australian quilter Dorothy Clee:

 

 

"Never Again" by Anne Hill:  This was a wool applique quilt.

 

 

"I want to live here" by Laura Armiraglio:

 

 

"Rainbow Lorikeet" by Helen Godden:

 

Lots more, but I need to finish here and get to bed, ready for tomorrow, my last day at the Show, looking at everything I haven't yet seen.

 

 

 

 

Strawberry Patch

I have made another baby girl quilt using 4" Crumb blocks interspersed with a variety of pink fabrics.
I made a similar quilt earlier this year and I have used the same design again, this time featuring a lovely strawberry fabric I bought in Spotlight. Originally I used the fabric as the backing for another baby quilt but as I had a sizeable chunk left I decided to showcase it in this new quilt project.
A few 4" patches of Strawberry Fabric and used to make the outer border too.  Still got some left which should be enough for another border in a similar quilt which I am sure to make sometime soon!

Some of my favourite Owls fabric in this photo - only scraps of this fabric left now!

 

Another of my favourite fabric in several blocks in this picture.  Can you see the pink fabric with little French buildings on? I bought this for a quilt I was commissioned to make a couple of years ago.  Again, only scraps left now!

 

 

 

I was awake early this morning so I was able to assemble the quilt and it is now ready to quilt. 

The owls fabric I had in my stash (not the Riley Blake owls in the 4" squares) was bought at last year's Festival of Quilts in Birmingham.  It wasn't very wide, nearer 40" so I had to add a pieced strip vertically. I think I will hand quilt this as I did the last one.

 

 

This was a fairly quick project as the Crumb blocks were all in my tin and it was just a matter of choosing the ones I thought were most suitable. My pink scraps were all stashed in the same drawer, so it was quick to cut the required 4" patches from them.

 

 

Here's the whole quilt.  I love it!

As The Beatles said: "Strawberry Fields for ever!"

 

Seeing stars

I have been making some more Wonky Wishes Star blocks (Bonnie Hunter style) and today I sorted them into piles according to the neutral fabric I used for the centre of the star.

I now know how many more blocks I need to make in order to have enough for another Girl's baby quilt.

Here are the piles of blocks:

 

Some piles have 3 blocks, some 2 and there is the occasional single star block.

 

Here are two lots of 3, showing the different arrangements of colours using the same centre star fabric:

 

 

 10 more blocks needed.  I love making these blocks - very satisfying use of scraps.

 

Linking to #scraptastictuesday

I ran out of time yesterday when I was writing my blog post about one of the baby quilts I am working on.

I have also taken a new photo of the quilt showing a little of the pretty backing fabric.

 

I have probably had the backing fabric in my stash for a couple of years.  I am using it for this quilt as it is a very pretty white and pink fabric with cute little cat faces in red, just dotted here and there. It is a good quality cotton, very smooth and silky so I think it's perfect for a baby quilt.

 

Fabric details: lizzie house for Andover Fabrics 2013.The fabric was a perfect size for the backing (no piecing required!) and I even have a sizable chunk leftover for future baby quilt projects.

 

I am linking this "quilt in progress" to #scraptastictuesday on mrssewandsow.blogspot.co.uk

In the pipeline

I have had a busy week sewing - really enjoyable and productive.

I know of three babies due: one in August, one in September and one in October. None of the mums-to-be want to find out whether the baby will be a boy or girl so I am hedging my bets by building up a stash of baby quilts!  I have two "Boy" quilts already stashed away so I am in the process of making three "Girl" quilts and another "Boy" one if I have time.

I was recently given a copy of the Lynne Edward's Book "Scrap quilts to use it up" and a pattern in there prompted me to make this baby girl quilt.

I have given the top a deep top border as I will applique the name of the baby on there, like I did with my last finished quilt for Harry.

I also have two more quilts in the process of being made. One is ready to sandwich and the other has 34 out of 48 Wonky Wishes stars made.

On Thursday a few of my Patchwork Group delivered the 2 Group quilts to our friend Win who is now in a nursing home.  She was so delighted, she was absolutely speechless and almost in tears! 

Here's a close up of part of the appliqued quilt we made for Win's daughter who is also in an nursing home.

 

Everyone in the group made at least two of the blocks, each one is different. It is such a colourful quilt and we know it will brighten up Eileen's room.  Both quilts were hand quilted, each of us doing some of the quilting.

 

So lovely to know quilts you have made are appreciated. This morning I had a free pedicure from Jo (I made Harry's quilt for her to gift to her friend's baby) as an extra Thank you.  Jo really was delighted with the quilt so it was smiles all round.

Animal Parade quilt

 

This is a much better photograph of the quilt I made for baby Harry.

Taken in the garden, my lovely husband holding it up for me.

The colours are very true to the actual quilt colours - the indoor photos in my previous post are not bright enough.

Baby Harry's quilt

I was commissioned by my friend Jo to make a baby quilt for her friend's baby. They knew the baby would be a boy and Jo wanted a quilt in a similar style to one I had made for her baby James.

This was James's quilt which I called "Hello World":

 

Jo asked if I could include some elephant fabric. I didn't have any of the yellow or grey little elephants fabric left but I did have another one with elephants on a turquoise background so included it. I liked the addition of the pop of turquoise, it seemed to make the greens and yellows of the quilt stand out more.

I made the quilt a few weeks ago, leaving the name strip blank and hand quilted as far as the top area.  Baby Harry was born on 21st June.  His Mummy and Daddy took a few days to decide on his name but I have now completed the quilt adding his name and a star either side.

 

 

Harry's Quilt which I have entitled "Animal Parade".

 

 

I hope to see Jo on Wednesday so I can hand over the quilt.  Hope she likes it!

 

 

A close up of the name panel: