Malvern Show 2013

I had a great day on Saturday, visiting the Malvern Quilt Show with a group of quilters from my area.
Malvern is a great show as it is not too big and easy to get round all the quilts on display and check out all the traders, all in one day.

My favourite quilt of the whole show was this one:

 

 

Does my bum look big in this?

By Belinda Bajai, Rhondda, Mid Glamorgan

 

Just brilliant!  The zebras were so lifelike and I loved the perspective in the quilt.  They looked as though they were walking into the distance.

And a close-up of one of them:

 

 

 

Another quilt that I thought was amazing was this one:

 

 

It was called Friendship Quilt and made by Juliet Nelmes of Weston-Super-Mare

The hexagons were TINY! I would think they started as 1" and in the centre of each minute white hexagon Juliet had embroidered a white French knot as the quilting.  All exactly the same size and so perfect you would think they had been done by machine.
Quite unbelievable.  It had everyone gazing at it in awe and getting close up to examine the tiny hexagons.

 

and

 

are Close-ups of a marvellous foundation pieced quilt by Judith Wilson, Wheathampstead, Hertfordshire.
It was called On Green Pond and had a wonderful border of appliqued birds made from the leftovers of the batik jelly roll Judith used for the pond centre.

Many lovely quilts, all beautifully made.

One last fun Wall hanging to finish:

 

Aboriginal Animal Antics

Made by Lesley Davies, Par, Cornwall for her grandson who had requested a hanging for his room to remind him of his Australian holiday.  It has a wonderful feel of Aboriginal art. 

I was very restrained on the buying front.  I bought a piece of novelty fabric which I hope will be just right for the backing of a quilt I am currently putting together for my granddaughter.  She loves her scooter, ballet lessons and enjoys wearing fairy wings and dancing round the living room and is keen to learn how to skip with a rope so I thought this fabric was perfect:

 

So, this was what I bought on Saturday:

2.5 metres of pink girly fabric (the last on the roll), 1 metre of grey fabric with pink spots which I will probably use for bindings and a reel of variegated thread I can use for hand quilting.

 

 

A happy day spent doing one of my favourite things...................... gazing at quilts!

Another WIP finished

I finished another WIP today, my Rainbow Bands cot quilt, made using the Plumb Quilt design in Emily Cier's book entitled Scrap Republic.

I loved putting this WIP together and cannot understand how it was ever put aside and left in my sewing cupboard for over a year.  The Rainbow bands are made from scraps, arranged from left to right from paler to darker shades of each colour.

I love the scrappy borders using scrap strips of neutral toned fabrics.

The backing is a fabric called Oberon by Westmister Fibres, bought a few months ago when it was on sale at half price.  Hand quilted using a pale cream quilting thread.

The finished cot quilt measures 32" x 40" and is now being put back into my sewing cupboard but this time in the Finished Quilts Box!  Several babies due in the next few months so this is ready for a girl.

 

 

 

 

I just love these scrappy strippy borders as I think they make a lovely frame for the bright middle of the quilt.

 

So, another WIP finished and more scraps used up.  Fabulous!

 

And tomorrow I'm off to the Malvern Quilt Show.

 

Looking at Quilts in my Stash

I don't have a large Stash of Finished Quilts because normally as soon as I finish a quilt it is gifted.

However because of my plan over the last couple of years to finish WIP projects and use up scraps and stash fabrics, I do have a few hidden away. 
So I decided to sort them out and photograph them! A really interesting exercise as two of the quilts go back a long way!

So, a little Photo Gallery:

Starting with the oldest:  Christmas Quilt from 2002:

This is quite a large quilt, measuring 68" x 66" and was made as a Group Swap project in 2002.
Everyone made some blocks and we swapped with other members in the Group.  So long ago that I cannot remember how many blocks we each made. Then everyone sashed the quilt in a similar way but added other finishing touches of their own creation.
I choose to hand applique Holly leaves and I remember picking holly leaves from the garden to draw round for a template, so they are authentic Holly leaf shapes!  I added red wooden beads to look like holly berries.

Here's a close up of the detail:

 

 

 

Funky Farmhouse Quilt May 2004:

 

I entered this the the local Kenilworth Show's Handicraft Section and won 1st Prize.
I had not looked at this quilt for years and had forgotten how much I loved the quirky animals and the Farmer's wife appliqued figures.  Unfortunately I can't remember where I got the idea from and of course, no longer have the templates, although I could re-create them from my quilt.
It's a nice Cot size, measuring 34" x 48".

Then I discovered a Wallhanging (22" x 16").  No label, unfortunately, which is most unusual for me as I always label everything I make.  So I am not sure when it was made, several years ago certainly.
However I do know I made it at a Workshop held at The Bramble Patch in Weedon, Northamptonshire.  The teacher was Katherine Guerrier.  The Wallhanging includes Prairie points, the first time I ever made these.  I have not made Prairie points since although I have always wanted to edge a quilt with them.  One day!

My Wallhanging:

 

Unfortunately this photo has turned itself round and I don't know how to rotate it.  The black border should be down the lefthand side!

 

I also sorted out my finished baby quilts and put them together ready to choose one for the next baby due later this month.  Here they are, all together:

 

Baby quilts in my Stash:

 

I love the splash of colour they make, all snuggled together.

Whilst I was sorting out my quilts I also pulled out a pile of Bento blocks that were part of a Quilting Bee which I took part in a couple or so years ago. As it's pouring with rain (well, it is Bank Holiday Saturday!) I cannot go the gardening I intended so I am going to arrange my Bento blocks into a quilt top.
I have loved my trip down Memory Lane this morning, it has brought back some happy memories.

 

 

 

 

Ta da. Another Quilt finish

Another Quilt finish for 2013!

This time a quilt based on Gwen Marston's quilt, String Quilt with Sashing and Corner Stones, one of the 20 projects in her lovely book Liberated String Quilts. The first Gwen Marston book I bought after I did a wonderful One Day Workshop with her several years ago in New Zealand.  Such a great quilter, super teacher and full of good humour.

Instead of String blocks I used Crumb blocks which worked very well.
As I said in my previous post this quilt is scraps or re-worked fabrics, apart from the
Green Tea Kona Cotton solid I used for sashing. I hand quilted in the ditch along the sashing lines.

A close up of some of the blocks, showing the Cornerstones, sashing and hand quilting.

And the finished quilt:

It measures 40" square, a nice Baby Quilt size, I think.
Another quilt to stash away in my box of finished quilts.

WIp turned into a finished Quilt top

Continuing with my New Year's Resolution to use up fabric in my stash and complete WIPs that were languishing in my sewing cupboard, I had a very profitable afternoon yesterday.

About a year ago I started to make a Plumb Quilt from Emily Cier's book Scrap Republic.
I made four of the six rainbow bands, sorted out the fabric for the other two bands and also some neutral fabrics that I thought would be suitable for the scrappy borders.  And then, for a reason I can no longer remember, it was put into a plastic bag and popped into my sewing cupboard.

And there it stayed until yesterday.  It only took me 3 hours to turn my WIP into a lovely little quilt.  I increased the width of the borders and the completed top measures 41" x 33", so a nice Baby Quilt size.

Here are some photos:

And two close ups of part of the rainbow bands and scrappy borders.

 

 

Many of the rainbow strips are fabrics I have received in recent Swapbot Swaps, the rest oddments from my scrap bags.

So I can honestly say that this quilt top has cost nothing to make ( apart from the cost of thread).

I was extremely pleased with the top; the neutral scrappy borders really show the rainbow bands off well.  My husband made my day when he told me he thought it was the best quilt top I had ever made.  He said it reminded him of an abstract work of art!  I love it even more knowing that!

Tomorrow I am going to a new Patchwork Group where there are tables to use for sandwiching your quilts. So I am taking my Rainbow Bands top with me so I can get it ready for quilting.  It will be lovely not to have to crawl around on my sewing room floor to do this job!

In a moment I am going to cut the binding for my current quilt, the Crumb quilt Cornerstones one.

I hope to machine the binding on so that I can take that with me as well tomorrow.  Who knows, I might even have time to start to hand sew the binding on the back of the quilt as the group meets for about 3 hours.

A productive weekend.  I hope you have been equally happy with your sewing output this weekend.

 

Two finishes

I have finished two small  projects today.  Firstly, the second of my very similar HST Crumb block Preemie Quilts.

The one I finished today is the quilt on the left, with the yellow binding.   Here it is with a similar one I finished recently.

I had a great Swapbot partner in the last Swap I did and I wanted to make her something extra.  So today I finished a little needlecase, based on a design created by nanacompany.  This time, instead of a button closure I have used two lengths of thin ribbon as a tie.  I think I prefer this idea as it doesn't detract from the appliqued strawberry on the front of the needlecase.

Here it is, opened out to show the front and back.

 

And here it is, fastened with its ribbon tie, ready for use.

 

Quilt finishes and Can it be Spring?

The last few days have been busy on the sewing front as I sewed the binding on another little Crumb blocks Preemie quilt, finished quilting and binding the Busy Traffic Baby quilt and turned 49 of my finished 4" Crumb blocks into another Baby quilt top.

Here's the Preemie Crumb Quilt:

 

I paired the Crumb blocks with 4" Kona Cotton Solid ( I think the colour is Chartreuse) to make the HSTs. Only had to finish handsewing the binding to finish this little quilt.  I have another very similar waiting to be hand quilted when I need a little hand project to keep me busy at a Patchwork Group meeting.

 

Then, as the twin boys had been born in New Zealand I needed to finish the second Baby quilt. 

I completed the hand quilting and then decided to use the same Regatta colour of Kona Cotton Solid for the binding that I had used for the border. That is now finished and I'm very happy with it.

 

Busy Traffic Quilt

 

Earlier this year I took part in a Scraps Swap on Swapbot and the pale vehicles were one of the scraps I received.  I used fusible webbing and cut out around the different vehicle shapes to create the blocks. I had the dark blue background vehicle fabric in my stash so made more blocks with that fabric.  Then I jiggled the wonky sized blocks into strips by adding various depths of extra borders.  I love the bright I Spy effect of the quilt.  I have decided this quilt is for baby James and the Little Owls Quilt is for baby Edward.

Here are the two quilts, side by side just waiting for me to embroider labels to sew on the back of the quilts.  Then they can be posted to NZ.

 

 For Edward and James

As always when I am sewing I create more and more little Crumb blocks and my tin was overflowing.  So I have used 49 of the blocks to make another Baby quilt top.  All finished, ready to sandwich ready for quilting.

Here's a Sneak Peak:

The pretty Cornerstones fabric was also one of pieces I received in the same Scraps Swap parcel.
The pale green sashing is the Green Tea Kona Cotton solid I recently bought from Fabric Shack.  Only a 3" strip left!

But I have also been out and about making the most of a couple of days of lovely sunny weather.  Still not too hot, haven't reached double figures for the temperature yet, but it is pleasant to walk around without a woolly hat which has been a permanent fixture on my head for months and months and months! It has been great not to battle icy winds that practically cut you in half!  Let's hope this is really the start of Spring and not just another flash in the pan.