Park City Girl: Blogger's Quilt Festival - 13 days and counting

Park City Girl: Blogger's Quilt Festival - 13 days and counting

Happy Quilting Christmas

Well somebody has to be first with the seasonal greetings and I've been in Christmas mode today.  My English-pieced wreath is coming along nicely, I'm waiting for my beloved to make me a hoop frame for it, and I've just ordered all ZandS's stock of "Benartex-IBelieveInSanta" to go with the Christmas jelly roll I bought at Harrogate.  I wanted 3 yards and they had 3.75 yards left so I decided it would be daft to risk it!  It's gold with shadowy snowflakes, yum.  
Today is a beautiful, sunny, autumnal day in Lincolnshire - not very Christmassy at all but it's no good waiting until December to think about these projects as I've learned from experience - the Advent wall hanging I made for my scrumptious grandson last year was a very close call!! 
I thought I'd make a few changes to the appearance of my blog too, please let me know what you think :)

FMQ

 I've just been given a link to this blog by Brenda on BQL and it's fantastic.  25 year old US quilter, Leah Day is posting a new FMQ design each day for a whole year, she's on Day 41 so there's plenty to see already and plenty to look forward to.  She has full details, including the inspiration for the design, and tutorial videos.  It's an impressive undertaking and a great resource.  Thanks Leah.
http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.com

Log Cabin Challenge

The BQL challenge this month is a Log Cabin quiltlet made up of twelve small blocks.  I've never done Log Cabin but have always admired it, there seem to be some many variations to be achieved by use of colour and position.
I've developed something of a phobia about this block but yesterday I finally made my challenge quiltlet.  I admit to cheating as I only made four blocks, and of a larger sixe than in the BQL challenge but I decided to make mine following Lynne Edwards' instructions and in the fabrics of my ongoing sampler quilt so that I didn't have the added challenge of choosing colours!  I chain-pieced my block but I understand Log Cabin can also be foundation-pieced.
I'm pleased with it, so here it is for your consideration:

Crafty Time Out

This is my craft group's stall at the Stickford School centenary celebrations this weekend. We had a great day, got lots of people interested in what we go in our group, "Crafty Time Out", and even raised some money for the group by selling items we'd made. In the photo are Jane who makes exquisite teddy bears and dolls' houses and Jill who is a brilliant cook (to die for lemon drizzle cake) as well as doing tapestry.  That's my "arty" quilt on the wall behind and also my sampler quilt behind the table to the left.

Great Global Christmas Swap

I've got my partner for the Global Christmas Swap and have already had an email from her, Sal, in Australia. 
Sixteen more northern hemisphere partners are needed for the swap so why not sign up with Fionamarie, it'll be great fun.

Free Jellyrolls

I adore Jellyrolls, I think I might actually be addicted to them.  I met a quilter at a show a few weeks ago who was totally unaware of them and I had a wonderful time explaining and enthusing and she immediately rushed to a trader's stall and bought one for herself - does that make me a pusher?!
Trudi's just told me about a great jellyroll giveaway at the Missouri Star Quilt Company You need to go to the website and have a look at all the wonderful ideas and patterns, go now...

Elm Creek

Oooh, our lovely postman brought me "Elm Creek Quilts" and "Return to Elm Creek" this morning.  Lots of lovely quilt patterns by Jennifer Chiaverini and Nancy Odom linked to Jennifer's 'Elm Creek Quilters' novels and beautifully illustrated.  I wonder which one I shall start with?

Yellow Brick Road

 

This is the quilt I made using the Yellow Brick Road pattern from  Terry Atkinson.  The pale "cloudy sky" fabric is a bit too much contrast and I used a polycotton mix for the backing which I won't ever do again but I enjoyed using the design and it is a good holiday souvenir, those manatees were gorgeous.

Great Global Christmas Swap

This sounds like fun, take a look and sign up at

http://www.fionamarie.com/greatglobalchristmasswap.shtml

Sampler Quilt 2

 

These are my latest blocks for my king size sampler quilt that I'm making as a BOM at Dayspringer Quilters.  The Drunkard's Path took a whole session as I was determined to follow Lynne Edwards' "proper" method.  I do have the instructions for a cheating method which I'm also going to try as I think I may make a Drunkard's Path border for the quilt.

Great Northern Quilt Show, Harrogate

I would recommend the quilt show at Harrogate, it is not so large that you become overwhelmed but there is a good selection of exhibition classes, good workshops and demonstrations and a fair range of traders. I found the catering a bit pricey and another time would take a picnic, there are plenty of chairs and this is what a lot of people seem to do. This first picture shows the airy hall where the quilts are displayed and that there is plenty of room to enjoy them (this was taken on Sunday in the early afternoon).

I took a lot of photographs but have removed them from this blog because of some concern about copyright.  If anyone can advise me I would appreciate it but my favourite quilts were:

"Autumn Stars" by Joyce Dawe of Hertfordshire who was exhibiting a selection of her "Quilts From My Princess and The Pea Bed". The star design is enhanced by applique within the block and I loved the colour graduation.

"Sea Fever" by Chris Waddleton of Somerset, a machine pieced and quilted design inspired by the John Masefield poem and I thought it was beautiful.

"Circles Of My Mind" by Glenda Smith of North Yorkshire, the result of a circle challenge set by Priory Quilters. I thought the colour combinations were lovely and the quilting was superb.

"Uplifted" by Sheena Norquay of Invernesshire, inspired by the colours of autumn leaves and the turquoise sky. The quilt includes printing and machine quilting and I thought it had a great sense of movement.

"Blue French Braids" by Trudi Wood of Lincolnshire, machine-pieced and machine-quilted. The blending of peaceful colours immediately caught my eye, before I spotted that the quilt was by Trudi!

"Nocturne" by Dilys Roberts of Cheshire. The colour combination is lovely and the pattern is Winding Ways which is on my "to do" list. The quilt was machine-pieced and hand-quilted and was gorgeous.

OMG I spent how much?!

As well as the opportunity to see, close-up, some wonderful quilts, a quilt show is, of course, a marvellous chance to do some shopping. Here are the things I bought at the Great Northern Quilt Show at Harrogate on Sunday, they are, obviously, all essential and not one of them is fattening or unhealthy! Firstly, two lovely jelly rolls, one in soft greens and the other in Christmas prints. Using jelly rolls (forty strips of 2.5" x 44" co-ordinated fabrics) is a great way to make a quick quilt top - ideal at Christmas time, and the green one was just too lovely to leave behind!

Then I needed some notions and found a trader with good prices, you could tell because the stand was surrounded with quilters like bees round a honeypot! I bought a frame as my current sampler quilt project is going to be "quilt-as-you-go" and I think this will be ideal. I treated myself to some gold-eyed needles that I hope will run more smoothly than my current ones and I bought a twin needle which I'm quite excited about using following the machine quilting workshop I did with Ruth Jarman.

Books!! Who can resist the book stands at a quilt show, not me! This is the selection that tempted me. And no, I didn't forget to get fabric. These are for a purple and orange project, possibly Winding Ways but I'm not sure yet, although I can see from the photograph that I'll need more light fabrics whatever I do. All, in all a good haul!

Great Northern Quilt Show, Harrogate

I'm off to Harrogate http://www.grosvenorexhibitions.co.uk/Quilt/Harrogate/GtNorthern-withticket.html tomorrow, watch this space for news of what I'm tempted to bring home!!

Bountiful gifts and a new convert

I spent the weekend with my parents and Mummy is starting to have a bit of a sort out...I am the delighted recipient of these jars of buttons, aren't they gorgeous? At the moment I'm just admiring them, all colour-sorted in their containers but I do think I might have a go at making some jewellery with some and will definitely use some in a future quilt project or two.

The next goody bag was from my sister who has just holidayed in Florida. She brought me home this wonderful selection of fabrics and I have a plan for a rainbow quilt in square within a square blocks. I started talking about quilting with her and it turns out that she has ALL of Jennifer Chiaverini's books (which she buys in America) and was willing to lend them to me. Here they are in my sewing room, I started the Quilter's Apprentice last night and am on chapter 9! Jane had bought herself some fabric and wanted to know where to start with an English pieced-patchwork project so she has begun working on Grandmother's Flower Garden with hexagons and promised to start her own quilting blog. She found lots of helpful information on the internet including Wendy Harbaugh's very helpful tutorial at http://sunshinescreations.vintagethreads.com/2007/03/tutorial-on-english-paper-piecing.html all in all, a very successful weekend, plus, hopefully Jane and Mummy are going to the Quilt Show at Hever Castle this weekend while I'll be at the Harrogate show and we're intending to go to the forthcoming V&A exhibition together if we can find something to amuse the menfolk!!