Customer quilt

This quilt went home today, so I can now share it. It was one that made me think. I didn't get to talk it over in person with the owner, but she had sent me a clear set of instructions. I like that, even though it is also a bit scary as it shows they have quite good ideas of what they want.

The backing is a lovely satin sheet, and the customer mentioned she would like this quilt to be reversible. That didn't bother me too much as I often think that quilts could be reversible even if that wasn't the idea.

She was also looking for a pattern that was organic, and not too modern.

The first two pictures show you the back of the quilt as I eventually did it, but this wasn't any of the first ideas I had.

My initial idea after reading the instructions was to put feathers all over the quilt. That would give a nice organic look to the quilt, and would be fine as a wholecloth on the back. Then I looked more at the front of the quilt. That pattern is a lot of work, could I really put an all over pattern on it. I concluded this wasn't a quilt I could work on without more information so I called the owner and talked about it.

A lot of the credit for the end result has to go to my customer. She picked up that I wasn't quite happy with the idea of the all over pattern. We were both happy it would have been OK, maybe good, but was it the right answer. She sent me off with freedom to talk to the quilt again and come up with something that would really set off the piecing.

We are both pleased with the result. The pictures don't pick up all the texture the quilt has. It has a range of different fabrics, and now it also has very defined raised areas. Of course I couldn't see the back until took the quilt off the frame. I had been a bit worried that the points where the quilting lines met wouldn't look right but it did come out fine. The thread on the back is a slightly darker shade than the fabric which means it does show up quite strongly, which is why I was concerned. If it worked I felt it would give a better wholecloth, but of course if it went wrong it was going to be very obvious. Yes those little feathers did take a very long time.

Holiday Starrfire - Quilting Video

While I was quilting Holiday Starrfire we took some video to show how it was done. We remebered it today and got it uploaded so I can now share it with you. I would like to point out that my ruler technique isn't the official one. I don't have a stitch reglator on the machine so I just reduce my speed a little and cheat. It works for me, at least with that ruler it does (yes this is one of the ones I was trying to remember the name of last week). I suppose I really use it more like an extra guide and bump the foot with it.

The needle of the machine isn't moving as slowly as the video might suggest. If you look carefully you will see you appear to get several stitches for one stroke of the needle. This is caused by the machine running too fast for the camera to pick up the motion. The camera also wasn't keen on some of my fabrics. I guess they are kinda bright and high contrast.

Anyway, enough of me jabbering. Hope you enjoy the video. If you would like me to film more let me know and I am open to (clean, quilt related) suggestions for future videos.

Quilts UK 2010 - Malvern

This is the first of our quilts at Malvern this year. I say our as this one isn't mine, it's Tet's. This is his first quilt which was made to test my book. He had promised to edit the book for me, and boy did it need it. Ever seen the unedited writings of a dyslexic? He has. After reading and correcting a large section of the book he realised he what he was doing wasn't really going to check the book. He needed to follow the instructions too. Of course if you follow the instructions in a quilting book you should end up with a quilt, and as you can see, he did.

Next we have Leather Star. I nearly didn't enter this and even after doing the forms I very nearly forgot to send it. I had the boxes sealed before I realised I was missing a quilt. I'm very glad I spotted the error, as it came third in it's class. It also collected a judges choice from Susan Briscoe.

I was amused to find that she had checked it was really a quilt when judging it. It is. It has one layer of 80/20 wadding in it and a batik backing. I am very keen for all my quilts to be true quilts, as traditional as I can get them whilst pushing the boundries.

I was also pleased to see she really gets leather. Her comments are in the image below. I think the risk is part of what I really enjoy about working on leather. It is scary. Really really scary, but very wonderful too. I know one day I will have a piece go wrong, and I will have to throw it away, but it's a risk I am happy to take. I love working on leather and I can't wait to get to the 4 half hides I have just waiting for projects for the NEC.

Remember you can click on any of these images to see a bigger version. You should be able to see the detail of the stitching and read Susan's comments if you do.

I suppose this is a good point to comment on judging. I used to think that maybe judges really didn't know who's work they were looking at, but as I've gone to more shows I know I can recognise a lot of peoples work. I also know I am terrible at remembering names, so if I can do it other people can. I have only judged one quilt show. It was a fantastic experience and very enlightening. You really can judge impartially if you want to. A good judging form helps too, as it gives you a list of technical items you can consider and give marks too. It can mean that a quilt you really don't like gets an award based on technique. I'm not going to tell you it's perfect or always fair, but it's possible.

I have now had the chance to talk to several judges, and that seems to be about what they say as well. Some say it is harder to be impartial about techniques they really dislike, but they try. Do they know who made the quilts they are judging? Yes, often they do recognise the style. However sometimes they can be mistaken and yes, sometimes they haven't read the book a given quilt has been taken from and not credited too. Does this mean I agree with all the judging decisions? Nope, and I doubt I ever will. Especially where the judging sheet is used (yes I did just say they are a good idea). A quilt may score well on the items on the sheet, but not push my buttons an overall winning quilt. There is still luck here. I've heard more than one judge say how thrilled/disapointed they were by which quilts came out on top in a category they had judged. The judge doesn't always know how the results will pan out. I have a suspicion it also depends on how much they need food drink and a loo break as well but I can't get anyone to confirm or deny that. It also has a lot to do with why I place a very high importance on a judges choice award. It is the one award they realy do have absolute control over.

I did notice this year a lot more people were giving full credit to the books, patterns and kits that inspired their quilts. I can't begin to tell you how much that means to me. It's lovely to see so many quilters sharing the glory with everyone involved it the quilt. I hope it will continue, and that it might inspire visitors to the shows to try similar patterns.

Here is my quilt based on a kit by the Starr fabric company. They call their version Starrfire, and as I made mine for a holiday after the Festival of Quilts last year mine is Holiday Starrfire. I had been looking at the kit for a while but talked myself out of buying it because it was too small. It was only supposed to be a twin. I have a kingsize bed and I wanted a quilt I could use. Eventually it got too much for me. I had to have the quilt. I bought the kit and worked on ways to extend it.

Everywhere I have black fabric there was supposed to be a raspberry fabric. I only had the correct amout of that so I couldn't use it (it is in the binding of the quilt). I thought balck would make the colours really pop and I had a lovely batik that would suit the hand dyed fabrics. The internal sashing bars are about twice as wide as they should have been, as is the narrow black border. The quilt should have ended there. Fortunately there were enough scraps of the bright fabrics to make another narrow border, then I was able to add another wide black one. I think the coloured strip stops the quilt looking too much like it has been extended. Without it the outer border would have been huge.

I had intended this quilt to go straight on the bed. Tet felt it aught to see the sights before it settled down, so if you missed it at Malvern keep an eye open for it at Sandown next year.

I don't know if you remember, but earlier this year, this quilt was penalised for bad applique technique. I think I am supposed to satin stitch over the edges or something, which would ruin the effect, so it isn't going to happen. Anyway, that trophy and the pink ribbon are the award for machine applique! Yay! At least some judges get it. I suspect you can guess how pleased I am. The red ribbon was a complete surprise. It's a judges merit award. I had no idea I had won that and actually thought it was a ribbon for the judges choice and had been put on the wrong quilt. Not so. It really was a bonus extra.

Finally Greek Fossils. As you can see from the picture, this quilt was well recieved. The trophy is the Fran Jones award for stand up quilting. It's a very special award to me. Fran went out of her way to get me started in longarm quilting when she was really ill. I hope she would approve of the quilt. I know she used to check every quilt the judges chose for her award. One of the red white and blue awards goes with it. The other ribbon is for coming 2nd in the large wall hanging category. However below the ribbons is the other (to me) really important award. It's Judges choice from Sandy Lush. I am so flattered when hand quilters appreicate my work, especially wholecloth quilts. I think the more traditional hand quilters get wholecloth quilting in a way that misses most others. For her to say it's good means a lot to me.

This post has got rather long, and I've now finished lunch so the frame is calling. I am so desperate to get the quilt on the frame finished. I want to start working on my leather that I bought last week, but I can't until I clear some more customer quilts. ARGH! It's good to be busy, it's great to be able to pay the bills, but I want to play now.

Customer quilts

Well as it turns out customer quilt. Unless you were very quick. It turns out the pictures of the other one weren't very good. About typical I guess.

At least this is the quilt I liked better. I returned several quilts over the last couple of days. It's been good to be back quilting properly after such a long break. I am now desperate to get my customers quilts done ASAP. This particular quilt is a sample for Patchwork Corner, and I suspect will be on disply at Quilts UK Malvern in just over a week.  I really loved working on this quilt, although I wasn't sure what Jenny was going to think of it. It is very different to most of the quilts I have done for her, much more me. I was very relieved to find she did indeed like it and has laready started putting the binding on.

The other quilt I tried to post a picture of wasn't quite so sucessful. Jenny wasn't sure about it. She doesn't dislike it but it wasn't really working either. It turns out to be the colour of the thread I used. She had wondered if it was the design (a new all over I was working on) but having seen it on another quilt I returned today realised she does like the pattern. It's very hard to get the thread right every time. I am not too concerned, it's a sample and she isn't that unhappy with it, but it does hilight the need talk over every detail of important quilts with your longarmer. In particular I like to know about dislikes. If there are things I have to avoid it helps to know. For example I know Jenny likes the quilting thread to blend with the quilt, and if in doubt head for grey or brown. I have other customers who like loud thread so they can see what they have paid for :) If I don't know which sort of person I am dealing with there is a lot of scope for error.

Fortunately today I had plenty of happy people and I managed to make a start on my Rhapsody quilt. I've finished the quilt on the frame and now it's time for Rockband. Yes I'm sad. So sue me.

It 's quilted!

Well it's finally off the frame, which is a relief. I can't believe how much I have learned from this piece. I am pretty happy with how it came out especially as it was intended as a proof of concept. I am happy the the other designs I have planned will work and that they do need to be on this scale. Hmm, that's going to take a while, but I am looking forward to doing them. I won't be starting until the zippers are on though. The quilt has also gained a name, "Greek Fossils". It seems a good enough name (and the quilt hasn't argued) so that's going to stay. I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to working on something where you can see your progress as you go along and on a minute by minute scale.I don;t know how many hours went into this, and frankly, I don't want to.

I've just realised the larger picture doesn;t show much detail, the in progress posts do. Try this one, or this one.

Still progressing

As you can see I am making slow but steady progress on this quilt. It really isn't something you can rush (and I have tried believe me) it will be done when it is good and ready, not before. I think I might be half way now, but I'm not certain. I guess I won't know for sure where I am until I've done :) As you can see it has got to the point where the area I want to work on in one lump is bigger than I can see at one time. It's more frustrating when I am working on something free form, I can only see it in my head with no guides at all to compare to. It's taking more faith than most of my work, and I usually have some sort of map to work to, but hopefully it's simple enough to come out OK when it's done.

I got my copies of Down Under Quilting in the post. It's a good feeling magazine and I am really thrilled with the article in it. It is also available as a very well thought out online magazine, if you feel like saving some trees and postage.

Backside and progress

Two pictures for you tonight (this morning?) This first one is the back of the quilt that has spent the day occupying our bedroom. It is Phoenix Rising, now happily rolled up and almost ready to ship to Road to California. I love the back of this quilt because not only can you see the quilting but you can see that is was put together feather by feather, and where the feathers overlap so does the quilting. Of course when the quilt is at shows very few get to appreciate it, especially as the best of the quilting is high up. If I get a chance I will try and photograph the whole of the back, but it won't be for a while.

Here we have the quilt I am currently playing on on the frame. As you can see the feathers are growing and the background filling. It's slow work and I am now on my third needle. I haven't been breaking them just wearing them out. I also realised today that there is as much thread in this small pieces as I usually use on a double bed quilt. Given I have only quilted a piece about 12"x80" that's a lot of thread. It's also very hard work, lots of very small movements with a big machine is good exercise. I'm glad I will be seeing my osteopath next week. I can certainly tell I am learning a lot with this one, which is good as the next is already planned and I think I have the fabric to make it too. I will have a break between this one and that though as I will need a rest after this. I have several customer quilts that will be a nice change, and even pretty detailed work is going to seem quick for a while.

Current insanity

This may be one of those seemed like a good idea at the time type projects. In fact the time it seemed like a good idea might have only been the bit before I started but who knows, it may get better. There are some good points to this project, the main one being it is smaller than the one I really wanted to make. With the amount of work involved that could be claimed as a sure sign of good sense except the only reason it isn't bigger is that I couldn't find a bigger piece of fabric that would work with the idea. This is also the second take, I've already had to unpick once. Boy am I glad I found the video on skinning a quilt. It was a lot easier than any other method I've found.

I am also very pleased to be trying this idea. It is hard work and I am having to learn new skills, but it is so much better than just sitting thinking about it. It will be interesting to see how much I improve over the course of the project. I am hoping when I need to quilt the focal points I will have improved enough to make a good job of them. I have at least learned one thing I don't like so won't repeat somewhere more prominent. Now I guess I should go and do a bit more quilting on it. Tomorrow I won't get much quilting done as I will be teaching 10 others to do it down in Putney. I am sure we will have a lot of fun, and I will get to rest my shoulders.

It's off the frame

This has taken far longer than I would have hoped but it's finally off the frame. I can't recommend pulling the muscles around your ribs if you want to be able to freehand quilt. Still by plugging away a little at the time it's done and I am quite pleased with it. It could do with blocking really as it has a lot of dense quilting, but I haven't anywhere to do that. I am going to try letting it hang for a few days starting from damp and see how that works. I think one of the problems is it still have some wash away stabiliser in it so it's a bit stiff in some places.

I've just draped it over my bed pillows and all but I think you can see the general idea of it. The white areas are cutaway applique. I don't like putting white over black as it tends to come up grey so I thought it would be better to put the black over the white. I worked pretty well I think. It also meant I needed to use pale wadding rather than black for this quilt. I would have felt safer with black but I really wanted sharp white.

The figure is entirely in thread as are the letters. You can see the figure better on the back of the quilt (second image) it's about 60" head to toe. I love the effect of the stitching, but it is very hard work to do. I'm not to fond of making all those freehand zigzags. Still as proof on concept it's come out very nicely.

As I said this quilt will only ever be at one show. The Festival of Quilts, England 2009. So if you do want to see it in the cloth that's where you will need to be. I can assure you there will be a range of new and odd (if not interesting) pieces from me and I am sure many other artists will be slaving away as speak to fill the show with the best work around.

I'm really looking forward to having the gallery to be able to show a whole collection of work. The problem is I have more ideas than I can possibly make in time. I keep trying to tell myself there will be more shows in future, but I want it all and I want it now :) Some things will never change. I will now take a break from my work to do a few customer quilts then I will be back at another mammoth piece. I really should learn to work small.

Progress

I thought you might like an update on the quilt I showed you at the beginning of the week. I've finished the image now and I think I am about half way through the background now. As you can see I've gone with feathers. It's a fun fill and it scales very well to fit in around the main image. I'm not planning to quilt the areas within the image so it should stand out a little bit. I'll have to see how it sits though when I have the rest of the quilting in place.

I have to admit that hasn't gone as fast as my projects usually do. That's because I've been catching up on household jobs too. It may not be everyone's idea of a good holiday but having a week when I didn't have any bookings has been amazing. I've been able to quilt and do the jobs that have been bugging me. Tomorrow though I am back teaching. I will be doing beginners machine quilting at Patchwork Corner. It's always an interesting class, and hopefully it will be a gentle reintroduction into working outside the house.

Sneak peek

It's no good, I just have to share something I am working on, and well I don't think this will spoil the quilt for everyone. As you can see this is something a bit different for me. It's a bed quilt for a collector so it will only ever be seen at this one show. I would describe it as almost a wholecloth, and it is definitely an evolution of the things I have been doing in my wholecloths. In this quilt I am trying (and so far succeeding) to make the quilting an image rather than a pattern. It's slightly nerve wracking as I can't really see the image as I work. This is a problem I run into a lot. The human eye isn't good at seeing the whole picture when it is this close to so large a work. Also the stitches are very dense in some areas which requires focusing there for quite some time. I find after doing that my brain makes that area look out of proportion. I know it is an optical illusion but it doesn't help me see how the image is working.

On the other hand I am really enjoying having large blocks of time to spend on one of my quilts. I've had two days of preparatory work for this quilt. Drafting the patterns and preparing the top. Now I am getting to quilt it is a wonderful feeling. I really love this very free but artistic type of work, even when (or perhaps especially when) it throws up lots of challenges. You may have realised that I am working from the middle of the quilt outwards. On a longarm this makes things a lot more tricky and time consuming, but I need to be able to fit the rest of the quilting around this image so I have to start by getting this into place. There is also the small matter that I haven't entirely decided what the rest of the quilting will be, so this gives the quilt a chance to talk to me.

You're probably aware that I don't make samples of techniques. I try thing straight on a real quilt (often a show quilt as it's the only time I have to play on my own work) and if it works, great if not I have to start again. Well this is almost a sample even though it is also a live show quilt. It is allowing me to try out a technique I will be using in a much more complex and time consuming piece. From what I've seen so far I am happy that the second quilt (from the graphic novel Cancertown) will work out very well. So much so I am thinking of using it on another quilt as well, which I had completely different plans for before today. The fact that it looks like this piece is going to be so important in my future works yet will only be seen once at the festival made it the obvious choice to put on my blog. I really am missing being able to share all my quilts as I work on them, but I think it will be worth it in the end.

Customer Quilt

This is a quilt I finished a while ago, but that I really want to share. I had just watched Myrna Fickens DVD Just do it - Freehand Design. I had also spent a play day with a fellow longarm quilter. So my head was full of new ideas. I'd had this quilt a while waiting for it's backing to come in, and I had completely forgotten what the quilt looked like, so it was a surprise when I got it out.

Somehow I had been expecting a much simpler pattern so now I had to come up with something that would fit this quilt. It's a scrappy quilt and that inspired me, scrappy quilting. I know Myrna did say not to put all the patterns on one quilt, but why not on a scrap quilt. So that's what I did. If you clock on the pictures you will get bugger images and can see some of the patterns I used.

The thread is a bright variegated so it blends in and pops up quite randomly. All the stars are unquilted so they pop up from the background. I've used a continuous line pattern. I like this as it gives a similar feel to stitch in the ditch, but with a bit more interest. It is also a lot quicker to do so I can charge a lot less for it. It is especially good for stars as it somehow seems more starry to me.

In the background I think there is some of everything. The concentric circles was a new one for me. I've tried several of these echo type patterns and I don't like any of them. This one was unintentional and I love it. It's already appeared on a couple more quilts! Funny how these things happen isn't it.

The leaves with curly bits are very much from Myrna's DVD. I've looked at the little curls other quilters do and I hadn't thought that I was accurate enough to make them delicate. However with the confidence from Myrna I gave them a go. I was pleasantly surprised. I can do it. Also if I use my normal curls in with leaves they look good too.

Something else I tried for the first time here was a rolled fern. I've done quite a few curled feathers, but not any of my spiky ones. perhaps starting with one 2" in diameter is a bit odd, but it worked. It does show how well many quilting designs scale. I could imagine this one curl on a kingsize, it would look great.

So I hope you've enjoyed taking a close look at this quilt. I hope I will be able to take some full pictures of it once the binding is on. It will also be coming up as a class at Patchwork Corner, so if you fancy making your own keep and eye on their site.

I might be winning

Or I might be fighting the quilt to a draw. It's a close call. Yesterday my machine wouldn't play. Not at all, I guess I managed an area about the size of both hands in 6 hours. Not what I need with a deadline looming. This morning wasn't a lot more promising. However a good clean, re time, new needle and different thread colour got me going again. Dunno how I will fare when I go back to the lilac, ask me tomorrow. Still I have now made reasonable progress. I can believe this quilt may be finished in time, by the skin of my teeth. It's going to cost though, I expect to spend the weekend flat on my back of in warm baths. The very dense quilting is hard physical work. I also finished the second book today, and started the third. I am keeping to Heinlein as long as I can. So far I have listened to "The cat who walks through walls" and "The door into summer" and now I am on "The moon is a harsh mistress". If I need a fourth book, and I suspect I will, I either have to re listen to something or move to a joint project "Variable Star". It's going to be a tough call, but without the books I will go nuts doing this quilt, so I will be listening to something. For now though, it's bed time. I can't quilt anymore, my hands are shaking too much.

Promised Photos

I finally remembered to take my camera down with me and take some pictures. I know they don't show much, but, well, you will just have to wait to see it all. I am so thrilled with how it is going. I don't think the pictures really show how well it is going, but isn't that always the way. You will just have to take my word for it that it is much better than the last attempt. If nothing else that was so bad I never shared any pictures of it. Not even with close friends, but this one I am quite happy to show off.

I don't know how many of you will remember. I had a rather old computer. It didn't really like me doing anything with pictures including uploading them here. It had a fit if I suggested looking at a video. Well a while ago I got my new machine, and you would not believe the difference. I can now just take some pictures and upload them. It's just so easy now. I suspect it is going to take me a while to get used to how easy it is now.

Two person quick quilt.

Last Thursday Robin decided to come up to the shop with me. He then was foolish enough to show an interest in a new range that had just arrived and before I knew what was happening he was making a sample up.

The quilt was done in a very leisurely six hours. with many distractions, well it did coincide with my Thursday night class. Most of the quilt is made from cheater fabric, which is why it is quick. It would be even faster if you weren't fiddling to try and get a perfect number of half square triangles on each side. The pattern that comes with the fabric is for a 3x3 center section, but we decided that was too big for a sample, so had to recalculate everything for the 2x2 size.

The only real patchwork in the quilt are the corner stones in the wide border, and if you are making up this pattern and you want the narrow green stripes in the border make sure you cut the squares half an inch bigger than the pattern say to. We added the outermost red border to help preserve the the green strips as well, we needed some where to attach the binding. The binding is really clever, it is made up of the half square triangle fabric you have left over. When you cut the strips for the inner border you can only use alternate rows as you need to leave a seam allowance, but the scrap is the perfect size to turn into binding. It looks really good too.

Friday I quilted it. I didn't enjoy the meander much, I never do but we like to use it on things like this as a lot of people can do it easily and it shows what it will look like the way they are most likely to choose. Personally I would rather have done tight 'Decadent swirls' but that is just me. In the half square triangles I got to try out a continuous curve pattern. It went pretty well for a first attempt, and inspired me to try a small cross hatching in the middle of the faux applique. It's a good effect and I suspect I will now use it again. Having a grid stencil does make it a lot easier.

The corner stones did stump me for a while but eventually I settled on continuing the border design with quilting. To do this I traced the leaves from the border fabric onto Golden Thread paper and added extra motifs as required. I then pinned the paper into position and stitched through it on the line I had drawn. It's a nice way of doing a fancy quilting patter with a fabric like this as there is no artistry required just trace things to fill the space. Each corner has a different design and I suspect if you don't know how it was done it would look pretty clever. The best part was that the design was simple enough to do as a continuous line on three of the corners.

If you would like to see it in person this quilt will be on display this Saturday at the Patchwork Corner Christmas Party.

Back in the blogging world

Well I have finally finished the quilt that has been talking up all my time for he last week. It was a great learning experience, but I didn't entirely appreciate it's timing. My tip is not to use recycled shirt fabrics for both the front and the back of the quilt. Using it for one seems top be fine, but both is 'interesting' to quilt. If you really must then I suggest a large needle and a very fine thread. Still the owner seemed very pleased with it and I think it looks great. Hopefully after Christmas I will be able to show you it.

Other quilts I have been working on are these three for Project Linus. I'm afraid I can't tell you who made any of the tops, I don't know, but if they are yours do get in touch and I will happily credit you.

I take tops and backings and supply the wadding and the quilting. I like doing Linus quilts as I feel more able to play on them. I know that the most important thing is to get them finished although I have to admit I have had these a long time.
The first is a t-shirt quilt and I didn't feel it wanted much from my quilting. I did use a bright variegated thread to add some life to the quilting, but I kept the design simple, 'decadent swirls'. I used this pattern on the nine patch quilt as well, as my quilting wasn't going to show.

The blue and green quilt I really had fun with, this is the sort of top I love to find in my Linus package, what a fun piece to quilt. I tried out some new (to me at least) border patterns, and found some a lot easier than I expected. I was especially pleased with the one in the dark blue outer border, of course that doesn't show up too well. This design is one I developed from a design taught by Deloa. In the plaid border there is a similar but I think less well executed design. I was less sure of it so I put it somewhere it wouldn't show so much. I don't think the small half squares show up too well either, and I was very pleased with them too. They have a different style of flower petals on each fabric but share the same center. I hope the new owners will get a lot of of them.

If you would like to help with making quilts for Project Linus you might like to join the Quilt-a-thon at Patchwork Corner next year. We will be quilting for 24hrs to make as many quilts as we can. I will be at the shop with my longarm to get tops finished, and we will be using every quick technique we can think of to turn scraps into quilts. All help will be welcome, even non sewers can be put to work ironing or making tea. If you have scraps you could donate those would be appreciate too. It will be held on the weekend of the 6th July, more details will be posted as we get closer to the date.

The quilt that sang

I guess it proves that being nice can get you the information you need. I was getting very worried that this quilt wouldn't tell me what it wanted, and the only guidance the piecer had was quilt the not blocks. Hmmm OK. I could see what she meant but I could not see how to achieve it. Part of my problem was I wanted to do something slightly different on the two styles of 'sashing'. The solution to that was the key to me working out what I needed to do.

I have feathers on the brain at the moment, and I have been wanting to do some sort of interwoven feathers. I knew I wanted to leave the diagonal lines of white squares unquilted so I had to find an alternative to the spined feather. I went for what I think of as inside out feathers, they are really just two half feathers without a spine, but they do hold the coloured section down leaving the white squares to leap up.

To make the secondary blocks clearer I wanted to join them very solidly, so the sun or flower was ideal for the job, I felt that the dense center helped hold the four corners together. I was really pleased when the owner said it is a pattern she uses when she quilts, see the quilt did know what I should be doing.

My Sandown Award Winners

OK I only got second places this year, but I am quite pleased that half of my quilts picked up awards. I still think the best quilt I've made in a while is the pink one, I think that would have won the longarm award, but possibly not the bed quilt. Who knows, it isn't going to happen.

Still 'Wait' has done really well for me. Not bad considering how bad the bearding is on it. I did consider just binning it when the bearding happened, but for some reason I stuck with it. I guess that was the right answer as it was juried into Road to California earlier this year and has now taken second place in the small wall hanging category. I am really very pleased that people can see past it's issue to it's good points. I haven't decided yet if this is it's last outing, watch this space.

I really like the rosettes this year, I love purple anyway and having a matched pair is fantastic. Thanks Kate for suggesting a way to carry them without creasing or crumpling them. I did decide they were too big to wear as earrings.

This was really very unexpected as 'Red and Blue Tulips' took second place in the long arm quilting normally there is only a first place for that category. Maybe this shows we have more longarm quilters entering these shows. I hope so, we do need to show people what can be done.

As you can probably tell this quilt is from Ricky Timms Caveman quilting technique. It is somewhat modified after I saw someone else make one like this. I like the slimmer version much better than the wide one. The quilting I actually did sometime ago. In fact I think it was one of the first things I quilted after Myrna Ficken fixed my machine for me. I had so much fun doing this. I didn't really think it would ever end up in a show, it was just something to play with, but as I liked it I thought I would share it. I really didn't think this one would win anything. I guess it just goes to show, you never can tell.

There is no quilting on the little squares, so they stand up compared to the rest. The quilting mostly matches the fabric it is on. The red and blue background quilting does just slightly overflow onto the black borders. I only realised tonight that this is another background fill that I really like, and I think this is the only place I have ever used it. I think I need to have a play with it again and see if I can remember how I did it. It's quite an odd feeling look at your own work and having no idea how you did it.

I guess really I should take it with me to my class tomorrow. Maybe one of my students will be able to recreate it for me. Oh that would just be too funny.
I am glad I am not easily embarrassed.

On the subject of very cool background fillers, I was sent a link to this site today. Do go and have a look, she has done a wonderful piece of machine quilting. It is just what I needed to look at to inspire me to come up with some new patterns. Thanks Sally.

Sandown Photographs

I've finally had time to look at my pictures and to take advice on what I can and cannot do with the pictures I took at the show. I can't show pictures of other peoples quilts, unless they choose to send me them, which is a shame as I have pictures of most of the award winners and many of the others as well. On the other hand if you had a quilt in the show and would like my pictures of it, do let me know I will be happy to give a copy to the owner of the quilt.

pictures of the patchwork corner stand as well but I forgot, sorry. I'll start with the two that didn't win awards. This will probably be my last picture of Che as he has now gone to his new owner. He seemed to be very popular with the visitors to the show, which surprised me. I didn't expect I am however safe to put up pictures of my own work from the show, so that is what I will do. I did mean to take such acceptance of him, but I am thrilled by it.

'Tropical Punch" was seriously out classed in it;s theme category. The standard of work in the Batik Beauties category was stunning. There were two quilts there I would have loved to bring home. I was especially keen on the second place quilt, with it's huge leaves. I like the fact that the quilting changed colour to match the fabrics, the effect was stunning. I can't find my show guide right now to check who's it was, sorry. On the subject of show guides, the artists statement. I spend hours fiddling with my statements to get them down to the word count, I think it was 30 words for this guide, yet many of them are far longer. The longest I found was well over 100 words. So am I being stupid editing mine down to the limit. Often there is a lot more I would like to say but I don't because the rules say 30 words, yet they happily put in much longer statements. Any suggestions?

As you can see I still failed to get a good shot of the whole of 'Tropical Punch'. I think this time it was entirely human error. It looks to me like I wasn't holding the camera still. You would think that would be something I had learned a long while ago, but no I keep making that particular mistake. Still it probably gives you an idea of what was going on.

The close up pictures seem to have done a bit better. This first one shows one of the upper glasses. The background quilting on these was in a red-yellow variegated thread. I was thinking about the sunsets I saw in Cuba. They were red and orange and sort of spiky at the edges. There was often thin bands of cloud and the ends of them looked a lot like horizontal flames.

I guess I should mention that these are entirely pieced, I had a lot of people ask if the straw was applique, but no it isn't. The whole things is done by free cutting and then shuffling the pieces to get the different colours in the various places. The cutting did take a lot of thought to get the details I wanted, but the design came to me as soon as I read the entry form some months ago. I like the pieces that come to me complete. The parasol and wedges of fruit have their details quilted, with a silver metallic thread. I also used silver to quilt the crushed ice in the cocktails. Of course I was forced to go to a cocktail bar to research the look of crushed ice. It helped add detail to the glasses.

At one stage I had considered putting applique leaves around the border. I gave up that idea as too over the top for the design, I wanted something more subtle. I settled on quilting the leaves on in a variegated thread. they do slightly overlap the panels, as though you are looking through vegetation. If I were doing it again I think I would want to find a way to make the leaves more distinct. I still don't think applique is the answer, but maybe some way of making the quilting stronger. Thicker thread, double threads or maybe even bobbin work. Who knows, but I doubt it will come up again so it is rather academic.