Festival of Quilts: Fabric

I realised that I didn't post the one piece of fabric that I bought at the Festival of Quilts:

I bought this cute flower fairy fabric from Exmoor Craft Fabrics.

I'm not completely sure what i'm going to do with the fabric yet. Maybe some cute notebook covers? I couldn't resist getting it though.

Festival of Quilts: Favourite Quilts: Part 4

I was hoping to post something else other than another favourite quilts post but I've been too busy working on my thesis, so for the third post in a row, here is my last post of my favourites from the festival of quilts. This time, amazing miniatures. Remember, all the images are clickable for bigger versions.

Just a Bit Crazy by Karin Saga

Small Wonders by Sue Bibby

Sand Between the Toes by Sandra Goldsbrough

Colours of the Seasons by Jacky Hopkin

Sweet Dreams by Margaret Morris

Wildwood: Spring and Autumn by Sandra Wyman

Mission: Impossible 2 by Kumiko Frydl

(this quilt won "best in show")

I hope you've enjoyed seeing my favourites as much as I enjoyed seeing them, and remembering them. There are a heap more photos of quilts here if you want to see some of the other quilts that I took photos of at the show.

Festival of Quilts: Favourite Quilts: Part 3

This is the third post of my favourite quilts from the festival of quilts. It doesn't have a theme as such, it just contains quilts I found particularly interesting or inspirational. You can click on the photos for bigger versions.

All over the Trails from Queyras by Sophie Kirchhoff

My Genes - Your Genes by Martine Schumann

Dandelion by Svana Egilson

Evanescent by Nancy Goodens

Pegs by Mary Mayne

Festival of Quilts: Favourite Quilts: Part 2

Here are some more of my favourite quilts from the festival of quilts. This time, inspirational quilting. You can click on the images for bigger versions, which I highly recommend, the quilting is, as I said, inspirational. Again, you can click on any of the photos for bigger versions.

Black Saturday by Thelma McGough

Natural Selection by Helen Cowans

Phoenix Rising by Ferret

White Gold by Philippa Naylor

Tree Quilt by Phillipa Naylor

A Future and a Hope by Lynne Quinn

Festival of Quilts: Quilt as you go talk

The second talk I attended at the festival of quilts was about quilting your quilt in sections by Marti Michell. I decided to attend this talk because although I've heard of some of the methods and even read about some of them. I was still a little confused about how exactly it works and the different ways to do it. So, I thought attending a talk and seeing examples in person would hopefully make it all a bit clearer. Thankfully that was the case, and I learnt about a number of different methods to quilt in sections.

The first method was a "7 layer seam" method, where you join the quilted sections together adding in an additional 'joining strip', which is kind of like a binding that covers the join on the back of the quilt.

The second method was a "5 layer seam", which you can use if one of the edges you're joining has no quilting past the 1/4 inch seam allowance. This kind of join leaves you with a single seam line on the back (rather than a strip like in the previous method) which could just look like a pieced back.

The third method we learnt about was one you could use if you quilt has a large centre panel and then borders around the edge. Basically you make the centre panel and quilt it, and then she showed us a method to attach the borders and the batting for the Borders at the same time in a way so you can hardly tell that it wasn't all done as one big quilt. She called this method "border control"

The last method we learnt about was a "low fat" method, which you can use to quilt a quilt where you've already assembled the entire quilt top but don't want to have to try and fit the whole thing under the throat of the machine. Basically in this method you lay out the whole quilt to baste it but you only baste a strip down the middle (she used the middle third as an example but I guess you could do more strips than that depending on the size of your quilt). After basting the middle you cut off the batting from the un-basted sections and quilt the middle. This means you're only having to fit the top and back fabric in the machine throat and not the batting as well, which should make it more manageable. She then told us some ways of re-joining the batting so you can quilt the outside sections.

If you want to learn more about these methods Marti talked about, they're all detailed in her book.

MMQG members: I'm planning on having a go at little versions of these techniques before I forget what she told us so if there's interest I can try and show you at a future sit and sew day.

Festival of Quilts: Favourite Quilts: Part 1

I have uploaded photos from the festival of quilts and added the information about them in the captions. You can look through them here. I will also be posting some of my favourite quilts from the festival here on my blog (click for bigger pictures and more info about the quilts).

First up: impressive piecing.

Striated Stars by Rebecca Collins:

Audaciously Embedded (in spite of my better judgement) by Alison Davies:

Life in a Kaleidoscopic World by Solvi Lorentzen Krokeide:

Punto Optico by Manoli Lozano:

Winter Reflection by Susan Carr:

I'll post some more of my favourites later.

Festival of Quilts: Amy Butler Talk

The first of the talks I attended at the festival of quilts was "Inspirations with Amy Butler". I really enjoyed this session. I didn't know much about her background before the talk, so it was interesting to learn about the structure of her company and how the different things she makes come about.

Her company only has a few employees, which seems amazing considering how much exposure she has within the sewing world. She also has creative control over all of her designs, with all the fabrics and patterns etc being her design, and her staff being there to provide technical support to get things done.

She also works very closely with her husband, who is heavily involved with the business and by the sounds of it is the driving force behind most of not all of the photo shoots of her stuff.

She also gave us a sneak peek at some photos and videos of her newest stuff that will be released later this year.

While I didn't come out of this talk with any knowledge of any new skills or anything like that, it was a very enjoyable and informative hour and if you're somewhere and Amy butler is speaking I highly recommend attending as shes a fantastic speaker.

Quilt Show Lectures...

I'm officially going to the "festival of quilts" on the 20th and 22nd of August! I've bought tickets for the following three lectures:

Inspirations with... Amy Butler
Spend an hour chatting, laughing and getting inspired with American fabric and interiors designer Amy Butler. Get an inside look at some fun, behind the scenes imagery and stories chronicling Amy's latest creative adventures through her travels and studio life.

Machine Quilting in Sections / Quilting as You Piece (Marti Michell)
You’ll learn the difference, the similarity and how both methods can help you finish your quilts on your home sewing machine! If manoeuvring a big quilt through that little opening in your sewing machine is overwhelming, this lecture has answers! There are always new quilts and tips.

The Batting in Between (Nancy Goldsworthy)
Battings, battings and more battings! They are flat, fluffy, polyester, cotton, and all manner of blends. How can we possibly choose the best one for our current project? Nancy is here to help you separate the urban legends from the facts about today’s battings. Learn what the correct batt can do to enhance all of your quilting projects. From bags to bed quilts, find the best batt for the job. There will be lots of sewn samples so you can compare for yourself. Door prizes too!

I'm VERY excited!!

Quilt Festival - Oct 09

Amy at Park City Girl is hosting another Online Quilt Festival. I discovered the last one after the fact and had a great time looking through the links at people's quilts, so am very excited that it's happening again that that this time I can join in.

I'm going to show my couch quilt, as I'm still very new to quilting and it's the first full size quilt I've finished. (images are clickable to see them full size)

The quilt is a hodge-podge of different fabrics, all left over from other things, and is backed with some navy flannelette.

The squares are 4", and the quilting is very basic - stitch in the ditch.

It lives on the back of our couch and has seen a lot of use over the winter months, which was exactly what it was intended for.