Festival of Quilts

OK, so I promised to share more about my visit to the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham (UK). Now where to begin? I realize that my photos can't really do the quilts enough justice, and there were so many, that I only managed to photograph a small percentage of them. There were beautiful traditional quilts and wonderful art quilts and everything in between, so what I share here are just a few glimpses of things that caught my eye. The information about the quilts is from the show catalogue.

First out is this one by Annette Morgan, called "Pay the Ferryman" including image transfers, screen printing, foils and paint. I was not surprised that it won the Art Quilt category.

Here's a closer look.

This 3 D quilt which includes felt and batting which has been shrunk to distort is the winner of the Contemporary Quilts category. It is called "Squaring Up" and is made by C. June Barnes.

Here's a closer look. I had to clasp my hands behind my back to avoid reaching out to touch and try to discover how it had been made ;-)

"A Future and a Hope" by Lynne Quinn was just amazing. It is her City & Guilds final quilt and includes a "storm at sea" pathway and "light" to shine the way.

"Rainbow Colours" by Kathy Unwin.

Nina Lise Moen made this winning entry for the Quilters' Guild Challenge "Summer in the City".

This quilt by Rosalind Gregory and Joan Herrington is called "Where have all my shirts gone?" and is made from recycled shirts. Inspired by Taunton's lost shirt factories, red braces and citiscapes.

I find myself drawn to quilts with buildings on them, whether they are homes, cityscapes or industrial plants, modern or historical, I'm always drawn in. Here's another one, "A New Leaf" made by a group of four called Fusion.

Alicia Merrett's "Mapping Earth" falls right into the same category. She had a similar, larger version, in the Art Quilts group as well.

I was amazed to learn that this one was made by a young quilter, Harry Lyons, age group 9-11! I wouldn't mind having this on my wall :-)

Among the stunning work displayed was also this one made of Kaleidoscope blocks. The maker, Solvi L. Krokeide, calls this "Life in a Kaleidoscopic World". It was originally made for a Norwegian contest themed Lonesome, Twosome, Threesome"

Ferret has made another magnificent quilt. It is called "Phoenix Rising" and includes stunning feather quilting. I have noticed her work at previous festivals and you her blog is really worth checking out.

The miniature section had quite a few stunners as well. This tiny gem "Bluer than Blue" by Betty Ball can't have been more than 7 x7 " - makes you wonder what she has done with the seam allowances!

Some fun and colourful pieces to round off this little tour of the festival. This is "A Rose Garden" by Hiroko Fukawa. It consist of square in square blocks of different sizes, quilted circles attached to the edges and lots of tiny yo-yos scattered around. Really fun and whimsical!

I finish with a detail of Ylva Ugerup's quilt "Fly out Swedish Ladies!" from her series of quilts where she portrays women who have made an impact on the world. I don't know enough about Swedish history to tell you who these two are, unfortunately, but I love all the details and handstitching in her work.

Out and about

Thud! That's the sound of me falling back into real life. I've had a little holiday, and my head and my credit card are still reeling from the experience - which is just the way it should be, isn't it? My trip to London included the much talked about and still relatively new, Antrophologie store. I loved this piece of furniture (I don't know what to call it, "storage unit" is perhaps the best description?) Love those drawers of different sizes and colours. That's just one of many things to see, and the visit was well worth the effort. I don't think the storage unit was for sale, but I found plenty to spend my money on anyway. More about that later.

No visit to London is complete without a walk through Covent Garden. I must have passed these shops hundreds of times before, but this time the colour combinations grabbed my attention enough for me to snap a picture. Teal, purple, black and that brown/greyish colour (taupe?) of the brick wall - I must try to use that in a quilt one day...

My trip also included a trip to the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham. Sorry for just including this teaser for now. My computer has been giving me a lot of trouble since I returned - some kind of issue with the screen driver, apparently - and I haven't been able to upload all my pictures yet, but there will be more. I promise! There were so many wonderful things to see and hear and buy that I have lots to tell you. I just might have to get myself a laptop first if I can't get this d**n thing to cooperate...

Holiday Mode

A complete lack of routine lately as I settle into some blessed leisure time. I've been sleeping late, pottering about, visiting with friends, drinking wine, reading, watching a lot of movies and working some stitches now and again. It always seems to take some time to settle down and "learn" to relax, but I think I'm there now... Lest you think I'm a complete sloth, I'd better show some glimpses of the goings on in the wings. I'm working on my Workbook Wednesday quilts, experimenting with different edgings and adding embellishments. 

I mentioned reading - here are a coule of the books I have lined up: I've also been going through a lot of old quilt magazines up on that shelf, sorting through and discovering that there is actually very little worth keeping. Patterns I loved ten years ago seem hopelessly dated now, and most of the mags are on their way to new homes.

And surprise, surprise, there's also a bit of knitting going on! This is the Bitterroot shawl, pattern from Knitty.  I'm using the loveliest, soft, smooth Malabrigo Lace for this, a new acquaintance, but one I'll definitely use again - I love it! I actually started this around Christmas time, but it has been languishing in the bottom of my craft basket for a while - about time it resurfaced!

Then there's also this old friend, my Frost Flowers and Leaves shawl from A Gathering of Lace, knitted in Alpaca from Drops. I have been knitting on and off on this for quite a while now, but it is slowly, slowly getting there. The colour is a soft bluish grey, which is quite appropriate for frosty leaves, I think.

So there's a lot to do - when I feel like it - but I'm getting quite good at relaxing too ;-)

Gothic Tote

As this seems to be more of a Look-what-I-made-blog, then one about my everyday life, here's something I've made! I needed a big tote for my holiday and have had this pattern, Anna Maria Horner's Multi Tasker Tote, in wait for quite some time. I first spotted the bag on Anna Maria's blog before the pattern was published, and was lying in wait for it to becom available, and ordered it as soon as it was, so why has it taken me so long to actually make it? Well, I quickly realized that I didn't have any fabric I could use as I usually buy only half-yards, except for backing fabric for quilts. This pattern called for one yard of the outer fabric and two yards of  lining fabric. I have always loved Jane Sassaman's fabrics, and I knew that their large scale would be perfect for this bag. When I discovered that her Prairie Gothic line was available in home dec weight, even better for a sturdy bag.

Having tried to get to grips with the construction of the bag by just reading the pattern, I was a bit confused as to how it would all come together, and as I didn't refer to the pattern while ordering my fabric, I got it wrong and ordered two yards of the outside fabric and one yard of the lining fabric instead of the other way around, so when I finally got round to cutting it, I had to do some quick thinking. I ended up with cutting the pocket panels from the same fabric as the outer panels, and just using the lining fabric on the inside. You can only see some of it where it is folded over at the top on the sides of the bag. This doesn't make the pockets stand out as much as they were supposed to, but the bag is still nice enough I think. I'll just have to remember this the next time! 

The lining fabric is the same as on the outside but in a different colourway - much easier to find things inside, that way! Since I only had one yard of the lining fabric, I had to stich an extention to one of the pieces, so the pattern  of the fabric doesn't quite add up inside, but who's to know? Only you ;-)

To add a bit of extra colour, I used some purple Flora and Fauna with bees on the underside of the straps, keeping to the theme of bugs from the other fabrics.

Having mentioned that I was a bit confused by the pattern initially, I must add that once I started cutting and sewing, the instructions were very clear, everything went together very well, and I had no problems in actually making it. Some things you just have to see and do in order to understand. So I will definitely make this one again. It's a big and roomy bag with wide comfortable straps, four outside pockets and one inside (which I divided in two - making a separate compartment for my cell phone) - perfect for my holiday shopping jaunts I should think!

The blue quilt

Another finish. Actually this quilt has been finished for a while, but it is such a long quilt that I have been struggling to find a way to photograph it indoors and yet show the whole thing.

The idea for this quilt began while I was sorting through my stash last winter and realized that I had an awful lot of blue fabric that never seems to go with anything. I had amassed a lot of fabric with planets, stars and clouds while planning the Space Quilt and the Kite Quilt for two of my nephews, but as they never were used there, they just stayed on in my stash. When visiting my sister on a cold winter's day and seing my 13 3/4 nephew trying to cuddle up under a tiny knitted afghan, I realized that he has outgrown the quilt I gave him some years ago. I totally get that cats, bats and toads might be a bit uncool when you're almost 14 and your friends come around! So, the idea of a new quilt was planted. The colours of his favourite sports team are blue and orange, so my blues could be put to good use. I purchased a length of orange polar fleece (I asked for two meters, but it turned out to be 2,2 meters) and used that as a size guide. I pieced the smaller scraps randomly together into blocks of different sizes, cut some of them up and kept some, adding strips of different widths, and whole lengths of fabric in some instances I also dipped into my favourite blue fabrics to bring it all together. It was all very haphazard, but I enjoyed the process. Eventually I ended up with ten full-length strips and stitched them together.

The quilting is very simple  - just some horisontal lines of variegated red/orange thread to hold it all together. And there you go: I've got room for more blue fabric in my stash and my nephew will have something to keep him warm through next winter. A win, win situation, wouldn't you say?

Hang ups

I was trying out my new hanging system to photograph this quilt. It's needs a bit of improvement, but at least I know where I'm going with this. I got a friend of mine to buy a curtain wire from IKEA. It is similar to a photo wire, which is what I really wanted. The curtain wire is meant to be stretched between opposing walls, and should be completely taut. Since I needed a shorter piece of wire to stretch above a sliding door, however, I couldn't get the wire taut enough, because the wall fastening bits had to be bent at a 90 degree angle. A photo wire has different wall fastenings which allows for tautening even if it is stretched accross a shorter stretch of wall, so I'll have to look for one of those. 

The wire is placed at the top of the wall and therefore rather discreet so it can hang there permanently. There are little clips to use for attatching the quilt and let it hang straight down. If I push the sofa away, I get enough space to take a picture of the whole quilt. As you can see, it sags a bit, but with the right wall fastenings I think I can make this work and make it easier to photograph quilts in winter (or when it's raining during the summer, which seems tobe most of the time...), when I have to do it indoors.  

Phinished and photographed

Here it is, the quilt I've been working on lately. I started out with a "Designer Roll" of Erin McMorris fabric (like a Jelly Roll, but not from Moda, so they're not allowed to call it that, I suppose...). I also had some yardage of that lovely tree fabric, but not enough, so I added a couple of other cream fabrics. One of them is showing up as very white in the photos, but the contrast isn't quite that bad in real life. The pattern is from Quilt Sampler Magazine, only I made it a bit smaller.

I used a cheap, textured fleece blanket for the backing. The stripy effect shows through to the front, and I'm not quite sure I like it. I also had a lot of problems when quilting it, with the thread breaking, especially in the border, and I'm told that this often is the case with cheap fleece, so it pays to go for better quality, I suppose. It was a question of using what I could get locally this time, and I loved the colour, so I went with it, in order to get it finished. I made this for my sister who had to have surgery recently (Thankfully everything went well and she's on the mend). It served as a way of keeping my self occupied while worrying about her, and now, finished, it will be a reminder to her that it is OK to slow down and take a nap now and again.

I used the offcut corners from the snowball blocks to make some flying geese and with some borders made from the scraps I had a cushion to go with it as well. These are really fast to make and so easy, I wonder why I don't do it more often. I used a turquoise binding as I was all out of purple, but I think it works OK. It probably helps that it is my favourite colour...

So there it is, a little surprise gift for my sis, with love in every stitch, and I'm ready for my next project: a new bag for myself - because we all know that I need another one, right?

Something's going on...

Something's going on...
Originally uploaded by crafty mathea

I've been a lazy blogger lately, while spending time with family and keeping my sewing machine company.. Now for miles of purple binding and I'll have something new to talk about!

Meet my thread stash

Sew, Mama Sew are inviting us to show off our thread stash, so here goes!

I have been quilting for years, and have amassed a lot of this thread over the years. I mainly use neutrals for piecing (ecru, white, black, grey and tan) and stock up on these whenever I come across a good deal. I still have a lot of hand quilting thread from when I first started out, but rarely use it these days.

For machine quilting I use a lot of rayon, but I buy interesting thread whenever I see something I want to try, so I have sliver thread, metallics, cotton, linen - you name it... I also have a lot of cotton floss ( I used to do a lot of cross-stitch) and sometimes use that or perle cotton for hand quilting and embroidery.

I don't always match the colour perfectly to my projects. For backgrounds and large areas I generally go for matching thread, but if I sew a motif that I want to stand out, I might use a contrasting thread, or if there are lots of colours and I'm doing an allover pattern, I usually go for something that goes with all the colours, maybe some varigated thread. I prefer to use the same colour in the bobbin, but I often choose cotton thread if I'm using rayon for quilting.

I store my thread in these little drawer units from IKEA. They keep it dust free, and if I'm doing some kind of machine embroidery or something which involves a lot of colour changes, I can just pull out a drawer or two and bring them over to my sewing table for a little rummage. I have them sorted by colour and type of thread, so it is relatively easy to remember which drawer to look in.

My floss is stored in precut lengths threaded onto cardboard strips sorted by numbers. I keep them in a storage container (also IKEA) and have room left over for a plastic bag with bits and pieces left over from other projects.

I have some single skeins of silk and linen thread in there as well. These are precut and braided so they don't tangle. It's easy to pull a single thread from the braid when I need it.

For embroidery I also have some of these sweet little tins with magnetic lids. The each hold one ball of perle cotton, and the end can be threaded out through the hole in the lid and onto a needle. The magnet holds the needle in place for whenever I need it.

So there you go - I seem to have lots of thread, but I'm always on the lookout for more - how can you quilt without thread, after all ;-)

New quilt on the go

I have so many ongoing projects that I thought I might just as well start another one... I've had this Design Roll waiting patiently for me to come up with the right pattern for quite a while. It's from the Wildwood Fabric collection by Erin Mc Morris. Luckily I also bought some yardage of her sweet tree fabric from the same line, so I had a bit more to play with.

I bought the latest issue of Quilt Sampler recently, although I had told myself last time that I wouldn't bother with this publication anymore. I've enjoyed this magazine and the "visits" to different quilt shops for years, but I'm not all that happy about the changes in recent issues. There used to be lots more photos from each shop, and I'd spend hours taking in all the details, often getting ideas from colour combinations and quilts on walls just as much as from the featured patterns, but now they point you to their website for more photos. That's all very well, but to me, buying magazines is all about curling up on the sofa or in bed to browse at leisure, and I for one don't bring my computer to bed, so being able to see extra material online just isn't the same. Oh well, enough ranting there. I did find a pattern I liked anyway, so I shouldn't moan so much ;-)

I've managed to stitch all the blocks today in between bursts of housework. So in fact my home is pretty clean and tidy as well, leaving more room for sewing tomorrow - yay!
I wanted a lilac fleece backing for this one, to go with the purple triangles (Kaffe Fassett's Aboriginal Dots),  but couldn't find one in town. A quick online search and I found one shop that just might have what I needed, so I jumped on a bus after work yesterday and went to the mall on the outskirts of our town, rushed across a vast parking lot, took the lift to the right floor, burst into the shop and spotted the blanket I wanted right inside the door, grabbed one, paid hurriedly for it (and it was half price, yay!) and rushed back and caught the same bus back to town. Efficient shopping! :-D

Plans

Remember this? Inspired by this I have actually convinced myself to remove that ribbon and have started cutting those strips into pieces. More tomorrow...

Not completely by the book

It's Workbook Wednesday again, and I must admit I have been slacking off a bit here. There has just been so much going on, and then the next chapter in the book was all about fabric painting, stamping and so on. And I just didn't feel like it, you know. Sometimes that's just the way it is.  Messing about with paints is not where I'm at right now. And there was this bit of playing with metal foil, but no matter how much I tidied up, I just couldn't find that packet of foil I know I have somewhere. - Actually I just realized: it's probably in the box with the fabric paint, that I haven't looked at for ages, duh!
So, what's a girl to do? I've been dragging my feet a bit, but today I just skipped a few chapters, and got on with it - thread painting seemed so much more interesting at the moment. So that's what I did.
My twitter-friend in the margin here was happy to model for me, I hooped my fabric and started playing. And you know what? It was fun! Not the most perfect of little birds, I know, but I bet you could see that it was meant to be a bird, anyway...
I have done a bit of thread painting before, and the funny thing is that this time, when I was following instructions, I did what I normally wouldn't have done: I hooped the fabric without using tear-away or water soluble foundation. And you know what happens, right? There was a little voice telling me in the back of my head - "the fabric will pucker, the fabric will pucker..." and it did. But not too much, though - I will probably be able to straighten it out a bit when I quilt it. Never mind, this is supposed to be a learning experience, right?
Next I'll be trying bobbin drawing, something I've been wanting to try out for a while - I've even bought that extra bobbin case so I can fiddle with the bobbin tension to my heart's content, so it's about time I got round to it.
But not tonight - I have the two final episodes of Lost to watch, so I'm taking the phone off the hook and settling down in front of the TV. Completely Lost ;-)

Random

My sister's lilac tree tells me that it really is summer, though the temperature doesn't seem to agree...

Lot's of things to do indoors, though:

-Like hand quilting between these lines...

... binding to stitch, books to study...

...and interesting yarn (or ribbon?) to play with.

Authentic 2x4 finished

I've been away for a few days, and managed to finish my Authentic 2x4 sampler just before I left, but had to wait until today to get a decent photo of it. I see now that I should have taken the time to prep it a bit more because the edges look all wobbly, but they are perfectly straight, actually (she says smugly ...). Never mind, here it is anyway.

I used linen for the binding to keep it simple, because it's the 2x4 patches from the Authentic fabric collection that are the stars here. I cut a 4 1/2" piece of each strip from the Jelly Roll, 40 pieces in all, and used 1" sashing and borders, resulting in a 25 x 26" wall quilt. The quilting is done in straight(ish) horizontal lines. I just let the presser foot follow the seams, and added a parallel line the same width away from that. I chose not to stitch in the ditch, because I never seem to be able to make that look very good, and so to create some sort of rhythm, I decided against stitching a line through the middle of the patches. So I ended up with a pattern of two close lines, a wider space, two close lines and so on. (Very interesting I'm sure...).

I've had this piece of curtain fabric in my stash for ages. When it arrived I realized that the writing was too big for it to work in a quilt and the weave was too loose for a bag. It proved to be just the right thing for the back of this quilt, though, which just goes to show that I've been right to build a large stash, and that no purchases are mistakes, they are just waiting for the right opportunity to make themselves useful ;-) Will that explanation hold up in court, I wonder? Can I go shop for more fabric now? :-D
I will try to find some more of that fine linen, at least, because that had just the right weight to complement the cotton fabrics. Linen I have come across locally has just been too coarse and slippery, I think. Now, if only I could remember where I bought it...

Wednesday again

collage
Originally uploaded by crafty mathea

Just enough time before I rush off to blog about this: it's Workbook Wednesday again, and I managed to get round to creating a collage using a focus fabric. I chose the goldfish one (Heather Ross, I believe), and started playing with pieces of it on a suitably watery background and was thinking of adding more marine life when I remembered that my theme for this series is supposed to be "windows". Now I might stray from this from time to time (I tend not to follow rules for very long, even if they are my own...), but I chose to add one here, a round one, so I suppose it is a porthole really. I used some suitably seaweedy yarn around the edges, and there you have it - a fishy collage :-)