Great Northern Quilt Show - The Quilts (1)

On Saturday I went to the Great Northern Quilt Show in Harrogate. It's probably my favourite quilt show as I think it's just the right sort of size. One of the main selling points for me is the way they organise the stalls and the display quilts. I find at the Festival Of Quilts you walk through the entrance/exit and are faced with row upon row of display quilts and hoards of people trying to get in/out and it can be difficult to really spend time looking at them because of the crowds. At the Great Northern Quilt Show, they are all at one end of the hall so it's much less busy.

I took some pictures of my favourites and thought I'd share them. I have tried to get details of the makes but apologies if I've got anything wrong. Some of the photos of the details weren't as clear as I'd hoped.

The first one that really caught my eye was this Spiderman quilt by Marion McFarland. This stood out because Orla will point out Spiderman and Batman whenever she sees them!

Amina's Alphabet Quilt by Jenny Kittos caught my eye because of the minion.

I loved the Baltimore Hearts and Flowers quilt by Sue Davies

Of course having an Orla, I had to take a photo of Orla's Quilt by Valerie Arthur.

I find at quilt shows that I'm always drawn to the traditional quilts. However I noticed on Saturday that I'm also drawn to the geometric quilts too. It must be because I'm a mathematician!

Mardi Gras by Sue Davies was just stunning both in design and colour.

I had to take a picture of Shades of Autumn by Lilian Harris for the quilting. It's a quilt made from log cabin blocks but quilted with circles. The photo doesn't do it justice but the quilting really made this quilt!

Heart and Home by Margaret Watson (quilted by Emma Galbraith) was one of those quilts that I'd love to hang on my wall to make my home feel cosy.

Another geometric one I was drawn to was Following Star by Fiona Macaulay Davies

Midnight Splendour by Lilian Harris caught my eye because of its lovely borders. It's a 3D quilt but the picture doesn't show this very well.

I'm going to do the others in their own post as it's more about the quilting.

Countdown To Christmas

It's September, it must be time to start talking about Xmas projects. I love Xmas and can remember waking my parents up at 5am with the excitement! Luckily, as excited as they are, my children haven't yet woken us that early. Hopefully this won't be the year they start.

Ever since I started sewing/crafting, which is relatively recently (about 6 years ago), I've wanted to make lots of homemade Xmas decorations and presents. Along with a gift for my aunty (obviously can't reveal that just yet) I'm making quilts for both my girls. Erin's is already finished but Orla's isn't started yet. I have a break from studying after my October exam so it is scheduled in for then. I'll be doing a simple design like Erin's as I think it's fair to keep them about the same so it shouldn't take long to make.

I try to add something every year that gets brought out every year. In previous years I've made snowflake tree decorations and stockings. This year is no exception. I will be making advent calendars for each of us this year. I have been inspired by many different designs on Pintrest and similar sites. The main issue I have with the ones I've seen is the lack of space to display four similar calendars. However I'm planning on making 4 quilted rectangles that will have each person's name at the top and 4 strands of ribbon across. We have a section of wall in the living room that would be perfect for them. From the ribbon I'll be pegging some money envelopes with the gifts in.

I've spent the evening making the envelopes and filling them.

These were simple money envelopes from Wilkinsons at £1 per 50 envelopes. I already owned some alphabet stamps and ink pads. Initially I looked for some number stamps but decided to just use the alphabet ones and I'm pleased I did.

I wasn't fussy about being straight with the letters or anything and I'm pleased with the look of the finished envelopes.

The envelopes for the children have been filled with party bag type items - bouncy balls, bubbles, mini colouring pencils, etc. Mine will have some perfume samples in along with some embroidery threads. I can't reveal what Alan's have inside in case he reads this!

It's been a busy week

One of the reasons I was planning on missing the Festival Of Quilts this year was because we were due to go away last week and I thought it would be too hectic. After making the trip to Birmingham on the Saturday I still had an assignment to work on before going to visit family on the Monday. As it happened I didn't get it finished so we ended up taking the computer to the Lake District! To be fair, I had carefully planned my studying to fit in around going away and then someone pointed out to the course team that Unit 12 wasn't due to be read until after the assignment yet one of the questions related to Unit 12. Apparently there had been a mix up with the study calendar. My careful planning went out of the window in order to fit in another full unit of study (we usually get about 2 weeks per unit). Luckily I finished and submitted the assignment on the Monday evening.

After a few days visiting family, Erin came down with chickenpox just before we were due to make the journey into Scotland for a family wedding. She was able to stay with my parents while Alan, Orla and I attended said wedding.

Excuse the mess around us in the picture, it was a bit of a rush to get Orla ready in someone else's room (ours wasn't ready) and our stuff was just dumped.

On the way back we stayed with my parents for another night before traveling back yesterday. Today has mainly been spent finishing off the unpacking and doing laundry.

Festival Of Quilts 2013

I know I said I wasn't going to the Festival Of Quilts this year but when the time came I couldn't resist. So on the Saturday we all went down to the NEC in Birmingham for the day - yes, even Alan & the kids came along! We started by having a look around the quilts. I'd given the kids a little 'treasure hunt' of things to look for like circle, hexagon, frog, flower and they ticked them off when they saw a quilt with them in. When they were a little tired/bored of looking at the quilts we went and got a drink and had a bit of cake. Then I took them to look at the children's quilts, which they really liked. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the quilts because I was too busy moving my kids around and making sure they weren't touching! I also had the husband to look after. He was most surprised to see "quite an old quilt in the children's section" (quilt number 2006) until I pointed out he "might be more impressed by the time traveling quilt, number 2076" ;-) .

We also let the kids play on the Quilter's Guild tombola and I had to have a go myself. I can't resist a tombola!!!

The above picture shows our prizes. Mine is the one at the back. I'm not sure which book belongs to which child because they keep swapping!

Then the shopping started. Alan and the kids had lunch (who needs lunch when you can be buying fabric?!?) and then took them to see the planes at the airport until I was ready to leave.

I'm always surprised at the stalls I'm attracted to at quilt shows. I don't really have a particular style of fabric that I stick to. I like modern fabrics but also traditional ones. I like a wide variety of colours and prints. I like bold colours AND pastels. There are well known online shops whose stalls I barely glance at when I'm at the festival yet other stalls I always buy from yet I never visit their website in between shows.

One of the stalls I always end up buying something from is Creative Quilting, where I bought a couple of packs of 5" squares. The other stall I love is Quilter's Trading Post and this year I purchased a couple of bag patterns and some fabric. I bought the Cotillion Bag Pattern because I love the Regency/Jane Austen panels and the bag pattern comes with one panel to use for the pocket. They also do some lovely cushion kits but I thought a bag would be more useful. I couldn't resist buying a mini charm pack (2.5" squares) and a fat quarter of Wildflower Wood by Lynette Anderson. I'm currently thinking of making a cushion from this.

I also bought some bargains from Patchwork Cabin. This is a lovely little shop in Great Bookham, Surrey and I've visited it when we've been staying with the in-laws as it's not too far to go. I managed to pick up a 4m piece of fabric which I will probably use for backing for a few things. It goes quite well with the Wildflower Wood fabrics I bought so might use it to back whatever I make from that. I also bought a scrap pack and a pack of 2.5" strips (iirc it has 20 strips so basically it's half a jelly roll).

I have to admit that at quilt shows I'm massively drawn to precuts. Perhaps it's partly because it requires more consideration to choose 3 or 4 meters at £12-ish per meter from the HUGE selection available than to buy lots of little packs at £2-£5. It's not just that though and I can't resist little packs of fabric folded up like stars, which is how I came to buy some fabric from Cross-Patch for the first time. You can see them in the picture below of all my purchases. It's the butterfly fabric and the one with irons on - I also picked up a pack of small strips of these Washday Fabrics just because I thought the designs were cute and would look good in a kitchen.

I think these lovely little packs would make fantastic stocking fillers along with the usual charm pack type things (Alan, if you're reading this, take note!!!).

You can probably see I picked up a reel of The Bottom Line thread too. I should probably have spent less on fabric and more on essentials like rotary blades or a new cutting mat.