Fabric, Designs and Festivals

First up is a bundle of goodies that made their way home with me from Festival of Quilts.

None of these fat quarters seem to have any writing on their selvedges... but I seem to be a sucker for that yellow green colour at the moment.

Another place had bolt ends for sale... this one just read as "handy to have in stash"...

And so my mind goes back to what to do with a smallish bundle of fabrics...

I've always liked these somewhat random wedges...

And this totally improv quilt also appeals for some reason even though I have never sewn anything improv... and don't really know if I want to.

Both of these designs are from this book:

This neutral based and irregularly designed quilt from Tula's Modern Sampler book has also been a favourite.  Although it does remind me that my rainbow version is still sitting unquilted :o(

And this Elizabeth Hartman design uses 8 x 1/4 yards, plus 8 solids and neutral background.

All something to think about while I focus on what I am really supposed to be doing (which is actually housework... but you win some/you lose some).

And now for a few more quilts that caught my eye at the exhibition:

I don't know whether it is the design of this one...

or the scrummy fabrics... or the hand quilting...

This little wall hanging was just perfect.  Colourwise and designwise.

These quilts are just magic... and I particularly like the hints of aqua fabric in the background position.

  Oh yeah, and that quilting!

Simple, bold, modern.  With a nod to traditional.  My kind of quilt.

And this little star was 4" I think... hand pieced:

Which just blows your mind when you see the quilt full sized.  Thanks to Charlotte for being the "comparison" to put it into scale.

I am always drawn to the blue quilts... even though this one did start to make my eyes funny after a while.

OK, that's me for a while... back to that pesky housework.

Perfect Time for a Post

Well, everyone in my family have been sent to their rooms... so the house is nice and quiet.  Perfect time to do some composing and catching up.

Last weekend involved a whirlwind trip to Auckland to buy a new vehicle for my husband, after all the dramas he had had with his previous one.  This was a four hour drive one way... with a small amount of test driving in between.  Luckily the car yard was right next to a KFC outlet which had free wifi... so at least the kids were happy.  On the return trip home I sneakily stopped at The Applebasket Patchwork shop and just happened to find some nice fat quarters to add to my collection.

My normal operation of buying is to select fat quarters, who are then introduced to other like minded fat quarters... and one day they make a grouping big enough for a quilt.  This bundle just wanted to stay by themselves... so I've been thinking about different designs that will allow me to use only a small amount of coloured/patterned fabric - and add a whole heap of solid to create a generous bed quilt. 

This elephant gravitated to some other neutrals, but it was just too cute to not take home.

As if one trip to Auckland wasn't enough, this last weekend was the Festival of Quilts, so I joined a small group of friends who traveled down on Sunday to attend.

There were some wonderful quilts on display, and a great selection of merchants.

These were some of the applique quilts that caught my eye, and I apologize for not taking details of the quilt makers... and for some odd photographs shots.

Someone obviously had a lot of fun embellishing these flowers.

These shapes all were blanket stitched in a blending colour, then edge stitched (probably through all the quilting layers) with a heavier black thread, which created a great thick black outline. 

I didn't take a photo of this whole quilt, but again - the embellishing on this was extreme!

This quilt was part of the Recycled category... a wool blanket, appliqued with a drift of flowers to cover moth holes.

More to come...

I also bought some fabric... no surprise there!

I'm BACK! Grab a cuppa!

Where have the last few weeks disappeared?  If I am not regimented and post on a weekend... somehow it ends up being a new week... and sometimes even a new week again.

I've been plugging along quilting the Baby Bunting Quilt.  I had hoped to have this finished in time to exhibit at the Waimate North Agricultural &Pastoral Show last Saturday (think lambs, cows, horses, produce, floral, hand crafts and baking competitions), but by Wednesday I knew that it wasn't going to happen.  So over the last week I finished up the last of the quilting and the scrappy binding - now just the threads to cut, and a little bit of hand applique to tidy off the bit that I missed with the machine.

The stipple quilting has made the applique and star points pop - plus provides a lovely all-over texture.

I also disappeared off to The Auckland Festival of Quilts with Charlotte and Mathea... a mere three hour one way journey (time for lots of girl talk... and oh, the range of topics discussed!)  We walked and walked... looked and looked... and shopped and shopped.

I took a series of random photos - mostly to remind me about something in particular rather than showcasing the gorgeous quilts that were on display.

I really liked how this double wedding ring quilt included this applique border.

I really like this somewhat Hawaiian applique style  - stylized pohutukawa pattern.

It also had some wonderful quilting.

While I'm not usually a fan of diamonds, I did quite like this log cabin like arrangement.

And this one also had a great quilting pattern in the background space.  It can be hard to fit daisy like flowers together, but filling up with pebbles seems to work well.

 And I don't think I even took a photo of the rest of this quilt - but was fascinated by the precision quilting... computer aided I am sure.

A variation on a disappearing nine patch block.  This had a really interesting setting.

A nine patch sliced somewhat off centre... very clever!

This panel was just interesting...

Combining both machine and hand quilting.

I still gravitate somewhat towards the low volume backgrounds... also the soft colour variations in the feature areas.  This one very cleverly had a graded colour wash of plus shapes - something not noticed until viewed from a distance.

Similar but different...

Check out Charlotte's blog  here for more FOQ (really, do you think this abbreviation will catch on... after all, how would YOU pronounce it?) pictures (of some actual full quilts) plus more links to other blog photos.

In the shopping basket I have some new thread to try... plus a new (unphotographed) quilting ruler.

 And what's a quilt show without some new random fat quarters?

Adding to the wee random collection I had purchased from The Country Yard at their exhibition a couple of weeks ago...

Random + Random = a new wee bundle.

Ahh... love these soft soft colours...