Festival of Quilts

I don't know where to start! Yesterday home from 3 brilliant days in Birmingham at Festival of Quilts. There were so many amazing inspiring quilts on display. I got to meet up for coffee with one of my first blogging friends, Justine and met some newer blogging friends from Brit Quilt - Susan and Nicky.
I also got to meet the lovely person behind one of my favourite shops - Mandy from Simply Solids

One of my favourite things about the Festival (apart from the shopping!)was the workshops I attended with the lovely girls from Fat Quarterly. I have followed it from the first issue and love what they do.

After being inspired by Katy's talk on Quilting & Social Media I have finally given in and joined Twitter as @scissors thread I am just starting out and trying to figure it out so if you are on Twitter say hi. I haven't worked out how to add it to my blog side bar yet.


English Paper Piecing taught me lots of tricks for making hexagons and I fear a new addiction! Hopefully I will finish the bathmat I started in the not too distant future.

The Design Challenge workshop showed us how to play around with block designs and charm packs (and I got to do some lovely colouring!)

Finally the shopping haul - I thought I was rather reserved this year (husband did not agree whilst lugging back my case from the train station!!). Lovely grey solids from Simply Solids to finish off my Bee Quilts, some Christmas fabric, a little bit of Far Far Away, some books and quilting cotton for hand quilting.

Iris & Delilah Quilt

It's ages since I posted about my Granny's Quilt made from this fabulous stack of Tanya Whelan fabrics.

It was another "intense quilting" experience but it got made in time.  I forgot to take photos of the finished quilt to had to wait until I went home a few weeks ago.

The design is simple rectangles to showcase the gorgeous fabric and is based on Cluck Cluck Sew's Roadtrip Quilt

More Delilah & green solid on back

The quilting is lots and lots and lots and lots of straight lines.  Thank goodness for my walking foot - there are no puckers and it feels gorgeous.

Binding is a print from the Delilah line and the finished quilt measures 66"x80"

Iris (my Granny's name) & Delilah (the fabric) Quilt

My Granny cried when I gave it to her so it was worth all the 2 am finishes and it remains my favourite quilt to date.

Bee Quilted Bee Blocks

 I haven't blogged my Bee Quilted Bee Blocks for months so here is a catch up.

April/May Dream On Liberated Log Cabin for Becca

May/June X blocks for Karamat

June/July Applique Circles for Franswimmer

Chocolate Envelope Quilt

Remember this post and the fabrics which needed to be a quilt in 6 days. . . . 

Moda Acardia, Kona Chocolate & Momo Freebird

Well I made the deadline and was able to finish it before flying home to see my family and gave it to my Dad for his 60th birthday.

The pattern is from a tutorial from the fabulous Shiner's View which has been on my to do list for a while.  

Unintentionally I had chosen similar colours and fabrics for my Dad as those in the tutorial and I love how the envelopes pop agains the Kona Chocolate.

The back is some Momo Freebird and the leftover Kona Chocolate.  It is quilted with horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines but not too many as I wanted to keep it soft as its a tv quilt.

Binding - Momo Freebird Eggs

That weekend was also my 30th birthday which resulted in an IT upgrade for me (iPad 2!!) that I am just figuring out how to get photos onto and blog hence the delay.

PS - is anyone going to Festival of Quilts next weekend - I will be there from Friday to Sunday and am very excited!

Blocks Blocks & More Blocks

Once I had caught up on my Bee Blocks on my week off I spent the rest of the week working on blocks for my 9 patch quilt:

I love putting together al the scraps and remembering where they came from.  These all came from Bronwyn's Quilt.

 

I also worked on blocks for my Oddyssea Wild Thing Quilt:

Baby Girl Coin Quilt

Another one off the to do list!  This one has been in the works for ages - it uses the scraps from this quilt.

 The back is an Amy Butler print and a pink and white polka dot print from my stash.

The binding is the same as I used for the previous quilt - I love striped bindings!

I hand quilted this one - the first time I have tried it and I really like the effect with the chunky thread, I am just not sure I would have the patience to quilt a larger quilt by hand.

I made knickers!

Yes that blog title is correct!

Yes these are my knickers!

It's my birthday soon and yesterday my friend treated me to a knicker making workshop at the fabulous Makery in Bath.

We got to choose our fabrics from a selection and the fabric pieces were then cut for us.  We added lace trims and in just about 3 hours I managed to sew these up.  This is the first time I have made anything to wear and sewing with elastic was definitely a challenge.

I really enjoyed making these and it was lovely to have something to show at the end of the evening.  Unfortunately we don't get the patterns as instead they advised us to cut and trace a comfy pair we already own.  My friend who sews clothes is going to have a go at making a pattern so there may be more of these in my future.