Oranges and Lemons -Finished!

This week I finished the Oranges and Lemons quilt and I'm very happy with how it turned out.

This quilt is all about the tecture the quilting provides rather than the piecing. 

In the border I quilted  continuous flowing feathers.  I'm  pleased with how they turned out.

Friday I got the binding attached and yesterday was a perfect day for washing it.  Sunny and windy!

Tomorrow, I will be sending this quilt off to it's new owner.  I hope she loves it as much as I do.

Also this week I finished a birthday present for a friend, which I will show you soon and I started putting together my QAYG project.  I wasn't enjoying it much at first but it is going ok so far - I still have to attch 2 borders and quilt them.  i think that could be tricky.
Have a great week.
See you next time.
Rhianon.

More From the Scottish Quilt Championships

First of all, I'd like to thank every single one of you for all your best wishes and comments - really appreciate that.   I went back to the show on Sunday and this is what I came home with :

1st Small Wall Hanging  - Bird of Paradise
1st Machine Quilting      - My Big Fat Gypsy Feathers
2nd Minatures               - My Big Fat Gypsy Feathers
Judges Choice Award   - Gecko Fabulous

What a weekend!  

This is Kay.The Borderline Quilter who won, 1st Bed Quilt, 1st Longarm Quilting and Overall Champion for her quilt, 'Swooning'.  She also won 2nd place for her Tudor Rose wall hanging and received a Judges Choice award.   Well done Kay!
If you go to Kay's blog you will see a couple of photos of me and also her beautiful quilting.

Here are some of the other exhibits

There was a special exhibition of minatures and they were just incredible.

The detail in this was amazing.

I stuck my hand in this photo so you could get some idea of the scale.  Such teeny tiny little pieces!

If you'd like to see more head over to Kay's blog.  There was an exhibition of Japanese quilts there which are well worth a look.
Now it's time to get back to normality and get some sewing done!
See you all next time.
Rhianon.

My First Ribbon - Scottish Quilt Championships

I knew this was going to be a great week becasue the quilt show began today but last night I got a call to say I'd been placed 1st in Small Wall Hanging category for my Bird of Paradise.

I am over the moon to have won my first ribbon.  Sooooooo pleased!!!  I get a trophy on Sunday.

I also got placed 2nd in Minature category for machine quilting with My Big Fat Gypsy Feathers

Sorry about the terrible photo but it was busy and the lighting was not very good in the hall.

To top it off my Geckos got a Judges Choice award. ... I am such a happy quilter tonight..

Also at the show I got to meet a fellow blogger Kay, The Borderline Quilter.  Kay (lovely lady!) is a long arm quilter and won best in show and so deserved!!  Here is her winning quilt :

                                                         Many Congratulations Kay!

I am going back to the show on Sunday and I will get better photographs.  It was very busy on the first day - it will be much quieter on sunday.
Of course, there was lots of shopping to be done.  This lot should keep me busy for a while.

I'll be back soon with more photos from the show.
Cheers
Rhianon.

Oranges and Lemons - a quilt in progress.

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to be asked to make a quilt for a lady.
  She wanted pale lemon, orange, white and no floral fabrics and lots of  quilted feathers!

After thinking about it for a while and searching around, I opted for this block. It's called Goose in the Pond,

It measures a whopping 221/2" so it was a perfect size to provide me with biggish areas to quilt.

I made 6 and arranged them in a 2x3 layout with some narrow sashing and cornerstones.
I finished with a wide border as I'm planning lots of swirly feathers there.

This is the quilting underway ....

I'm using a lightweight 4oz polyester wadding as I wanted quite a puffy effect.  I had originally basted the quilte with Hobbs Heirloom bleached white wadding.  It was lovely and soft but rather flat looking, so I decided to switch.

Here is a close up of the quilting. I am using one of those water soluble pens to mark the center circle in the squares and the spines in the triangles.

The sun is casting strange shadows in this photo - looks like it has dirty marks on it but it hasn't!



Two blocks done!



And this is as far as I've got so far.  I ran out of white thread, but am fully stocked again and ready to go.
Hoping to get the bulk of it finished this week.
Have a great week and I'll be back soon.
Rhianon.

Lattice Smocking

Hi there,

I had a great start to the week - I got to take my first ever class, ie , me being the teacher.
It came about because Irene, who runs our quilt group was unable to make it and rather than cancelling, she asked me to step into her shoes.

I decided to teach the ladies how to do this:

It is called lattice smocking and I learned to do it 27 years ago at the RSN.
After searching around on the web, I've also discovered it is called Canadian smocking.

It gives a highly tectural effect and looks good on cushions and bags.

There are a few different patterns...
this one is a leaf pattern.

It is hand stitched from the back of the fabric, using a grid to pull the fabric and make the pattern.

I found an excellent blog by a lady called Vani.  She has lots to read and a video tutorial.  You can find her here.  All the links are down the right hand side of her blog.
You could also look for lattice smocking on You Tube./ 

This one is a flower pattern and is different because it is worked from the front of the fabric.
I quite like the idea of incorporating this into a quilt somehow - I think it could look really good.

I have been working on a quilt this week but I'll show you that in my next post.
Lots and lots of feathers!!!

See you then
Rhianon.