Top Secret

I'm working on a top secret quilt about which I can tell you nothing. I can't even whisper about it in your ear! The name is Bond, Jane Bond, and I'm a quilter, ha, ha. So sorry about this lack of information but all will be revealed in due course at next year's Loch Lomond Quilt Show where this quilt will form part of the Chinese Whispers project by the Thistle Quilters group. I collected the quilt made by the previous person in the group yesterday to serve as my inspiration, and to my amazement I took one look at it (it's beautiful) and an idea immediately popped up in my head. I love it when that happens, and it was especially good for this project as I only have a limited period of time to produce the work.

So I really shouldn't have gone off on an outing today but I wanted to pay a quick visit to the first exhibition of the Pieceful Patchers, held at St. Matthews RC Church in nearby Rosewell. And I was very pleased I went. Not only were the quilts lovely but so was the tea and cake, and there was an opportunity to indulge in fabric and books too. What could be better!

And it also solved the question of what to blip today. St. Matthews is quite a modern building, having opened in 1926 and it's a beauty as you can see, designed by Archibald MacPherson. In the end I choose the above picture as my blip for the day.

By the shores of Loch Lomond

As I'm exhibiting at the Loch Lomond Quilt Show it would unfair not to show you the actual Loch itself and as today was bathed in sunshine and I arrived early this morning I diverted a bit in order to capture something of Loch Lomond for you. Above the tour boat (Maid of the Loch) that takes you on trips around the loch

And here is the bonnie shore!

My 52 Journals are on show in this church, the Riverside Parish Church.

And here is another glimpse of some of the Journals hanging in the church with in the centre the Going around in Circles journal, my own favourite.

Today I was photographed multiple times, mainly by American quilters and even videoed for a film about the quilt show. I survived!!

 

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Hanging 52 Journals at the Loch Lomond Quilt Show

I spend today hanging my 52 Journals in the Riverside Parish Church in Dumbarton for the Loch Lomond Quilt Show. Driving to Dumbarton I had one of those amazing Scottish weather days. It started with snow in our garden (!), followed by rain, hail and beautiful sunshine, sometimes all at the same time. I saw about 6 different rainbows but sadly all while on the motorway, so there was no way I could stop and photograph them. They have been stored in my mind though!

Hanging the Journals was very easy. There was so much assistance to put the quilt racks up and of course no need to think about any order. They simply go from no. 1 (at the very right of the above picture and near the entrance to the church) to no. 52.

No 52 is positioned to the left coming up close to the door through to the rest of the church where there are many more gorgeous shows. I thought I would take these pictures today as it's probably the only time there are no people around to disturb the peace. The show opens on Wednesday and lasts till Saturday. It's open from 10 - 5. I have made arrangements to be there every day now although I do hope to also spend some time myself to visit the other exhibitions in the different churches, all situated in the Loch Lomond area! And I can't guarantee to be there at 10.00 sharp as it very much depends on the traffic.

I'm only a few meters away from the Traders, which will be very dangerous indeed for my purse. African Fabric Shop, here I come!! Somehow spending a bit of money every day seems more virtuous than spending a whole lot of money in one go (I know, my economics are hopeless!). I'm already looking forward to it.

As you can see the church is very lovely and I think it has the most beautiful stained glass windows out of all the churches used for the quilt show. Most of these windows have been donated and commemorate dead people. A much more colourful way to be remembered than a gravestone! The window above has always been my favourite. The colours are like jewels, literally sparkling, and of course the motif is very sweet.  You can see a detail of it at the very top of this blog post as it became my blip for today.

This is above the altar and it is simply breathtaking. The picture doesn't do it justice. I only had my compact camera with me so I will try again in the days to come to see if I can zoom in closer with the Canon. It's the angel wings that I find most captivating together with Jesus' mantle. So much inspiration and I have 4 days to soak it up to my heart's content. If you're coming, I would love to see you, so say hello and we can have a chat!

Loch Lomond Show 2012

I'm sorry I didn't write this blog last night after I returned from our trip to the Loch Lomond Quilt Show but I simply ran out of time. Isn't it surprising how tired you get just being driven around in a bus to visit the various venues of the show? And there was still more to do when I came home. It was a very good show this year and I thoroughly enjoyed the visit, specially as I didn't have to worry about anything. My only contribution was the above Memento Mori A3 sized quilt about which I told you in an earlier post. It's now on its travels as part of the 2nd Scottish Suitcase collection, so it was someone else's responsibility to get it to and from the show. The highlight for me was Helen Cowans exhibit,, although sadly we missed each other by minutes as she was just gone from her exhibit to look at some of the other bits of the show when I arrived at her spot!

I'm always wary of posting other people's work on this blog if I haven't asked them for explicit permission so I refer you to the Loch Lomond site for more pictures, but I couldn't help taking some more photographs of stained glass. The West Kirk has a glorious display of these. Above a very traditional religious image.

And here is a very un-traditional stained glass window but it can also be found in the West Kirk. Yet again this is a grave monument in its own way as the text reads: In memory of Agnes and Campbell Brown. Thy Way is in the Sea and thy path in the great waters. Of course Dumbarton is right by the river Clyde, where many great ships were build in the past!

Loch Lomond Quilt Show 2011

Every year for the last 7 years the Loch Lomond Quilt Show has taken place in and around Dumbarton, a little town near Loch Lomond. There is a wide variety of exhibitions and they are all located in a selection of churches in and around Dumbarton itself, Alexandria and Renton. This year I exhibited 3 quilts as part of the Inspired by Scotland Exhibition together with 9 other "well-known" Scottish quilters. We showed our work in the Trinity Church in Renton which you can see above.

All 10 of us also produced a project quilt for which we made the full instructions which were then tried out by students. In due course, probably by the next show in 2012, a book will be published featuring the 10 projects and the workshop samples. Above you can see my quilt The Colours of Alba to the right and the class sample worked by students to the left. I'll write some more about this quilt in a future blog but it is a sister quilt to the Alba in Colours quilt hanging in my exhibition in Peebles.

The 3 quilts we were all asked to exhibit were firstly a typical example of your work, and I choose to exhibit the quilt above, called Foxfires, and inspired by the Northern Light as seen in my own garden here in the Scottish Borders. The extensive (some might say exorbitant) beading is a typical element in my work. This is one of my most successful quilts, winning the European Quilt Championships back in 2006. It's made entirely of silk fabrics.

The second quilt we were asked to show had to be an old favourite and above is Secret Garden Glen, made back in 1997 and made entirely out of the Secret Garden variety of Cathedral Windows. It was inspired by a country park (Kelburn), just south of Largs where we used to live. A lot of hand work, and folding and yes, even then I added beads to the mix. This is one quilt with which I have always found it impossible to part, despite having had several offers to buy it.

And thirdly we were asked to exhibit a piece of work typical of the way we are working at the moment and you will recognize the technique of the above quilt called A very fishy Affair, in other pieces currently hanging in my Peebles exhibition. This was the first one where I started using this particular collage method. It illustrates the various aspects of having an affair, secret meetings in exotic locations, hiding behind a mask etc. By the time I finished the quilt I felt like I was intimately acquainted with the lovers. Needless to say things will eventually come to a sticky end. I had so much fun finding suitable, or perhaps unsuitable fabrics (depending on your point of view) for this quilt that I was really sorry when I finished it so promptly started making more.

Beading class and Exhibition

Today it was time for a bit of rest and relaxation after two strenuous days of beading. Laura McCabe's classes were fantastic, as ever. This is the third year she has been teaching for The Bead Shop, Haddington and it was as enjoyable as ever.

You can see what I've done in the workshop above and it will be a while yet before I'll be wearing either the Eiffel Tower bracelet or the Georgian Jewels necklace but a start has been made and because I love the designs and also the way they are made, I know I will finish. The only uncertainty is when!

Going to a workshop yourself is a really good way to remind yourself as a teacher that it can be an exhausting business absorbing a new technique in a workshop environment. Everything is new and it's a lot more stressful being a student than teaching

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However at the moment I'm not teaching and the reason why I'm not, can now be found in the sidebar of this blog, on the right. The dates for my exhibition are known and I've also given it an official title. The fact that there are still 205 days to go, puts my mind at rest at the moment although I know only too well how fast these will pass. The good thing about the dates is that the Loch Lomond Quilt Show next year also falls within this time frame (that exhibition takes place from the 18th - 21st May), so if you happen to be travelling to Scotland for that, it would not be too far to take mine in too! I'm exhibiting in Loch Lomond as well for my sins, so it's probably fair to say that I will be very busy next Spring.

I've promised myself a complete rest and overhaul of my studio once it's all behind me, but for now nose to the grindstone will be the order of the day.

Love makes the world go round!

It's a gloriously sunny day despite the fact that we have clouds of volcanic ash swirling about in the higher areas of the sky. We are sometimes (depending on the wind direction) under the flight path for Edinburgh Airport and although it's not very busy I realized how quiet it was while walking the dogs this morning.

Troi seems to be back to her usual boisterous self which can only be good news and I have also managed to make a small quiltie (size 12" square) despite it dropping off my to-do list somewhere along the way. No idea how that happened, I must have overlooked it while transferring the To-Do list from one week to the next! Must try harder!!!

I was reminded of it again by the Loch Lomond visit some days ago as this quiltie is for a joint project of all Quilters' Guild members located in Scotland.

We're all meant to make a 12" block finished in black binding for a Wall of Friendship that will be on display during the Loch Lomond Quilt Show in May. After that all the blocks will be put together to form larger quilts which will be donated to various good causes yet to be determined.

My quiltie was made using a background from a long ago discarded quilt top, which I layered with wadding (batting) and backing fabric (featuring butterflies in my case) and machine quilted. As you can see some of the seams are on the outside and have been quilted in different directions. I added a vintage fabric of a loving couple (from VintageImageMadness) that I printed out onto self-adhesive cotten sheet (from Crafty Computer Paper). This was layered with a batik heart fabric and sewn down as shown. I then used Bondaweb (or Wonder-Under) to cut out separate hearts from the heart fabric and sewed these on in a diagonal direction leading to the text: Love makes the world go round! that was printed directly onto calico (muslin) using my Epson printer.

I added size 11 seed beads around the image, the text, the hearts and also around the black binding. as you can see on this detailed picture above.

My poor pet!

Today I was interviewed by the Loch Lomond Quilt Show organizers for a book they are hoping to publish next year about 10 Scottish Quilters. You will have to find out what I said when the book comes out!

I love talking about art, quilts and the universe so really enjoyed the day till we were having our lunch and Troi, the greyhound, had a really funny turn, very much like a fit. She's only 7.5 years old, so quite a young dog still. She was shaking on her legs although she was never completely unconscious but it was very upsetting to watch. John took her to the vet immediately and she had blood and urine samples taken and we will hear the results tomorrow. She also had an ECG which proved that her heart at least was in fine fettle. When she and John left the house, the other dog Rueben was really upset and spend the next hour howling by the door which did nothing to add to my peace of mind either.

Fingers crossed it won't be anything too serious. Troi herself is completely exhausted by all her day's adventures and has fallen asleep in her basket. I felt like joining her!!!

Loch Lomond Quilt Show

Yesterday I had a wonderful away day visiting the Loch Lomond Quilt Show with a bus organized by Annette, our regional Quilt Guild rep. It was so much fun and really lovely not to have to drive myself. There was a lot of inspiration to be had and beautiful quilts to be seen and all in all a great day out.

This year, as it is the year of the Homecoming Scotland, the Loch Lomond Quilt Show was sponsored to produce a book (see picture above) in which all the special Tartan quilts (A3) size can be seen (mine included, see below). You can order this book from the Loch Lomond Quilt Show website. I have received several mentions which was lovely to discover! The tartan quilts will now form a special Tartan Holdall, which will travel around the country.

We finished our quilt tour at the Loch Lomand Gateway Centre, where there were some quilts hanging outside made in a variety of alternative materials, and where we could get a glimpse of the Loch itself and one of the plearue steamers , which provide tours in the tourist season. Quite fancy doing that myself one of these days!

Catching Up

As some of you might have guessed I have been on the road and have also been working on not one but two large quilts which I can't show you yet. Today was spend at the Loch Lomond Quilt Show although I'm not going to show you pictures. You can take photographs but only for your own use and as I never tire of telling people, by posting them on your blog you are infringing other people's copyright.

Despite this fact I'm only too aware this happens all the time and I can actually find pictures of my own quilts featured on various blogs and websites. Therefore I never post any pictures of my own work myself till the quilt hits its first show and is out there anyway.

I did see some beautiful work and also enjoyed revisiting the wonderful churches in which the Show takes place but the best visual input came from the drive there and back (gorgeous rhododendrons and bright yellow rape fields, too stunning for words) and while walking in Dumbarton where I came across this faded and dilapidated pink gate, which stopped me in my tracks! And I was allowed to touch it, even better!

The drive (1.5hrs there and back, so 3 hrs and in beautiful sunshine too) also gave me time to do some thinking about where I want to go with my work and I have decided after mulling it over for months now, that giving workshops will become a thing of the past by next summer. The very fact that I'm fully booked till then, should have told me something long before now. There are times when I love doing it such as last Saturday, when I had a lovely drive, a very appreciative audience, a venue with a ramp (for my suitcase!) and a great cup of tea. But the fact that I loved it so much clearly illustrates to me, that this is the exception rather than the rule. I've had some wonderful bookings, like this, but there have also have been many occasions when things were all too different and after more than 13 years I feel I want to spend more time on my own work and I would also like to spend more time with husband, dogs, cats and our beautiful home. Yes, I also want to be able to smell the roses! So Summer 2009 will be the time! I might continue giving some slide talks, within a reasonable driving distance from here, but spaced out over the year and much reduced from my present schedule.

Making the decision did make me feel so relieved that I already know I'm doing the right thing and I might start investigating selling small work maybe from this blog or in some other form. Another thing to mull over but I will take this slowly! Of course I'll keep you posted as this blog is something I never intend to give up!!

G is for Garden

I met one of the readers of this blog today and she had wondered if I had been away as I had not blogged all week. I'm really sorry I haven't been here for such a long time as I have missed it too but I have been so busy teaching this week that I only had time to read my e-mails, reply to the urgent ones and then dive into bed so I would be fresh and ready for the next day. I had to pre-pack several of my courses too and John has been a knight in shining armour making me packed lunches.

One more teaching assignment tomorrow, a fabric ATC class in Purely Patchwork shop, Linlithgow and then I will be having a bit of a rest next week, just stitching and working on some swaps. I'm hoping my next Alphastamps assignment pack will also arrive as I'm so curious to see the goodies we get to work with.

Today I was judging the Journal Quilts made by Region 16 (Scotland) of the Quilters' Guild of the British Isles, which was both a frightening and delighful prospect. I've done my best and the winning quilts are stunning. They will be revealed at our area day in Livingston in April (by me) and will be on show at the Loch Lomond Quilt Show this year. Do go and see them if you can, they truely are little beauties.

I did manage to make one piece of work to show you today. It's for the Alphabetica Round Robin swap where every month we make 2 pages for another artist based on the letters of the Alphabet and they in turn make 2 pages for my album. My swap partner this month is Heather Robinson and her alphabet is based on definitions. Just look in a dictionary and find suitable words. My first page G just had to be on G is for Garden as finally the garden is beginning to show signs of life. I wanted to play with fabric as I've done so much mixed media collage work off late that fabric was calling out to me. For the background I used a green velvety fabric (Cabbage Patch fabrics) with patterns of leaves. I layered this up with a flower fabric (also Cabbage Patch fabrics). I added strips of a red fabric to partially frame the image I used, which is from the Quite Contrary #1 fabric collage sheet from Alphastamps. To this I added the word garden (from a discontinued fabric sheet by Artchix Studio) and I substituded the letter g for a G charm. I sewed on green ricrac underneath and I also added a basket shape (which I think I received as a gift for hosting a swap, if I remember rightly). This was attached with a green button and red thread. I also added faux postage from Artchix on which I rubbed gold paint. Finally a hat charm was sewn on in the top right corner.

Popular Patchwork article and Collage Exchange

I received my latest issue from Popular Patchwork (a British patchwork magazine) today and they have published an article written by the free-lance journalist Jane Rae about my work and more especially the quilts which were exhibited at the Loch Lomond Quilt Show back in May this year. Jane came to interview me back in April on what was probably one of the nicest days weatherwise of 2007. I was thinking about it today and wishing myself back in time as the temperature yesterday was -10C!

We sat outside in the sunshine and Jane managed to get a lot of information while we were just chatting away. It's a really good article and she has definitely gotten through to me!! Thanks again, Jane!

Jane also has a wonderful website where you can read about quilt related events and indulge in some Fair Trade quilt related items. Pay a visit and you'll love what you see!

I will be showing you a series of collages I've been working on during the last 2 weeks or so. They are for a special collage exchange, organized in New Zealand. You can read more about it here. I've been wanting to partipate in earlier exchanges but things always got in the way and somehow I never actually got around to making my collages in time. This time (for the 10th Exchange) I was really determined and in order to motivate myself even more I paid well in advance.
Rather than making them in fabric (which for me is the easy option!) I decided to go with images and paint, although I could not resist some stitching to mount the collages onto their final background. All the paint I've used in these collages are fluid acrylics from Golden together with a variety of mediums. The background was heavy watercolour paper which I primed with matte medium.

This one seen above, is called An Enduring Love Affair and the picture of the soldier features my paternal grandfather. It was taken during his military service in the First World War (in which The Netherlands, where he lived were a neutral country, but surrounded by warring ones). It also features an old map of Paris, a doily, and a fabric image, together with a vintage poem, which I have used in several of the collages.

After painting, the collage s were mounted onto a felt background and I added various other items by stitching and finally the entire collage was attached to a cardstock background by zigzag stitching on my machine.

Here is another one, called Belle Poitrine. It uses an old advertisment (from the French magazine Femina published in 1908, in my own collection) combined with an image from one of my vintage postcards. Also another fragment from that old French map. I've done quite a bit of foiling on these collages as well although that is hard to spot on the scan.

All together I made 13 collages, one to sell and one to be donated to a museum and the other 11 will be swapped and I will receive 11 back from various people, just like in a swap. Haven't quite decided yet which one I will put up for sale. I'll be showing you more of them in the coming weeks!

Pink and Green ATCs

You might have thought from my previous posts that I've been spending my time wondering around the garden but really, there was enough time left to make some art too. Any day in which I haven't got a needle in my hand is a day lost as far as I'm concerned and it's very rare to have a day llike that. During this time of the year there is such good light till late in the evening so I just keep on stitching and arting. I've been working on Journal Quilts but also found time to use the fabric collage sheet I demonstrated making during the fabric ATC class at the Loch Lomond Show.

These ATCs use Artchix images, 3 paper ones and one transparency and were made for our Colour Combination ATC Swaps on the MailartbyDesign Group. Most of the text is also from Artchix, one from a fabric sheet (helas, they don't make these any more) and 2 from transparencies while the text about the book is done with my Dymo-marker. I've still got 3 backgrounds from this collage left and have started on them too but these are definitely going to our swap!

Journal Quilt 2007 May

Finally, quite late in the month, here is my Journal Quilt for May 2007. I've been much occupied by Journal Quilts lately as I have been asked to judge JQs next year at the Loch Lomond Show. These will be made by members of Region 16 (Scotland) of the Quilters Guild of the British Isles and although I already know it's going to be SO DIFFICULT, I also can't wait to see what everyone will come up with. The participants only have to make 1 JQ on the theme of A Day in the Life...... which is a great title with so many possibilities.

Anyway back to my JQ for May. The background for this one is a slubby silk which I hand-dyed myself. I made a fabric collage for May, incorporating May Pole dancing images as well as flower napkins and sayings about May. I scanned in this collage into my computer and printed out selected areas on linen. This is the first time I've used linen to print out on and I discovered these sheets on www.craftycomputerpaper.co.uk and I love them. The colours come out very clearly and the texture is gorgeous. I made one long image and 3 smaller squares to go next to it. The background silk was seed stitched by hand in a variegated thread, the linen was applied using a machine satin stitch and I beaded around the edges with seed beads as well as along the binding which was an orangy dupion silk. Finally I added some sparkly sequins and charms in the shape of the May letters. Just looking at this one makes me feel warmer!

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Catching up at home

I managed to get everything unpacked after the Loch Lomond Quilt Show and stowed away in the appropriate places. The quilts are back on their table and I'm getting ready to pack other ones up and mail them out to various exhibitions.

I also realized the draw was done for the 4 x 4 Mingle on the MailartbyDesign Yahoo group. The theme for May was Play and my contribution is called Childs' Play. It's going in the mail to Linda E tomorrow who is my partner this month. I used a fabric collage, in fact the same one as I made for Theresa's album if you can still remember that far back! I added this lovely transparency of a girl with a bird in a cage ( from www.divasdeste.com) and the words are done with the Dymo label machine. Beaded around the edges with beads in the colours found in the collage.

I thought I had no detail of the ATC I swapped yesterday during my ATC class at the Loch Lomond Show but have discovered I've been more organized than I gave myself credit for so here it is! The words are stamped on a pale space-dyed background, pieces of vintage lace were sewn around the 4 corners. Then I added seed stitching around the words with a space-dyed thread, and finally beaded the edges of the lace. The lady who received it in the swap has already e-mailed me to say how much she enjoyed the class, which is really lovely!

Finally I did a bit of hand quilting on the large quilt I'm working on at the moment and it's really gorgeous to do a bit of pieceful stitching. I really miss it when I'm away as it enables me to just dream away and reach a place where I can simply concentrate on the joy of working on the big quilts. It will always remain my favourite part of being a quilter however lovely it is to have occasional away days such as the Loch Lomond Show this week. All the enthousiasm for my work does really spur me on to get on with this next one!!

Last day at the Loch Lomond Show

and a very busy day it was too. I was teaching my ATC class and we had lots of fun. Here are all the cards made on the day and we had a swap at the end! The card at the top right is the one I made for the class swap! Then I went back to the Log Cabin exhibit and collected 2 quilts for Monique Gilbert, a Belgian quilter and then rushed to the West Kirk to collect all my quilts. I sold a fortune worth in postcards, so must order more as well as working on my new brochure next week! Then drove back home in both sunshine and showers.

For once there was no traffic behind me so I stopped to take a picture of the glorious hedge I mentioned on an earlier post but the hawthorn blossom had all disappeared due to the wind and rain. So this will have to wait till next year when the quiltshow is on again and hopefully the blossom will be just as good too. You can find out all the news about the show on their website: www.lochlomondquiltshow.com This is regularly updated to keep you in touch with what will happen next year. But more about that in due course. I think I need some urgent sleep now!!

There were some stunning rainbows too, driving back, as it was both sunny and wet but had to keep my eyes on the road, specially as on the way to Stirling going home I encountered 3 police cars, 2 fire engines and 1 ambulance all with flashing lights and sirens, so something very bad must have happened somewhere behind me. It reminded me once again how fragile the thread is with which we hang on to our life and I really need to make the absolute most of every single second. I think today I definitely did that!!

Loch Lomond Show opens

Today was the opening day of the Loch Lomond Show and I was duely installed in the hall of the West Kirk in Dumbarton. I alternated with Sheena, whose quilts are hanging opposite mine in the kirk to be in the hall selling our cards or in the church, chatting to the visitors.

Apart from our own cards there is also a card pack for sale from the show, featuring 10 different cards from the exhibiting artists and this is the one they choose from me, a green fabric ATC as this is the class I will be teaching on Saturday.

It's certainly a lovely experience talking with the visitors to the show as everyone is very enthousiastic about the quilts and it is a very humbling but wonderful thing to be told one of your quilts is the most beautiful one someone has seen. It spurs you on specially as making the quilts is a very solitary job, just alone in my studio, so it is simply great to get some direct feedback.

Unfortunately the great weather of yesterday has not held and it was quite showery today but there were already lots of visitors and I'm really looking forward to the rest of the week!

On the way home I saw a simply marvelous hedge made up of flowering white hawthorn blossom and pink rhododendrons. If there had not been so much traffic behind me I would have stopped and taken a picture but hopefully one of these days it will be a bit quieter on the road and I will try and share it with you at a later day!

More about my solo exhibition at the Loch Lomond Quilt Show

I spend today hanging up my quilts in the West Kirk in Dumbarton near Loch Lomond. The kirk is a very old and beautiful building as you can see: It also has the most amazing stained glass windows which have been donated by various past members of the congregation. This is my absolute favourite, as the purple colour of the angels' wings was simply unbelievable! Not too great a photograph but whenever I see it I will remember that purple!

It was a gorgeous sunny day today so the church looked quite light but the photographs are a bit dark as I'm still saving up for that digital SLR. My automatic will have to do for the moment so here is a taste of how my quilts are looking in the church:

For more information check out the website: www.lochlomondquiltshow.com

Or even better, pay a visit, the show is open from 16th - 19th May from 10 - 5 every day!

ATC no. 61

I did finish one final sample ATC for my ATC class this coming Saturday at the Loch Lomond Show, using a surprise package I received from a fellow CChixxie, PattiB.

The background is a white already quilted feeling vintage fabric on which I glued and stitched an fabric girl image from Paperwhimsy. I surrounded it with different vintage laces on both top and bottom and added beads and bugle beads to these. I added a Swarowski crystal bead to her necklace and I choose the text She blushed, to go with the image as she really looks like she is blushing, and then stitched the ATC onto a watercolour paper background. This is ATC no. 61 in my 100 ATC project.

I'll try and keep you up to date with my exhibition at the Loch Lomond Quilt Show, hopefully with some pictures of my solo show but the next few days promise to be very busy indeed!!