Abstract Blocks

I don't often find myself speechless but it happened yesterday when I received a phone call from Grosvenor Shows telling me my Abstract Blocks quilt (seen above)  had won the Theme section of the Great Northern Quilt Show held in Harrogate this weekend, opening this morning. The news took me completely unawares as there was so much else going on yesterday and I was expecting the call to be from a lost courier.

Not only was it wonderful to hear in itself but it also involves winning a sewing machine! All very exciting.

The theme for this year's show was: Row by Row and as you can see the quilt very neatly fits in there. It started life as separate 6" blocks originally started as a online project organized by the Make Modern Australian magazine that asks us to make these self-designed modern blocks. I think I made about 3 for that but enjoyed making these little quiltlets so much that I decided to keep going.

All the blocks are designed by me and made in a modern way. The backgrounds are machine quilted and then the shapes are raw edge appliquéd onto it using Bondaweb. I added hand stitching and beading with size 11 seed beads as shown in these detailed pictures.

 Originally I planned to make 100 but forgot in my enthusiasm that the blocks would require empty space around them to show them off to their best and had I continued with that plan my quilt would have become massive and also very heavy indeed. So common sense eventually prevailed and the quilt uses 30 blocks in total. There are a few left-overs but that's okay. I think the best ones made it into the quilt. They were machine sewn onto a machine quilted background as you see at the top of this post. It's not the best picture ever as I remember it was taken on a very windy day this spring and I had been planning to re-picture it on a better day but somehow the opportunity never seemed to come along during this summer.

The quilt has done me proud anyway and I'm over the moon (probably several planets too!).

Spring in the City Rozette

I recently received some lovely news in that my quilt Spring in the City won second prize in the Comtemporary Quilt Category of the British Quilt and Stitch Village show held at the Uttoxeter Race Course. The quilt itself arrived back home safely today, accompanied by a blue rozette and certificate. That meant I could take the above picture of it.

This quilt is one of a series of work inspired by our trip to New York back in March/April 2016. Although the quilts in this series all look quite differently they started life in the many photographs I took during that trip. This flower one has now sparked a whole series of it's own featuring flowers as I fell quite in love with making them. So you can expect more. Needless to say they are amazingly time consuming as the flowers are all hand embroidered and embellished. I used Hero Arts stamps for them.

You can read more about this particular quilt (which went through a tedious revision during the making process!) in a previous blog post here. All the efforts have paid off handsomely in the end!

Colour Waves

My quilt Colour Waves recently returned from the Great Northern Quilt Show, held in Harrogate last weekend with, as you can see below, a red rozette, signifying a Judge's Merit. Always a wonderful surprise.

This quilt came about by pure accident. I was considering recycling my very old and large computer. It had not been used for many a moon (probably years) but still was the only gadget in the house that has Electric Quilt installed. I can't install it on my new laptop as that has no CD drive and my old lap top simply has no space. So I was thinking if I really wanted to hang on to the computer, just to keep Electric Quilt handy. I opened the beast and had a look at all my saved quilt designs.

Of late I have been back to designing with a squared notebook and pencil and it works well for me (as it did before computer design took over) because it gives me time to think while I draw away. However some things are just so much more simple with software like Electric Quilt and a quilt featuring oval shapes in a variety of sizes is definitely one of those.

In the sidebar you can see the Blue Waves quilt that started off my series of oval wave shaped quilts. I had thought I was finished with them after all this time but I suddenly got the impulse to make a more modern version using my treasured collection of Tula Pink fabrics.

And here it is! The quilt is hand and machine pieced (using computer designed templates), hand and machine quilted, hand embroidered and embellished with size 11 seed beads. It measures 44.5 x 76.25" or 113 x 178cm. I think this will now definitely be my very last version in this series of quilts and the computer itself is on the way out!

Spring in the City

Finally I can share this quilt with you as I have retrieved the rozette that came home with it after the quilt had been displayed at the National Quilt Championships in Sandown, back in June. Somehow the rozette got lost on my desk and turned up again when I stopped procrastinating and picked up my Tax Return form. It's sort of ironic as this quilt too has been the subject of much procrastination which is not at all typical for me.

I started making it not too long after our trip to New York in April 2016 and it was of course inspired by that city's skyscrapers and also by the fact that there was so much spring like greenery and blossom to be admired there set off against the grey and red stonework. The fabrics I used were all from the first fabric collection of Uppercase fabrics. The background is pieced and represents the buildings and then I made the flowers separately using the same fabrics and a collection of Hero Arts stamps. They are hand embroidered and embellished. The quilt itself is machine and hand quilted. I finished the quilt in February 2017 (those flowers took forever!) and I thought it was done.

Then one night not long after that I woke up in the middle of the night with the thought that the randomly appliquéd flowers were all wrong and that they should be in line with the buildings. Once you have a thought like that, it doesn't let go even though I thought myself mad. So there was nothing else for it but to remove all the flowers again and lay them out as I had imagined. I was right in that it looked much better but sadly I didn't have enough flowers to complete the layout. I needed at least 50 more (in the end there are more than 100 flowers on this quilt).

Could I make myself produce more flowers? Yes, I could but it took the best part of last year (which to be honest was mostly taken up with settling in a small, sad traumatized dog so making flowers was a perfect way to fill in the spare minutes).

Almost a year exactly after I thought I had finished Spring in the City, I finished it again, this time for good! And the effort has paid off as you can see by the presence of that rozette which represents the Prize for Embellishment at the show. You can see some of the details of that embellishment in the above pictures. Of course I will never know if that might have happened anyway in it's previous incarnation but I do know that I am much happier with it which in the end is all that matters.

Secrets of the City

It's amazing how I keep getting caught out by events at the moment. Perhaps I'm trying to keep too many plates spinning, or  attempt to joggle with too many balls.

It was a complete surprise to receive the Secrets of the City quilt back this week from the Quilts UK show held in Malvern last weekend. I had of course mailed it off but that was quite some weeks ago. A receipt duly arrived before I had even thought to track it, and after that the quilt simply vanished completely from my mind, as did the fact the show was even on.

So it was very satisfying for it to be handed over by our postie, and discover a Judges Merit rosette inside the package, together with the quilt.

This is one of my pieces inspired by our visit to New York (now already more than 2 years ago!) and you can read more about it here.

Troubled Waters

Or not such troubled waters as it has turned out! This quilt was selected back in January 2017 for the Studio Art Quilt Association (SAQA) Made in Europe travelling exhibition and spend last year going to all kinds of exciting venues in the US. Then in September 2017 I was informed that it had also been juried into the Made in Europe - Collection One SAQA exhibit to travel in Europe. Hurray!

Today it starts it's travels at the International Biennial Quilt and Textile Art show in Beaujolais, France from the 11th - 14th April. It can also be seen  from the 8th - 10th June 2018 at the 5th Quilt Festival North in Groningen, The Netherlands. At the end of July it will be at Galerie Textil et Kunst, Sebastiansplatz, Munich, Germany.

You can read more about this quilt here.

My quilts may get to more exciting places than |I do at times, but this morning I had the great pleasure of seeing a deer gently grazing in a neighbouring field. It looked up and saw us, but it had the good grace to stand still long enough for me to get the phone out and take a picture. I should think so too, after completely demolishing our ivy during the snow!

Sweet Delight Journal Quilts

 I managed to get to the Spring Quilt Festival at Ingliston, near Edinburgh, yesterday. It was good to get out as cabin fever had started to set in being up on our hill in among the snow and ice. And it was lovely to see my Journal Quilts displayed. The theme of the exhibition of JQs this year was: Sweet Treats, and I was inspired by the words in William Blake's poem Auguries of Innocence that read: "Some are born to sweet delight".

 I had a lot of fun playing with my collection of beads and buttons, as well as sparkly embellishments and felt. The Journal Quilts (sized A4) looked quite sweet. In fact after viewing the entire exhibit I felt like eating an ice-cream!

I finally put to use some beads I bought probably more than 30 years ago in a stall on the beach in Weymouth on a trip we took my mother-in-law on. They had been carefully treasured (hoarded?!) but were just what I wanted for these little quilts. You can see them in the top row in the picture above. The flower trim in the bottom row above were obtained from Daytona Trims in New York during our trip there in 2016.

Garden of Earthly Delights

It was the plan to write this blog post on Sunday but things got in the way and there wasn't enough time to give it my proper attention so today is the day instead.

This quilt started as a fun project on Instagram. I discovered it back at the beginning of August last year on the@GnomeAngel Instagram feed. Her proper name is Angie Wilson and you can find her here.  The idea was to make all the 100 blocks of the 100 Modern Quilt Blocks book; Tula Pink's City Sampler over a period of 100 days using the hashtag #100days100blocks. I first spotted the sampler book and quilts on the Gotham Quilts stand at the Brooklyn Quilters' Guild exhibition during our visit to New York, and had bought the book.

As luck would have it I needed a good excuse to buy a fabric line I had totally fallen in love with. It's called The Garden of Earthly Delights, designed by Studio KM for FreeSpirit Fabrics, and of course inspired by the painting of the same name by Hieronymus Bosch. I ended up buying the complete range!

When the project was over I had 100 6" square blocks and I decided to surround each block with a round of 1.5" strips so that I would end up with finished blocks that were 8" square and a quilt that measured 84" square (including the border) so that the quilt would go on the wall above our bed.

Because of the riotous colours I knew there would be no point in hand quilting it. The stitching would take forever but would hardly be seen so I decided to ask Kay Bell to longarm machine quilt it for me. Like me she lives in the Scottish Borders and her work is exquisite. It has won her many rewards and prizes. Together we selected an overall pattern (I think it's called Bejewelled) which fitted in with the Garden theme of the quilt.

I have taken some detailed pictures so that hopefully you can see it well. The quilt was exhibited at the Scottish Quilt Championships at Ingliston this past weekend. You can see it hanging there below (not a good picture as the lighting in the hall is not the best) and it was great to discover that Kay had won the prize for Best Computer Guided LongArm Machine Quilting for this quilt. Huge congratulations to her and so well deserved. It turned out that both she and I received a rosette. What a treat. I'm over the moon about how the quilt turned out and after collecting it on Sunday it has now been installed in our newly decorated bedroom.

This was a project that I thoroughly enjoyed doing. In fact I did it all over again (#100days100blocks2017) and those of you who follow me on Instagram @friedaquilter will have seen each block as I posted it finishing in the middle of August this year. I used African fabrics for this year's version (all from my stash) and have now sewn all the blocks together with black sashing. Needless to say I'm going to ask Kay to look after that one for me too.

Dare I mention that @gnomeangel is planning the third round next year, starting in March. All you have to do is follow her on Instagram and follow the instructions that she will post there in due course. There are some great prizes to be won too. The idea is that you  have to post the block on the day set for it, although you can make it earlier. This year I made a start and produced the first 10 blocks or so before the project began, so that I had a head start should life get in the way, and then I simply continued making the blocks in time to stay ahead of the posting. Most of the blocks are simple (not all of them though) and they are only 6" so little fabric is required. It offers a great chance to use up some of your stash! Or buy a whole new range of yummy fabrics!

The Secrets of the City

After a wonderful dog walk in the Penicuik Estate I arrived home to find a message on my phone that told me that my quilt The Secrets of the City has won 2nd Prize in the Innovative Section of the British Quilt and Stitch Village show on Uttoxeter this weekend.

The quilt was inspired by the visit to New York last year and is one in a series of quilts that incorporate little collage squares made from fabric/paper.

Quilt is machine pieced, machine and hand quilted, machine appliquéd,  and hand embellished with beads (mostly bought in New York)

Blogger seems to be down but I can still post using the BlogPal app! Excuses for the strange layout though!

White amaryllis

My contribution to FlowerFriday on Blipfoto. 

Our electricity supply is being upgraded so no electricity today and no wifi but I will try and keep up with my phone!

This photo is courtesy of SAQA and shows that my quilt Troubled Waters made it onto the poster board of the exhibition Made in Europe recently shown in Daytona, FL during AQS week. Hurrah!

Troubled Waters Quilt

By popular request here is an image of Troubled Waters, the quilt that has been juried into the Made in Europe exhibition organized by SAQA as mentioned on my previous blog post. The quilt had it's starting point last winter, when the rivers, specially the river Tweed here in the Scottish Borders, flooded badly and record water levels were reported all over the country with disastrous effects. Parts of nearby Peebles were very badly effected and the results can still be seen a year later.

It was a good reminder that a scarce resource that is badly needed all over the world (Wateraid is a good charity who tries to put this right) can also be very destructive when there is too much of it.

Water has played a big role in my life, coming as I do from a country dominated by water and parts of which were wrestled from the sea (The Netherlands), spending time on ships (John was in the Merchant Navy), previously living close by the sea on the West Coast of Scotland in Largs,  and having a serious water issue with the house we presently live in here in the Scottish Borders,  back in 2000/2001 (now happily resolved).

This is not by any means my first water quilt.  That honour goes to the very first quilt I ever made back in 1997 called Water Rings. It won the Scottish Quilt Championships in 1998. And there is also Blue Waves, my quilt stolen back in 2006 (see the special page on this blog dedicated to that story, tab above) and I'm sure water will continue to inspire me.

The quilt was raw edge machine appliquéd, hand and machine quilted, machine couched,  hand beaded and embellished.

Troubled Waters

The first good news for 2017 arrived yesterday in my e-mail inbox. My quilt Troubled Waters (you can see a small detail of it above) has been juried into the Made in Europe exhibition, organized by Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA).

It will be shown at AQS Quilt Week, Daytona Beach, FL March 1 - 4, 2017, AQS Quilt Week, Lancaster, PA, March 29 - April 1, 2017, Paducah Art School Gallery, Paducah, KY April - May 2017 and AQS Quilt Week Grand Rapids, MI August 16 - 19, 2017.

My quilts lead a very exciting life than I do!

I will write more about this piece and show you the entire quilt once the first show has started.

Terra et Aqua

It is a bit of a mad house here at the moment because I'm moving from my painting shed in the garden into a room in the house. We have had some night frosts already and paints don't like to freeze. In fact it ruins them so it's a good idea to keep them warm. It's always quite an operation that makes me realise how much "stuff" I have, and this year is made even more complicated because we are working on the two old cottage rooms in our house, taking down stud walls, drying out the rooms and insulating them, and finally putting the walls back up and decorating. Fortunately we are doing it one room at a time so I am in the other room. Chaos doesn't quite cover it!

I'm also packing a quilt to send away next week and these are two details of it. Once it returns I will try and remember to show the entire piece which is small. (less than 24").  It is richly textured with yarn and is also beaded extensively. It's called Terra et Aqua (earth and water).

A Visit to Paradise

A cold and damp day was left behind in order to visit paradise, located for now at The Queen's Gallery at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh. It's an exhibition called: Painting Paradise; the art of the garden. It's a beautiful show incorporating not just paintings but also ceramics, botanical drawings and even beautifully embroidered chairs. I loved the audio tour the gallery provides for visitors. It was very informative and also had lovely music to accompany the exhibits. The catalogue too is gorgeous although I recommend buying it after visiting the show. It's a very hefty tome and you don't want to carry it around while looking at the exhibition.

At the entrance to the gallery there are two facing doors, featuring the lion and the unicorn respectively, symbols of the United Kingdom, the lion being the one for England and the unicorn for Scotland. The unicorn is accompanied by a view of Arthur's Seat in Holyrood Park while the lion features Edinburgh Castle and the skyline of Edinburgh.

The show will continue till the 26th February so plenty of time for a visit. I then treated myself to a cup of tea and a scone in the coffee shop next door before walking back to the car park nearby in the streaming rain.

It was good to get out of the house, that feels so very empty at the moment.

Open European Quilt Championships

Today is the first day of the Open European Quilt Championships, held in Maastricht, The Netherlands. This is their 20th anniversary and to celebrate they have invited all the championship winners from the past to show their winning quilt again together with a more recently made piece.

As you can tell from the above picture I won this show back in 2006 (the only British winner to date!) in the days pre-blog and pre-blip and when we still had a very slow dial-up connection at home so I needed no further excuse to show you the two quilts that are in Maastricht at the moment here.

This is the winning quilt from 2006 called Foxfires, a translation of the Finnish word for the Northern Lights. It's made entirely of silk, was foundation pieced by machine, hand quilted with additional hand beading and beaded tassels. It also won various other prizes at other competitions and was accepted into the AQS Paducah show in 2008.  I think it has stood the test of time.

I wanted to add a more modern piece of mine that sort of toned in with Foxfires and this piece called La Linea d'oro (Golden Line) fitted the bill. You have seen this before here. It too has been a prize winning quilt for me, winning the 2nd Prize Small Wallhangings as well as the Embellishment Prize at the Scottish Quilt Championships in 2015 as well as the 1st Prize Samll Wallhangings as well as the Surface Texture and Embellishment Prize at Quilts UK, Malvern in May 2016.

If per chance you find yourself at the show which is on till Sunday I would love it if you could take a picture of my quilts hanging in situ in Maastricht.

Embellishment Reward Scottish Quilt Championships

It was wonderful to see my quilt Ramsay Monument hanging at the Scottish Quilt Championships yesterday accompanied by a yellow rozette. It toned in beautifully with the fabrics I used. It also means that the quilt had won the Embellishment Prize.

I collected the quilt yesterday and could therefore photograph it this morning together with it's reward. You can read more about this piece (made with fabrics from The Linen Cupboard collection by Ella Blue fabrics) here. This has been a very successful quilt for me so far!

Flower Tower

Yesterday I received back a small quilt (30 cm square) that had been on the road for over 2 years. It's a good chance to take an objective look at your own work and I'm pleased to say that I'm still happy with it. It was made for the Seasonal Garden exhibit by the European Quilt Association (EQA) in which the UK was allocated Summer. The show made it's début at the Festival of Quilts, Birmingham back in 2014.

Since then it has travelled to Sweden, Austria, Switzerland, France (twice in different locations), Italy, Spain, The Netherlands, Belgium, Latvia, Denmark, Finland, and Hungary. Oh that I could have gone with it!

The piece was made out of gelli plate printed fabrics. The background was machine pieced and free machine quilted with a pebble pattern. The flowers were made by stamping on flower patterns (using Hero Arts Magical Flower (CG284) as well as Layered Flowers (CL496), cutting them out, hand stitching on them and then layering them up and attaching them to the background with a large round bead. I also added sequins and beads. The flowers are only attached to the background by their centres so are quite 3 dimensional. I had been a bit worried about how they would stand up to all that travelling and packing/unpacking, but all was well with them.

It's lovely to have it back home again and just looking at it afresh has given me ideas for new work. It has also made me wonder if we will continue to remain members of EQA when the UK Brexits?!