Festival of Quilts

Glenys and I had a great morning at the Auckland Festival of Quilts this weekend. There were over 300 quilts on display, along with the smaller challenge quilts and two exhibitions. A little shopping was undertaken, but we mainly spent time viewing all the wonderful quilts. Here's a selection of the ones that caught my eye, with a brief note detailing each one.  Enjoy ...

First up, my viewer's choice vote went to Rebecca Bishop for her delightful version of a Wendy William's design. It made me smile 😍

The lighting was a little tricky with this pic, but my gosh Fay's embroidery was stunning ...

Love the flowers in this pixelated quilt ...

And this was such a fun quilt, using lots of recycled jeans 

and lots of little stitches ...

It was so lovely to have a show again and to catch up with so many friends.

To see more quilt show pics pop on over to Raewyn at stitchingfarmgirl

and there's a few more pics over at  wendysquiltsandmore 

Linda

the "what if" game

I looked at my nine patch blocks this morning and wondered what if... what if I played with the values of those toasty golds just a little itty bit? 

super happy with the gentle contrast between these blocks

- one with a variety of gold values vs the other more focused one

Ah yes, I'm liking this more & more!

{wink wink} I guess that's why we call this stage a WiP, super fun working things out as I go. 

Until next time, Linda

more nine patch action

I'm back in the sewing room today after four weeks of no sewing! I started making lots of nine patch blocks. I'm loosely following Jeni Bakers recent pattern, "Floral Chain", a fun twist on the traditional Irish Chain quilt. I'm using a yummy wide backing floral as my fabric inspiration, Ruby Star Society Camellia.  

I sorted out a scrappy mix of fabrics, lots of toasty golds, along with some added interest from those little pops of turquoise and pinks... a tad more restrained than my usual I think, but I'm pleased with how things are looking.

I wanted the chain pattern happening with the low volume lights, so my alternate 'flower' blocks are definitely higher contrast, but not nearly all, giving a subtly broken chain. And unlike the pattern, I've cut my strips 3 1/2" wide resulting in 9 1/2" blocks. 

20 blocks down on the design floor today ... more to follow...

wildflowers

And the final in this recent little flurry of finishes... "Wildflowers". It's a scrappy HST quilt from the Heritage Series Quilts - vintage quilt patterns by Penelope Handmade. I started making my HST blocks back in March 2021, you can find a previous post about this quilt here.

I began with a curated bundle of pretty wildflowers, I then added other prints & solids from my stash. I've kept to a limited palette in this scrappy quilt, where the focus is a little play with the gentle variations in value.

For my backing I chose 'New Vintage' by Laura Heine and the quilting was done by Leeanne from quiltmekiwi.  I opted for the Baptist Fan E2E quilting pattern, a real favourite of mine. I love to pair flowing quilting designs with geometric quilt patterns, as I feel like it helps soften up all the straight lines a bit. 

The binding was a lucky stash basket find, a cotton & steel stripe.  Finished quilt measures 58" x 58". 

- a little binding collage showing fabric detail, use & scale

I love taking photos of my quilts, {wink wink} almost as much as I love making my quilts! Once I gift a quilt, it's gone ... so having a photo record here is one way to keep a quilting journal of all my makes. This latest obsession hobby has had me working on improving my photography skills this year! 

We often see quilts flat in photos - I guess to show the whole quilt clearly - but I always think there's nothing better than seeing photos of our quilts being loved & well used too, draped, held, scrunched up and capturing those snuggle moments! 

The grandchildren weren't around to help with the scrunching for me today, but I lovingly crumpled up my quilt for a few last pics ...

Do you take lots of quilt pics too?

Linking up with Kelly for NNT here at myquiltinfatuation

Until next time, 

Linda