Young quilters rock!

We've just spent the weekend at the Quilters Guild AGM and conference in Swansea. We had a fabulous time doing the Young Quilters workshops and enjoying the traders.
My DD, Bronwen, was delighted to win the Bettina Longcroft trophy in the 12-16 category for her oriental dragon quilt.
As you can see, she was very pleased and thinks quilting rocks!

Teeny Tiny Squares swap

My teeny tiny squares quilt has arrived at it's new home, so I am able to post a picture of the completed quilt.
I was very pleased with this one. I mixed up hand and machine quilting. I love the look of hand quilting, but the machine quilting stabilises the quilt nicely and the hand quilting adds a nice accent.



I hope Tracy liked it.

Another finish!

I finished this one at the weekend, but have been incredibly busy and haven't had chance to post it.
This weekend is the AGM and conference of the Quilters Guild of the British Isles in Swansea. As we're the host region there has been a lot to do to get ready, including the challenge with the green fabric that I've posted about before. I have seen some of the submitted quilts and they are amazing. Mine is quite an ordinary quilt in comparison, but it's finished and I like it. It doesn't show up very well in the photo, but I've mixed up machine and hand quilting again. I'm really liking this. The machine quilting stabilises the quilt nicely and the hand quilting adds a bit of depth



I'm hoping taht normal service will resume after the weekend. Perhaps I can continue the roll and get another quilt finished very soon.

"Can I help?"

I think someone else fancies a go at this quilting lark!

I may have been quiet during March, but..

.. I certainly haven't been sitting on my laurels!
March is often a busy month in our house including DS's birthday - he was 17 last week which means he can now start learning to drive!

I have managed some stitching time though. The applique circles from last time are going well. I haven't started on the Charisma fabric yet - still practising, but I'm really pleased with how they're turning out.
I have also been making a swap quilt for the Teeny Tiny Squares swap. My partner is like me and loves all quilts it seems, so I decided on scrappy. This hasn't been an easy swap though. My first idea was a disaster, with a 9-patch of 1 inch squares inside a paper-pieced star. Usually I can do foundation piecing pretty well, but not this one! I had to unpick several times, and when I'd finished the block it was awful! Then I thought I'd try something simpler. No dice! This was unpicked and remade a few times too. However, it has turned out pretty well in the end. I've machine quilted it with some hand quilted focus areas and I think it's not bad.
Here's a couple of sneak peaks of the top before quilting, just in case my partner is looking





I've been busy in the kitchen too - made my very first ever batch of marmalade. It took hours and hours, but was well worth it as it's yummy!

Practice Makes Perfect ( I hope!)

I have a little collection of Moda Charisma fat quarters. I know I really don't need any more fabrics, but they really spoke to me! Marianne at Busy Bees made a lovely medallion quilt from the range based on Kaffe Fassett's Knot Garden design. It looks just gorgeous and consolidated my decision to buy the fabrics. I've been thinking long and hard about what I'm going to make. I do love Marianne's quilt, but really want to make whatever I make my own. I have finally decided on using this pattern, iDo. I want to make the rectangles a bit more staggered, but otherwise I do love this design. Only trouble is..... my applique skills! I don't really want to use fusible web, as the fabric is quite fine, along the lines of Liberty Lawn. So, once more Marianne came to the rescue. She talked me through, and demonstrated the template + starch method, and the following are my first 2 practice pieces!



I am pretty pleased with myself.

In case you are wondering, DJ is now fully recovered from his broken leg and is bouncing around like his usual self again ( although you wouldn't beleive it from this picture!)