Festival of Quilts 2017

Donna Goymer - Free to Roam

On walking into the two halls of the Festival of Quilts, this is the first quilt I gravitated to.  Everything about this piece speaks to me of the strength and just plain amazingness (?) that is an elephant.  Maybe because we are all mammals we feel an affinity or maybe its the big ears (I'm told mine are not small!) but elephants have such appeal that I wasn't the only one making this quilt my first stop!

Henriet Bovenkerk - Free Living for Everyone

Grace Meijer - Meiko

For some reason at this show I was particularly drawn to trees.  I have an unfinished tree project in the works so maybe that was why.  Apart from elephants, there is a large percentage of the 200 photos I took of trees!

Suzan Engler -Winter Silence

Jacqueline Amies - Deck Chairs

I had never seen the 3D creations before but was blown away by them!  This one in particular was just so much fun and so much detail, hats off to the maker.  All the deck chairs are quilts, top and bottom.  There are hats, seagulls and flipflops sewn items too!  I voted for this as viewers choice.

Montse Forcadelli Blasco - Camelia

I love the pixelated effect in this top one and the organic madness of the circles below!

Cathering Jack Coupland - Referencing Sonia

Yes another elephant!

Pam Morris -Nellie

Sue Trevor - Violin

The violin came second and a waistcoat first but I loved the colours in this and it was so hard, to not pick it up!

Dorothy Hill - Ohio Stars

The use of fabric in this one speaks to me somehow!

Ex DC quilters - Amsterdam Houses

One of the surprises I found at my first Festival of Quilts was recognising a mile away bloggy friends quilts.  I spotted Kaja@Sew Slowly and Abigail @Cut and Alter 's pieces from quite a distance away and had to say hello like meeting old friends!

Kaja Ziesler - At the Edge

Abigail Sheridan de Graaff - Should I Stay or Should I go

Of the modern sections Victoria Finlay Wolfe's gallery was amazing - I love her use of colour.

Some of the other modern quilts that caught my eye.  Seems like circles are calling to me too!

Anna Galvin - Broken Records

Sarah Nicholsom - Reflections of Bridge No. 186

Kim Soper - Lincoln

There were some quilts from QuiltCon there and I was so happy to see Lincoln in person.  I just love this quilt and the idea that it is improvisationally pieces just fries my mind!

A completely different portrait that was just gorgeous, was this winner of the pictorial quilts.  I love everything about this quilt: the light, the detail the colours!

Janneke de Vries-Bodzinga - African Village

This running man was amazing and just beautiful quilting!

Birgit Schueller - The Sprinter

I couldn't get a photo of the best in show miniature quilt.  The crowds around it were three and four deep and it was a bit wee to be catching a glimpse of it.  I did see this beauty in the miniatures gallery, teeny tiny flying geese!

Kumiko Frydll - Navigator

Dorothy Hill - Las Passacagalia Goes Large

On the opposite scale of things was a La Passacaglia Rosette going large and this fun quilt with brilliant fussy cut details!

Dawn Monk - My Butterfly Garden

Lindsey Neill - Die Beem

And we are back to trees again!

Janie Harvey - Douglas - Field in France in the mist

So there you have it!  These are the ones I manged to select from over 200.  I hope you enjoyed them in virtual form!

2017: Be open to whatever comes next!

Don't you just love the unexpected little touches in fabric design.  I found this on the selvage of some fabric I bought intending to make a bag but ended up using for a one hour basket instead.  I snapped the photo as I thought I need to keep this!  The fabric name 'Be open to whatever comes next' has really resonated with me and has stayed in my mind these past few months.

All quilt tops that need quilting!

I wrote about being brave and putting yourself out there as a blogger last year, coming up to the New Bloggers Blog Hop and at that time I was just getting ready to host my first QAL, for the Rainbow Rose.  I also had my first teaching opportunity around that time too and developed a class on Traditional blocks made modern.  That involved being brave and open to the challenge and asking for help.  I had very generous proof readers and am very grateful to them for catching errors and testing my blocks.  Thank you to all who helped make the class a success!

Both of those did take up quite a bit of time but I loved the preparatory work as much as actually doing the class and making with the QAL.  I really enjoyed the writing, illustrations, particularly the design work and that sense of pride in a finished blog post, a completed pattern and bound class booklet, and it was just as nice as in a finished quilt!  Just as well, as there were not that many finished quilts last year!



To be fair, I can't be too hard on myself.  As well as being on committee for our local branch I represented the Mid-West branch at the executive committee of the Irish Patchwork Society (IPS).  There were monthly meetings in Dublin, the AGM weekend and I curated my first gallery of modern quilts in the Knitting & Stitching Show.  I also attended 5 workshops, was in 2 Bee's (Stash and Round Robin), 5 swaps, a blog hop, 3 QAL's, 1 Exhibition and looked after the Modern Quilters Ireland blog group as well as my own and that's with a full time job.  Oh and we got a puppy!  I need to take a breath as that was a lot for one year!

It's not surprising my average blog posts went from 2 a week to just about 1 a week in 2016.  So I am forgiving myself for that.  My online time spent commenting on blogs dropped too though and that has me feeling down but I think it was inevitable really with less time to spend online overall.  

My year on IG from Makelight - that neon green?  Definitely Glow in the Dark Vader! and the muted browns?  Definitely the dogs!

So how is 2017 shaping up?  Well as of last Saturday, I was elected chair of the IPS (eeks!  Being brave and being open to the opportunity!), have booked 2 teaching sessions in the Spring in Cork and Dublin, have signed up to 2 workshops in February (yes I am a glutton for punishment),  1 swap also due in February and have a quilt design in the works for the Modern Ireland Quilters Group for the summer and our second exhibition in Dublin called Fun!   Oh and I'm giving a talk at our branch this Friday and still trying to toilet train Maggie, the puppy (yes still!)

Projects half started as opposed to PHD - Projects half done!

So, I'll be blogging when I can on my sewing progress but it probably won't be every week this quarter!  And my quarter a long finish goals - well there are lots to choose from.  All of these I have carried over from 2016.  No wonder I wasn't getting that job well done, finished feeling at the end of last year.  There's 25 projects from fabric to idea, to quilt top, to partially quilted that I haven't given up on yet.  I really wish I could be a one quilt at a time person but I guess that's never going to happen! Still I think this many is a bit nuts!  How about you?  One at a time or all in one go?

So for this quarter, it being quite mental I am going to look at getting 2 quilts longarmed and keep up with swaps and bees, spend more time commenting on blogs and IG and lastly choose the Modern Irish Bee Houses quilt as a me project and try and get that done for our Fun exhibition in May.  Anything else that gets done is a bonus!  That's the plan anyway...

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