Festival of Quilts

Yesterday I took Wonderful Mum to the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham.  The day did not start off well.  Just as we were pulling into the NEC complex, my car broke down.  The power steering went and I had to drag that car round a roundabout and several turns to get to the disabled car park.  

Suffering from severe depression and anxiety as I do, wonderful mum understandably thought I was going to fall apart and turn into a sobbing mess.  To be honest, so did I.  But I didn't.  I calmly called the AA (breakdown service) and was told someone would be with us at 11.45 - the time of our workshop.  I still didn't crumble.  We went into the show and had a bit of a look round, then I went outside when the AA man arrived and called me.

My power steering fluid is leaking, but he couldn't see any on the ground or in my engine so we don't know where it's leaking to. There was some mention of crank shafts (possibly) but that's as much detail as I can give you!  He said he would take the car home for me and would my mum be OK in the van.  But I didn't want to leave!  I'd only just arrived and it was 11.50, I could still make the workshop (I'd sent mum to the workshop when I came outside).  I said we'd make our own way home and off I went.  Calm stayed with me the entire day.  I also had a bit of a sense of unreality and a slight numbness which I assume were my meds kicking in to keep my sane.  Despite these feelings, we had a brilliant day!  I didn't spend as much money as I'd budgeted for, knowing I have a car to repair.

Mum picked up some gorgeous half yard pieces to make table mats with (I might be bringing her over to the dark side!), I asked what line they were from and it was Block Party by Sandie Gervais.  As I loved them so much, I bought a jelly roll, on offer for £25.  I've never had a jelly roll before and have no idea what to do with it. Suggestions for jelly roll patterns (and not a jelly roll race) would be appreciated.

I bought these fat quarters of Colour Theory with the vague notion of making myself a bag.  When I got home I checked and I have a charm pack of this line.  It was fate.

Mum bought this piggy thread catcher pattern and a fat quarter of piggy fabric for me to make up for her.  She hasn't arrived at the dark side yet.

As I'm enjoying my Rowandean embroidery so much, I bought another one.  You have to turn your head to see it.  Blogger, photos, need I say more?

I also picked up these two photo mounts for the embroideries and a pair of scissors as mine are becoming blunt.  I suspect you can sharpen scissors.  I'm too lazy for that.

The workshop we took was Embellish a Bag with Rag Rugging techniques.  We learnt to do a circle of yarn loops using a kind of crochet hook with a thick shaft.  Then we did a circle of fabric scraps using a prodding tool.  Or maybe a prodging tool.  Not quite sure, at that point in the instructions I was having a quick panic that the man I'd given my car to might not really be from the AA as I hadn't asked for ID...

And here's a terrible shot of the bag.  It's nowhere near complete and I didn't buy the tools as they were quite expensive.  I'll have a look online or try using my ordinary crochet hooks.

I did look at lots of lovely quilts, including our EMMQG entry.  I forgot my camera so didn't manage to take any quilt photos at all.  Hopefully plenty of other bloggers did and will publish posts for us.  I did take a photo of our quilt on my phone, but can't figure out how to take it off Instagram.  I'll work on it and show you later.

I haven't told you the most exciting thing.  Wonderful mum (and wonderful dad) bought me my birthday/christmas-for-the-next-26-years-present.  I don't have it yet, it will be delivered in a couple of weeks but I won't be given it until November.  

It's this amazing sewing machine!!!  It's got 8.5" of harp space, a knee lift control, extension table, tons of different stitches and different settings, auto thread cut, comes with loads of feet and a 5 year warranty.  I think I also get a load of thread with it!  How cool is that??  Bear in mine my current machine doesn't even have a needle-down setting...

I enjoyed playing with it!  So excited!

Sunday Stash (on a Friday)

I know it's Friday, but I'm posting my Stitch Along progress on Sunday so I shoehorned this in here!

I managed to find some bunny fabrics at the Quilt and Stitch Village, so they had to come home with me.

Please excuse the photos, Photobucket is acting up and I can't rotate or crop photos.

I did think I had that bright pink ricrac rabbits, but it turns out I have it in red, so we're OK!  I'm still not convinced I don't already have the white-background one above it.  The other two are Lewis & Irene.  Isn't it great that I always have the full details of all my fabrics!

Walking by a stall, a jelly-roll caught my eye.  It was Block Party by Sandy Gervais.  I was torn between the jelly roll and the layer cake, but the layer cake won.  I love the colours in this line.

I also received my April fabric for the colour club at Simply solids.  Three Kona blues and... some other fabrics!  Wow, the information just flows out of me... I wouldn't be surprised if Molli didn't de-link me.

Linking up to:

Sunday Stash

Looking for my Grow Your Blog Post?

It's here.

I'm linking up to Sunday Stash with Molli as I did a bit of accidental fabric buying.



I went to John Lewis for some embroidery thread (and was surprised to discover they don't sell DMC).  Of course, I had to have a quick look at the fabric, and what did I find?

Bunnies!

Not just bunnies but bunnies with umbrellas and bunnies riding bicycles!  These are FreeSpirit Playdate Wheels and FreeSpirit Playdate Clouds.  Can't believe I missed them before.

Sunday Stash

I'm not sure if Molli's doing a Sunday Stash this week, but if he is, I'm in.



I've got three stash additions to show you this week.  Starting with this:

That is a 120" wide roll of wadding.  Or is it batting?  Kerry!  I can't remember which is our word!  Anyway, I needed wadding/batting and didn't want to buy little packs, so this was the answer.  To the right you see one of my much treasured communist posters.  This is from the Czech Republic.  I love me a good communist poster.

Then we have the result of Oakshott having a half price sale and sending me an email about it.

I've wanted some Oakshott for a while and this F8th bundle of Lakes was mine after a few minute of frantic clicking.  It's shot with silver and I did intend to open it out to show you but I couldn't bring myself to do it.

The following F8th bundle was the result of a fabric swap hosted by Mara at Secretly Stitching. 

The theme was text prints, and most of them I really like, but there are 2 Christmas ones which I'm not so chuffed about.

Also, look what I found on one of them:

and on another:

Coffee stains.  Right in the middle.

I won't be joining in with the next round...

Festival of Quilts 2014

Good afternoon, I think I'm back!  The horrendous side effects seem to have abated and, fingers crossed, the new tablets seem to be doing their job.  A small light has appeared in the distance and I'm hoping it's not another train...

I've been meaning to write this post for a while, so this will serve as my first post back.  A few weeks ago I went to the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham.  It was my first time.  I took my mum and met Kerry there.  Due to a torrential downpour, the road was flooded so it took us so long to get there that we didn't have much time.  I did, however manage to do some shopping!

I fell in love with this bunny and with her beautiful coat.  There are other clothes patterns available.  Before you say "another bunny you're never going to get round to sewing", buying this actually encouraged me to start the one I bought in Harrogate that is my ALOYF goal for the month!  More on that soon... and hopefully a finish by the end of the month.

The finished hare quilt above was hanging in this booth so I had to buy the pattern, though I will call them bunnies.  It's fusible bias tape so I need to get started on the Mackintosh one I bought at Harrogate first!  The kit on the right is a gorgeous embroidery.  Hopefully it will be gorgeous when I've finished!

Continuing the bunny theme...

Bunny fabrics!  The Eternal Maker turned out to be a great source of bunny fabrics, and the two middle ones that look like aliens at first were from a cheap stall.  All destined for my bunny quilt - which I now have an idea for!

I loved this map fabric, but when I tried to buy it on the first stall I found it on, they said I had to buy it in 60cm increments... which lead to the top of Russia being cut off! (the continents aren't lined up, they're "tossed" onto the fabric).  I refused as I wanted Russia - I'm intending to embroider the places I've been and considering I crossed the length of Siberia, I think that's an integral part.  I bought it from another stall who said I could have whatever measurement I wanted.  The little blob things to the left fell into my basket after I tried to convince myself they were bunnies.  I drive a blue Mini with a checkerboard roof and checkerboard stripes on the side.  This fabric ALMOST has my car on it, so it had to come home with me.

I think this is worthy of Sunday Stash, so I'll be linking up with Molli.

Want to see the quilts that caught my eye?  I have no details of who made them (with one exception), so if anyone wants me to credit their quilt, leave me a comment and I will gladly do so.  Quilters featured here - your quilts are amazing (as were a lot of the others but we only saw about half the exhibition).

   

  

 

  

This one is by Kerry!