Auckland Festival of Quilts

I spent the day at the Auckland Festival of Quilts.  This is an annual event showcasing beautiful quilts of all sorts of styles, there were also retailers and workshops.

I met up with Linda and Raewyn and we walked around admiring and commenting on the quilts of many talented makers and friends.   I also caught up with  Wendy and Anne, out of town blogger friends too.  Of course a little shopping for upcoming projects was done also.

Pictured are some of the fabulous quilts and details from them,  that caught my eye.

Ode to New York by Hazel Foote

Instastitch by Fiona Mendel

Graceful Beginnings by Tracey Roberts

Victoria by Anne Joule

Postcards from Sweden by Samantha Scott

Round and Round by Shirley Sparks.  I loved all the texture in this quilt.

My Around the Corner Quilt by Rebecca Bishop

Snapshots of Tents of Armageddon by Cheryl Houston

Untitled by Mary Hawke

Dandelion Wishes by Margaret Reid

7 Pigeons came to Lunch by Gaylene Davies

Rubik's Cube by Chizuko Hoy, made from recycled and dyed woolen blankets

AMH Stash Log Cabin Quilt by Shelley Pathak

Sea Hare, Land Hare, Gobal Catastrophe by Robyn Rognstad

Mathew's Gaming Geek Quilt by Karen Lee - recycled Tshirts and shirts.  Inspiration for Mr J's next quilt.

My purchases of the day.

Weekending

Loving

• This  velvety berry toned pelagonium I am trying to grow from a cutting,
• this quilt at Houston Quilt Market

Reading

• Fiction and non fiction.  The Words in my Hand was a lovely read, set in mid 17th century, Netherlands.  It is a fictionalised account of French philosopher and mathematician, Descartes and his relationship with a young woman.  Beautifully written, you can almost imagine yourself there.  Code Girls is about the unknown American women who were code breakers during the wars.  A really interesting read so far.

• Inspiration and Instruction, Kaffe, Liberty and embroidery

Baking

• Lemon Squeezy Slice - recipe here.  I made mine in an 18cm x 30 cm tin, not the 20cm x 20cm tin recommended - I think the icing to base ratio was just perfect this way.

Sewing

• I know I said I wasn't going to work on my AMH quilt, but I had a brainwave for the backing while trying to sleep the other night, so the fabrics have come out again, and cutting has commenced.

Happy weekending to you all.

** *Also, due to a lot of spam comments I have been receiving, I have had to enable comment verification on my blog, I hope this doesn't stop you from commenting.***

Sew, Stitch, Snap, SHARE

I've been busy!!

I cleaned up my sewing room on Saturday, which meant that I felt inspired to sew. Because I had room on my cutting table for pressing a lot of seams, and laying out strips of blocks, and pinning strips of blocks to quilt halves, a lot more sewing was done.  Which then leads to my big show off moment - I have finished my AMH quilt - well make that the quilt top. It measures approximately 60" square.

This has to be the fastest quilt top I have ever completed.  It was such an easy block, yet it looks so effective, and I guess you could make them any size you like.  Measurements for my block were:

1 x  5" square, and then two strips of solid 1 x 5"x 1.5" and  1 x 6" x 1.5".

This will be carefully put away for now, and the more subdued Seaglass Sampler Quilt pulled out and worked on,  I'm aiming to get this turned into a completed quilt top by the end of the year.

It's your turn to share now.  It doesn't matter if it's embroidery, a quilt, applique or epp, or some other stitched or sewn project.  It can be a start, a finish or just a wip.  All we ask is that you follow these guidelines when linking up:

• Link up any post from the past week that features  a sewing or stitching project you have been working on.

• Somewhere in your post, please link to this one.

• Also please take the time to read and comment on some of the other linked posts, it is always nice to know that people are reading what you have written, and we are trying to encourage people to keep blogging and reading blogs.

Thanks  for joining us.

Julie and Linda

Bird Dance - Completed

Meeka thinks any quilt is for her.

My sister Janine's Bird Dance Quilt.

On Wednesday last week,  I received a parcel at work.  Lots of happy jumpy claps followed.  It was my Bird Dance Quilt returning from being quilted by Leanne otherwise known as Quiltmekiwi.

Leanne also quilted my sister's Bird Dance quilt, so I knew she would do a beautiful job.  Every bird block has been quilted differently using Leeanne's free range doodling skills. The birds just POP.

My quilt differed from my sister's, in that I omitted the berries that were appliqued and embellished on the border, so I asked Leanne to do feathery flourishy quilting on that.

Batting is a wool/poly blend provided by Leeanne.  The backing was a fabric from  Laura Gunn's Cosmos Collection, and because I had plain borders, I felt that I could get away with a bright multicoloured binding so used a Philip Jacobs print called Tree fungi which picked up a lot of the colours.

The last photos shows both my sister's and my Bird Dance quilt, completed in colours and styles that are individual to us.

Now we're trying to decide on a project for next year, the cushion I had originally picked has fallen off the want to make list.

Have a fabulous weekend.

**To see the story behind us making this quilt see here  and here**