Tuesday 24 October 2017

Quilt Show Recap - The Malvern Autumn Quilt Festival

Amazingly I am remembering to do this post shortly after the event itself and not months later when it's become a bit irrelevant!

The Autumn Quilt Festival in Malvern is held at the Three Counties Showground in Malvern, the same location as Quilts UK in early summer (spring?). It's not a competition show as such like Quilts UK and as a result is a lot smaller. And because it's a smaller show, it isn't as busy. The weather is also mixed for this show; it's been really warm a couple of times and others, typical autumn weather.

This year was an autumn weather one I think you could say! The drive over on setting up day on Thursday was quite horrible with very heavy rain and poor visibility on the motorways. It was still raining when we arrived, so Tom and I had our lunch in the van first in the hope it might stop. Not quite the usual view of the hills though!

What hills?!

The unloading and setting up went fairly smoothly. This was the first time at the Malvern shows when we've had a smaller stand space as my mum wasn't trading there too, so it is always a bit of 'fun' working out if the tables and shelving will fit in the space as you had planned them in your head!


Friday was the first day of trading and as is usual was the best day for visitor numbers and sales. Storm Brian blew in Friday evening and Saturday which may have kept a few visitors away that day but overall it was a really good show for me; well up on last year!

And the show's bestsellers? Probably the shaded prints from the Effervescence collection from Robert Kaufman. I suspect a couple of these will sell out at this week's show at Duxford so you need to get in quick if you want some! They can be ordered from the website here if you aren't going to the show.


And so onto the last event of the year, the Quilt Festival at Duxford, my 'local' one. I can be home within half an hour which is great, although it does mean cooking dinners and washing up!
 

Friday 29 September 2017

What's New at TCQ - The Claude Monet Collection

Taking a slight step back in time, shortly before the Effervescence collection was delivered, another digital print collection from Robert Kaufman arrived in stock.

Most of the fabrics I ordered arrived a few weeks ago but the last three prints arrived yesterday, so it's time to share a bit more about them with you. There are a couple of panel prints in the collection which I haven't ordered as I thought they would have limited appeal, but what I have ordered is this wonderful texture print in all twelve colours.


They're such a lovely rainbow selection, I think they are shouting out to be a fat quarter bundle don't you?

The print itself is reminiscent of Monet's brushstrokes

Meadow Monet Texture 17080-270

Pansy Monet Texture 17080-220

But the best thing about this print is this wonderful project  which is a free download from Kaufman's website, or it will be soon...

Rainbow Lily Petals Quilt

I'll keep checking the site and add it as a download to TCQ as soon as it's available as well as kitting the petals in a kit. The other fabrics needed are a sky fabric and solid white.

As the fabrics are a digital print it is priced at £19.50 a metre and can be ordered from the website here.





Tuesday 12 September 2017

What's New at TCQ - Effervescence

Ok, so these posts were supposed to be a regular thing each time I upload a new collection to the website. And yes, they've kind of fallen by the wayside (again) but rather than go back and pick up where I *should* go back to, let's fast forward to last week's delivery of Robert Kaufman fabrics and the absolutely stunning Effervescence!

This collection first came out a couple of years ago and I meant to order it then, but never got around to it. Kaufman have recently added some new fabrics to the collection and they really are awesome. First up are three ombre prints which change colour across the width of the fabric.

Bright Ombre 17061-195

Here's a closer look at the print

Detail, Bright ombre

The remaining fabrics are smaller bubbles in a multitude of colours and combinations. Really can't decide which is my favourite! Today I'm feeling the love for the Mardi Gras colourway...

Mardi Gras Bubbles 17062-297

The fabrics are a digital print so they aren't cheap, but I think they're worth it. They've received a lot of love on social media so I don't think they'll be around for long.....

You can order them here.







Friday 4 August 2017

The Importance of Auditioning Fabrics

A lot of quilters have design walls where they can lay their blocks out for the quilts they are working on. This has a dual purpose of inspiring (or nagging?) you whenever you go into your sewing room to carry on with your project, but it is also great for auditioning fabrics as it can be useful to be able to take a step back, not only to admire your work but also to see if a particular fabric combination is working. There are custom made design walls available on the market but a large piece of wadding pinned up works equally as well.

Unfortunately I don't have the room for a design wall so have to lay out my WIPs on the floor as best I can, and quite often that is a bit of a struggle, especially with three very inquisitive cats!


This last week I have been playing around with the new Sand in my Shoes fabric collection designed by McKenna Ryan. I just love her fabrics; subtle yet strong colours that blend so beautifully. Having made the quilt centre I was stuck about how to finish it off. I'd used a fat quarter bundle and had plenty of fabrics left so there was scope for adding a border.

First off, I thought about adding a simple pieced border

Excuse my little feet!

But felt this blended in too much so I wondered about adding a thin border of the ombre print in the collection instead....but which one?!


And then bingo! I could do both.....just needed to decide which colour worked best for me....

Green?
Turquoise?
or Purple?!

I went for the green option but I think all of them work well.

Ripples in the Sand Quilt

The fabrics will be at the Festival of Quilts at the NEC in Birmingham next week as well the finished quilt, well the top at least. Sadly I won't have time to quilt it beforehand. Kits will be available and the pattern will follow....both at the show and on the website.

Joanna


Monday 29 May 2017

Quilt Show Recap - Quilts UK 2017

The first of the big, must-visit shows of the year is Quilts UK at the Three Counties Showground in Malvern, Worcestershire. The showground has the wonderful Malvern Hills as it's backdrop. It's a beautiful setting and one of the reasons why the show is as popular as ever. And this year's show was no different.

My recap of the show is going to be a little sketchy though as I was only able to be there for a couple of days for personal reasons, namely my son starting his GCSEs. It's not easy knowing you need to be in two places at the same time when there is only you.

My parents did a great job as usual setting the stand up.


The quilts on display at the back were my Very Hungry Caterpillar and Galaxy Stars quilts, both of which have been projects in P&Q and my ever popular Ombre Squares quilt. The fabrics and kits for this quilt were probably the best sellers at the show, so much so that there are maybe only five or six kits left now.

So, for the days I was there; Thursday and Saturday, the show was very busy. Lots of visitors from near and far enjoying the lovely weather (in between the heavy showers) as well as the wonderful quilts on display. As my time at the show was brief and busy, I didn't get the chance to look at the quilts other than the Championship Quilt, 'Latin for Quilters' by Moira Neal. It was a quirky quilt but I loved some of the detail in it.


The quilt also won first place in the Theme category which this year was Gardener's World and the award for Fabric Painting

The only other quilt I managed to take a look at was 'Peony Ring' by Sally Bramald. This was stunningly quilted by Sally, as usual.


Peony Ring also came first in the Bed Quilt category.

Such was my time and the show so busy, that I didn't get the chance to go back to take flat shots of each quilt!

A week after the event now and I think I can say the show was my best ever at Quilts UK. Next up is the National Quilt Championships at the Sandown Racecourse in Esher, Surrey.

See you there?

Wednesday 3 May 2017

What's New at TCQ - Shimmer Echoes

Say hello to Artisan Sprit Shimmer Echoes from Northcott Fabrics!

Blue Lagoon
There are 10 colours of this wonderful panel print which measures approx. 24" x WOF ranging from ebony through greens, pink and purple.

Priced at £8.95 a panel, they are available on the website.

Wednesday 12 April 2017

What's New at TCQ - Galaxy!

The Galaxy collection from Makower arrived in stock a couple of weeks ago. It's a great space-themed range of fabrics which also includes robots.

I cherry picked some fabrics to make this quilt that was featured in the April issue of British Patchwork & Quilting.

Image courtesy of Sharon Cooper Photography

I love the Planets print


And these Rockets....


The Spacemen print is a good low volume/background


And this Stars print is just a really useful print!


All the fabrics are on the website, as is a kit to make the quilt which also includes four matching Linea prints.