AURIfil Quilt Patchwork and Embroidery Threads Are Now Officially My Sponsor

Christmas has come early this year, for this morning I received a wonderful parcel from AURIfil in Milano/Italy:

All my favorite colours and more! Wow............... :D

(the orange spools are #50 and the green spools are #40)

There are 36 wonderful new colours, so that makes it 216 plain and 36 variegated colours in all to choose from. The only colour I never use is pink and I rarely use red, but that only takes away 30, so it was very difficult to choose from all that eye candy!

See the 36 new colours here.

This is my collection of AURIfil #50:

I can't wait to get started, my head is full of ideas (too many, in fact) - where to start? No pressure........ he-he.

A big thank you to Alex Veronelli for making this happen ☺

Published!

I have been featured and interviewed in a magazine for the first time! It is the German magazine Patchwork Professional (Issue 3, 2009) and I can only just spell my way through. Four pages, I can't quite believe it.................

The first two pages features my quilt "Rage", which has been exhibited at The Festival of Quilts (FOQ) 2008 ("Judges Choice") and at The Danish Guild Conference 2009. It is very difficult to photograph, as the wholes in it comes out as white "dots" - depending on the background colour. Also shown is my "Thin Blue Line" quilt, done in a challenge by The Contemporary Quilt Group and exhibited at the Dudley Museum, FOQ and Loch Lomond Quilt Show (2008-9).

In the next two pages I demonstrate how I make the holes in the quilt:

Also featured is my quilt "GardenDreams" that was on the cover of Quilting Arts Magazine (issue 23).

My blog friend Jenny Bowker (and now also facebook friend) graces the cover and main feature of PP.

I have been admiring her quilts for years, so it was great to meet her and see her solo exhibition at FOQ.

When departing for the festival, neither of us had

received our complementary copy, but I was lucky; my friend Ineke Berlyn had a copy that I could borrow to glance through and also to show to Jenny.

Because of my winning at FOQ, I also got my "Little Thin Blue Line" quilt featured in The Guild magazine "The Quilter" together with the 2nd and 3rd prize in the "Miniature" category.

And various categories in Patchwork & Quilting Magazine:

Festival of Quilts - I have Won My 1st Major Prize! (updated)

"Little Thin Blue Line" (30x30cm / 12"x12")

Hello all, can I just share with you that I have won my first major prize in a quilt show! 1st prize for my miniature quilt here at the Festival of Quilts in England. I'm so proud , not the least because art quilt + miniature quilt normally are two separate things. Miniature quilts is traditionally just that: Traditional.

Update: Getting my prize on stage from Margaret Walker of City & Guilds (thanks Sandy)

"Another Thin Blue Line" (120x120cm)

On top of that I've got a Judges Choice for my Art Quilt - my feet are not quite touching the ground ;O)

As it happens, I got this by Lisbeth Borggreen, a fellow Dane, whom I happen to know, but of course she didn't know that when she gave me the prize. As she said last night, it must be our shared sense of Scandinavian taste that applied.

Sorry to make this so short for now - am very keen to get over to the exhibition, and will update later. Thanks also to all those of you who have complained about my lack of blogging lately - I promise to blog more in future ;O)

Journal Quilts 2009 - The Next Four Months

This is the next four Journal Quilts in the 2009 series - May, June, July and August.

Here is the starting point. What can you do with this lot:

This is what I have done:

May and June

July and August

Detail

Detail

They are still for the Contemporary Quilt Group Journal Quilts 2009.

The challenge was to make them 6” by 12” (15 X 30 cm), either portrait or landscape orientated.

Minerva - Summer Quilt Exhibition part 2

Back with more pictures from the Minerva - Summer Quilt Exhibition courtesy of Judy Fairless.

Ps. Click on any picture to enlarge!

Minerva - Summer Quilt Exhibition

July 13th - September 12th 2009

I belong to the Contemporary Quilt Group who once again has arranged that our Journal Quilts is being exhibited. This time at the Minerva Arts Centre in Wales. Each of us has been invited to select four of our 2008 Journal Quilts.

These are the four quilts I have chosen from my Journal Quilts 2008

I have tried to arrange them as they hang in the gallery 2 by 2 but to no avail, so here they are one after the other.

This simple post has taken me more than four hours to make! Very frustrating, as I had to keep reloading pictures that disappeared when I rearranged them. Most times everything would look ok in the preview, but look so differently in the blog itself. What is a preview for then?

Finally a bit like I want it......!

Update: Candied Fabrics said: Try using windows live writer it's free software, but downloaded onto your computer. You hook your blog to it (easy peasy) and then write posts on your desktop, making the pix do what you want, then push publish at the end - everything is just right!

It didn't work - I have a Mac and work in Pages and don't have any Microsoft programs on my machine.

If anyone out there have a similar thing for a Mac, I would really like to know, because this has been very frustrating!

More update: I would like to thank Merete Veian for pointing me in the direction of her friend Ingunn Kjøll, who changed from PC to Mac and therefore no longer could use Live Writer as referred to in the above. She has now found Blogo for Mac and I posted the above post in it.......... there is a free 21 day trial or to buy 25$.

Journal Quilts 2009 - The First Four Months

When I have been procrastinating for a long time, it is very difficult to get back on track again (and includes a great deal of guilt on my side!!) - but here we go...............

For the Contemporary Quilt Group Journal Quilts 2009 the challenge was to make them 6” by 12” (15 X 30 cm), either portrait or landscape orientated.

Collage 1 - January.............. Collage 2 - February

Collage 3 - March................ Collage 4 - April

For this years theme I have choosen ‘Explore Collage’ and I decided to make all the backgrounds in one go, as a kind of hole cloth, with heavy machine quilting, then cut it into 12 pieces, aprox. 13” x 7” = my blank “canvases” for the whole year.

Work in progress and all the fused silks and linens.

Quilting samples

The 12 blank "canvases"

Materials for the “canvas”: Various textured off-white silks, wadding, commercial cotton (backing) and silk thread.

Technique for the “canvas”: Fused and free-motion machine quilted.

Materials and technique for the collage: ColourCatchers® and cotton threads. Fused and free-motion machine quilting.

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And another thing - I just love to read all those inspiring blogs, it just haven't happened lately - so I'm looking forward to get back on track in this matter too.

Update: Regarding the Aurifil Quilt Patchwork and Embroidery Threads I haven't forgotten to test them, only I still have a lot of deadlines and therefore it will have to wait a bit more ;O)

Aurifil Quilt Patchwork and Embroidery Threads

Gosh how time flies when you are procrastinating……..

I want to share a lovely little story:

A couple of weeks ago I finally got round to join Facebook and within a few days I had quite a few friends, mostly people I already know from the quilting world, which is how I prefer it. Then one day a man I had never heard of wanted to be my friend?!? What had I let myself in for………… It turned out that we had several mutual friends in the quilting world and that he is the head of Aurifil Quilt Patchwork and Embroidery Threads in Milan and sponsor of many quilt shows. So I was happy to let Alex Veronelli be my friend, he was merely networking ;O)

In Facebook you can be a ‘fan’ of something or someone, and Alex asked me to be a ‘fan’ of Aurifil Quilt Patchwork and Embroidery Threads - which I promptly did. After a couple of hours I thought, hang on, this is a brand of threads I have never heard of, nor tried, how can I recommend that?

So I wrote Alex and asked if he would send me a little sample pack, so I could try them out and he kindly agreed.

But I never expected this:

This is what I received - wow - a big thanks Alex, I’m really looking forward to trying them out……… At the moment I’m working on some quilts in other colours (for quilt show and a magazine, so I can’t show them on my blog just yet), but I will try them out soon. Yummy, yummy colours - the chart on the wall is for the cottons and the one standing behind the reel holder (my own) for the wool/acrylic.

Four different sizes cotton (3 of each)

#50/2 the size I normally use for piecing (top row)

#40/2 for quilting smaller quilts [journal quilts, little germs, etc] (middle row, left)

#28/2 that’s interesting, I usually use a #30, so this will be slightly thicker (middle row, right)

#12/2 that is quite thick, and might only work from the bobbin, so the quilting must be done from the back. Haven’t tried this before. (bottom row, left)

One 50%wool/50%acrylic (3 of each)

#12/2 - not quite sure what this is for? (bottom row, right)

Although it isn't so "green", I like the fact that they are covered in a thin layer of plastic - but would have prefered the plastic reels to have been made of card instead.

If you are on facebook, you can find Alex Veronelli here, and the Aurifil Threads here, where Alex gives some wonderful guided tours of the factory - much fun!

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Why do I show you a picture of some empty tissue boxes and an empty loo-roll (toilet paper roll)?

First of all - they are not empty at all. It is all about recycling........ the tissue boxes double up as bins (trash cans to you over there ;O)) - very handy when you have the quilt group around or by the sewing machine, armchair etc. The empty loo-roll is covered in ducktape and has a little opening at the top - this is where I can safely dispose of any sharp objects, such as needles, pins and cutting blades.

Bookbinding the Easy Way

Last week I made this little fellow, using some new equipment called 

Bind-It-All or Zutter.

(Watch the little demo on the link)

I first came across this method on 

Liz Plummer's Blog and Gunnel's Blog 

and it's what I have been looking for, for a very long time.........

For the first book I made, I was just using  all sorts of scrap paper, anything I could lay my hand on. 

This is 6" by 6" (15 x 15 cm).

Here it is - the Zutter:

Once I had discovered that you use the same machine for any size, I decided to buy a beginners kit, always a good option on trying something new:

Here is the book without any decoration:

I'm looking forward to making my own sketchbooks with exactly the papers I like, in sizes I choose, it's all very exciting!

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In near future DH and I are going narrowboating, and he always makes an enlargement (in A4 and laminated) of the part of the trip we're doing. So for my second try with the Zutter, I decided to bind these pages as well - for ease of use on the boat.

I made a few mistakes, perhaps I shouldn't have cut the holes for all 12 pages at the same time ;

O) - but all in all I'm very pleased with the result.

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For my own use I also photocopy the route we are taking and paste the pages into my sketchbook, that way I find it easy to know where we are and can add my own drawings and notes. Here is a sample of last years sketchbook:

Collins / Nicholson Guide to the Waterways

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Addition - more on narrowboating:

Carol Sloan (who also have a Bind-It-All) quite rightly asked me what a narrowboat is, so I hasten to add to this post to clarify what I'm on about. ;O)

A narrow is boat is between 45' to 70' (14 - 22 m) long and 7' (2 m) wide, we are usually on a 66' (20 m). Used to transport goods on the English canals and rivers in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries - first by horse-power, later by steam and then by fossil-fuel. As the landscape varies a lot in hight, there is a lot of locks. Now mostly used for leisure and/or houseboats.

It is steered from the back (it's actually me steering here) and the pace is so that you can walk briskly beside it at the towpath - where the horses used to tow the boats.

Here we are at a rather large lock (sometimes only one narrowboat will fit, sometimes two, but tightly) - this tells me it's a river rather than a man-made canal.

And finally a picture of how it used to be - lots of space for cargo and very little space for living quarters, often a whole family would live there.

Picture courtesy of

THE HISTORY OF THE NARROW BOAT STEAMER – SO FAR…..

Getting to know George

I have started using George on one of many of my old UFOs - the reason for starting with this being that more than half was already quilted.

These blocks were given to me in 2001(!) by five members of a (non-quilting) group I belong to.  We meet once a year for a long weekend and I host it . As that years hostess present, I'd asked for quilt blocks (30x30cm/12"x12") and sent them the fabrics. This is what I got........ They didn't like the gray-blue fabric. (The blocks are hanging on my black flannel design board)

So I added 11 more blocks, sorry I couldn't find any pictures, and I haven't got a clue of when I did the blocks, the quilt top or the quilting.......... only long ago. I have fleece on the back, something I find very useful for utility quilts. Very useful in the garden, on the beach or in the car.

Will post a picture of the finished quilt, with my added blocks. ;O)

I have used the above book quite a lot, and was delighted to find that you can still get it. BUY THIS BOOK

This one is new, I can always use some more inspiration for quilting lines. I never mark the quilts, I find it stressful to follow lines. BUY THIS BOOK

And finally I bought this book, it also have some free-motion quilting inspiration and a mountain of inspiration for various techniques - wonderful! Those of you who read Quilting Arts Magazine knows what to expect. I read a review by someone who was disappointed with it, she felt she had already read it via the magazine. But I see it as a great reference book, I can go straight to it, instead of waisting hours looking through piles of old magazines. BUY THIS BOOK

George has moved in with me!

DH has helped me with this. And no, he is not jealous........... ;O)

I don't know about you, but I always happen to have a pile of "not there yet quilts" lying around - some of these has been with me for a number of years, I just haven't got around to quilt them yet......... The blue one is still only a quilt top, the other ones has been sandwiched.

Enter George - now I really have no excuse!!!

George is a 'mid-range' quilting machine, for motion-free quilting only, with no stitch regulator (so it is still my skill that makes the stitch length) and it has the biggest "throat" or "harp" on the market. Off cause this is not only for previous work, but for all future quilting. Jubiiiiiiiii.

I have bought George from Angela & John Pickering who did the delivery last Thursday. Luckily they stayed on the island for a few days, because I had a few problems with the tension. George prefers polyester threads, but I like cotton and silk - so we have compromised - I now use polyester in the bobbin, I can live with that ;O)

Then after they had left, I had further problems: George keept skipping stitches big time. I tried all the tricks in the book: Changing the needle, clearing lint/fluff, changing thread, using a thinner thread in the bobbin, using "sewers aid' etc. 

In came my big hero DH, who had a good look at the mechanics of a sewing machine (he can take a car or computer apart and put them back together again, he cooks too, no I won't trade him ;O) ) - he made some mechanical adjustments, and now George works like a dream................

5000+ Visits to my blog

When I started my blog at the end of March last year, I had no idea how many people was going to read it. And it took me a couple of weeks before I discovered that you can install a NeoCounter (Click on the name to get there), showing how many people and from where, visits your blog. 

 

This morning the total said 5002 visitors from 76 countries - wow - thank you so much to everybody for the visits! 

You can get all sorts of gadgets, some are for free. Do make sure to set it up so it doesn't count yourself, that would give a false picture of visits to you blog.

Warning: In the beginning it can be addictive to check all the time. ;O)

Another recommendation is the sitemeter (Click on the name to get there) - that gives you information on the time the visitor spends on you blog, how many pages they look at and from which site they have been redirected. What you can't see is who is visiting.

I have made mine unavailable to visitors, but here are some samples (you can see on the total that I have installed it much later than the NeoCounter):

Have fun!

Fat Quarters Storage System

Fat Quarters Storage System - not my term - but very intelligent coined by Pam Rubert, 

or better known as PaMdora - she has surgested that I should post a picture of the whole unit. 

Here it is...........

Studio Tips

I'm not a big fan of ironing boards, so I don't have one in my studio, that doesn't mean that I do not iron or press. I do - big time! When I had one, it was always in the way, no matter where I put it, so now I have made myself an ironing pad instead. It works really well for me, it is situated next to my cutting table, but away from the sewing machine [on purpose], so I have to get up and stand, between sitting down at the machine. (I am surprised how small it [the ironing pad] looks in the pictures - when I work at it, it feels rather large?)

When I need to iron bigger pieces or quilts, I move the ironing pad over onto my cutting table, see picture below. This works because the iron is a detachable one, I love this, because it means the cord won't be in the way when I iron or press.

I have made the ironing pad with and old cork noticeboard, wadding/batting, old sheeting and a staple gun. Yesterday I re-covered it for the fifth time. This one is 90 x 60 cm or 36" x 24". It is very rare that I feel the need for a bigger one.

PS. This is unusually tidy for me! I savour the moment............... ;O)

Eye Candy Silks

For a long time I have been keeping my smaller pieces of silk in a big basket in what some quilters poetically call 'archaeological order' - not only was the basket always in the way and I had to move it all the time,  when I did need these fabrics I could never find what I wanted............

So last night I sorted the silks on the table (I always listen to audiobooks when doing tasks like this - two birds and all that......) Yummy eye candy!  [I had to stand on a rather tall stool to take this picture,  puhh, glad I didn't  slip or anything]

I keep all my fat quarters in some cheap mdf Ikea CD racks - luckily I managed to buy enough before they were discontinued. They work great, and yes if the fabrics fade, I want to know, rather before, than after I have used it in a quilt that after! :O)

BEFORE

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AFTER

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After: Close-up

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So now my collection of Colour Catchers and my used, dried tea-bags (I blame Judy Coates Perez for the tea-bags......) don't have a home any more - will have to look into that :O)