3 New Quilts and one is already a Prize Winner!

Back in January I finished 3 quilts. Now it’s March and I’m finally getting around to posting about them here! And one of them has already won a prize!

I wrote about The Thread House Academy, our new online teaching platform, in my last post and this, followed by the Scottish Quilting Show in Glasgow which was last week and where I had a gallery space, has really kept me so busy for the last few months.  The good news is that both ventures have been a great success so all the hard work has paid off!

Above you can see my gallery stand at the Glasgow show. It was wonderful to see so many old friends and students! I also taught 3 workshops so hopefully made lots of new friends there too.

I also entered a quilt to the competition and won second prize in the Modern Category!

This was Eye Catcher, one of the new quilts I finished earlier this year. As with most of my recent quilts the starting point has been class samples and the need to use these up!

For the last few years I have been teaching Journey to the Centre of the Earth workshops and the quarter blocks of this eye quilt started off as samples from this class. I didn’t want to make another quilt similar to my ‘Journey…’ quilts so I elongated the curve slightly with an idea to produce a giant eye.  I thought this would be a really fun idea and wasn’t expecting some people to find this an alarming or even scary prospect!

I worked on this on and off last year and then in December I made a concerted effort to finish off a few WIP.  It’s not a huge quilt (around 60″ x 50″) and I had 3/4 of it finished already so it didn’t take long.

Once loaded to my Handi Quilter Moxie I did a very tight matchstick quilting, horizontally across the quilt, using a variegated Aurifil 40/3 cotton thread in a turquoise shade.

This has given the background an almost woven effect. In effect it’s created a patterned fabric through the quilting.  I did have a little issue with bulging in the middle due to all those wonky curves, so I ended up blocking it and loading it with heavy books on top of towels in the middle (once wet and pinned out square). It worked perfectly!

I was delighted to win the silver rosette at the show!

Next up in my pile of WIP was another class sample quilt, this one from my Pattern Rings workshop.

This class stems from my Watermelon Eyelashes quilt and I was looking for something different to do again so each of these blocks has a different coloured background to the black and white ‘pattern rings’. It also has a very regular ‘on grid’ layout (for a modern quilt).

I opted again for straight line quilting on my Moxie. I just love using the channel locker and the relaxing movement walking side to side! I also think straight lines work really well for these bold modern quilts. This one features a new version of my ‘random plaid’ grid where I use double lines, spaced close together, instead of a single line. It’s quilted with Aurifil 40/3 in my default off-white shade.

I call this quilt Fruit Salad due to all those juicy colours.

Speaking of my Watermelon Eyelashes quilt, this has been on display at QuiltCon in Atlanta and actually got a lot of attention. People really seemed to love all the pink! And it actually sold! First time I have had a quilt sold through a show, so much excitement here.

I didn’t make it to the show but Karen Lewis did and got a photo of the quilt hanging for me.

Lastly I made a new orphan block quilt.  I haven’t made one of these for almost a year and the orphan blocks have mounted up again. Plus I found a few old ones I was still saving and decided it was time to use them.

This includes two and a bit Patchwork People and two Avery Garlands. The large wonky circle block was made from left overs from the Fruit Salad blocks which I was finishing prior to this one.

It’s amazing how well the colours match in this quilt but I guess they are all my favourite colours and I just use them all the time, so of course these disparate blocks work together!

I quilted this using FMQ on the Moxie but with a straightish pattern. It’s what I call square interlocking rainbows but with some areas filled with close lines. I didn’t use a ruler (as I am too lazy for it!) but I find the more you quilt straight lines without a ruler the less you need one! Again I used the Aurifil 40/3 in off-white.

I had intended this quilt for charity but I really love it and so haven’t been able to part with it just yet!