Jukebox Quilt and some Important News

Let’s start with the exciting news… I am getting one of the Textile Galleries at this year’s Festival of Quilts!

This is a very big deal for me. I applied for a gallery six years ago and got rejected and it’s taken me a while to give it another shot. I am so excited to be able to share my work in person in Birmingham this August.

If you have been meaning to visit FOQ but never quite got round to it then this is the year you should come!! The dates are 31st July to 3rd August.

I am making lots of exciting new quilts and I’ll be gathering up all the important quilts that mark my journey over the last 8 years too (it’s a really big gallery!). The gallery is called ‘Journey to the Centre of a Quilter’. Read about my gallery here.

Jukebox is one of the new quilts for the exhibition. I actually started this a year ago. Though you could say it was begun three years ago as the top section of this quilt is made from two class samples from my Journey to the Centre of the Earth workshop, one taught in Norway and one in Shetland, both in 2022.

I dug out the initial photo of these completed blocks (above) which shows that these both had quite a journey before they got as far as Jukebox as I kept changing the backgrounds. Eventually I decided they should have this cog like armour around them.

By this stage I had used sample blocks from this class to make my Journey to the Centre of a Flower quilt and my Eye Catcher quilt so I needed to find something new to do with them. Since I finished Jukebox I taught the class again and turned the sample into yet another variation, the Doodlebug quilt (more on this below!).

Instead of making two more of the quarter circle blocks and placing these in some sort of circle arrangement I decided to stick with a curved top and then work downwards on this quilt.  The idea was to use all my ‘greatest hits’ of improv piecing to create something that looked a little like a Wurlitzer (though at the weekend someone said it looked more like a Dalek!).

I kept working downwards and I was having so much fun that it got longer and longer. It finished at 85” which is a tall quilt for me! It’s only 55” wide so fitted easily on to the 8’ frame of my Handi Quilter Moxie XL.

I used a very straightforward, limited version of my Modern Improv Doodle pattern to FMQ the quilt. There is so much going on that I didn’t want to be too fancy on the quilting. I really love using this doodling style and am always happy with the result, it’s like I’ve finally found my FMQ Nirvana!

I actually finished this one towards the end of last year but it’s taken me so long to get a proper photo due to the damp weather/darkness of Scotland in the winter and the tallness of the quilt. Eventually it all came together the other week when my son came to stay, the weather behaved and I persuaded both son and hubby to stand on chairs outside for these shots.  

I have been at the Scottish Quilting Show for the last few days and Jukebox was the star attraction on my stand.

I entered Doodlebug into the new Professional Makers category in the competition and it won a silver rosette! Thank you to Aurifil for sponsoring the category and to Vlieseline for sponsoring the whole competition. The quilt was made entirely with Aurifil thread and I used Vlieseline 80/20 batting so it’s very fitting!

One of the suggestions I had regarding the Textile Gallery at FOQ was that I could take tours of my gallery first thing in the morning and the organisers have agreed to give this a try.  These will be held on the Thursday and Saturday and cost £5 (numbers very limited).

Tickets for FOQ go on sale tomorrow to Quilter’s Guild members. As well as the Gallery Tours I will be giving four other lectures including a new one all about my gallery (so if you miss the tours then book on this!). Check out all the lectures here. I’m not teaching any workshops this year as will be too busy with the gallery. I do hope lots of you will come and see me there this year!

Meanwhile I am reigning in some of my other business activities so I can concentrate on making quilts ahead of FOQ. This means I won’t be ordering any more fabric once my current stock is gone (at least until after August). I have just restocked my website after the Glasgow show, click here to see what I have left.

Right back to my quiltmaking!