Tuesday 19 August 2008

FoQ woop woop!!!

I arrived bang on time, met sis, and then spent the next 6 1/2 hours in quilter's heaven! My main priority was to get to as many sewing machine manufacturers as possible to have a play. Of the 4 I visited, Husqvarna Viking were the most helpful, and I'm expecting to buy the 870 in November. The lovely lady showing the machines looked after me for 40 minutes while I tried stitches, buttons, FMQ, embroiery etc etc. Then she showed my the quilt moving thing which I found would make FMQ-ing a large quilt much easier...£250 easier I hope ;-).

We didn't spend as much time as I would have liked looking at the quilts on show, but I was still able to get inspired. One of the quilts literally took my breath away. It was one I'd seen featured in a magazine, and I believe won Best in Show in Paducah this year. I glimpsed it from the far end of a line of quilts, and nearly ran to see it. It's truly a masterpiece! The winning Large Traditional was truly inspiring too, it was like flipping a coin to decide between the two. I'm so glad I'm not a quilt judge. I adored the celtic bias applique...not a stitch in sight to my amateur eyes :-O

If I'm being brutally honest, and whyever not? I wasn't overly impressed by the winner of Quilt 2008. It was Union Flags made from Liberty lawn prints. The construction was good, but the design wasn't as inspiring as I thought some of those in the open category were. The quilting seemed to me to be utilitarian...purely to hold the layers together. In a grid pattern, and (can I be honest) I saw lots of puckers. Now I know my quilts are puckered where lines intersect, but I'm not an award winning quilter :-/

So on to the best bit...shopping!!! I took my budget and spent most of it. Treated sis to a beginners rotary set of mat 2 rulers and a rotary cutter, then bought myself this little stash of goodies:
From the left: a book on quilted postcards, one on scrap quilts and Carol Doak's 50 Paper Pieced Stars. Then the fabric...now before I start, I know I was only buying fabric for specific quilts, but FoQ doesn't count right??

Here we have a 6m piece of green good for backing fabric, pink and purple batik from Doughty's for H's quilt. See that gorgeous pack of hand dyes in the front? That's from Heide Stoll Weber and is adorable. I don't know what I'll use it in, or maybe I'll just stroke it! Next is the Christmas prints I needed for this year's festive quilt and on the right is some plain white which is PFD fabric. That stone coloured wheel is some Japanese taupe wovens which I've already sliced into 1 1/4" strips ready for September's Bag of the Month.

See the white with all those threads on, the scissors and the purple pen? That's all Madeira goodies I got as a freebie as a subscription gift for British P&Q. The white is called Avalon and dissolves in water to leave a filigree effect with the thread FMQ-ed on it. Also there are some applique pins schmetz needles and a pair of bag handles also for the September BOTM. Finally there's a 24" ruler as my old 18" one was getting a bit faded in the middle and I was having to guess where the marks were.

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