How exciting is this! I'm the winner!!!

Thank you everyone who voted for my quilts in the Bloggers' Quilt Festival.  Not only did both of my entries win their categories, but I also won Viewers' Choice with my la passacaglia quilt!!

I'm slightly stunned, but very thrilled too.  Thank you to you all for your support and votes, and all the lovely comments left on my blog.

I was hoping that la passacaglia would do well, but I certainly didn't expect to win the Small Quilts section with my Honeycomb Spin. I guess people liked it because it had different design techniques - the hexagons were glued on and then quilted in a spiral pattern. Credit must go to Anna Hicks of Nancy's Stitch Studio who taught me this pattern in a class.

Amy has a fair method of sharing the prizes around, so I will only receive the prize for Viewers' Choice. (I will show you the loot when it arrives.) The good thing about Amy's policy is that my online friend Maryse from Canada will receive the prize in the Hand Quilting category for her beautiful Anna Maria Horner Dresden Plate quilt - click here to see it. 

You can find links to all the winners here on Amy's blog. Again kind friends, thank you so much for voting for my quilts.

Bloggers' Quilt Festival - Honeycomb Spin

Hello and welcome if you're visiting my blog for the first time. Yes, the Blogger's Quilt Festival is back - and this time it's for bloggers.

Back in May 2016 Amy decided to hold the festival on Instagram, but it just didn't have the same feel as the original Blogger's Quilt Festival.  I didn't get to read the stories behind the quilts, nor get to know the quilters in the same way. So I'm pleased it's back on blogs this time because I love finding new quilters online.

Here's my first entry. It's my Honeycomb Spin and it's in the Small Quilts category.

I made this quilt in a class at Nancy's Stitch Studio in Wellington, New Zealand.  The tutor was Anna Hicks and it was a very enjoyable class. We used the Modern Hexies technique made famous by Nicole from Modern Handcraft, but we finished them differently.

Laying the hexagons out neatly was the hardest part!

Once the hexagons were all glued into place we quilted in a spiral pattern which really gave the quilt texture and interest.

the back

We finished this quilt with facings rather than binding. It was an interest touch, and a new skill for me.

Finished size: 40" x 25"
Design: Anna Hicks

My other quilt in the Bloggers' Quilt Festival is my la passacaglia quilt and you can read about it here.

Voting isn't open just yet, but I really encourage you to go and check out all the other quilts in the Bloggers' Quilt Festival. More and more will be added to the linkups until entries close on 24 September. Then voting will be open from 25 - 30 September. Winners will be announced on 1 October.  It really is a great way to see a huge range of quilts from the comfort of your own home.

Honeycomb spin and flying geese all made with batiks!

Several months ago the lovely people at RJR Fabrics sent me some Jinny Beyer Malam batiks to play with.  I made two quilts from these batiks - Honeycomb spin and a flying geese table runner.

Firstly - Honeycomb spin.
I learnt to made this quilt in a class at Nancy's Stitch Studio in Wellington, New Zealand.  Anna Hicks was the tutor, and we had a great time using the modern hexies technique of wrapping fabric around paper templates to form the shape, and then removing the papers and gluing the hexies to the background fabric.  The spiral quilting was the final step and it secured the hexies to the background.

I deliberately staggered my hexies from dark to light to get the shading effect. The batiks worked really well for this.

the background fabric is Radiant Gradients by Hoffman

If it looks like a lot of hexies, you'd be right. I must have used about 350.

I used King Tut variegated thread for the spiral quilting and love the circles it created.

The back looks pretty good too:

This is an out of print piece by Amelia Caruso - the same artist who designed the border fabric I'm using on my la passacaglia. We turned the edges back and made facings rather than doing a normal binding.

The finished size is 25" x 40".  I'm really pleased with how this quilt turned out, and will hang it on the wall in my house.


Secondly, I made a table runner with some of the leftovers:
I've always loved blues and greens, so I decided to make a blue and green table runner for my hall table.  I didn't really have a pattern, but I knew I wanted to use flying geese.  I only have 2 Bloc-loc flying geese tools - the 1.5" x 3" finished, and the 2" x 4" finished, and I used both of them.

I did a bit of algebra, and worked out that 3 of the big flying geese would be 12" finished, and 4 of the small flying geese would be 12" finished, so I made sets of various colour combinations.

Once the mat was the right size I hand quilted it with Aurifil 28wt and big stitches.

I used some of the leftover pieces on the back, and gave it a random binding, because by then I was running out of blues and greens.

The finished size is 11.5" x 36" and it fits perfectly on my hall table.

RFR Fabrics have kindly agreed to let me give away some Malam batiks to one lucky person on Instagram.  So if you're on Instagram and follow both me and RJR Fabrics, you can enter the competition on Instagram.

I realise not everyone is on Instagram, so I'm going to do a separate giveaway just for blog readers next week.