Roskilde Quilt Exhibition Part II

Hello, hello!

Last week I shared with you some photos from a recent quilt exhibition I attended in Roskilde, Denmark.  If you missed those photos, be sure to follow the link and check them out, they were really lovely.

In addition to the traditional patchwork quilts and art quilts on display, there was also a themed challenge exhibition in which quilt guilds from all over Europe participated.  This year's challenge theme was music and the entries spanned every imaginable possibility.  Here is a selection of my favourites:

"Square Dance"

After enjoying the exhibition displays, it's on to the shopping!  Probably the most popular items this year were a series of Christmas fabrics in black with metallic bronze, silver or gold - the bronze was super popular and also came in a white and bronze variation.

I, however, fell in love with a very different Christmas fabric and I couldn't resist this cute little candy pack of Valentine's prints, either.  I also picked up a new thimble to try out.  I have a pretty strong dislike of thimbles.  I prefer to stitch without them and simply build up a callous but sometimes necessity dictates the need but I've yet to find a thimble I like.  Could this be the one?  I'll keep you posted on what I think.

Great day out and already looking forward to next year's exhibition.

Roskilde Quilt Exhibition

Welcome back!

This weekend was the annual Danish quilt guilds' exhibition in Roskilde, Denmark.  I've been really looking forward to going - having a sewing machine that can actually finish projects now really motivates a person when it comes to projects.

The exhibition featured a lot of art quilts but some traditional quilts and some with modern palettes.  I snapped a variety of photos to share.

My favourites of the day include 'Fireworks' (the yellow, pink, orange, red & striped quilt) and the spectrum star above.

Check out Part II for some photos from the music challenge exhibition and the shopping goodies.

Quilted Triangles Thank You Card Set

Whew!  I survived the crazy week leading up to Thanksgiving, then managed to throw (if I do say so myself) a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner with my closest friends, followed by another - although slightly less crazy - work week.  So, I think that calls for a much-needed blog update.

So with my guild's 10-year anniversary exhibition now over and done with, my friend Ingrid and I decided that the amazing ladies who organised the exhibition should receive some sort of recognition and thank you, if only just from us.  We decided to get them some miniature orchids and that I would make some thank you cards, so that's what we did.

As you can see, I decided to have some fun making little patchwork-like backgrounds from my scrap papers.  I used my still-new Fiskars hexagon punch to create many (many, many) hexagons, which I then cut down into triangles.  They were a lot smaller triangles than I had originally intended but by this point I was committed and honestly, there was something strangely therapeutic about sticking down tiny triangles onto cardstock.  Must just be me.  Yup.

Once glued, I then machine stitched the triangles down.  Then I layered up a small doily and die-cut circle onto each background and used either red/orange or green Thickers to spell out 'tack' (Swedish for 'thank you') as my sentiment.  Finally, a small sprinkling of gold sequins in a visual triangle to finish off the toppers.

Each card in the set is a little different, as I changed up the background base paper and card base colours and all of the die-cut circles were different.  And on the inside of each card I stamped 'thank you, thank you, thank you' in a vertical column.  Needless to say, they went over very well with the recipients.

I've been wanting to do this sort of 'Paige Evans'-style punched shape backgrounds for ages but I don't have a very large selection of punches to use so this was the perfect opportunity.  And while it was a bit fiddly cutting down all of the hexagons into triangles, it didn't actually take very long in the grand scheme of things and wasn't very onerous at all.  I think it all comes down to your own personal level of acceptance on fiddly tasks.

The triangle shapes could also work well for birthday-themed cards, as they give a bunting banner sort of effect.  You could also try this technique with a monochrome colour palette or an ombre effect would also be cool.  You could even add more stitching for a different effect and more texture, too.

Last one!  Cheers, everyone.

Guild Exhibition - Part III

Welcome back!

Okay, today I'm sharing the final photos from my quilt guild's 10-year anniversary exhibition from September 26-28.  If you missed part I or part II, please follow these links.

Today is an admittedly random selection of eye candy that I particularly enjoyed for one reason or another.  Rather than drone on, I'll just let the photos speak for themselves but feel free to ask questions if you want more information on a particular piece.

Thanks so much for stopping by; hope you enjoyed the virtual tour of the exhibition, not that this at all even scratched the surface of the extensive amount of projects on display.  So inspiring!  I'm looking forward to our next exhibition but not quite yet...need a rest first!

Guild Exhibition - Part II

Hi again!

This is part II of my quilt guild's 10-year anniversary exhibition, which was held recently September 26-28.  Be sure to also check out part I and part III.

So today I thought I would share our exhibition challenge event, my Haberdashery group's challenge display and my own projects I entered.  Let's start with the very impressive challenge event.

Challenge: Celebration
The challenge theme was celebration and entries could either be a wallhanging or a bag.

Challenge Entries

Okay, I'll admit, I was biased toward the wallhangings so while the bags did also receive their own first, second and third place winners/prizes, I only photographed the wallhangings.  Sorry, don't hate me.

1st Place: Marion Loftberg

2nd Place: Birgitta Hortin

3rd Place: Name Unknown

My friend Ingrid also submitted an entry into the challenge.  Both she and Birgitta included the tiniest little LED lights onto their wallhangings, but unfortunately not all of the lights were turned on or working - shame.

by Ingrid Hortin

Haberdashery Challenge
Then my Haberdashery group had all of our Persian Pickle (mine and the group's) projects on display.  They looked fab!  Shame the lighting isn't better but they looked nicer in real life.

Haberdashery Challenge

My Submissions
And finally, I submitted a few things of my own to the exhibition; not many since I have a very bad habit of not finishing my sewing projects without great effort but still...

Happy Spring Wallhanging

Mobile Phone Holder

Woven Milk Carton Basket (large blue one)

And finally, Ingrid, Birgitta and I submitted the baby quilt we made at the start of summer for a co-worker who was due mid-June.  More information on this particular project will be shared in the coming month.

Bugsy Baby Quilt

All right, that's it for part II!  Thanks for stopping by.  The final part III will be shared shortly so please stop around again for the final photos.

Guild Exhibition - Part I

Hello, hello!

So my quilt guild held their 10-year anniversary exhibition last weekend, September 26-28.  It was fabulous!  Such an amazing selection of projects and displayed in such attractive and fun ways.  I took a *lot* of photos so I'll be breaking them into different posts to avoid overwhelming everyone.

So to begin with, our joint guild quilt/wallhangings were on display in the main entrance.  Each block was made and contributed by a member of the guild.  Roughly half our membership contributed to the project.

Guild Joint Quilt

One of the things the majority of people commented on the most was the beautiful displays and how so much of the exhibition had artfully been crafted into attractive vignettes.  Here are some examples:

Cosy Corner

The Writing Nook

Park Bench

Sofa Pillows

Hallowe'en End Table

Then there was the fun chicken display, complete with straw and wooden crates.

A Chick, Chick Here and There

My friends Ingrid and Birgitta entered their lovely Amish dolls.

Amish Dolls

There was also an entire room devoted to winter and Christmas projects.  The piece de resistance was certainly these adorable penguins in their very own boat, complete with penguin quilted flag...

A Boat Load of Penguins

And these 3D Santas were very popular to make last Christmas and were quite the hit during the exhibition, too.

A Parade of Santas

Okay, that's it for today!  Be sure to come back for part II and part III soon.