Odense Quilt Exhibition

Are you ready for some photo love?

Last weekend my quilt guild took a day trip to Odense, Denmark for the Danish guild's quilt exhibition.  Quilting and sewing vendors from throughout Scandinavia and Northern Europe were there, along with a lovely exhibition of completed quilts on display.  It was a lovely day out and my friends and I couldn't believe just how quickly the day passed by.

A glimpse among the vendor stalls.

Despite all of wonderful shops, I kept my shopping to a minimum (let's be honest, I really don't need anything more right now...)  Here's my very modest haul for the day: 1m of adorable fox and raccoon fabric, a Fiskars hexie punch (for both scrapbooking and quilting), a brooch and a bottle of Best Press starch (Carribean Sea scent).

 And then on to the exhibition...

The Danish guild had organised a themed challenge featuring bicycles and what amazing projects were created for it!  I did quite enjoy the first place winner (below), just a shame that the lovely hand stitched details were rather lost in the distance.

#1 Winner

#1 Winner - Detail

This was my favourite, the third place winner.  The stamp design is such a clever idea and the black, white and red makes for a dramatic contrast.  The details are just so exact and I love the embroidery on the skirt guard and the metal accents for the bolt nuts.

#3 Winner - My Favourite!

And with this being the centennial of WWI, poppies are all the rage right now, as seen by these stunning beauties.

This particular poppy quilt was just stunning - an art quilt with layering that played with the light and shadows, cut into sections and held together with fancy hooks and eyes.

And another amazing art quilt:

And how about this inchie quilt?

Or how about embroidered bees with 3-dimensional, stitched wings?

And the patchwork quilts were equally fantastic, such as this rainbow beauty:

And of course I had to have a photo of this colourful quilt with the cute owls in the top and bottom borders:

And this applique quilt was truly mind-bloggingly:

Now just looking forward to my own guild's exhibition end of this month.

Christmas Collections & November Haul

Welcome back, folks!  So yesterday I meant to share with you a new post and then completely spaced out once I got home.  You know how it is, just too many things going on and the memory just isn't what it used to be, sad to say.  Anyway...

So I skipped making my usual 2Peas order in October.  With the bathroom/flat renovations going on and everything filthy and packed up, there just wasn't any opportunity to craft much so it seemed pointless to purchase supplies I couldn't use.  I was also having issues deciding on which Christmas collection to choose this year.  So here's the conundrum:

Last year I used Echo Park's This & That Christmas by Lori Whitlock - very traditional designs but with some non-traditional colours thrown in (some yellow and aqua) and wood grain, which I was just challenging myself to use.  I really enjoyed the collection pack - the papers were lovely and the sticker sheets had a great selection from which to choose.  I mixed in a few other random bits here and there, most notably a gorgeous white and cream wood grain from Webster's Pages.

So this year, like many of us, I eagerly sifted through all of the CHA-S Christmas reveals...and found myself uninspired.  True story.  I'm not exactly sure what turned me off so many of the collections, although I suspect a lot of it was the choice of green most manufacturers used (green in my least favourite colour and I'm pretty picky about which tints and shades I like).  There was plenty bits and pieces that I liked from a selection of different collections but with this time of year being so manic for me (elementary school teacher, remember - report card writing and parent/teacher talks), I don't have much time or energy to cherry pick and make my own collection.  At the end of the day, it's just easier to choose one full collection and go with that.

Well, I liked the modern design of Echo Park's 'Tis the Season collection.  I also liked the chalkboard elements but... (you knew there was a 'but', right?) there was just so much black and grey, I was concerned that with my black & white photos that the LOs would be very dark and drab.  Why not use colour photos, you wonder?  Well, my parents' house is beautifully decorated but in no colour that pairs well with any variation of red so it's just easier to go B&W.

In the end, I chickened out and bought Echo Park's Reflections Christmas, again by Lori Whitlock.  It's beautiful (and traditional) and I like the pops of aqua again so I'm sure it will all work out.  I'm also planning to add in gold accents with some Heidi Swapp gold lamé, sequins and washi tape.

So what about you?  Which Christmas collection did you decide to go with this year?  Or did you mix n' match?  And why - what was it that inspired or drew you to those choices?

And finally - here's what I picked up in my most recent 2Peas order:

August Haul & Amsterdam Title Page

Well, I'm happy to say that the first week of classes is over and it's the weekend!  Time for a much-needed rest and a return to crafty goodness.  I have two things to share with you today - the first is a video of my August 2Peas box of goodies (AKA the 'haul' video) and the second is a layout using several of these new supplies - yeah!  So, let's get started, shall we?

My latest purchase has focused on two collections: The Pier by Crate Paper and Hello Again by Carta Bella with a mix of embellishments that will compliment both of these collections and easily be rolled into my existing stash.

Note: My apologies for some of the funky shadows - everything looked fine when I was setting up and of course during filming huge clouds rolled in and blocked out the natural light.  And a freight train chose to pass by half way through, too - the unpredictability of living on an active railway.

And now a new layout using some of these fun, new supplies.  This is a title page to go into my travel album for my Netherlands chapter.

Amsterdam

It features a photo enlargement from Keukenhof Gardens and I chose the large, rainbow chevron paper from The Pier to compliment and draw out the beautiful colours of the flowers in the photo.  I also used the Kensei chipboard Thickers for the title and layered them on top of my photo in some white space.

I wanted to keep the embellishments somewhat simple so as not to detract from the photo but I just couldn't resist clustering in some slide frames.  I backed each of them with coloured paper and layered up stickers, flair and a cork arrow.  I also used a few more of my Amy Tan Yes, Please vellum stickers - the tree was just too perfect for this LO and I loved how perfectly the 'delightful' sticker fit into the frame and paired it with a 'memories' phrase sticker, which leads nicely into the title further along the page.

And that's it - just keeping it simple today.  I feel like I've been out of my scrapping routine for some time now am feeling a little rusty so this was a nice warm up to get back into the groove.  Expect more soon.

June Haul - A Video Experiment

So today I decided to take on a little experimental video project - that's right, I played around at making my first ever video.  It's nothing special or ground shattering; it's pretty much just a run of the mill haul video (boy, am I selling this to you or what?).  There is a little back story or two behind it, though, so perhaps that will help to perk your interest and if nothing else, I would love to get some feedback on how I did and suggestions for improvements.  It's been a real learning curve, figuring out how to best set up my tripod for shooting, dealing with a dead camera battery and subsequently editing/merging the two videos together, the long saving and long uploading process...  But here it is!

Okay, so time for a little self-reflection.  I think I babbled too much and really shouldn't have gone through all the papers to the extent that I did.  I also need to remember to keep the products on the table or just barely above them so they fit into the shot and don't blur.  I should also probably close the window to avoid the train noise but today was just too hot to do that.

I also promised in the video that I would link up some of my work I referenced.  Here are my two recent projects featuring the MME Oxford Land papers I've been using.

Gaelic Girls

#1 Dad

I'd also like to take a moment to give a hearty note of thanks to Shimelle Laine for her very generous NSD challenges and prize opportunities.  Last month I took part in many of her challenges and I was thrilled to be randomly selected as the winner for the Scrap About Yourself challenge with this LO:

Just a Little...OCD

Earlier in the week I received an email from Shimelle about the prize - free entry into not just one but two of her upcoming online classes!  The first is her already announced Masterclass on layering - sounds perfect for me; I like to layer!  The second is a yet to be announced online class through her website - no title yet but I'll keep the details she mentioned to myself right now, as I'm not sure how much she wants revealed at this point but it sounds awesome!  It was the perfect start to my summer holidays, since I'd been planning to take another of her classes.  I'm super stoked and can't wait to start!  I just hope they open up now over the summer so I can really focus on them.  Thanks again, Shimelle!

And finally, I'll share some photo love from my quilt guild's recent trip around Småland last Sunday.  We began by driving up to a jam-packed little shop just outside of Perstorp (in the woods).

As you can see, many lovely creations on display.  I bought a handbag pattern and a set of Marmalade candy pre-cuts to use with it and also three FQs in black, white and a silvery grey for a penguin doll we'll be making for guild.

Next we drove foreeevvverrrrr (or so it seemed) to a golf club for lunch (scrummy food, definitely worth it) and then headed off to the Sprätthonsen quilt exhibition, held is this truly beautiful old barn.  A few of my favourite photos:

Finally, we visited Tyger & Ting quilt shop, where they also had a number of samples on display but I particularly love their back porch display:

I was reasonably well-behaved and 'only' bought two charm packs and a tulip table runner pattern (yes, I know I still haven't made the tulip runner I bought from them last year but this one is different...).  They also threw in a free partial pattern for a runner adaptation of Garden Fence, which is how I stumbled across Cindy's great blog, Hyacinth Quilt Designs (check the links list to the right) - a girl after my own heart and such a great name, too!  Here's the photos of my 'hauls' from this day:

I'm thinking that I might use the Aspen Frost charm pack for the Garden Fence runner and if I start it over the summer, I might actually have it done by the time the holidays roll around (or not)!