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 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.

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.

Pinspiration Sunday

Welcome back for another weekly installment of online inspiration.  Go grab your hot beverage of choice and we'll dive straight in.

Currently:

* listening - to the radio
* reading - Papercraft Inspirations, October issue (I think...)
* making - class photo layouts
* eating - fresh mango, Special K with banana and blueberries, toast & peanut butter
* drinking - OJ
* wearing - jeans, angora & sequins jumper
* weather - mostly rainy, some fog, 11C
* feeling - tired
* wanting - the slightly lingering headache from yesterday to finally go away
* needing - to go grocery shopping (but probably won't...)
* planning - autumn break in Stockholm next week
* thinking - how nice it will be to finally be done with showering and toilet runs to the cellar
* loving - having running water in my flat again!!!
* enjoying - going to opera today to see Miss Siagon

And now on to the pins.

Whiskers

As a cat-lover, I thought this free quilt pattern was quite cute.  The whiskers remind me of chopsticks and gives it an Asian feel (I think).  Simple but effective.

HST Block of the Month Quilt

I really liked this modern take on the half square triangle quilt.  I might have a go with this once I'm finished my slab quilt, which I've been itching to continue.

Piecing Batting Tutorial

I don't know about you, but I keep all sorts of odds and ends - you just never know when you might need a small piece of something.  Or at least that's what I tell myself.  Get those small pieces of batting you've saved to go to work for you by joining them up on your next project.

Postage Stamp Heart Card

How beautiful is this pieced postage stamp heart card?  I love how it uses a quilting technique and real postage stamps.  So simple but a great impact.  Anyone other than me also save postage stamps from letters?

DIY Monster Stuffed Animals

Make your own funny monster dolls.  The faces could be machine or hand stitched or you could applique felt faces.  Simple shapes and bright colours work great together for a quick and easy day project.

White Owl Pumpkins

OMG, I'm in love!  You have to understand, I have a serious pumpkin and gourd fetish around this time of year and I also have an owl obsession so this is pretty much a match made in heaven!  The sunflower details completely seal the deal.

Autumn Rose Colour Palette

I really loved the autumnal hues in this rose colour palette, especially when combined with the charcoal grey.

That's it for this week!  Pinspiration Sunday will be taking a break next week, as I will be on holiday in Stockholm going sight-seeing and relaxing - essentially, making more memories to scrapbook.  :)

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)!