The Scottish International Quilt Festival - Helen Miller

Todays blog post is brought to you by our roving reporter, Helen.

Friday morning glowed as one of those wonderful Autumn days that put you in the mood for a jaunt to somewhere nice. Luckily, Helen and Stephanie had arranged to visit Ingleston for the Quilt show that day.

To the uninitiated, the concept of a “Quilt Show” would appear to be a bit strange, verging on the really odd! How wrong could you be! This event was attended by hundreds of enthusiastic crafters. In fact, they came by the bus load from far and near. Bishopbriggs, Bearsden and Cumbernauld were represented by our Valerie Lennox, Carol Judge and Janette Kirk.

 (Janette admires one of the competition pieces at the Scottish International Quilt show, Edinburgh)

Many wonderful and amazing quilts of all shapes and sizes were displayed. Colours, shapes, amazing fabrics and adornments assaulted and dazzled the senses. How could anyone fail to appreciate the skill, ingenuity or inventiveness of these talented quilters. To be honest, many of these quilts were so intricate and beautiful that they should be considered works of art!

 (fabric for sale and so much more)

The event catered for stitchers of every kind. Retailers such as the Contented Cat, Patchwork Cottage, the Seattle Quilt Company, Kaleidoscope and many others were there to tempt you with fabulous fabrics, novelty buttons, threads, knitting yarns, ribbons and other fixings. To buy or not to buy, that was the conundrum for many people! After all, you only have two hands and one purse. Stephanie and I were quite restrained during the retail therapy session. No credit card was harmed or abused during any purchase!

 (one of the wonderful quilts on show)

Our eyes were opened to possible new hobbies or learning new skills such as making fabric landscape pictures, bag making, painting on fabric and creating Christmas decorations using polystyrene spheres and ribbons. Actually, the range of new ideas was so numerous that we felt overwhelmed. Stall holders were only too willing to demonstrate their skills and wares.

(one of the mini quilts by Margaret Morris. This looks like the quilter had a lot of fun creating this work. Look at the detail!)

We headed home feeling inspired and humbled by what we had seen and heard. Between us, Stephanie and I hope to attempt a couple of projects that were on offer, including something for Christmas! The Scottish International Quilt Show was an entertaining day out and we look forward in anticipation to next year.

The One With All the Colours and All the Hats!

Any pinterest fans here? I know there are a few from the knitting group who love it (me being one of them). It's easy to loose hours of time there. The reason I bring this up is because of this stunningly beautiful quilt made by Magdalena. As I mentioned before she has been making quilts for each of her children. This one belongs to the lovely Zuzanna (and I'm not at all jealous). This is the sort of thing I would see on pinterest and pin it with the knowledge that I would never be able to do something like that. It's the rainbow colours that I love plus you can't help but admire the time and effort that has gone into it. One day I will petition to be one of Magdalena's children.

I also had to show you the back too. Magda picked up the backing years ago and is an old duvet cover. It goes perfectly with the front design. Everyone admired it almost as much as the front. Magda is now making quilts on commission. Once she has a page all set up I will share it with you. Just think you could be the new owner of one of Magda's beautiful quilts.

I had mentioned before that everyone was loving the Hitchhiker scarf which Helen brought to our attention. Both Elaine and Helen finished one each. Of course I took that as an opportunity to photograph them together.

Helen's was done in shades of blue and white. Blue is one of my favourite colours so of course I loved this.

Elaine's was also in blue and white but her blues were darker with more white between it. I think it gave it a more nautical look. Very effective.

I think we have another doll knitter in the group. Janice came along with this lovely doll that she had not long finished. I didn't catch who it was for but whoever the new owner is, is very lucky. I personally love the platted hair.

Just to put as all to shame on her Christmas preparedness Margaret finished another Christmas card. I love the outdoor winter scene. It's set off by the metallic stitching round the edge. She stitched this one for her Father in Law.

 Anthea has been working on this lovely baby blanket for the last few weeks. She finished it on Tuesday. Again I love the colours. The bright blue is very much set off against the creams. Everyone also loved the edging which just brought the whole thing together. And you know us, we are all a sucker for a granny square.

So Tuesday there was our deadline for the hats for the Big Knit. Everyone was to bring along all their fancy hats and any they had finished that I had yet to collect. The week before June had given me hers in as she knew she wouldn't make it along. Sadly I never got the chance to photograph them. They were in a separate bag though and you can see them here having been photographed when I got home.

Janice managed to get a few more in and there were quite a few impressive ones in the mix. I couldn't post a photo of them without a close up of this one. It's Harry Potter!

These were all knitted by Margaret.

These hats were knitted by Ally and her friend from work, Karin.

More hats from the lovely Helen.

Last but not least we have our Isabel back and she knitted these lovely hats.

We had two wee competitions. The first was to knit the most unusual or inventive. I had everyone hang onto these hats until the last day and then we brought them all together. You can see them here on the table.

Isabel and I managed to narrow it down to our favourites (which was a task itself). We then roped in the help of Alison to choose the winner.

Finally we picked out our favourite (which was extremely difficult). Caroline won with her teapot.

You can see it here on top of an innocent drink which Helen kindly brought along. How can you not love that hat?

Margaret won for having knitted the most. She was leagues ahead of everyone else and managed to use up all of her odd balls of yarn. She knitted a whopping 260 hats. Stephanie was the closest to her with over 100. The winners received just a little prize. Chocolate, a little hook to pick up stitches and Russian Doll stitch markers.

I had thought we were only slightly behind the 1000 mark in total so a production line started and I got three more hats before the end of the night. Turns out we were more behind than I thought.

You can see all the hats collected on Tuesday alone here. Over 200 of them in that pile.

Finally, here they are all bagged up and waiting to be posted out. There are 951 in total. I think that's more than impressive. Well done ladies and thank you.

One last photo before I go. Annee, who is our friend from the management suite, has a friend who was an avid cross stitcher. No longer able to cross stitch she wanted a good home to all her supplies and Annee suggested us. As you can see it was very much appreciated. Thank you Annee and Carolyn.

Diversity and New Members!

Tuesday there was another night for different crafts. Elaine brought a finish along that we never had before. She made beaded tie-backs for her curtains. They look very glam and are just a little bit different.

Freya finished some cross stitch that she has been working on the last few weeks. She stitched this lovely cupcake which was much admired by the rest of the group. She then used some pretty card to set it off in it's frame. I have to say Freya will try her hand at just about any craft.

Margaret finished another Christmas cross stitch design. She stitched this snowman card for her mother. The snowmen are of course cute but the beads just set it off.

We had some knitting finishes too. Helen finished knitting these very pretty socks for a friend. I love the colours in them. If they look slightly longer than usual to you that's because they are. Helen purposely made them longer as her friend needs them long to protect her skin. Will be nice and cosy in the winter too.

I also had a knitting finish. This is once again the scarf pattern that Helen first brought to our attention. Used with sock yarn I have knitted this for my sister's Christmas.

Of course we still have the Big Knit going on (Tuesday coming is the last night). These hats were knitted by Stephanie. The beaded hats are a favourite in the group.

Lyn knitted these ones for us. I like the Strawberry.

These ones were knitted by Roberta. She used a tip from someone else and made the pom poms with a fork. I quite like the effect.

June also knitted us some hats but I didn't get the chance to take a photo I'm afraid. That brings out total so far to over 700. Margaret is still well in the lead for the most knitted competition. However, the most unusual hat knitted will be a harder one to judge. This coming Tuesday is the last day so I will give the final total and the winners then.

The knitted hats weren't the only excitement. We had a total of FOUR new member along (for a few this was their second visit). So welcome everyone! So glad our little group is always growing.

A Night Mainly For The Stitchers!

Last Tuesday was almost a night of entirely stitching finishes. Impressive ones too (not that the ladies finishes are anything but impressive). Before I get to that though I just want to say a thank you to Roberta's church. You might remember all those jumpers everyone knitted that were going away to an orphanage in Africa. Well as a thank you the organiser has set up a collection in the church to help Linda with the shoe box charity. How lovely is that? Very much appreciated, thank you.

 First stitching finish is this amazing quilt HAND stitched (sorry had to emphasise the hand stitched part) by Magdalena. Most of you will know that she had planned to make a quilt for each of her children and we have seen a few of them already. This one is for her oldest son who requested red, black and white. She found it difficult to find material that would be suitable for a boy. I have to admit the times I have looked at fabric not much has stood out as particularly boyish. She managed it though and it looks lovely. Her son clearly loves it since he was using it before it was even finished.

Izzi has also been working away. If you remember the red bag she made a while ago she wasn't quite happy with the size. So she has now created a larger bag with a zip. I love the quilted effect of the bag. Plus it is the perfect size to hold a project which indeed this was carrying.

Margaret has finished her Christmas cross stitch scene. This kit was donated to the group from Roberta who was having a clear out. Not one to say no to anything Christmas related (or with lots of the colour red) Margaret snapped it up and has been working on it between other projects. The frame matches perfectly as it's speckled appearance gives it a festive feel.

I have also been doing some stitching. I finished my camper van and stitched it into a cushion. The fabric at the back is just as brightly orange as the stitching on the front. It's been a running joke that for a while it looked like I was stitching orange elephants. Can safely say it doesn't now.

Rhona also had a stitching finish. This lovely tapestry has been stitched into a small pillow. I love the scene of the boat. The colours are just lovely. The blue of the river just sets it off.

As I said it wasn't all stitching. Rhona actually had some knitting finishes too. The first was one of those never ending scarfs. It looks so cozy and will come in handy in the winter. Plus love the colour and the cables. The cardigan she knitted for Freya (who was to shy to model it for us). Again I love the colours.

I remember the first project I photographed from Caroline was a wee set of ice skates. She is back to knitting them again. I just love them, so cute and the paper clips make a perfect ice skating blade. Sadly my camera seems to hate purple as the laces are much brighter than the photograph. They also sparkle.

Believe it or not there are 50 hats in each of these bags for the Big Knit. I was going to take them all out but they have to be bagged like this before sending them away and I couldn't face squashing them all in there again. It still looks impressive though and we have Caroline and her mum to thank for these.

Caroline has also been busy making some unusual hats. Everyone loved the cupcake. I did like that one but I fell in love with the tea pot!

Margaret knitted another 50 hats which puts her firmly in the lead of the most knitted competition.

Janet knitted some for us too. Love the stripes and matching pom poms.

Last but not least, Roberta also had some for us. Spot the little beret's at the front?

I have been meaning to count what everyone has done so far for the last few weeks but kept forgetting. Well I have finally remembered. So far we have 629 hats. I am actually astounded that we have so many. Well done ladies. The ones I have at home have all been bagged up ready to go.

Speaking of charities, I have been meaning to mention the results of the Strawberry Tea organised by Lyn and Hobbycraft. They managed to raise £534 for breast cancer. Very well done!

Lastly, I gave everyone information last week about our 5th anniversary celebrations which included a challenge. If anyone hasn't got this let me know.