Capital Quilts 2014 Quilt Exhibition

A very busy weekend for our local Lower Hutt Quilting club with our 'Quilting a Modern Tradition' exhibition.  It was held in the new Performing Arts building at Sacred Heart College in Lower Hutt.

Here are some of my favourites.

Seabirds by Sandra Kennington
She is running classes on her technique. 

5 Days and 5 Nights in New York by Tracy Carew.
Just stunning.

Pinwinne by Irene Anderton
Woollen fabric with a modern twist.



This is a great stash buster. I didn't photograph the number so I couldn't
workout the name of the quilt or artist.

Dresden Plate challenge - Game of Hydrangeas by Sandra Clark.
Its three D effect is hard to see in this photo.  Beautifully made.

Towrags on Target - Debra Delorenzo
group quilt.  I love the colour and layout.

Simply beautiful and the hand work stunning.  I didn't photo graph the number so cant give you the
name of the quilter.  If you an scroll into this photo you will see stamps.,

Dresden plate challenge - My Dandelion phase by Tracy Carew.  So innovative.

Dresden plate challenge - I see fire by Adrianne Reid.  Very clever and great colour work.

Winner of the Dresden Plate Challenge - Dresden Bloom by Lyn White.
Scroll into the flower petals - beautiful hand work and beautifully executed.

Caravan by Liz Cocker.  Real fun quilt with great colour.



Golden Wedding Anniversary by Rayna Clinton.
Beautiful

Last but not least - my Siren Song
Best wall hanging made by one person.

Hope you enjoyed looking at these quilts.  There were 221 entries.  Great weekend.

Working with one fabric made from stripes

And I thought my journey making quilts from one fabric was complete. Oh No.....   I'm now exploring stripe fabrics.  In the case of these two quilts - one striped fabric and 60deg triangle.

This is my first quilt - Tunnel Vision.



Tunnel Vision close up

Tunnel Vision

 

 





When choosing my fabric I went for stripes with a bit of interest and not totally regular.  I found I couldn't use my long ruler to cut my fabric.  Stripes are not necessarily printed straight on the grain so I had to free-cut with my rotary cutter along the stripes - down the length of the fabric.  In this case 3.7 metres.  This did take time and lots of patience but the result was worth it.
The stripe repeat determined my 60 deg triangle size - in this case 8".  I did find this size fiddly to handle.  Placement of triangles was really quick.  Sewing them together was tricky.

After lots of un picking I developed a formula that worked for me.

Lay out triangles matching lines.

Start pinning from the block center point and on a flat surface.
Ease fabric to line up your stripes.



Quality of pins if important.  The finer the pin - the flatter it sits in your fabric.
The yellow pin is a standard quilters pin.  The brown glass is the finer Clover quilters pins
which are my preference.

Sew from the center to the outside of your block.  Use a leader fabric regardless
of whether or not you have the scissors feature on your machine.
Using a leader keeps the center point straight.
Iron blocks in the same direction so the seams can butt together nicely when sewn together. 

Match up points and stripes, pin then sew.

I also noticed that by using a small stitch length (1.8) and sewing slow, it helped prevent my stripes from moving away from each other.

Siren Song is my second piece.


Triangle size approx. 4".
If you double click on this photo you will see better detail.

Quilting detail.  I used various colours of thread to enhance
the stripes.
 

My exploration of stripped fabric hasn't finished.  I now have a collection of striped fabric waiting for me to chop.  I will be trying out different shapes.

Happy quilting.