A few more quilt photo and a little sewing.

Following our visit to the Festival of Quilts I'd promised the family I would make a cake or some millionaires shortbread. On Sunday morning I made good on my promise and I made both a Lemon Drizzle cake and the shortbread. The chocolate still needed to be cut into squares. Both were delicious but I managed not to eat very much of either of them as I'm trying to lose a little more weight.

Unfortunately I now need to make some raspberry and white chocolate muffins but that is a job for tomorrow.

I promised a few more quilt photos from the quilt festival. This first quilt is the winner for the Young Quilter / embroiderer 10 to 13 years. The quilt 'Not my anti-hero', was made by Rosemary Williams age 11 using machine piecing, raw edge applique, machine quilting, hand quilting and embellishment. Rosemary said that 'Taylor Swift is my hero. She is an amazing musical artist who showed determination, self confidence and perseverance in the face of adversity at the hardest times of her life. She inspires me to work hard to achieve what I want to achieve in life.' There was minimal adult involvement in the making of the quilt

This next quilt was in the 14 to 18 years category. It is titled 'Retro Day' and made by Alice S Grout 16 from Sandwich UK. She states that this piece is inspired by her design hero Lucienne Day. I discovered her work during my GCSE Textile lessons and I love the way she uses colour, shape and eternal influences of the period. She heavily influenced my design work. I didn't get a photo of the winning quilt in this category,

The quilt below is the winning quilt for the 5 to 9 age group. The Polar Exploration. A tribute to Ann Bancroft was made by Ava Williams age 9. Ava says she loves polar bears and the Arctic. Her inspiration was the first female polar explorer Ann Bancroft, who is her hero.

The next quilt 'Wear Your Wings with Pride' won the quilt creation category. It was made by Matt Wilding using traditional piecing, applique, wadding, boning and metallic eyelets.

Entries for this category must qualify as clothing, wearable art or three dimensional pieces. I really liked the wings.

This quilt was in the modern category. 'Life is not always straightforward' designed and made by Hilary Florence from Yelverton UK. It was made using a variety of synthetic silver fabrics and hand dyed cotton.

This quilt came second in the Two Person category. 'Daisy' was designed by Helen Brookham  and quilted by Sandy Chandler who come from Launceston UK

This quilt was submitted to the novice category by Therese Williams from Hedgerley UK. 'Hand stitched Shibori' was designed and made by Therese. To be eligible to enter the novice category the person must have been quilting for less than 3 years. Pieces entered in this category should have been completed within the last two years and not previously exhibited. Entrants should not hold a formal qualification in textiles or related subject.

An art quilt, designed and made by Sarah Lykins Entsminger from Virginia, United States and is titled 'Morning Fog'. This quilt was the judges choice.

'Parterre' was the winner in the traditional category and also the Judges Choice.' It was designed by Shelly Kelly and made by Sonia Higgs from Wodonga, Australia. Formal French gardens inspired the colour schemes.

The final quilt was my favourite of the whole show. 'She Matters' was designed and made by Sue de Vanny from Victoria, Australia. Sue writes, My tribute portrait to the female mountain Gorillas of Rwanda. This lady is 40 years old and 7 months pregnant. It shows mature age pregnancy in the animal kingdom and the significance to increase the numbers of these amazing animals.

I hope you enjoyed the quilts, we certainly had a great day out and I enjoyed seeing all the quilts.

Today I got out my sewing machine and a shirt that was all cut out but I hadn't started sewing. The fabric is a red satin and I decided to make it to wear at Christmas. The pattern is a Vogue pattern and I've used it once before. I like the pattern but as I started work on the front of the shirt I remembered why I'd only made it once.

The button bands on the front are really annoying to get lined up and looking good. The button band was eventually added successfully. The stitching around the bands isn't really puckered, it just hasn't been pressed after a lot of handling. The outer edge is puckered as I quickly run an overlock stitch round to stop the fabric fraying. I had the same problem with the last shirt I made but it looks beautiful and I wear it quite often. The rest of the pattern will go together really quickly. 

Tomorrow is a busy day as i have errands to run but I'm hoping to get some sewing time in. I need to quilt a final dinosaur.

Take care

Lyndsey