Heritage Park 2016 Festival of Quilts

The weather was gorgeous this weekend so I took myself off to the Festival of Quilts at Heritage Park today.  There were over 600 quilts displayed around the park, some in huge tents, some hanging from the balconies of the historic hotel, and some draped over fences.  It really was spectacular - and such a great variety.

Here are a few that particularly enjoyed:

Thi reminds me of silver birch tree trunks.  A great way to use up scraps.

This was my father's favourite.  It is called 'Whirling Dervishes' and is paper pieced.  It is only now, looking at the photo, that I can see how detailed this is - there is even some shading in the clothes!

It looks as though this has been made from a couple of charm packs, and a couple of packs may have fallen into my bag in the vendors tent!!  I love rainbow patterns . . . . . .

The bargello quilt above is made from just two fabrics, with the main one being gradient dyed.

The quilt above and below is made up of tiny houses about 3" square.  In some of the windows there are little faces peeking out.  Very cute!

The teeny tiny square on the quilt above are about .75".  At first they looked to be random squares, but you can see a rather subtle pattern.  Such detailed and time consuming work.

The pixilated quilt above reminds me of 'Starry Night'.  Again, lovely colours.

I love houses on quilts.  Just saying!!

Very calming colours - blues and greens.

Stunning.  Just stunning!  I didn't get close to the lions head, but from a slight distance it looked stunning.

And finally, hearts.  This was actually on display next to one of the vendor tills and each square is made of three layers - either a base layer with two hearts on or a base layer with two windows.  I think this would work really well as labels on my clothes.

Well, lots of ideas and thoughts.  Some that would relate to dressmaking, some to quilting - I tend to err on the side of smaller table runners or wall hangings, or maybe a mug rug or two.  Can't wait to start!

And as a last note - but certainly not an afterthought, I was approached by a lovely lady who recognised me from my blog.  I am sorry to say that I was so blown away that I did not ask her name, but thank-you lovely lady, you made me feel all warm and fuzzy!

What inspiration has caught your eye recently?

Holly and a Tartan Cara

Tina Givens has been really upping her game recently and releasing a lot of patterns.  So what is a girl to do?  Yep, how did you guess?  I bought some!

Here is the Holly tunic that comes with some slim leg pants too.  I used a linen mix fabric from last year that had a bit of a pattern to it.  The only change I made was to shorten the sleeves so that they were similar to the Violet that I have previously written about.

I'm wearing a plain slip underneath.  I think it is a Jaqueline but with a symmetrical hem.   On it's own, the tunic is a little short at the front for my liking, and would show off a little too much of the dropped crotch pants, so the slip works really well - although it is all surprisingly warm!

As you can see, the gathered sides add a lot of fabric!  It is rather cute though!

You can see the gathers here as well.  They are a nice addition, but probably not too forgiving if you are pear shaped.

I thought it went rather well with one of my home made necklaces, using a string of beads that were my Mums.

I thought I'd do my take on jeans and a plaid shirt with the lovely Cara . . . .

It was a bit breezy, as you can see, so I got some inside pics as well.

Now I know you are looking at this and thinking 'why didn't she match up the plaid?'  Well, there is a story behind that.  Along the lines of cutting out the back bodice on the fold and the front bodice with a seam allowance.  After a few swear words, and the fabric having a time out, I cut a bias panel to cover the front seam and left it at that!  Bah!  This is a lovely, soft, brushed cotton and I love it . . . except that the fabric clings to my jeans a bit.  Oh well.

You can see the triple zigzag on the neckline and arms, attaching the foldover bias biding.  My favourite, non-bulky way of finishing off the raw edges.

And the mismatched back pieces . . . . . but with a cute patch :)  Oh well, it will still get a lot of wear!

Well, I think that is me all caught up.  I've got more socks on the go, and planning what to make next.  This Lagenlook/Tina Givens fix is actually becoming a bit of an obsession and pushing the other styles out of my wardrobe.  Who'd-a-thought?!

What is your style?  Does it change?

More Socks, Easy Greyhounds and Some Charity Makes

I love knitting socks - not sure if you are aware, but there you go!  I've almost finished my third pair of the year - which is pretty good considering how much sewing I do, so here is the second pair.

The pattern is my own 'go to' pattern, Billy Basic (free here on Ravelry).  Nice plain socks, 64st cast on, I can knit these in my sleep.  The pattern is not the story here though, it is the yarn, Regia Pairfect.

As far as texture is concerned, this is not the softest yarn I have knitted with, but that usually doesn't really mean much when it comes to comfort.  I have used Regia yarn before and it is lovely to wear and very hardwearing.  But look at those stripes!  I love knitting with self patterning/striping yarn, nice plain socks and let the yarn do all the talking.  I don't care whether the pattern matches up . . . . but I do with this.  The yarn is a 100gm ball with a yard or two of yellow yarn then the blue starts.  About halfway through the ball is more yellow yarn and then the blue again.  So the idea is that you cast on just after the yellow starts, rib the blue yarn, then start stocking stitch with the stripes.  As soon as the stripes run out you start the heel and finish off.  And voila - two matching socks with NO effort at all!

I love them.  It's not going to stop me knitting my usual mismatched socks - but I'll be buying more of this yarn, for sure!  More details here in my Ravelry project page.

I also fancied making something different, so I knit a lovely scarf/shawl out of some yarn that was dyed for me by Sockbunny as part of a swap a couple of years ago.  I said that as I live in land-locked Alberta I missed the sea (I was born on the coast) and I had two greyhounds, so the gorgeous colours that you see below were incorporated together to make this beautiful skein.

The pattern is called Easy and knits up very quickly.  It took me less than a week - evening knitting only, and what looks like a fold in the scarf above is actually part of the pattern and looks like you are knitting in a different direction!  It is actually crescent shaped so drapes beautifully around your shoulders.  More details here in my Ravelry project page.

Just to finish off I wanted to share some goodies that I made for Galgos Del Sol.  They work to rescue and re-home galgo dogs - Spanish racing dogs.  If you are interested, take a look at our Facebook page!

Phew, glad I'm getting all caught up!  That's the second bus just come along.  One more I think!

Buses

I don't post for over a month, then loads of posts turn up at once.  Yep, that's the way it is right now.  I have been knitting and sewing up a storm, but not got round to taking the photos.  Well now I have, so would you like to see what I've made?

Firstly, some Tina Givens love :)

I made another Violet tunic and some Oprah jeans.  Please excuse the glasses but it was very sunny outside and I was determined to take some photos!!

I used some coral linen that I also made a tunic from last year, and some leftover grey linen from even longer ago . . . . . . . The grey frills are bias cut again, and the bottom, attached, gathered, coral piece is separate from the rest of the side panels.  The designer has you cut the the side panels and the centre bottom piece all in one, but I thought that would cause problems gathering, and I like how it looks if is attached.

The Oprah's are made from a light(ish)weight black denim with a bit of stretch.  The only difference between these and the previous ones I made is that I made the legs slightly wider at the bottom, other than that - they are as per the pattern.

I took a few close ups as well . . . . .

This pattern does have an exaggerated balloon shape around the hips which suits me as I am rather cylindrical.

You can see the vertical seam (above) where I attached the coral frill as a separate piece to the centre panel.

And, of course, a patch on the back with a cute heart.  Love it!

How about you?  Do you stall when it comes to taking photos?  Any top tips?!