MILLYPENNY

Thanks to a work-related event, I had to spend a few days in Sofia, Bulgaria a few weeks ago. Now I didn't get to see a lot of the Bulgarian capital as I was working during the day, but from what I did see, Sofia does seem to have an awful lot of graffiti (was on almost every building I saw). Most of the graffiti was just tagging (which looked horrible) but there were a few interesting stencil graffiti pieces. One of the themes for next year's International Quilt Festival of Ireland is graffiti so I'm keeping my eyes peeled for inspiration. 

This quilt was finished in July this year, but I kept forgetting to take a photograph, so am only getting the chance to post a photo of it now. The pattern was called "Modern Day Diamonds" from a Livin' Large Booklet by Anka's Treasure. Fabrics used were a bright pink batik, green solid fabric and a fat quarter set of fabric. The fat quarter set was "Sugar Snap" fabric by Melissa Averinos - for those who asked at last Friday night's quilt meeting!

I spent the weekend at the Festival of Quilts show. I'd never entered anything in the show before (despite saying every year to myself that I'd enter something the next year!), but this year I had one as part of a group quilt entry. Burren Rocks - my panel is the 3rd from the left. My favourite two exhibitions at the show was Pauline Burbridge's and the European Art Quilt one - no photo's were allowed though. I also had an entry selected for the EQA "Crossroads" Exhibit. I didn't know my piece was selected until I saw the exhibit, so that was a nice surprise. Here's the Irish exhibit of the "Crossroads" quilts.  EQA Crossroads Irish exhibit Scrap-Basket Crossing I now have loads of ideas about new quilts to make (and lots of new fabric too), but I really have to finish at least one UFO before I let myself start a new one! The UFO pile is growing bigger week by week.... Some of my favourite quilts at FoQ this year we

A few months ago, a fellow Genesis Contemporary Patchwork group member Tracy purchased a quilt panel which had various phrases about quilters and their fabric stash etc. The panel was divided up and each Genesis member got 2 panels each. As part of a Genesis challenge, we were each supposed to make something out of the panel. None of the group have had a chance to get this done up till now, because of our upcoming Festival of Quilts group project and there was no date set to finish it anyways! I finished my Festival of Quilts group quilt entry a few weekends ago (only had to add the label this weekend) so I decided I'd get all my outstanding quilting obligations and deadlines out of the way. Finished my Landmarks quilt for the International Quilt Challenge on Friday night and decided to get something done with the panels as well. Have to say that I wasn't gone on the quilt panel pictures themselves, but a challenge is a challenge! I made a bag, using a panel on each side

My landmarks challenge for the  International Quilt Challenge is based on the stone walls in the Burren. I've recently finished making a quilt which is part of a group entry for this year's Festival of Quilts. After cutting my FoQ quilt to size I had a good few pieces of quilted fabric left-over, so I decided to incorporate them into my landmarks challenge (waste not, want not!) The left-over strips were satin-stitched together and I added a very thin binding to finish off the quilt.

 I purchased the " On a Whim " quilt pattern last month and have been waiting for the chance to try out the block. Over the weekend, I decided to try out a test block of the pattern. For my test block I used Christmas fabrics, reasoning that if I didn't like the block or pattern, at least I'd have a block made that could be used to make a Christmas cushion etc. As it turns out I really enjoyed making the block, and found it a lot faster to put together than the "Swoon" block.  10 fat quarters are needed for the middle section of the blocks; I had a fat quarter pack of Denyse Schmidt fabrics that I was waiting to use, so that fabric is now in the process of being chopped up to make more blocks. I really like the Denyse Schmidt Flea Market Fancy fabric, so much so that I'm after ordering another fat quarter set and a few more yards of fabric!

 I spent last Saturday up in Galway at the 1st International Quilt Festival of Ireland (IQFOI). Wasn't sure what to expect from this exhibition, but I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Spotted my hand block in amongst the Cead Mile Failte Quilt panels. Most of the quilts were very traditional, so hopefully at next year's exhibition there might be some more contemporary quilts. There was a lovely exhibit of Antique Irish quilts which was very interesting and informative, unfortunately no photo's were allowed in that hall. Think the dates for next year's exhibition are the 7-9th June 2013, so I'm sure there will be more entries and different exhibits then. Lolipop Queen by Svava K. Egilson (Iceland) Touched by Michelangelo by Donata Gervasi (Switzerland) Some graffiti spotted in NUIG I spent way too much money shopping, especially once I found Irish tweed for sale! It was interesting to see how different the quilts

Recently finished this small quilt which I made for the EQA Crossroads Exhibition. I handed the quilt up to the EQA rep. at last Friday's Mid-West Branch meeting, and will find out later if it gets selected as one of the 10 EQA quilts from Ireland. I've also started a quilt-as-you-go log cabin quilt based on the quilt in the Japanese book "Patchwork Style" by Suzuko Koseki. At the moment I'm just using scraps from my scrap basket to make the blocks. I went through my scrap basket and separated out the lights and darks I'll need for the quilt - had a lot more usuable fabrics than I thought. Have 3 blocks finished so far, which are taking me a lot longer to finish than I thought (because of all the quilting involved) but at least when they're done that's it, no more quilting!

I'm involved in the International Quilt Challenge Group . Approximately every 2 months we have to complete an A3-sized piece for the group. For this challenge the theme was "Time". The deadline was the 24th April, so I spent last night watching a football match and sewing my binding on. For the background fabric I had an image of clock-tower from Graz, Austria. The piece was an experiment on transferring a photocopy using oil paints and gum arabic which I made about 3-4 years ago, and has been left bundled up in a scrap bin every since. It just shows that you should never throw any samples or textile experiments, they'll come in handy some day!! I then tried to find some clock or time-rel;ated fabric in my stash. Turned out that I nothing that I could use, so instead I gathered some watches from around the house (had to take some of people's wrists) and then just copied them onto fabric. I didnt even scan the image into the computer - just cop

No finished projects to show at the moment, just seem to have a mountain of UFO's which I really have to finish one of these days.  Hexagon bag front I have a Japanese quilting book which had a pattern for a bag made out of hexagons. I started making the hexagons for the bag a long time ago, and just work on it occassionally. I finally finished the front panel last night, so just have to quilt it now. But because it's taken me so long to make one bag front, I'm think I'm just going to put a plain back on it and applique on a few left-over hexagons.    Burren project I'm currently working a panel as part of a group project with the Genesis Quilting Group . The panels will be based on the theme of the Burren. I've just finished basting my panel, so will have to crack on and get the quilting completed by 13th May, which is the next time the group is meeting. Can't show a photo of the panel at the moment, until the re

I haven't had much time for crafting lately. About the only thing I've managed to finish in the past few months is this bag. I purchased the bag pattern from this website . The bag is a very handy size, I'm planning on making another one in blue fabric when I get a chance. Hopefully this weekend I can get around to finishing another project...

Last night I finished quilting a hand block for the International Quilting Festival of Ireland ( IQFoI) which is taking place in Galway in May. At the festival they're going to have a welcome banner made up of hundreds of hand blocks from around the world). Last time I checked, the deadline for submission of the blocks was the 1st February; so I was hurrying to get the 2nd block finished last night. Have just checked their website and you can now submit blocks up to the 1st March. To make the blocks I made a monoprint of my hand, added my name and town using alphabet stamps and then free-motion quilted the block. I got a print of my mother's hand to make the 2nd block, and made it in the same way, just used the stamps to go around the hand this time.

 This is what I'm working on at the moment - a throw quilt using 12 fat quarters. I've had a fat quarter pack of "Sugar Snaps" collection in my stash for a few years, so finally chopped it up last weekend. You can't really tell from the photo, but this quilt is seriously bright! Think it might be the brightest quilt that I've ever made. Not sure that I like it too much at the moment, but maybe when it's quilted I might come around to liking it more. Have adjusted the layout slightly from the photo, and got the borders added last night, so hopefully tonight I can get it basted...

I finished this wall-hanging just before Christmas - keep forgetting to take a decent photograph of it for the blog though! The quilt was started last summer at a Lynn Edwards workshop on "Patchwork in Perspective".

For 2012, I had great plans to finish off my UFO's before starting any new projects, but last night I started cutting out a new quilt! Ooops... Ah well, in my defense I did finish 2 quilts over the Christmas holidays and have another 2 quilt tops ready to be basted, so that is progress! Here's one of the quilts that I finished off a few weeks ago - The pattern was from a quilting book called "Living Large" which has some really nice patterns in it. The fabrics were by Anna Maria Horner - I had 12 fat quarters of one of her collections for ages, so finally got to use them on this quilt. I also got a hand block finished up for the International Quilting Festival of Ireland (IQFoI).This is an in-progress photo - I painted my hand with green paint and used that to get a real "hand-print" for the block. I've added further details with stamping, quilting etc. I've finished stitching the block so will try and get a photo of that up tonight.