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Tuesday 7 June 2016

Quilting Time

It has been a very busy April and May for me, I am glad that June is here and I can have a bit of a rest.....maybe!!

During April and May I have had AQC, my birthday, my son's graduation, a quilting retreat with friends, Mother's Day, a guest speaker engagement, making a project for Quilter's Companion Magazine, the Waverley Patchworkers Quilt Show and my duties as President of Waverley Patchworkers and the coordinator of the Waverley Art Quilters. While all this has been going on I have been trying to get my quilt finished for the end of May deadline for Victorian Quilters Showcase and Houston Quilt Show.

It has been a very busy couple of months and there were times that I thought I would not finish my quilt in time. Here is a photo of me in the middle of quilting. There was still a long way to go when I took this photo.


It's tricky to quilt a crazy quilt and while I am doing it I realise why crazy quilts were always tied and not quilted. I am always dodging embroidery stitches and beads.

In this photo I was quilting some snow flakes.At first I just quilted around the snowflake (Bottom snowflake) but it stood up too much and I ended up quilting further into the embroidery to flatten it a bit more like you can see in the top snowflake.


It was a hard slog and the quilt ended up taking 110 hours to quilt. I felt absolutely exhausted but I got it photographed and entered into the Houston Quilt Show in time. I won't find out for a couple of months whether it will be accepted or not. The entries come from all over the world and it is a privilege to be accepted.

There were always welcome distractions. Savannah dropped into see me one morning and had a little feast in Poppy's chair. She's 18 months old now.


My quilts that were travelling around America for the 500 Traditional Quilts book exhibition finally arrived home.


I haven't seen Scottish Dance, Naturally Crazy and Crazy about Ballet since 2014. They arrived home beautifully packed with rolls of paper in each fold. The Houston Quilt Show people certainly know how to look after and care for quilts.

I'll post a photo of my latest quilt as soon as I am able. Some shows don't like photos of the quilts shown until after judging.

Bye for now,
Linda

10 comments:

Michele Hill said...

Wow Linda...your new quilt looks beautiful! Can't wait to see it in person and so looking forward to catching up soon. xx

Linda Steele said...

Thanks Michele, we are looking forward to you being here with Waverley Patchworkers for a few days.

Robbie said...

Good luck on the submission to Houston!! Enjoy seeing your work...even partial pics!!

Linda Steele said...

Thanks Robbie, at the moment I don't actually like my quilt that much. Hopefully it will grow on me again. I'm all excited about starting some new things

crazynewbie said...

Fingers crossed for you with Houston, Linda. Look forward to seeing some photos of the quilt. I'm sure it will be stunning.

Linda Steele said...

Thanks Claire, I hope I can get accepted this year, it would be so exciting.

Gina E. said...

Ha! I'm not surprised to read your comment above that you don't like your quilt much! After all that hard work :-) Good luck with getting it accepted. Must be nice to have your other quilts back after two years. I think I would have been biting my nails by now!

jude's page said...

It is surprising just how the quilting hours add up, well done!

Linda Steele said...

I often don't like my quilts much when they are finished, Gina. I work too hard on them and know every little slip up in the quilting. After a couple of months break I can look at them with fresh eyes and learn to love them again.

Linda Steele said...

Yes Jude, the hours add up. I had estimated that it would take me 75 hours, so I was a little out!