International Music Day - Quilts for Musicians

'Happy Note' digital pantograph by Crystal Smythe

Happy International Music Day!
Are you busy making a quilt for a musician?  One of the digital pantograph patterns in my catalogue is 'Happy Note' designed by Crystal Smythe which features musical instruments such as the trumpet, violin, guitar, piano keys and saxophone. 
There are loads and loads of novelty quilting patterns available for a range of hobbies which can sometimes be the perfect finishing touch for a personal gift.  With a fun novelty pattern like this I would choose a plain backing, so that the pattern shows up nicely on the back - two quilts in one!

Sue's Modern Blue Square Quilt

Blue Square Quilt, made by Sue, quilted by Frances Meredith

Here is beautiful quilt made by one of my long arm quilting customers, Sue.  It is a special quilt for a new family member and it will be heading for a new home abroad.  I love the modern style of this quilt and I think the soft grey background makes a great alternative to white or cream.

Persian Blue, Glide Thread

Sue had chosen a lovely range of blue batiks for this quilt and squares in the pattern really showcased them well.  Those beautiful colours helped us choose this lovely Persian blue Glide Thread for the stitching.  Sue also asked if I could make a label for the back of the quilt and I was able to use this thread for that also.

Fabadashery Long Arm Quilting

Here is a photo of the quilt on the APQS long arm quilting frame.  It is such a treat to see the quilt coming together as it does its work.  Sue chose one of my favourite digital pantograph designs, 'Bird's Eye View' designed by Barbara Becker.  It has swirls which are evenly spread and gives it a great even texture.

'Bird's Eye View' digital pantograph designed by Barbara Becker

I am lucky that so much talent and inspiration come through my door and I think this quilt pattern has just been added to my bucket list.

Di Ford's Antique Wedding Sampler quilt by Pippa, custom quilting by Frances Meredith

Antique Wedding Sampler Quilt made by Pippa

If you visited the Wye Knots exhibition last month in Monmouth you would have seen Pippa's Antique Wedding Sampler quilt on display, which I custom quilted for her.  It is a design by Di Ford published in her book 'Primarily Quilts'.  Pippa always brings me lovely quilts and this one was another opportunity to focus on some custom quilting.

Antique Wedding Sampler Quilt, custom quilting by Frances Meredith

This quilt has a lot of applique, so I reached for my invisible thread and stitched in the ditch around each block.  Immediately this makes the applique 'pop' out, giving it the look of trapunto and highlights Pippa's excellent workmanship.  To enhance this even further I used a filler stitch in the background.

Antique Wedding Sampler Quilt, custom quilting by Frances Meredith

There were some large blank triangles around the edge of this quilt which I stitched with a digitized design, Bethany Pearls by Donna Klein.

Antique Wedding Sampler Quilt, custom quilting by Frances Meredith

I loved the soft combination of colours that Pippa used in her version of the Antique Wedding Sampler quilt.  When you are custom quilting you really get to know a quilt well and get to understand how a designer puts their ideas together.  I can't wait to see what masterpiece Pippa is busy working on.

Modern Tumbler Quilt by Natalie using Modern Curves quilting pattern

'Tumbler Quilt' by Natalie, quilted by Frances Meredith

Here is another of Natalie's lovely quilts.  It is made from an amazing selection of modern prints which she picked up on a trip of a lifetime to the Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas.  It is such a great quilt that I hope that she has chosen to show this in the Bristol Quilters exhibition coming up this weekend.

'Modern Curves' digital quilt pattern by Anita Shackleford

With a modern set of prints, this quilt demanded a modern approach to the quilting.  We used a digital quilting design called 'Modern Curves' by Anita Shackleford.  This pattern never fails to make an impact and it looks great on this quilt.

'Split Pea' Glide thread

As part of the quilting service that I offer, I have a lovely selection of threads to choose from and for this quilt we chose a vibrant green Glide thread called 'Split Pea'.

'Modern Curves' digital quilt pattern by Anita Shackleford

And don't forget the back.  Natalie pieced together some strips of fabric which also looked great with 'Modern Curves' quilting pattern.  I am so lucky to see so many great quilts!

Cotton Reel Quilt by Natalie and Bristol Quilters Quiltfest 2017 Exhibition

Bristol Quilters Exhibition 2017

It is exhibition time again.  Bristol Quilters will be displaying their quilts at Badminton School, Bristol BS9 3BA between 1st - 3rd June 2017.  See the details in the flyer above.

Cotton Reel Quilt by Natalie, quilted by Frances Meredith

I understand one of the quilts on display will be this lovely colourful cotton reel quilt made by Natalie.  It is made out of a Kaffe Fassett Jelly Roll.

Cotton Reel Quilt by Natalie, quilted by Frances Meredith

Instead of a white thread, it was quilted with a light grey thread which sits quietly in the shadow of the quilting ditch.

'Bam' digital pantograph designed by Jessica Schick

Natalie wanted an all over digital pattern which gave the impression of the cotton reels unravelling, so we went with this simple meander called 'Bam'.  It gave a lovely even coverage on the quilt and sometimes simple is the most effective.

'Bam' digital pantograph designed by Jessica Schick

Quilts UK Malvern 2017 - Round Up

Frances Meredith of Fabadashery Long Arm Quilting,

Awards Ceremony Quilts UK, Malvern 2017

Here I am proudly displaying one of my awards from the Quilts UK Malvern 2017 show at the weekend.  My red and white 'Nearly Insane' quilt was awarded The Quilt Room Award for Piecing, the Sue Belton Award for a Sampler Quilt and a Judges Merit. Thank you to the Judges and everyone for their kind comments.

'Nearly Insane' quilt by Frances Meredith and 'Sew A Row' quilt by Chris Taylor

It was lovely to say 'hello' to everyone and lovely to see some of my long arm quilting customers displaying their quilts too.  I was pleased to see my quilt hanging alongside Chris Taylor's 'Sew A Row' Quilt which I quilted for her last year.  It was lovely to see it again as it has to be one of my favourite quilts I have had the pleasure of quilting.

'Kaffe's Medallion' by Sheila Chapman, quilted by Frances Meredith

Sheila Chapman had her 'Kaffe's Medallion' quilt on display in the Large Wall Hangings category.  This was meant to use up all her Kaffe Fassett scraps, but I know there are still plenty left for some more quilts!

'Val's Quilt' by the Wye Knots, quilted by Frances Meredith

Finally, our quilting group the Wye Knots also won a rosette in the Charity Fund Raising category for our quilt which is now being given to the charity 'Hands Around the World' for a raffle.

Well done to everyone who entered a quilt into the show.

Malvern Quilts UK 2017 - Referendum Quilt

'Referendum' quilt by Frances Meredith

This is one of my own quilts which you will see on display at Quilts UK, Malvern 2017.  I have called it 'Referendum' and it is LW09 in the Large Wallhanging category.  It had been sitting in my cupboard for quite a while, but I did have a plan of how I wanted to quilt it in my head, but it never managed to elbow its way through the customer quilts I was doing at the time. 

Last year, I stayed up the whole night to watch the results of the Referendum here in the UK.   In the week that followed they managed to cram a lot in and it was difficult to pull myself away from the unfolding political events being reported on the television and to concentrate on much else.  As they say 'a week is a long time in politics'.  In the end I decided that this quilt was the perfect antidote to it all.    

'Camilla Star Diamond' by Donna Klein

This quilt uses one diamond block pattern, called Camilla Star designed by Donna Klein.  The diagonal lines were stitched in the ditch and each diamond was placed individually, rather than using the computer to do an edge to edge pattern all over the quilt.  I chose a fairly plain backing fabric so that the quilting pattern shows up nicely on the front and the back. I think it comes under the category 'semi-custom' work.  I hope that by showing different techniques on my own quilts my customers can see the potential of what we can be achieved when they bring their quilts to Fabadashery Long Arm quilting.