Overall Champion and Longarm Quilting Award - 2016 Great Northern Quilt Show

'Nearly Insane' Quilt by Frances Meredith,

Champion Best in Show, Great Northern Quilt Show 2016

I have recently had success with one of my own quilts at the 2016 Great Northern Quilt Show.  My 'Nearly Insane' quilt won first in the Best Bed Quilt category, the Longarm Quilting Award and the Best in Show Champion Shield.  I always try to enter my quilts in shows so that people can see the range of quilts I work on and to show that I am a quilter too!

'Nearly Insane' Quilt by Frances Meredith,

Champion Best in Show, Great Northern Quilt Show 2016

The prize winning Nearly Insane quilt top was completely hand pieced (yes, hand pieced!) using English paper piecing and took me just over two and a half years to make.  Once the top was done, like many of you, I was eager to get on with the next project.  I have hand quilted several of my own quilts before, but knowing how many seams there were in this quilt top and how long it was going to take, I couldn't really ever imagine this one being top of my list to do.  It was close to joining all the other unquilted quilt tops in my cupboard. This is when I decided to invest in a longarm quilting machine.

'Nearly Insane' Quilt by Frances Meredith,

Champion Best in Show, Great Northern Quilt Show 2016

The Nearly Insane quilt was quite a significant part of my life at the time and so when a customer brings a special quilt top to me for quilting I really can appreciate the time and effort that they have put into their projects, whether they are a beginner or an accomplished quilter. I am passionate about piecing as I am quilting, but one is no good without the other and ultimately we all want a finished quilt.  As I have said before, knowing that I could get my quilt finished really invigorated my passion for quilting and I am pleased to offer the same opportunity to my quilting customers.