A Ribbon for King David's Modern Crown Quilt

Today I went to the Craft Fair in Melbourne - a fabulous day made all the more enjoyable as a result of one of my quilts winning a ribbon.  I had entered my Kind David's Modern Crown Quilt in the Longarm section of the Vic Quilters 2010 Showcase and was absolutely thrilled with the Runners Up ribbon.

The quilt is my version of the King David's Crown Quilt by Michelle Yeo - rather than using reproduction fabrics, I have used fresh, modern fabrics with a white background fabric so that the quilting could be a feature.

The machine quilting was inspired by Sharon Schamber.  Sharon is a renowned quilter and I was fortunate enough to do a workshop with her last year.  I took the unquilted King David's Crown Quilt top along to the class and Sharon assisted in the quilting design stage.

I have extended the quilting in the diamonds into the border of the quilt.

I would like to thank Victorian Quilters Inc, the organisers of Quilt Showcase 2010 for putting on a wonderful Quilt Exhibition.  I would also like to thank the generous sponsors of the Longarm catergory including Horsham Patchwork Quilters Inc., Patchers & Quilters of the Hay Plains, Mini Jumbuck and Victoria Can Do Books. 

Home & Finished Wholecloth called "Envy"

We have returned from our trip to Europe and have had a fabulous time.  It is great to be home again and we are settling back into our usual routine.  I have started quilting again, however, at this stage I would like to share a quilt I finished just before we went overseas.

In April this year I took part in the online Wholecloth Design and Execution Course through MQ Resource.  I have previously blogged the design stage of my quilt which can be seen here.

Having completed my customer quilts before travelling overseas, I took some time to mark and quilt my wholecloth quilt.  I wanted a quilt which wasn't going to blend into my walls at home and therefore chose a bright green shot cotton by Kaffe Fassett.

The marking stage proved a huge task - each motif had to be traced in blue marker on to the quilt top.  I was excited to learn, however, that I would not need to buy a light box.  A trip to our local hardware store for the purchase of a sheet of perspex and, together with some kitchen chairs and a desk lamp, I was set.

Having marked the quilt I wasn't going to quilt it straight away.  However, I found that after a few weeks the blue lines were starting to fade.  I didn't want the time I had spent marking to have been wasted so onto the frame the quilt went.

I used 2 layers of wadding - 1 layer of Nu-wool wadding which is a mix of 60% wool and 40% poly and 1 layer of Matilda's Own 100% Cotton.  The thread I used was Aurifil 50wt which quilted beautifully - it has a lovely sheen to it.

Initially I quilted all the motifs which didn't prove as difficult as I had anticipated.  Having quilted all the motifs I removed the quilt and removed the blue marker pen with water.

The quilt then went back on to complete the border with cross-hatching, curved cross-hatching in the centre of the motifs, pebbles in the spines and lots of pebbles for the background quilting.  I think I found the back-ground quilting the hardest part - pebbles do take a lot of time to quilt but I do love the end result.

Here are some close-ups of some of the motifs:-

I am thrilled with the end result of my little "Envy" Wholecloth Quilt - the course was wonderful, I learned a lot and enjoyed the process.  Perhaps there is a larger wholecloth quilt in me yet...