The FQQ’s Quilt Exhibition – and Other Quilty Things

It’s hard to believe that an entire year has passed since the last Fat Quarter Quilters’ Quilt Exhibition. I was so hoping to be here again for another one, and I was.  Lucky me!

Prepare yourself now for a lot of pictures of quilts. I want to show off my friends' work (and a little of my own).

While some of my friends feel that I am a prolific piecer, I have not done a lot of piecing this year by my own standards. Instead, I decided early in the year to focus most of my attention on practicing my free motion skills with Daisy on other people’s quilts. However, that did not mean I didn't make anything.....

Not everything we make are quilts.
This is a rug I made. 

If you read the post, “Daisy Makes New Friends,” you will have seen a handful of the quilts Daisy and I quilted for others.  After that post, I quilted a few more for friends - mostly FQQs.  I would love to show you close-ups of the quilting on these, but this post is already full enough of pictures. 

Lis's Log Cabin Quilt

Liz's Quilt

Claire's "Jets" quilt for her husband who is a Jets fan

Janet's Quilt

This is the back of Janet's quilt. Sometimes the backs
are just as pretty as the fronts.

Lyn's Quilt
This picture does not do her quilt justice - all the white fabric is sparkly

The last quilting for my friends was Isobel’s 365 Challenge Quilt. This was a quilt I was reluctant to quilt a year ago. Isobel had spent the best part of 2 years piecing it and I did not want to ruin it. And the thought of trying to quilt through the thick seams from some of those blocks scared me into thinking that I would have broken needles and/or throw off the timing.  But enough time passed and I gained more experience and confidence and finally felt I could do it.  Isobel now has a completely finished quilt that just needs a binding and she will hang it in next year’s exhibition.

Isobel's 365 Challenge Quilt

Quilting Isobels’ has given me confidence to quilt my own, when it comes time. You may recall that I started my own 365 Quilt because I was so inspired by Isobel’s.  And I thought at the time that it would be “what I made in Scotland.”  Well, so much for that. I had other things to do than spend every single day working on just that one project.   I did complete 6 months of blocks, plus the 4 corner blocks (which EACH took a whole day to cut and piece!!)

The four corner blocks for the 365 quilt

I will have you know that all the finished blocks and all the fabric I am using for it have gone home in a suitcase via air freight. It should arrive before Christmas and will be what I work on in January. 😊

I love that the local quilting groups here have exhibitions. I love that they desire to share their love and craft with the public – and I love that the public comes to see it!  Murkle Hall is just a small building 2 miles outside of Thurso, alongside a 2 lane road, basically in the middle of fields filled with sheep and cows (and a great view of the North Sea and Dunnet Bay).

Advertising is done the typical way – through FB posts, yes, but also through posters in shop windows and small signs along the road just next to the building that say, “Quilt Exhibition,” “Fri-Sun,” and “11-3” so that you read them in little snippets as you drive past them.

Of course, the quilters from the other quilting group in Wick come to look and ooh and ahh. And there is usually a small group of quilters who will bring the ferry over from Orkney for the day. And this year, we got two new ladies who are interested in beginning quilting and will join the group on upcoming Murkle sewing days.

Claire's Quilt

One of the things I love about being a part of this group is the diversity. Each woman has her own personality and that comes through in her choice of patterns, types of projects and, of course, through her fabric choices. 

Jane's quilt - made with wool scraps

Janet's American/Scotland quilt

Liz's Quilt

These women are open to trying new things, and by association, I have learned to try new things as well. For instance, Sue saw this technique used when she went to the big quilt exhibition in Birmingham this summer. 

Sue's A4 Quilt - the one with the netting

There are tiny pieces of fabric attached to the background. The larger pieces might have a simple stitching around the edges to hold them down, but then a layer of netting has been put over the top and then the background has been stitched. The result is that the piece will be held together without having to do all the regular applique work.  Brilliant. Seeing Sue’s finished products made me want to try this as well.

Isobel's "Amsterdam" quilt
Juliana did the amazing quilting
It hung in the big Birmingham Quilt Exhibition in August

The back of Isobel's quilt
you might be able to enlarge to see details
(There are 6 cats  quilted into windows)

The FQQ have a challenge every year. Last year it was to use a half metre of Japanese fabric in something. The results were tremendous. This year, there was a Nautical Challenge and a A4 Challenge. (A4 is the size of their regular printer paper, like our 8 1/2" x 11" is ours. And yes, as you would come to expect by now, theirs is just a tad larger/smaller than ours. A4 measures 8.27" x 11.69".)

The A4 quilts

Jean's Nautical Challenge Quilt

Sue's Nautical Challenge Quilt

However, I have not been as eager to learn new things as some of my friends. I had been here a mere 2 weeks when I was invited to join in on a workshop. It was the sunset silhouette taught by Pat Archibald, who is a well-known quilter here in the UK. The FQQ and the CC (Caithness Quilters) pooled their resources and hired her to do a few workshops. I was not keen to do that particular project for various reasons. 1. I had no sewing machine at the time. 2. I had no fabric except scraps at the time and the scraps I brought were not really suitable for the project. And 3. It was really not my style or interest. But Liz loaned me a machine, Juliana gave me fabric and others gave me colored threads to use. The workshop was hard for me. It was stressful, and in the middle of it I wondered what had possessed me to do it. But in the end, I finished the project and was quite chuffed with the result. I don’t need to do another one, though.

Well, this spring, the FQQ and CC hired another well-known quilter, Jennie Rayment. Jennie even has her own tv show.  She was coming to teach us how to do fabric folding – well, basically, origami with fabric.   Again, I was not keen on it, but everyone else was going to do it and I thought ‘why not?’  Look at me trying new things. See, I’ve become adventurous. Those who know and love me will not recognize me when I return home.

So, I took the class and ……. I LOOOOVED it!  I loved Jennie’s style of teaching, her humor AND the product!  I even bought a couple of her books! 

Jennie Rayment projects

Now, part of the quilt exhibition is always a display of the workshop projects. So, here you will see the finished pillows. Yes, they look mostly the same because we were taught particular things. And yes, most of us tended to put them into a cushion cover, but they have the potential to be displayed in other ways as well. And you can still see how some quilters chose to use colors and/or decorative stitches to personalize them.

Lysette's multi-colored cushion cover. 

Here are my quilts that I submitted to the exhibition this year.  Those who know me know that I like seasonal things, so to go along with the “Fall” wall hanging I made a couple of years ago, I made “Winter in Scotland” and “Summer in Scotland” this past year. These took turns hanging at the top of my stairs in the apartment. 

Now, the “Summer in Scotland” is very American in style. It very much reflects me, my style and colors and fabrics that make me smile.

This Quilt I called “Joy” just because the fabrics make me happy to look at them. I bought it as a kit, pieced it together in WA, and brought it here to quilt. I am very pleased with the quilting, although the batting I used didn’t give the quilting enough lift, so the quilting is difficult to see.

The scrappy Jacob’s Ladder quilt was made with blue, cream and white fabrics that were already cut into squares, so it went together quite quickly. If any quilt represents me, it’s this one.  The fabrics and colors are definitely 'ME'.

The Quilt Exhibition is helped along every year by the husbands, of course! They not only support and encourage our habit, they also lend a hand when it's necessary.  I imagine we could do it all ourselves, but they are so handy!  They set-up, they haul, they take down - and they follow instructions to a tee. They are truly priceless (and this is not all of them!)

Husbands Angus (Isobel's), Alan (Liz's) and another Alan (also Liz's)
Just so I'm clear.....that's 2 DIFFERENT Lizs. 
Not pictured, John (Jean's) and Mike (mine)

And while this little quilt belongs to me, I did not make it. In fact, I had nothing to do with it – except maybe provide the inspiration for it. My dear dear friends made it for me.

I would like to show you the details up close because it is amazing. They thought of everything.

Quilted pictures are (top) The Stacks at Duncansby Head
(middle) The Dunnet Head Lighthouse and Dounreay
(bottom) Old St. Peter's Kirk (the silhouette sunset quilt I made)
'Daisy' is my long arm, 'Millie' is Janet's and 'Gracie' is Liz's

This is the story: Isobel instigated it and chose the pattern. Each woman made her own signature square and was instructed to choose fabrics that I would choose, so that it would reflect me and go well in my home.(I love the pink block because it also reflects me. It’s that little bit of ‘pop’ that sometimes surprises others.)

(top) a map of Caithness and the sign post at John O'Groats
(the stacks again - same picture)
'West Church' is where we do hand work once a month
'Lyth' is where we have had week-long quilt retreats

 Every person I have quilted with made a block – including Julie who moved back to the south of England last fall, and a couple of CCs from Wick who I became friends with. 

(quilted pictures) the wind farms and a castle (not one I have been to because
Sinclair Castle was too complicated to do and Wick Castle too uninteresting, Juliana said)
'Murkle' is where we quilt 2 days a month
'Haste ye back' is a lovely saying
and the Caithness Celtic knot

I am so sad as I write this part because it looks like I forgot to take a picture of the back of the quilt, where there are a few more blocks, including one with Jake’s signature (Jake is Lysette’s dog who accompanies her everywhere, including our quilting days at Murkle). 

Jake

This all happened back in June, apparently, because at the time, we thought we would be going home in Sept. By July we knew that we would stay until Dec, but everyone had gotten their blocks done in June and the top was put together and ready to be quilted. That would be Juliana’s job. (Can I just throw out there that I LOVE and ADMIRE Juliana’s quilting, which she does on her small, domestic machine.) She is also the one who quilted Isobel's Amsterdam quilt. 

  

And this is a picture of a lap-sized quilt I made that I offered to be raffled off. I must tell you that I really did not like this quilt at all. It was the wrong type of fabric for me and the pattern I chose did not show the fabric well.  All part of the learning process, I guess. 

I didn’t want to keep it and I knew I would give it away somehow. So, I offered it to the FQQ to raffle off. I am sure that you would wonder why I would offer it if I didn’t like it. Part of me knew it was just me- that the quilt didn't suit me., but maybe someone else would actually like it.

Now, the FQQ have never had a raffle at their exhibition before, so they considered it and said yes.

Well, I want to say, that the quilting really makes the quilt. I found I really liked the quilt by the time I was finished. 😊  Which is really good because then I felt better about other people maybe wanting it.

To make a longer story shorter, people bought raffle tickets and the raffle raised 130 pounds for the charities the FQQ had decided to give to and Jane was the very happy winner.

I shall desperately miss all these women. I shall miss the regular opportunities to get together with them. I shall miss being inspired and encouraged by them. They welcomed me, embraced me and allowed me to become a part of them and that made a huge impact on how I adjusted to living here.

I love this picture. Everyone is doing their own thing - we're looking at each other, eyes are closed, etc. I think it reflects a little of their personalities, don't you?
In the back row, left to right:
Jean, Liz, Sue, Janet, Liz, and Juliana
In the middle row, left to right:
Isobel, Nessie (she's brand new to our group), Lyn, Jane, and Lysette (Jake is barely in the picture)
In the from row, left to right:
Janet, me, and Claire