North Sea Quilters

15th Carrefour Europeen du Patchwork

2009-10-09T03:25:00.000-07:00

The international quilt show held yearly in the Alsace region of France was held again this year in Ste Marie-aux-Mines and surrounding villages. For the first time I was able to go! Leslie and Maria went last year, so Leslie was the perfect guide, and Mr. Bob was the perfect chauffeur, and I felt totally pampered the entire week. We left midmorning on Friday and drove down easily, arriving in time to check in, unpack, and then be driven off again for dinner. We were met at the hotel by a nice, cold glass of what they called Cremont (check my spelling, that's how I heard it but never saw it written), which is the local sparkling wine. This is a very civilized habit and one I could definitely get used to!

The show is hung very imaginatively, utilizing local churches, cathedrals, events halls, and shop spaces over 4 villages in close proximity to each other. Every shop on every street has some sort of quilt or quilt-related item displayed in the windows, so the entire local population is extremely supportive of the show and extremely patient with the yearly mass influx of humanity. The drive to and from each venue is extremely picturesque, with beautiful mature vineyards nestled into a backdrop of mountains.

The villages are mostly from the Middle Ages, and the architecture is what I would, in my amateur architectural knowledge, term "Alpine" as in what would be expected of Switzerland or Germany. The roof overhangs are deep, I suppose to keep the snow from dropping down on the doorstoops, and the windows are mostly shuttered. But the most unexpected thing was the color - more of what I have seen around the Mediterranean, Greece and Italy, the pastel stucco with the wooden beams. The regional food was also different from my previous experiences with French food in that the meals were hearty and initially everything came with sauerkaut and potatoes. We learned quickly how to order better.

The exhibits were varied and interesting this year. Of course due to copyright issues I can't publish pictures of the different exhibitions, but they are available at the website of the Europeen du Patchwork, http://www.patchwork-europe.com/. The Dutch chintzes were interesting, of course, and well represented by a variety of quilts. Some of the other exhibitions were, in my opinion, not very complete, and the information available in English was woefully inadequate for me to understand the point of several of the exhibitions. I realize that this is partially my fault for not knowing French but the lack of background definitely limited the experience in some of the shows. The Hungarian and New Zealand exhibitions had some very fine quilts in them. And the competition, "The Colors of My Country", also had some very good and imaginative quilts. Sandra Meech had the best exhibition of all, and her work is so very well done and interesting to look at. She also has a new book, which I purchased and brought home to peruse, hoping some of the magic rubs off on me!

Of coure, no quilt show is complete without vendors, and this one was no exception. There were many quilt shops represented with fabrics from all over the world, and other necessary items such as beads, buttons, lighting, threads, and miscellaneous notions. The fun is in the browsing. And the purchasing of little things to take home, fat quarters, a new brand of thread, books, new scissors, patterns and such. I found fantastic new YLI zippers this year, and Leslie discovered some glass beads. Above is Beryl Cadman in her Gammill booth, with our "Little Amsterdam" hanging behind her this year, and below are Andreas Wolf, tempting us with some of Heide Stoll-Weber's hand-dyed sateen and Ilka Rave just looking beautiful, as usual. I would like to take her home!

Happy quilting,

Marybeth

Seeds that were planted at EMQE

2009-06-30T12:24:00.001-07:00

Well, Maria has finished one of her workshop projects from the European Machine Quilters' Exposition!

Her whole-cloth trapunto threadpainting is really fun and just full of new techniques. This little wholecloth has lots of movement in the outside areas and lots of detail in the center. And it was really, really fun to do!

My favorite item from the expo was a little gift from one of my favorite people, Ilke Rave. She has made these little bags from a wonderful felted material and this one is absolutely perfect for me - how did she know?

Happy quilting, Marybeth

Linda Taylor in Castletownbere

2009-06-30T11:56:00.000-07:00

After a long day's work it was really great to go into town and find a place to sit and eat. We ate early and late, alone and with friends. But we did eat well and slept well so that we could start each day fresh and eager.

Marybeth and Maria were only able to attend the long-arm workshops but Leslie was lucky enough to do the workshops and all of the classes. Tracey Pereira, Robin Fahy, and Ilke Rave all taught day-long classes.

At the end of the second week a raffle ticket was drawn and the winner was . . . Andreas Wolf! Andreas was luck enough to take home one of Linda Taylor's in-class samplers!

Linda told us that when she first got her machine from the factory it was not stitch regulated and the motor speed was set on 70%. Now, I know this doesn't mean much to many of you, but let me tell you, I don't think I can DRIVE that fast! She was able to finish parts of these quilts in the time it would take me just to decide what to stitch there!

At the end of the week we stuffed all of our new thread and work pieces into our little bags and came on home. We will try to finish some of the things we started and start new things based on ideas we got at the workshops. Some we will post later as we decide we like them. Some will just not see the light of day. But the fun of these workshops is the ideas that grow from the little seeds planted. Sometimes they come up immediately, and sometimes they take a little while. And they all come up differently for each and every participant. Stay tuned!

Happy quilting, Marybeth

European Machine Quilters Exposition

2009-06-30T11:19:00.000-07:00

We are home from a fabulous workshop held yearly in Castletownbere, Ireland. Beryl Cadman organizes the European Machine Quilters Exposition to further the training of Gammill owners in Europe. Castletownbere is a hamlet on the southwestern coast of Ireland and it is remote ... no telephone coverage, no interruptions. Fabulous!

This year Linda Taylor taught the longarm workshops. Linda has received many awards, the most recent one being the Quilters' Newsletter Magazine Teacher of the Year Award, which is quite justly deserved! This may look like good fun, but let me tell you, it can be hard work! And Linda really gave us a lot to do in a very short period of time!

Linda is well known for being one of the pioneers of long-arm quilting. She has been quilting on a Gammill for 16 years and she makes it look like breathing. We didn't manage to make it look so easy or elegant. But just give us a couple of weeks!

With Linda came Rick Taylor, who taught us all about machine maintenance and American country music, and Todd Fletcher, who gave Leslie a few new pointers on the Statler Stitcher. We ate well and slept like babies.

The long-arm classes were all full and the participants came from all over Europe, including Great Brittain, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and even Cyprus! We were able to make some new friends and catch up with our old ones.

Maria was able to try out a lot of new techniques and, best of all, lots and lots of new threads. We have been wanting to get our hands on some of the new threads we have been reading about and now we have! Linda's line of threads for YLI are neon, no, N-E-O-N bright, glow-in-the-dark bright, wonderful deep jewel tones and even pastels that will show up on anything. We tried polyesters and rayons, anything shiny and new. We even managed to bring home a suitcase full of them to play with some more!

Happy quilting, Marybeth

Open European Quilt Championship in Veldhoven

2009-05-04T05:00:00.000-07:00

Saturday we went to visit the Open European Quilt Championship in Veldhoven. I hoped to take many photos and show it to you, but as most of the quilts were quite high on the wall I couldn't take a good quality photos. If you would like to see the winner quilts, I would recommend you to visit their website: www. oeqc.eu.
However I would still like to show one (hope you don't mind if it is from a strange angel, but I'm short and the wall was really high). This quilt was made by Ria Notenboom and won the 2nd price in the Novice category. This was her first quilt. It is an amazing work for a first quilt. We know this quilt quite well as Ria asked us to quilt it for her.
We were happy to see that Ria won a prize with her quilt. She really deserved it. Congratulation!

Ria Notenboom: "Rorii Miyajima"

Fabric Painting Trapsuutjies

2009-05-04T04:08:00.000-07:00

It was a long time since I wrote my last note. And the photos I'm going to share with you came from a workshop, which we attended even earlier than my last blog. I did wanted to write about it as soon as we came home, but things just happened. But finally it is here.
We met Laura from Trapsuutjies two years ago in Rijswijk at the Patchwork and Quilt Days. We loved her work/fabrics at first sight and we wanted to take a class with her, have her studio and her full attention just for ourselves. How selfish!! But it took us two years to get there as we were so busy with our company and family.
I save you from the reports of the last two years and cut it short. Finally we had a whole Saturday workshop in her studio in Belgium. We tried out a few techniques, reverse stampings, printing, scratching your design, applying paint with different tools (cards, sponges,etc), creating textures. You can find the description of all the techniques in Laura's website and also the paints: http://www.trapsuutjies.com
It was a great fun. I can recommend it to you. Laura is a very nice teacher and a very good hostess. Her cake and salad were really delicious.
Since than we had a repeat "workshop" in our studio and played with the colors, fabrics, techniques. We are planning to go back to Laura again and do a screenpainting class with her soon.
Here are some photos from the one day workshop.

My daughter's works (she joined us)

"Meeting" with the new Bernina 830

2009-04-02T14:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went to our Bernina dealer in Katwijk, Rooijackers Naaimachines (sewing machine shop) to attend the demonstration of the new Bernina 830 by Karen Lipton. I think the new Bernina might be the dream machine for everybody, who loves sewing, but definitely mine. It seems to incorporate the best features, what you expect from a sewing machine: very good lighting, big space for your quilts, sewing in 360 degree directions, automatic needle threader (just press a button), built-in dual feed (no more walking foot) bigger bobbin, multiply spool holders, automatic thread cutter and not to mention my favorite, the touch screen. I can't wait to try it out, but I guess I have to wait for a while. Until than I just think of the nice afternoon, the hospitality of Mr. Rooijackers with cakes and coffee and watching the 830 working.

by Maria

North Sea Quilters in the Patchwork en Quiltdagen in Rijswijk

2009-03-16T14:05:00.001-07:00

Of course it can't be a"North Sea Quilters and Friends" exhibition without showing our own works. We selected "Little Amsterdam" and "Kyoto Nights" to exhibit during the Patchwork en Quiltdagen in Rijswijk.

"Little Amsterdam" quilted by Marybeth Tawfik,
designed and pieced by Maria Laza, Leslie Carol Taylor, Marybeth Tawfik

72” x 72”, 2007

This quilt was conceived by the North Sea Quilters as a tribute to the beautiful and distinctive architecture of the Netherlands, our host country. The house facades are all based on real houses found on the canals of Amsterdam. The quilting was done to replicate all the different textures found around these houses: smoke, wind, vines, bricks, cobblestones, and water.

This quilt won 1st prize for Long Arm Quilting at the Open European Championships, Waalre, the Netherlands, 2007.

Kyoto Nights (2008)
by North Sea Quilters: Maria Laza, Leslie Carol Taylor and Marybeth Tawfik
67” x 73”

Kyoto Nights celebrates the large-scale asymmetrical Japanese floral prints that have been so popular in the last few years. Using a hexagon as a base, North Sea Quilters have isolated vignettes of the fabric to give the impression of looking into a Japanese garden at night through a window. The Japanese crests were stitched from patterns on the Statler Stitcher™, the chrysanthemums were first drafted and digitized by Leslie and the “rain” in the bamboo forest was stitched freehand.

This is the end of our report on the exhibition. Thanks for following it during the last couple of weeks.

Marybeth Tawfik's Quilt at North Sea Quilters and Friends exhibition in Rijswijk

2009-03-12T01:08:00.000-07:00

During the Patchwork en Quiltdagen in Rijswijk in our exhibition you could also see a quilt of our friend, Annelies, which were beautifully quilted by Marybeth.

"Simply Delicious" quilted by Marybeth Tawfik,

46” x 46”, 2008

This Piece O’ Cake design, hand appliquéd by Annelies Nijland, reminded me very much of my grandmother’s garden. My grandmother spent many, many hours growing the fruits and vegetables that her family would eat throughout the year. She always put up her vine supports by hand using small branches and twine and I have tried to replicate that look by quilting freehand, not using any rulers or markers, to give it that old-fashioned, homemade look that was so very beautiful to me growing up.

details of the quilt

Marybeth Tawfik received her first electric sewing machine at the age of 10 so that her mother would be able to use her own Pfaff. Originally sewing garments, she became interested in patchwork in 1996 while living in Japan, but was too intimidated by the process to begin patchwork until 2001. She purchased her Gammill Optimum Plus® in 2004 at the International Quilt Festival in the Hague. She “practiced” on the machine for 3 years before attempting to quilt other people’s quilt tops. She tries very hard to sew every day, believing that therein lies the path to sanity and serenity.

Leslie Carol Taylor's Quilt at North Sea Quilters and Friends Exhibition in Rijswijk

2009-03-11T06:43:00.000-07:00

As the long-arm quilting exhibition during the Patchwork en Quiltdagen 14-15 February in Rijswijk was organized by us, it is obvious that we exhibited also our individual works, like Leslie's Forbidden Fruit.

Leslie Carol Taylor: "Forbidden Fruit" (2008)
65” x 89”

"Forbidden Fruit was originally made for a challenge entitled “Paradise”. The idea was to create an exotic and mysterious atmosphere using batiks in lime, turquoise and black. The flying geese border mimics the markings of the serpent, and in this Garden of Eden there are lemons as well as apples. The design was simple to leave myself plenty of “open space” for quilting. I first drafted the quilting designs for the different parts of the quilt, then digitized and eventually sewed them, using a Gammill® Optimum Plus with Statler Stitcher™ and the new Creative Studio™ software. The quilting designs mimic the mood of the fabrics used for piecing and the variegated thread enhances the black background."

Leslie Carol Taylor was born in the UK and has been sewing for as long as she can remember. She officially learned to do patchwork by hand in France in the eighties. Whilst living in Japan in the late nineties, she discovered you could also quilt by machine and from then nothing has been able to stop her. She has been back in the Netherlands since 2001 where she later met Maria Laza and Marybeth Tawfik. Together they founded North Sea Quilters in 2007. Her trip with Marybeth to the EMQE long-arm quilting retreat in Ireland in May 2007 was to become the most expensive holiday ever, as it resulted in the purchase of a Gammill Optimum Plus with Statler Stitcher Leslie has been quilting for customers since December 2007. She loves enhancing a treasured object entrusted to her, and turning it into something even more beautiful. She has a scientific background which helps and inspires her to digitize her own quilting designs, which the Statler stitches out beautifully. And she has even been known to still sew things by hand...

Quilts of Andreas Wolf at the North Sea Quilters and Friends Exhibition

2009-03-10T13:39:00.001-07:00

During the Patchwork en Quiltdagen in Rijswijk between 14-15 February you could also see these two quilts, which were designed, pieced and long-arm quilted by Andreas Wolf.

Andreas Wolf: "Elemantals"
47.5” x 55”

"‘Elemantals’ uses hand-dyed fabrics for the applique and is quilted on a longarm every line. This quilt was displayed at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, England. The quilt was machine sewn and longarm quilted on a Gammill® Optimum Plus."

Andreas Wolf: "Opal"
59” x 90”

"This batik quilt was made to showcase our acrylic templates and the fabrics. It was machine sewn and longarm quilted on a Gammill® Optimum Plus using an edge-to-edge pattern."
The templates are available from: www.rainbow-house.de

Andreas Wolf was born in Hamburg 1965 and grew up on the Lake of Konstanz. He began making handicrafts at a very early age, knitting and cross-stitching. The first quilt show he attended was an exhibition of Amish quilts in Konstanz in 1995. He was then inspired to begin making traditional quilts. In 1998 he opened his own quilt shop in Hamburg and began as a professional quilter. In the shop he has everything any quilter would need. He holds classes, attends quilt shows all over Europe, and produces templates for cutting fabric. In 2005 he purchased an Optimum Plus® long arm quilting machine from Gammill and began to custom quilt clients’ quilt tops. Andreas loves to meet nice, creative people and brings a unique perspective to quilting. You can contact Andreas on 0049.40.22697070 or e-mail to quilthouse@t-online.de
www.quilthouse.de

Quilts of Tracey Pereira at the North Sea Quilters and Friends Exhibition

2009-03-09T04:06:00.000-07:00

During the Patchwork en Quiltdagen 14-15 February in Rijswijk you had the opportunity to look at the Birmingham winner quilts of Tracey Pereira.

Tracey Pereira:"It Happened Overnight …" (2003)
70” x 90”

"During the past twenty years or so the mysterious and often overnight appearance of crop circles has fascinated the world over. Intrigued by many of these beautiful and intricate designs I used this quilt to focus on this strange phenomena."

The inspiration for the quilting designs comes from the book "Crop Circles" by Werner Anderhub and Hans Peter Roth. Whilst some artistic license has been employed many of the quilting designs are based on actual circle formations. Quilted on a non-stitch regulated Gammill® Classic.

This quilt was the winner of the 2006 Art Prize for Freehand Quilting at the Festival of Quilts, Birmingham, England.

"Cosmic Cousins" long-arm quilted by Tracey Pereira (2006)

85” x 85”

"This two-colour piece incorporates an "Ohio Star" foundation block designed by Carol Doak and pieced by my cousin Emma Armstrong. The on-point layout was a 'happy accident' after discovering insufficient blocks had been made but left an open door for some bespoke quilting. Tracey developed the quilting design and freehand quilted it on her Gammill® Optimum plus quilting machine."

This quilt won 2nd place in 2006 at the Festival of Quilts, Birmingham, England, for a two-person quilt and for long arm quilting. It was also juried into the 2008 Mancuso World Quilt and Textiles tour.

Tracey Pereira is an award-winning quilter based in the South of England. She has been quilting for many years and has taught at both national and international levels. She is also a published author and has made several contributions to UK patchwork and quilting magazines. Most recently, Tracey has produced a number of designs for robotic and computerised quilting and embroidery systems.
Tracey is also an accredited judge with the Quilters Guild of the British Isles.
You can see more about Tracey and her work at www.teepeequilts.co.uk.

Quilts of Mary Palmer at the North Sea Quilters and Friends Exhibition

2009-03-06T13:23:00.000-08:00

Many of you admired the work of Mary Palmer during the Patchwork en Quiltdagen 14-15 February in Rijswijk. You can look at the quilts again and read about them here.

Mary Palmer: "20th Century Stars" (2006)
90” x 90”, 2006

"This quilt was made as part of a challenge themed “Blue and White Stars”. Having recently made a traditional star quilt, I tried to play with the term “stars”, hence the familiar faces. The two girls in the centre are my daughters, both born in the 20th century, and stars to me! In the quilting, I have tried to complement the image in each area."

"Log Cabin Houses" quilted by Mary Palmer
64” x 88”

"Marie O’Brien pieced this quilt, having purchased Heidi Stoll-Weber’s hand-dyed cotton sateen and having seen the pattern in a book by Favin Glover. She then gave it to me to quilt. I felt that as the houses had such tiny pieces of fabric, then tiny quilting would be most appropriate. The quilting in the “sky” represents wind, and the earth and borders are cobbled like a road."

Mary Palmer: "Grandmaster " (2004)
90” x 90”

"This quilt was made for the Amish Long Arm Challenge. It was inspired by Amish strippy quilts, with colours inspired by 20th century Amish quilts. When it was finished it reminded me of a circus tent, hence the name “Grandmaster”.
It was the second or third quilt I quilted on a long arm machine (Gammill Optimum with stitch regulator and Gammil Optimum w/o stitch regulator!), which a friend very kindly let me use."

Mary Palmer has been an avid quilter since 1990. Her work has been shown in many exhibitions both in Europe and the US. She has been juried into the AQS show in Paducah and has won awards through the RDS competition in Dublin. Most recently, she has qualified as a Quilt Judge through the Quilters Guild of the British Isles.
www.marimudesigns.com

Yvonne McKee's Quilt in the North Sea Quilters and Friends Exhibition in Rijswijk

2009-03-06T13:11:00.000-08:00

During the Patchwork en Quiltdagen in Rijswijk you could also see Yvonne McKee's "Blue Rhapsody" in the long-arm quilting gallery.

Yvonne McKee: "Blue Rhapsody" (2006)
90” x 90”

"I fell in love with the blue batiks especially the flowery one, which I used in the centre of each star and then the outer border. I also enjoyed creating freeform feathers in the main body of quilt and continuing the feather theme in the two inner border."

Yvonne McKee, 53 years old, owns a quilt shop in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She has been longarm quilting for five years now and currently has a Gammill Optimum® with a Statler Stitcher™ and an Optimum. Her shop is called Quilters Quest. She teaches classes and workshops, as well as providing a quilting service.
www.quiltersquest.co.uk

Quilts of Liesbeth van der Hilst at the North Sea Quilters and Friends Exhibition

2009-03-03T13:06:00.000-08:00

This time you can read about the quilts of Liesbeth van der Hilst, which were exhibited during the Patchwork en Quiltdagen in Rijswijk between 14-15 February.

Liesbeth van Der Hilst: Festival of Snowflakes
65” x 77”

"All of the snowflakes are pieced with paper piecing techniques. The big stars are from a book by Paula Nadelstern. The other stars I designed. All the stars are appliquéd then quilted in the ditch using transparent thread. Between the stars you can see quilted stars using free-hand quilting and blue and silver threads."

"Alle snowflakes zijn gemaakt met de paper piecing- techniek. De grote sterren komen uit het boek van Paula Nadelstern. De andere sterren zijn zelf ontworpen. Alle sterren zijn geappliqueerd en daarna met transparant garen in de naad gequilt. Tussen de sterren zijn uit de vrije hand sterren gequilt met blauw garen en met zilverdraad."

Liesbeth van Der Hilst:"Hestia 4"
59” x 62”

"Hoffman butterfly fabrics are the basis for this Stack ’n Whack quilt. The hexagons are quilted in Stitch in the Ditch. In the plain areas I experimented with different background fillings and different (variegated) threads."

"Hoffman vlinderstof stond aan de basis voor deze Stack ’n Whack quilt. De hexagons zijn in de naad gequilt. In de effen vlakken is geëxperimenteerd met verschillende vlakvullingen en verschillende (verlopende) garens."

Liesbeth van der Hilst started quilting on a Gammill® longarm machine in January of 2006. Lots of beautiful quilt tops came in to be quilted. It is really a lot of fun to talk to quilters and explain the possibilities of this machine!! There is always a solution to enhance the quilt tops with quilting in accordance with the wishes of the owner.
www.atelierhestia.nl

Quilts of Robyn Fahy at the North Sea Quilters and Friends exhibition

2009-03-02T14:17:00.000-08:00

During the Patchwork en Quiltdagen in Rijswijk you could also see the quilts of Robyn Fahy. You can read more and look at the quilts below.

Robyn Fahy:"Bumblebee"
70” x 90”

"This quilt was created for the Longarm Gallery Exhibition at Festival of Quilts Birmingham 2007. The challenge was to create a quilt measuring 70” x 90” using only black and white and one other colour. I chose yellow. I then quilted the quilt on my hand-guided Gammill® quilting machine using Aurifil 100% cotton thread."

"Chasing the Dragon" quilted by Robyn Fahy
94”x94”

"This quilt was made as a ‘Round Robin’ challenge with a group of friends.
Our group is called ‘The Bags and Tarts’. We all had to make a 24” centre block and then pass it to our next friend to add the next border. Each border size was decided before we began. We then each had to finish our tops with our own 8” final border. I then quilted using various 100% cotton threads on my hand-guided Gammill® Quilting Machine. "

Robyn Fahy moved to the small village of Drumquin, Co. Tyrone, Ireland from Margaret River in Western Australia 22 years ago.
Her interest in patchwork began in 1992. Initially self-taught, she studied every book she could get her hands on. She has since been fortunate enough to travel widely, and take classes with many wonderful teachers in both patchwork and longarm quilting.
About 8 years ago she began her career as a teacher when a local women’s group asked her to teach them patchwork. Since then she has owned her own quilt shop and now holds classes in her custom built studios at home. From there, she felt it was a natural progression to owning her own longarm quilting machine. She now has a hand-guided Gammill® Classic on which she does her own custom work and a Gammill Optimum Plus® Statler Stitcher™ for customer quilts.

Marie-Christine Chammas at the North Sea Quilters and Friends Exhibition

2009-03-02T13:57:00.001-08:00

During the Patchwork en Quiltdagen in Rijswijk between 14-15 February you could also see these two quilts, which were designed, pieced and long-arm quilted by Marie-Christine Chammas.

Marie-Christine Chammas: "Arabia Felix: Colorful Desert Dreams"
43”x 61”, 2007

"In the south-western region of the Arabian Peninsula, also known as Arabia Felix, women paint the front wall of their houses in bright colors, thus bringing a very high contrast into the barren landscape. A reportage about the wall paintings in this region was the source of inspiration for my quilt."

Marie-Christine Chammas:"Berry Delight: Almost Whole Cloth"

70” x 70”, 2007

"Do you like ice cream? I do! In winter, I prefer the rich, creamy textures of chocolate and mocha, but in summer, I fancy light, fruity sorbets. In 2007, my favourite flavours were red berries, and a special treat in my favourite ice cream parlor on a warm summer evening was the source of inspiration for this quilt."

In the late 1990’s, Marie-Christine Chammas was looking up special sewing techniques for her hand-dyed silks and velvets when she came across patchwork and quilting. Quilting almost instantly ignited a passion, more specifically machine quilting, and the possibilities of structuring surface and space through quilting lines have been her ongoing subject of artistic pursuit since.
After working for many years in the field of translation and language teaching, Marie-Christine started a longarm quilting business in 2005, being one of the pioneers to offer fine custom quilting services in Germany. In early 2008, the acquisition of additional quilting machines provided the possibility of hosting longarm quilting classes for various levels.
Next to offering quilting services, Quiltissimo focuses on designing quilts and quilted accessories for the modern home.

www.quiltissimo.de
info@quiltissimo.de

Martina Curtis's Quilts at the North Sea Quilters and Friends exhibition

2009-02-26T14:11:00.000-08:00

Here you can see and read more about the quilts of Martina Curtis, which were exhibited during the Patchwork en Quiltdagen 14-15 February in Rijswijk.

Martina Curtis: "Autumn Ladies"
60" x 80"

"I had collected the fabric some years ago and decided to use the Lady of the Lake design for them. Edge to Edge quilted on a Gammill® Classic Plus quilting machine."

Martina Curtis: "Amish Night"
90" x 90"

"Created for a challenge held at the Festival of Quilts, at the NEC in Birmingham. Freehand quilted on a Gammill® Optimum Plus quilting machine."

Martina Curtis was born in the Netherlands but has been living in Ireland for the past 30 years. She is an award-winning quilter who has been quilting professionally on a Gammill® machine for over 8 years. She continues to advance her skills and is still a keen patchworker and quilter.

Beryl Cadman's Quilts at the North Sea Quilters and Friends exhibition

2009-02-25T23:59:00.000-08:00

This time you can read about Beryl Cadman's quilts, which were exhibited during the Patchwork en Quiltdagen 14-15 February in Rijswijk. We were very happy that she could stay with us during the show and some of you even had a chance to talk to her and listen to her explanations about the different long-arm quilting techniques.

Beryl Cadman: Fantasy Flowers (detail)
60” x 60”

"I love butterflies and feathers so incorporated them both in my Fantasy Flowers piece.
This quilt was made using cotton sateen fabric. Quilting techniques are trapunto, hand-guided longarm machine quilting with crystals applied."

Beryl Cadman:"Lady Chameleon"
80” x 80”

"I have always loved silk fabric and have made several quilts with this material over the years.
This wholecloth quilt is made using 100% shot silk fabric. The design is a feathered wedding ring and it was quilted using a Statler Stitcher™ fully computerised quilting machine."

Bed Quilt Sampler

70” x 70”

This quilt was made by a group of friends as a birthday gift for me. It was a surprise gift, they got together for a secret weekend to make and quilt this for me.

Cotton Fabrics, machine pieced and hand guided longarm machine quilting.

Beryl Cadman has lived in Castletownbere since moving to Ireland from Australia in 1997. A keen patchworker, she imported a Gammill® Quilting Machine shortly after her arrival and subsequently became a distributor in 2000. She has been actively involved in longarm education since this time. Beryl is the only accredited longarm teacher in Europe, having received recognised training from America’s Linda Taylor. She has taught all over Europe and at the Quilt Festival in Houston. She and her students have won numerous awards in the UK and Europe and her quilts have been exhibited all over the world including Yokohama, Japan. An active committee member of the Quilters Guild of Ireland, she is also a member of the Irish Patchwork Society, the Quilters Guild of Germany and an accredited quilt judge. She is also the co-founder of the European Machine Quilters Expo, which provides ongoing education to the longarm quilting community - web site: www.emqe.eu “Custom Quilting Limited has been in business for over eleven years. Many years of experience have taught us the skills and knowledge needed to provide our customers with the support they need to start a quilting business or invest in a hobby. We are the longest-standing dealer of Gammill® Quilting Machines and the Statler Stitcher™ fully computerised quilting system in Europe. We offer a fully integrated service including set-up and training, advanced tuition, maintenance instruction, and follow-up support provided locally.” You can contact Beryl on www.customquilt.com or phone: +353 27 70414

Irena Bluhm's Quilt at the North Sea Quilters and Friends Exhibition

2009-02-25T13:45:00.000-08:00

During the Patchwork en Quiltdagen 14-15 February in Rijswijk we had the privilege to exhibit Irena Bluhm's Hawaaian Punch Quilt.

Irena Bluhm: "Hawaiian Punch"
54” x 54”
Cotton, cotton and polyester batting,
Cotton and polyester thread

Hawaiian Punch was started as a practice piece before stitching on my Paducah 2007 entry, but life did get in the way. My real Paducah entry has not been completed. I submitted Hawaiian Punch to the AQS Paducah instead and was not sure whether it would be accepted. It turned out, it was accepted and subsequently has won five awards at other shows. I used 100% cotton sateen for the top and backing and double batting
[polyester for the top and 80/20 for the bottom] to create the raised design effect. YLI variegated thread was used on the top and Maxilock in the bobbin. Maxilock was used for the background filler as well. After the quilting was complete, the color was applied using colored pencils and textile medium to make the color permanent. All flower centers are turned edge appliqué stitched using the needle position button on my Gammill® Optimum Plus.

This quilt won an Honorable Mention at Machine Quilters Showcase 2007, 2nd place Machine Quilting Excellence at Quilter’s Gathering 2007, 2nd Place, Innovative, Wall, Mixed at the Road 2 California 2008, Honorable Mention at Dallas Quilt Celebration 2008, Honorable Mention at Quilt Expo 2008 in Madison WI, USA.

Irena Bluhm is an award winning quilter, instructor, pattern designer and the author of 6 books. Irena is also a National Sales Representative for Gammill® Quilting Systems.

Irena Bluhm was born and raised in Poland. She moved to Germany in 1981 and then to the California, the United States, in 1991. After her husband retired in 2001, they purchased a 71-acre property in rural Antlers, Oklahoma where her large studio is located. With 18 years of garment making/design and 12 years of doing art for hobby, she has transitioned the experience in creating fine art and other skills into making quilts for shows and exhibits exclusively. Irena is very passionate about creating many different quilting design patterns, innovative ways of making show quality quilts, writing books and teaching.

Her enthusiasm is very contagious as she loves to share, encourage and inspire other quilters to try something new that they never thought they would be able to do. After long arm quilting for just a little over 1 year, Irena started teaching long arm quilting nationwide in March 2006 at many major venues MQX 2006, 2007, HMQS 2007, MQS 2007, AQS 2007 in Paducah, Innovations 2006 and 2007, MQS 2008, AQS Quilt Expo 2008 in Des Moines, Iowa, USA and Germany.

Irena is hoping that her encouraging nature, very contagious enthusiasm for creating art and what she loves to do is going to inspire many others to try her techniques. Some students, who participated in her workshops, are producing award winning quilts.

Since she started entering her work into major national and international quilt contests in 2005, she developed a strong and lasting passion for this art form. Her work has won 54 awards in national and international quilt contests. Among all awards, some of them are won at: IQF in Houston, AQS in Paducah and Nashville, Road 2 Ca, PIQF, NQA, MQS, MQX and Innovations to name just a few. She has designed hundreds of quilting patterns and only a very small portion has been published and is available on the market. She also has authored six books so far and more books are in progress.
www.irenabluhmscreations.com

North Sea Quilters and Friends Long-Arm Quilting Exhibition in Rijswijk

2009-02-24T13:43:00.000-08:00

Visitors in front of Irena Bluhm's "Hawaiian Punch" quilt

For the Patchwork and Quiltdagen festival in Rijswijk, The Netherlands, over the Valentine's weekend, we were privileged to bring together some of our favorite quilts from some of our favorite quilters to expose the Dutch quilting public to the possibilities of long-arm quilting. Many thanks to Jobina de Boer for making this exhibition possible. And many, many thanks to all our friends for loaning us their wonderful works of art to hang!

One of the purposes of the exhibition was to expose quilters here who haven't had the opportunity to travel to Birmingham or France or the United States to see the work of longarm quilters from other places. We found that people were extremely interested and asked lots of questions on techniques. They were also interested and sometimes amused by the motivations behind some of the works. Our friends have been extremely generous both with their quilts but also with the information behind them that makes the works more accessible to people on a personal level. Hopefully, quilters here in Holland now feel as though our friends are their friends as well!

To have a feeling of the exhibition look at the photos, taken during the exhibition in the Patchwork en Quiltdagen in Rijswijk!

Challenge Quilts from the Long-arm Quilting Gallery - Part IV.

2009-02-23T04:03:00.000-08:00

This is the last "chapter" of our reports on the challenge quilts show, which North Sea Quilters exhibited in the "Patchwork en Quiltdagen", Rijswijk with the cooperation of Jobina de Boer. These quilts were first shown in Birmingham and it is organized and presented by Beryl Cadman, (Custom Quilting) the European distributor of Gammill® Quilting Machines and Statler Stitcher™ fully computerized quilting system and co-sponsored by Twisted Thread. Scroll down to see the following three quilts and click on the photos to enlarge them.

"“Bouquet of Stars” quilted by Beryl Cadman
Designed and pieced by Krys Evans
90" x 90"

This quilt was designed and pieced by Krys Evans and quilted by Beryl Cadman for the Long-arm Gallery at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham 2008.

Beryl Cadman has lived in Castletownbere since moving to Ireland from Australia in 1997. A keen patchworker, she imported a Gammill® Quilting Machine shortly after her arrival and subsequently became a distributor in 2000. She has been actively involved in longarm education since this time. Beryl is the only accredited longarm teacher in Europe, having received recognised training from America’s Linda Taylor. She has taught all over Europe and at the Quilt Festival in Houston. She and her students have won numerous awards in the UK and Europe and her quilts have been exhibited all over the world including Yokohama, Japan. An active committee member of the Quilters Guild of Ireland, she is also a member of the Irish Patchwork Society, the Quilters Guild of Germany and an accredited quilt judge. She is also the co-founder of the European Machine Quilters Expo, which provides ongoing education to the longarm quilting community - web site: www.emqe.eu “Custom Quilting Limited has been in business for over eleven years. Many years of experience have taught us the skills and knowledge needed to provide our customers with the support they need to start a quilting business or invest in a hobby. We are the longest-standing dealer of Gammill® Quilting Machines and the Statler Stitcher™ fully computerised quilting system in Europe. We offer a fully integrated service including set-up and training, advanced tuition, maintenance instruction, and follow-up support provided locally.” You can contact Beryl on www.customquilt.com or phone: +353 27 70414

Robyn Fahy: "Epoch"
90” x 90”

This quilt was created for the Long-arm Gallery at Festival of Quilts Birmingham 2008. This year our challenge was to create a quilt measuring 90” x 90” and using two Japanese fabrics provided, along with any other fabrics we chose. I then quilted the quilt with cotton thread on my hand-guided Gammill® Quilting Machine. I spent 54 hours quilting this quilt.

Robyn Fahy moved to the small village of Drumquin, Co. Tyrone, Ireland from Margaret River in Western Australia 22 years ago. Her interest in patchwork began in 1992. Initially self-taught, she studied every book she could get her hands on. She has since been fortunate enough to travel widely, and take classes with many wonderful teachers in both patchwork and longarm quilting. About 8 years ago she began her career as a teacher when a local women’s group asked her to teach them patchwork. Since then she has owned her own quilt shop and now holds classes in her custom built studios at home. From there, she felt it was a natural progression to owning her own longarm quilting machine. She now has a hand-guided Gammill® Classic on which she does her own custom work and a Gammill Optimum Plus® Statler Stitcher™ for customer quilts.

Myriam Debuscherre: "Fanny’s Fans" (detail)
90” x 90”

Fanny is my needlework friend. As she loves fans, I made the quilt for her: Fanny's fans.

Myriam Debuscherre lives in Belgium and received her Gammill® Classic on 11 September 2001. She had her basic lessons during 2001 and 2002 and after practising a few years went to Dallas, Texas, to Linda Taylor’s studio. This was an absolutely perfect week, during which she learned more than she thought was possible.
In October 2006 she won the third prize in the Open European Quiltchampionships in Waalre, the Netherlands.
She is anxiously awaiting delivery of her new Gammill Optimum Plus® with the Statler Stitcher™. To contact Myriam go to her website www.quiltstudio.tk

Challenge Quilts from the Long-arm Quilting Gallery - Part III.

2009-02-21T13:09:00.000-08:00

We continue with the presentation of the challenge quilts, which North Sea Quilters exhibited in the "Patchwork en Quiltdagen", Rijswijk with the cooperation of Jobina de Boer. These quilts were first shown in Birmingham and it is organized and presented by Beryl Cadman, (Custom Quilting) the European distributor of Gammill® Quilting Machines and Statler Stitcher™ fully computerized quilting system and co-sponsored by Twisted Thread. Scroll down to see the next three quilts and click on the photos to enlarge them.

Marybeth Tawfik: "Hortensia Hideaway" (detail)
90" x 90"

"When I received the purple and green for the challenge I immediately thought of the giant hortensia, or hydrandgea, bushes that are against the sheltering wall of my garden. In the summer they grow taller than I amand are very happy presences in my days, especially from my kitchen window. But each petal is different and many things live inside the blossoms. I have attempted to show the spectrum of colors the petals take on and tucked the details away in the quilting."

Marybeth Tawfik received her first electric sewing machine at the age of 10 so that her mother would be able to use her own Pfaff. Originally sewing garments, she became interested in patchwork in 1996 while living in Japan, but was too intimidated by the process to begin patchwork until 2001. She purchased her Gammill Optimum Plus® in 2004 at the International Quilt Festival in the Hague. She “practiced” on the machine for 3 years before attempting to quilt other people’s quilt tops. She tries very hard to sew every day, believing that therein lies the path to sanity and serenity.

Tracey Pereira: "A Year’s Worth of Bento Boxes" (detail)
90” x 90”

"‘A Year’s Worth of Bento Boxes’ was inspired by a recent passion for ‘Jelly Rolls' and an urgent need to meet a challenge deadline! The quick and simple box block was all that was needed to showcase these beautiful Japanese fabrics and the colourwash layout is designed to suggest the passage of the year’s seasons. I digitised a traditional Japanese Sashiko pattern called 'Nowaki' (or grasses) to produce my own bespoke quilting design. Quilted on a computerised Gammill® Optimum."

Tracey Pereira is an award-winning quilter based in the South of England. She has been quilting for many years and has taught at both national and international levels. She is also a published author and has made several contributions to UK patchwork and quilting magazines. Most recently, Tracey has produced a number of designs for robotic and computerised quilting and embroidery systems. Tracey is also an accredited judge with the Quilters Guild of the British Isles. You can see more about Tracey and her work at www.teepeequilts.co.uk.

Andreas Wolf:“Symphony in Purple” (detail)

90” x 90”

"This quilt was made for the long-arm challenge for the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham 2008. We were given two fabrics to use along with a spool of thread. I wanted a big block size in order to have big fields to quilt so that I could use different techniques to fill each block."

Andreas Wolf was born in Hamburg 1965 and grew up on the Lake of Konstanz. He began making handicrafts at a very early age, knitting and cross-stitching. The first quilt show he attended was an exhibition of Amish quilts in Konstanz in 1995. He was then inspired to begin making traditional quilts. In 1998 he opened his own quilt shop in Hamburg and began as a professional quilter. In the shop he has everything any quilter would need. He holds classes, attends quilt shows all over Europe, and produces templates for cutting fabric. In 2005 he purchased an Optimum Plus® long arm quilting machine from Gammill and began to custom quilt clients’ quilt tops. Andreas loves to meet nice, creative people and brings a unique perspective to quilting. You can contact him on phone: 0049 40 226 97 070 or e-mail to quilthouse@t-online.de www.quilthouse.de The templates are available from: www.rainbow-house.de

Challenge Quilts from the Long-arm Quilting Gallery - Part II.

2009-02-21T13:05:00.000-08:00

This is the second part of the serie where you can see and read about the challenge quilts, which North Sea Quilters exhibited in the "Patchwork en Quiltdagen", Rijswijk with the cooperation of Jobina de Boer. The quilts were first shown in Birmingham and it is organized and presented by Beryl Cadman, (Custom Quilting) the European distributor of Gammill® Quilting Machines and Statler Stitcher™ fully computerized quilting system and co-sponsored by Twisted Thread. Scroll down to see the next three quilts and click on the photos to enlarge them.

Leslie Carol Taylor: Peony Pickle
90" x 90"

"The choice of design for this challenge was in order to give myself plenty of scope for quilting. I wanted to make a pickle dish with non-traditional colours, and I love using sateen for quilting.

I first drafted the quilting designs for the different parts of the quilt, then digitized and eventually sewed them, using a Gammill® Optimum Plus with Statler Stitcher™ and the new Creative Studio™ software. I first designed the swirls in the melons, inspired by one of the fabrics I had used for piecing. I then decided I needed something a bit more structured and drew several versions of the peony centre, with various swirls around them. The borders, which partly go into the main body of the quilt, are made up of several different quilting blocks.
The peonies are quilted in a light mauve, whilst the surrounding swirls use a variegated thread. The pickle dish itself is stitched in the ditch using a lime-coloured thread, which gives an interesting pattern on the back of the quilt!!!!"

Leslie Carol Taylor was born in the UK and has been sewing for as long as she can remember. She officially learned to do patchwork by hand in France in the eighties. Whilst living in Japan in the late nineties, she discovered you could also quilt by machine and from then nothing has been able to stop her.
She has been back in the Netherlands since 2001 where she later met Maria Laza and Marybeth Tawfik. Together they founded North Sea Quilters in 2007. Her trip with Marybeth to the EMQE long-arm quilting retreat in Ireland in May 2007 was to become the most expensive holiday ever, as it resulted in the purchase of a Gammill Optimum Plus with Statler Stitcher.
Leslie has been quilting for customers since December 2007. She loves enhancing a treasured object entrusted to her, and turning it into something even more beautiful.
She has a scientific background which helps and inspires her to digitize her own quilting designs, which the Statler stitches out beautifully.
And she has even been known to still sew things by hand...
www.northseaquilters.com

Yvonne McKee: Purple Passion (detail)
90" x 90"

This quilt was designed on EQ6 when I was at the EMQE Retreat in June 2008 in Castletownbere, Co Cork, Ireland. I had intended to do a lot of the quilting freehand, but became enthused by the possibilities of the Statler Stitcher™ programme and proceeded to do most of it using the computer.

Yvonne McKee, 53 years old, owns a quilt shop in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She has been longarm quilting for five years now and currently has a Gammill Optimum® with a Statler Stitcher™ and an Optimum. Her shop is called Quilters Quest. She teaches classes and workshops, as well as providing a quilting service.
www.quiltersquest.co.uk

Sue Philips: Checkmate (detail)
90" x 90"

"The quilt name is Checkmate, which I pieced and machine quilted on a Gammill®Optimum Plus."

Sue Philips is a longarm quilter in Wales, UK, and has been quilting for about five years. In 2008 she took delivery of a Statler Stitcher™ and hopes to offer all sorts of goodies to new and existing customers.
Sue’s company name is School House Quilting and the telephone number is +44 1633 401222.

Challenge Quilts from the Long-arm Quilting Gallery - Part I.

2009-02-20T13:40:00.000-08:00

In the next blogs you can see and read about the challenge quilts, which North Sea Quilters exhibited in the "Patchwork en Quiltdagen", Rijswijk with the cooperation of Jobina de Boer. The quilts were first shown in Birmingham 2008 and it is organized and presented by Beryl Cadman, (Custom Quilting) the European distributor of Gammill® Quilting Machines and Statler Stitcher™ fully computerized quilting system and co-sponsored by Twisted Thread. Scroll down to see the first three quilts and click on the photos to enlarge them.

Maria Laza-Bihari: Midnight Minuet
96" x 96"

"I love colours therefore I tried to incorporate the two challenge fabrics into a colorful palette of yellows, reds, purples and greens, moving from dark to lights towards the middle of the quilt. I was always fascinated by the dynamism of the Storm at Sea Pattern, the way it moves your eyes and lets you discover new patterns. This variation of Storm at Sea gave me the opportunity to play with the circles that formed as a secondary pattern. In the quilting I tried to emphasize the circles, by quilting in the ditch, then stitching an airy free-hand quilting around them. The stars were stitched in the ditch. The quilting was done on a Gammill® Optimum Plus long-arm quilting machine, which my North Sea Quilters friends kindly let me use. It is my first long-arm quilted project."

Maria Laza-Bihari was born in Hungary and has always been interested in handicrafts. She bought her first sewing machine with the first bonus from her first job. She caught the “quilting bug” about 10 years ago. She started with traditional hand-pieced patchwork and later moved to piecing and quilting by machine. She was one of the founding members of the International Women’s Contact patchwork group in The Hague. In this group, she met Marybeth Tawfik and Leslie Carol Taylor, who then all travelled together to the International Quilt Expo in Lyon, France, in 2006. By that time Maria was occupied with the idea of how to turn her hobby into her profession. The following year the three women established North Sea Quilters, which gives Maria the wonderful opportunity to combine everything she likes best, patchwork, challenging herself, working in a group and meeting people, making them happy and helping them to learn, grow and find their own ways in quilting.

www.northseaquilters.com

Emma and Pam Ablett: Dragon Flower (detail)
90” x 90”

This quilt was a joint effort. Emma Ablett designed and pieced the top, and advised on quilting patterns to accentuate the piecing. Pam then completed the quilt on the Gammill® longarm quilting machine. The quilting is a mixture of free-hand stitch in the ditch and embellishment, and blocks and borders were fitted using the Statler Stitcher™ computerised quilting system.

As the proud owners of “Quilters Trading Post”, Pam and Emma Abblett are pleased to offer approximately 3000 bolts of fabric. Along with this large collection of fabrics, the shop also offers a quilting service, classes and a fabric printing service for those precious family photos.
The shop has been open now for just over a year and a half and gets busier as each week passes.
www.quilterstradingpost.com

Cheryl Thomas: Cheryl's Star (detail)

90" x 90"

This quilt was created for the Long-arm Gallery at the Festival of Quilts, in Birmingham, 2008. This year the challenge was to create a quilt of 90" x 90" with two Japanese fabrics provided, along with any other fabrics we liked.

Cheryl Thomas lives in Southwest Wales. She is married with 3 sons and a full time job as well.
Cheryl had been a keen quilter for many years and in 2004 her Gammill® Optimum Quilting Machine became a welcome addition to her family. She loves her Gammill and regularly takes classes and attends EMQE each year to further her quilting skills.
Even with her limited time available she contributes to the Longarm Exhibition held at the Festival of Quilts, NEC Birmingham each year.

Long-arm Quilted Challenge Quilts in the "Patchwork en Quiltdagen" in Rijswijk

2009-02-18T23:34:00.001-08:00

Leslie Carol Taylor is answering questions about her challenge quilt

If you have read our earlier blogs, you know that we've brought over the travelling exhibition of the long-arm quilted challenge quilts, which were first shown at the Long-arm Quilting Gallery in Birmingham. We exhibited the quilts as part of the "Patchwork en Quiltdage n" in Rijswijk over the weekend of 14 and 15 February 2009. This challenge is organized and presented every year since 2003 by Beryl Cadman, (Custom Quilting) the European distributor of Gammill® Quilting Machines and Statler Stitcher™ fully computerized quilting system and co-sponsored by Twisted Thread.
In 2008 each participant was given two Kona Bay fabrics, a green and a purple, and a variegated thread. The finished size of the quilt had to be 90"x90". These were the only parameters and everyone finished their quilt as they liked. In the following blogs you can see the results and read about the quilters and their statement about the quilts.

Visitors at the exhibition of Long-arm quilting challenge quilts in the Patchwork en Quiltdagen, Rijswijk

Behind the Scenes of the Long-arm Quilting Exhibition at "Patchwork en Quilt Dagen" in Rijswijk

2009-02-17T23:26:00.000-08:00

We have a very busy weekend or I should say busy weeks behind us. We spent the winter months organizing the Long-arm Quilting Exhibition "North Sea Quilters and Friends", which took place on 14-15th February in Rijswijk during the "Patchwork and Quilt Days" show. But it began a long time before, when we had an idea that we would like to show the Dutch quilters the possibilities and the beautiful work that can be done on the long-arm quilting machines. But which quilts shall we show and where to find a venue? That was the time when we worked on our challenge quilt for Birmingham, so it seemed an obvious choice to ask Beryl Cadman (Custom Quilting Limited), the European distributor of the Gammill® Quilting Machines and Statler Stitcher™ fully computerized quilting system,

who organizes and presents the Long-arm Quilting Gallery in Birmingham, if we can show these challenge quilts in The Netherlands as well. She was very supportive of the idea. We had the quilts, but no venue yet. Marybeth approached Jobina de Boer, the organizer of the "Patchwork en Quilt Dagen" in Rijswijk, who kindly offered the place for the Long-arm Quilting Challenge show and more, the opportunity to showcase 24 more quilts. Thanks to our long-arm quilter friends, who were very happy to share their best quilts with the Dutch public, we could easily put together the extended show. I can say this was a one-of-a-kind event. It was never before in The Netherlands that the patchworkers could see as big a collection of long-arm quilted patchwork than during this weekend. You can imagine how excited we were before the BIG DAY. It was nice to see that so many of you came to the show and were interested to see the quilts of Emma and Pam Ablett, Bery l Cadman, Myriam Debuscherre, Robyn Fahy, Maria Laza, Yvonne McKee, Tracey Pereira, Sue Philips, Leslie Carol Taylor, Marybeth Tawfik, Cheryl Thomas and Andreas Wolf in the Long-arm Quilting Challenge Gallery.
In the extended part of the exhibition the visitors could have a close look at the quilts of Irena Bluhm, Beryl Cadman, Marie-Christine Chammas, Martina Curtis, Robyn Fahy, Liesbeth van der Hilst, Yvonne McKee, Mary Palmer, Tracey Pereira, Andreas Wolf and ours, the North Sea Quilters (Maria Laza, Leslie Carol Taylor and Marybeth Tawfik).
Look at the photos here and the following blogs, may be you can spot yourself ☺ And as you noticed there are some real behind the scenes photos as well!

Patchwork and Quilt Days in Rijswijk

2009-02-01T13:03:00.000-08:00

View of the Challenge Quilts at the Long-arm Quilting Gallery in Birmingham 2008.

We would like to invite you to the Patchwork en Quilt Dagen (Days) Exhibition in Rijswijk on 14-15 February 2009.

We are participating with an Exhibition of North Sea Quilters and Friends, which consists of two parts:

The Long-arm quilting challenge 2008
These quilts were originally hung at The Festival of Quilts in Birmingham in August 2008 and was sponsored by Custom Quilting Ltd. and Gammill.The exhibition consists of 13 large quilts (90 inches square) which each incorporate two challenge fabrics in addition to any other fabrics the maker chose to use in their personal design. North Sea Quilters participated in this challenge with three separate quilts.

A Selection of Long-arm Quilts, Showcasing Different Possibilities
Quilts by Irena Bluhm (USA), Beryl Cadman, Marie-Christine Chammas, Martina Curtis, Robyn Fahy, Liesbeth van der Hilst,Yvonne McKee, Mary Palmer, Tracey Pereira, Andreas Wolf and the North Sea Quilters: Maria Laza, Leslie Carol Taylor and Marybeth Tawfik.

Other Exhibitions During the Show

Feathers

Finalists of the International Quilt Competition “Feathers”, organized by the 14^de Carrefour Européen du Patchwork in Val d’Argent, France, where these quilts were first exhibited from 18th to 21th September 2008.

StiQS

StiQs is a group of enthusiastic quilters, whose approach to quilting has became more and more free with time. They pursue their own way whilst still adhering to some basic techniques. Although textile remains the most important material, it is certainly not the only one they incorparate in their work. StiQS was founded in 2006. All members completed the course “Speciality Quilting”, organized by “Kunstfactor” the Dutch national institute for amateur art. For more information see: www.stiqs.nl

Elly Prins

Elly Prins has been quilting since 1993. She has always quilted by machine and was the first quilter in The Netherlands to introduce long-arm quilting. Having followed courses in the US she has developed into a quilter with great experience in the field of machine quilting. This exhibition gives an overview of the stages of her development.

Vendors

Shops from both The Netherlands and abroad will offer a large selection of fabric, books, patterns and speciality tools during the Patchwork and Quilting Days.

Presentations and Lectures

There will be a lecture or presentation every hour on both days.

You can read more on our website www.northseaquilters.com under the News section.

For Dutch translation, please visit our website: www.northseaquilters.com under the News section.

More information www.exporijswijk.nl.

Information about advance purchase of entrance tickets: www.jobinadeboer.nl

We hope to see you at Rijswijk,

Maria, Leslie and Marybeth

North Sea Quilters Exhibition at Rooijackers

2008-11-25T03:06:00.000-08:00

From the 8th November until Christmas you can see an exhibition of our works at Rooijackers, sewing machine shop/ official Bernina Artista dealer. You can visit the exhibition during opening hours from Monday To Friday from 10.00-18.00 and on Saturday from 10.00-17.00. To find out more about Rooijackers or download a route to their shop, please go to their website www.probleemlozenaaimachines.nl. Have a glance at the photos, taken at Mr. Rooijacker's showroom.
You can combine visiting the exhibition with a walk on the beach Promenade, a nice lunch at one of the beach restaurants and turn your excursion into a fun day-outing.

Maria Laza-Bihari

Winner of the Long-arm Quilting Voucher

2008-10-02T08:16:00.000-07:00

North Sea Quilters organized a lottery among those quilters who visited our booth and signed up to our newsletter at the General Exhibition (Algemene tentoonstelling) of the Dutch Quilter's Guild (Quiltersgilde) in Arnhem. The prize of the lottery was a 95 Euro long-arm quilting voucher, which is an equivalent of quilting a 165 x 180 cm sized patchwork top with an intensive phantograph .

The president of the Dutch Quilter's Guild, Jeanne Hamers-van der Werff drew the winning lottery at the end of the exhibition on the 10th September.

The winner of the 95 Euro long-arm quilting voucher is Mevr. A. Sauer.

We would like to congratulate to the winner!

Jeanne Hamers-van der Werff and Leslie Carol Taylor during the drawing of the winner lottery ticket.

Participation at the ASH PTA Information Fair

2008-09-23T14:20:00.000-07:00

In the last couple of weeks we were very busy attending various open days, fairs, patchwork exhibition, which meant less time for writing our blog. I'll try to make up for it and give an overview about these events. Let's start with the ASH PTA Information Fair at The American School of the Hague, which was hold on the 6th September. This is a great event for the parents to meet the representatives of local organizations, clubs, churches, small business. This was the second time that we took part in it and we met many familiar faces. Thanks to "Little Amsterdam" everybody knew where North Sea Quilters was. It was nice talking to all the quilt loving/admiring people and to give information to the newcomer quilters about quilting in The Netherlands. I hope this will help them to carry on with their hobby even in their new home.

Maria

Darling Husbands

2008-09-16T11:16:00.000-07:00

This blog is about our other halves. We generally hear the story that partners have no idea why we spend our leisure time cutting up perfectly good fabric into little pieces and then sewing the pieces back together again. Well come on, seriously, isn't that obvious??!!??!!

The next point of contention is about the stash of fabric we quilters all have. Why we don't use it up. Well, the answer to that one is obvious too, I mean, you don't ask a stamp collector whether he's used up his first edition stamps to write to his Aunt Grace in South Africa, do you?

These are very general remarks we hear around us. However, we also hear a lot of stories about very supportive husbands who happily follow their wives around to all kinds of quilting venues. Now, whilst these are not our stories to tell, we are allowed to disclose facts about our own darling husbands.

Sandor has happily put up with Maria's quilts being on the living room floor (the obvious design board), between him and the television for days on end (I think he could just about use the remote control). His job means he has to travel. To faraway countries. But the silk and other fabrics he has brought back for Maria are to die for. Her North Sea Quilters reversible jacket is an example of the silk he brought back from Cambodia.

Wahid has put up with Marybeth's Gammill long-arm quilting machine being in their BEDROOM for many years. And recently has really been absolutely fantastic; he accompanied Marybeth on their last visit to Egypt to the Tentmakers of Cairo's quarters in the city*. Even though the taxi driver was not happy about going there. With Wahid as an interpreter Marybeth got to talk to some of the tentmakers, and, of course, buy some of their work.

Now Bob, has happily watched Leslie convert their garage into the North Sea Quilters Studio and in addition has agreed to accompany us to the Quilt Show in Val d'Argent in Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines again this year. Now, we know he is a francophile, and likes to take pictures of quilts, but to still agree to go after this picture he took last year ....

DHs at Val d'Argent, September 2007

So this blog is dedicated to all partners, who show an interest in what their other halves do, whatever that may be!!!!

* also covered in a recent article in QuiltersLog, the European Quilter's magazine

Maria's Quilt: the Dance of a Quilter - Midnight Minuet

2008-09-13T09:01:00.000-07:00

It is my turn to introduce my quilt I made for the long-arm quilting gallery at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham. How many times I learned that I should trust my first instinct, but I always think, rationalize. This was a fine example of it.

Maria Laza-Bihari: Midnight Minuet

When I started to work with the challenge fabrics, thinking through colour combinations my first reaction was to dig out an old project, as it had all the colours I had in mind: red, purple and green. It was a variation of the Storm at Sea Pattern which I fell in love with a long time ago. But this project had been prepared for hand-piecing and all the pieces were cut in centimetres! I had a look at it and discarded the idea, as it would have been a very time consuming project and this time I wanted to concentrate on the quilting and not the piecing. I took another direction and I played with several ideas, based on sashiko patterns. Days of drawing, designing and finally one morning I woke up with the IDEA. Let's not go into details otherwise I will never finish this blog. One thing is sure Equilter and My Blue Bamboo benefitted from my search for the perfect fabrics. Unfortunately none of them worked well in this design with the challenge fabrics. The outcome was a few interesting projects for the future and of course plenty of beautiful fabrics in my drawers, but concerning the challenge I was back to square one or should I say back to my first instinct, the old Storm at Sea variation. I always wanted to finish it and now everything pointed in this direction. Once I was sure, it went "fairly quickly". All I needed was to sew day and night (as the deadline and my holiday were coming closer) and to take over the living-room floor as a design board. Of course I wouldn't have been able to do this without my family's patience and understanding. I have to acknowledge they were very supportive or maybe just worried that we'd miss our holiday ?! The quilting still was ahead of me. I wanted to stitch in the ditch to emphasize the circles and turn these secondary patterns into the main focus and then fill up with free-hand quilting. I was very excited as this was my first SID on the long-arm quilting machine. It was nice to see how the circles came alive under my fingers. I couldn't finish the quilting completely before it went to Birmingham, I still need to do the free-hand quilting. It was a compromise, as I don't think my family would have accepted if I had cancelled our holiday. I promise I will post a photo of my quilt in our blog, once it is finished. Until then you can look at the photo, taken in Birmingham.

One more thing; I have to thank Marybeth for the name of my quilt, "Midnight Minuet" . It represents the whole story of my quilt.

Leslie's Quilt

2008-09-08T13:44:00.000-07:00

So to continue from yesterday, I will talk about the quilt I made for the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham this year. Well for some time I had wanted to make a pickle dish quilt. For those of you who don’t know, a pickle dish is like a double-wedding ring but with triangles instead of squares in the rings. That’s made it a lot clearer hasn’t it?

Pickle Dish Quilt

Now I had fallen in love with the double wide quilters’ sateen we buy from Christian Lane Quilters. We have used it on the back of some of our quilts and it is truely gorgeous. Combined with a mixture of purples and greens, this quilt was going to look stunning. And using the sateen for the background would leave me plenty of space to machine quilt to my heart’s desire.
The point about the pickle dish is that it involves curved piecing, and cutting curved pieces. Now that is not easy at the best of times. Trying to cut curved pieces from 108” wide slippery sateen is hard. Piecing bias pieces of stretchy slippery sateen is practically impossible, but then I do like a challenge.
Anyway, the top got pieced and I was really happy, and then I started on the quilting. As I am the proud owner of a Statler Stitcher, I knew I could draw my own design, digitize it using Autosketch and that with the Statler’s Creative Studio programme, fit the quilting exactly where I wanted on the quilt. In the end I decided on a peony with some swirls around it and the name of the quilt became “Peony Pickle”.

Digitised Peony

At the moment we are at the Quiltersgilde ATT, the Dutch Quilt Guild’s Annual General Show in Arnhem, The Netherlands. So we will be able to tell you all about that on one of our next blogs.

Leslie Carol Taylor's quilt in the long-arm gallery at the Festival of Quilts 2008

Summer in The Netherlands

2008-09-07T03:23:00.000-07:00

We have been very busy over the summer, not updating the blog obviously, but then it is no secret that we really prefer sewing and quilting to doing anything else.
Now what have we been busy doing??? Well for some reason we thought we would have a quiet time over the summer regarding our machinequilting for customers. Well we are pleased to inform you that there are enough really addicted quilters in NL who keep up their patchwork and quilting all summer and don’t want to go and sit in the garden or go to the beach. Maybe it was because we had rather a lot of rain.... Now we really enjoy quilting other people’s quilts, and we will show you some of the pictures over the coming weeks, but we also like quilting our own projects!!!

So our plan was to work on our own quilts. Our friend Beryl Cadman (Gammill long-arm representative for Europe) organises the long-arm gallery each year at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham. She usually selects a theme beforehand such as Blue and White Stars (2006) or Black and White and One other Colour (2007). This year the challenge was to completely incorporate two half yards of fabric which we received beforehand: a mauve Japanese floral with chrysanthemums and a small green floral to make a 90” by 90” quilt (about 230cm square - yes that is quite big).

Detail of Robyn Fahy's black and white and yellow quilt

Now we each had our own ideas of what we wanted to do. Marybeth was inspired by the hydrangeas in her garden. Her idea was brilliant: to use a snowball block in different sizes, and vary the colour from top left to bottom right; the centre of the blocks the flowers ranging from hydrangea blue to mauve to pink and the corners the leaves in a variety of greens. Now we don’t know exactly how many different fabrics she used in her quilt, but we think equilter did quite well out of it...

Marybeth Tawfik's "Hortensia Hideaway"

Next time more about Maria’s and Leslie’s quilts!!

Patchwork workshop at the Quilting Retreat in Budapest

2008-06-27T00:42:00.000-07:00

We are so excited about our Patchwork Retreat, which we organize in Budapest from 4-7 December 2008. Please look at the picture of our festive table runner, which you can make during the two days workshop. It is a North Sea Quilters' original design. We love to play with hexagons. Though they seem to be complicated, but it is very easy to sew them together and it goes quickly. You should be able to finish it during the workshop. We take care of everything, the sewing machines, fabrics, all you need is to sign up and enjoy the workshop and Budapest in its Christmas decoration.
You can find detailed information and sign up on
www.northseaquilters.com

Quilting Retreat in Budapest

2008-06-16T13:40:00.000-07:00

We are pleased to invite you to our quilting retreat in Budapest from 4-7 December 2008. It will be a lot of fun with a two days workshop, visit to the famous Christmas market and shopping as much as you want.
During the workshop we will make a festive table runner. You don't need to carry suitcases of fabrics for the project, as it will be provided by North Sea Quilters. It will be exiting to mix and match the fabrics. We are aiming for the shiny, spectacular center piece for your Christmas table. You will have the opportunity to sew on industrialized sewing machines at the education center of the Hungarian Taylor's Association.
We will stay in the heart of Budapest at the 4 star hotel Danubius Astoria, just a few minutes away from the building where the workshop takes place and not far from the Christmas market and the main shopping street Váci utca, and don't even mention the famous patisserie Gerbeaud.
We make sure you will have a very relaxing weekend, we take care of everything. Maria tries to help you with all your questions and requests as she is from Budapest.
If you are interested, you can find detailed information on our website under retreats:
www.northseaquilters.com

The ten-weeks Little Amsterdam Course Finished

2008-04-15T12:10:00.000-07:00

After ten weeks of hard work, but spiced up with a lot of laughs we finished the course of Little Amsterdam. During this course the participants made their own version of the prize-winner Little Amsterdam. Though they used the same color scheme, all of the quilts are different and very special. The quilters let their creativity fly incorporating their own houses, personal memories into their quilts. On the right you can see the first finished Little Amsterdam quilt. Below there are some photos from the course.

Having fun with the embroidery stitches on the Bernina

Photos of the finished projects

Thank you for participating in the course.

www.northseaquilters.com

The Short Course of Little Amsterdam Finished

2008-04-15T11:40:00.000-07:00

We had our last lesson of the shortened Little Amsterdam course. During this course the participants pieced only the center part of Little Amsterdam, the bridge houses, they appliquéd the bridge over the water, added the sky border and the dog-tooth border. We had a lot of fun during the class. We would like to thank the ladies for participating in the course.
Here are some photos from the class and the finished works.

Happy quilters with their work

During the class

Leslie's Firework Quilt at the Bernina Booth

2008-04-01T12:58:00.000-07:00

During the Patchwork and Quilt Days in Rijswijk Leslie Carol Taylor's Firework quilt decorated the wall of the Bernina Booth. Leslie used different techniques, the "firework blocks" were paper-pieced by hand, the rest of the patchwork top was machine pieced. She quilted it on the Bernina Artista 440 Sewing Machine.

North Sea Quilters Congratulates to Yuko Kaldenberg

2008-04-01T11:55:00.000-07:00

The Patchwork and Quilts Days Show in Rijswijk (28-30 March 2008) hosted several exhibition as Q-Art Belgium, works of Agnes ten Hoeve, "A garden, passionately", organized by the 13^th Carrefour Européen du Patchwork in Val d’Argent, France and also the Bernina Quilt Competition with the theme "Celebration", which featured traditional and art quilts in different categories.
North Sea Quilters also supported the competition with a voucher for long-arm quilting services of the value of 100 Euro. Our prize was presented to Yuko Kaldenberg, who won the 1st prize with her "Feathered star" quilt in the " Traditional Advanced " category. We would like to congratulate her and the other winners of the competition. Please find below some photos of Yuko's quilt. You can also admire the beautifully hand-pieced and hand-quilted work.

Feathered Star by Yuko Kaldenberg

Details of the quilt

Bernina presents the prizes

The winner with North Sea Quilters in front of Little Amsterdam

Patchwork and Quilt Days in Rijswijk

2008-04-01T11:13:00.000-07:00

The last weekend of March we participated in the Patchwork and Quilt Days Show in Rijswijk, The Netherlands. We were very excited, as this was our first occasion to be behind the table, as a vendor and to serve our customers instead of being served. It was a good opportunity to show our designs, patterns, kits, the unique hand-made Hungarian indigo fabrics (Kékfestő) and bring closer the long-arm quilting services to the quilters in the Netherlands. We enjoyed very much meeting our visitors and talking to them. We would like to express our thanks to those who visited our booth. We hope you liked the exhibition and had a very nice weekend. We also would like to thank our family, being patient and surviving the weekend without us and also a big thanks to our friends, who popped in and supported us.

Here are some pictures about the preparation and the North Sea Quilters booth.

Getting ready for the show and waiting for the opening

Having a break and helping our customers

How to Service Your Sewing Machines

2008-03-10T14:51:00.000-07:00

I often surprised how quilters don't realize the importance of cleaning and taking care of their sewing machine. May be they forget, may be they don't know or they are scared to do it. I don't even dare to mention the issue of changing needles...
I thought it's time to encourage you to tackle this "cleaning-the-sewing machine" issue and as a first step, you can read the advices of a sewing machines' expert, Mr. Ruud Rooijacker, dealer of the Bernina Sewing Machines from Katwijk. He is in this business since 23 years or I should say even longer as he follows a family tradition, his knowledge is in his blood. His father opened his sewing machine shop 57 years ago. Today Mr. Rooijacker owns a beautiful, light show room with all the Bernina models.
He was very happy to give you advices on how to maintain your machine at home and when you should take it to the specialist for a service.

How often do you need to service your machine?
- It depends on the usage of the sewing machine. If you sew every day on your machine, you should service it once a year. If you use once a week, but oil it on a regular base, your machine needs a service in every 2-3 years.
When you should oil your sewing machine?
- If you can listen to your machine, you can tell from the sound, that it's time to oil it, provided that it's a machine made of steel parts, like Bernina.
How to clean and oil your sewing machine?
- You can lay your machine on its back. It is easier to reach the hook.
- Take out the hook and clean the hook with a brush and a piece of cloth;
- Clean the inside part with a vacuum cleaner;
- Lower the feed dog, take out the needle plate;
- Clean with cotton buds;
- Put 1-2 drops oil on the side of the axle of the hook.

Why do you need to change needles very often?
- It is easy mathematics. Just think about the distance of the take up lever from the bottom to the top, with an average stitch length of 3-4 mm-s. How many times goes the lever up and down, lifting the needle and feeding the thread through the needle? So it is very important to always choose a good quality thread with a good quality needle and always the right needle for the right project.

If you would like to learn more about taking care of your sewing machine or considering buying a new one - may be a Bernina - , you can visit the "Rooijackers naaimachines" shop in Katwijk. Mr. Rooijacker and his colleagues are very happy to give you a "tour". You might end up joining the happy group of "Bernina girls", just like us and our students.

Little Amsterdam Sleep-Over

2008-02-03T02:28:00.000-08:00

Maria has been very busy keeping you updated, but now it’s my turn to write something (Leslie).

Yesterday I visited the quilt shop in Haarlem: “Irma’s Sampler”. It is a very nice shop with a very nice selection of fabrics and I hadn’t been for some time. Haarlem is easy to get to either by train or car, and if you go by car there are several car parks within easy walking distance of the shop. Irma’s Sampler is right next door to the Frans Hals Museum, so you can easily take your family along and leave them there whilst you spend your time more usefully choosing fabric. There are plenty of very nice coffee/lunch places around, so if you go with friends and have lunch afterwards you will still have the opportunity to go back to the shop afterwards (you know, for that one thing you couldn’t justify at first and think about over lunch and then decide you really must get because it probably won’t be there next time you visit!)

My reason for going (apart from the obvious) was to talk to the owner Gré Koopman (lady on photo) about hanging Little Amsterdam in the shop. There were quite a few ladies in the shop (some of them for the Hundertwasser workshop) and none of them had been to the European Quilt Championships in Waalre, so had not seen the quilt before. And that is exactly the point. By hanging Little Amsterdam at Irma’s Sampler people will see her who otherwise would not have had the opportunity. Funny it was the day of the Hundertwasser workshop, in which you also make houses, but don’t have to be careful about your ¼” seam allowance and can make the houses as crooked as you like!

Anyway, Little Amsterdam will be at Irma’s Sampler until 22nd March, when we will get her back again in time for the Patchwork & Quiltdagen in Rijswijk (scroll down linked site for English text).

Go visit her at Irma’s Sampler, where the pattern book will also be for sale, or if you can wait that long at Rijswijk.

Leslie

Hanneke's Quilt for Her Daughter

2008-01-24T12:04:00.000-08:00

This time I would like to introduce you Hanneke, our friend from the IWC quilting group. She just finished her quilt, what she made for her daughter, Katy. I took some pictures of this beautiful, colorful quilt during our quilting session at the IWC office. Hanneke kindly offered to write about her inspiration for the quilt.

Katy's African childhood quilt by Hanneke Wood

"I had been thinking for some time about a quilt for Katy to take to University with her -while we were visiting the School of Stitched textiles last summer (I am doing an online City and Guilds course with them) Katy spotted and fell in love with a border fabric, warm colours and African people and I found an equally enchanting fabric with African mothers and babies (both Timeless Treasures but discontinued I think). To complete the challenge Katy found a very bright and vibrant green batik to include in the quilt.

Where to start - we poured over books, looking for inspiration, and finally used some ideas from Roberta Horton's The fabric makes the quilt (Lafayette, 1995)- her design concepts were particularly helpful, "Repetition makes things go together" , "It's important that the line is'nt straight" , "Don't centre", "Keep the eye moving" and "If it's too big, cut it off. If it's too small, add on to it."
I explored my stash and 'auditioned' lots of fabrics, a continuing process in the making of this quilt as it evolved! I used lots of batiks, some 'klimt' fabrics (Makower ) whose colours were perfect, and some of 'Jabulisa's' African printed fabrics. I then started my making 'wonky blocks' centred around the themed fabrics, and the quilt started to grow. After much rearrangement, the quilt top was complete, bordered with a deep red batik from Evy at Quilterspalet here in The Hague and I chose to back it with a soft checked flannel - I asked North Sea Quilters to machine quilt it for me, which Marybeth has done beautifully, quilting in the ditch and including a border pattern inspired by the recurring zigzagging triangles in the African fabrics.

The warm vivid colours, and the liveliness of this quilt remind me of Africa where
Katy spent the first three years of her life. Absolutely the best quilt to accompany her on the next step in her life!"

Thank you Hanneke for sharing your story behind the quilt. We were lucky in the IWC patchwork group to enjoy looking at and quilting beside this cheerful quilt for a while and we didn't let Hanneke to take it off from the wall until it was time to go home.
I wish Katy that this quilt will bring her the comfort and the warmth of home when she her new life at university.

Maria
www.northseaquilters.com

Carol's First Quilts

2008-01-16T12:40:00.000-08:00

We would like to use this blog also to create a forum for our friends, clients to show and introduce their patchwork to other quilters. If you would like to tell about your quilt, please send us the photo of your patchwork and your story behind the quilt.

This time I would like to show you the photos of Carol's quilt. She is an expat quilter, living in The Hague and this is - better say - these are her first quilts. Can you imagine that she just started to quilt and she made immediately two big quilts? These two identical quilts were her Christmas presents for her daughters. It is a beautiful, true scrap quilt. In the quilt Carol cleverly incorporated fabrics, she collected during her traveling/posting, like African fabrics. Look at the beautiful color of her quilts. The blues and the orange accents work really well.
We quilted them on the new Statler Stitcher, using an overall pattern of "Baroque swirl."

Carol's daughters really loved their special Christmas present. I'm sure they will be happy to snuggle under the quilts in their dormitory and they'll be very proud of their mum.

Carol's daughters wrapped in the quilt and the two quilts together

The back of the quilts, quilted on the Statler Stitcher, pattern Baroque swirl

Maria
www.northseaquilters.com

Little Amsterdam Course Started

2008-01-16T12:27:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we had the first lesson of the ten-weeks course of Little Amsterdam in the new studio. We began by focusing on tips and advises on the design elements of the quilt, than we choose the fabrics for the houses and started to make the bases for the regular houses. The three hours passed very quickly and it was already time to write down the homework. Everybody enjoyed the class and are looking forward to the next Tuesday.

Maria
www.northseaquilters.com

Long-waited Patchwork Weekend in Hamburg

2008-01-15T12:49:00.000-08:00

Since autumn we were looking forward to this weekend, where finally we could enjoy quilting without the distraction of the worry about cooking, cleaning and other every day's job. So Last Friday we hit the road and after about 5 hours drive we arrived in Hamburg at Adreas Wolf's patchwork shop the Quilthouse to attend a weekend course with Ilka Rave and learn how to make a quilted jacket. After the warm welcome of Ilka and Andreas (and of course the delicious cakes) we immediately jumped into work. First we choose the wool for our jacket, which I found quite difficult, as Andreas has a good selection of beautifully colored, soft wools and I couldn't make up my mind. (Of course on the last day we couldn't resist to buy another piece). Than we wandered around the shop to find fabrics for the strips and the inside of the jacket and find more treasures, like the deep colored hand-dyed fabrics. After cutting our strips the "working" day was over. We walked in the neighborhood, did some window shopping and had a nice dinner.
Saturday we worked really hard the whole day, we only stopped for lunch and "cake/tea" break. Ilka was always there to explain, help, give advices. She is a wonderful teacher. In the evening after a walking tour along the lake we had a nice dinner in a Greek Restaurant. Sunday we continued on sewing and by the afternoon we were ready to wear our jackets. Only few things needs to be done (sewing the bindings by hand, the final touch). I think our sewing machines were releaved that we finished the machine sewing, the eight layers of fabrics (four of them wool) was a little bit too much for them, but they managed it really well. These Bernina and Husquarna Viking sewing machines are reliable "friends" for us since many years.

As to the jackets, they are beautiful, see for yourself!

Thanks for the lovely patchwork weekend Ilka and Andreas!

Working in the morning... working in the evening.

Maria and Leslie and the back of their jackets

Marybeth and Ilka and the back of their jackets

Maria
http:www.northseaquilters.com

"Picasso in The Hague" Exhibition

2008-01-09T12:14:00.000-08:00

At the moment we are quite busy with making our plan for the year 2008. It would be very boring for you to read about that. So I thought I would draw your attention to an exhibition, I visited during the holidays.
I think for us quilters it is important to get inspirations from other art forms, learn from them. You never know when you find your big idea.
I went with my guests to the Gemeente Museum in The Hague where you can see the Exhibition " Picasso in Den Haag" or shall I say Picasso in The Hague. The big part of the collection came from the Ludwig Museum in Cologne and it gives an overview of Picasso's entire carrier. The earliest work at the exhibition is a sketch, made of his father by Picasso, when he was 18. You can also see his early drawings and paintings from his early years in Paris, work from his Cubist phase, his Classical Period (like Harlequin with Folded Hands), the period of the Spanish Civil War and World War II. One of the amazing exhibits is the whole 100-print "Vollard Suite" in its entirety, which he created between 1930-1937. It was named after its publisher, the French art dealer and critic, Ambroise Vollard. The artist visualizes his obsessions, using neo-classical and classical subjects, like the artist's obsession with his model (Pygmalion), the transformation of the artist (Minotaur). This is also a tribute to his lover, Marie-Therese, who inspired him in creation of this masterpiece. I myself, admired and was attracted to the fine lines of his drawings in this series. Living my "obsession to colors" period I was also impressed by the colors of some of his other works and took a picture of them. May be one day when I'm looking for a color scheme.....

Bullfight, 1935

The "Vert-Galant" Park, 1944

Head of Woman with Hat, 1962

I hope you have a chance to visit the exhibition. While you are there in the Gemeente Museum don't miss out the other exhibitions, like the Rozenburg, if you are interested in porcelain. But let's leave something for the next blog.

Maria
www.northseaquilters.com

Beginner's Sampler "Zinnia Patch"

2008-01-07T08:24:00.000-08:00

InDecember our six week course has finished. This sampler quilt was designed by our teacher, Leslie Carol Taylor for beginners to learn the basics of quilt making.

During the course they learned how to cut fabrics quickly and precisely using a rotary cutter, special mat and ruler. How to sew them together neatly (by machine) and how to press the seams to make a nice flat and square top. They also learned how to look at fabrics and put them together in combinations that they like.

The quilt contained different blocks, like “Summer Winds”, “Ohio Star” and an adaptation of “Churn Dash”, “Log Cabin”, “Monkey Wrench”, “Maple Leaf” and “Pinwheel”, “Nine Patches”, “Four Patches”, “Quarter Square Triangles” and a ”Tree”.

It was good to come together on a regular base and sew together, make new friends. In the group there were absolute beginners and experienced quilters, but everybody learned something new. And the most important is that the quilting community became richer with new members, as the ladies got infected by the "patchwork bug". Here are some photos from the last lesson and of course the finished blocks.

THANK YOU FOR ATTENDING OUR PATCHWORK COURSE!

Santa's Midnight Runner One-day Workshop

2008-01-06T12:21:00.000-08:00

I wish all of you a Happy 2008 Year! A New Year, time for the New Year's resolutions. One of my New Year's resolution is to write more often in our blog and of course to catch up reporting on events, which we had at the end of the year.
One of them was a one-day workshop where we made a table runner, using Mt. Red ou b t's Santa's Midnight Runner pattern. We pieced the background from different blues, than we placed Santa and his reindeers to the background, using a raw-edge appliqué technique with the help of fusible web. It was fun to go through the pile of fabrics to find the right choice for each piece of the appliqué.
Though each participants used the same background fabrics, each table runner turned out different, very unique. By the end of the day we finished the top and the homework was "just" to embellish your top and quilt it. I hope this table runner became a nice center piece on the Christmas table.

This day was not only about "hard" work, but also fun, helping each other, chatting, drinking coffee and tea, having a good time and eating home-made cakes and
Marybeth's delicious soup.
Here are some pictures, capturing the ladies while they are tracing the pattern. You can also read some testimonies.

Hanneke: "Loved the day, did far more work in one go than I ever do at home, and
enjoyed the company and the food! "

Elaine: "Thank you for great day out yesterday - Maria for the delicious4 cakes,
Marybeth for the lovely lunch and tips
on satin stitch and last but of
course not least - Leslie for your patience with fusing those blasted reins!
I had a great day and have all sorts of ideas for embellishing the quilt."

Sandra: "Many thanks for the workshop today. I had a great time - thanks for all your help, especially Maria for battling with my sewing machine!!!! Also for the great lunch."

THANK YOU FOR ATTENDING OUR WORKSHOP!

Little Amsterdam with a Twist

2008-01-04T05:57:00.001-08:00

I would like to introduce you some quilts which were made by our friends, using our pattern book Little Amsterdam.
Fiona Williams made her "New Amsterdam", using her fabric stash just within two weeks. It's a true scrap quilt, the only fabric she bought was the "sky". According to her this project is really addictive, she could hardly stop making the houses.
Here is the result:

Elaine Suller made a cot quilt for her little niece. She adapted the pattern and make three rows of houses from the funky Moda fabrics and the result is a very cheerful baby quilt.

She used the fancy stitches from her Bernina sewing machine to embellish the roofs and windows. Here are some close-up photos:

Maria
www.northseaquilters.com

Updated Quilt Competition List

2008-01-03T08:26:00.000-08:00

If you are interested in Quilt shows and Competitions you can find an updated list of links to different competitions and exhibitions in the Netherlands and all over the world on our link page http://patchwork.jouwpagina.nl/
On this website please go to Patchworkwedstrijden, you can scroll down (Click on meer Patchworkwedstrijden) to find the complete list of links.

Maria
www.northseaquilters.com

Search Words for Patchwork and Quilt on the Web

2008-01-02T05:23:00.001-08:00

Patchwork,
Quilt,
Quilt blocks,
Quilt supplies,
Quilt shows,
Picture of a quilt,
Baby quilt,
Amish quilt,
Handmade quilt,
Seminole patchwork,
Patchwork pattern,
Patchwork blocks,
Patchwork magazines,
Quilt magazines,
Patchwork exhibitions
Quilt exhibitions,
Quilt expo,
Quilters forum,
Quilt shop,
Quilt shop directory,
Patchwork shop,

Quilts, Cats, Christmas

2008-01-01T13:23:00.000-08:00

Have you ever wondered why do cats love patchwork? How is it possible that they always find quilts, even in hidden places? My cat always sleeps on them, even if just a tiny spot is available for her (the rest is still under work - "unwanted" obstacles, like sewing machines, rulers or me prevents her from taking over the whole quilt). I took this picture during the Christmas holidays. It didn't take long for our cat to discover the patchwork tree-skirt under the Christmas tree and since then this is her new "bed". I'm afraid it's not for long.

Luckily she is also happy to share the new quilt with my daughter, which was a Christmas present to her from all three of us, the North Sea Quilters. It is a lovely Carol Armstrong's design, which we couldn't resist to make it. There are still some Cats in the Cabin kit available on our website.

With these pictures I wish you a very Happy 2008 Year and a lot of fun quilt projects and many happy patchwork hours!

Maria
www.northseaquilters.com
http://patchwork.jouwpagina.nl

Patchwork.jouwpagina.nl - a new website by NSQ

2008-01-01T11:50:00.000-08:00

We've created a new website http://patchwork.jouwpagina.nl/ in order to share useful links, regarding to patchwork with other quilters. The site is bilingual in Dutch and in English. It mainly contains links, concerning the Dutch patchwork community, European quilt exhibitions, competitions, quilting associations and of course the North Sea Quilters. We will continuously add more information to the site.

Maria
www.northseaquilters.com

1st Prize at European Quilt Championship

2007-12-31T10:32:00.001-08:00

We were surprised and honored as the competition was so stiff, that our "Little Amsterdam" quilt won the 1st prize in the long-arm quilting category at the European Quilt Championship in Waalre, The Netherlands in October 2007.
For four days visitors could enjoy the exhibition of patchworks from European quilters, stroll around the patchwork shops and look at the exhibition of the special guests, the Hungarian quilter, Eszter Bornemissza and the Dutch Henk van Kooten.
You can see the photos of prize winning quilts at the following website:
http://www.eqc.nl/nl/eqc2007/index.htm

Here we are in front of our quilt in Waalre.

I think quilt exhibitions/competitions, like the European Quilt Championship play an important role in the European patchworker's community, especially now that the European Quilt Expo ceased to exist. In a way they can take over the role of the Quilt Expo. It gives opportunity to see other quilters' work from all over Europe and gives a boost and inspiration to quilters. I would encourage every quilter to dare to submit their work to competitions, to share their patchwork with the quilters' community. The deadline for the next EQC is the 15th January 2008.

Maria
http://www.northseaquilters.com

Little Amsterdam - Our First Work+

2007-10-23T13:25:00.000-07:00

Here is our first work, as North Sea Quilters: Little Amsterdam, which was designed in mind of creating a keepsake about The Netherlands, that we would all like to take home, once we move to another country. We incorporated the images of the canal houses of Amsterdam with the colors of the Delft Blue china. The houses are made after existing houses along the canals of Amsterdam.

We are very proud of it and we received a lot of positive comments, but the real test will be next week, as Little Amsterdam is entered into the European Quilt Championship in Waalre in The Netherlands.

If you would like to see this quilt, you can visit the European Quilt Championship in Waalre, from 25-28th October.

Maria

http://www.northseaquilters.com