Have you ever wondered just how a massive show like the Festival of Quilts at the NEC in Birmingham, UK comes about? Wondered just how they decide who wins and who gets placed – after all have you always agreed with the judges’ choices? This year I found out a lot of answers to those questions. My journey to seeing behind the scenes at the festival really started in 2019 when I completed a short course at that year’s festival. The course? A Taste of Judging. Which took us thr

Have you ever been just a little too overwhelmed with ideas or information to make a final decision? I say go for it and love the process.

Ever tried to bind a quilt with a just too little fabric? Not had enough matching fabric left? Had a border you didn't want to add anything to the edge of? Well that's where facing a quilt comes in handy. Yup, I thought it meant turning in the edges and slip stitching them closed. But, no it is an entirely different way of finishing off the edging of your quilt and one which I think I will be trying out more and more. So, looking in the loft/attic (I think I mentioned this in

So you want to produce great quilt tops? Really amazing quilts have an abundance of techniques which can be hard to get right - that's partly why they look so good when they are done well. Well this is just one technique and really just one way of doing it, but it has the joy of no loose ends to tie off and no worries about it coming undone. Put that together with a fail-proof method of getting the Y crisp and you'll be mastering Y seams in no time. The first thing a quilt ne

So, an interesting thing happened to me this morning. As I was frantically looking for my vehicle registration form in the loft (attic) - no, clambering over the ridiculous amount of junk up there is not that interesting - I found my wedding dress and my sister's bridesmaid dress. The photos actually look quite good considering what I've learnt about my skin tone since then. How I could have forced her into that orange contraption I do not know. I know - off the subject compl

The rail fence quilt I was making for a client really didn't take any time at all. It was using the Boundless Batiks from what was Craftsy and is now Bluprint. Using a simple jelly roll makes it all so much easier. After I made the blue rail fence quilt from the first blog, for one of my friends, I was a little concerned that doing a similar one in a brown colourway would leave the quilt a little flat. The blue one is so vibrant. However I shouldn't have worried myself so muc

Here's wishing you all a New Year filled with all things fabric and quilty. Did you get everything you wanted to complete finished? No? Neither did I. Yes? Well done you - I find I never remember how long everything takes to do when there is the mayhem of Christmas going on. Riverport Quilting has two new client quilts to be made from scratch, so we will be busy over the next few weeks sewing constantly. One design is really only a rail fence design and because we're using pr

This weekend 3 of my best friends received a huge surprise. They each got a quilt for Christmas as a gift. Now, this has never happened before and is unlikely to happen very often in the future but I had a bit of time and opportunity to zip up some basic patchwork tops using only jelly rolls. At least a jelly roll in each case. Don't you just love the wonders of precuts making quick cutting and piecing so much easier. The jelly rolls I used were from Craftsy. I know, I know