Sew awareness 2026 Quilt Festival theme quilt

Herewith the original Sea glass Quilt I entered into the festival.  It didn't qualify for a prize though as we novices have to compete against teacher and master quilters which is not an even playfield.

I combined turtles with the sea glass design to depict the detrimental influence of micro plastics on the environment.  Turtles was also used as the logo for the festival. The turtle design I bought from Urban Threads, and you can find the design here.  The fabric I used for the border is from Langa Lapu.

Sea Glass design

I was finally able to finish this design and upload it to my store.  I actually embroidered it twice as I entered the first one in the Sew Awareness 2026 quilt festival which contained copyrighted designs from another store.  So, to be able to upload a photo on my store, I needed to embroider another one.

I don't know if it is a labor of love or just craziness to gather up about 120 different pieces of fabric and about 60 spools of thread and change color with every piece of fabric.  Embroidering about 15 pieces per evening after a whole day of work, well, you decide.  The design was already done in February and embroidering two of them with life in-between, brought us to mid June.  And beware, rummaging through so much fabric left your studio looking somewhat like a war zone.

Get your own design here while it is still on special.  Completed size is 400 x 500mm.

I gifted this one to a friend who is going to turn it into a bath mat.  I will put up a picture of my original one after the festival have concluded.

Bloemshow 2026

This year I entered 8 items of which 6 won prizes.  I also won the Christa Gouws Trophy for the most items entered at the show again. I won the trophy previously in 2018, 2024 and 2025.

3rd prize

2nd Prize

2nd Prize - R75

1st Prize - R125

1st Prize

1st Prize

Total quilt prize money R65

Christa Gouws Trophy

Sloth

I initially wanted to embroider various items for my daughter in 2024 of her favorite animals but unfortunately my Brother Innovis 4000 had other ideas when it broke down.  So, I started in time (or so I thought) this year to gifted her when they visited us during the past two weeks of April, but then had to work many hours overtime, had to finish all the entries for the Bloemshow and started working on entries for the Sew Awareness 2026 quilt festival and just run out of time.

I finished only this beautiful sloth from Planet Applique which I then stitched onto a hoodie and bought items with highland cows, bees and foxes - her other favorite animals.

Playful Pyramid finished

After finishing the twisted log cabin runners, I decided to finish this quilt which I started in 2023 when I was unemployed.  Although only 4 of the blocks and the borders needed quilting, it still took me a month to complete.

I originally wanted to quilt the blocks with straight lines radiating out from the center, but it just looked so crooked, so I opted for just straight lines with the muvit foot.

A wide border was added in the two darkest colors to two sides each and quilted with a grid pattern.

The narrow white border was quilted with a triple stitch in variegated threads.

The piano keys border was also quilted with the triple stitch using coordinating threads.

The four corner squares was quilted with variegated threads in the same grid pattern.

The binding was done using some of the leftover backing from my prizewinning Advanced Beginners quilt.  It's always a good day when a project is finished. 

Cutlery Bags

About ten days ago, my Boss's wife phoned me and ask if I can embroider two names on tea towels for her son and his friend who is going camping.  Another tea towel is then stitched to the backside and turned into a drawstring bag to store their cutlery in and to be used as well, as a tea towel.

Twisted log cabin runners

I finally finished a UFO from 2016 during the December holiday.  Although it was only 4 blocks stitched into 2 runners, other projects were always prioritized.  A member of our quilting group, Marietjie, demonstrated this technique.

I used the same cherry fabrics back in 2013 to make this little wall hanging and was glad I saved the little leftovers of the small cherry print as it was just enough to use as sasching between the 3 blocks for the chest of drawers' runner. 

The single block was done for the bedside table.

A feather motif was embroidered in the center block using variegated thread.  On the red and green sides I free motioned some feathers as well.  The border was stitched using the MuVit foot (previously called a walking foot) and the same variegated thread in a grid pattern.

I don't know if I will ever be able to finish all of the ufo's which have accumulated over the years, but at least I am trying.