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I’ve got more quilts for you from the Houston show. I will be posting just the quilt and its maker except this first one. What a story: This quilt is jaw dropping in person. But the story of the quilt and its maker is even more amazing. This is Angela’s first quilt! Her husband travels a lot for work and they do not have children yet, so Angela was looking for something fun to do. She decided, hm, quilting would be fun. So she bought a small Janome to start with. She thought she would start out with the square-in-square blocks. She kept on…
Now, the quilts! Today I’ve included photos from Viewpoints 9, two of the SAQA exhibits: Wild Fabrications and Balancing Act, Modern quilts, and 3 quilts that are simply my favorites. I have seen several other posts by others with photos of amazing quilts that somehow I missed. You must know that my tour of the quilt floor was done in fits and spurts. I would start a category and get distracted with a conversation or the need to rush back to class, not realizing that I had missed part of the category. But it was a great show! I am pressed…
I’m overwhelmed, in a very good way, and it’s hard to know where to start. Maybe with the numbers: 8 days, 5 full classes except one (5 short), a Sampler and Machine Quilter’s Forum (hundreds at each, multiple instructors), 2 Meet the Teacher events, at least 5 countries represented in my classes, countless renewals of friendships, many miles walked with over 20 pounds of quilts and product on my shoulders, hours slept-hmmmm, number of items purchased at vendors-2! Apparently I was not the only one overwhelmed. I can’t tell you how many times I saw a conked out quilter sleeping on the…
I’m in Houston at International Quilt Festival now so I’ll post more next week. It’s fun to see visitors enjoy my Morning Breeze. I’ve taught 4 classes and have 5 more events to go. What a show this year! More posts about Houston to follow.
I’m down to the wire on my Houston prep and one of the things I just got to was my donation quilt. Quilt Inc. is the non-profit umbrella organization of the quilt show. Each year they ask their teachers to consider donating a small quilt to raise funds for the organization. I’ve donated one each year I’ve taught and I really wanted to do that again. But this year I’m barely getting it done in time. You, um, may have noticed that I seem to be in a series based on grasses and other drought tolerant plants. Windswept is part of…
Prairie Afternoon is the title of my entry into the 2015 Pacific International Quilt Festival (PIQF). It was one wild ride to make this quilt! Everything went wrong, until it didn’t. I like the final product and I’m shocked that it all turned out. My inspiration was drawn from photos I had taken when I visited my home state of Illinois a few years ago. I love the fields and grasses and how the wind puts them in motion. I am happy with the completed piece. But it was not easy to get there! Come with me on the journey:…
The Sierra Gold Quilters Guild was hit hard by the recent fires but their show went on! Fortunately all the fires were gone, the fairgrounds were untouched and it was a beautiful fall day. The guild’s Opportunity Quilt was especially appealing to me but no, I did not win it, sigh. NOTE: For some inexplicable reason, I took many of my photos of the card and missed the title. If you know the title of those without, please let me know and I’ll add it. Sue Green was the featured quilter and she brought a sea of exquisite appliqued large quilts.…
So, funny story: I took a 5 1/2 day class from Diane Gaudynski at Empty Spools/Assilomar. Right next to us was a group whose mission was to legalize marijuana. They were an odd bunch, no two ways about it. The men were wearing rumpled message t-shirts with phrases like “If the whole world smoked weed, peace would break out”. The women wore mounds of fabric on their bodies. And many did appear to be, um, compromised, and pretty happy. They were a peaceable bunch and tended to take their breaks around the same time we did, which led to some very interesting…
There were two local quilt shows in one weekend-I had to clear the decks to get to both! I’m glad I was able to make the Elk Grove Quilt Guild show last weekend-a bi-annual event that is always worth the wait. Here are a few quilts that caught my eye: Clydeen created this using Thistledew’s Block of the Month. There is so much to like here: the fabulous colors, the texture, the embellishments. Kathy used Donna Greenwald’s technique of creating flowers in fabric, topstitching them and then submerging them in water. This creates a soft 3-d look of a real flower.…
It’s the beginning of the Fall Quilt Show season-yippee! The first show in my area is the Gold Bug show, which is always a good one. This year they had more space and even better lighting, which made for a better show. The Gold Bug guild has a nice mix of quilters of all genres: applique, spectacular piecers, great quilting and this year, some nice Modern quilts in the mix. Enjoy: This was a show stopper for me. I was surprised to find out that Paula used commercial fabrics for this. She added embellishments, inked and quilted shadows and added…