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It’s Fall Quilt Show Season! I’ve never been to the Elk Grove Quilt Show before and it was a wonderful show. The location has good lighting and plenty of room to see the quilts-a rarity. There were quite a few gorgeous applique quilts on display-apparently an Applique Mini-Group chose Piece ‘O Cakes Design’s “Millie’s Garden” as their Block of the Month for the year. The next 6 quilts were all made from the same pattern-just look at the variety: Irene Takimoto’s quilt showed her beautiful use of color and expert workmanship.Joyce Moldenhauer used wonderful, bold color for her quilt. I…
At last-a tutorial on the Daisy Fill! Many of you at the International Quilt Festival-Long Beach Saturday Night Sampler wanted to know how to do this one. I promised I would post a tutorial. It’s a fun and easy motif to do and you’ll find it useful in many situations. Let’s go! 1. I start with just simple circle/oval for my flower center. 2. I make my first petal, coming back to the center. 3. I continue on to make my second petal. There is no “right” number of petals-it’s your daisy! 4. I keep “petaling” back around the center until I’m…
It’s a small world for us quilters-you never know where you’ll meet another quilter. Today I drove about an hour each way to be a witness in a Probation Hearing. I recently attended the Northern California Quilting Council’s Meet the Teacher event in July and I had $80 stolen from my purse. While I was on-stage to present, I witnessed this surreal scene: a woman walks boldly and purposefully into the back of the room, directly towards my table. She walks right to my purse, reaches into it and walks out-all this in a large room with 220 people present! I witnessed all of this from…
I apologize for not posting very much lately. I recently experienced 2 weeks of technology armageddon: cell phone, desktop and laptop, all at once. This was followed by a delightful vacation to Bend, Oregon with family. It’s been a great time since we got here. My friends Lynn and Steve from Corvallis flew their plane here to stay with us for a bit. We took a 2 hour flight through the mid-Cascades, flying right by Bachelor, the Three Sisters, Three Finger Jack, Washington, and Jefferson. We also saw Smith Rock and Wolf Rock-all in 2 hours with amazing views from the plane.…
My American Sewing Guild garment group held an informal fashion show this week. My co-leader Anita hosted it at her lovely home and we enjoyed a delightful afternoon of fashion, food and friendship. It turned out to be like attending a high-end seminar-as each person showed her garment, she related what she learned about the fabric, pattern, particular technique, fitting, etc.-very instructive. . One member cut into DH’s ties to create the binding for her couture tank-a clever touch. Apparently she likes the technique so much that he doesn’t have many ties left, poor guy!This member used a Marfy pattern for this fabulous top.…
Since this was my first visit to IQF-Long Beach, I was focused on viewing the quilts more than spending time at vendors. Of course since DH was with me, I was careful not to come back to the room with arms full of new stuff (= “expensive” in DH’s mind). One of the first things I did was look at Ricky Tim’s Songe d’Automne , a spectacular quilt from 2002, considered by most to be his “breakthrough” quilt that vaulted him to fame.Look at the close up below and you will understand how he made the applique/trapunto literally stand out.…
I had a blast at Int’l Quilt Festival-Long Beach ! Now, I’m tired, excited and recovering. The photo shows my table at the Saturday Night Sampler, with DH manning the cash register. I gave away a quilted wholecloth table runner which you see on the right-more about that later. The Sampler was a resounding success! Apparently there is great interest in “Ordinary Objects That Make Fabulous Fills” as all the chairs were filled and people were standing much of the time. Many quilters want to create their own freemotion fillers for backgrounds, but just don’t know how to go about it. I created 15…
I thought I would have more time to post before I left, but I’m in a rush. I consistently underestimate the amount of time it takes to complete a task. The table runner that will be the give away at IQF-Long Beach took way longer than I thought, but it was great fun to quilt. I went through 8 bobbins with skinny little Bottom Line thread if that’s any indication of how heavily quilted it is! I am very excited about being one of the teachers at the Saturday Night Sampler! DH will be handling the retail side of things and…
I really needed to take a break from all the prep work for Long Beach and NCQC, so I stole away and spent a fun afternoon at the California State Fair-I go every year. I love the Fair: it’s usually blazing hot, misters everywhere; I love the Creative Arts Building, the Fine Arts Building, the buildings full of vendors hawking stuff you never knew you needed before, horrific heart-stopping food, odd people, and yes, I actually visit the livestock too. I ran into these entertaining stick walkers right when I walked in. They were traveling all over the Fair, much to the amusement…
I was delighted to have the opportunity for a Play Day yesterday with Linda Waddle, a delightful artist/dyer/designer in Auburn, Ca. I spent most of the morning and early afternoon admiring and pawing her huge stash of hand dyed/stamped/screen-printed/painted/stenciled fabric collection. Linda lives where you can see a full view of the Sierras from her back deck-not bad inspiration, huh? I have admired her work since I first saw it. Linda created “Helleborus” in 2005 I think, after taking a class from Hollis Chatelain and it won first place in Houston that year. When I first saw it in person at her local guild’s show, I was just…