The FIRST Joyful Journey Retreat

Announcing the First Joyful Journey Retreat, to be held March 11-15, 2020, at the Red Rooster Retreat Center in Cullman, AL.

This Special Event will bring together 22 quilters for fun, quilting, and fellowship. The Goodie Bags are stuffed and wonderful gifts are being gathered.

 An original quilt has been designed for the four hours of class time dedicated to this project. It is small so you will still have time for lots of free sewing on your own quilts.

Space is limited and sign-ups are going fast. If you want to receive the Brochure with the Registration form, just send me an email and I'll get it right out to you. Click on my name up above, then use the link to Email Me.

The total cost is $500, including accommodations from 2 pm.Wednesday March 11 to noon Sunday March 15. Meals provided include dinner Wednesday, 3 meals Thursday-Saturday and Brunch on Sunday morning before our departure.

We hope you will want to join us. It is going to be memorable!

Let's quilt.

Barbara

Behind the Scenes

It was an honor to tape an upcoming show for The Quilt Show recently.  It is the "reveal" show for the 2020 Block of the Month quilt. The show will air December 29, 2019 so I still cannot show the actual Block of the Month quilt YET. As soon as I can, I will.

Twice a year the folks from The Quilt Show go to Denver, Colorado to tape 12 shows each time, 24 studio shows a year and a couple "on the road" shows. Here is the home studio:

 In this building--a huge building with really tight security:

Just some quick shots to give you an idea of what happens.
Before the live audience appears:

The control room:

I watched 3 shows before my own show. The first features Amy Milne, Director of the Quilt Alliance. I met Amy last year when she came to Huntsville to video several of us for the "Save Our Stories" project. Her show was about how to inspire and encourage kids to quilt. Before taping, everyone meets with Shelly Heesacker, the Producer, to get everything prepared:

A delightful addition to the team was the 8 year old daughter of one of the crew:

With her Dad

 Doing the "cold open" with Justin:

 Talking to the audience with Shelly:

The best thing about that show was once she was shown the "Kid's Can Quilt Kit", she used every moment to sew on her block--she was hooked! You will love seeing her in action.

The afternoon taping featured Kim Lacy--her painted landscape mosaics are beautiful:

The next day the morning guest was Karlee Porter, a 28 year old who is making her mark in the quilt world with "graffiti" quilting and "hand lettering":

She has a lot to offer and it is good to know the quilt world has her in it, I think the future of quilting is secure:

When it was my turn, the time seemed to go by in a flash. But it is a long 4+ hours to produce 40 minutes of content. Some photos I can't show yet, here are a few I can.

Pre-sewing before taping to speed things up:

We featured some previous Block of the  Month quilts. This 2017 Halo Star Medallion is by my friend and Sunday Sew and Sew, Janet N:

 This Mini Ruffled Roses by Annis Clapp is small, about 30" I think, amazing:

This Fiesta Halo Medallion was made by Joyce Triezenberg and she was in the audience. She let us borrow it for the taping: 

One of my co-workers in Houston lives in Colorado and made the journey to support me at my taping. Thanks, Anne, for being in the audience--what a special treat that was. Here we are in front of my Ruffled Roses, the 2011 Block of the Month quilt:

It was a special honor to be asked to make the 2020 Block of the Month and to be the Guest Artist who gets to reveal it. I've been a fan of The Quilt Show since it began, more than 12 years ago. These people have become friends.

Anyone who attends a taping sees the incredible amount of work, equipment, crew efforts, planning and do-overs that are necessary to produce a top-notch professional video production.

After the final show of this taping season ended, these amazing people posed for a picture. It's a WRAP, until next time:

If you are not a Star Member of The Quilt Show, what are you waiting for:

The Quilt Show.

Let's quilt.

Barbara

Won't You Be My Neighbor?

Recently, I taught a class for this fun quilt that used paper pieced house blocks I had swapped with two friends, and floating star blocks I had swapped with 14 guild members.

The class sample:

The students learned the basics of paper piecing with the 5" houses in the morning:

After lunch, they took on the cute tiny stars, 4" finished. Their work was fun and all of them learned something:

The instructions for the Tiny Stars are in this Tiny Stars blog post. They are great blocks for a swap since they are somewhat forgiving--the star points do not go all the way to the edge of the block.

The houses and trees I designed in EQ8. This makes a great all-day class. I keep changing the name of the class: "The Village",  "Quilters' Scrap Houses",  "Won't You Be My Neighbor?"  Which do you prefer?

Let's quilt.

Barbara

Watch Free Shows

Since I am in Denver to tape The Quilt Show, I thought I would remind you that non-Star members can still watch a few shows FREE to see how great they are.

Watch Free Shows.

If you are a Star member, which means you have a paid subscription to The Quilt Show, you have access to all 12 years of shows, 26/year. It is easy to search for specific guest artists or techniques to find the show you are looking for:

Search Shows

Some of my favorites have been:

Sue Garman, Show 304 and 503
Sally Collins, Show 1602
Karen Buckley, Show 2007
Julie Silber--Antique Quilts, Shows 1611, 2010 , 2108, 2304, 2305

There are many more that I have enjoyed and learned from. Even the shows that don't particularly interest me, still teach me something. The Quilting World is huge and there is room for everyone and every technique and idea.

Enjoy and let's quilt.

Barbara

Secret Sewing and Preparation

There has been a lot of secret sewing going on in my studio. The other day I finished my second Sizzle top--my Warm/Combo one:

The applique' border patterns will be released  October 1, but I have to work in advance so the blog with tips and tricks will be ready that day.

While I am making two of these quilts, I did not want to do applique' on both of them, it takes a long time. So here is my Cool Kit version, with a pieced border I designed:

I wanted to be sure whatever design I came up with could be made from the remaining Kit fabrics. If someone runs out, any blue or green that looks like these fabrics, or for the Warm Kit, fabrics that look like those, can easily be substituted in the border.

Recently, I have been hard at work on the 2020 Block of the Month for The Quilt Show. Yes, with a little help from my friends, I made it and will be heading to Denver later this week to tape the show that will reveal it. That show will air in late December. It is a commercial pattern, not my own, and I think most of you will LOVE it.

Much work goes into preparing samples and "step outs" for taping a show. Lots of coordination with the Producer, and others, and lots of practice. Here is my stack of stuff, ready for another run-through before I pack my suitcase:

As an added incentive to join or renew your membership, The Quilt Show is offering a "Taping Special" until August 20--a roll-back to the 2008 price of $42.95 for a one year Star membership. All you have to do is enter AugTaping as the Coupon Code at checkout to get this great deal. The Quilt Show.

Do you know that as a Star Member you have access to ALL the previous shows from the last 12 years? Wonderful teachers, some who no longer travel to teach, and so much great information.

If you join now, you get SIZZLE, the 2019 Block of the Month designed by Becky Goldsmith, FREE,  and get all the information as it is released for the 2020 Block of the Month--you will get that pattern FREE as well, starting in January 2020. Yes, I get paid for some of the work I do for The Quilt Show, but first and foremost, I am a FAN.

The other day I just wanted to quilt something so I created a back and batting for this cute quilt a friend gave away. It is about half done. When finished, I will donate it to my guild's Comfy Quilts program:

Let's quilt.

Barbara

Heartland Quilt Guild Trunk Show

The Heartland Quilt Guild of Cullman, AL provided a gracious welcome as I gave a trunk show of a few of my quilts.

I decided to present "Every Quilt Tells a Story". I selected a wide variety of my work and presented the quilts in chronological order, starting with my very first bed-size quilt, the pink and blue Trip Around the World I machine pieced and hand quilted in 1988, so 1980's!

In preparing for this, I made a list of the quilts I thought I would take--about 20 quilts and several tops. I opened my two largest rolling suitcases and filled them, eliminating a few large quilts as space dictated. Once full, they were too heavy to lift so I got my next largest rolling suitcase and rearranged the quilts--adding no more, just making a little breathing room.

Then I typed up a list, with dates and small stories I wanted to share about each one. The program lasted about an hour with good questions. So that was just about the right number of quilts.

I finished by showing the Lifetime top, all 100" square of it. I think it'e sub-title will be Wow! because that is what I often hear when quilters see it. This one got more interest after the presentation than any other, 12,800 triangles, HST 1.25" finished:

This guild provides dinner for the members so they have a social time before the meeting. They have 50 members and more than 40 were in attendance:

Show and Tell is always something I enjoy. Here Conna shows a gift for a grand niece, I believe. The mother requested a turquoise and gray quilt--Conna added a beautiful curved edge border to soften the look for a girl. It was beautifully quilted as well:

My contact with this guild is a lovely woman who kept everything on track. Thank you, Betty, for all your help:

We got everything packed up and loaded in my car so that I was on the road by 9 p.m. After an hour of over the river and through the woods travel, I safely reached my home about 10 p.m. The quilts waited to be put away until the next morning.

Thank you, Heartland Quilt Guild for a fun evening.

Let's quilt.

Barbara

Annual Three Amigas Quilt Retreat

For more than 10 years, three of us spend several days together, sewing, talking and catching up. Two of us live here, one two hours away.

Ellen, to the left, Sharon, to the right...

We had a plan to all work on the same very cute project, with our own patterns Sharon bought for us all last year. 

I have been under the weather the last few days and important deadlines are looming.  So I had to work on my things and Ellen and Sharon worked on the project--a half size version of the pattern "Stitch Happens". Ellen, as is usual, finished hers in two days. Isn't that adorable?

Sharon  followed Ellen's lead as she recalculated what size to cut each piece. She also made progress:

I basted a quilt I have to get quilted soon--having tables to work on is very helpful:

And I prepped and cut and glued many applique' pieces for a border that has to get finished this week:

We start each visit with Ellen's Show and Tell where she shows us some of her year's production. She retired from teaching a year ago so she has had so much time to create:

The first few

A favorite for all of us

Her beautiful Antique Rose Star on top of another good one

We have one more day to enjoy together. Then we start talking about doing it more often and for longer each time.

Quilting friends are the best.

Let's quilt,

Barbara