Highlights of Houston 2018

Not surprisingly, I hit the ground running after returning from my 13 day trip to Houston--classes to teach, bills to pay, mail to sort through, and laundry to do. Now I'll try to give a glimpse of what my time is like there, working for Quilts Inc.

First, my favorite view of the city--from my room at the Hilton Americas Houston. The George R Brown Convention Center is the white building on the right with the iconic red "thingies" on the roof. Straight ahead is the Marriott Marquis hotel, and just behind it is the Astrodome baseball park. Discovery Green, a lovely park, is in the foreground, left.

My bed, featured by Hilton Americas Houston on Instagram and Facebook:

I hurried to get the binding sewn on before I left, figuring I would finish stitching it down in the hotel--rarely touched it there, finished the binding when I got home. Now I am adding lots more quilting--it is coming along nicely.

The first day on the job, my primary responsibility is Faculty freight. With 130 teachers, there is a lot of freight--they have to ship it weeks in advance to be sure we have it in the office when they arrive. I check in each box, on two master lists, one for me and one for the Tex Expo folks who handle the shipping. We go from an empty room to a full one--it takes all day. Before:

 After:

 When the luggage starts to arrive, it gets really crowded. This is the last time the carpet was visible for days:

The next day I was told my Red and White quilt was the "Photo Op" quilt. People take photos in front of it to share with friends at  home:

There was a special tribute exhibit to our beloved former boss, Judy Murrah, who passed away December 8, 2017. It was a lovely tribute to her with a wonderful slideshow full of great images from  her more than 40 years with Quilts Inc.:

It's not all about quilts. How about quilted leather saddles? They sure are beautiful:

There are thousands of photos on Instagram and Facebook, much better than mine, find them here:

My favorite quilt and the one I was hoping would be awarded "Best of Show", Eternal Beauty by the amazingly talented and even more humble Sherry Reynolds. This is its' 6th Best of Show award:

Speaking of talented and humble, one of our guild members, Teresa Rawson, won First Place, Applique', Small for her terrific quilt, Contentment, made to celebrate her 25th wedding anniversary--all hand done. It, too, has done well in previous shows:

This quilt was photographed thousands of times, from the Special Exhibit: Antique Quilts from the British Isles. It was for sale, I did not inquire about the price, if you have to ask, you can't afford it:

 45,000 1/4" hexagons, Circa 1845. Maker Unknown--PLEASE label your quilts, so you will not be anonymous.

Other quilts that caught my eye:

From certain angles, the face was not visible, it only looked like bubbles. Entitled Kora, by Carol Morrissey, Double Oak, TX. 

 

Two of my favorite antique vendors had remarkably similar quilts for sale in their booths. Cindy Rennels, Cindy's Antique Quilts, had this one:

Julia Kelly-Hodenius, of Pique', had this one:

 

The red solid was very similar as were many of the fabrics. The maker fussy cut most of the hexagons, and they appeared to be the same size. The white hexagons were all the same fabric in each quilt so the maker had a sizeable stash. Cindy told me someone with much more knowledge than I have has taken lots of photos of both and will study them to see if it is reasonable to guess they were made by the same person. Again, a label on each would be so helpful. Cindy's was sold before the end of the show so I am glad I got to see it early. I don't know if Julia sold hers, but I hope so. Sales is the reason vendors are there.

Some days I don't get off the 3rd floor nor outdoors. The days are long, the nights get shorter, but it is wonderful to work with a great team. Here are some of us in the morning group photo:

For me, the job is mostly about the people, faculty friends I enjoy catching up with, student/guests I look forward to seeing each year, vendors who have become friends, and my closest team friends, who mean so much to me--friendships developed over the 20 years I've been part of the Education Team.

This year about two dozen people recognized me or my name and came up to tell me they follow and enjoy my blog--that is truly rewarding.

Two ladies from the Friendship Quilters of Downer's Grove, IL came by for a quick "hello"--I am teaching for them November 2019:

I was also able to hand off the Secret Stars sample I made for the Lakeview Quilters guild in the Houston area, I'll be teaching for them in March 2019. And one of the members of the St Andrews Bay Quilt Guild in Panama City, FL, made a point of telling me they are rebuilding and fully expect to have me come in April 2019 for the two great scheduled workshops. Hurricanes only slow quilters down for a bit.

All too soon, the 13 days come to an end and it's time to pack up. Everything is inventoried, labeled, packed and crated, going to 3 different storage locations. I never cease to be amazed at the organization necessary to make our shows work:

There will be more to come, but this about wraps up the overall experience I have in Houston.

Let's quilt,

Barbara

My Favorite Things--and People

Just recently, one of my six-month classes finished up. At the last class. 8 of the original 13 were present, the rest were unable to attend due to illness or obligations. They were missed.

The class is called "My Favorite Things" and here is the class sample:

And the class description:

Learn how to make Barbara’s favorite blocks in this comprehensive 6 month fun and educational class. No sewing machine needed--you’ll do all the sewing at home. So many tips and tricks will be taught--increase your quilting skills as you make several smaller quilts OR combine ALL the individual blocks into one complete bed-size quilt, a totally original design, your choice.

Some of the blocks include: Log Cabins, Shoo Fly, Old Italian Block, Flying Geese,  Disappearing Nine-patch, Sawtooth Star, and more...

The students met and surpassed my goals--I wanted them to learn "quilter's math" and how to create and assemble the blocks they want to make. So many newer quilters only know how to follow pattern directions, and lack confidence in selecting fabrics, changing block sizes, changing the quilt layout, and don't know how to be sure their pieces all fit together. I asked them to say what they had gotten out of the class and each one mentioned one of those things as something that they really had improved upon.

Here is their glorious work:

Cyndi  used lots of Kaffe Fassett fabrics and created two wonderful additional borders

Phyllis  almost gave up after the first class but hung in there and has a beautiful quilt on the way

Sally changed the layout and some blocks  to  make the quilt her own--I love that!

Kathy used a lot of Kim Diehl fabrics--while it's not her favorite I LOVE it and she learned a lot from it

Suzanne worked in reproduction fabrics and found the perfect cheddar/gold for sashing 

Holly really spread her wings and changed the border--a great quilt.

We also had show and tell from two other classes I've taught this group:

Holly showing her Long Time Gone, a Jen Kingwell design. She modified the border

Cyndi brought her queen-size Two-For-One, mostly batiks

These students pushed  me to create this class--it didn't matter what I taught, they just wanted another six-month class where they didn't have to haul their machines. I had to design it on the fly and keep ahead of them but I did. They are a fun group to teach and I think we all enjoy our time together.

This would make a great 3-4 day retreat or workshop project. I am teaching it locally, at Patches & Stitches, Part One is Saturday March 30, 2019, 9-4 and Part Two is Saturday May 4, 2019, 9-4. That will be a sewing class, every two hours we'll cover one of the 6 lessons to be learned. That should be fun--and fast!

Students often teach the teachers too--I learned students can stretch their wings and enjoy it and many quilters want to improve their skills with each quilt they make.

I love my job!

And, because I was asked, here is the link to my Cranberry Chutney recipe blog. It's that time of year and I don't want turkey without it. It makes the house smell good too:

Barbara's Cranberry Chutney

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends.

Let's Quilt,

Barbara

Strings--Save Our Scraps!

Recently. I taught a stings class at a local quilt shop. There were piles of strings to play with and lots of fun was had as small amounts of our precious stash was turned into something useful. The class sample was a suggestion:

I have written about Strings several times before, String Blocks and String Block Swap Tutorial are just a few posts about this fast and fun method. When you just want to sew and you don't want to think too hard, this is perfect. AND you can use a FREE QUILT NOTION you probably already have:  telephone books, the paper is perfect for this.

First I showed the students lots of design ideas for how to use scrap strings. Most of them decided to go with the class sample for their project.

One of the employees brought a huge bag of her strings to donate--the students could have whatever they wanted from the pile:

After lunch I put those away and dumped the large tote bag full of my strings I brought to share:

Since this bag is not nearly as heaped full as when I brought it, looks like they got some good stuff. Why are other people's scraps more exciting than our own?

A few class photos:

Marje working with Christmas fabrics

Donna making a pillow to match her bedroom

Anne also worked in Christmas fabrics

Pam had fun playing with cheerful fabrics

Marje's Christmas Star is coming together

Donna--Center Option 1?

Or Center Option 2?

 I had a pile of blocks I received in a swap years ago. This seemed a good time to sew them together. Here it is quilted and bound and washed, I will donate it to our guild's "Comfy Quilt" program. It's only 30" x 50" but that's OK, good for a small child as a floor quilt:

 Detail of the simple quilting, great for practice:

Sewing strings is also a great way to sew with a child--they can easily sew strings you cut for them, and if you have a Featherweight or other small, fairly simple machine, they will quickly get into this and have fun.

Let's quilt.

Barbara

Veterans Day

This is Veteran's Day weekend in the US. We salute and honor those who are currently serving in our Armed Forces and those who have gone before them. It's a time to remember the sacrifice of veterans and their families. We fly the flag on our porch this weekend.

My husband and I are both United States Marine Corps veterans. He served 23 years, the first 10 as an enlisted man and the last 13 as an officer. I served 4 years as an officer. We met during officer training a long time ago. There are very few photos of us in uniform:

The day I was commissioned a 2nd Lt in the USMC

A few months later at our wedding, he is in his Dress Blues

We loved our time in the Marines. It wasn't always easy, but we felt a part of something much greater than ourselves and are honored to have served our country in this way. We both feel a little odd, these many years later, when someone says "Thank you for your service". We didn't do it for the "thanks", it was our honor and our calling to serve. We would both do it again in a heartbeat, if we could be 21 years old again.

Semper Fi to all Marines everywhere and a salute to other Veterans today, and always.

Barbara

Circa 2016

I am a huge fan of Temecula Quilt Company's Sew-a-Longs and have made several of them. This is one of my favorites, Circa 2016, on the design wall more than a year ago. The pattern is still available  here:

The outer border stripe is wider on the top border, I just didn't cut it down, it was the last strip of border stripe I had left--once the quilt is finished all four borders will be trimmed to the same size.

The other day I finally started quilting this--it has been basted and waiting for me to get to it for about a year:

 It took about two and a half hours to stitch in the ditch along every construction seam. It was easy work using my favorite tool, the Line Tamer Ruler or "template". It allows me to quilt very straight lines quickly with the Bernina Q20 sit down longarm machine--it has no feed dogs so no walking foot would work.

The back shows the simple lines currently quilted. I will quilt in free motion curvy designs in each square created by the stitch-in-the-ditch grid. One advantage to doing all the stitch-in-the-ditch first is, all the pins are being removed as I quilt--now there are no pins to get in the way as I do the free motion designs:

The biggest challenge will be that 3.5" finished size border. I really want to quilt a curvy, flowing large feather design so am currently drawing that on paper a lot to establish "muscle memory". I am also taking a Free Motion Quilting class with my friend Jenny Lyon, Quiltskipper, in Houston, that will help too. When I come home I'll draw some 3.5" wide lines on practice fabric and work on this design until I am comfortable going to the real quilt or just get tired of practicing and decide to jump in! 

With any luck, this one will be done before the year is over and the label I printed last year will still be correct.

Let's quilt,

Barbara

Secret Stars

In March I will be teaching "Secret Stars" to the Lakeview Quilters Guild in the Houston area. This is a great block and my samples show two completely different settings, a simple On-Point setting and a more complex setting that has BOTH on-point and straight set blocks:

A simple On-Point set

The more complex set I designed years ago

To prepare the Supply List I first like to write the handout so I don't forget anything students should bring. Because I made these quilts quite some time ago, I found it prudent to make a small sample of the complex set so I could double-check all the math--and there was a lot of math in that setting.

Here is the small sample top  I created:

I will give it to my guild contact when I meet up with her in Houston in about two weeks. This gives potential students a chance to see the class project "in the cloth". I just hope they realize they can make the simpler setting and still have a beautiful quilt.

All of my current workshops are listed on the Workshops Tab at the top of this page. Perhaps you'll see a class you would like to take. My schedule has a few openings in it for 2020, I'd love to visit you. We really have a lot of fun and learn a lot in class.

Let's quilt.

Barbara