LONG BEACH -- PART TWO

 The Education Team works to support Quilt Festival as we take care of the many Faculty who provide first class educational opportunities and help the students and attendees who might have questions. It's lots of fun and lots of work, but I enjoy it a lot. The Long Beach show is my favorite, thanks to the beautiful weather, and the close proximity to excellent dining opportunities. 

Here are some more fun photos of my week in Long Beach, CA.

The People--the Education Team who worked this show, in our daily garments. We came from TX, FL, CO, and AL:

Vicki, Barbara C, Barbara B, Jill, Melissa, Cassie

Breakfast and lunch is usually a protein bar. But come dinner time, we eat really well. The FOOD:

Island Burgers Beach Bowl with grilled fish

King's Fish House

Tequila Jack's

Island Burgers Chop Chop Salad

Gladstone's Seafood Linguine

Yard House

The SCENERY:

Boardwalk at Shoreline Village

The Hyatt in the background and the Yard House

Blooming Bird of Paradise at Island Burgers--we only get them here from a florist

Sunset on the walkway Bridge across the highway

And finally, a Sunset Selfie--Melissa took a good shot of us all after dinner one night: 

Traveling isn't as easy at is used to be, sleeping well in a hotel isn't easy either, but I love being part of the Education Team and we had a great week. I will see them again in Houston.

Besides being met by my husband at the airport, I was welcomed home on the highway by this beautiful and very long rainbow, the perfect end to a great trip:

Up next, LONG BEACH -- PART THREE, showing my purchases.

Let's quilt,

Barbara

LONG BEACH -- PART ONE

 International Quilt Festival returned to Long Beach, CA in early August. It is a beautiful location--I was there for the previous 6 shows, the last time 10 years ago. The weather is spectacular, especially for us Southerners--70 degrees, sunny, low humidity and ocean breezes. Pretty sweet.

The Queen Mary is docked in Long Beach but is not currently open to the public:

The Convention Center is a very nice facility and there are lots of restaurants and attractions right close by: 

As usual at Festival, there are amazing quilts and terrific vendors. Just a few photos to give you an idea.

This New York Beauty is by Nancy Roelfsema and she displayed it during her Open Studios presentation on how to improve your free motion quilting:

Superior Threads--I did some damage here: 

There are more than  quilting supplies to buy: 

I was most excited to see the Special Exhibit of Wood Quilts by Judy Murrah's son, Troy. His art is amazing and Judy would be so proud of him and how he has combined her love of quilts with his sense of design using found wood of various types: 

Troy Murrah

This version of Color My World, the 2021 Block of the Month for The Quilt Show, designed by Wendy Williams, was included in the Special Exhibit A Celebration of Color:

The vendors had lots to see also. This booth, Sewing Party, was so colorful: 

Before the show opened the first day I was taking photos while I could. This booth caught my eye because of the Color My World top on display--the patterns are now for sale: 

I was impressed with the center, very well done:

Rachel Mayfield is the maker and this is her booth. She was astonished to see me taking a photo of her quilt. As a Star Member of The Quilt Show she knew immediately who I was and thanked me profusely for the videos/blogs/Forum help that helped her make this top in a very short time, getting ready for Festival. Well done, Rachel!

Another Star Member of The Quilt Show came to say hello, Linda Jahraus. I noticed the ribbon on her badge which showed she had a quilt in the Special Exhibit The 1876 Centennial Quilt Encore! I made a point to find her quilt and here it is, Amazing work! There were about a dozen of these in the exhibit, done by a group of friends around the country: 

After my Education office duties were done each morning, I gave Open Studio presentations on the show floor. Free, two-hour demos, four going on at the same time, this is a chance to learn something, no cost, no sign-up needed, just stop by and sit awhile. I gave two presentations on Thursday, two on Friday and one on Saturday. This gives you an idea of the set up:

Over the week I was there, many members of The Quilt Show recognized me, and came by to say hello. Many were eager to show me their Block of the Month quilts and I was eager to see them. Kayla V came to several of my Open Studio presentations and got some ideas, especially for how she can incorporate quilting with  her Girl Scout troop. I insisted we get a photo:

There were more than 500 quilts and LOTS of vendors so this is just a taste. I hope you are making plans to come to Houston in November 2022--the biggest and best Quilt Festival in the world. I'll be there!

Because there is more to share, look for Long Beach -- Part Two in a few days.

Let's quilt.

Barbara

Stella and BB

 We were fortunate to have granddaughter Stella visit for an overnight recently, before she went back to school as a rising second-grader. She is a delightful child, funny, smart, pleasant almost all of the time, and very eager to try new things. 

After lunch the first day I asked her if she wanted to make a quilt. She jumped from the table and went straight to the studio. I had gotten out a large box of 6" squares I have been saving. I used to cut a 6" square from every fabric I bought and sorted them by light, medium and dark. That box:

Stella declared picking the perfect fabrics was the MOST FUN part of the making a quilt. And she was going to make one for herself and one for her 3 year old brother, Sam. I thought we would be lucky to finish one but kept that thought to myself.

I trimmed the squares to 5.5" since most had the selvedge with writing on it still included. I showed her how to operate the Singer Featherweight that will someday be hers. She could even thread the needle--thank goodness! It didn't take too long for her to get the hang of the best speed and keeping the seam straight, more or less:

She listened to instructions and concentrated hard on each step:

Several times she said "Sewing is FUN!" 

She learned to press the seams to one side and that an iron is hot. 

After an hour and half, her six rows were sewn together. We were both tired and it was time to make dinner, another activity she is good at.  The first day progress:

She told me to "make a video, and send it to Sam". You can see her personality here--she has Spunk! I LOVE spunk:

After breakfast the next morning we had to get to work. I showed her how to sew the rows together, stopping to take out the pins, and trying to stay straight. Before long, her top was done. And she was eager to make Sam's quilt.

Each fabric she selected was because "Sam will love this one". Remember, picking fabrics is her favorite part. She decided his would be smaller, because he is 3 and she is 7. 

Once his fabrics were all selected, she got to work piecing his top. And this time she sewed more straight and really knew how to use the machine.

I gave her a few fabrics to choose from for the backs of both quilts. She spent a few minutes making a careful decision on each quilt. I cut the back and batting for hers while she finished piecing Sam's quilt.  The "pillow method" was required for speed--we were running out of time--stitch all around, leave an opening for turning, turn the quilt right side out and the edge is finished. 

Stella learned to tie double knots with yarn used to secure Sam's quilt top to the back. I started straight line quilting hers while she went out to work in the yard with PopPop. When she came in and saw me quilting hers on the Bernina Q20 she wanted to help. She sat in my lap, I pressed the pedal, and she took off happily making swirls and loops on a practice piece. 

We made it, two quilts completely done in less than 24 hours. I gave her a Sharpie and told her to sign them:

The back of Sam's

The front of Stella's, she signed her favorite square

Then she got to show off her work to PopPop:

Sam's quilt

Stella's quilt

She loved the back fabric she picked for her quilt

We had a grand time. I hope she will want to sew some more when she comes to visit again. Kids Can Sew, just let them try. I didn't fret about perfect seams, some are somewhat crooked. She was being creative, we were spending time together, and that's all that matters.

Let's quilt.

Barbara

BLUEBERRY HILL--The Quilting

 While looking for an idea for a quilt to make as a gift, I came across a quilt on Instagram that was perfect. Thimbles and Needles is an Australian company and she calls this quilt Blueberry Kisses. The pattern is available as a PDF download.

69" square

As usual, I made a change to the pattern--instead of half blocks in the perimeter triangles, I used a variety of dark blue fabrics. Visually, this provides a border and I saw no need to add any additional borders.

This was fast to make and fun to quilt. Here is how I did the quilting.

First, just a reminder, you may want to pre-wash fabrics when there is lots of dye--those dark blues can really run. One lighter blue got in with the whites and there was enough color in that Color Catcher to make me very glad I used it:

I LOVE ruler work, quilting with Templates, also called Rulers. There are my favorites and I use them with almost every quilt. The Line Tamer makes it a breeze to stitch in the ditch. Amanda Murphy's ruler sets are well-made and work very well--this is one of the circles. The Grip-Its are what work BEST for me for free-motion quilting--I have tried every other solution, gloves, rubber finger tips, big gripper rings, etc. The Grip-Its are so easy to use--you just rest your hands on them, the rubber bumps on the bottom make the quilt slide easily as you have fun playing with free-motion designs: 

Threads are an important part of the quilting plan. I am a fan of Superior Threads; these are the four I used on this quilt. The bobbin has Bottom Line, my usual choice for bobbin thread. The back is dark blue so the bobbin thread is too. Microquilter is a fine. strong thread, 100 wt, and I use it for stitch-in-the ditch work. I used a medium-dark blue for that. For the ruler work, I used Omni-V, a 40 wt thread that was slightly variegated with medium to dark blues--it worked very well for the designs made with rulers. Then I used So Fine, a 50 wt, 3 ply, in a light color for the free-motion done on the white/cream fabrics:

The ruler work with the dark blue Omni V thread: 

Curved Cross-Hatching is one of my most favorite designs, though it is hard to see on printed fabrics: 

The simple loop-de-loop free motion design on the light fabrics went very quickly. It was just enough to secure the sashing, and left about the same amount of open space as the ruler work designs:

I always include a hanging sleeve on the back of every quilt I make, regardless of size. Here you can see how the top edge of the sleeve is covered by the binding. I only have to hand sew the bottom edge. Be sure to lengthen the stitches when sewing on the binding--here I was sewing through 7 layers: 

I do enjoy the binding process, often done by hand.  A few Wonder Clips make it easy to stitch around the binding: 

Later this year I will give this quilt to a special person. The good news is, I am teaching this quilt as a one day class, Tuesday October 11, 2022, 10-3:30, at Southern Charm Quilting here in Huntsville. This is the only time this quilt will be offered since I won't own the quilt after that. 

Two color quilts are very striking and any two colors will work. School colors would be fun, as would red, white and blue, or red, green and white--3 colors work as well.

This entire quilt is made using 2.5" strips, except for the border triangles. Learn lots of great tricks to speed up the piecing process. And how to replace half blocks with triangles. I hope to see you there.

Let's quilt.

Barbara