Post Quilt Show/Pre-Houston Sewing Frenzy

The guild quilt show is over and most members are happy with it.  I've spent most of this week working on the budget, writing reports, preparing newsletter articles and other show-related stuff.

Today was a "don't leave the house" kind of day and I finished my 3rd Houston garment.  We are given fabrics, select our choice of pattern, and wear specific garments on specific days.  This really helps with packing and makes us somewhat recognizable as staff.  Here are mine:



Vintage Made Modern by Amy Barickman for RJR, pattern is Gathered Back Tunic by Indygo Junction

Zen Chic by Brigitte Heitland for Moda, pattern is Contemporary Kimono by Indygo Junction

Shimmer Wheel by Jennifer Sampou for Robert Kaufman, Contemporary Kimono by Indygo Junction--making a garment with 2.5" strips of fabric was more of a challenge than I anticipated
 

I head to Houston next week for 13 days and now that the garments are done, I can start packing.  I do a list of what I'm wearing each day--the garments are assigned so I just have to figure what blouse and slacks will go with each.  Everything I take has to do triple duty, and I don't want to forget something important. 

For fun, I made Lori DeJarnette's latest quilt-a-long, Country Roads Mystery.  Find it here.

This may just be the first real quilt I quilt on my Bernina Q20.  The center squares and perimeter triangles will be forgiving of my designs and I want to try Ruler work on the pieced blocks.  Probably after Houston...

I'm still keeping up with Stars in a Time Warp.  The Claret Red and Cadet Blue are weeks 39 and 40.  We're getting toward the end of this year-long project and I'll have to decide what to do with my stack of blocks--I made 2 each week except when I loved them, then I made 3.  I think I have 82 six-inch blocks currently.  Barbara Brackman has also provided layout ideas and I've seen some I really like, just  have to decide.  She gives so much historical information about the use of the various colors and fabric styles, it's worth a look even if you don't want to make any blocks.  Stars In a Time Warp.

There's more to do before I take off for Texas next week, house stuff, yard stuff, packing stuff, teaching, and cutting some more handwork for "down" time, not that there is very much of that.  Houston is the highlight of my year and I am getting excited already. I'm also taking 2 free motion quilting classes so have to remember to pack the required supplies for those.   I'll post when I can so stay tuned.

While I'm gone, my beautiful grand-girl, Stella, will come to town, with her folks--she is being baptized.  I'll miss her but her granddaddy hopes to get lots of time with her.  We miss her so.  She's four and half months old now, and scrumptious!

Let's Quilt! 

Barbara

Fanfare 2015 Quilt Show and Sale is Put to Bed

Best of Show:  Ode to Joy, by Ben Darby.  Ben made this to commemorate singing in the chorus for the Huntsville Symphony's presentation of Beethoven's 9th Symphony.  It is his original design with the letters coming from Word Play Quilts by Tonya Ricucci.  Ben was encouraged to join our guild and enter the show.  He is a husband, father, and engineer.  He blogs at Huntspatch Quilts.


Another successful Quilt Show and Sale is now in the history books.  It was a beautiful show, with so many wonderful quilts, our guests were very impressed, and everything went as smoothly as you could possibly hope for.  Many terrific vendors to visit added to the fun.  Set up and take down happened in record time, many hands making light work, and we were out of the Von Braun Convention Center in less than two hours--I still cannot believe that!  My co-chair, Jane and I, had the most amazing committee members and guild members stepped up when needed--it was truly a wonderful experience.

I didn't take many photos and I wish I had.  My friends will have to provide some for me.  We are making a CD of all the quilts which will be available later this year.  But a wonderful visitor who has a lovely blog, Teresa Rawson of FabricTherapy.blogspot.com attended and took many great photos.  Be sure to see her post:  Fabric Therapy.  She has just moved home to Alabama after many years in Michigan and was worried North Alabama might be a quilting desert.  I've been assuring her she'll be in good company here and was so glad she could attend.  I wish she was closer than 75 miles away but maybe she can join us from time to time.  I am very thankful for her blog, with great photos posted the same day of the show.  Enjoy her mini-tour.

The judge, Pepper Cory, gave an excellent Judge's Tour twice, where 40 people were able to get an inside look at the judging process.  She told them how difficult some of her choices were.  She was very generous with all the info she shared during the tour.  Judging is important for Validation, Celebration, and Education of our members--worth every penny!

My guild is such a joy to me, certainly a big part of "My Joyful Journey".  Here are the few photos I took.  I wish you all could have been there:

Falling Off a Log, Teresa Belyea, one of my favorites



This is mine: Antique Rose Star, mostly hand pieced and hand quilted--I may add more quilting now
 

Another of mine:  Color in Black and White--the quilter added a 2nd batt, it really needs blocking, this one is heavy

My 3rd entry:  Grandmother's Choice, patterns from Barbara Brackman's Block of the week to celebrate the Suffragist Movement of the early 1900's
 

Three Colorful Fellows, Sherrie Cahill, we have talented Art Quilters too
 

Ben shortly after being surprised with his Best of Show award

Daughter's Rejection, Lewis Harmon, made for his daughter's wedding and she didn't like it. He's keeping it.



Glacier Star, Janet Henne, wish my photo was better.  I loved her quilting.

Stash Vortex, Judy Ballance, another of my favorite quilts

Escapade, Elaine Wick Poplin, her blog is Messygoat.com, a very talented younger member of our guild

 

 

 

As sometimes happens, quilts that were entered don't get delivered and we had a few spaces to fill.  We were able to borrow a Huntsville treasure, this signature quilt that was used to support the Historic Huntsville Foundation.  It is signed by many famous people from all walks of life:  Coretta Scott King, Rosa Parks, George C. Wallace, Walter Cronkite, Buzz Aldrin, Neal Armstrong, Katherine Hepburn, Jimmy Stewart, George Burns, Bo Jackson, Joe Namath, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Carol Channing, several Supreme Court justices and a President or two, and many more.  You could stand in front of it and just say "Wow!" over and over.  What a great addition, an unexpected Special Exhibit!

We also had 3 guild members present an Artist's Studio talk, one each day, explaining their creative process and showing more of their work.  On Saturday we were happy to present a Gee's Bend talk given by two descendants of Gee's Bend Quilters, Loretta Bennett and Rueben Bendolph, Jr, both of whom live in Huntsville.  They are cousins and described their memories of quilting and family life growing up in Gee's Bend.  They brought many Gee's Bend quilts made by their mothers and grandmothers and some of Loretta's work.  It was a highlight of our show for many:

Loretta Bennett and Rueben Bendolph, Jr.

 

                                            Just a few of the Gee's Bend Quilts they shared.

Well, now I'm itching to stitch so I'm off to make 2 of last week's Stars in a Time Warp.  I teach two classes this week and our guild meeting is Thursday night, when the fun will continue with selection of Incentive Prize winners for our volunteers.  More about that later.

Let's Quilt!

Barbara

Quilt Show is Around the Corner

A guild quilt show that takes two years to plan and execute can seem to take forever to arrive.  Then, BAM!, it's right around the corner and there are all those little things, and some not so little, to finalize.  Three weeks from today, October 9, 2015, Fanfare 2015 Quilt Show and Sale will open in Huntsville, AL.  See all the info about the show here.  There is also a Facebook Event here.  If you are anywhere within driving distance, come to the show--you'll be glad you did!!

We have arranged for several nice incentive prizes to encourage our members to volunteer for all the jobs that must be done.  The committee has done all it can to prepare, the rest of the jobs have to be filled by the membership.  As an incentive to sell raffle tickets, the person who sells the most tickets will be awarded this little quilt that I've been working on this week:

 

It is a replica of the Raffle quilt, Celtic Solstice, designed by Bonnie Hunter and used with her permission.  These blocks are 50% smaller, 6" blocks, vs. 9" blocks in the quilt and is 21" square.  The fabrics are leftover from the Raffle quilt.  I used wool batt and will add some free motion quilting on my new machine--when I get the courage to tackle something I really care about instead of just "practice" blocks. 

Here is the Raffle Quilt and it's not too late to buy tickets--you don't have to be present to win:

Queen-Size, 94" square

The other thing I make time for each week are the Stars in a Time Warp QuiltAlong from Barbara Brackman.  This week it's Lancaster Blue and/or Greek Key designs.  I didn't have any Greek Key fabric but I did have the lovely Lancaster Blue:

I still have to finish hand quilting one of my show entries, sew the binding in place on a very large quilt and add all 3 labels to my 3 entries.  It will all get done, I just have to keep at it. 

Tomorrow I'm riding our guild bus to the AQS show in Chattanooga where I will meet up with my good quilting friend, Ellen and her daughter, Lauren, and see Anne Francoise again, she's visiting from Switzerland and seeing a lot of the South this trip.  She brought a sweet onesie for my grand-girl Stella, featuring the Swiss  National Flower, Edelweiss--may you have an earworm all day of that song from the Sound of Music:

Edelweiss...
Edelweiss...
Every morning you greet me
Small and white, clean and bright
You look happy to meet me
Blossom of snow
May you bloom and grow
Bloom and grow forever...

Let's Quilt!

Barbara

Teaching Quilt Classes

I love to teach classes and Fall sees me back in the classroom quite a bit--with beginning students in a 5-week course, and shorter classes of various projects throughout the Fall. 

Yesterday I taught "Bali Sky", the Carpenter's Star pattern from Calico Carriage Designs.  It is a very easy version of the Broken Star pattern, made with half-square triangles and no set-in seams.  It makes a fast project when you need a gift, whether it's a wallhanging or bed-size quilt.

My Sample, 36" square
 

A special treat for me was this was set up so a friend from Switzerland could attend.  I met Anne Francoise in Houston, we became Facebook friends, and when she let me know she was coming to the US in September we arranged for her to attend both my lecture September 10 and this class September 12.  She's also been to Nashville and Paducah and is heading for Chattanooga, where we will see each other again next weekend there.

 

Quilters are great people and folks made sure to welcome her to our events.  On Friday she was on her own and was surprised to be greeted at two quilt shops by women who had attended the lecture the night before or knew she was coming because I told them she would be shopping that day.  She even went to the same restaurant she and I had eaten at Thursday night and had the same server, who remembered her and that she was from Switzerland.  Anne Francoise said she felt like a celebrity, being greeted so warmly at unexpected places. 

All the students made great progress, some making 3" squares, some 6" and some 7.5" for a queen-size quilt:

Anne Francoise' American Memory

JoAnne speeding through the rows

All rows sewn and labeled--ready to pack up

Susan making a Queen size--the star includes deep red fabric--really striking with the black and gray!

Ina working away on a Christmas wallhanging

Kim, a new quilter making her first quilt, a Christmas wallhanging--she made great progress and learned  a lot

Sorry to say, I did not get photos of Yvonne, Pat and Laura working hard on their large quilts--they know to send me photos when they get theirs done.  Everyone did well and will be finishing these projects soon.

The lecture on Thursday night, "The Hard Stuff", went well.  The Madison Station Quilters were welcoming and I saw many friendly faces in the crowd.  I love Show and Tell and saw these beauties:

 

I ended with this image, warned them not to hit the hard stuff until the sewing was done, and gave this bit of advice when working on more challenging quilt patterns: 

It's only hard if you tell yourself it's hard.
Take it slow.
Follow instructions and tips given with the pattern.
Figure out which techniques work for you, there's more than one way to achieve most results.

And:  SUCCESS IS WORTH EFFORT.

Let's quilt!

Barbara

 

Bernina Q20 Sit-Down Long Arm Quilting Machine

A few weeks ago at Quilt!Knit!Stitch!  in Portland, OR, I bought the Bernina Q20 Sit-Down Long Arm Quilting Machine. 

This is how it looks without the two extension tables--this is how it will look most of the time, until I start doing large quilts. The wonderful Bernina Ergonomic sewing chair is coming soon, from Switzerland.

It's a big investment and my friends probably think I'm nuts, but I did it.  It arrived yesterday.

Five large, heavy boxes on a pallet, delivered by UPS Freight.  The woman who called me the day before to set up the delivery appointment scared me.  She said the driver was only "required" to unload the pallet off the truck and put it down--not to deliver it to my garage.  Yikes!  She did say most of the drivers were "nice" and would "probably" help me get the 343 lb. pallet into the garage.  Double yikes!  No worries, however--the driver lowered the pallet with the truck lift gate, the small lift was already in the pallet bottom and he happily followed me to the garage, no questions asked.  Relief!  And the rain that was forecast held off for a few more hours. 

My beloved husband had come home early to help with this.  We unpacked the pallet in the garage, five large, heavy boxes had to be hauled into the house.  It was hot and humid and we were quickly soaked and dripping.  Water and Gatorade kept us going.  The bottom box, of course, held the main part of the cabinet, which opens to provide storage under the two extension tables--that's where the cabinet assembly instructions were.  Once the boxes were in the house, in 3 rooms, he started the cabinet.  He's very handy and the instructions were good so it went together pretty easily.  I stayed out of the way until he needed more hands.  In just under 3 hours, I was stitching.  He said he felt like he'd done a full day's work and we were really sweaty but it got done.

My first stitching--still need lots of practice but the machine makes lovely stitches without much effort.  No gloves or anything other than my hands on the fabric.

 Right side extension area open--this is the storage area, left side has the same amount of storage.

 

Both extensions are in here, the table is now 78" wide x 36" deep, throat space is 20".

 

Here's the plan--I have a bunch of quilt sandwiches prepared and stacked, some are pieced, some are pre-printed, most are solid fabric on top, print on bottom.  Each day I'll start the day with 20 minutes of practice--focusing on one design each day for those 20 minutes.  Some days I'll be able to spend more time but each day, the first 20 minutes in the studio will be for machine quilting practice.

Here's the 20 minutes I played around with this morning, in addition to older stitching already done on this practice piece. 

I have a bunch of quilt tops that need to be quilted so I need to get to those, AFTER the guild Quilt Show October 9-11, and AFTER Houston, October 21-November 2.  I am taking two free motion classes there, one with Sue Nickels, one with Helen Godden--I know I'll benefit greatly from both of those.

Do I have buyer's remorse?  A little, especially as it took more than 3 weeks to arrive.  But I just have to make time to use it to finish quilts.  And I can always rent time on it, right?  It's a terrific machine that is very easy to use.  Stay tuned for progress reports.

Now I have  a little more to do to prepare for tonight's presentation to the Madison Station Quilters guild, on "The Hard Stuff".

Let's quilt!

Barbara