Quilts and roses

I have been busy quilting, I finished two nice quilts for Ann but I forgot to take pictures of them before she picked them up.  This is a wall quilt for Mary, it's such a cute pattern by Edyta Sitar.  Another one I will probably never attempt - too many little pieces for a piecing clutz like me.

Meanwhile my roses are blooming like crazy! 

They liked our cool and damp spring weather. This is one of my favorites, Rosa mundi.

 

Unfortunately, all that nice rain made the peonies flop over and the grass grow tall.

I put Lynn's quilt back on my longarm yesterday and it's not coming off until it's finished.  I'm determined to get it done!

Back from MQS

I'm just back from MQS (Machine Quilters Showcase) in Kansas City.  It stormed and blew, there were tornado watches, hail, lightning and rain, but I was oblivious to it all inside the convention center.  At one point the power went out and the convention hall went dark for a minute.  That was exciting.

This year I took several classes, one with Renae Haddadin which was excellent.  In three hours she covered in great detail what she does to make her award-winning quilts, from getting them square and straight on her machine to packing them up and sending them off to a show.  Unfortunately, I didn't sleep well the night before and showed up for the 8 am class feeling sleepy and out of it.  I tried to hang in there and get the information,  but I'm sure I zoned out a bit.

My other class was with Ronda Beyer on how to choose your quilting designs.  She brought several of her show quilts and actually passed them aroung the class for us to see up close.  Her work is really amazing!

I sat with my quilting friends Carla and Siriporn at the awards ceremony and we all three won awards!  This is Siriporn's quilt which she quilted for a customer.  It won in the Tools of the Trade category, for quilting using rulers etc.

Here is Siriporn chowing down while we waited for the awards ceremony to start.  That girl can eat, but must have hollow legs!

This is Carla's quilt which won in Traditional Custom , a very competitive category and it won first!  It's such a beautiful quilt.

My little Sugar Plum won first in the Miniature category.

And a quilt I did for Ann won in the Bread and Butter category, for customer quilting. It's the one at top of this post.

It's very exciting to win an award and be there to accept it! I didn't do a lot of shopping but did buy some Glide thread to try.  I stopped at Gammill and tried the new Vision.  It's pretty cool - so smooth and quiet.  I'll have to start saving my pennies for an upgrade!

I love metallic thread

I'm still plugging along on Lynn's quilt.  First I'm quilting around all the trapunto motifs with gold thread.  (I  LOVE metallic thread and seem to end up using it in most everything I quilt for myself).  I'm just about finished with that, then I will start with the SID (Stitch in the Ditch) which will be slow going.  This is a fun quilt to work on, I wish I didn't have to keep stopping for other quilts etc.

Today we drove to Overland Park to deliver my quilts and several friends' quilts to MQS.  I usually ship my quilts there but decided it would be worth the 3 hour drive so I wouldn't have to worry about my guild's Opportunity Quilt which I entered this year.  I was really nervous about shipping it - I have never lost anything in shipping (knock on wood) but it can happen.  If I lost our guild's Opportunity Quilt my name would be MUD.

Here are three kitties, Lily, Rosie and Rorschach celebrating Spring in kitty-loaf position. 

Trimming is finished!

I finished trimming the trapunto on Lynn's quilt - it took 15 hours all together.  Miraculously, I did not snip the top even once, which is a first for me!  I had to sneak a couple of other customer quilts in before I could start quilting this one but it is now on my machine.

I finished this cute quilt that Annette made for her Grandaughter Katie. Katie (who is cute as a bug) requested "dogs and butterflies" which might stump some Grandma's but not Annette!

Saturday was Herb Day at the Farmer's Market in Wichita.  I bought fresh aspagus (YUM) and assorted herbs for my garden.  When we got home I set them on a bench behind the house until I could get them planted.  Several minutes later I looked out the kitchen window to see one of the neighborhood cats batting something around under the bench - it was the catnip, already chewed down to a nubbin!  I brought it inside to let it recover and Lily found it.  Somehow, I don't think the poor little plant will ever make it to the garden.

Saturday was also the all-city garage sale here in our little town.  I didn't hit every sale, but I did find this great old turkey platter.  I love the goofy turkey with a purple head!