Thimbleberries and a quilt show

I finished another quilt for Marsha the Thimbleberries lady.  She really does seem to have an unending supply of finished Thimbleberries tops, I have another one from her waiting it's turn to be quilted.

Yesterday was a meeting day for Prairie Quilt Guild and it was a long business meeting since this is the last meeting before our show. When I first moved here and attended my first show, I was flabbergasted to see what a huge show they put on!  This is now the third show that Peter and I have helped with and I am still amazed at what this guild does every two years. 

This year we will hang over 900 quilts, about 200 of which will be judged.  Our judge this year is Anita Shackelford and she will also be teaching some classes.  The show is called Common Threads because it includes displays from other local sewing related groups.  You can check out the show website at: http://www.wichitaquiltshow.com/index.html.  The show is  well worth a visit to see all the quilts and visit the 70+ vendors.

On the day our guild meets many quilters have lunch before the meeting at La Galette, a nearby restaurant with incredible pastries.  I usually manage to not order one, but Peter is famous for eating one with coffee as his lunch.  I planned to get a picture of him yesterday but he ruined my plan by eating a normal lunch.  Here is a picture of the dessert case instead.

Alien things

My guild, Prairie Quilt Guild, is getting ready for our big biennial quilt show at the end of this month.  I am madly trying to finish up two more customer quilts that are entered in the show and get my own quilts ready as well.  This year there are three featured quilters, all of whom design their own quilts and I was honored to be chosen as one of them.  So I have a pile of my quilts to get ready, some need hanging sleeves and all need cleaning up.  (Cat hair, you know)  I'll be posting more about our show.

I like this quilt, although I can see that my binding and quilting skills have improved since I made it!  As an old musician, it sort of reminded me of a treble clef sign, so I named it Alien Clef Sign.

To continue with the alien theme, here are some bizarre allium blooming in my garden.  They seem to be happy there and have seeded themselves in the gravel driveway.

A new applique technique?

Since I finished up my wild Hawaiian blocks I needed a new hand applique project to work on.  I decided to do a traditional Whig Rose block.  Here is Elsie the cat helping me photograph the block.

I like to use the starch method for preparing small circles to applique,so I bought a new can of starch and left it on the kitchen counter.  Early the next morning I wanted to get my applique ready to take to my small group meeting so I grabbed the can off the counter and ran out to the studio.  I sprayed some into a cup and dipped my brush in and spread it on the seam allowance of the little circles of fabric.  Then I pressed them over the template for a smooth edge to applique.  It didn't seem to be working as well as usual...  so I painted more on and kept pressing.  Finally it seemed to work, so I took them off with me to my meeting and sewed them on the block.

That afternoon I noticed the new can of spray starch sitting on the kitchen counter.  I wondered how it had gotten back in the kitchen.  A little later Peter came in the kitchen and asked me where the bug spray was.  No, I thought, I didn't do that - did I?  I ran out to the studio and there on the ironing board was a can of Raid!  Do you think this might be a new technique- a bug free way to applique? 

I did finally get Lynn's quilt finished yesterday.  The nice part about collaborating on a quilt is that I don't have to wash, block and bind it! Once that is done I will try to post a picture.

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!