It's a challenge

Last week the Challenge Committee for Prairie Quilt Guild met at my studio to have all the quilts judged for entry in the AQS Guild Challenge at the Knoxville Show next summer.  The Guild entered the Challenge for the first time two years ago and won Honorable Mention.  This year it was decided to bring in a judge from outside the Guild to choose the quilts for entry in the show. The quilts were really wonderful and creative, it took most of a day for Carol Elmore to judge the 38 entries. I can't show the winners because they won't be announced to the Guild until April.  At the March meeting the Guild membership will do their voting for the quilts they like best, so there will be lots of winners!

Peter and I spent most of Sunday getting tax stuff ready for our tax accountant.  I dread that job all year long!!  We see our accountant on Thursday and that part is no problem, it's the preparation that is the killer.  I always vow to be more organized in the coming year but it never works.

I was excited to learn that my miniature quilt Sugar Plum won a ribbon at Road to California in January.  I have been waiting until they posted the winners so I could include a link; ttp://www.road2ca.com/2011winners/road/winners.html.  The quilts look spectacular - I would love to attend that show someday.

Enough already

More snow, even more than last time.  A foot of light fluffy sparkley snow.  It was pretty, but enough already!  I had to cancel another Prairie Quilt Guild meeting!  I will go down in history as the only President of the Guild to cancel two meetings in one year.

I had plenty to do.  I finished this quilt (at the top of this post) for Catherine - it's from a pattern in McCall's Quilting by Rebecca LoGiudice and has a lot of hand work.  Catherine said she had fun making it her own by adding the little details.

The weather is looking up - 60 degrees next week.  I'll have to dig out my shorts!

A short road trip

Last Saturday it was 70 degrees.  In the past week the temperatures dropped to below zero and a nasty blizzard blew through.  Here is my deck in warmer times:

Here it is last week after I shoveled a path to the studio. 

 I think we only received 5 or 6 inches of snow but the wind blew it into big drifts.  Rosie had cabin fever and was determined to go outside in single digit temperatures.  She came back inside quickly.  Rohrschach however is apparently a Snowcat and stayed out for long periods before coming in to warm up.

Today I guess we had cabin fever and decided to make a short road trip to the little town of Alden, home of an amazing shop called Prairie Flower Crafts.  They were having a Superbowl Sale this week - about the only good thing I can think of associated with a football game.  Alden is really tiny - this is basically the main street with the shop on the right and the grain elevators at the end of the street. 

The shop was started in 1970 in the old Alden Mercantile and eventually it took over the whole block of buildings.  It is a maze of rooms filled with fabric going back many years; it's kind of a trip through the history of quilting fabrics!

It's a cool old building, with wood floors and high ceilings and many of the original store fixtures.  This is the entrance room which has craft items and knick-knacks in addition to fabric:

This room is the brightest of all (It's really kind of dark everywhere else) and has Jinny Beyer fabric dating  back a few centuries, well, decades anyway.  Also a nice selection of Liberty cottons and a huge range of imported Japanese cottons.  The older fabrics have the old prices on them - I bought some Jinny Beyer fabric that was $7.00/yard,

This is the flower room, with flowered fabrics and baskets.

In here are kitchen and food fabrics with cool old shop cabinets. 

Here is a room full of solids:

In here are Christmas fabrics, fabrics sorted by color and black and whites. 

Another old store fixture;

I bought a few things and enjoyed my trip through the history of quilt fabric!  They do have a website: http://aldenfabric.com/.  The lady that owns the store is getting along in years and I hate to think of Alden without her shop!

On the way home we stopped at a cafe in Sterling for a hamburger:

Then admired the wintry Kansas landscape;

There were lots of Red-Tailed Hawks, Marsh Harriers, camels and ostriches.

CAMELS AND OSTRICHES!!!!!!!  Yep - there is an exotic animal park outside of Hutchison where we saw them in the field.

I have been finishing up a quilt for our guild challenge, but I can't post pictures for a while - we're supposed to keep them a secret...

Quilting, not blogging

I have been quilting, not blogging, the last few weeks.  I just finished this quilt for Pattie and she is waiting to see it finished for the first time online.  We are having nasty winter weather so I may not be able to get it to her until next week.  I hope you like it Pattie!  I think it turned out really well - if you don't like it, just let me know and I will find a home for it! (at my house)

I love this kind of pattern that allows room for quilting.

Pattie requested echo quilting in the center. 

This is probably the tenth one of these Queen and Her Court quilts that I have quilted.  Fortunately, I like the design!  I did two in a row for Teresa (this is her quilt) and her sister Rayna, whose quilt I forgot to photograph.  They were quilted similarly but not exactly alike.

I used a light pink thread on Teresa's quilt and I like the way it turned out.

This is Julie's Hop to It quilt. I did one a while back for Mary, and this one is similar but I tried something different in the borders.

We are preparing ourselves for ice and snow tonight and the next day or so.  Very cold temperatures also - but we really can't complain.  It is winter and so far we have escaped the heavy snow that other parts of the country have received.  I'm feeling a batch of cookies coming on - something about cold weather makes me want to make cookies!

Timing is everything

We didn't make it to the Oklahoma City Winter Quilt Show and I'm really sorry we didn't because my quilt Indian Summer won Best of Show!  My friend Carol was there appraising quilts and she called to tell me I had won.  I think I probably squealed rather loudly in her ear - I hope she has recovered, but it was very exciting.  Lynn and Ron took a picture for me.

I was home learning how to time my longarm machine.  Peter was the one actually doing the work and it was a learning experience!  It is one of those jobs that really needs sharp young eyes (we used lots of extra lights and magnification for our blurry old eyes).

I have stacks of quilts waiting for me to get to them so I will be staying busy.  The snow is finally melting, just in time for the next round of storms.  I had to cancel both of our Prairie Quilt Guild meetings last week - I was hoping I wouldn't be faced with that decision.  It was snowy and very cold, so it seemed to be the best thing to do.

It's cold and snowy and really that is the best excuse to stay inside and quilt.  Not that I need an excuse!

Eventide

This is Ann's latest quilt  - it is a Miss Rosie pattern called 'Eventide'.  The color in the photo above is a bit washed out, the quilt actually has more warm beige than the white.  It's a beauty though!  That Ann is a busy quilter, she is bringing me another top next month.


I adjusted the contrast in the close-ups which makes the color really wacky.

If the weather holds, Peter and I plan to drive down to Oklahoma City next week for the Winter Quilt Show.  Anyone else plan to attend?  I have a quilt entered, and Lynn and I entered the quilt we worked on together.  It is supposed to get COLD next week with some snow, so we'll have to wait and see what the weather is like.  My quilts definitely travel more than I do!

A post for 1-1-11

I guess I have had a vacation from my blog as well as from quilting for customers.  We had a quiet Christmas and I had time to finish a new miniature quilt to enter in MQS this year.  I'm going to save pictures of it to post closer to the show.  This last week I have started in again on customer quilts.  I did several small challenge quilts for guild members but I can't post them because we are supposed to keep them a secret until we turn them in. 

 The quilt at the top of the blog is Barb's, she used a pattern by Cleo's Designs and did her own larger version of it. Cleo is a member of our guild and has had real success with her patterns.  They are designed to be done with fusible applique.  This is her website if you want to see her patterns.  She is also a wonderful gardener, so you can see where she gets her inspiration.  http://cleosdesigns.com/.
I like Barb's version a lot.  She said she had a spot in mind for the wallhanging so wanted it to be just the right size.

I looked back at my January post from last year and realized I haven't completed ANY of the three projects I said I wanted to finish in 2010.  Pretty pitiful.  I'll just have to try again this year!

My friend Sandy sent me this cute aromatherapy Ladybug pillow.  (It has lavender inside)  I like that it comes with it's own little t-shirt to wear so you can wash the t-shirt and keep the pillow clean!  No thanks, that's like putting plastic down all over your furniture and rugs to keep them clean - but then you have to stare at plastic instead of nice furniture and rugs.