MQS in Wichita

This week I have been busy attending and volunteering at MQS.  It is so handy having it just 30 minutes away in Wichita!  I started out last Saturday opening the boxes of judged quilts and getting them checked in.  Entries were down this year - possibly due to the growing number of quilt shows competing for entries but there were still lots of gorgeous quilts to admire.

I also helped with judging which is always an eye-opener.  The judges looked for quilts with attention to every detail.  It made me think about how I could improve all the little details in my own quilting. I also helped in Photography with Marilyn Karper - she does such a phenomenal job of showing the quilts beautifully and in great detail.

Here are a few quilts that caught my eye:

Dresden's Dilemma by Deborah Poole.  From the Tools of the Trade category. This quilting design is so perfect it is hard to imagine it quilted any other way.

 

 

 

 

 

 Dahlia's Dream by Jennifer McCrae.  This won in the Computer Guided Category.

 

 

 

 Serengeti Serenity by JoAnn Blade and Kim Diamond.  Also from the Computer Guided Category.

 

 

 

 S is for #3: You Cleared My Name by Shannon Conley.  This won Best of Show in the Just for Me category.  I don't get the title but love this quilt!  Very creative.

 

 

 

 The next two quilts I have admired online but never had the chance to  drool on them see them in person.

Red Velvet by Lisa Calle

Big Bertha by Margaret  Solomon Gunn

This is my friend Kendra all ready to hit the vendors at the show.  Can you believe that she punched a hole in her credit card so she could keep it handy like this?

 

 

 

 

 

Here is my friend Siriporn with her first place winning quilt in the Wall category.

 

 

 

 

 

And last but not least - a picture of me with my quilt Remembrance after winning Viewer's Choice last night.  If I look dazed - it's because I was in total shock!

Today is the last day of the show.  The theme for next year's show is 'Up, Up and Away'.

A Winning Week



Betty and Madeline in front of Remembrance

I'm just home from Paducah where my wholecloth Remembrance won second place in Longarm quilted Bed Quilts - Hooray!  I went on a bus tour from the Wichita area with two quilting buddies.  Betty and Madeline had never been to Paducah before so we did the whole thing: the quilts, the vendors, the bubble, the museum, downtown, Hancock 's, a tour of Carol Bryer Fallert's home and studio and Eleanor Burns.  The only thing we missed was the Rotary Club.  We had sore feet but it was worth it.


One evening we did a tour of the Dogwood Trail with QUILTMAN and his sidekick BOBBIN.  It was great fun and we did learn a bit about the history of Paducah.  The dogwoods were at their peak this week.  It rained the whole time we were there with the exception of one beautiful sunny day.

 

I asked this lady if I could take a picture of her - what a wonderful pincushion hat!

It rained on the bus trip going both directions.  We stopped to get a picture of the arch in St. on the way home.  On the way there we couldn't see the upper half of the arch in the rain and fog.

The reflection is nice too.

I usually have no luck with drawings and raffles but just before I left for Paducah I won a book on the Quilt Inspiration blog.  It's a beautiful new hardcover book by Kaffe Fassett called Shots and Stripes.  It features his shot cottons which I love, in fact, Remembrance is made from his shot cotton front and back. The book arrived wonderfully packaged and I have enjoyed looking at it and feeling inspired!  Thanks so much to Quilt Inspiration which is also inspiring - they post lots of beautiful quilts, tutorials and free patterns.

Quilts on Ice

Black Licorice by Donna Mease

Awards were presented for my Guild's Challenge so I can finally post some quilts.  The Challenge was called In Living Color and the quilts had to include the two black and white challenge fabrics, use a color in the title and include a person, animal, reptile or fish.  The results were amazing and creative.  I've included all the quilts which won awards plus a few more that I especially liked.




Black and Blue and Green All Over by Susan Chandler



Pinky's Spoolin' Around by Debbie Jones

 

Mary Ann's quilt is covered with a layer of red tulle:






Red Velvet Cats by Mary Ann Smith



Catching a Glimpse of Red by Mary Eilerts

It's hard to see but the words are made out of zippers - very clever and appropriate!





Fifty Shades of Grey by Connie Glaves
 



Green-eyed Cat of Many Colors by Jenny Hudson


 



 

Maranda Reads Little Red Riding Hood by Sharon Smith




Sharon  included lots of fun details in her quilt:

 

 

 

 

 

Red hot Phat Fun by Trudy Jacobson

 

Purple Colormorphosis by Lora Lagree

Barbara's quilt was a big winner of two awards including Viewer's Choice:





Big Red by Barbara Kroeger

 

Yellow Cabs of New York by Sara Farley


 

Who Invited Red?  by Betty Blundon



 

Can We Be Green? by Janet Ghilino Bates
 

 

 

We had an ice storm a few days ago that left everything covered in 1/4 inch of ice.  It really transformed the landscape.  Once the sun came out the trees glittered like they were covered with diamonds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rosie the cat did NOT approve of an icy lawn.  She picked her feet up in disgust after every step.

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 



Betty's Bali Star

This is Judy Niemeyer's Bali Star pattern made by my fellow Prairie Quilt Guild member Betty.  She did a beautiful job on the piecing.  Quilting this nearly did me in - totally my own fault for coming up with a time-consuming quilting design that ate up thread at an alarming rate!

 

I love pieced quilts, but quilting 56 of the same block is mind numbing.  Now that it is finished I do think it looks great. 

It's quilted with Superior So Fine.

Back to work on Gail's show quilt.  Happy Easter!

Musical quilts

This is a pretty striking place to display quilts, don't you think?  My guild, Prairie Quilt Guild, was contacted by the faculty brass quintet at WSU to display quilts at their recital.  One of the pieces on the program was Fabrics by John Stevens which has four movements, each named for a different quilt block.  They wanted to have examples of those blocks on stage during the concert.  I thought it was a neat idea so volunteered to be in charge of rounding up the quilts.  The musicians were very enthusiastic about having the quilts there and invited the audience up on stage during intermission to see them up close.

 

 

I'm also in charge of the guild challenge for Prairie Quilt Guild and the quilts were displayed at our meeting this week.  I'll show some of the winning quilts after our meeting next month when the results are announced. 


I volunteered to help organize an exhibit of quilts by PQG members at CityArts in downtown Wichita this spring (obviously I need to sit on my hands the next time someone asks for a volunteer!)  On a tour of the very impressive CityArts building I just loved this display of 'taxidermy' made by one of the kid's classes. I'd like a few of them for my studio!

My quilt Remembrance came home from it's first show without any ribbons - not even the booby prize!  It did receive very positive comments from the judges.  Here is a link to the winners.

Remembrance again

Thank you for all the nice comments on my quilt!  I sent it off to Indiana Heritage Quilt Show yesterday and have my fingers crossed that it gets there in time.  We didn't get the 15 inches of snow that were predicted but enough to slow down air and truck travel.  I had planned to enter it in Lancaster but didn't get it finished in time, so it is entered in Paducah and I am waiting to hear if it is accepted.

The flowers were not painted, it is all done with thread.  Here is a close up that shows that better.

 

  The flowers are done with Superior Masterpiece thread which I love - the colors are so clear and beautiful.  The polka dots are french knots.

 

 

 

 

Remembrance

I'm getting my wholecloth ready to send off to it's first show this week, so it's time to post  pictures. 

It's so hard to get a good picture of a wholecloth quilt; it's hard to get the quilting to show and the color never seems right with photography lights or without.

 

This is the quilt that kept me occupied after Peter died - really kept me sane. I named it Remembrance because I thought about him a lot as I quilted it, remembered a lot of good times.

This is also the quilt that I spent almost three weeks picking stitches out of.   Seriously, I think I picked out each stitch at least once!  Here's a picture before  I picked:

This is after.  Despite the trauma of picking stitches for three weeks, I think it was worth the effort.  Do you agree?

Although I liked the colorful checkerboard, it really took over when you looked at the whole quilt.  It overwhelmed the center. Now that my hands have recovered , I'm glad I did it! Thanks to Gail for encouraging  telling me to do it.


We're looking at another foot of snow tonight.  The last 15 inches was just starting to melt away after 2 days of sunshine.  It's just more incentive to stay inside and quilt!