Back to real life

Time to return to real life - the show closed yesterday and everything was taken down.  The quilt racks go back into storage until our next show in 2012.  The planning for that show will start up in just a few months but I don't want to think about that right now!

Here is the  featured quilters' booth of Janet Ghilino Bates.

Love her fabric covered kids furniture!

On Saturday there was a panel discussion on "Men that Quilt" which featured six local men.  They talked about why some men quilt and some don't.  Peter was the representative non-quilter.  Charlotte of Charlotte's Sew Natural organized the panel and she knew that Peter was involved in quilting but had so far resisted becoming a quilter, so she included him. 

It was very interesting to hear them talk about how they got started quilting and how they felt being in the minority as quilters.  They brought examples of their quilts which varied from the traditional "men's" style with outdoorsy and car fabrics to bright and sophisticated designs.  Here is quilter Tony Munoz talking about his quilt, which is beautifully hand quilted.

And now for some quilts!  This is a baby quilt that Janet Bates made for her first Grandson.  It has lots of clever details and is hand quilted.

I really like these quilts by Bonnie Wright that were entered in the judged show.  Her snowman quilt is at the top of this post.
This one is done with machine embroidery - really an eyecatching quilt!

Linda Laird made this quilt from some old blocks.

These dazzling lilies won Best in Category in Art Quilts for Charlotte Hickman.

This little quilt by Carla Anderson just glowed - the colors are luminous. 

More photos of quilts to come!

More of Common Threads Quilt Show

Today is the last day of the quilt show - it has certainly taken over our life the past week!  Here are some more pictures from the show.

Michelle Isaac was another of the featured quilters, her quilts are amazing and colorful.   The quilt at the top of this post is hers and it has been attracting a lot of attention. This is her exhibit.

This is my exhibit as featured quilter.

I really like this quilt by Shirley Binder, the pattern is from Elsie Campbell's new book on string quilting.

Here is Sharon Allman with her bear paw quilt which uses homespuns in the border. She won a ribbon in the judged show.

One of the booths features hand made cloth dolls.  Guild members were asked to bring their own much-loved dolls for the exhibit. They make me smile - despite the wear and tear, or maybe because of it, they have a special charm. I especially love the one with a polka dot dress, her eyes are made from polka dots!

These are dolls made recently, some of them by our talented guild member and dollmaker, Lynanne DeGarmo.  Oops, I cut off Dorothy's head!

I have lots more pictures to post this week - so many beautiful quilts!

Putting on a quilt show!

The Show opens this morning and it has been a busy week getting ready for it! Tuesday and Wednesday were spent judging the over 200 quilts entered in the judged show with several dozen people assisting judge Anita Shackelford. On Wednesday as we stayed cool at the judging location the quilt racks and other show
"stuff" were transported from the Guild's storage area to the location of the Show at Century II in downtown Wichita. Moving enough racks to display over 900 quilts is a major undertaking and involved trucks, a forklift and a team of men from an excavating company that one of the Show Committee members works for.  On Wednesday the racks were laid out according to the Show floorplan in preparation for the quilts arriving on Thursday.

On Thursday the quilts were delivered from drop-off points all over town to Century II.

The Processing Committee was waiting to check them in.

Our local Dillon's store is nice enough to let us borrow shopping carts to move the quilts around Century II. Whoever thought of this deserves a medal!  Century II is a huge space and this saves time and energy.

And the quilts start to go up.  Vendors are also starting to set up so the loading dock doors are open and there is no air conditioning.  With temperatures in the 90's it it steamy hot inside Century II.  In the afternoon once the loading dock doors are shut the air conditioning comes on and that big space starts to cool down.

Here is the show floor a few hours later.  All the work is done by Prairie Quilt Guild members and any family members and friends they can finagle into helping.

Here are our Show Co-Chairs (they are sisters) Jackie Clark and Tamara Gonzales.  They have a HUGE job!
They also get to zoom around the show in cute little scooters.

Here is the Red and Green exhibit exhibit from the American Quilt Study Group going up.

Kendra and her mother Phyllis are decorating the stage area used for demos and the mini quilt auction.

Here it is a few hours later.

Guild members donate mini quilts for an auction, the proceeds of which fund Grants for school programs teaching quilting.

This is Olivia, chair of the Grant Committee in the booth displaying some quilts from schools receiving grants in the last 2 years.

At the top of this post is our Opportunity Quilt with me the quilter, Deb Johnson the quilt designer and Peter the quilt husband.  It won Best of Show in the judged show!

On with the Show!

Common Threads Quilt Show this week

I finished this quilt for Betty on Friday and it is entered in our quilt show this week!  The deadline for judged quilts is today, so I hope she got the binding finished this weekend.  I had sneaked her quilt on to my list and promised her I would really try to get it done in time.  We just made it!  She spent a lot of time doing all that embroidery and it turned out really nice.

My studio is a drop-off point for judged quilts and we have gotten a pile of them.  There are more coming today.  Judging starts early tomorrow morning with judge Anita Shackelford.  It's really interesting to help out with the judging, I have learned so much by watching and listening to the judge.  She has over 200 quilts to judge in two days - that's hard work!

We have hot weather for our show this week, it's humid and in the 90's which makes set-up more challenging.  Because the big doors at Century II are open for vendors to unload there is no air conditioning for the two days of set-up.  It gets pretty steamy in there!  I'm fortunate to be nice and cool in the church where we hold the judging.

Mrs. Meatloaf (the quilt) makes the front page

I quilted a version of this quilt for Emma Creek Quilt Guild for their Opportunity Quilt.  Mary wanted me to quilt her top exactly the same as that one. This made me groan, since I had done a lot of quilting on that quilt to make it special for them and I wasn't real excited about trying to duplicate it. She bribed me into doing it by saying she would piece a Feathered Star top for me if I would quilt it for her.  I love Feathered Stars, but being a person who is definitely challenged when it comes to piecing, I figured I would never have one. That Mary is devious!

Actually I enjoyed quilting her top, I did a few things differently and ended up liking this version better than the first one.  However, I did not enjoy making a mistake on her quilt that took me one and a half days to pick out - OUCH!

Mrs. Meatloaf made the front page!  Peter and I were interviewed as part of the publicity for our Quilt Show next week.  Check it out - there is even a video.  http://www.kansas.com/2010/06/19/1367676/quiltings-long-arm.html

Wildlife

This is another of my old quilts I have resurrected for my guild show exhibit.  It's called My Cat Sam and What He Dreams About at Night.  Sam was Mrs. Meatloaf's smarter brother and actually Mrs. Meatloaf appears in his quilt as a crazed looking cat head.  When I finished his quilt I realized I had to make one for Mrs. Meatloaf as well, so The Secret Life of... came from that.

Here is an update on our local wildlife - This is our neighbor's cat Socket Set (love that name) relaxing on our deck.

This is Rosie who has decided this pot is the most comfortable place to nap, who cares that I had something planted in it!

We saw these white pelicans as we drove into Wichita the other day.  They let me get pretty close for a picture before they started acting nervous.

And last but not least, on Saturday I noticed a few ants in the mailbox when I picked up the mail.  This morning (Monday) I found an entire ant colony in there!  Complete with little white maggoty baby things.  I sprayed them and then just couldn't bring myself to clean them out, there were so many and the white things were kind of squishy looking.  So I made Peter do it, that's what husbands are for - killing spiders and cleaning out ant colonies.