Oops! I seem to have missed July. I've been working on a few projects that I can't post pictures of yet: my guild's Opportunity quilt and a quilt of my own but I do have a few things to post.
This is Judy's Christmas quilt. The center tree applique is from a pattern and the smaller appliques she found at copyright free sites online but the setting is hers. All that piecing! She was very ambitious and also had me quilt two matching pillow shams and two matching window treatments. She will have a very Christmassy bedroom this year!
She was very specific as to what kind of quilting she wanted me to do. She wanted heavy quilting; lots of background quilting and detail.
I will be the speaker for my guild, Prairie Quilt Guild this September and will be doing a workshop on machine trapunto. I had to come up with a project for the class and this is what I ended up with. It's really a technique class, not a class to produce a finished masterpiece but I had to make the sample look presentable.
A few weeks ago I drove down to Oklahoma City for the Central Oklahoma Quilters Guild Show. It was a good show with lots of quilts and vendors. They have a great location; a huge building at the OK State Fairgrounds.
I took pictures of some of the quilts that caught my eye.
This is Night Blooms by Linda Rinehard and it won Best of Show. It's made from a Pearl Pereira pattern and she quilted it herself on a longarm.
Here's another pretty applique quilt with a black background. I'm always attracted to them because the colors show up so well but I don't enjoy quilting on a black background! This is Springtime Roses by Frieda Grischkowsky, quilted by Marilyn Karper.
Charlotte Hickman had several quilts in the show. Thread Painted Tulips won a special NQA award from the two NQA certified judges.
The texture in Fly Away Butterflies is amazing. Just look at the close up of the tree bark.
This is Marilyn Karper's Amazon Star. It was so big that I couldn't get all of it in the picture!
I really like this small quilt, We Got Cow... by Alice Kellogg. Oklahomans do know a thing or two about tornados!
This is Bertie's Whole Year by Jeri-Alynn McGee with no information about the pattern. That is one criticism I have about the show, I do think it is important to identify the pattern designers on the hang tags.
I like her use of plaids in this quilt. Blogger would only let me load this sideways for some reason.
This is another quilt by Jeri-Alynn McGee called Wonderland by Night and it is wonderful! I think this is an original design.
So now I am all caught up.
Last Friday I went on a road trip with my friends Michele and Lori - we recently went to Paducah together and needed another quilt show fix so we went to the opening day of the very first Kansas City Regional Quilt Festival. What a great show! We were lucky to get there early enough to find a parking spot, by the time the show opened at 10 am the lot was full.
The convention hall was packed with vendors and quilts. I liked that the supporting guilds from the KC area all had booths and were selling their own opportunity quilt tickets and handmade items. This was my favorite opportunity quilt, designed by a member of the Blue Valley Quilters Guild and made by guild members. I bought tickets and hope I win!
Congratulations to Mayleen Vinson for winning Best of Show. I did quilt this but have to say that the quilting takes second place in this quilt - it's Mayleen's workmanship that won the award.
Mayleen won a new Bernina and here she is accepting her machine.
I didn't get pictures at the show - it was so crowded with happy quilters and I was too intent on my shopping.
On our way to the show we stopped for breakfast and they were serving monstrous cinnamon rolls. No, I
didn't eat one but did get a picture.
On the way home we stopped for ribs at a restaurant Michele and Lori love. The décor is... unique. Those are dollar bills hanging from the ceiling and posted on the wall.
They serve the best ribs I have ever eaten - on a stack of newspaper topped with foil. YUM! Guy and Mae's Tavern in Williamsburg.
Joanne made this from a Judy Niemeyer pattern - what a great way to use lots of batiks!
I put feathers along one side of the spikes and now from a distance they look like unicorn horns.
Marsha made this cute Rudolph Christmas quilt for her husband, whose name (or maybe it was his middle name) is Rudolph. I'm absolutely sure her husband does not have a glowing red nose.
I haven't watched TV in years but I remember watching this show when I was a kid - do they still show it at Christmastime?
I visited Material Girls Quilt Shop in Wichita yesterday. Shop owners Jan and Jo always have beautiful shop samples displayed and have several local longarm quilters do the quilting for them. Not just basic quilting - but really gorgeous custom quilting like this one quilted by my friend Siriporn Hollar. Isn't this amazing creative freehand quilting?
It is finally feeling like summer in Kansas after a cool and rainy June. This is Rorschach beating the heat. He is sound asleep here!
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
It's amazing to me that most customers hand over their tops and tell me, 'Do whatever you think looks best'. Very few give me any kind of specific instructions. When Merilyn gave me her cute embroidered top she knew what she wanted and what she didn't want. I know it is a compliment that my customers trust me but I like a customer that knows what she wants!
Merilyn didn't want crosshatching over the embroidery, which I sometimes do. She also didn't want any tight quilting, closer that about half an inch apart.
I followed the embroidery with monofilament thread and didn't do any tight background fills.
I enjoy quilting Crabapple Hill patterns like this one. This is 'Berry Picking Party'.
Trudy has made a series of these fused applique flowers, these are the second duo I have quilted for her. She designed them herself, inspired by the work of Susan Carlson.
She made good use of batik fabrics.
Since she wanted all four quilts to be quilted in the same way, I made a template for the border frame and marked each one with chalk. I quilted the borders first so the chalk wouldn't rub off before I got to them.
We have had rain, rain and more rain here in Kansas. After four inches in one day I saw flooded streets on my walk.
The roses love the rain, they are covered with blooms. I wish the sun would come out long enough so I could enjoy them - they are so wet that the blossoms droop from the weight.
Cute Rorschach in a box photo. I can't get rid of this box, all the cats take turns in it!
This is Joanne's sampler quilt done with wool applique.
I used wool batting and all the applique is nice and puffy - like little stuffed animals.
Joanne's piecing is nice and precise, just look at those nice straight lines along the sashing and borders!
This is Kelly's quilt; she chose the fabrics and all the blocks were made by different people. That means that some of the blocks are really well pieced and some of them... are not well pieced. That's what always
happens in a group quilt!
I do love the fabrics Kelly chose - anything with polka dots and I'm on board. When I think back on all my own quilts, I think they all have a polka dot fabric in them somewhere, except for the wholecloth quilts.
