More at the Quilt Show

The local quilt show was located in a wonderful old building, a restored train station.  It's an enormous room, but we had SO MANY QUILTS (even though we had strict limits on how many each quilter could enter) that the aisles were narrow and it was hard to get head-on shots of the quilts.

Also, as you can see, it was a little dark.

Here's my Summertime Stars quilt with a 2nd place ribbon.

Here's BEST IN SHOW, by Linda Baker.  (To get back far enough, I was behind the check in table, and ballot box!)

Our River Challenge was hung, and after the quilt show it will be on display for the month of October at the Riverwalk Gallery here in Washington.

We all had a wonderful time.  We were busy and the time just flew.  Packing it all up at the end was a chore as usual, but the boxes were lighter than when they went in and the rain let up just in time   Now, to get ready 

for the next quilt show in TWO WEEKS!

At the Quilt Show

This weekend, we are one of the vendors at the quilt show in Washington, NC.  It's the guild that I joined in 1985 when I began to learn to quilt.  I owe them so much!

Once we've unpacked and set up, the fun begins.  Every show is different and every booth is different.  This is our set-up this time.  When the booth is ready, it's one big party.  There are so many wonderful things to see and so many quilting friends to visit with.  

One very special quilt on display is the one created by the host guild, the Pamlico River Quilters Guild, to commemorate the TRICENTENNIAL (that's 300 years, folks) of Beaufort County, NC.  It was presented to a county commissioner and the chairman of the tricentennial committee at the start of the show.

I'll snap some pictures of ribbon winners tomorrow and report again.

Snowman in September

We just had company for a week, so that cut into the sewing time.  HOWEVER, the company was my sewing/crafting sister-in-law Jeri!  We had a blast shopping, looking through books and patterns and TALKING ABOUT SEWING.

She brought along a pattern with fabric kit to make this adorable snowman and I did manage to get it together while she was here.  It is 6" x 12", so I could handle it.  Also, the only hand sewing was the two buttons and the finishing of the binding.  It is made from Bloomin' Minds pattern #597 "My Snowman".  

This coming weekend is the first of four quilt shows that are too close together.  It's in Washington, where the shop is located.  (The shows are just too close in terms of a vendor packing and re-packing and restocking, etc.)  If you are in the area, please stop by the show.  The shop will be open the hours of the quilt show, too.

"Sharing Our Quilting Treasures"

presented by the 

Pamlico River Quilters' Guild

at the

Washington Civic Center

110 N. Gladden Street

Washington, NC 27889

Friday, Sept. 28, 10-5

Saturday, Sept. 29, 10-4

Revisiting an Old Favorite

On Saturday, I taught a class on how to make my pattern "Crooked on Purpose".  It is an easy and fun scrap quilt and I offer two versions:  a miniature version with 3" blocks or a lap quilt with 6 " blocks.  Here is my original, with 3" blocks (hand quilted with pearl cotton in big stitch).

Here is the lap quilt size (which STILL needs to be quilted).

Since I didn't need yet another unfinished lap quilt, I chose to demonstrate the smaller blocks.  The technique is exactly the same either way.  I gathered a selection of fall colors.

The class included instruction on setting a quilt on point and the differences between half square and quarter square triangles.  I like to wait until I have some of the blocks done before I choose the fabric for the setting triangles, so, during class, I auditioned several possibilities.  The class consensus was to use the dark green leaf print.

After class, I experimented with settings.  How about a runner?  Here are the rows, ready to be sewn together.  It looks about a mile long from this angle!  It ended up measuring 35" long when all together.  Now I want to think about what to do on the ends and/or borders.

MEANWHILE, Sally, Ruth and I discussed swapping Christmas scraps to make "Crooked on Purpose" table toppers.  Here is what we are each starting with.  So, the fun continues!

I was back at the Dog-Shaming.com website and actually found a fabric related photo of a naughty dog!  Enjoy!

Now it's Really Finished

After all of that work, the cathedral window purse was just a little bit boring.  Today I added some flat round polymer clay beads, attached with seed beads.  Just a little something, but I think that the detail helps.

Those were some beads made a couple of years ago, just waiting for the right project to come along.  Now I have my new beads, made yesterday.  I don't think Sally and Ruth will let me get away will sitting on them as long.

Last night, I pressed down on the wrong edge of a clay tool (the sharp edge) and cut my finger.  Band-aid!  Then, what bad luck, this afternoon I had a run-in with the serrated edge of a freezer paper box.  Ouch.

Hope it doesn't slow down my rotary cutting!

Work and Play

Being a shop owner, sometimes I sew things I WANT to sew and sometimes I sew things I NEED to sew.  Luckily, the "CADDY PAD" by Sisters' Common thread fell into both categories.  With an inside layer of Insul-Bright, it will protect you from a hot iron when it is time to pack up and go home from a workshop.  With a lining of silver, heat resistant fabric, it opens out flat to make a mini ironing surface.  It took longer than I thought it would to put it all together, but here it is, a new shop sample (another great idea suggested to me by my great sister-in-law, Jeri).

Here is what it looks like opened up.

Off in a completely different direction, Ruth, Sally and I got together to play with polymer clay.  We had a grand time and I wish I had had my camera  along!  Everyone went in a different direction, but we were all very happy with our end results.  Here are my little buttons and beads that I carried home. 

The Cathedral Window Purse is Finished

I forgot to report that I did manage to finish the cathedral window purse in time for show and tell at the luncheon on Saturday.  I added another row of blocks around the top edge to make it tall enough.  The handle and the inside are both lined with more of the print fabric.  The only other thing that I may do is add some hand made polymer clay buttons to some of the block centers.  If I do, I'll snap another picture.

Party Time!

Today was the day that the Tar River Piecemakers Quilters Guild (TRPQG) of Rocky Mount, North Carolina, hosted their long awaited DAY OF SHARING.  The attendance was so good that we found ourselves bringing out more tables and chairs at the last minute.  The Fellowship Hall at the Englewood United Methodist Church was full.  With Mardi Gras beads everywhere, it was very festive!

Here are the challenge squares all together, ready to be voted on. 

And, here are the masks.

In this picture you can see Martha (who did a fantastic job of organizing the event), Gayle (our outgoing president) and Maryann (our community outreach chairman) watching the crowd as they proceed through the food line.

Following the meal, we were treated to some wonderful show-and-tell.

YES, I WON A PRIZE!  Second place in the 12" comfort square contest earned me a $20 Visa gift card. 

Woo hoo!

Emerge Gallery

Emerge Gallery is the site of an exhibit presented by the art quilt group that I belong to:

Artrageous Quilters

Our opening reception was tonight.  The quilts looked great!  Here, Karen, Pat and ?? take a close-up look at "Havens' Wharf" by Judy Glover.

The quilts on this wall were part of our gossip challenge.  Each person's quilt was based on the quilt of the person before them, the first taking their inspiration from the framed photo on the left.

Here's a view down the long wall.  The first and fourth are mine, "Talk is Cheap" and "Chameleon".

Ruth is taking a look at our most recent challenge "A Walk in My Garden".

There was a nice selection of hors d'oeuvres.  Linda is having a taste.

By Katherine McNeese, this quilt was based on a telescope picture of outer space.  It twinkles with hundreds of crystals.

The exhibit will be in place through the end of September at Emerge Gallery, 404 S. Evans Street, Greenville, NC.

Mardi Gras Challenge

Money talks!  The other day, I showed the little 12" square Mardi Gras mask quilt that I had made as part of a challenge ...

There are actually TWO challenges.  The other was to make a Mardi Gras mask.  I wasn't sure if I was going to do that too, until I heard that there were to be first, second and third prizes of VISA GIFT CARDS!  So, I got my act together and made a mask.  (Big dots are SHOE POLISH!  And I had to reattach the silver ribbons after I left the room and came back to find it on the floor with tell-tale cat saliva dripping from one strand!)

I'll let you know if I win anything!  Now, back to the cathedral window pocketbook, which I would also like to have ready by Saturday.

Cathedral Window Purse + MORE

I ran across this unfinished project recently and decided to finish it.  I have the body of the bag put together, but the proportions aren't right.  It needs to have another row of blocks added to the top edge.  DARN.  I'm preparing the necessary 12 more blocks now.  If I could finish it this week, it could be show and tell at a quilt luncheon on Saturday.

I'm not going to try to give a lesson on how to make cathedral window blocks here.  Suffice to say that my squares are cut 5 1/2" and I do the first step by machine;  after that, the rest of the stitching is by hand.

In other news, I finally got around to playing with my acrylic paints the other day.  You might remember that I was inspired by a Quilting Arts DVD by Alisa Burke titled "Creating Vivid Mixed-media Fabric".  Multiple layers are applied in various ways, with drying time in between.  This is what came out of my first paint session.

Alisha paints on canvas, but I had YARDAGE of this extra wide floral home dec fabric.  I painted on the back side of all of the pieces except for the last one.  Interesting effect.

Last night I played around with my pieces a little more.  I made some freezer paper stencils to iron on and mixed up some blue paint in my little spray bottle.

Before I cleaned up, I used the rest of the blue paint in the bottle.

I know, I know, so far it just looks like I'm making a mess.  More layers will be added.  Many more layers.  I plan to make a journal cover with one of the pieces.  Who knows what might develop?

Have You Had Your Shots?

A lady came into the store the other day wearing the most unusual earrings.  I took a closer look and .... they were made out of rabies tags!  Luckily, I have two cats and I knew where most of the vet-related papers etc. were stored together in a big envelope.  What a treasure trove!  I have enough to make 5 or 6 pairs for myself.  I got busy and made two pairs yesterday so I could wear them to a quilters' meeting last night and show off.

Even though it was a long weekend, I didn't get anything accomplished in the quilting department.  I DID discover a screamingly funny website called dog-shaming.com.  Every picture has a note added by the owner, explaining what bad thing their dog did.  I'm going to have to check in daily.  Here is a small sample ....