Quilt Con Quilts

In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. 

Kahlil Gibran

Here as promised are a few pictures from Quilt Con.  If you have never been to a large quilt show you should make it a goal to get to one.  While I am not a fan of large crowds I know there are plenty of shows that do not have the large attendance that you will find in Houston or Paducah.  I heard that there was about 10,000 at Quilt Con but it did not seem crowded.  Remember this is a total for all days and much of the time a large number of attendees were in classes or lectures.

It was a nice show but I was not crazy about the way the quilts were displayed in zig zag rows.  I know that that creates more display space but I kept feeling like I was missing quilts as I walked down the rows.  I have read similar comments from others who were there also.  That was my main complaint.  

I took pictures of the cards hanging by the quilts and they follow the pictures of the quilts so you can see who made them and what they had to say about their quilt.

I hope you enjoyed these.  The following two were in the American Made Brand Booth and I have no information on who made them but I did like them.

I am refraining from commenting on each quilt so as not to bias you with my opinions or comments.  I did like them all because I didn't take pictures of any that I did not like.

I would love to know what you think about these and which one(s) you like best.

Marching Onward

Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward. 

Henry Ford

I am back home again and have had almost two weeks to get my act back together and get some things done.  Why is it that it takes me as long to get over my vacation as it does to take one.  Yeah, I know I just slow. 

So where have I been?  I was gone for 12 days and I went all by myself!  Needless to say it put a big dent in February.  Well, I drove all the way to TEXAS!  I spent a week at a resort and took most of 3 days to drive out and another 3 to get home for a total of about 2300 miles on the road.  That's a lot of driving!  Thankfully I had some great audio books to keep me company.  I didn't know anyone that would be able to take 2 weeks off to go with me so I decided to do it alone.  It was a good trip except for some rainy and cold days.  I stayed busy, I took my sewing machine and more projects than I could possibly complete.  I did get a lot done.

So why did I go to TEXAS?  Two reasons:  1) We had a week at the resort that we would lose if we didn't use it and 2) I had decided 2 years ago that I wanted to go to QUILT CON so this had been a goal of mine for a while.

Proof I was there!

 I didn't do any classes or lectures, just the show.  The above were the few freebies I got. Below is my one purchase, other than food, from the vendor mall.

I have been looking for this ruler for a while and finally found it.

I have already pulled some fabrics for the Urban Beads pattern.  Looks like I wasn't as done with solids as I thought I was.  LOL  Any of you used this ruler?  There are lots of patterns and if I like it I plan to try a few more.

I did take some picture of the show quilts but I will share them in a later post so this one will not be too long.

Here are some of the things I worked on while I was gone.  Most of these are projects that have been going for a while and I am more than ready to get them done.

This is a Stack and Whack that I started a few years ago.  I had about half the blocks sewn together and the rest were in 1/4 block units.  Now there are 12 completed blocks.

This is how I make the centers of blocks like this lay flat.  I am not a big fan of pressing seams open but I do it occasionally.  Blocks that have 8 or more seams in the center can benefit from just the center being pressed open like this.

This has been a travel project for me for about 4 years.  It has lived in my travel bag for that long at least.  Now all 96 blocks are made and ready to be squared up.  Then they get the design wall treatment.

I got all the 9 inch Churn Dash blocks made that I had cut out.  For some reason that was just 40.  I have cut out 2 more since I got home and then these will be ready to take a turn on the design wall.

The 12 inch Churn Dash blocks came up 2 short too.  There are 18 finished.  It would have been 19 but I found a flaw in one of the fabrics.  The remaining 2 are now cut out although I had to introduce a new fabric into the mix since I had done such a good job at stash busting with this group.  I'll be glad to be saying goodbye to the old calicos in these two sets of blocks.
When I worked at Cloth World the calico remnants were always following  me home.

I have shared this one on the blog a couple of times.  Now there are 182 blocks ready for the design wall.  I even got the new ones pressed yesterday.

I have had this one cut out for a while.  I cut it out at the same time that I cut out another one with these fabrics.  I'll share the link back to it when these are pressed and look nice.  They are from a magazine pattern called Cottage Romance.

So you will doubtless see these babies again.  Hopefully it will be soon.  Now to give my fellow North Americans hope for the future and an end to this long winter.  Here are a couple of nice pictures of what is in my yard now.  These are late.  The last few years they have bloomed in January.

You can see there are still more to bloom.  If you look real close you may see two pink hyacinths blooming in the center.  They got a little nipped by frost this week.  I'm hoping they will bounce back this week but we are to get lots of rain.

This weekend was delightful weather wise with temps in the 60s and 70s.  Just hang in there and quilt away all you snowbound people.  Spring IS coming soon!

Check back soon for pictures from Quilt Con.  I am also feeling the need for a GIVEAWAY. 

Anybody interested?

Progress

Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb. 

Sir Winston Churchill

I am finally able to report a little progress in the studio.  Where did January go? I had way too many days that I was not able to get into my studio.  I don't know that February will be any better since I will be taking a trip for about 11 days.  That's almost half of the month.  I will be taking my machine and computer with me so I may actually make more progress while away than I have been at home.

So what has been demanding my attention?  Well, I got to spend a little time with this little cutie.  She is eight months old now but still not too big.  She's only about 16 lbs.

She has learned how to sit up now and is very pleased with her achievement.

Speaking of achievements.  I have enrolled in a few online classes.  I'll be telling you more about them soon.  The one that I am most excited about is a photography class.  It will also be. and already has, taking some of my time away from quilting.

I got the remaining 5 checkerboard blocks finished for my quilt.  Last night I even got them pressed.  Now all I need to do is play on the design wall for a while.  There is an obvious reminder of what happens when you sew with black fabric here.  It grabs every loose thread and piece of lint it comes in contact with.  Sigh....  I do love the look of quilts with black backgrounds but I was asking myself last night if I really wanted to have a black quilt on my bed.  What do you think?  You can read a little more about this quilt HERE.

I have so many projects that I have started sitting around in my studio.  I've decided that I want to get some of them finished and out of the way this year.  This is one of them.  The Scrappy Trips Around the World blocks that I started a couple of years ago.  I had paired the strips for about 6 more blocks and had these three sliced up and ready to sew into blocks.  I got them done and pressed.  I can't say that I am all that thrilled with them.  individually I like them but together they are very busy.  I have tried to place a lighter strip in the center diagonal in each block.

The novelty prints in this one are fun!  That is a very old calico in the center from the 60s or 70s.  I think I made a blouse from it when I was in school.

The cat faces peeking out at you are fun in this one.  You can see the other blocks that I have made in THIS POST.  The link to Bonnie Hunter's Free pattern is there too.

I also came across a selection of black and white strips and strip units.  Some of them are from a guild auction a few years ago.  I was browsing through the quilting books in JoAnn a few months ago and saw a black and white quilt I liked.  It was the only quilt in the book I liked so I didn't buy it.  I don't remember who the author was but it was triangles cut from strip units like this.  A narrow bright solid strip was inserted in the center seam.

I think I will try a few of the blocks from these before I commit to a large quilt.  Maybe I should make a small project for a change.  I hear they are faster. ;-)  I seldom make anything smaller than lap size.

I have made some progress on the RSC 2015 blocks.  I have made some decisions about what to work on and got a number of blocks cut out.  I'm hoping so get some of them sewn this weekend.  DH just came home and is saying something about the movies so that may not happen either.

I also got a quilt loaded on the longarm last night that I want to get done.  Do you think I have too many things going on?  I think I either need a clone or a maid.

A Do Over

Live this day as if it will be your last. Remember that you will only find tomorrow on the calendars of fools. Forget yesterday's defeats and ignore the problems of tomorrow. This is it. Doomsday. All you have. Make it the best day of your year. The saddest words you can ever utter are, If I had my life to live over again. Take the baton, now. Run with it! This is your day! Beginning today, treat everyone you meet, friend or foe, loved one or stranger, as if they were going to be dead at midnight. Extend to each person, no matter how trivial the contact, all the care and kindness and understanding and love that you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again. 

Og Mandino

Sometimes in life we get the chance to do things over again.  Not very often. Perhaps as quilters and sewists we do.  The seam ripper is a great tool sometimes for eradicating mistakes.  Sometimes things turn out better the second or third time around.  Words and actions in relationships are a bit harder to correct.  Hopefully you don't have to correct many of those situations in your life.

This week I changed the hem on a pair of pillowcases.  I made these for my Mother a few years before she died and gave them to her with a new set of pillows.  After she died they came back home to me.  They are made of a wonderfully silky feeling lawn.  It might be a Liberty print, I don't remember.  Since I have a king size bed I decided to take the hem out and add an eyelet edging that I had in my stash so they would be long enough for king size pillows.

  

There are still a few creases that would not iron out but that will disappear in the wash.  They will be a nice memory for me when I use them.

I was so excited that the hand dyed fabrics I ordered from Vicki Welsh arrived.  They will be used in part for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2015.  I spent some time yesterday looking at the patterns I had planned to work on for the year.  Now to get up the courage to actually cut into these beauties.  There will be no chance of a do over when that happens so I want to be sure of what I want them to become.

I also figured out that I need 5 more of the checkerboard blocks I showed in the last post.  I got the strips sewn for them and now just need to make the blocks.  Then I can play with the layout on the design wall.

Guess I need to get on with it.  Hope things are going well for you without the need for a do over.

Rainbows and Fun

Walk in the rain, jump in mud puddles, collect rocks, rainbows and roses, smell flowers, blow bubbles, stop along the way, build sandcastles, say hello to everyone, go barefoot, go on adventures, act silly, fly kites, have a merry heart, talk with animals, sing in the shower, read childrens' books, take bubble baths, get new sneakers, hold hands and hug and kiss, dance, laugh and cry for the health of it, wonder and wander around, feel happy and precious and innocent, feel scared, feel sad, feel mad, give up worry and guilt and shame, say yes, say no, say the magic words, ask lots of questions, ride bicycles, draw and paint, see things differently, fall down and get up again, look at the sky, watch the sun rise and sun set, watch clouds and name their shapes, watch the moon and stars come out, trust the universe, stay up late, climb trees, daydream, do nothing and do it very well, learn new stuff, be excited about everything, be a clown, enjoy having a body, listen to music, find out how things work, make up new rules, tell stories, save the world, make friends with the other kids on the block, and do anything else that brings more happiness, celebration, health, love, joy, creativity, pleasure, abundance, grace, self-esteem, courage, balance, spontaneity, passion, beauty, peace, relaxation, communication and life energy to...all living beings on this planet. 

Bruce Williamson

Doesn't this list look like a great one for New Year's Resolutions?  I have already done the first one a few times and a few others.  Our year has been pretty soggy so far with more rain coming today.  That's OK you need the rain to get flowers and rainbows but I hope it stops before I get too blue.

I started the year off with a trip to the movies with my two younger children.  We had been trying to find a day when we were free to see The Hobbit and finally did.  Dear husband wasn't feeling up to it.  He has been a little under the weather the last few weeks but is finally feeling a little better and is planning to go see it today.

The movie of course was great.  I was a little sad when it was over because I have enjoyed all of Peter Jackson's journeys into Middle Earth so much and they are over now.  They have made me want to take a trip to New Zealand too.  If only it weren't so far away.

I will just have to focus on trips I can make for now.  This year I plan to make a trip around the Rainbow again by joining the Rainbow Scrap Challenge again.

I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of a hand dyed packet of fabrics from Vicki Welsh to use in my monthly blocks.  I will also try to make some progress on two of the other projects that I had planned to work on last year.  Here are some pictures in case you have forgotten what they were.

A Storm at Sea variation and this Amish Batik Beauty.

You may remember that I made blocks for this one.  I still need to add the corner triangles and work on the border units.

Here is what they were looking like one of the last times they were on my design wall.  Just in case you need to refresh your memory.  I made more including some green ones but I don't know if I got a picture of them all together before I took them down.

Right now I have the whole set of the ones below on my design wall.  I need to get of picture as soon as I am done swapping them about for the final layout.  I made a total of 31 blocks.

I was surprised that my husband said he really liked them.  They are very bold and modern.  I think I am almost over my solid fabric faze for a while.

Of course the top I did get finished was my Soul Searching one.  I had so much fun with that one that I might have to make another one this year.  Do you think I should?

I know you probably aren't interested in the clothes I wear.  Honestly, I think it would be a little strange if you were.  However I wanted to share this fun shirt I found while I was Christmas shopping a few weeks ago.  If you have been reading my blog for very long you know I have a thing about owls.  This one just flew into my hands and had to come home with me especially since it was the right size.

Isn't it a Hoot!  Love the glasses!  By the way it is laying on my bed.  I'm not that flat.  LOL

I'll be back with more to tell soon.  I need to get to my studio and work on something to share with you.  I haven't even made it down there yet this year.  

Looking Back

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. 

Mark Twain

Welcome 2015!  Whether I'm ready for it or not it is here!  2014 in now just a sweet memory so I thought I would reflect on some of the things I got done in the last few weeks as it drew to a close.  This  is a picture heavy post to make up for not posting much lately.

We had a very nice Christmas getting to spend some time with all of our children and grandchildren.  Here is what the decorations were like.

The Tree

The Stockings and Presents

I found a cute snowman to sit on the mantle.  I have a Santa collection but I didn't put it out this season.  Maybe next time.

I found some Snowflakes to add to the tree.  They were cheap but I liked the way they sparkled so much I went back for some more.  $4 for 20 of them but they added a lot to the tree especially at night.  This little tree won't hold my Hallmark ornaments so we haven't even unpacked them for several years now.  I used to do 2 big trees in our old house but there just isn't room in this one.  I miss having separate living and dining rooms.

Moving on to what projects I managed to finish.  I made my younger daughter 2 pair of pj pants.  One long and one short pants from the same fabric.  I am going to try to use up more of my older fabrics.  This was a piece of T-shirt knit that I had for years.  If I'm not going to use these garment fabrics up I need to get rid of them.  With my serger it doesn't take very long to make a pair of pull on pants.  That used up a several yards and made her happy too.

No picture, I didn't think about it soon enough.

I finished up a bib for Maggie Rose.  I had it embroidered for a few weeks before I sewed it up.  Bibs are a good item to stitch off a design.  It was made from another scrap of knit.  I learned that I need to lighten my tension a bit on knits by making it.

That info helped me get this onesie to turn out pretty good.

I thought this design was just prefect for little Miss Maggie.  It is one of the designs that came in my Brother Dreamweaver machine.  Here is a close up.

I had hoped to get a couple of quilts finished for gifts but that didn't happen.  After spending some time looking for a backing I knew I had pieced I have been trying to put away some things in my studio.  I found it after a couple of days in the 'to be ironed' bin.  I seldom lose backings because I keep them on the same hanger as the top along with the binding fabric.

One of the things that surfaced in my search for that backing was this class sampler from when I took a class with Pam Clarke.  I wrote about it here.  She had finished hers off with rick rack and since I have quite a bit of it I decided to try that also.  I played around with different stitches to attach it.  Some I liked and some I didn't.  I also put some at the edge to be caught in the binding.  It didn't turn out too straight.  This is just a sampler of free motion stitches for me to look at in my studio and jog my brain.  It will not be used for anything else.  If you have seen a tutorial on how to get that to turn out neatly please let me know.  I was not satisfied with the look at all.

Sorry about the shadows from the window but the quilting shows up really well.  The rick rack covers lines that were printed on the fabric to divide the sections to stitch in.  No they were not evenly divided.

Of course it is impossible to achieve perfection in a 3 or 4 inch square when stitching something out for the first time.  Added to that is the fact that it was purple thread on brown fabric.  The backing fabric is the green and white the bib above is on and the bobbin thread was white.  

In a group class like that you learn a lot but you are working on a machine you are not familiar with and you are usually sharing it with one or two other people.  Some of the squares turned out well while on others I can still use some more practice.

The best way to practice is to draw the design over and over.  Then I like to fill a baby quilt with it.  I keep some pre-printed panels that work well for this.  I donate them to the local crisis pregnancy center.

Regardless of the level of perfection this sampler is finished and bound.  Yeah!!!

Well, if you have made it this far how about one more?  This one is an almost finished.  I made this top back when I had my shop.  I quilted the center several years ago but could not decide what to do on the borders.  It surfaced as I was trying to put away some things and I decided to get it done.

I was going for a glamour shot but I had not trimmed it yet.  

Misty wanted to inspect it for flaws.  She might have found a few. ;-)

The print is saddles, boots, ropes etc.  Great for a little cowboy.

I just went with a piano key border stitching.  I quilted this on my domestic machine with a walking foot.  I'm glad I don't have to do all that twisting and turning on my longarm.  Yes, I'm spoiled but I can still stitch in the ditch better on my domestic machine.  Ruler work on the longarm is still not something I have mastered yet.

If you use a large buffalo check gingham flannel on the back like this don't expect the quilting lines to align with the plaids.  I thought the flannel fit the cowboy theme of the quilt but the crooked lines bother the perfectionist in me.  Yes, I know, I am trying to just be happy it is done.  It is trimmed and awaiting the binding.  I know I have it, it just hasn't surfaced lately.

I'll be back soon.  I'm trying to decide how much planning I want to do for this year.  I'll share what I decide soon.

Linking with: Crazy Mom Quilts and Richard and Tanya Quilts and
 Confessions of a Fabric  Addict and Fort Worth Fabric Studio