Thursday, June 30, 2011

Las Vegas Quilt Show -- March 4-6, 2011 (Part 2)


Here is the second half of the quilt pictures I took at the Las Vegas Quilt Show in Henderson NV:

"Baravelle Spiral" by Sandra Foster; Sandra stated that her design source was "geometrical quilts". She made this as her entry in the guild challenge.






A closeup of the center where she quilted a spider web type design in the center and then feathers swirling out from it.

"Winding Ways", made by Sandra Foster and quilted by Gerda Hanson; in her artist's statement, Sandra quoted that her design source was "traditional" and that she "meant to try this pattern for some time, as I love the effect of the circles".


This is not an easy pattern to piece, but looking closely at Sandra's work, the piecing was awesome, with points matching beautifully.










The quilting also truly makes this quilt stand out; both elements together definitely deserved that big blue ribbon!















"Running Rivulets" is an original design by Peg Cummings. It was inspired by a picture seen in a magazine. "I took that idea and completely recreated it into this fast flowing stream. I embellished the wall quilt with all kinds of beads, yarns & threads. I now have water in the desert whenever I want to enjoy the cool refreshing mirage."


Closeup of the heavy embellishment....

"An Ocean of Stars", paper pieced by Carolyn Ratola, quilted by Tony Ratola. Her design source was "Reach For the Stars", a Mariners Compass book by Brenda Henning. "Originally started in 2006, took apart, changed fabric and added borders for a more finished look."


Closeup of the borders and the heavy quilting in them....












...beautiful, beautiful quilting! And a big fat blue ribbon!










"Texture Games" by Karen Garth was inspired by a Jenny Rayment class. Karen combined a number of textured blocks and borders from Jenny Rayment's classes and books to make this small quilt.


This was not a large show, but there were some beautiful quilts here. As a machine quilter, I always tend to look more at the quilting than the piecing or applique. The quilts here were particularly of interest to me because most of them were very traditional quilts that were made special by the nontraditional quilting.


Next up: A Drunkard's Path that I quilted for my friend Susan Moore....

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Las Vegas Quilt Show -- March 4-6, 2011 (Part 1)

This show was held in Henderson NV the first weekend of March. I spent three days in the booth of Downtown Sewing Machine Company sewing on one of the top of the line Pfaff machines, talking to people about the cabinets made by Unique Sewing Furniture that were displayed in the booth and, in general, hanging out and having fun! However, I couldn't resist getting out of my booth once in a while to look at the quilts:

If you are a long time reader of my blog, you know that if only one person's name follows the quilt name, it was made and quilted by the same person; otherwise, I identify all people who worked on the quilt that are included on the description card. Thoughts enclosed within quotation marks are also from the description card and I usually refer to those as the artist's statement.


You know I had to like this one! "Butterfly Garden" by Patty Miller; Patty stated that it was her "take along" project when visiting her daughter and family in Tucson.














Because of the cross-stitched blocks, this quilt was entered in the "Mixed Techniques" category. I think that the striped sashings (you can just see a little bit at the far left in the bottom photo) took this quilt from a simple setting to traditional with a twist.




"Celebrate!" by Carol Bruce took first place in the "Dimensional/Mixed Media/Collage" category. The quilts were made using "fusible applique, thread painting, beading, hot fix stones and a touch of fabric paint".

"Spirit Star" by Karen Garth; design source, Pineapple Stars by Sharon Rexroad. "I made this quilt for an ugly fabric challenge. I fussy cut the shibori-style 'ugly fabric' to make the starpoints, and used OESD's "Spirit Songs' designs for the setting blocks."



Had to get a couple closeups....



















"Shattered Memories - Shattered Lives - The Tragedy of Alzheimer's Disease" is an original design by Ann Louise Pugh. This piece was one of those chosen to travel with Ami Simms' Alzheimers exhibit. The picture is nothing like seeing this piece "for reals"....


"Kaleidoscope for Sugar Bear" by Anthony Ratola and quilted by Tony Ratola; design source was stated as "Sky Dancer".










I really liked the bright colors and thought the quilting was very interesting. It wasn't as heavy as a lot of the quilting you see in shows now and the quilting design was very effective in bringing out the piecing.

How could I not love the Halloween quilt? It's called "Girls Night Out"; the top was made by Rebecca Rowley and it was quilted by Di Chipman. This was a personal round robin at friendship stars group. Rebecca started with the Halloween print and each month added the required quilt task. So I guess this differs from the round robins that I am familiar with in which the quilt top travels from person to person while adding borders. This is very cool!



And some closeups of the batty fabrics and the bats quilted in one of the borders....























These are about half of the pictures on my camera card from this show -- my next post will have the other half!


Annie's Star Quilt Guild -- Chico CA




Looking through all the great stuff on my camera memory card is really fun! These pictures come from my February 3-4 visit to the Annie's Star guild in Chico:

Dinner with some of the guild members was at a Chinese restaurant just before the meeting; when we arrived at the meeting place, I was very excited to see my friend Loretta Kleinsasser and her husband Tommy, who live in the area.


After Friday's workshop, Loretta and I went shopping at Katie's Place, a very nice boutique where I bought a couple of skirts and a jacket, then she took me out to the property where she and Tommy are building a beautiful house. I'm definitely planning to drive up to visit when it's finished. We also had dinner Friday night at Spice Creek Cafe on 3rd street -- can't recommend the restaurant enough! I ordered one of my favorite foods in the whole world, cioppino, and it was way yum!


But back to guild stuff:

I don't have in my notes whether the compass quilt was a guild opportunity quilt or ?, but I thought it was stunning!














The truck quilt was fun -- it's a fund raiser for the Ord Bend Volunteer Fire Department....


The library was extensive and remarkably well organized.


The rest of the pictures are from my favorite part of every guild meeting: Show and Share!
























Got both the front and back of this one -- thought the backing fabric was interesting; if I'm remembering correctly, she said it was on sale for some ridiculously small amount of money....









Pretty much all of us in the audience were saying "Aw, wish I'd seen it first!"



































A big thanks to the guild members for such a great visit! Whenever I see people selling tickets for a fundraising quilt, I always buy some. I've never won, but WOW -- I would LOVE to own that compass quilt!


Friday, June 24, 2011

SoCal Quilters Run -- Bolts in the Bathtub, Lancaster CA

This was the second four day weekend of the Southern California Quilters Run, an annual quilt shop hop that always seems to take place when the temperatures are 100+ degrees! All the better to get into our air conditioned cars and take a tour of our favorite shops and some that are new to us...

Each year there is a theme and each store designs a block to contribute to quilts reflecting that theme. The stores on this run -- there are almost 40! -- are divided into four areas and prizes are awarded by drawing from "passports" submitted from runners who have visited all of the stores in an area; there are also grand prizes for people who have completed the full run of all of the shops.

This year, each area's shops made blocks and quilts reflecting the four seasons. Quilters participating in the run would get their passport stamped at each shop they visited; at the same time they could pick up a free pattern for the block designed by that shop. Each of the shops made blocks for their own quilt plus one for each of the other shops in their area, then quilts were made from these blocks in each shop. Even though the blocks are the same, the quilts are very different -- you know, just like the quilt you make from the same pattern as 20 of your closest friends doesn't look anything like theirs!


Bolts in the Bathtub is in the Autumn season of the year and the seven shops in the area all made Halloween blocks and decorated their shops spookily -- which was really cool because we all got to dress up in costumes! Visitors to the shop during the run could pick up a free pattern for the center block of the quilt, which depicts a witch taking a bath in her tub -- very cute!


Patterns and kits to finish the quilt by making the setting triangles and borders are also available for purchase at the shop, so if you haven't been there yet to grab yours, you still have tomorrow and Sunday!



The decorations were really fun! That's Dawn Sammons ready to stamp passports; some of you may remember that Dawn worked with me for about 8 years, pinning quilts, sewing bindings and other quilterly activities....












Scary things on the table! The quilt in both pictures is a "Just Can't Cut It" pattern with naughty witch appliques; the quilt was made by Dawn Sammons and Leith Bergier (he's a he & one of the owners of the shop)...





Leith's wife Fay and I sitting in the BERNINA area -- we were supposed to be sewing, but evidently we were caught in an unsupervised moment! I did get some quilting done on that big quilt piled in front of me during the two days I was in the shop, though...


Does anyone know if there is a 12-step program for quilters who buy too much fabric? Do I need to define "too much" before anyone will hazard an answer? All too often I say, "I'm not buying any more kits!" The problem being that kits are so handy, all the fabric is picked for you and they are darn near irresistible when you run into them!


Of course, it's a kit and I loved it, all piled up on the table without the borders on yet. The bolts of border fabrics were stacked up near it and a few cut kits strewn merrily about. I wandered around with one, knowing that I was going to "kick out" the cream fabric used for the squares and substitute a gold that would go more with my house.....



At left is the pattern by Tiffany Hayes, who owns "Needle in a Hayes Stack". Below are the fabrics I bought; the only one that's different is the gold fairy frost in the upper right hand part of the picture.
















My next major distraction was when I saw a lady buying some of this fabric -- love pink and roses! There were 1-1/2 yards left on the bolt; I bought them and then scurried around the store finding things to go with it.....


Found some pinks, greens, a very cool stripe and a sandy creamy color, so had to have some of those.....












Don't really know what I'll do with it, but this quilt was hanging in the classroom and I think I would like something along those lines. It would be very soft and pretty in the above fabrics, I think.....












And then, lastly but not leastly, what self-respecting owner of a company named Batts in the Attic could resist buying a layer cake and jelly roll of awesome Halloween fabrics??? I know there are a couple of books out featuring quilts that use these pre-cuts and they must be very popular books as whenever I look for them, the stores seem to be sold out. So that's on my "to look for" list!


Now I'll go pack for my two day Fluff & Stuff class at Sew N Sew in Glendora -- have a super weekend!

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Hi Desert Quilt Guild -- Ridgecrest CA (Part 3)

These are the last of the Show & Share quilts from the guild meeting -- this is a very prolific group! These are not all of the quilts that were shown; some of the ladies held up their quilts for a very short time and then folded them up before I could get a picture. No need to be modest -- everybody wants to see!








I took a second shot of this one so you could see those dramatic borders!
























I got a lot of pictures of Maryann holding the quilts -- sometimes the quiltmaker just hid behind her quilt! During the Friday/Saturday workshop, I got to spend some time chatting with Maryann; she is one of the funniest people on the planet!


A quilt and Christmas stockings....


And here's a lady with pink and purple streaks in her hair, just like me!

I am so glad that these pictures were on the memory card so you could see them -- this is a great guild! If you happen to be in the High Desert area, the Ridgecrest guild meets on the first Thursday of each month with workshops often taking place on Friday or Saturday or sometimes both! If you are interested in learning more about this guild, leave a comment after this post and I'll put you in touch with one of the guild members.

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