Thursday, October 30, 2014

Quilt Festival 2014

Last night was the first chance I had to see the quilts -- this is a milestone anniversary for this event and they did it up right!






The highlight for me was getting to see, in person, the entire red and white quilt exhibit. I've seen pictures in magazines and blogs, but it's just not the same....





Another quilt I especially enjoyed is "Wright Iron Roses" by Jaynette Huff. That was the entire description, so I can't tell you any more about it other than how beautiful it is!







"Five Bar Blues" by Diane Loomis of Sudbury MA was inspired by the traditional Amish quilt pattern. The quilting knocked my socks off!





Another example of awesome machine quilting, "Solar Flares" by Judy Madsen of St. George UT. Judy said her design idea came from Libby Lehman's Ohio Star block.



I was able to take a stroll (it was so crowded last night, "stroll" is probably moving faster than I was really going) though part of the vendor mall. This quilt was displayed on the outside of one of the booths; the booth itself was so crowded I didn't get close enough to see the name of the vendor. I was very impressed with the quilting and how the quilter sectioned out and stitched parts of the quilt background as units. Very effective! I'll try to get back there over the next couple of days, remembering approximately what row it was in, and get the name of the booth where this was displayed.

Today classes and Festival are in full swing; I'm up in the Brother Sewing Lounge helping people with their projects. Room 361D if you want to come for a visit!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Houston TX

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Now that Quilt Market is Over

Like all of the Quilt Markets that I have attended, this was hectic and busy -- I met some shop owners who were new to me and got to reconnect with lots of friends who love sewing as much as I do to see what they were impressed by and were buying for their stores.

I was hearing a lot about purses and tote bags and tea towels -- things that customers can make fairly quickly -- but you know, I'm all about the quilts!






My very favorite booth was Lunch Box Quilts and Angie Stevenson's new digitized embroidery pattern for the vintage sewing quilts. Love Angie's stuff and this one is no exception! My favorite up to now has been her Ooh La La quilt that features French motifs, including an Eiffel tower (and a poodle!), but I like this new one just as much. The smaller one will fit perfectly on an empty wall in my sewing room, so I plan to buy this collection of digitized designs as soon as it hits my local quilt shop.

Festival will start today with preview night and then opens for the full day starting tomorrow. I'm up in the classroom area -- in 361D, if you'd like to come up and visit -- but I'm going to try to make it down to Festival once in a while to see all the excitement and to get a better look at the quilts.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Houston TX

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Fan Appreciation Day!

Love it when Craftsy has a sale! I just downloaded "Thread Savvy: Stitch Flawlessly With Any Thread" by Lindee Goodall, so we know what I'll be watching during halftime today and on my idle evenings this week! Here's a link to the savings: http://www.craftsy.com/ext/PaulaReid_holiday I think you have to use a link from an instructor's media to get this savings. Enjoy! P

BERNINA Sewing & Design, Las Cruces NM (Part 3)

Yesterday I taught my "Beyond the Basics" class; since a number of people in the class had taken Fluff & Stuff, but not Feather Frenzy, I did a feather review before we got into the design and background fill work.


This was my whiteboard drawing showing all the various things we were dong in class. And these are what everyone came up with, or at least the ones that I got photos of:


Carol -- This is only part of her piece, but I like what's going on there as a decorative fill between the circle and the outer points. It's going to look very Southwest. She's going to draw in all of the straight lines between the points and the circle, but use them as pivot points so that the center zigzag will be open, but the lines on either side, up and down, will be stitched. I want to play with this because I really like the look!




Maridee (not sure of spelling, but I've got the pronunciation down), started with squiggly lines and then started filling in areas. Liking the detail work here. Amazing how great muslin can look!




Terry used a pretty pink Floriani metallic thread in her bobbin and was working from the reverse side of the piece. Once we talked about tension settings as they related to metallic thread and she made the appropriate adjustments, her work just coasted right along. A little harder to see because of the strong shading in this batik, but worth taking a close look at.




Mary -- Playing with background fills and various threads to see how they look.




Vivien wanted to learn pebbles and feathers and once she was shown how, she just went for it! She was one of three ladies who were with me the whole three days -- brave souls!

Sometimes as I wander around this shop, I flatter myself that Marsha buys just for me. That's how much I like everything. It's just because she and I like a lot of the very same things....Now -- what I bought:



A pattern that I thought was really cute for holiday time; I think it would be really pretty using green scraps (maybe some with gold metallic in them?) on a white background.





The book has a lot of great ideas for using panels in cute ways; like the panel, but don't know if it's destined for a quilt or maybe placemats. I got enough to make 8 in case I decide to go that route.


I have a few of the books using jelly rolls, charm packs and other pre-cuts written by the Lintott's. They always have fresh, new ideas -- even when the patterns are very traditional, like in this book, Pam & Nicky seem to just spice them up and make the quilts more modern and appealing.





This is the pattern I chose for all those yellow & grey prints. I got a fat quarter of each and then Marsha pulled the perfect background fabric. I love this pattern because it will give me lots of negative space to practice what I learned from Angela Walters' Craftsy class "Quilting Negative Space".

That emptied out the box that's following me home! Now to put it all back in so that it will be on its merry way to me next week.

Not that I'll be home to open it! I'm leaving for Phoenix tomorrow to teach at Mulqueen's Sewing Center in Mesa AZ. Teaching Fluff & Stuff on Tuesday and Wednesday and Feather Frenzy on Thursday and then flying out to Houston for Market and Festival. Will I see you there?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Las Cruces NM

Saturday, October 18, 2014

BERNINA Sewing & Design, Las Cruces NM (Part 2)

In the last post, I told you that the larger quilts were on the walls of the classroom. I would be remiss if I didn't show some of them to you!

















And here's Jill at the cutting table and behind her all the luscious fabric that I'm trying to keep my hands off of....not really, as you'll see in the next pic....





I am really liking modern quilts with lots of space for quilting, particularly since I viewed Craftsy's "Quilting Negative Space" with Angela Walters. These grey and yellow prints just intrigue me -- think I could make a modern quilt using shapes of all of these prints on a neutral background, leaving me lots of space for quilting:





I didn't think that grey and yellow would be my thing, but I love these!

What do you think?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Las Cruces NM

Friday, October 17, 2014

BERNINA Sewing & Design




I love, love, love this shop! I think this is the fifth time I have taught here and every time I start shopping and end up with a box to follow me home with all kinds of good stuff! Feasting my eyes on all the samples and color while shopping is an extra added bonus.

Of course, the Halloween block of the month quilt on the classroom wall immediately caught my eye. As I'm teaching my Fluff & Stuff class, my mind keeps straying to this quilt and how I might quilt it.





The owner of BERNINA Sewing & Design, Marsha Cowan, said to me that if she had a bigger store she would carry more thread....????? Look at all the thread she has in THIS one!





It's fun to look at all the samples on the walls. Larger quilts are displayed in the classroom, but above the fixtures are a lot of smaller, quick projects. Perfect when you need a gift right away or if you feel like starting something new that you'll actually finish! LOL....ummm, that probably means that I have a lot of UFO's. Maybe I'm revealing too much personal information here!

Yesterday was Day 1 of Fluff & Stuff, today is Day 2. I have 9 students in my class spanning varying levels of machine quilting experience from beginner who has never quilted to people who have done a lot of straight stitch quilting and a bit of free motion. They had good questions and they all did great work yesterday -- looking forward to today!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Las Cruces NM

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Craftsy's Quilter Appreciation Day

One of the benefits of traveling is that I usually have a bit of time at the end of the day in my hotel room. Me and my iPad.....so I've found some ways to use that time to learn some good stuff that can make my quilting and teaching better.

One of these is the Craftsy array of quilting classes. Even though my local quilting guild brings in some great national teachers, I hardly ever get the time to actually go and take a class when they're in town. Or I'm out of town. So I was excited when I took my first Craftsy class and realized how easy it was to buy the class and watch it whenever I had some time, whether that's in an airport or a hotel room or a restaurant while dining alone. And that the class is mine for life!

Today is Craftsy's Quilter Appreciation Day -- there are selected classes available at up to 50% off today only. To take advantage of this offer, go to http://www.craftsy.com/ext/PaulaReid.holiday

Unfortunately, my technological sophistication does not extend to being able to make a link when I'm using my iPad, but if you cut and paste the link, it will take you directly to the sale page....

Meanwhile, I'm in Las Cruces NM, one of the most beautiful spots in the country, teaching a couple of classes at BERNINA Quilting & Design Center. The owner, Marsha, and I were talking yesterday and we think this is my fifth time teaching here, usually on this same weekend when the fall weather is just gorgeous. This is a fun, energetic shop with lots of quilts on the walls and customers in the door, so I'll post some pictures within the next day or so!


Meanwhile, I'm just getting over vacation mode -- Dan and I took a 7 night cruise of the fall foliage scenery in Maine and eastern Canada last week and just got home Monday night. (That gave me one day at home to unpack, run to the dry cleaners, do laundry and re-pack!) This was one of the pictures I took from the wine bar on Deck 6 as we left Portland ME Saturday night on our way to Boston. Gorgeous! Although Dan did give me a lot of flak about booking a cruise for the color blind guy to see the changing of the leaves!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Las Cruces NM

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