9 posts tagged “quilt show”
You can view the carnage here.
Yup, it's time to come up with my New Year's Resolution once again. I did a pretty darn good job of working on my 2008 resolution. Good enough that I don't feel the need to stretch the resolution out for another year, though I will keep working on it.
So what have I chosen for 2009? I've decided to work on something completely (OK, only nearly so) selfish. I'm going to finish 12 quilts this year just for me. Quilts that I make as gifts or on commission don't count. These 12 quilts must be mine. I have not yet picked them all out, but I do have several that I know I would like to get done this year. They are all in various stages of construction.
[Edit: items crossed out have been accomplished since the original posting]
The List:
1. *Lone Star using 2008 shop hop fabric -- finish purchasing fabric, finish designing, piece, quilt, bind
2. *Hawaiian Koi block swap -- quilt, bind
3. *Edmond Quilt Guild block of the month -- finish piecing and appliqueing, quilt, bind
4. Front Porch stars -- quilt, bind
5. *Starry Night in May -- quilt, bind
6. The Mother Road -- quilt, bind
7. Weather Vane -- quilt, bind
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
*quilts that I want to have done in time for the 2009 COQG quilt show.
I'll leave the rest of the slots open for now. I have more than enough quilts sitting on the shelf here in my studio just waiting to be quilted to fill up the remaining slots. But they may or may not be the ones I choose. And, honestly, my list of UFO's probably stretches into the triple digits (I count the ones that only exist in my mind). Only time will tell.
P.S. I have every intention of posting updates through the year so that we can all check on my progress! 8:-)
This weekend is our county fair. I entered my usual 4 quilts (two large, two wall hangings). This year I only got three ribbons. Two blue (first place) and one white (third place). But a friend of mine also won a blue ribbon with a quilt that I had quilted for her. Hooray for our team!
On a side note: I did manage to walk away with a picture of John and me together. Not all that great a shot of me, but very good of John.
Today my sister and I drove up to Tulsa for the quilt show. It was well worth the small fortune it cost me in gas. As soon as we got to the show I started running into people I know including Darcy. She promptly joined up with us and the three of us stayed together until it was time to come back home.
At the show I was quite surprised to see that one of the entries was a quilt that I had quilted this past winter. And it took 2nd place in its category!
It was the first quilt I had done for this customer. I now doubt that it will be the last. Perhaps I will also pick up a few more customers in the Tulsa area.
I picked up a packet of hand dyed fabrics that will have to go on the shelf until after my book is done. If there is a second book (which will be fractals) I can use it then.
Darcy introduced me to several vendors that she does business with. They are anxiously awaiting the arrival of my book.
After leaving the quilt show we went out to lunch and then to a new quilt shop in the area. It was nice, but I was good and only spent a little money there.
Then it was time to take Darcy back to her car and head home. We stopped at the first gas station on the turnpike to buy a coke and pee. They had these signs on the restroom doors.
This weekend I took off with my publisher to vend at a quilt show in Broken Arrow, OK. I entered 6 quilts in the show, but as it was not judged I came home with no ribbons. That's all right. I made some good business contacts. I entered two of my fracture quilts into the show. Several of the visitors to the show specifically asked the local shop owner if she would be offering any classes in my fracturing technique. After the first of the year I will most likely be teaching some classes at her shop and in Chandler.
Several quilters also showed an interest in my when they came by our booth and discovered that I had machine quilted many of the quilts in the show. They recognized my name both because they had been admiring some of the quilts I entered and some of the ones my publisher had entered (I do her quilting for her). I gave out many business cards. Perhaps I'll get some additional customers.
Overall it was a great weekend. I got out of town for a couple of days, my husband got to have the house to himself for a couple of days, and it didn't cost me a dime (well, except for all that fabric I bought!).
--On a side note: This morning I had an email from someone with the quilt guild in Hutchison, KS. They're interested in having me come up there to do a guild program and workshop. I'd best get my little self organized!!!
OK, I know too much bragging gets old. I'm really trying to control myself but this weekend's results played right into the hand of my upcoming plans. You see, I'm now in the works to write a book on a new piecing technique I've been developing. At the quilt show I entered this weekend the two quilts that used this technique placed first and second in their categories.
The cat quilt has already been published in a book and will be hanging in the Quilters' Resource booth at Fall Market the end of October. The tentative release date for my book is January 1, 2009. That's not nearly as far away as it seems. I'd best go get busy!
Show us a photo that requires an explanation.
Let me start by saying that in spite of the blue ribbon you see on the right hand side of the image there is no such thing as a good picture of this quilt. In spite of the official name you see attached to the photo I refer to this as my abomination of a butterfly quilt. Why, you ask, did I make it? Well, there's why the picture requires an explanation. It's a long one so go grab a snack and a drink, I'll wait......
Last summer my muse took a business trip to Thailand. I suggested that while he was there (if and only if the opportunity should arise) it would be nice if he purchased some fabric for me. I gave him a budget and very limited instructions--he was to buy what he liked and I would figure out how to use it after it arrived. He found fabric. He seemed quite pleased with himself regarding his purchases. A couple of weeks after he arrived back in the states I received a box in the mail. Now, he had told me that my fabric took up more room in his suitcase than all the other things he bought for people added together so I was expecting a pretty good pile of fabric. The box on my front porch was smaller than I had expected. Hmm, I thought, he must have packed it in there pretty tight. I picked up the box. It felt like it was empty. Something was very wrong here. I went into the house and opened the box. The first thing I saw was a hand written note, "Your $100 was well spent." There must be something good under that note........When I lifted it up I saw a hideously awful piece of fabric. It was pink, gray, and white. Looked like someone had cleaned off a paint brush on it. And the quality of the greige goods was abysmal at best. Surely it was a mistake. I lifted it up to find yet another horrible piece of fabric underneath. This one was an ombre stripe of turquoise and olive green with an Asian looking medallion design printed over it in very dark brown. Something that looked usable, but the greige goods were worse than the first piece. I was beginning to feel like I'd made a mistake in allowing him to shop for me. How could I have misjudged him so? The next one was a light blue fabric with tiny dark blue flowers all over it. Very nondescript, but serviceable. Greige goods looked much better until I touched it.....polyester! By now I'm really getting very disappointed. The last piece was a dark brown background with a large scale floral design (the one you see used in the quilt above). Again, it looked OK until I picked it up. Not only was it polyester, it was completely shear and totally unstable. By now I've looked back at the note and started asking myself "My money was well spent on what? Women and liquor? It sure isn't in the box. I could have done better at Wal-Mart for less than $20!" So I started inspecting the fabric closely. Surely this is a joke. His judgement can't be that bad. I checked all the selvages for manufacturers marks. Nothing. No clue as to where this fabric came from. On the off chance it wasn't a joke I figured I'd best come up with something nice to say about each piece. It wasn't easy. The brown one was actually the easiest. If I could figure out a way to stabilize the fabric I had a plan for it (not exactly what you see above, but similar). After eating dinner and mulling over my answers with my husband I made the phone call:
Me: "I got your box today."
Muse: "And what did you think of it?"
Me: "Well, I know what I'm going to do with one of the pieces."
Muse: "Really? And what is that?"
So I start to explain my plan.
Muse: "You're kidding. Right?"
Me: "No." And, like a fool, I tried to continue my explanation.
Muse: "Please tell me you're kidding."
Me: "Why?"
Muse: "I didn't buy that fabric in Thailand."
Me: "And just where did you buy it?"
Muse: in a very tiny voice "Wal-mart."
Me: "Oh thank goodness!!!"
A couple of weeks later I got the real fabric. It's absolutely beautiful. But in the mean time I now felt compelled to make a quilt from the hideous brown fabric. It started out simple enough. It was just supposed to be the ugly brown fabric appliqued onto the background, but when I finished it looked really boring against the nice fabrics from my shop. I thought perhaps a little quilting with fancy threads (something you can't see at all in this picture) would spark it up. When one of my friends looked at it she said I needed to applique some butterflies onto it. So I did. And hand quilted a few more on it with mylar thread. Very pretty. But it was still dull. So I started machine quilting it. I went to the store to look for some green metallic thread that would match the butterfly on the lower left. Didn't find that, but did find some iron on appliques. Since the center didn't piece together as well as it should have I thought that might be just the ticket to cover the boo boo. It was. But when I backed away from it my eyes went right straight to the center and stayed there. So I spent an entire day off traveling around the city looking for more appliques and laces to add to the quilt. Spent a whole afternoon working on that garland in the upper left corner. And the hot fix crystals. They're everywhere. But they don't show in the photo either. It was looking better, but it still wasn't done.
The next weekend my husband and I went down to Canton, Texas for the flea market. I was on the hunt for more stuff to add to the quilt. Got those netting and wire butterflies in the lower left and upper right corners. Also picked up a few brooches. The quilt now weighs a ton and clunks when you set it down on a hard surface. It was finally pretty much gaudy enough to say "I'm done!" So I entered it in a quilt show. It took first place in it's category. That pretty blue ribbon came with a check for $100. Don't these judges know a joke when they see one? About a month ago it was in another quilt show. Received and Honorable Mention. Later this month it goes to the state fair. I tend to win more than my fair share of blue ribbons there.....
Now I just have one question. Who's the joke on? Me? My muse? The show judges?
Yup, that's me. Just returned from the awards ceremony for my local guild's show. We were allowed to enter up to 5 quilts each and I entered the maximum being very careful to place each one in a separate category to maximize my chances at blue ribbons. I used to enter shows just for the opportunity to see my quilts hanging in public and then when I started winning a few ribbons my muse pestered the crap out of me until I hung them up my shop where everyone could see them. With the passage of time the percentage of blue ribbons I win has been steadily increasing with a nice little hat trick being garnered at last year's state fair.
On Friday I discovered that the show categories had been rearranged so that I now have two quilts in the same category. I was rather miffed that this had been done. Upon further reflection I decided that my lust for ribbons has gotten out of hand and I really need to lower my expectations. I've spent the last few days trying to convince myself that I didn't care if I won any or not. Things were going very well until I got home from work today and found a message on my answering machine from the show chairman wanting to be sure I attended the ceremony tonight. Why would she call if I hadn't won something really good?
As they went through the categories handing out the prizes I became more and more dejected. Of the five quilts entered three received honorable mention and one got first place. I should have been thrilled, but I wasn't. I tried to console myself with the knowledge that in addition to my quilts a good friend of mine won second place in one of the categories with a quilt that I quilted for her.
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