winners circle - NQA (3)

These last few pics below are my last from

The NQA show that was in central Ohio last weekend...

All of the quilts in the show were wonderful.

I know that there is/are

certain criteria that need be met

to be chosen "a winner" in any quilt show.

But, I'm here to tell you

that even though I'm not qualified to be a judge,

all of the entrants and their quilts

were winners in my book!!

Some of The Winner's Circle:

Small Quilts - Mixed Technique:

 

Old Glory by Judy Huffman, maker & quilter



Small Quilts-appliqued:

Red & Green Revisited by Teri Henderson Tope, maker & quilter

Large Quilts - Pieced:

America, Let it Shine
by Sherry Reynolds
an original design.

 

This quilt was made as a tribute to
America's foundations and values. 
The quilt had stitching that included:
 part of the Gettysburg Address,
Preamble to the Constitution,
and Declaration of Independence.
The maker also embellished it with 5,121 Swavrski crystals -
that number represents the following:
 the number of words in the original Constitution (4543),
the words in the Star Spangled Banner (312),
the words in the Pledge of Allegiance (31),
and the 235 years America has been a country.
She also had symbolism in the number of points in the outside blue compass points - 13 for the original colonies.  I'm sure that there was more, but that's what I can remember :) 



the back of "America Let it Shine"

This winner was in the

Small Quilts - Mixed Technique category:

Red Letter Daze
by Janet Stone - maker and Quilter
She was inspired by cross stitch Quaker samplers.
The blocks were pieced or appliqued,
bound, and then appliqued onto the background.
Alphabet and scrolls were free-motion embroidered.

OK - so this last quilt, "Red Letter Daze", was of particular interest to me...
did you notice the statement that I made bold? 
She did Hot Pad Blocks!
and then appliqued them onto a background!!!
HOT PAD BLOCKS!!! 
Similar to the Civil War quilts and their Hot Pad block quilts! 
I would have liked to have been able to talk to Ms. Stone at the show - not only about all of the history she put into her quilt, but also her inspiration in the way that she finished it.

Now, I'll have to start making better Hot Pads! :)

quilts through my camera lens... NQA (2)

Sharing more pics from my trips to the

National Quilting Association show

that was in Columbus, Ohio last weekend.

To start, there was this beautiful whole cloth:

Hearts and Flowers by Terri Doyle
adapted from Elise Campbell's hand quilting patterns

Then there were the Crazies... it was difficult to get a pic without
people in front of these beauties, so I only have this one:
 

Gerlinde Hruzek maker & quilter;
all done by hand: embroidery, beading, broderie perse, quilting,
and most of the piecing

More applique!


"Mi Amor" by Margarete Heinish
done as a gift for D and S-I-L's 25th anniversary

This was also hard to get a complete picture, as there were always peeps up close and looking at the wonderful hand-applique and hand-embroidery.
(Do you think we can get Margarete to adopt us and make us this quilt??!)


a shot across the middle of the quilt, "Mi Amor"

A close-up of the rose wreath on "Mi Amor"

And then there was more hand-applique:


"My" Little Brown Bird
hand-appliqued and hand-quilted by Angie Witting,
pattern by Margaret Docherty.
(This is the left side of the quilt)

"My" Little Brown Bird,
right side

Lastly for today, I hope I have this one right...
I finally snapped a pic of the whole 8 panel quilt without someone standing/walking in front of it, BUT
I didn't get a shot of the entry tag...
If anyone else got a shot of this or you know the entrants, please let me know so I can give proper credit.


The Amazing Eight
including Cindy Neville - maker,
Dana Lynch - quilter.
One photo, 8 women, 2 continents, lifelong friendship.

So, that's all for today, folks...
I'm off to do some binding work on a hexagon quilt!
Tomorrow I'll share some of the "Winner's Circle" pics.

Where my quilting heart lies... NQA (1)

The NQA Show - (National Quilting Association)

was in Columbus, Ohio this past weekend!!!

I was able to attend a couple of times,

and I took some pics,

so I thought I share.

There was amazing talent represented.

Looking back, after the show was over,

I realized that most of my pics were of

hand-appliqued or hand-embroidered quilts.

Most were also machine-pieced and machine-quilted.

Guess you can tell where my quilting heart lies...

hand-applique, hand-embroidery,

and quilting!

These pictures were taken as I walked around,

so there's no category orderliness -

which is also how I work -

jumping around with no category orderliness :)



a "Bunny Hill" Pattern: "A Tisket A Tasket"
made by Carol Hainen, quilted by Jane Volters

Marty Rigo - quilter, Penny Dixon - maker.
A Crabapple Hill Studio pattern



Fall'n Star
by Jan Mathews - maker, Brandy Rice - quilter.
J. Niemeyer's Hawaiian Star pattern.

 

And check out the stitching on the back of this Fall'n Star!!!



This next one looked like it was all reverse applique, 196 blocks, all different, and she finished it on an Alaskan cruise, hence the name:

Northwest Passage
made by Diane Johnston, quilted by Cory Allender.
pattern "Dutch Treat" by Judy Garden.

and a little of the back of Northwest Passage
to show the quilting

 The next quilt was in the Scrap category,
and it had over 150 different reproduction fabrics!!! 
And, what's better than stars?? 
In my book, not much.
Unless it's STARS
MADE WITH OVER 150 DIFFERENT REPRO FABRICS!!!

Stellar Legacy
made and quilted by Diane Livezey
Adaptation from a Sue Gorman book - Legacies of Love

More quilts from the NQA show later, as I'm off to do some meandering...

sharing & meanderings

Those BIG quilts that I mentioned last week
I got returned to a friend/customer
so I wanted to share her finishes...
Joell always a great job in her piecing - no lumps, creases, points cut off - nothing!
It's always a pleasure when I get to meander across her flimsies.
The first was a king-sized beauty:

 I love all of the patterns made by her color choices in the one above.
The border had a circle-y, swirly motif with birds and flowers  tossed in,
so I did my meandering with a circle-within-circle quilting design that echoed the feeling of the border motif.  I guess I didn't take a close-up of the quilting I did, so hopefully you can see it in the bottom left-hand corner of the picture.

Then, there was this one:

 It wasn't quite king-sized, done in thirties fabrics.  She had some old Dresden blocks that were already hand-pieced, but I don't think she did those herself.  I think this is the one that she put borders on and I got to quilt, and then she will bind and it's going to her Mom's house to live.
I did take a close-up pic of this one - I used King Tut-40 weight in #971 white linen for the meandering...

I quilted around the outside of the Dresden plates & cross-hatched the centers.  Then in the open blocks, I replicated with free-motion the Dresden plate- same design, then did a bigger cross hatch across the piecing of the blocks.  In the outside border I did a "ladder" type stitching pattern.  I really love this one - but since it's going to Joell's Mom's, I guess I won't pester her about it staying here :).

I've had a few questions about my quilting, so here are a few answers:

• Everything I quilt is free-motion.  That means it's all my hands, guiding the stitching line, so it's not computer-generated-perfect, but that's why I like it, I guess.  And, to me, that is what I enjoy about free motion quilting by machine - I can let my creativity loose when I press the start button and the needle starts stitching!
• The machine is a HandiQuilter Fusion, 24" bed with the Studio frame and table so it's always set up king-sized.
• I share the machine with a friend.  Her name also starts with the letter D, hence the name of our machine is "Big DD".  The "big" is because we had another HQ machine but we up-graded, and this is a bigger model.  The sharing of a machine thing:  The friend, "D" and I get along wonderfully; Big DD lives at my house, and "D" and I always let each other know if we're going to be using/needing the machine, so it's available to each of us as needed.
• I almost always use the King Tut threads - 40 weight, and I love the variegated colors, so if the customer says it's o.k., then that's what I use.  King Tut has so many color choices, so that's what I stock.
• If I supply the batting, I use Heirloom by Hobbs - 100 % cotton, unbleached.  I like how it stitches, and I love how it shrinks just a little when it's washed up.

OK- I should get off of here - I'm going to the NQA show that's in Columbus this weekend, and I have stuff I should be doing first!  (p.s. click on the NQA link underlined above, and there's a list of the winning quilts already!!!)

Hope your week is going well -
and Happy Stitching!

quilting & a bow tie quilt

Among other things,
I have been quilting this past week...

though I can't share a couple of the finishes (:both big-'uns:),

as the owner doesn't have them back in her hands yet. 

But, I do have a picture of a baby quilt that I got to quilt.

A mom, daughter and daughter-in-law got together and

whipped stitched up a gifty baby quilt, pronto...

they made the origami or folded bow ties (see my tutorial by clicking here)

and it's just baby-girl-licious in lilacs and pale green polka dots.

Makes me want to go make one in those colors.

The quilt, not the baby :)

 Here's a closer view of those little bow ties:

Aren't they just the cutest?

I'm still stitching away on my blue bow tie blocks, and

I have a whole little basket full of them:

Last count: 200 blue bow tie blocks

(I think that I have

every blue reproduction fabric

from each of the local quilt shops,

so last time I visited a not so local shop,

I picked up a few more blues for making more bow ties:

These little folded bow ties are just so fast & easy to make up,

and I've warned this before, but it needs repeating:

very addictive!

So, off to bed tonight,

ooops, guess it's already turned to early a.m....

I have more quilting to do today,

AND a lunch date!:  I get to meet up with a friend

that worked with me at the

closed AIS Quilt Shop.

OH, and I might have signed up for a certain b.o.w....

more on that later.

What are you working on lately???