Saturday, October 31, 2015

Festival Recovery and Little More Than Naps

Yesterday's trip to the Houston Quilt Festival was fabulous, of course.  The one downside: one day cannot possibly be enough.  I really wanted to see more.  I did see about two/thirds of the quilts. Having been before, I knew I'd have to make some choices, so I started my race with a strategy.  I looked at the floor plan and made my decisions--"In Full Bloom," "National Parks," "In the American Tradition," "Modern Quilt Guild" and so many, many more!

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I just bought a double wedding ring die set from Accuquilt, so I was especially interested in how other quilters have played with the block.  Of course, I wanted to see all the really big winners (you'll be very impressed), and everything IQA sounded interesting.  Do you see the dilemma here?  



The only way to handle it, I've discovered from previous festivals, is to push myself through, eat a quick lunch and choose extra carefully in the afternoon.  We got a late start, had a later breakfast, and chose an even later lunch.  Apparently everyone planned to eat lunch at 1:00, because we stood in line for quite some time and had to wait for a small group to get up before we could get seats.  All in all it was truly enlightening and pleasant.  


We left late (why not since the whole day ran late?) and then decided to have gumbo at a niece's home, so our arrival was truly late.  Today I've been dragging around zombie-like but managed to visit the in-laws, do the Halloween shopping for the grandkids, and sew just a little.  It poured down rain the entire day, so there are still flowers sitting on the worktable waiting to go to the cemetery.  


Today has been rather long, even with the naps.  I say naps in plural because I tried to wake up and move several times, but it was really impossible.  I'm not sure how long I rested, but I am sure that it took most of the afternoon.  The sound of rain falling on the roof didn't hurt the situation nor did snuggling under my favorite quilt.  


As for the rest of the day: The in-laws are doing fine, the baskets and bags are all arranged for tomorrow's lunch when everyone should be here, and I'm close to finishing my customer's tie quilt. And that has been my weekend thus far. Not busy, but not boring and certainly the quilt festival was more than I had hoped for.  Enjoy the few pictures I've posted.  I am waiting till tomorrow to post more.  It feels wrong to post lots of pictures of a show that is still going on, so this is just a sneak peek.  


Happy Quilting,

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Pin It Weekly #125

International Quilt Festival
Houston 2015


October 29-November 1, 2015
George R. Brown Convention Center


Houston is coming quick, y'all!  I hope you have an opportunity to go and to meet you would be fantastic.  I love meeting quilters during lunch (which I've learned to do early).

So, to celebrate the big event, starting tomorrow, here are a few photos, mostly detailed, of some winning quilts from shows around the world and gleaned from around Pinterest, but you can find them on my "heart, quilts" board.


"Delightful Spirals" by Robbi Joy Eklow:

"Fragments of My Childhood Memories" by Grace Sim:

"Adagio" by Dianne S. Hire and Pat LaPierre:

"Purple Agave" Vicky Bohnhoff Anthem, Arizona:

"Struggling Upstream" Cherrie Hampton  Oklahoma City, Oklahoma:

"Plainly Not Simple" Denise Havlan Plainfield, Ilinoi:

"Hurricane" Janneke de Vries-Bodzinga Kollumerzwag, Friesland, The Netherlands:

"My Cottage Garden" Deborah Ferguson:

"Cracked Pot" Karen Fox and Angela Huffman:

"Adagio" Dianne S Hire and Pat LaPierre:

"Arcus" by Monica Johnstone at 2014 AQS Quilt Week in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Amazing color selections!:

Two color half square triangle quilt:

amazing robot quilt!! Pattern is Robot Riot by Don't look now designs:

Color Wheel:

Tokyo Quilt Show pt 2:

See ya there in two days!


October 29-November 1, 2015
George R. Brown Convention Center

Sunday, October 25, 2015

Sunday Quilt Inspiration: Architecture

Houses, schools, buildings.  Windows, doors, walls and floors.  Anything architecture applies.  

House quilt:

House Quilt:

Stars & Houses...yes, please!

House Quilted Hanging:

Image detail for -house for sandy above is the simplest house quilt block i:

Country Threads :: House Quilt Patterns:

Applique 'n Patch Quilting: Schoolhouse quilt:

Hillside Houses Quilt-A-Long May 2015 (with downloadable templates and planning sheet) | Pretty Little Quilts

Architectural quilt spotted at the 2012 Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, England.  Photo by Angels Hugas

Roos van Dijk - BOOOOOOOM! - CREATE * INSPIRE * COMMUNITY * ART * DESIGN * MUSIC * FILM * PHOTO * PROJECTS

Dubreuil.53rd Street West.2012.24x18 Heather Dubreuil interview: Contemporary art quilts

Baby quilt pattern, "Building Fun" by Geta Grama:  Romanian Quilt Studio

House of Sweet Dreams quilt, designed and made by Joanne Hillestad. Quilters Newsletter Presents Best Kids Quilts 2015.:

First Snow Full Quilt Quilt Along - you can get all the blocks here as they are posted.  Every Tuesday thru the end of october 2014

Happy Shacks, Black Cat creations:

https://flic.kr/p/dbTuiC | House Plants & Sea Grass completed 071612 | Currently on tour.:

Houses Mini Quilt Along part 4:

Let's begin sewing...: House Bee Block #houseblock:

Whimsical Quilt Patterns | Home Sweet Home: 5 House Quilt Patterns to Try

America the Beautiful at Coal Creek Indiana:

Saturday, October 24, 2015

Whew! Quilting Is Hard Work

Really, it is!  My back is very sore but that should not surprise me since I quilted a whole quilt today.  Thank goodness that quilt is only about 50 inches square.  Any larger and I would not have made it.


Can you tell what it is?  Here are a couple of hints: it's really heavy, it's not the usual cotton, and it's got some very unusual colors and design.  


I'm in the middle of making a Dresden Plate tie quilt for a customer.  I actually began this project last weekend, but I did not get very far.


I was above my head in measuring and making the ties fit the quilt. Today my darling husband came in and did the math. It turns out that the math wasn't so hard.  Apparently I was on the right path but stopped too soon.


This is one of those times that I'm really grateful that I have such a large work table.  I spread the gray backing down on the table, found the centers on both side, and started laying ties down.  We did lots of adjusting to get the points even, and I had to trim down the center quite a bit, but in the end it worked out.



Then I loaded the long-arm and got busy.  It was difficult stitching down the ties, but once those were finished, the rest went quickly. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get to trim the edges, prepare and sew on the binding, then just close up the center.  It would be nice to have this project finished before we leave for Houston later in the week.  
Are you coming to Houston?  

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Pin It Weekly #124

Ready to share your pins?  It's that part of the week!  I'm not sure that I'd say App It was a success, but it was fun and a few folks did add their ideas. Thanks to everyone who participated!  We'll do it again.
Rachel from Let's Begin Sewing
Rachel, at Let's Begin Sewing, posted some of the handwork she has been doing lately.  It reminds me quite a bit of Kaja's work over at Sew Slowly.  There's something about these beautiful stitches that speak to me.  I think it may be the idea that I could, indeed, do something like this.  
Kaja's denim work at Sew Slowly
What it has gotten me into doing is looking at lots of Sashiko on Pinterest.  I should probably start a board, but for some reason I've ended up following links and reading lots of articles on the types, history and how to's about Sashiko.
wabi sabi    Quilting with stitches and multiple layers of fabric without any wadding/batting.:
So, really, all I have to share are the some of the pins I found with a quick search.  But be warned: it's a bit addicting and you find yourself going down the rabbit-hole.  I came out about an hour and a half later, knowing all sorts of things about this type of quilting.  I feel a bit obligated to do something with all this knowledge!

Sashiko; Japanese hand stitching:

junko oki:

Lovely thoughtful ruminative blog on the peacefulness of simple stitching.:

Sashiko, puntada corriente, puntada corriente:

kate-pickard-not-everything-is-black-and-white-lgI love Victoria Gertenbach's big quilting stitches! Like she says... A Stitch a Day Keeps the Doctor Away!


Jenny K Lyon - Poppies 55"x31":

Sashiko Quilting may have to learn to do this one day....stunning!:

Sashiko 1-11 - I like that this one looks like arrowheads.  Cute for a border.:

A Quilt For The Bun | Young House Love / hand-stitched, stripey quilt

Love this - thinking patching and hand stitching as a feature for altered clothing ...Extreme Mending (Uber Boro):

love her body of work.  knew it was her immediately:

Amazon.com: Japanese Country Quilting: Sashiko Patterns and:

Sri | A Wonderfully Sashiko Stitched Coverlet: Piece Constructed

Wide range of designs that use only the running stitch: