Category Archives: quilt show

Sunday Stash

I remember I used to write lots of these posts. There was a link up at Mollie Sparkle’s blog and people would share the newest fabrics they were working with. Mine were usually fabrics I had thrifted. Once I had the shop those posts ended for obvious reasons. Even now that the shop has closed, I have sooooo much (too much) fabric so I rarely buy any.

But, there is always a but, yesterday I was at a tiny quilt show with my friend Annette. It was held in a church and the quilts were displayed by laying them over the pews. It was quaint but I can’t say I am a huge fan of this sort of display. For one thing, the viewer cannot step back and see the whole quilt. So many quilts look best from a few feet back. Because the church was small, many of the quilts were folded and then draped over the pew. This meant we only saw half of the quilt. This doesn’t allow for looking at secondary patterns or the effect of the outer quilt on the center. It was sort of frustrating. Anyway, it was fun because you know….. a quilt show is always fun. Plus they had a little table of home baked treats and a great shopping section. Annette and I found a number of things we liked.

There were loads of books for $1.00 each. I picked up two that are different from most in my library of quilt books. But they have some really cute projects in them. The Remembering Adelia book contains journal entries from a young woman during the Civil War. I love this sort of thing. Life is so easy now. Women worked all day, every day back then. The journal entries sucked me in and I enjoyed reading most of it yesterday when I got home.

The Folk Art Quilts book has some really fun projects. I love the whimsical critters on these two pages and plan to make something with them. This is way out of what normally appeals to me but I am looking forward to this.

The same book also maps out how to make the letters of the alphabet which will come in handy some day. I know this isn’t rocket science but it is nice to have it mapped out visually and then just adjust the size of the squares to get the correct size letter block.

I also picked up two containers for thread. I have had my thread hanging on a wooden rack but it is poorly placed in my sewing space and I was constantly knocking thread off the pegs. I sorted thread and put what I could fit in these bins. The left bin contains the shiny Sulky threads as well as my hand stitching threads. On the right is a large portion of my standard threads.

Unfortunately my some spools are too big for these bins. Since I was in the mood, I reorganized some of the drawers in a bin under my sewing table. This allowed me to put the Glide spools and the Connecting Thread spools in a drawer. I still have a small number of Aurifil threads that I haven’t found a good space for but I am sure it will work out.

It is much easier to see what I have now. This exercise forced me to look at all of the thread I have. Is it too much? Yes, yes it is. How I acquired all of this is a wonder!

This little stack of fabric is the extent of fabric purchased. I really wanted that little cheddar yellow check because it will work in some of those silly animal blocks I want to make. The others look good with it and should work with the project.

Quilt shows are the best. It always makes me itch to get back home and head to the sewing room! (Which is exactly what I did)!

My sweet girls have been on vacation with their parents all week. We are dog sitting in their absence. From what I have heard and the pictures seen, they are having a wonderful time. It is a great finale to their summer. We get to see them next weekend for some family time. Happy Sunday all of you!!

Procrastination Situation

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Whenever there is a post on social media asking for a quilters most favorite or least favorite part of quilting, the answer for my least favorite is immediate and passionate. I really dislike basting quilts. There is so much riding on it. The need for a perfectly flat backing, a well prepped quilt top, the perfect amount of pins (I haven’t yet tried spray basting), no secret folds or wrinkles – ugh! It is more than I can stand. This is where I start to procrastinate. I know I am not alone. This is clear by the fact that the majority of quilters have any number of quilt tops that are unfinished, waiting to be basted and quilted. I don’t mind the quilting process and I usually enjoy binding a quilt. It is just the basting.

This is why I found myself in my sewing room this week starting a new project. Because really I should be basting and quilting my 2023 Positivity quilt. The top is finished and it is adorable (if I do say so myself). But I need to fuss around and create a backing and then…… baste it. I would venture a guess that someone could make a successful side gig offering to baste quilts for people like me. There are loads of us. Off I went to make something else, anything else, so I wouldn’t have to baste the quilt.

Last week while wandering the local quilt show (where I enjoyed that Sinbonnet Sue quilt) I spent more than a few minutes checking out the country store portion of the show. I love looking through the fabrics and other items quilters are selling. There was a bundle of charm squares that had been put together by a quilter. It was from a variety of lines and looked like leftovers from charm packs they had used. I liked the colors and knew it would be cute to make something with them. (I am proud to say this is the only purchase I made! I dug deep and restrained myself from buying anything else).

On Sunday I found myself in the sewing room looking for something to work on, anything that didn’t require basting. There were those cute charm squares sitting there, calling to me. “Choose us, choose us. You’ll have days of fun before any basting is required.” Sounded like a grand idea to me. I poked around on my Pinterest boards and decided to make a quilt similar to one I had pinned some time ago.

I looked through the solid green fabrics on the shelf and chose one to put on one corner of each charm square. Then I stitched them into a four patch. Because of my limited number of charms, I put a black border on them using the same green for cornerstones. (True confession time – I didn’t keep the little triangles from the stitch/flip on the corners. I know I should have, it was reckless of me, but I tossed them. Mia culpa.)

With the twelve blocks and the sashing, the quilt was fairly small. First I added another narrow border of the green (using almost all I had of this fabric) and then added a wider black border with green cornerstones. But it was still too small.

Last night I put out an alert – all the way from Washington state to Minnesota. Isn’t technology the best?? Texting Wendy at Pieceful Thoughts, I asked for some ideas. After sending pictures of a variety of fabrics to her, it was agreed that a narrow border of this denim blue dotted fabric would be cute with another black border. I used cornerstones again for consistency.

TaDaa! Another quilt top is finished. Another quilt top is whispering ‘finish me, baste me, don’t let me sit here forever.’ This puts me at four quilt tops needing to be basted and one that is in the midst of being quilted yet no where near finished. It is a vicious, never-ending cycle. Help!!! Help me!!!

Local Quilt Show Fun

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Over the weekend I enjoyed wandering through a quilt show hosted by the local guild, West Sound Quilters. This is the second time I have gone to their show. This show is fairly small and non-juried. The people are really warm and welcoming. Like many shows, there is the opportunity to vote for the Viewer’s Choice award. As my friend Annette and I looked at quilts, we talked about which one would be our choice for this.

About half way through the quilts, one quilt caught our eye. We took a second look to figure out what exactly we were seeing. Then we started to laugh, and laugh, and laugh some more. Don’t worry. We weren’t being rude. This quilt was hysterical. The title was Sinbonnet Sue II. Does this give you a hint as to why we chuckled so much?

The artist, Georgia Overstrud, designed a quilt of slightly irreverent Sunbonnet Sue blocks. Just my sort of humor! I took some pictures of my favorites.

Pickpocket Sue is going for Sam’s wallet here.

Here she is seen leaving the tattoo parlor, again!

I cannot decide which of these I like better, Pole Dancer Sue or White Lightening Sue. Both of them are so much fun. I wish I had taken a closer look at how Georgia created the paper money being tossed up to Sue.

Oh Sue – Couldn’t you have wiped your hands off before sneakily touching the quilt?? I love the Hershey fabric. The squares on the 1st place patchwork were so tiny and Georgia did an excellent job with the ‘melted chocolate’. 🙂

Finally, my favorite – Sue cannot help herself and peaks under the kilt of this bag piper!

This was the favorite and my friend and I both voted for it as our Viewer’s Choice. It is the second Sinbonnet Sue quilt made by Ms. Overstrud. The last one took Viewer’s Choice in 2006. Wonder if she will win again. The guild hasn’t announced the winner yet, but judging by people’s responses to the quilt, I think she has a good chance of winning.

Fortunately my friend Annette thought to take a picture of the whole quilt. There are so many cute details to look at. I know you will enjoy this!

Also, this might be of interest to you if you once used Bloglovin as your blog reading tool. I always did and suddenly it was broken. It just didn’t work at all and no one seemed to know why. Yesterday, after months and months of nothing, I received a Bloglovin summary email and was surprised to see when I clicked through, the site seems to work again. So, if this was your preferred method, it seems they have fixed it. So strange!

Reminder – how are the Positivity Quilts coming along? Are you quilting yours? Maybe even binding it? I am looking forward to the link up over Labor Day weekend. Hopefully yours will be done and ready to share!! Thank you so much for making a quilt and donating it to your organization or to Mercy Hospital.

Quilt Show, Shopping and Lavender of All Kinds

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Last Saturday was a busy day and so very much fun! Being new to the area, I wanted to go to a quilt show up in Sequim which is about 1 1/4 hours from my house. Luckily I met a woman who lives nearby and also wanted to go so we took a road trip together. The quilt show was outdoors in a park which made the whole Covid thing feel less of an issue. It could be tough to manage an outdoor show in this area due to all of the rain we have but everyone got lucky and we just had cool cloudy weather.

I especially loved the ruffly feathers on this rooster.

I took lots of pictures for ideas and inspiration. The show wasn’t juried but there was a vote for each category so Susan and I went off and chose our favorites. The people seemed so friendly, probably because everyone was thrilled to be back at an in-person show! It has been a long time.

The best part of this quilt was the little pictures of people (and a cat!) driving the cars. I was really tickled by this. The license plates showed names, I suppose of the person driving the cars. It was so creative.

My friend and I browsed the guild’s boutique area so we could be sure to show out support. 😉 We both bought these two kits. The pieces for the Native Rays kit and the Hollow Hexi kit both are cut with an older Alison Glass line of fabric. I think the arrow quilt will be fun to do and hang in my sewing room. The hexi kit will be made a bit larger with borders and then (eventually) donated as a Mercyful quilt. I haven’t made anything like this before but I am up for something different. Plus they were a steal. I found the Hollow Hexi kit on-line for $120. Both were sold for one dollar each. I don’t know why they were priced so low?

When I saw this book of postcards, I was first drawn to the label because it is from the Shelburne Museum. This museum was very close to my son’s house when they lived in Vermont and I have been there a couple of times. I thumbed through the postcards and they are lovely so I am going to have fun mailing them out. Again, one dollar well spent! Finally, there was a rack of quilt tops that were for sale. I chose a pink one and planning to enlarge it with a couple of borders and then donate it. I actually also worked on this already and it is ready to be quilted! I’ll share photos later on.

Across the way from the park was the local quilt shop, A Stitch in Time. I restrained myself from buying but did do some wandering through the shop, perusing their fabrics. It is a great shop with a big selection. Will I ever tire of just looking at fabric? No, no I won’t! Fabric shops exude potential, inspiration, and creativity. I am always itching to go home and sew when I am in a nice shop.

I had no idea this area was well know for its lavender production. We happened to be there during their annual Lavender Festival. People drive from farm to farm enjoying the gorgeous fields of lavender. We stopped at this farm and walked a bit. It was exquisite. The fragrance was incredible with all of the different varieties in bloom.

The house we just bought has quite a few lavender plants and I am enjoying cutting bunches of it for the house.

In sewing related projects, I have been continuing the effort to sew with what is on the fabric shelves. Check out the picture above – I have unpacked everything!! Each piece of fabric I have is now on a shelf. I am thrilled. It feels good to have it out and available. I have quite a number of unfinished projects to work on. They are all organized and I am enjoying working through them.

Both grand daughters are old enough for regular books. But I have several of these panels left over and the story is such a sweet one. So I made up a copy for them and gave it to them last time they were over. I made up two more for gifting in the future. It would be a nice book to read with little ones during the Thanksgiving holiday season. (If you are interested in buying one, I have five panels left. Leave me a comment and we can work it out.)

Today is the last day to link up your quilt top for the 2022 Positivity QAL. If you want to link up, click here. Prizes will be distributed over the weekend at some point. Otherwise, we will be back in a month with a parade of finished quilts to share!

Quilt Shows and Quilt Alongs

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Good morning all. I am enjoying a lovely, quiet morning here with coffee and some blog reading and I thought it a good time to catch up. It has been a while right?

Last weekend I spent a couple of days as a vendor at a fun show in the small town of Brownsville. I can’t say how much I enjoyed this little show. It was so relaxed and the people, quilters and wanderers both, were incredibly friendly. This guild has a membership of about 30 people with roughly half being very active. The town has a population of approximately 1300 people. It was quite nostalgic for me as my first husband’s grandparents lived in Brownsville and we spent many Thanksgiving weekends with them in their very tiny house. Grandma Ada cooked on a woodturning stove and was into quilting, crochet, and stamp collecting. I have one quilt of hers, all hand stitched hexies. It is in need of repairs, being made in the 1940’s and hopefully one day I will get around to it.

The toddler books and the sweet tape measures were a popular item during the show.

Back to the show! Because it was a very small show, I didn’t bring as much inventory as I normally do. There was a corner of one table with fun notions and projects. The toddler fabric books were a fun find for customers – I had a sample of each one available.

I pre-cut quite a bit of fabric into one yard cuts so I would have enough selection without having to pack and unpack all of those bolts. Not shown in the picture is another table which displayed a number of bolts as well as the pre-cuts.

Everyone wanted to pet Jack, an emotional therapy dog used by the Sherrif’s department.

Other than the friendly quilters, one thing I was really taken with was the presentation done on Sunday afternoon at the end of the show. This small group of quilters makes an impressive number of community service quilts each year. They get together every Wednesday to work on their CS quilts. The stack they had on display was just amazing. On Sunday afternoon, the representatives of the groups to which the quilts are donated are introduced and presented with their quilts. There was a representative from the Fire Department, Hospice, local Domestic Violence as well as the Sheriff’s Department. Most of the representatives told a heartwarming story of how the quilts are used before thanking the group and loading up with quilts for the year. There was an emotional support dog who came along with the sheriff that works with children who have been removed from scary situations. The idea of presenting the quilts in this way was really touching. Do any of you do this with your community service quilts? I think it provided a meaningful opportunity for the quilters who make all of these gifts to see how valued and appreciated their work is.

October piecing for the Mosaic Mystery QAL

Last week I finished up the October blocks for the Mosaic Mystery QAL. These were simple (as you can see) but I think this is truly the only sewing I did all week! At least I am caught up and can begin the November piecing now.

My husband and I spent a couple of days away earlier in the week. We had to go up and check on our house in Downieville since we had not been up there for so long. Because of the power outages we had to toss everything in the fridge and freezer which was quite annoying. We also spent a day with my in-laws which was lovely. We took a long walk along the river and got a lot of visiting in.

Finally, just in case you haven’t seen this yet – there is another great quilt along coming up. The Push-Pull Quilt Along begins next week. The schedule is very relaxed with prompts announced every three weeks. Yvonne of Quilting Jetgirl is the host and as with the last QAL, it is a transparency quilt. This technique is so unusual and the results are always striking. Needle and Foot will be sponsoring some of the prizes for the link ups. Quilt fabric kits will also be available in the shop for those who want to choose a ready-made collection of solids. The kits were curated by Yvonne so you know they will be a stunning set of color. Photos of these will be shared in a couple of weeks.

This is a three day weekend for many in the US (honoring the veterans in our country). For me, it means Julia had time to come home from school. She is here until Tuesday early morning, when I will take her back down to school. She sent a list of foods she has been missing so lots of cooking is going on. This is what all of my kids seemed to do when they were home during college. “Mom, will you make XXX for dinner?” So spaghetti and meatballs, bbq pulled pork with slaw, and Baked Potato Soup are on the menu this weekend. Ah, a light and low fat menu to be sure!! I love feeding my kiddos. Hope you are enjoying the long weekend if you are in the US. Many thanks to all of those in Service who support our country now or did so in the past!

Fourth Show All Wrapped Up

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Last weekend my sister and I worked as vendors at the quilt show for the Pioneer Quilt Guild of Rocklin, CA. The show was held in Roseville which is about a 40 minute drive from my home. Set up was Friday night which was slightly unusual. Since my generous sister had accumulated a zillion points with Holiday Inn, she treated us to a hotel rather than driving back and forth. It was a treat to stay in town rather than drive home after we finished setting up. Also, we were able to get there early on Saturday to put finishing touches on the booth before the show opened.

The show was great. The guild is rather small but quite talented. You’ll be surprised to find out I didn’t take even one picture of the quilts on display. So strange for me. I think it was just too busy. The show was not juried but I did go and vote for my favorite in each category. I liked their system for displaying the quilts. Each category was displayed together and there was a painted clothespin with the color of the pin denoting the category of quilts. So if you saw a purple clothespin for example, that meant you were in the medium size, pieced quilts.

Saturday was busy until about 2pm and then it just dragged. I think there were some Veteran’s Day activities in the afternoon that pulled customers/viewers away from the show. It made me nervous because usually the first day of the show has been the busiest and the second day much quieter. Patti and I were nervously anticipating a very quiet day on Sunday.

We were pleasantly surprised because Sunday was very busy and we had so many customers.

Also, Julia spent the day with us on Sunday. She had fun talking with customers and putting bolts away after I cut fabric.

Patti, owner of Etsy shop Ferrari Handmade, had a very successful weekend. She brought only her holiday dresses and the coordinating doll dresses. This is the perfect time of year for her shop and there were many grandmas at the show who liked and purchased the dresses for their grand daughters. She also had a number of custom orders which she is busily sewing away on this week. The incredible technology we have these days enabled her to sell a custom dress for a grand daughter in Florida. It was really fun to watch the grandmas FaceTime with her daughter in Florida so she could show the fabric choices for the dresses. Patti was able to get details right then by talking with the mom as she took the necessary measurements on the little girl. Gotta love technology!

Patti constructed this super cute fireplace to decorate our booth and give it a festive feel. Julia was so funny as she tried to emulate an excited child sitting by the fire (a string of battery operated lights.)

As always we learned a few things with this show.

#1 – If you put the candy jar behind yourself because the work table is too small, one goes through candy much faster! I suppose people are more ‘comfortable’ taking candy when it is less visible? How funny. So we ran out on Saturday afternoon and had to restock for Sunday’s customers!

#2. We wrapped little holiday fat quarters with ribbon and hung them from our Christmas tree like ornaments. However we didn’t post a sign with pricing and we didn’t sell even one! We sold tons of fat quarters from the basket where the sign hung but not even one from the tree. So, while it looked cute, it wasn’t an effective display.

#3. As I had hoped, having samples made with fabric available for sale really boosts sales. I had the small quilt made with the Shine panel as well as the Panda Garden whole cloth quilt on display. Numerous sales resulted from this as they drew interest from the shoppers.

This is the last show I am doing for 2017. I am looking at the shows for 2017 and deciding which to do. My sister has a busy month booked for December. She will be doing a weekly outdoor event up here called Victorian Christmas. Hopefully I will be able to help by working in her booth (if my head cooperates and I am not dealing with a migraine.) Whether I work in the booth or not, she will certainly be successful – especially after seeing the success of her efforts over the weekend!

The holiday season is going strong for me and i am sewing lots of cozies for both French Press coffee pots as well as Chemex pots. I have several Christmas projects I want to make/finish so I need to stay organized if I am going to get it all done. I am sure you are feeling the same way as November marches on and the holidays begin. Enjoy the sewing time and don’t stress over it!

Quilt Show Recap

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Last weekend my sister, Patti, and I worked at the Elk Grove Quilt Show. It was a beautiful weekend and attendance was great. I loved meeting the women from the Elk Grove guild. They were really warm and friendly. There were some issues with the wi-fi and the server had to be rebooted numerous times. The vendor chairperson never lost her smile and was a delight to deal with. They hold a quilt show every other year and one could tell they really look forward to this event. Attention was paid to each detail and the show was wonderful.

This is the third show Patti and I have done. She brought a great selection of hand made children’s dresses, messenger bags, and Halloween Loot bags. These were well received and she sold quite a few things. (To see more of her work, check out her shop, Ferrari Handmade.)

We had fun decorating the booth with pumpkins, gourds, and fall colors.

Even though it is early, we had one small corner with Christmas fabrics, both yardage and fat quarters. As we did at the Grass Valley show, on day 2 – Sunday – we moved around some bolts that were not attracting attention on Saturday. In doing so, we had a number of sales from those bolts. It is a constant learning curve which Patti and I are really enjoying.

This guild is small but mighty, I believe they told me they have 75 members. They are one very talented group. So many quilts caught my eye. Let me show you a few of them.

I am a country girl and was smitten with this rooster.

The use of floral prints and fabric painting made for a really unique quilt with the creation of this snowman. (Or snow-woman?)

The photo does not do this quilt justice. Titled African Safari, it won Best of Show and it was well deserved. The applique was fantastic and the hand stitched detail work was spot on. I loved it.

This was probably my favorite of all. The quilter used gorgeous florals to create a vintage seamstress’ dress form. The use of individually cut flowers to create the shape was genius. She also hid little items in the collage which added a fun element.

I love the title too. 🙂

Yesterday I spent the day reorganizing fabric and putting everything away. It was a great show and I turned over a lot of fabric which is great because you know what that means….. I get to buy more!

Today will be clean-the-house-day. It is in a sorry state, for sure. Hoping for a sewing day tomorrow. I have some pieces ready to cut and organize for the backing of the jersey quilt I am making for my nephew. I want to get that done and make an appointment at the long arm shop for next week. I can’t wait to practice with the long arm again.

I hope you all had a lovely weekend. We are having incredible fall weather this week (but next week it is heating back up.) Oh well, I will take it while it is here! In case you missed it, I posted my blog hop post for Island Batik yesterday. There is a great giveaway of 26 fat quarters! Check it out here. There is still time to enter.

Mid-week Update

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What a crazy month September has been. Horrible weather is affecting so many – hurricanes, flooding, fires – too much rain in many places and such a shortage in others. I hope you haven’t been adversely affected by all of this. But for those who have, I am sorry for what you are enduring. We haven’t had as much wildfire activity nearby as we usually due in late summer. Today it is substantially cooler than it has been and I am so thankful. Maybe fall weather is coming to our part of the state.

I wanted to share a few things with you. The first is to show you a mini I won from a giveaway held at Quilting Jetgirl. Yvonne celebrated her birthday earlier this month with an incredibly generous giveaway where she gave a box of fabric from her stash, a gift certificate to Hawthorne Threads, and two pieces she had made. I was so lucky to win this mini, called Sidekick Sampler.

I just love it. The background is deep purple which was challenging to photograph for some reason. The star is made with light blue and lavender fabrics. It is just exquisite. Yvonne has a well deserved reputation for precision piece work and lovely quilting. This mini displays both.

Quilting this with an all over motif of stars was the perfect choice for this piece. I was thrilled to receive it and quickly added it to the wall over my sewing machine.

What a generous way to celebrate a birthday by giving such awesome gifts to others. Don’t you love Yvonne’s labels? Thank you Yvonne!:-)

I have done a bit of sewing this week, though not as much as I would like. Last week I took a quilt top to the local long arm shop that rents time on their machines. I hadn’t been there for just about a year and it took a while to remember everything. The woman that works there was so patiently helpful as I tried load the quilt – there are so many details involved in that process and I definitely needed a refresher. Once I got going though, the quilting went quite well. I am excited to share this quilt and if you come back on Monday you’ll see it. I made it for the Back to School blog hop that is ongoing with the Island Batik Ambassadors and my day to post is the 18th. Luckily I got it done and spent the past two nights stitching the binding to the back side. Be sure to check out the post on Monday as I have a wonderful giveaway to go along with this blog hop.

Much of my time this week is being spent preparing for another quilt show. I will be a vendor at the Elk Grove Quilt Guild’s show this weekend. I am looking forward to it and the Vendor Chairwoman for the show has been a delight to work with. This show is just over an hour from my house so it is pretty convenient. My sister (Ferrari Handmade) is working it with me and I am so looking forward to spending the weekend with her. If you are local to the area and plan to attend the show, please be sure to come by and say hi.

Finally, I drew names for the two winners of the Shine fabric panel and border scraps. Lucky winners, Roxie and Tami, should have their fabric in hand by now. I asked readers for recipes or foods they love to make when autumn rolls around.

Roxie said:

I love candy roaster squash pie. It is like pumpkin pie or sweet potato pie. I know it is fall when I put this in the oven and smell the great aroma!

Tami commented:

This is so cute! That “Just shine” panel would be fun for a little wall quilt to hang by my desk at school, or even a floor cushion for the reading area. Its really a darling print! Our favorite fall tradition is soup on Sunday. We usually manage to come up with a different soup every weekend until Thanksgiving! my girls pick recipes and we try them out. Starting with cheeseburger soup tomorrow! Good luck at the show next weekend!

I have not heard of candy roaster squash pie but if it is anything like pumpkin pie, it sounds great to me. Soup on Sundays sounds like a wonderful tradition to have when the cooler weather comes. Hope Tami and Roxie enjoy the fabric.

See you all back here on Monday to celebrate some gorgeous Island Batik fabrics.

Quilt Exhibit Recap

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Last week I posted a little catch up on the fair, Julia’s pig Ella, and the purse I made for her. In the comments, Yvonne of Quilting Jetgirl, reminded me I hadn’t said anything about the quilts I entered in the local fair. I had originally planned to enter three quilts and that is what I technically signed up for. As I got the quilts out to add the hanging sleeves, I noticed that I had machine stitched the binding to the Positively Floating plus quilt. In all honesty, I can’t remember why I machine stitched that one. Maybe I just wasn’t in the mood to stitch the binding down? Usually I kind of enjoy that last bit of stitching on a project. At any rate, it didn’t make sense to enter that quilt because I was fairly sure the judge wouldn’t appreciate a machine stitched binding. Additionally, I had procrastinated on making the sleeves, it was the night before I had to bring them over to the fairgrounds, and I was running short on time. So I didn’t enter the plus quilt.

I did enter the relief quilted THREAD project and the Sweet Tweets baby quilt. I got a second place ribbon on the Sweet Tweets baby quilt.

Third place, the quilt below mine was 2nd place.

I received a third place ribbon on the THREAD project. Now before we all get excited, I will tell you the rest. I am nothing, if not honest, right? This is a very small show – all contained within one room and may 150 entries at most (including all garments, stitchery, knitting and quilts) In the baby quilt category, there were two entries. In the mini quilts of this size, there were three. As my sister Patti wisely told me, the glass is half full – you got a 2nd and a 3rd place. But my logical side says, meh, I got last out of three and 2nd out of two. Either way, I am happy. I think I got over my fear of having someone look at my project and pick it apart (no pun intended!) It was interesting to read the comments. Here is a bit of what the judge wrote:

On the baby quilt: She liked the fabric selection and the fussy cut blocks. She found the quilting design appropriate and noted my stitches were not all the same length. Binding was well done but quilt does not lie flat.

On the relief quilt: Thread play noted and appreciated. Starts and stops should not be visible, addition of quilted thread spools noted and appreciated. Binding needs improvement.

So – it was an interesting experience. I am not a terribly competitive person so usually, I don’t feel compelled to think of the judge’s perspective as I make projects. I suppose if I decide to enter things again, I need to pay more attention to the details.

Yesterday I was having fun making a few bandana bibs for my little grand baby. My son, his wife and the baby got to California yesterday after a few flight delays and weather issues. They are spending time in the Bay Area, about 150 miles from here and will come up here Wednesday. The baby will be working on teething soon which means all of that drooling that comes with it. I thought bandana bibs might be nice for this. The first one is made with a Cotton & Steel print, Panda Bebe, a white flannel backing and a tiny velcro closure. After I made it, I decided it might be a tad bit on the small side.

I took the template and cut it to be a couple of inches longer. The second bib was made with a cute flannel scrap I had and a pink lining. I suspect this one is long enough. They were fun to make and such a quick project. The template I used was from Grey House Harbor, a DIY website with lots of tutorials. It will be fun to see if these fit baby girl when she gets here.

Finally, today Needle and Foot is the sponsor of this week’s podcast at While She Naps. The host and author at this site, Abby Glassenberg, is someone I have long admired. So much so, I wrote a review of her newsletter and podcast a while back. When the opportunity came about to sponsor a podcast, I was more than happy to do so. Abby’s strength lies in the breadth of subjects she covers both in her blog, newsletter and podcast. I hope you will click through and listen to today’s interview with Jamie Chalmers, otherwise known as Mr. X Stitch. His site boldly claims to be the world’s best contemporary needle crafts and embroidery site. You may have noticed that embroidery and cross stitch, among other styles of needle crafts, are trending these days. Jamie’s hugely popular site features “Cute Things, Arty Things, and Rude Things as well as all other sorts of stitchy goodness“. I am looking forward to hearing the podcast today and getting to know more about Chalmers. As added incentive, Needle and Foot will be offering a discount to Abby’s and Jamie’s fans – you’ll need to go over and listen to find out the details though!

Reno Show Recap & Summer Break

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Last weekend was the Truckee Meadows Quilt Guild annual show in Reno, Nevada. Needle & Foot was a vendor there – this was the second show I have done. The first one was our local guild’s show in May. As with most things, I did a few things different this time and learned a bit more with the Reno experience.

Before we go into all of that, I want to talk a bit about my ‘silent’ partner. It was about February of last year when I got the idea to vend at the Grass Valley quilt show in May. But I was really hesitant to commit and to pay the $200 booth fee. I have mentioned now and then that I have difficulties with migraines. But if I were to be honest, I would describe my migraine issue with stronger language – I have a chronic illness and it really wreaks havoc with my daily life. I get about two or three migraines each week. This has been on-going since 2009. For whatever reason my body shifted (probably something to do with peri-menopause and then menopause) and the migraines kicked in with force. (I am not explaining all of this to gather your sympathies, more to show why I make some of the decisions I do.)

People with chronic migraine have a really difficult time committing to anything with a defined date or time. I rarely know how my week will go,wait – not rarely, scratch that. I never know how it will go. So it makes it hard for me to join committees, or volunteer groups, promise to take Julia somewhere, etc. I cancel out of many, many commitments. All. The. Time. When I wanted to try a quilt show, I knew I had to have back-up. I couldn’t take the chance on doing this without someone else there to run the booth if I got sick.

My five sisters – at a surprise party for Cathy (the one in the red t-shirt

Knowing this, I called Patti and asked her if she would work the show with me (or without me, as the case may be.) She immediately agreed. I mean without hesitation, without knowing exactly where it was, how long it lasted, or what it entailed. That is how she is. That is how all of my sisters are. Having her work it with me gave me the confidence to go ahead with it. We did the Grass Valley show and it was great fun.

Because of the success of the first show, we signed up for a few more. Now we were planning as a team. Patti is an incredible seamstress. She has made two quilts – her first one was queen size as a gift and the other was for her daughter, Laura. But for the most part, she sews garments. She decided to make a few things and bring them to the show in Reno to gauge reactions to her work and the pricing. In the space of about six weeks, Patti planned fabric and color, pattern and detail work, to make a selection of girl’s dresses and little coordinating messenger bags.

I was thrilled with her plan because it added a whole new dimension to the booth. As you know, many quilters do not enjoy garment sewing. However almost all quilters do recognize highly skilled workmanship. I knew these dresses would be appreciated and valued by the quilters shopping at the show. More importantly, it meant Patti and I had something to work on together. Patti lives about 150 miles from me but we called and texted constantly as she developed her plan and made these gorgeous dresses.

OK – let’s talk about the show. It was a great experience. The show was smaller than the first show we did and was a non-juried show. This made for lower attendance. However, the people that were there were so friendly. They shopped our booth and made purchases – enough so I would say it was worth our time. The venue wasn’t without issues though. You can probably tell from the photos, the lighting was just awful. (These photos have been edited, lightened and brightened.) It felt like the power was out in our corner. Everything was so dark! That was quite a problem. We were carrying bolts into the light to see true colors whenever a customer was trying to make a decision. It added a layer of frustration for each of the vendors. Also, there wasn’t any wifi available. In this day of using technology for everything, lack of wifi is pretty ridiculous. We had to use cell service for our phones, had to use our phones as hot-spots for the iPads, and we were constantly charging devices to keep things going. (Because of these two issues, I will probably pass on this show next year, unless changes are made.)

We tried a few new things with this show. We arranged the bolts in more of a thematic groupings and tried to make the colors flow better (hard to illustrate with the lousy light) . I think this made the booth flow much better. I ordered black tablecloths which added uniformity to the look too. I folded the fat quarters in a different way so the pattern of the fabric was displayed better and I grouped them by colorways in the basket. It was interesting to see the difference in our sales. We sold a lot of fat quarters and lots of the little kits and notions we brought; at the last show we hardly sold any of those items. The yardage we sold was also interesting. For one thing,many of the guild members were collecting floral prints for a class that was scheduled for October. They wanted large scale prints for fussy cutting. Luckily I had a selection of Art Gallery fabrics (Maureen Cracknell and Sharon Holland’s prints) that worked for this and those sold well.

For lots of reasons, I would call the show a success. It wasn’t hugely profitable but Patti and I gained exposure, learned another thing or two about booth set-up and tear down, sold fabric and dresses, and most of all, had a great time together. The next show isn’t until mid-September. It is about 50 miles from home so a bit more convenient than the Reno show. (Even though we did stay overnight in Reno for two nights, we had the luxury of staying in my in-law’s second home. They generously gave us access to the house which was sooo much nicer than staying in a hotel – and, of course, more economical too.)

Patti has decided to go for it and she will be opening an Etsy shop with her handmade items. As this progresses, I will keep you posted – I think her work is nothing short of amazing and these dresses will be fun gifts at holiday time or for birthday gifts.

It is August now and that means school starts in two weeks for Julia. With the end of summer approaching, I want to take a bit of time off and focus on family. Today I am taking Julia and her BFF to the mall and out for lunch. Fair is next week which means we will be super busy with Julia and her 4-H project, Ella. I will turn in my quilts for exhibit later today too. There is lots going on!

Grammy’s sweet girl is coming soon!!!t

As if that isn’t enough, my son and his wife and this little chunk are coming for five days at the end of the month. As I thought about all I have going on and how busy things have been, I decided to take a vacation from blogging and social media. I really want the break and look forward to shifting my focus to home and family for a few weeks. While I am away from the blog and my social media platforms, I will still be shipping orders. If you need anything in particular, you can always email me via the Etsy shop or at my email address. I am happy to help you. But I won’t be looking at Facebook or Instagram for a couple of weeks. It is important (to me anyway) to get away from all of the chatter that is social media. As much as I love the on-line community, it can be quite a distraction from daily life and eats away at my time in the sewing room too. Hopefully this makes sense to you. Enjoy this last bit of summer — I look forward to catching up with everyone the first week of September!! When I return I will share the book selection for the Autumn round of Fabric & Fiction. I also have a few other fun things planned. I’ll be back soon!! 🙂