I went to the Quilt Guild of Greater Houston’s quilt show… Joy of Quilts today. It was a lovely show and I had a few quilts hanging with my name attached as my own or quilted by me. A couple of these have not been blogged about yet so this is the first you will have seen them.
Let’s just start with the best. 1st place! Pieced Wallhanging – Large. Lou Ellen Hassold’s “Star Bright quilted by me! Lou Ellen had a vision for this quilt and thankfully I was able to step up to the challenge.
2nd Place – Group Quilt – Pam Heine Double 4 Patch. This one makes me really happy as this is an e2e design. I think our shows need to include a category for e2e quilts because they may be impecabbly pieced and have great color composition but if they are not quilted to death they lose points to those more elaborately quilted pieces.
3rd Place – Modern – 5th Grade Primer – by ME! I really did not expect to ribbon on this… it was a small practice piece – a challenge for our longarm group. I decided at the last minute to enter this one because it is rather interesting. Much to my surprise it ribboned! There were 6 in the category too so it was not by default. I’m happy about that.
Now I was rather hoping to maybe come in 3rd on this one… This is my quilt “Gravity” which is considered a Block of the Month. I don’t understand why these have to be in a separate category…. and unfortunately this style quilt cannot compare to the detailed applique quilt BOMS… and it appears that any applique trumps just pieced. More points I suppose. 5 in that grouping and the 3 that ribboned all had applique, the 2 that did not ribbon… were only pieced. I don’t even understand why something labeled a BOM has to be separate. I bought the pattern as a booklet… and the designer had 2 blocks a month for 9 months and a 10 month to assemble. I pieced and quilted in 3 months.
Lastly, Alice Sadeghpour entered her Thankful Thanksgiving quilt in Mixed Technique – Large. It did not ribbon either but it looked pretty hanging there. I’m not sure what this show defined Mixed Technique as… but I call that category as having applique, piecing, maybe embroidery or painting… something with 3 or more distinct techniques that make it unique. She has hand piecing, machine piecing and some panels used. That’s not really mixed JMHO. Now on my end … it WAS mixed LOL! I used a combination of computer custom designs and some hand guided quilting too but that should not have dictated entry into this category. Another odd thing, this show only splits Large Pieced quilts into 1 or 2 person quilts… everything else is judged together regardless if pieced or quilted by someone considered a professional or master or someone less skilled. Probably because this guild has so much talent that it is pointless to try to separate! Anyway… here is Alice’s quilt which also has not been blogged about by me. She asked that I wait until after the show.
Fun show, many thanks to the guild and their volunteers for putting on yet another fantastic show. You do not have to be a member to enter a quilt at this show which is held on the other side of Houston from me.
It finally happened! A prolific quilter said, let’s try this. We chose an edge to edge design for her beautiful Paradise in Blooms, complete with needle turn applique. I must say I am completely happy with this and would not hesitate to recommend doing this again. Surf digital edge to edge design by Anne Bright, Quilters Dream Wool, Glide thread in Warm Gray #4.
Thank you Alice for such a lovely quilt and being brave enough to try this. We both think it turned out awesome!
Here is one of my new favorite designs, stitched out on Sally’s fun quilt. I do not know the fabric line, fun modern fabrics that screamed for some type of geometric quilting. This design is called Bubbles b2b (border to border) by An…
More computerized edge to edge quilting by Pamela and Pat. This first one is a really big 120″ scrappy quilt by Pamela that I did not even try to get all in the photos! Thimbleberries patterns come to mind but I don’t know if this was a specific pattern or blocks she put together herself. I used” bd 2010 pano 001″ by Sweet Dreams Quilt Studio.
Before quilting, on the frame
Back view. I love this design but it is a monster to stitch out at this large size of quilt. The pattern was sized at 18″ and stitched up and down until it completed one row. Because of this stitch pattern and large quilt, I could not complete one pass on one bobbin of thread. It took TWO bobbins per pass to complete. I don’t think I have ever run a panto that used 14 bobbins of thread before. I’ll maybe try this on a smaller quilt with pre-wound 60 wt bobbins, otherwise I’ll have to move this one to a more expensive rate edge to edge design. I really love it though! So much variety in the design.
The next one is Pat’s beautiful sunshine and shadow style Log Cabin and Stars. What a great design and fantastic bed quilt. Another large one, busy fabrics. I chose a design called Espresso by Patricia Ritter, expanded to a more open design for this bed quilt with wool batting. Designs can be run generally from about 5″ to 20″ and are sized to fit the scale of your quilt.
Again, early after the studio flip, still trying to find the best place for lighting and pictures. Not such great quality photos but they really are beautiful quilts!
It’s been a long hard week! For every success it seems we then have an extra difficult next day. Repeating the very same steps because all we are working on mastering is edge to edge at this time. So frustrating, but they say give it a few weeks. The positive side, my 26″ (aka The Kraken) stitches beautifully.
The above is my Summer in the Park. It has been on my custom list since 6/2013. I decided to do a simple, fast edge to edge on this and give to one of my granddaughters. I used Pink Lemonade Glide thread on top and bottom. Colors are a little washed out, its brighter in person. The last 2 on the frame shots show the correct colors. I need to perfect my camera phone skills for the new location. Now it needs to have binding made!
2 more little ones, again one open fun design on the bright colored squares. The muslin was my first “quilt” even though just a piece of muslin, it was our first attempt to create an entire quilt from start to finish, not just plopping in designs here, trying another there… It’s going to be a dog pad for one of our grandbaby dogs!
One from GNQG, donation quilts. Those nice browns and blues seemed like a good mans quilt so we chose a geometric design.
I really like this quilt, it’s from TCQG donation quilts. Funny license plate fabrics, several blocks with a Texas theme. Chose a patriotic design but it goes with Texas – The Lone Star State and the banner reminds me a little of traveling the highways.
This one struck me as being vintage blocks, has a very old fashioned feel. Again from GNQG. I don’t know the story but I do recognize some guild members names in the signature blocks. I kept that vintage feel going using white cotton thread top and bottom and choosing a feather spray design set as an edge to edge that also has a really well designed butterfly. It turned out really nice and does have that vintage look and feel. We may need to think about putting this one in the stack for the quilt auction next September, especially since it has guild member names on it.
As I said, it has been a difficult week. The steps seem so simple but you know nothing ever really is! I can’t imagine how new to quilting people feel buying a longarm AND computer system at the same time. This is the very same machine I’ve been using, I’ve been professionally quilting for 5 years and frame quilting much longer than that. The only new part IS the computer. I have a quick start guide and TWO manuals written differently. Yet they can’t cover all the bases. For example, no where does it tell you how to shut down and start back up on the same project the next day. The only time I have done so… is because of computer crash and of course it doesn’t remember where I was working. I’m not willing to take that chance yet to stop mid project and see if it saves and remembers where I was. So many little things to plod through and try to make sense of on your own. I’m a self starter, always have been. But there are so many areas the books don’t cover the what if’s…. I’m so thankful I only have the computer system to learn! I also have my husband every step of the way, 2 of us to muddle through it all. Everyone says in a few weeks all the kinks will be behind us and smooth sailing. I’m really looking forward to a stress free day of quilting with no tech calls being made. I think I have experienced every computer error possible, thread breaks, bobbin thread running out, crashes, belts, how I need to load the top to start off well and how to load when there is only 2″, the works! On to quilting up YOUR beautiful quilts!
But today, you will find me handing out thread following the Aurifil schoolhouse @ Market!
