Quilt Show - Part 2

Today I continue with some of my favorites and what particularly struck me at the Quilter's Crossing of Palm Harbor (FL) quilt show this past weekend.  Quite a few of the exhibited quilts had interesting embellishments.  Some were elegant and some were whimsical.  All were very artistic.

I'll start with two that cracked me up.  Quilters seem to have a great sense of humor.  This was my little froggie friend with lovely eyelashes:

And this was the dolly being repaired - be sure to read the quilter's note about the little lady's repairs:

And these were the other quilts with embellishments that caught my attention:

And last - you know it's going to be a great quilt show when even the Lady's Room has a "quilty" tile floor - ha, ha!

Quilt Show

Quilter's Crossing of Palm Harbor (FL) held their biennial quilt show this weekend.  As usual, it was delightful.  I like to walk around all of the displayed quilts first and see what's new and popular.  I then go back and take pictures of what I especially liked or ideas I thought I might use for children's quilts or quilts I was just plain in awe of.  So, this year I had lots of inspiration and will break the photos into more than one blog post.

I was surprised this year to see how many panels were used and displayed.  This was not a judged or juried show, but some of the thread painting in these panels was certainly worthy of prizes and ribbons!  Here goes a whole bunch of quilts using panels that I really liked [most photos show the entire project, then the maker's name card/description then maybe some details]:

Next post will show the creative uses of embellishments!

Two Are Quilted

I had such trouble with my machine last year that I was frustrated and sent it back to the factory to be refurbished.  It was returned in fantastic shape and is quilting up a storm now.  I had done one quilt that I debated whether to remove all of the quilting stitches or just donate it as it was (in bad shape).

After a short deliberation, I decided that I had to send in something reasonably proper especially for a donation quilt where the recipient's feelings must be respected.  You never know if this might be the only quilt they ever receive and it has to hold together.  So I spent time off and on ripping out quilting stitches and finally got the quilt top back to its pristine condition.  This lady makes particularly well made tops.

This is the quilt that inspired the fish panto described in the last post with its lovely fish blocks (to be bound).

And this is the quilt that I didn't know was wrapped in the other top until last weekend when I finished removing stitches (also to be bound).  It is quilted with musical notes and treble clefs - it is wrinkly from being folded:

What was the inspiration fabric for the panto for that one, you say?  It was this, of course!:

But then, what happened with the purple elephants of a few posts ago?  Well, they've been going to the dogs:

What's Up Wednesday

I was quilting today.  Usually, I take inspiration for my quilting designs from fabrics within the quilt.  Since I quilt primarily for donation to children's charities, I try to find something interesting for kids.

Today's quilt on the frame was made by someone else and I am quilting it up for her.  There were three fabrics that caught my eye:

So this quilt is themed for FISH!

This is an example of a real Copperhead Butterfly fish:

You may be forgiven for thinking these are Butterfly fish, but these are just butterflies (sorry for the blurry picture, but they were moving fast!):

the panto is a Judith Kraker design called Fishes

Full quilt to be revealed tomorrow ...

Sunday Sewing

I’m joining with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge at: http://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

My intention is to make various animals this year in the Challenge colors-of-the-month.  The January color is PURPLE, so these pieces were on the cutting mat this morning:

And sewn together, you've probably guessed that they make this (I have cut out all of the parts and will be making three):

This cute elephant block was designed by Miri and a free pattern is offered on her blog Milk and Honey Quilts:

http://milkandhoneyquilts.blogspot.com/2009/03/free-pattern-elephant-baby-quilt-block.html

And then I got distracted with organizing a little of the sewing room to decide what to put next on the quilting frame.  First, I put all of the UFOs into the purchased bins and labeled them:

Then I went through the cloth baskets of tops and backings and put each top with an intended back:

They look lovely now and all ready to pick one and quilt it up!  It feels good to be a little more organized.  Unfortunately, I discovered several more UFOs in one of the cloth baskets:

They never end!  Whatever made me think I had corralled them all?!

I just had to stop and unplug everything since we are expecting bad weather.  We are under a tornado watch until 10 this evening and there will be severe thunderstorms.  Our Sunshine Skyway bridge is already closed to all traffic due to high winds.  I definitely want to protect my expensive equipment, so it will have to be hand-sewing this evening.

Saturday Summary

Finished quilting the Quilt of Valor that I was working on.  It was a bear to quilt because the borders were not put on properly.  It is a charming quilt - I think the block is called Sparkler, and the center is very well made:

If you are a quilter, please take the time to measure and cut your borders to fit properly.  If you just sew a length of fabric on the sides and chop if off, it will stretch and buckle and bunch up when quilting instead of laying nice and flat.  The little extra time it takes to measure and pin will make your quilts so much nicer and your longarmer will appreciate you!

This one was quilted with a panto called Stardust:

And in the week coming up, I will be back to working on child-size quilts.

Local Community Service

Continuing with my activities for local community service, yesterday I worked up two sample blocks for my Quilts of Valor meeting this coming Friday:

We will begin working on our new pattern for 2017 called Via Air Mail.  The pattern was published in the Fons & Porter quilting magazine:

I made up some kits for our members so they can begin right away.  We are modifying the pattern to efficiently use our existing fabrics.  The pattern calls for 2 inch squares and we have a lot of leftover 2.5 inch squares, so we enlarged the pattern to use those.

This is the quilt I will be quilting for the group to turn in on Friday (I didn't make the top):

We will have some finished tops soon and get those to the longarmers and award them to local Veterans.  Last year we awarded 154 Quilts of Valor and have 7 more in reserve for those Veterans who could not attend certain presentations!  I applaud the ladies in our small group that made such an effort to locate Veterans and make these awards.  Such a nice group.