Quiltfest--The Quilts (Photo Overload!)

First Up--Quilts from the Quiltfest show!

Winning Best of Show was this beauty by Ilene H. King. Here  you can click the photos to read her tag and see a close-up of her incredible hand quilting!

My favs weren't always award winners, but they caught my eye.
Click the small photo below to read the tag.

This was a very striking quilt. You may or may not know that after my first love, CW Repro fabrics, Batiks rank a close second. Love the lush, vibrant colors.

 

 I thought this creation was very clever and well executed.

 

 Loved this!

 

Always in awe of the beautiful art quilts--this was my favorite of that genre. Looks like I forgot to watermark this photo. Click the tag below for due credit, please.

 Quilts by Marsha McCloskey

Luckily I had class with Marsha, because I was near the back of the ballroom during her trunk show and couldn't get good shots of the quilts. This is the English Ivy quilt for the class I took.

 This is the beautiful Star of Chamblie. This was a two-day class.

The photo below is a little blurry, but it is made from blocks of the quilt above, in a different colorway. I didn't get a shot of it in class, so I had to rely on the blurry one from the trunk show.

Love the little stars within the feathered star on this one.

Look at those sweet little 3" blocks. Marsha said this may be a pattern soon.

The next couple of tops are still WIP. Look at this beautiful triple star!

The rich colors on this make a striking statement!

Quilts by Lisa Bongean

I had a seat near the front on Lisa's trunk show day (our tables were assigned). Here are a couple she shared with us there.

Yes, I can see that "quilt" is spelled wrong in the watermark. I didn't want to redo it. : )

"Words to Live By" was on display to the side of the podium. I was able to get Lisa to pose by it afterward. Love this quilt.

 

Exciting to me was the fact that we were able to see all of the little quilts in Lisa's new book of mini quilts, Little Gatherings!

Here she is displaying a couple of them. I got more shots of them in the classroom afterwards. You'll see those farther down.

Two more warm and woolly quilts.

A fun little wintery quilt from her newest line of fabric, Snowman Gathering II.



















This quilt captured my heart. I want it badly, but all of those little HSTs may bring on another migraine!!

Beautiful wool table mats and runners. Many of these have "crazy stitch" embroidery--like a crazy quilt, only no seams to stitch over.

Now for the minis! Here they are, all spread out over the classroom tables. Gives you some size perspective.

Here are the close-ups! Click to enlarge, if you wish. Enjoy!!

Wish I had a prize for everyone who stayed with me through all of that. I really was selective about the photos I shared, if you can believe it.

Today I have spent some time on Lori's SAL, Country Roads. I started two of them because I couldn't narrow down my fabric selection. This was a disease I suffered from a few years ago and I thought I had it under control, but apparently it was just in remission. I'll share my progress down those two country roads next time.

Janet O.

Utah Quilt Guild Quiltfest--People and Projects

I spent three days this past week at the Utah Quilt Guild annual Quiltfest. This was my first time attending and I had a blast. 

Wednesday I had a class from the very talented Marsha McCloskey. She was teaching the English Ivy block you see behind her, to the left, in the photo below. 

Marsha likes to make sure you understand how to draft the pattern before you embark on the cutting and stitching. She patiently walked us through the steps of how to draft the ivy block in one of two sizes--6" finished block, or 3" finished block. Which do you think I chose? Marsha had her little sample of the 3" block in a frame. So cute.

The goal was to learn the drafting process and then actually complete one block in the class, which I happily did.  Don't we look happy about it? This woman loves mini quilts as much as I do.

 

Marsha is an excellent teacher, and she really knows her stuff! This was the last conference she is going to be attending that requires travel by air. So in the future, if you want a class from Marsha, you will have to go to her!

 After dinner that night I went to my hotel room and set up to sew. I was struck by this stipple patterned chair and ottoman in my room. Then I was struck by a migraine, which made sewing a challenge, but I powered through it.








         

I turned the ottoman into my cutting station.
The desk was my sewing table.

And a small end table rounded things out as my pressing station.

By the time I was ready to turn in for the night I had completed three more blocks. It felt so good!

I know I am going to make a small quilt. Just can't decide whether to set the 4 blocks, go for 6 blocks, or take it all the way to 9 blocks. (Just in case the thought crosses your mind, Julie L., no--I am not going to make an entire bed quilt with blocks this size.)

Thursday I was in class with Lisa Bongean as teacher. I have had class from Lisa before and I knew I was in for a good time.

 She is very thorough, and extremely patient with her remedial students, like myself. Did I mention that she is a lot of fun? You can see our project on the table in the photo below.

 She had a friend with her, which made for twice the laughs. Do you recognize Geoff's Mom? Well, I didn't, but I sure will now. I knew the pattern name, but didn't know her name or her face. So I was talking to her for some time before it clicked. I felt brilliant. : )

I took a couple of my small projects that were designed by Lisa, and I did get her signature on the label of "Burgoyne Strikes Gold".

My project is far from completed, but I do have everything on the front two scallops stitched. I love this cozy little piece. It is named Winter Cabins.









I missed Friday, but on Saturday I was back and spent the first part of the morning manning the hand quilting station. Can you see what is behind me? How appropriate.

 The rest of my morning was spent taking tickets for the quilt show/vendor mall.

In the afternoon I browsed the show and vendor mall and then sat and stitched on my Winter Cabins candle mat.
Now and then I would stretch my legs, and on one of those ventures I happened upon Sandra Starley's class on vintage quilts. She invited me in to take a look at the quilt that was currently being discussed.

 I've seen Sandra do a trunk show before, but someday I'd love to sit in her class.

Next time I will share quilts with you. Both Marsha and Lisa did trunk shows and displayed quilts in their classes. And there was a quilt show, too, remember? Don't worry, I didn't photograph everything, but there will be plenty of eye candy.

Until then,
Janet O.

P.S. The night before attending Quiltfest, I stayed with my friend, Gayle (Middle Sister blog). Her home is a quilt show all by itself. There were dozens of little quilts, hooked rugs, and needle punch projects at every turn, displayed with lovely vintage and prim decor. This woman is so talented--creativity is evident throughout her home. And her studio is amazing. I strongly encouraged her to post about her home, and I really hope she does so that you can all enjoy it as I did. (hint, hint) : )

On a Roll

When I completed the quilting on "Burgoyne Strikes Gold", I felt rather invincible. I had faced my fear and had walked away victor, so to speak. I decided I needed to ride that wave and pull out something else I have been afraid to quilt, before the feeling passed.

This was what I made when Lori (Humble Quilts Blog--this link takes you to the beginning of her latest little SAL) had her "Faithful" SAL. We were to use any  6" block we might have on hand, or make a new one, and she walked us through the steps of adding those HST borders.

The 6" Mariner's Compass that I used for the middle was made a couple of years ago on a dare (sort of) from Karen (Log Cabin Quilter blog). I didn't know what I was going to do with it, but I had to see if I could really make it. The pattern is named Sunburst (find it at the bottom of this blog post). It seems to fit, so that is what I think I will name the quilt.

I had decided that I would ditch stitch around the compass points and all of the HSTs, and put feathers in all of the black borders and around the compass.

Using the bendable ruler (this is a method I learned from a Patsy Thompson tutorial), I marked my feather spines.

Then I pin basted, and as I always do on minis, I did the ditch stitching on my DSM. I take ditch stitching  seriously. Stitching slowly, I really try to stay in the ditch.

The final touch was the feathering, on Gidget. When I feather on an outer border, I always draw a containment line 1/4" from the edge, so that my feather plumes don't end up under the binding.










Then finish with the 1" cut, single fold binding. Very happy with the results of this one.

My two "brave" finishes together.

I had a rather low-key Labor Day weekend, but I did get in some stitching. With the leftovers from "Burgoyne Strikes Gold", I made this little quilt, which finishes at about 7" square.

I think I'll name this little quilt "Pumpkin in the 9-patch".

And the little pincushion (yet to be stuffed) was from the leftovers of the little quilt.




I have been eager to try out this little pattern from issue #21 of Miniature Quilts Magazine. I have simplified it by not lining it. It is too tiny to see inside of, anyway.



















They are paper pieced, but it isn't as involved as the little ornaments. I'm pretty sure I am going to be making a few more of these.












Speaking of ornaments, I also made a few of those over the Labor Day weekend.

Have yet to stuff them and add the hangers. That is the easy part.

I didn't feel like I had accomplished much over the weekend, but when I put it all together I guess it adds up.

One last thing. I have made slow, but steady progress on my little Thimble quilt in honor of my visit to Cyndi's Busy Thimble shop last month, in Maine. I've been using it as a leader/ender, but you don't do much of that when you are machine quilting, or paper piecing.

I love seeing how these little quilts shrink as the pieces get sewn together. This is at the halfway mark. It will probably finish somewhere in the neighborhood of 10"x16".

One of these days I am going to make progress on my current big quilt project. Won't that be shocking?

Until next time,
Janet O.

The Making of a Mini Quilt--Part 2 (The Quilting)

It has been a year in the making, but I am so excited to have my mini Burgoyne Surrounded Quilt ALL finished. I think I will name it Burgoyne Strikes Gold, unless you have a better suggestion.

This is the quilt I made after seeing Lisa Bongean's version of the APQ Tone It Down designer quilt along last year. The blocks finish at 3 3/4" and there are 97 pieces in each block. With the sashings, cornerstones and borders, there are almost 1400 pieces in this 20" x 24" quilt. I don't normally count pieces, but I was really curious about this little thing.

After I got the top assembled earlier this year I had no clue how to quilt it. I loved the top and I didn't want to ruin it with my quilting. I do many of my little quilts with straight line quilting, but I knew this one needed special treatment. It sat for over 5 months while I waited for inspiration to strike.

I took it with me last month when visiting a friend that is a master machine quilter. We talked about some possibilities and I went home with a few ideas to mull over. When I finally chose what I wanted to quilt, I felt like I needed a stencil. So I went to the Forest Quilting website and found their Feathered Square design had the motif in it that I needed (highlighted in pink), but I needed it much smaller.

I printed it out and reduced it three or four times until it was the size I needed. Then I took the thread out of my quilting machine needle and stitched over the lines of the portion of the motif I would be using, to perforate it. Now I had a stencil for marking the design using my Pounce Pad.

First I marked a few of the designs on a practice sandwich in black fabric, to see if I could really quilt the design black-on-black. (On the actual quilt top I would pounce the design and then draw over the lines with the liquid chalk pen so that as I worked I didn't rub away the lines I needed.)

After determining that I could do this, I marked all of the quilt blocks and got the quilt sandwich basted and ready to quilt.

On my mini quilts I always do my straight line stitching with my Pfaff and its built in walking foot. The accuracy (or lack of it) on a mini is so much more noticeable, that I feel more comfortable with this method.

Straight line stitching through the diagonals and the "circles" received similar treatment.

Here you see part of the back with just the straight line quilting completed.

Now I moved over to Gidget (my HQ Sweet 16) and started on the fun stuff.

Once I get past the stress of what to quilt, I really do enjoy the process. When I go a long spell without machine quilting I forget how enjoyable I find it.

 Taking shape. The back...

 ...and the front.

I thought this quilt would take me a long time, but within a couple of days I was ready to quilt the border. Using a bendable ruler, I marked the spine for the feathered border and then quilted the feathers free motion.

 All quilted within two days--and I am thrilled with the results. It isn't perfect and there are plenty of flaws to find, but black on black makes them less visible, so I am happy. : )

Now for the binding. I always use single fold binding on my minis. I used to use 1 1/8" cuts for binding minis, but I have moved to 1" on most, unless the batting is thicker.

One inch binding went around this little quilt. Though on bigger quilts I use the Clover Wonder clips, for this tiny binding, I pin it very closely.

I figured that since I had written a post just over a year ago titled "The Making of a Mini Quilt", using the piecing of this quilt as my focus, it made sense to finish up the process.
I am loving this quilt! I have a class from Lisa Bongean in a couple of weeks and I am planning to take this and get her to sign my label, since she inspired the quilt.

 

I had so much fun on the quilting that it made me want to try something new. I had watched a couple of Angela Walters videos online and printed out photos of her designs to try.

 I played around with her hooked swirl on a practice sandwich. It isn't ready for prime time, but it has potential and I hope to put it on a quilt soon.

This quilt has been bound and should have reached my friend's husband by now. I pray for him daily as he adjusts to the loss of his dear wife.

Her work was very precise--quality stuff. If I didn't already have a couple of little quilts she made it would have been harder to send this one back. : )

Until next time,
Janet O.