Missing for a while...

It is now November, hard to believe.  I quilted these table runners last month in my pre-Houston frenzy. This local client had her finger operated on last week, and needed to get them to have them bound before the holidays (hand is now in a cast!).  Though it rarely thrills me to have my schedule take the proverbial monkey-wrench, as this and a week in Houston did, there are certain clients I'd do it for any day of the week.

 The piecing is simple, and pretty.  It just needed quilting that kept it all real.  Nothing too dense or over the top was needed.  I like quilts like that.  I used a blue Glide thread and 80/20 batting.

 This 36" square table topper has a whole bunch of prairie points.  They always make me rethink how to quilt them.  My instinct is to stitch those little buggers down, but I assured her I would not!

 Again, the quilting is simpler, but pretty.  There's a little ruler work, and some freehand too.  This has a SoFine thread in a peachy color.

 The last one happened to have a backing with barely enough fabric - it was not enough to bother doing a custom.  I knew I'd be constantly cursing the clamps as the machine base hit them.  I opted for a pretty and dense Splash panto in a gold Glide thread.  It looks nice, and nobody would ever guess it was not what I really wanted to quilt on it.

 I got home Friday from 6 days in Houston.  I was so lucky to have Meander Publishing offer to give me a room for the week in exchange for working in their booth a few days.  Here's the booth...I just love that my Zen Garden quilt is front and center.  How awesome is that?! With a vendor badge, I was able to see the quilt show before Market and Festival opened each day, so I did not have to fight any crowds.

I got to spend time with several great quilters, and meet some others too.  The awards ceremony was quite extravagant - guess it should be when nearly 30K is given away to the top 8 winners!  I have many photos from the show, but feel a bit overwhelmed about my feelings of the show, the quilts and the judging.  At this time, I think I prefer to just leave things in my head, rather than write thoughts here which some might find controversial.  Many of my illusions of this show have been busted.

Big Bertha didn't win a ribbon, but then, many other best of show winners from around the country didn't either.  It's that kind of show.  I know that this quilt will have it's day again.  It has horrible fold creases that I now need to somehow remove, but otherwise it looked to be in good shape considering they have had it since early August.

Life is busy now.  I came home to a magazine deadline.  Fortunately, that was mostly finished before I left.   I am getting back to completing the Christmas orders.  Looks like I will probably find myself in the same pickle as last year and having no time to make any of my own Xmas presents.  I really need to think about these things in March!