Where do I live?

Last week... (hint: the temperature is in the lower right) Sunbathed on the back patio in the afternoon. Dug out all the shorts. Thought about air-conditioners.

Fast forward to this morning...

Just frightful. I know that it is March 28th, and historically, it's not at all uncommon to have snow still on the ground, but really...After the last 6 weeks of very mild weather, this is culture shock. We've returned to the 30's and 40's and I am having to tell my kids not to wear shorts to school. The news is not met with an ounce of enthusiasm. It does, however, make quilting in the afternoons easier. Even more amusing, the town has been street sweeping this week, which is an assumption that there won't be any more snow. And what is right in front of my house this very minute??! A street sweeper!

I have my quilt loaded right now. I am about 1/3 of the way through the monolon ditch stitching to stabilize it. Normally I just dive right in, and do the ditching at the end. But I'm not really sure how long I'll be able to keep it on the frame so I am stabilizing first in case it has to be taken off for customer obligations. I expect I will work on it through next week, until I leave for MQX. Maybe I will show some progress of this quilt in coming days, but right now there is just not that much to see since I am only ditching, and in clear thread!



My Cartoline da Venezia (aka Postcards from Venice) quilt (below - photo taken last year at MQS) returned home last week. It was at the AQS Lancaster show, where it earned an Honorable Mention. I was pretty happy to get a ribbon at all when I saw the show photo CD and realized all of the quilts that were in it's large wall quilt division! It will be going to HMQS in May.

A long weekend and a few finishes

The kids were home 4 days this past Columbus Day weekend. Just about all sewing came to a screaching halt, except that which I can do between 5:30 and 7am, and after bedtime. It does pay to be an early bird in my house! We spent Saturday doing the soccer and dance shuttles all morning, and a fair bit of puttering in the afternoon. The weather hit 80 or above all three days which is not common for Maine. I was able to get a good bit of my back garden replanted. It was pulled out completely this time last year in preparation for the house addition. Fortunately I was able to keep much of the plants in a holding bed that I have grown veggies in in past years.
On Sunday we made our annual trek out to the Lobster Shack. It's a local and kind of low end restaurant on the coast. You pay for the location not the fried seafood and burgers. It was a hot and gorgeous day. The kids usually cooperate for a few pictures that often go on the Christmas card, then we walk along the rocks. A nice outting. It's the kind of place that makes forgetting any issues and a strong desire to really want to sew easy.

Last weekend was the Quilting with Machines show in Ohio. I sent my Postcards from Venice to the show. Despite some reports that the show seemed small, the competition of quilts was of a high quality, as seen here. I am lucky to have received an honorable mention as well as a teachers ribbon. I'll find out when it arrives home which teacher gave it. This quilt is making its way to the Georgia Quilt Show now, with high hopes of doing well there in 2 weeks.

What else haveI been up to??? Still designing, still dreaming of a creative way to use red and orange hand-dyes. I actually like the design I am developing now. It's kind of art nouveou, but not really in those colors. Maybe I should just give up and go for the purples and make the design process simpler on my brain!

I finished a client's 2nd table runner in the wee hours of this weekend. The little red flower centers are not appliqued on. I prepared the circles for the client to enhance the look of the flowers.

...and a closeup look

And lastly, I have shirred some fabric that will become my daughter's newest dress. We picked it out for Christmas, despite it not being red or green. Those seem so cliched and not worn but a few times around the holidays. I just want to make her a pretty heirloom dress that can be worn year-round. I need to go buy yellow floss before I can go much further. It is a shade of green, and there is some red (only the piping details will be red), but it will have a yellow ruffled underskirt and sleeves to make it springlike. I should have bought the eyelet laces this weekend at Joann's on their sale...oh well!

Postcards to the Press

I grabbed a magazine at the grocery store yesterday...
I knew this edition had an article on the quilts of MQX West, but never figured to be featured since there were so many other ribbon winners. Much to my surprise, look what I found! The article is 4 pages, and shows about 15 of the lesser known quilts. These are truly some of my favorites from the show, and for the most part, they did not receive ribbons. It's nice to see all quilters rewarded, regardless of how their quilt places.

...and a closer look,

I just mailed this quilt off to the Quilting with Machines show in Ohio. If you are in the area, you can see it there in a few weeks.

Will the Wonders Never Cease??

Today was mom's day away to go to the Maine Quilt Show, and let the kids have a day with Nana. I hoped that my two quilts would show well. I kind of knew from the shows earlier this year that Postcards from Venice would probably do well, as long as judges were not too picky about a few misaligned points on the curved-pieced rosette. It's not the flashiest quilt, and it's probably not what every Mainer thinks is the most interesting to stare at, but who's looking at the quilt when it has all those awesome colorful ribbons to gawk at??!

Holy smokes (OK, that is NOT the word I mumbled as I walked into the Civic Center, and right off the bat, saw this). I could hardly believe it. No, I practically peed my britches with glee and shock. Yes, this is 75 hours of quilting vindicated in ribbons. I am so happy. No, make that still on cloud 19. Higher than the air. Four quilt shows since April; seven ribbons. Happy grin.
I know you have all seen the quilt months ago, buthere's a closeup at the new quilt "bling". I'm sure my daughter will think that the purple ribbon ought to be in her room. We may have to have a small (ok, huge) negotiation.

I did enter another quilt. Smaller, brighter, flashier. It received a ton of fantastic comments (yes, I am always listening to the viewers...I know that they may not love dull colors and dense quilting, but judges do...). "Intertwined", as I named this 42" applique quilt also brought home a blue ribbon (one of I believe 5 given at the show). More happy smiles.

I actually had quilted 2 other quilts that were at the show (client). One was judged, and it took a 2nd place ribbon (one of only a few of those!).

All in all, a very successful, surprising, shocking and smile-filled day.

New Ribbons

This post was written a couple days ago and Booger (aka Blogger) lost it somehow. I've been unable to login for almost 2 days. On the weekend, my MQX judges comments and teacher's ribbon arrived home. The quilt went out to MQS in Kansas for a few more days. It should be back here in a week or so. When I opened the package, I was delighted to find that there were actually 2 ribbons inside! Apparently I also received the Photographer's Choice at MQX. I only wish I had been there to see it hanging on the quilt.
As some of you know, MQS (Machine Quilters Showcase) is currently going on in Kansas. It is another big, international machine quilter's show that attracts as many good machine quilted quilts as does MQX. I sent my quilt out there as a longshot more or less to gain exposure, and to get more feedback from judges regarding what I need to work on and what I do well. Yesterday I learned through the MQResource grapevine (people that are there), that my quilt did in fact earn a ribbon - 2nd place to be exact! I'm over the moon about this - the news couldn't be more fantastic. Here's a picture, albeit very blurry, but one nonetheless, compliments of someone that is there at the show. It is definitely a very interesting ribbon!

Good News through the Grapevine

Last weekend, a package arrived from the MQX folks. I had been expecting it for a week or so - my Teacher's ribbon and judges comments. The actual quilt has gone on to MQS in Kansas until Saturday, when the show ends. Much to my surprise, when I opened the package, there were 2 ribbons! I had also received the Photographer's Choice award (and a lovely large purple ribbon that my daughter just "had" to have hung in her room!).

I knew that the MQS award ceremony was last night, and that the show opened yesterday. So I have been anxiously awaiting any news from out there. This morning, I saw a posting on MQResource by someone that is there for the show. The posting listed some of the names of winners, and my name was on her list! I'm ever so curious to hear what ribbon the quilt earned!

edited...One of the MQR quilters that is at the show right now has posted that my quilt earned a 2nd place ribbon in the wall quilt category. I'm over the moon right now!!!!

Quilt Blocking

I have found a few decent websites or blogs that discuss how to block a quilt. Most of them are better if your quilt is on the smallish side. Quilts that are heavily quilted, as my floor quilt is, require blocking to return them to their appropriate and original shape (or else they will hang wonky and wavey, and be rather unsightly!). If it is only going onto your bed, then it's not such an issue. But this quilt is heading to MQX in 3 weeks (yea!...just got the email this weekend that it was juried into the show) so I don't really want to give judges and viewers a pimple to see right off the bat.

Here's what I did...
The supplies are simple. There is a little cost involved, but these items are reuseable or you may already have them. I got 4 sheets of 24"x8' (1" thick) styrofoam (interlocking style) from Lowe's. All 4 sheets were about $40. You can use them as a design wall when you are not blocking quilts. Other things I used include a tape measure, metal square, permanent pen and a box of 300 stiff pins. Other websites say to use T-pins, but I thought they were kind of pricey so I got the dressmaker pins - they have a wider shank and don't bend like regular piecing or applique pins. They were under $5.
My quilt is (give or take) 75" square so you also need a large space that can be left undisturbed for several days. I could have cleared a place in the basement, but my bedroom is cleaner and warmer, and because it is 12'x18', it has the requisite 8'x8' space needed. I had to move the bohemoth bed a few feet, but we can survive this week (it's good training for a month from now when we begin our downstairs home remodel - It wll clearly be much messier then). Guess I just have to crawl over my husband to get out of bed :-)

All 4 foam pieces connect to make a large solid surface that the quilt will be dried on.

I taped the pieces together with duct tape just so they couldn't shift any while I blocked the quilt.

I also marked a square corner, and marked lines out from this corner for ~75". This is the corner I started pinning at.

But before there can be pinning, the monster quilt had to take a short bath. No jets or bubble bath, but a 5-10 minute soak to ensure that all fibers were wet. Trust me, handling it (all 18 lb of it) was worse than lifting a wet dog from a tub. I got soaked before I ever started to block it. I didn't dare wring it for fear of messing it up. I blotted as much moisture as I could with 3 towels and then took it to the blocking pad.

I started pinning the quilt to the corner I marked with the square, placing pins every inch or so. The pins are stabbed in at a backwards 45deg angle so they will hopefully not pull out. If I had made some measurements before I soaked the quilt, then I'd know what the "average" length and width of the quilt were, and I'd then stretch the opposing sides of the quilt to be this distance. We'll pretend I did this. In actuality, I stretched them to be the same distance, but my quilt is out of square by about half an inch so length and width are not the same. Oh well. I also could visually shift the placement of the edges so that all of the stripes and borders appear most straight. The whole process took about ah hour and a half. Lots of wet knees. OK, just 2, but they are quite damp still.

Now I have a fan running in the bedroom, and I have jacked the heat up from the normal daytime setting of 60F to 68F, in hopes of drying this beast before next week. I may also go back later and walk gently on top of it with some towels on the quilt's top to get out unnecessary water. I am pleased with how straight the borders look, as they were looking pretty wonky towards the last times it was on the frame.

It may well not win anything at MQX. In fact, I highly doubt that it will. But it is an important step in my quiltmaking journey. It was good enough to get juried into the show. Now I am trying to do the last things I can to make it show as well as it can.

Tune in next week as I (hopefully) document the successful application of a piped binding.