Lowell Quilt Festival 2012

Yesterday, I was able to attend the Lowell Quilt Festival.  Until a client of mine entered a quilt there a year ago, I didn't even know about it.  It is not a huge show, having about 80 competing quilts.  The caliber of the quilts, however, is generally high.  In addition to the judged quilts, there were a couple of special exhibits - one by the wonderful Pat Delaney, a MA-based machine quilter.  She brought about a dozen of her show quilts, most of which have a bucket of ribbons.

The main part of this show is at the Lowell Memorial Auditoriom.  While it is a pretty venue for the show, it has dismal lighting and very limited space for vendors.  What Lowell that does do that is unique is that they have 6-8 other locations throughout the town that have quilts on display as well, including the New England Quilt Museum.  A free shuttle bus can take you around to the various venues.

I learned early in the week how my quilts did.  It was hard not blasting it to the world, but I went to the show again with my mother and wanted to preserve a small surprise.  I was aware that Rainbow Nouveau had made their "big stage", but was delighted to see that Sea Glass was there too.  It is just SO much prettier with the better lighting, that only the stage has.  Here's a glimpse at the show's winners as seen from the stage...

Patricia Washburn's quilt (with a very long name!...My Mind: All Skewed Up Without Zentangle Meditation, a overall workmanship award), Space Crystal by Alice Means (HM), my Sea Glass (3rd Mixed Wall quilts)

Standiford Star by Herbert Menzel who repeated an 1800's quilt design received both 1st place in the Pieced Bed quilt category and exemplary piecing awards.  The next one is Redbud Ramble by none other than Linda Roy.  She earned 2nd in the Mixed Bed quilt category and the Exemplary Applique award.  More on this in a moment.

The next one I have seen before in magazines.  Megan Farkas' Sakura I: Hanaogi Views the Cherry Blossoms took first in the Mixed wall category.  It's a lovely hand done quilt.  I have a closeup in a moment. You all recognize the next one.  Yup, my Rainbow Nouveau..my naughty stepchild from earlier this summer.  Good news, this one has learned to behave, and rather nicely I should add.  Completely to my utter surprise, this baby took 1st in it's Mixed Bed quilt category as well as Best of Show.  Flabergasted!  Seeing it hanging on the stage, it is starting to grow on me.

Going into the corner is one I unfortunately cannot identify.  It hangs beautifully though.  The colorful quilt is Cetena by Timna Tar, a person often receiving awards for good use of color.  It also earned 2nd in the pieced wall quilt division, despite having a whole lotta appliqued circles on it.  Seems like a Mixed quilt to me.  Lastly, Homage to Spring by Susan Ziel (HM in mixed wall).

Now, how about some close up...

 

This quilt is truly gorgeous, from the background that softly grades from green to purple, to the delicate detailing on the applique.  It is hand appliqued (and if you know me, you know that that's my preference).  It is also hand quilted, which I also love.

Every applique piece is outlined with black embroidery thread, giving them exceptional visibility.  It's a trick I will have to stick into my bag of tricks to use someday.  The background quilting, though it is all the same for the entire 60"x90" piece, is period appropriate and effective. 

Linda Roy's quilts never disappoint.  I have seen 3-4 other quilts of her's in the past couple years, and am always amazed.  They are often appliqued, heavily, and hand quilted to the heavens and back.  Last year, she took Best of Show with her Vintage Button Bouquet.  And if I were a judge, this probably would have won this year.  Guess it's a good thing for me that I haven't been appointed a judge yet!

 

Like myself, she likes stitching circles (a LOT!) - there must be 750 of the little pink buggers on this!

The one thing that still gives me the shivvers, and has since the list of show winners was published Wednesday is that my quilt scored higher than this quilt.  How in the Earth?  What didn't she do, that I must have done?  I am so in awe of what this woman creates.  She's such a masterful artist.  I just wish the judges comments could tell me what the fine dividing line between her's and mine was.  I will forever be elated and grateful for what Rainbow Nouveau is accomplishing and earning, but deep inside me, I need to understand.  I know...I am nuts.  I operate on being rational and logical, and having the understanding helps me to do the right things on future quilts.

A few last closeups...

 This next one is hand quilted, and is quite lovely up close.

And just so you could see this one, I pulled my picture fromVQF (the one from Lowell was dreadfully blurry).  The color progressions are nice.

I'll do another post later this week of other show quilts, a couple of the special venue shows including the Boston Modern Quilt Guild's show which was nice.  I had the great opportunity of meeting a very good client who I have only known through the quilts she's mailed me.  I also had a client from the Boston area that put a quilt I quilted into the show (a surprise until I stumbled upon it!).

If you're within a few hours of Lowell, this is a nice show (despite picking up my quilts just after the monsoon rains started!)

Lightening Strikes Twice

You always hear that lightening never strikes the same spot twice.  I know that this is only a saying, but it does seem that to get a really good thing to happen a second time is harder than getting it to happen once - if only because the psychology of the human mind gets involved the 2nd time.  Humor me & read on...

I have been athletic all of my life.  As a young girl and teenager, I was a competitive gymnast.  I was pretty good, and I really worked hard to be successful.  I took this nearly to the point of being superstitious.  I'd save all the green m&m's (yea, this tradition was started before the connotation we know of came around for green m&m's) from every package.  There would be a baggie in the freezer of all my m&m's, and I'd take this to gymnastics meets for good luck.  Somehow, I struggled with consistency, and the candy supposedly helped.  As a result, I kind of expected that if I'd done really good at one meet, the next one might be a dog meet.

The competitive nature continued throughout high school with musical endeavors, and into my adult life when I decided to try my hand at competitive adult figure skating.  I always tackled things head-on, and with an intention of succeeding.  Or winning.  I'm not one of those people that loses gracefully.  Or happily.  I am a firm believer that I control my own destiny.  If better people beat me, and I did my best, it's one thing.  But if I goofed something up, and could have controlled that, then I get upset.

So how does this relate to anything??  My quilting career has taken off like a rocket.  I purchased my longarm less than 3 years ago.  I quilted client quilts a month later.  A magazine contacted me for quilt photos after 3 months.   I entered my first quilt show after 6 months, and won Rookie of the Year.  At 11 months, I was selected by HandiQuilter to be part of their 2011 advertising.  It was moving and moving fast.  I was surprised, but the roller-coaster was fast, and flying towards success.  I didn't want to slow down long enough to blink for fear I'd see the progress decline.  A year ago, as I had done for the previous couple years, I entered 2 quilts in the Maine Quilt Show.  It's a decent, smaller show.  It lacks a lot of higher end quilting that you'll see at machine quilting shows, but is still generally well represented by hand and machine quilters alike.  When I arrived to the show last year, I stood in shock to see my quilt hanging with the Best of Judged ribbon.  It still strikes me as shocking that I have already received a best of show award.  I haven't put in my decade of dues yet.   It was a strong wake up call that my quilting is good.

It was also a scary thing, because all last fall I wondered how on earth I'd ever make anything that could top that for this year.  Winning once was easy.  I never thought about it, in fact.  It just happened.  But repeating it would be hard.  Nobody wants to go back the following year without a quilt capable of knocking the judge's socks off.  At least, I certainly didn't.

The quilt I had been working on, and intended to enter in this show, was giving me absolute fits.  First off, I had horrendous tension problems with the Glide thread on the batik fabric that I had to rip out a huge section.  I then opted to stitch with a gold Glide because the gold bobbin would blend with the backing fabric, disguising any tension problems.  The problem was that I hated how this looked on the front.  It was not in my "plan".  The general quilting went pretty well.  I found one small pleat on the back because of how I chose to quilt (SID all first, then go back and fill - places on the quilt were hard to keep smooth and taught during quilting).  I conceived a long and skinny label to cover that.  Creative or Ingenious??  You be the judge!  Then it was done quilting and onto the blocking boards.  Then the shit hit the fan.  OMG, there was bleeding.  It was horrible.  Areas of the ivory fabrics looked bruised.  I didn't want to say that the freaking quilt was jinxed, but it sure seemed that way.  I contacted another fellow quilter that helped me with the dye release.  It took about 4 days and 100 Shout color catchers.  But when I was done, I had another problem.  Some of the pins I used to secure the color catchers in the wash cycle had left a rust spot on the quilt.  This was maybe 15-20 1-2mm rust spots onthe front and back -- and not in locations where I'd conveniently place a crystal!  I tried washing it again with a rust detergent.  The problem is that all the washing I did on the quilt, and all the use of detergents, color catchers, etc had taken it's toll on the quilt's brightness and fullness.  It just seemed thin and limp, not having the nice loft it had the day I took it off the frame.  And the bold batiks had visibly faded.  Perhaps nobody else but me would realize it was a shadow of it's former, unwashed self.  But I knew.  And I was heart-broken.

I opted to finish the beast anyways.  I got out the crystals to discover that the ones sent to me were not hot fix!  Another sign, or so it seemed.  I waited a week, and Dreamtime kindly returned the wrong crystals for the type I needed.  I did the hand painting, as planned -- not originally, but after seeing the gold Glide thread on the gray triangles, I decided I'd paint the vinework to better blend it in.  I don't think I really believed that, but at that point I was just going through the motions in a feeble attempt to finish this quilt.  In fact, the picture below is the only thing I can find that shows any of the painting!  

I continued on and added what seemed like an ingenious variagated piped binding.  I did post about that here.  I used about 60-8" segments of graded color around the binding.  It looked pretty cool.  Correction: It looks freaking awesome.  But I still had reservations about sending this quilt to the Maine Show for fear it flopped.  All signs with the multitude of issues I'd had were that it would flop.  I didn't want to go into the show and have egg on my face.  I don't have the Tara Lipinski mindset (remember her as the one-time wonder, who won the olympics in 1998, and then retired before she could ever compete again.  I don't think she wanted to not be able to repeat her performance).  Anyway, I have digressed there.  I don't give up.  I tackle things strongly, and would prefer to go down in a blazing ball of fire than to run the other way.  But, I really don't want to go down in a blaze of fire anyway.  So...

Tentatively, I entered (OK, the real truth...I entered the quilt before it had ever been quilted, and before it had any problems!!)   my new problem quilt, named Rainbow Nouveau, on account of all of it's many colors.  I also entered my Sea Glass quilt.  I think that this will have nice appeal with people considering the show is in Maine.  Very (VERY!!) much to my surprise, my client and friend Kathleen called last night from the show preview.  She said that Rainbow Nouveau had won the Best of Judged.  I was shocked.  More than shocked - I think I had a cardiac moment.  I was starting to think that the judges had a mental lapse, when she told me that the two judges were there with her and wanted to talk to me.  Oh holy freak out on my end, are you kidding?  They were very nice and had fabulous things to say.  If only I had the where with all to ask them a real question or two about what they really thought!  Oh Lordy, thank you for them not having enough time to discover where the garbage tension is, and where the rust spots and remaining dye bleeds are.  My theory seemed to work - With enough to look at, the eye will wander continuously, and it won't be possible to find all the bloopers!  I am elated and surprised that lightening did strike twice.  I have found such tremendous fortune and success and pleasure with quilting.  And the hard work and perseverance is rewarded and recognized sometimes too.  I will indeed take some close-ups of the quilt on Sunday, since I don't have any!  This is the one my friend emailed this morning.  I warned you this was a busy beast!

Oh, and Sea Glass took a 1st place too.

The end.  The show is this weekend at the Augusta Civic Center.

My Zen Garden at VQF

One last post from VQF.  I know you have seen this a time or two, but hey - it's mine and it took the Best Mixed Media Award last week at VQF.  That's the award for both piecing and applique.  My thoughts??...I was pretty excited to read that upon arriving.  Then I saw my quilt hanging, and felt horror & shock.  Red ribbon??? What on earth did the judges think I did wrong?  I'd have to wait for the quilt to come home for that answer.  The show hung my quilt on an end, in a lovely prominent place.  I was pleased for that.  It's probably my most dramatic quilt -- nothing subtle about the bright colors.  The purples & greens are all me.  ALL.  And did you know that when I designed this 14-15 months ago, I made it completely from fabrics I had on hand.  Only the backing & binding fabrics were purchased.

I will be happy when all quilt shows will put the cards and awards hung off of the drapes.  You can imagine how horrible it looked on the 24" miniatures to have all these cards blocking the view of the quilt.

The judges in general gave me very nice comments.  They liked my machine quilting, especially the checkerboard.  Gotta admit - this is so easy, but so very effective.   There is always one thorn in a bunch of roses though.  It was this way last year too (but somehow the average of the 3 judges yielded a blue ribbon then).  One judge scored my quilt way lower than the other two.  It's kind of irritating not to have more consistency, or at least some explanation  for deductions.  My piecing is textbook; no missed points anywhere.  So why take off 2 points when the other judges didn't?  This one judge took off a point on visual impact too.  They went so far as to write "powerful and bold impact", but only gave it 4 of 5 possible points. One judge shouldn't be allowed to score 10 points below the average of the other two.  And they ought to give some credit for complexity of piecing and applique.  I know they have a system, and I am far from understanding it, but when a very simply pieced quilt without so much as a triangle to possibly nip off can score a blue ribbon (because frankly there wasn't anything included that could be done incorrectly), it beckons the question, Why?

I could rant about judging until the crows come home, but all it would do is make readers think I am ungracious, which I am not.  I am a product of 45 years of having lived a competitive and judged life.  First it was competitive gymnastics through my youth.  Then I figure skated as an adult, and now the quilting.  I have lived and experienced judges that "just do it differently" than the others time and again.  I disagreed with it then, and still feel there should be be more accountability or guidelines for consistency.  At the very least, I'd like to receive some comment that indicated why this one judge thought this quilt only deserving of the yellow ribbon-points she/he awarded.  The fact that the Vermont Quilt Festival is known for being a conservative and traditional show should not be a factor.  I ask you...

What is improper about my suitability of materials?...
Is there something only 80% in my border treatment?...
Is the quality of quilting only deserving of 17 out of 20 points?...

 I bury all threads, it has perfect tension, and is wildly creative.  The fabrics chosen are perfect for a "blooming" style quilt, creating a big wow factor.  I stood around anonymously and listened to people looking at the quilt long enough to know that they thought it was beautifully executed.  The other two judges wrote that the values and colors were highly complimentary, so why is one judge allowed to deduct.   They should at the least be required to put their names on the judges forms (pink!) so that we know who they are.

Just my thoughts, ya know!

Here's some other looks at this quilt...here and here and here

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.

Intertwined - detail pics

I showed this quilt 10 days ago after the show, but didn't realize I hadn't really shown too many of the detail pictures.

Turns out, I really love this quilt. I love the batiks, and the purples and greens. They are 100% me and then some. I started this center block last August in a Karen Kay Buckley class on hand applique. Her class was fantastic. I can't say enough about her patterns (but they are hard and time consuming). If you follow through with the applique of one of her's, you'll definitely see the improvement in your technique by the end of it. She has patterns for a quilt with 6-9 leafy wreaths with different flowers and an absolute TON of grapes. I knew after doing the center that I wanted to do more, but I wanted to make it my own design. The vines are needle-turn appliqued from 3/8" bias cut strips, and then are stuffed with a piece of yarn. Can you say, "Very narrow!".

So I added the appliqued ribbon and cathedral window. And more grape vining with the orange flowers that intertwine, hence the origin of the quilt's name. The quilting is traditional and symmetrical, whimsical and fun. I put hidden quilted flowers in the border and no shortage of feathers. I wanted texture, everywhere. There is curved cross-hatching -- something I have grown to love. I made it look more basket-woven this time. Did I mention that there are nearly 150 appliqued circles that are all under half inch in diameter??

For those of you that longarm, this quilt has a layer of Hobbs 80/20 with a layer of Hobbs wool atop that. The thread is Superior SoFine on the top and Bottomline in the bobbin. The filler for the rays in the quilt's center is done with the Bottomline as well. The cathedral windows are stitched with a plum-rose variagated Rainbows thread. Although the pictures don't show the subtleness of the thread colors, the feathers in the center are stitched in lavender thread so that they'd show a bit more. The rest of the threads match the fabrics - mostly Hoffman 1895 batiks.

Though you probably can't tell, the quilt is also adorned with nearly 1000 Swarovski crystals. It glistens under the show lights. I tried really hard to give the quilt a great backing as well. I was tremendously bummed to find that I had missed centering the diamond by about 3/4". It's fortunately not really obvious! When this happened, I kind of suspected it would have a short show-quilt life. But receiving a blue ribbon has made me rethink that. It will be visiting the Georgia Quilt Show in October next, for those of you in that area.

It's 42" square. Could be a perfect size to hang in my dining room. If only...

HE doesn't love it here (like the new dining room was designed for anything else in this spot??!). Thinks it is too large. I think he's crazy. Real Crazy. Even crazier than the fabric-crazy, quilting obsessed wife he has. The wholecoth quilt I have been marking this week may go in this spot instead. Time will tell. It may well be on the show path for a while anyways :-)

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.