MQX - Installment #3

Class #1... Bit of Bella, taught by Linda McCuean
yes, you guessed it, as in Judge Linda. I had hoped to take her Judges Review seminar, to gain insight into what judges look for, but it conflicted with my other interests. I took this instead. It was advertised as a "wholecloth" class, so I really expected it would be a more conventional approach - where a design is made that encompasses one-eighth of a quilt, mirrored, etc. - similar to what I am taking online at MQResource (and have shown barely a picture of my progress - doh!). I was pleased to see it was different than that, and focused largely on placing geometric "splotches" of design within other free quilted patterns. None of this was done with rulers, except to mark the grids.
This is my mostly finished mini-quilt. I had it maybe half-done when I left MQX, and put it on the machine on Sunday afternoon to complete. I have several customer obligations as well as my own show quilt to finish, but I knew that this would only take a couple hours. I have 2 more incomplete quilts from MQX classes to finish eventually as well.

Here's a few close-ups of my quilt. We place a marked grid on a 1/2" scale into the background of the quilt. The goal is to not have it looking like a perfect square plunked down into the quilt background, but to have it appear to flow. The diamond grid was harder to work with. My brain thinks better in squares :-)

BTW, the basic poppy part of this quilt was already marked for us. We started by outlining that, and then marking and stitching our backgrounds.

She gave all of us high contrast threads, which is NOT something I'd personally do. This would look drastically different stitched out in a soft yellow thread. But the green thread has a way of tainting the background color towards the green, while leaving the flowers and unquilted areas more yellow. Here's a peek at the detail of Linda's quilt...

She brought 5-6 of the same quilt, all done with different fabrics and different threads. Her style on these quilts is much like how I want to think - love the appearance of meticulous details, but doesn't want to be bogged down with time-consuming things and excess order. These quilts are about being random and free-handed. Now, once I email her the picture of my completed quilt, she says she'll mail us binding that matches! FYI - this is a polished cotton with a single wool batt. I've never bought or worked with this type fabric, but it has a nice sheen and she recommends it for wholecloth quilts. Here's a couple of suppliers for those interested...www.fabricall.com ($6.99 per yd for 54" wide) and www.paylessfabric.com ($6.25 per yard for 44" wide) - several colors available.

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Linda had a special exhibit at MQX also, displaying 10-12 of her quilts from over the years. I love studying her style, so I have several closer-ups. Enjoy!

lots of yards of white thread here...

This (I think) is actually a close up of the 1st one I showed that appears pink. So much marking involved in these quilts.

Previous MQX 2011 posts ...

Installment #1

Installment #2

MQX - Installment #2

I'm sure there is some other snazzy subtitle that this post ought to have, like "Making Money at Margaret's Expense" or "You, too, can have your face on a truck...Here's how!" or "Larger than Life", but somehow my cleverness in creating an appropriate title is lost. But seriously, being selected by Handi Quilter to be a part of their 2011 advertising has been a fabulous treat. If I said that I'm ashamed or embarased by having my face behind their machine, I'd be lying. This is a great thing. If you own a HQ machine, you can send in your quilting story for a chance to do this too. Anyhow, Handi Quilter is a big sponsor at MQX, as well as other quilt shows, meaning that their CEO Mark is in attendance. It was nice to see him again and get a few moments to talk. He's a very busy man. He was just about to take off for the Australasian Quilt show when I saw him Thursday (which was over by the end of this weekend!). HQ had a vendor's booth (of course) with a number of their machines always in use by prospective new owners. And a couple of us were lucky enough as to have our banners gracing the booth. I had to have walked by this four times before one of the HQ educators showed me that it was there! Of course, after returning home, my mom informed me that the MQX live cam which was on during show hours, showed the banner of me! I missed seeing the SLC HQ educators, but got to meet a nice group of others from around this area. My first class on Wednesday morning was in one of Handi Quilter's furnished rooms - a dozen Avante's! The HQ educator helping in the class was Mary Beth, who almost immediately recognized me. I'm not really sure if she recognized me or if she knew to expect me. I mean, would you recognize someone from a picture on a banner (or a truck??!). She turned out to be one of last year's My Story winners (see the link above), and a great asset in a class. About a half hour later, Mark dropped in as well, recognizing me too. In another class, I offered to help out Judy Woodworth with class handouts and $$ collection, as a teacher's angel was not in her class. I got to Kristin B., and immediately knew I knew her from somewhere. We tossed out a couple possibilities and soon realized it was the Handi Quilter connection. She was another of last year's faces. Really cool to make these acquaintences.

So, on Thursday morning, after mistakenly arriving to the convention center an hour early, I ventured out behind the parking garage in search of a "Truck". Not just any truck...I wanted to find the Handi Quilter truck. Now this is downtown Providence at morning rush hour. There's plenty of people driving around as well as walking. And here I am - stomping through a chain-link fenced parking lot (which is massively muddy thanks to receiving over 3" of rain the day before). But, as you can see, I did find the truck, parked deeply in this parking lot. It actually had another truck conveniently beside it with people still in it, so I asked them to kindly humor me and back up for 12 seconds, and to specifically not ask why I was photographing a Truck. They were puzzled, but did oblige.If you ever wondered what I looked like in abut 30"x30" closeup, here it is. And the quilt looks pretty nice too (thanks to the gals of the Row Robin Swap from a couple years ago that helped with a couple of the blocks you see).

...to read MQX - Installment #1, click here

MQX - Installment #1

I will have several posts about the Adventures of MQX; this is only the first. Many pictures need to be resized for blogger first. I spent 3 full days in RI, taking 5 half-day classes, and walking the floor of the show many a hour. It's a mind boggling and exhausting journey, and I am SO thrilled to have done it. I have many tales and many pictures, but this first post is mostly to show some of the quilts. Now, I went to the awards show on Wednesday night, mostly because it was free and then you could have admission to a sneek peak of the show and vendors. I was 99.9% sure I was not getting a ribbon, and I didn't. The top 3-4 quilts in each division are always really good. Like over-the-top unimaginably good - not even in my wildest dreams good. You get the idea. So, Wednesday night, I perused the show for an hour before taking my exhausted bones back to the hotel. I had all Thursday afternoon to look & shop. When Thursday came, I had my bearings. I knew which quilts I specifically wanted to look more carefully at and photograph. And when I got to this one (yea, it's mine!) imagine the surprise to my tired eyes! It had a teacher ribbon on it. These ribbons were not announced at the show the night before. It was such a fantabulous surprise. I had to find a white-gloved MQX helper to take a picture :-) I named this quilt Cartoline da Venezia (Postcards from Venice). It was a big holdup in my signing up for the show because I couldn't come up with a suitable name. Somehow The Italian Floor Quilt seemed inadequate. I will show you the label eventually, as it ties in with the quilt's name. I know you have seen many other detail shots of this quilt in previous posts, so I won't bore ya'll with too many of those. It escapes me how some quilters can spend 100 hours quilting a quilt and then just sit on it until a show. Seriously - I haven't got that kind of control. Here are links to previous posts...Look here, or here, and here (scroll down for a shot of the back). The progression of this quilt was not always a smooth one (remember the Sharpie pen incident???...BTW, it all came out!), but I'm happy with the end result.

One thing I noticed after spending countless hours staring at quilts is that many quilters used higher contrast or just downright blaring colors. Show quilts seem to break all the rules of color combinations. The brighter the better. Maybe it is to catch people's eyes, or the fear that the judges will not remember their's if it's not bold. Dunno, but it's one of those things I'll tuck in my knowledge hat for next time. As busy and bold as I thought mine was - It is subtle in comparison.

The teacher that gave my quilt the ribbon was Dustin Farrell. Now in all honesty, until this week, I had never heard of him. But he managed to walk away with quite a purse of cash at the awards. Here is one of his quilts from the show. It is only about 24"x36", and has a whopping amount of thread. He said that there is more than 6000yards of white thread on the piece! There's barely a thread of fabric to be seen!

All of the details of the animals and trees are thread-painted. There is amazing detail and accuracy. To have had this person place the ribbon on my quilt is quite an honor.

Now, onward to quilt picture...

This quilt intrigued me because it is largely made from the same fabrics that I used. It's someone else's take on an inlaid floor.

A gorgeous and well-ribboned carpenter's star. I payed particular attention to this type of quilt (and there were a few) since I will have to quilt my own one of these in the coming months.

Purely traditional quilts are in the minority, but this applique is pretty.

I love this one - the way the colors explode. It is all raw edge applique.

Here's a great quilting job for a New York Beauty quilt.

There were many quilts of animals. I love the mix of the traditional quilt background with the dog. The quilt in the dog's mouth must have been fun to work out.

Girraffes anyone? very sweet.

Pretty purple flowers.

This is by Claudia Pfiel - Cordoba is simply amazing. It's one of those over-the-top quilting jobs, and is adorned with an absolute ton of crystals. Her quilt won the Best in Show here last year. I can only wonder why this only received a 3rd. As an aside...I had wanted to attend a lecture by judge Linda McCuean about the Judging Process, but couldn't work it into my schedule. There's much to learn still about why judges score certain quilt higher or lower than others.

Obviously, I have a ton of closeups since they show more to me as a quilter than full quilt shots.

Here's another bright one, and a nice NYB.

This is either a wholecloth or a miniature; I can't remember. It's maybe 14" square, and al of the checkered squares are colored with thread. Mind-boggling.

I love how the ribbons swirl, and the quilting floats in the background.

And this is for all the avid paper-piecers out there - The leaves & roses are paper pieced and looked so realistic.

My final shots are of the quilt by Janet Stone which won Best in Show, called Red Letter Daze. All of her quilts somehow work the alphabet into the quilt or quilting. The workmanship and details are precise and intricate. It is impossible to tell if the letters were quilted or done with an embroidery machine. This is quilted on a domestic machine too! Here is a close up...

The fact that this quilt won the Best in Show is just further testiment that I know so very little about the judging process. It didn't win a ribbon in the category that it was entered. I just don't understand that whatsoever. Someone with more knowledge of this process should enlighten me, please!! I'm not saying that this is not deserving of the title. I'm only trying to understand why it does not also have a ribbon from it's division. Inquiring minds need to know!

Stay tuned this week for more MQX Adventure stories-

Onward to the Applique

Here she is, at a mere 1280 pieces (plus outer border) and only 67" square (well, mostly!). And best of all, I have not purchased a stitch of fabric for this quilt. I got really tempted to get something for the narrow border, but held off. I have some applique being designed for the outer border. The prep-time of starching and pressing all of that is innundating. I never thought that this quilt would be pieced as fast as it was. I fully expected that this quilt would be ready for quilting first. But it, too, is awaiting applique, and monopoly thread to sew on the applique, and for an unknown reason, Superior is not able to keep this item in stock. I hope to find a substitute later this week. These lone star or carpenter star quilts are challenging to make, even for the most patient of piecers. The number of Y-seams is higher than I can count. I'm not real high on that patience scale, nor am I all that eager to pin every single unit that I stitch. And I do mean EVERY one. These pieced diamond units are somewhat strip-pieced (or I'd definitely be certifiably nuts), but because the units are on bias, if you don't pin the heck out of this, no seams match up. On the areas that are more "colorwashed", that is no biggie, but where dark green meets ivory, it doesn't look so hot. At a close look, you can see areas that don't align exactly, but what the Hell. Take off your glasses, have a glass of wine (yaddy-yadda) and it looks pretty good. Pretty I think. Best of all, it may hang (if not too large) in my new dining room, and look just smashing when this is on the table (which I made last year sometime). I guess you can tell what colors I am drawn towards :-)

I'm off to MQX tomorrow for the week. I'm taking classes with some of the great longarmers, hoping to bring home some good tips, ideas, and of course purchaseable goodies! There will be plenty of pictures to show as well.

freebies Updated Sunday

Sunday Update... Here's some rogue block sets I have to add to the nearlyfree offerings if you want them. 1. 5 orange and pink, 12-1/2" - top left is slightly larger $5 2. 7 This and that, all 12-1/2" $5

3. there are 7 - 12-1/2" give or take, assorted black & whites $5

4. 15 string blocks on foundation, 12-1/2. Good fabrics. $10

5. 12 nine patch in shades of pink, peach and purple 12-1/2" $7.50

Email if you want any. If you have a box coming, they can be added to the box if I hear from you before tomorrow for no add'l shipping. Theseare great for donation quilts.

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Update... I am awaiting payment from 2 people. I have 7 (SEVEN!) flat rate boxes packaged up and ready to schlep to the PO Monday. Yea...my sewing studio has never been so "lean"!! (OK, if you don't count that there are another 4-500 yards of folded cuts on the shelves :-) It's good to have the strip bin empty, since I haven't touched it in a year, and my color coded scrao boxes to the point where each will close.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have heard from several about wanting scraps. I have cleared out yet another 66qt bin of various scraps and strips so I have plenty for at least 2 more flat rate boxes. Price $5 plus shipping. Email me with the size box, your Paypal addy for billing and mailing address to save time. I need to mail these by Monday or they will wait a week since I am leaving on Tues for here!! I have also discovered a couple of mini's that are each approx 18"-20" square, all made from Kaffe fabricsa couple years ago. I can put them into the boxes of scraps if you decide you like them. $5 each. Note they do lay flat - just need an ironing.

I also have this twin quilt top shown here, that is made from Freespirit fabrics. I'll let it go for $40 plus shipping.

Mostly Free For the Taking

OK, mostly free. I have been cleaning out my sewing space in anticipation of the start of my home addition. I have loads of things (and more to come) to offload to the desiring person. A few of these I will ask for a small payment, but seriously, not much :-) 1. Mayn collection bags of scraps. These are good sized pieces. There may be pieced blocks or partially pieced things. They'd be greast for the person that does scrap quilts, or donation quilts. There's pieces of batiks and regular cottons. Many recent modern prints. Price: $5 plus shipping. Note I have enough for at least 2 boxes.

2. soft pink sheet. I know people tell you not to use sheets with your quilts, but seriously, I longarm quilt and have absolutely no issues with sheets as backings. This is not particularly high thread count, which is where these issues may occur. $5 plus shipping

3. 7 fat quarters. Good quiltshop striped fabric. $4 plus shipping

4. coordinating prints (42" wide) - top to bottom...peach bows Benartex 2 pieces at 34" each, ivory RJR stripes one at 56" and one at 28", ivory bows Benartex 1 piece 34". All fabrics $15 plus shipping

5. one vintage sheet, pretty floral $5 plus shipping

6. 6 fat quarters, good quilt shop quality $4 plus shipping

7. Two Runners (16.5"x51") made from canvas (both sides) - Is this Amy Butler from last year?? I have forgotten. They are both quilted already and just need you to bind them - $8 each plus shipping. SOLD

8. cotton corduroy, dusty plummish-brown 2-3/4 yards $5 plus shipping

9. flannels - Sesame Street is 1-1/4 yard, dots is about 1/4yd, rest are scraps.

pay shipping and they are yours. 10. Pieces of 14 and 18 ivory cross stitch fabric. Free, pay shipping

11. free - just shipping

12. free - just shipping

13. goose cross stitch, free - just shipping

14. Fleece scraps - perfect for the person that makes the donation pieced fleece quilts. Lots here. Free, pay shipping

For anyone interested, leave a comment or email me directly msolomo1@maine.rr.com

Discount Coupon

I am feeling generous. Today's my 10th wedding anniversary. In a time when many marriages fail early, we feel very fortunate. We are stable, happy and have a brewd of challenging (yet fun) kids. So...I am offering a deal on longarm quilting to whoever is interested. There are a few stipulations though.

I will give you 15% off on the charge of the quilting to refer a new client. You may use this however many times you can (one discount per referral though). Feel free to post this to your blog or email it to all your friends. All they have to do is print the coupon and write your name and email addy in the blanks. Then you will get the discount! Easy :-) I have been revamping my business website recently, adding lots more pictures so perhaps you will find some ideas for those quilt tops you are making.