Quilt Connection Guild of Greenwood Show

Friday afternoon, Deb, Kathy and I took off to see the quilt show sponsored by the Quilt Connection Guild of Greenwood.  Here are some of the items that caught my eye.

I had made a presentation to the guild about the Fractured Quilt technique earlier this year.  I was delighted to see that at least one member of the guild attempted a Fractured Quilt.  I love the look of this quilt.

The note with this pillow said the material had been purchased on a trip to Hawaii 18 years ago.  What a wonderful way to showcase the material and the Hawaiian applique.  Maybe this is what I'll do with the 2 and one half blocks that I've completed with a Hawaiian applique motif!

I loved the beading along the bottom of this fanciful quilt.  Great embellishments.

They also had a display of some antique quilts.  This was a lovely way to combine some examples of quilt history with contemporary quilts.

Of course, there's also the fun quilt - this was a hoot!

There were also several vendors and I couldn't help myself - bought a Hallowe'en table runner kit from In Stitches.  Cathy carries the greatest kits and panels.  Deb bought one of the kits, too, and she sent me an email this morning saying she had finished the table runner.  What an over achiever!

Cheers!

Margaret

Boutique Preparation

The Columbus Star Quilters Guild biennial show is coming up next week.  If you're within driving distance, plan on visiting us on either Saturday October 6 from 9 - 5 or Sunday, October 7 from noon - 5 p.m. at Donner Center, 22nd & Sycamore Streets, Columbus, Indiana.  If you're from out of town, let me know you're coming as they'll be doing railroad track repair on IN-46.  I can give you a shortcut into town rather than the official detour which goes a few miles out of the way.

Anyway, Lisa, Lillian, Carol and I got together this afternoon to price the collection of items we have for the Quilter's Boutique.  There are lovely quilts, purses, credit card wallets, pillowcases (scads of them - in fun fabrics), jewelry keepers, pin cushions (again - scads!) and several unique items that will be for sale.  All proceeds from the Boutique will be used to bring top notch speakers to the guild for our monthly educational programs.

Can't write too much more now - have to go piece a backing for a quilt I'm entering in the show.  Then to quilt it and attach the binding.

Cheers!

Lisa & Lillian hard at work.  Carol kept records of items and recorded our recommended pricing.  Me - I flitted around but finally was put to work packing things up so they could be transported to the show next weekend.  Come check it out!

Margaret

Sue Nickels visits the Guild

Last week was full of fun quilting things - primarily Sue Nickels.  I had taken a workshop she led last year and was impressed with her teaching techniques.  I also learned lots about stitched raw edge applique and have successfully used her technique several times.  We were fortunate to get her as a lecturer for our Wednesday morning guild meetings and for a Thursday workshop.

First - Show and Tell...

Dottie showing two Christmas stockings she made for a soon-to-be inlaw & spouse (grandson's wedding, if I remember right)

Susan moved - but this is a quilt for her new granddaughter!   Since their family runs high to boys, this girl baby was somewhat of a surprise.  Look for lots of pink things from Susan in the future.  There's not much pink fabric in town these days.

Looks like Lillian - the quilt is for her daughter, a school nurse.  What a fun welcome sign this is!

Anne models this bonnet, which can also be used as an apron with just a quick unbuttoning .

 Then it was on to Sue's presentation on the history of Machine Quilting.  She and her sister, Pat Holly, collect antique quilts with machine applique or machine quilting.  She had slides of several of their finds and they were elegant examples of early machine quilting.  A few of the things I found interesting (Sue had lots of other information to share about the history and development of machine quilting - get her to come to YOUR guild - you'll be fascinated) ...

• Quilted petticoats circa 1870 are relatively easy to find.  Sue opined that this might be because they were small enough for beginners to quilt using the sewing machines of the times.
• Free motion quilting on applique makes its debut circa 1900.
• Sue theorized that as sewing machines became more affordable in the early 1900's,  machine quilting fell out of favor and hand quilting became desired way to have quilts finished.
• Harriet Hargrave's book Heirloom Machine Quilting was responsible for bringing machine quilting to the forefront again as she explained how to successfully machine quilt.
• Machine quilting is more readily accepted today (it took several years for this to happen) as there is a better understanding of the skill level required to successfully machine quilt.  If you've tried to machine quilt, you'll understand that it does take substantial skill to quilt beautifully - just as it takes substantial skill to hand quilt beautifully.

Sue then shared several of her quilts and talked about the evolution in her quilt designs and the collaboration she has with Pat on designing and making quilts.  An interesting process.  I helped hold the quilts so don't have pictures (sob) but you can see them on her website - www.sue-nickels.com. 

Here are Sue's quilts (including the small quilt on top of Pat's) available for closer inspection at the conclusion of the guild meeting.  What vibrant colors they are - something I didn't really notice until looking at this picture.

 Thursday was our workshop with Sue explaining the Stitched Raw Edge Applique technique.  Her book explaining this is excellent and I've referred to it many times.  It also has lots of other good tips relating to threads, needles and general sewing techniques.

Quilters are busy working on some aspect of the stitched raw edge technique.  This was the first time I've had the room set up with tables angled this way - worked well.  I'll have to remember it for next year.

Sue (in white blouse at right) explaining how to take one quarter of the pattern and manipulate it to create a full size pattern for the block.

Don't they all look happy?  This was taken at the end of a fun day with lots of learning squeezed in.  What a great group! 

Now we'll look for more projects with stitched raw edge applique as one of the techniques.

Cheers!

Margaret

Fabric Foray

One of my favorite quilt shops is having their Labor Day Sale - loads of bolts at $3.99/yard.  Pohlar Fabrics is a wonderful shop and if you're ever near the Richmond, Indiana - Cincinnati, Ohio area, it's worth a detour.  The scenery is lovely, it's near Brookville Reservoir and Pohlar's has tons of fabrics, patterns, sewing machines, threads...you get the idea.

I invited some friends to go with me as it's a good 1 1/2 hours away and I love having company.  Both Jeannette and Carol originally said no but changed their minds.  We got a somewhat late start but finally made it to Pohlar's around noon.  I made a beeline to the sale fabric and found two fabrics immediately.  I also noticed two tables of flannel - so took a picture and sent it to one of my quilting friends who loves flannels.  Couldn't get my phone to accept a message to text with the picture so I ended up calling her with the details.

I'm not sure what Carol was getting ready to say - but here she is standing in front of the flannels .  I'm not a real flannel enthusiast but these were lovely flannels.  Almost bought some for a backing for a quilt.  Almost...but not quite.

 We spent about an hour or so looking through the fabrics.  Carol was looking for binding to go with the quilt she's holding in her hands.  I think she's planning to take that quilt to Beaver Island in two weeks so she was pleased to find a good binding fabric for it.  She also found some thread to do some machine quilting with on another quilt.  Success!

Jeannette bought some fabric to make some of her fabric bowls.  She's making a few to include in the Quilter's Boutique for our Guild Quilt show in October.  I helped select the fabric so know that I'll like the combination!

After getting checked out, we searched for a restaurant I knew about that overlooks the Brookville Reservoir.  I couldn't remember the name (it's Ainsley's Cafe) so I missed the turn so we drove to the Quakertown Recreation Area and saw three original log cabins.  The gate attendant laughed at me - I was way far north of where the restaurant was located - and gave us directions.

We ate outside on the porch overlooking the marina and lake.  You can see the clouds  but no rain...yet.  Carol & Jeannette refused to turn around - I still asked them to smile when I got ready to take their picture!

We also found a short path leading to this overlook.  See the sailboat in the background?  Lots of boats on the lake today despite the forecasts for rain.

 We did drive through some rain on the way home but it was mostly dry.  It sprinkled as I dropped Jeannette off at her house and then again when I arrived home.  Looking out my window now, I can see lots of blue sky through the clouds.  Indy got several inches but it doesn't look like we got that much here.

Look at the luscious fabrics.  The red and white circles are the start of a new color collection.  No more collecting black and whites.  The ghost fabric was on sale and is for pillowcases for the Quilter's Boutique.  Colorful fabric on the white background is because I like it.  I actually like ALL of these fabrics but don't have a project for this particular piece.  The Black fabric with the swirls and the solids are for an upcoming quilt project.  I was tickled to find them as they fill a gap in my stash.  I realize I've been collecting batiks for several years but don't have very many blender type fabrics or solids.  So I'm getting a start on that!

The other thing I realized is that there are three condos at the edge of the lake - a perfect site for a quilt retreat!  There's a big meeting room under the restaurant - perfect for setting up sewing machines - and the condos come in 1 and 2 bedroom configurations.  With the lake just outside the door and Pohlar's down the road, what could be better?  Check it out - The Sagamore Resort.

Pohlar's sale continues next week.  If you've got the time, it's worth a trip.  Ainsley's Cafe will be open on Labor Day and closed Tuesday, reopening on Wednesday.

Cheers!

Margaret