Fun with Antique and Modern Quilts in St. George

Need a breather and a chance to create.  Then come see me and lots of other wonderful people  in St. George, Utah,  January 6-10, 2015.  Time for the 2nd Annual Quilt St. George retreat, a truly Quiltabulous Event!

Need a jolt of joy or craziness ?  Then this funky free-form and fun, alphabet paperpiecing class with the choice of two delightful projects would be perfect.

Love Birds & Lady Bugs  18" x 30"

Crazy Quilt, 16" x 16"

I'll also be teaching my cheddar stars class as well as a red rock landscape quilt.


And I will be sharing antique quilts galore.  With a half day class on antique signature quilt, you'll get to see many museum quality early quilts from 1840 forward.  You'll be able to get up close and really examine the fabrics and names and the amazing tiny stamps and drawings that many people added to their signatures.

Hoopes Worral Quilt, dated 1850, Chester Co. Pennsylvania

And I'll also be doing a second half day class, Patterns Through Time.  You'll see about a dozen different quilt patterns and 2 or 3 examples of each which give you a chance to see the changes in quilting and society over time.

If you like modern artistic quilts, my luncheon trunk show: Everything Old is New Again will show you how to learn from past quilters to make amazing new quilts.

And I will be doing quilt appraisals in my spare time at the retreat.  I'm certified to appraise all types of quilts, old and new, traditional and modern.  Email me if you want to schedule a time.

Word Play and Paper Piecing Fun in Minnesota

Yes, Minnesota but not until it warms up in June.  Come take a delightful paper piecing class and see how truly fun it can be.  Paper piecing is one of the best methods to create precise patterns without having to work hard.  Just sew on the lines and you get exactly what you sew.
It really is a lot of fun once someone shows you the tips and tricks.  I'll be teaching my Word Play class and you'll have a choice of the Love and Joy Pattern

 
Or the Crazy Quilt

Or you can create your favorite word or just make 

Hope to see you in Minnesota this June, here's the registration information

And ps. if you are interested in purchasing some of my quilt patterns, my Etsy store is now open.

Scrappy Color Play 9" x 11"

Quilt Alliance - Twenty Contest- Voting open for 2 days

Voting for the 2013 Quilt Alliance Contest is now open (formerly the Alliance for American Quilts).  But only until Midnight Eastern, Saturday June 29th.  My entry is quilt #88, It's All About the Dots.  It is machine paper pieced from my own patterns and machine quilted/embroidered in crazy quilt fashion.  Yet another in my series of Word Play/Literally Challenging Quilts.  I hope you will consider voting for me.

You must be a member to vote but you may be able to still join in time (on line).  The Alliance is an excellent organization that does much to preserve the history of American Quilts.  You can join the Alliance via credit card or paypal, it is only $25.00 (tax deductible) and it a good cause.

It was fun to make even though the 2 inch blocks were a bit challenging

It was fun finding the perfect novelty fabrics to fit in the teeny blocks, like the dog above and the cat below.

                                                              And here is the full quilt

                                                   "It's All About the Dots"  20" x 20"

Creating

This spring's project: a quilt for the Arts and Old Lace Challenge

"Literally Challenging"  Another one of my 'wordy' quilts.

18" x 18", machine foundation pieced (my own patterns)

Arts and Old Lace Challenge

I used lots of decorative stitches on my machine to add decoration and quilting at the same time.  The suiting fabrics esp. had such a crazy quilt feel that at my Mom's suggestion I added crazy quilt fans to the corners. 

An original design.  Obviously inspired by the challenge title.  Part of my series of "word play" quilts -- quilts that have something to say.  The name also notes the very challenging nature of the fabrics - much more difficult to sew than my beloved cotton.s

I used fabric ONLY from the 2 salesman sample books:  one with formal Italian suitings, the other with light summery woven (more than 105 different fabrics were used in the 18 inch quilt).  I used the challenge packet lace for the "&" but added 2 vintage laces from my Mom's stash.  She also found the woven coat binding - the perfect finishing touch.

   

Here's the challenge packet:

And here's a detail of the quilting:

The exhibit opened on July 21st at Artistic Artifacts, Alexandria, Virginia and the 87 quilts from 80 artists will be on display there until the end of September.  The exhibit will then travel to various locations.
Contact Cyndi Souder for information on how to get the quilts shown at your quilt show, museum, art gallery, etc.



Flower Talk - Hoffman Quilt

Flower Talk (Pick Me I'm Cute) 29" x 29" 2010

My 2010 Hoffman Challenge quilt--flower talk. It was picked to be part of the Hoffman Challenge traveling collection (my sister Donna's feathered star is also part of the collection). The challenge fabric is the blue floral used in the 4 blocks without letters.

It is an original design, inspired by a field of purple coneflowers all asking to be picked ... flower humor. Part of my series of "word play" quilts--quilts that have something to say. A whimsical approach to quilting. Started for the 2009 challenge (brown paisley-see middle line of last E) --I kept the pink and brown centers and then reworked the next row adding blues and keeping the greens. I finished off with more pink and a funky dragonfly border. It was a design I really liked and it felt good to make it work.

Letters were paperpieced from my patterns. Machine pieced and then embroider/quilted in one step with Sulky thread. 2 batts- 80/20 cotton/polyester and 50/50 cotton/bamboo.

Alliance Crazy Quilts Auction on eBay

It is time for the first round of the Alliance auction. My Crazy quilt pictured above will be auctioned off this week. Click on the logo above for more details and to see all the quilts.

All contest quilts will be auctioned via eBay
Click on an auction week below to view or download an auction guide for that week.
Week One: Monday, Oct. 26 - Monday, Nov. 2
Week Two: Monday, Nov. 2 - Monday, Nov. 9
Week Three: Monday, Nov. 9 - Monday, Nov. 16
The bidding for each quilt will start at $50 and each 7-day auction week starts and ends at 9:00 pm Eastern.
All proceeds will support the AAQ and its projects.

My Quilt in the News and back story

9-8-9 Update -my quilt was one of the honorable mention winners in the challenge.

Exciting news: my quilt for the Alliance for American Quilts Crazy quilt Challenge is one of 4 quilts highlighted in their June newsletter. Here is the direct link. My sister called with the news the day before my birthday- what a fun surprise present. It is pictured above (from the back) I wanted to show off all the threadwork and I think it is interesting to see quilt backs which are often forgotten. To see the rest of the quilt, see the previous entries below and the link above. More than 70 quilts were made and donated to the Alliance for this challenge and they will be auctioned off on eBay in late October and early November to benefit this valuable quilt resource.

Still Crazy

Here is the crazy quilt, now with stitched swag border. I can't believe how much the swag has changed the quilt. It completes the quilt, pulls all the elements together and adds a funky sophistication.

I really like the black and pink polka dots binding. So much better than the fuchsia binding. Guess that means I have to tell my sister that she was right about the dark binding.

There is a lot of stitching on this quilt. I went through a whole spool of pink bobbin thread. Thanks for looking.

Crazy update

I've made quite a bit of progress in a week--on the home stretch and the deadline is looming. I've got to finish up tomorrow or really this afternoon. Now to figure out the border and binding and buttons-- oh my! By the way, the bottom border is a test strip of my proposed quilting design: a scallop swag border inspired by many antique quilts though those are done with applique instead of decorative stitching.

My sister could visualize on the phone that the quilt needed a black or almost black binding but I was sticking with the fuchsia until I did the above mock up. On camera the fuchsia disappears and is really blah. I think I'll use the black polka dots, it is more fun than either of the batiks. She's also thinking that the border would be better with just buttons and no decorative stitching but I think that I'll do the quilting. Of course, I'll do it a bit more evenly and with two lines of stitching to give it a 'real' swag look. Got to get quilting before I'm really in a bind-ugh. Hope this quilt doesn't make me completely crazy.

Crazy Quilt part 2

I'm made quite a bit of progress on my quilt for the Alliance for American Quilts Crazy quilt challenge (read more about it in my previous post). I've already used a 100 fabrics. I trust you can 'read' the quilt - it spells out crazy quilt. I'm taking the challenge literally.

Now to figure out the center 2 blocks and decide what fabric(s) to use for the small 2" border. Any suggestions are welcome.

C is for Crazy Quilt

What I'm working on --a crazy quilt for this year's Alliance for American Quilts challenge. They are currently accepting entries/donations of 'crazy quilts' which will be auctioned this fall on EBay to help with their mission of preserving American Quilts and quilt history. In honor of their 16th year, the quilts are 16 inches square and must be postmarked by June 1, 2009. If you are a quick worker, there is still time to join in, and anyone can buy a quilt on EBay to help support the Alliance. I'll post when it is time to vote for your favorite and again when it is time to starting bidding.

I'm taking the theme literally and spelling it out, as you can see in the sneak peek block. Drafting paper pieced letters in a log cabin, cq format with strong graphic appeal of black and white and hot pink/fuchsia. What a lot of fun for a great cause.
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Update on the last Fiberart For A Cause (FFAC), my donated raven postcard raised $50.00 for the American Cancer Society, thank you Donna. Virginia Spiegel with a lot of help from her friends has now raised almost $200,000.00 for ACS. What an amazing woman.