Even the Ladies' Room had a beautiful quilt

Still basking in the afterglow of the Carolina Longarm Quilt show last weekend. The quilts were just outstanding. The custom quilting category alone had about 70 quilts featured. The whole setting was just lovely on a crisp, bright autumn weekend. Look at the lovely wall quilt that greeted visitors to the ladies' facility at the church! It was made by several members of the congregation, and quilted by the amazingly talented Kim Buterbaugh.

I did not have a digital photograph of one of my quilt entries named Summer Treasures, so I snapped a pic while it was hanging in the show. This is a Yellow Brick Road pattern, very simple to make. I have made at least four quilts using this pattern, and they all look different. This one has hummingbirds, dragonflies, flowers, and even a few angels smiling down on the garden. I used commercial prints as well as hand-dyes. I love this happy, restful quilt, and keep it on the bed in my guest room.

Longarm Quilting Show Post-Mortem

After being thoroughly immersed in the world of quilting for three days at the Carolina Longarm Association show in Clemmons, I enjoyed getting outside yesterday and working in the yard. The humidity and temperatures both dropped over the weekend, and it felt great to be outside. But I still have a warm glow from the pleasure of being with so many beautiful quilts, friendly quilters, and admiring quilt show visitors. I sat at the front admission table for a good part of the show, and so many people stopped back by on their way out to compliment the show.

The four quilts above are the grand total of the Challenge Quilts that were completed in time for the show. Many more quilters purchased the quilt kits, but as we all know, life sometimes intervenes. These four were very well received. Hopefully, as other quilts are completed, this will become a travelling exhibit that other quilt guilds can display at their shows. Did you notice anything different about one of the quilts? The one with the white center square was made by the designer of the challenge quilt. She insists that she did it right! But our directions called for a blue center square. Personally, I would have preferred the white center to showcase a quilting design. And one other thing---I thought we could not embellish these quilts, so that the focus was on the quilting only.But one person had tiny clear Swarovsky crystals all over her quilt. I was just itching to glam my quilt with painting and crystals. HMMM....

This was our association's first quilt show, and I think they did an outstanding job! But I think the challenge quilts should have been part of the judging, and certainly should have rated at least a paper label naming the quilter. But we did have a lovely poster made by a scrapbooker to explain the exhibit. Don't the paper cathedral windows make a great background?

The ladies who set up the show did a beautiful job of adding autumn arrangements and decorations throughout the building. Here is a display of some of the ribbons (which were not awarded until the end of the show based on Viewer's Choice) In addition to the two red and white raffle quilts sponsored by the CLA, there was another "opportunity quilt" on display by the Randolph Quilt Guild. I bought a few tickets for this one, since it would look great in my mountain cabin. And I got to meet art quilter and certified judge Scott Murkin, who is a member of that guild. He was a judge at the Capital Quilters Guild show in March and at MQX in April. Scott will also speak at the Capital Quilters Guild (Raleigh, NC) in March. This quilt will be raffled at their show, "A Stitch in Time", November 9-11 at the Moring Arts Center, Asheboro, NC. The quilt is called The Northern Lily and the Southern Rose.

Here is the display of the "Miscellaneous" category of our show. It was not included in the judging, which they did not tell us until after we entered our items. My shawl, "Luscious," is on the hanger.

And, of course, we had wonderful vendors around the perimeter of the building. Look at these lovely hand-dyes I purchased from CLA member Judy Whitehead:

Many visitors who exited the show asked if it would be held in the same place next year. Well, I don't think it is even certain that the show will be held annually! It is a lot of work. One person asked where the show would be travelling to next weekend! NOT!

Just one more comment. Our show was held in the New Hope Church in Clemmons, a lovely facility. Some of the church members provided box lunches on both days of the show, which were greatly appreciated. Several of us agreed to leave our quilts at the church to be displayed in their entry hall until mid-November. They have a great display system, and rotate the artwork on display. So now I can say that some of my quilts are "being shown" as part of an art exhibit. Very cool!

I'm a Bad-Ass Quilting Mama!

Life is a long lesson in humility. -James M. Barrie

This quote from Peter Pan's creator is vastly true for most of us. But every once in a while, things happen that tend to validate one's accomplishments, creations, or beliefs. Today, I can tell you about two of those rare moments in life when you feel you must have done something right.

Yesterday, I was thrilled to be awarded a first place ribbon at the Carolina Longarm Association's show in the Heirloom/Wholecloth category. Something "Girly" came through for me again! Something about this quilt seems to appeal to viewers. Perhaps it is the mix of traditional and art techniques, or that it just sparkles and lives up to its name when viewed in a show. This is the same quilt that caused so many problems that I almost withdrew it from its first show in March. I cannot tell you how astonished I was to take first place in this category. Actually, I think Kim Buterbaugh was robbed of her rightful award, since the machine quilting in her Rhapsody in Red quilt far outshine my little production. Rhapsody in Red was the larger of our two raffle quilts, quilted a la Sherry Rogers-Harrison's style of formal feathers. However, the raffle quilts were hung proudly at the front of the show, where hundreds of viewers hopefully purchased tickets to win them. Since the other quilts in the show were hung together in categories, people may have missed the fact that this quilt was also in the category for judging. Anyway, I am so happy to bring home this most unusual ribbon. I will write more about the show tomorrow.

Now, for the other "validation" I mentioned at the beginning of this post. This one is even more gratifying. I just read my son Dave's blog post called My Badass Quilting Mama! Let me just point out that his blog is all about ice hockey, specifically the Carolina Hurricanes. It is often funny, satirical and/or irreverent, and definitely so much more cool than mine. Yet, he keeps a link to my quilting blog on his site! And then I got a lovely tribute from him in his post about my blog. Wuff, my cup runneth over!

Not Your Grandmother's Quilt Show

This weekend will be the Carolina Longarm Association quilt show in Clemmons, NC. Dubbed Not Your Grandmother's Quilting, it will feature quilts by our members from North and South Carolina and Virginia. There will be two "opportunity" quilts available, both in red and white. I got to see both of these yesterday when I delivered my show quilts. Both are beautiful, heirloom quality, mouthwatering quilts that were pieced and quilted by our members. You can still get tickets for a chance to win these beauties, which will be raffled off on Saturday evening at the end of the show. Please follow this link for info about buying raffle tickets.

The show will be held at New Hope Presbyterian Church, 2570 Harper Rd, Clemmons, NC on Friday and Saturday of this week. Here is the link to the show information.

Pieced and quilted by Iris Noitalay

Pieced by Theresa Dewalt and Pame Whitaker and was quilted by Kim Buterbaugh

I am leaving tomorrow to help set up for the show, and will not be back until Saturday night. My sister lives in Kernersville, NC, which is about 30 minutes away from Clemmons, and I will be staying at her house. We are hoping this show will be a success, since it is our first Machine Quilting show. In fact, there are large machine quilting shows in other parts of the country, but none in the southeast. Perhaps this will become our own MQS or MQX someday! This year, we will have vendors, but no classes at this event.

After my guild's quilt show in March, I vowed not to enter any more unfinished quilts in shows. It is kind of stressful if things do not go well, or if life intervenes before the quilt is finished. So, I entered only finished projects this time. Except...I signed up to do the challenge quilt, which is only 24 inches square, a blue star on a white background. How long could that take? So, I drew up my designs, auditioned them with members of my bee, and got started...on Monday! I got it quilted and finished, but not as perfect as I would have liked. Oh, well, it's just a piece of cloth. After my son's apartment fire last week, the importance of something like this went way down on my list of priorities. Anyway, here is my little guy. I used a garden theme since I enjoy quilting leaves and flowers so much. The blue areas have a variegated thread in jewel tones, and I used Aurifil and Bottom Line in the white. Introducing..."Star of the Garden."
Star of the Garden
24 x 24

Signature Fad 5 Variegated cotton thread in blue areas

Two layers of batting- Warm and Natural base and Warm Blend top layer Butterflies and dragonflies occupy the corner squares

Setting triangles have feathered leafy motifs

My other entries are my fiber shawl, Something Girly, Spring Greens, and a Yellow Brick Road bed quilt I made years ago named Summer Treasures. It has hummingbirds and dragonflies in blues, yellows, and greens, and is quilted with Linda Taylor's Feather Meander pattern in variegated blues and greens. I think the Carolina Lily quilt is prettier, but notice it is not finished yet!

Fiber shawl made on longarm , now named "Luscious"

Something "Girly"

34 x 34

Spring Greens

12 x 12