Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show

What a day...getting up at 5:00 AM ( a real shocker for me these days) and heading north to travel to the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival with a car full of women. We had an amazing day. The show was mind-boggling, with the number of quilt, special exhibits, and vendors from around the country! I took lots of quilt pictures and was truly humbled to see the exquisite, artful works on display. I have not finished cropping, editing, and trying to identify the quilts, but here is a special shout-out to Carolina Longarm Association member Rosemary Cushman for winning Best Machine Workmanship, Innovative category. I believe she used Tsukineko inks to color her quilted motifs, in this fun quilt.

And here is a group quilt made by members of Capital Quilters Guild, including two members of my Anything Art bee (Tama and Margaret) and also my CyberBee ( Mary, Tama, and Kathy).

I spent most of my time gazing at quilts, but visited a few vendors to make some donations...

I have so many toys to buy supplies for...the long-arm, the regular sewing machine, the embellisher, the mixed-media world... I concentrated on purchasing things I normally have to order by mail...or things from vendors of specialty items...

like sheep wool! Oh, boy, I wish I had purchased more of these hand-dyed wool curls.

These are used with the needle-felting (embellishing) machine, especially for projects in the books by Margo Duke. That cool skein of yarn is destined for adding colorful stems and flower details to my Cubist garden quilt for the Pamela Allen class. These are from Mangham Wool and Mohair Farm in Charlottesville, VA.

Also for embellishing, some hand-dyed silk ribbon from Quilter's Fancy, Cortland, OH in yummy rose and teal shades.

And since I found some teal curls and ribbons, how about a variety of teal Dupioni silk hand-dyed fat eighths from Country Keepsakes of Rome, PA?

I bought this Christmas ornament kit because I had never seen one like this. There is a pre-printed, pre-colored design on fabric that you embroider over batting, add a backing, and finish. The design is by Carol L. Steffensen, and I can't remember the vendor. The website for the pattern is Chickadee Hollow Designs.

Less fun, but useful for my longarm quilting, I stocked up on The Bottom Line thread and Super Bob pre-wound bobbins at Superior Threads.

Also at Superior, I purchased some HEAVY-duty water soluble stabilizer in two sizes, to avoid disasters like the fibers wrapping around my bobbin assembly a while back.

Any my last stop before we called it a day about twelve hours after I got up: some new feather stencils from The Stencil Company. Most of my longarm quilting is freehand quilting, but I occasionally need some stencils for quilts like the heritage Blazing Stars quilt I just finished for my sister-in-law. I got really tired of the stencil I used over and over on that quilt, and now I have another just like it to quilt. Maybe I will try one of these new designs.

And, I did not forget my blogging friends while shopping...next time I will show what I bought for a Blogiversary Give-Away!

Catching Up...and Symposium Report #1

It has been a hectic week and weekend. At school we are still giving End-of-Grade tests. Since I do not have my own homeroom classes that have to be "covered," I have been pulled to administer tests, make-up tests, and re-tests for the last two weeks. I would much rather be working with my groups. It continues tomorrow and at least through Wednesday.

Last Tuesday we had a whirlwind visit from my son and two grandchildren. My sons went to see the Carolina Hurricanes in their playoff game in Raleigh, and we babysat. We kept the kids overnight, and then Bryson took them home the next day. Then both kids got sick. Lily had pneumonia, ear infection, and eye infection. Sure am glad that did not happen while she was here. She was just starting to cough a little. Charlie got them light-up sticks that they were wearing in these pictures.

Friday was our 38th anniversary. We had a wonderful celebration at The Melting Pot in Raleigh, a fabulous fondue restaurant. We had a four-course meal of cheese fondue, salad, lobster, shrimp, chicken, pork, and beef fondued in a citrus flavored oil, and finally, white chocolate fondue with Amaretto added. Oh my my! Charlie got us a beautiful bottle of French champagne for a gift, and I got him new wine glasses. We must be made for each other!

This is how Charlie looked in our engagement picture. Lots of glossy dark hair!

Then, on Saturday, I had my first opportunity to attend the North Carolina Quilt Symposium show. Symposium is held once a year and hosted by various guilds in North Carolina. This year, the Capital Quilters Guild were hosts for the conference at Peace College in downtown Raleigh. I spent all day Saturday gazing at the quilts and shopping from the fabulous vendors.

I only entered one quilt in the show, my Carolina Woodland Spring trapunto quilt. I have written about it before, so you could search my blog for it and see how I made it. This won a first place in the North Carolina State Fair last fall.

It did not place in the Small Wall Hanging category at this show, but it did win a wonderful award! Look at the nice big Judge's Choice ribbon! There were three judges in the show, and they each got to award one special ribbon. Mine is courtesy of Cindy Brick.

Today when I was heading to my class, I met the quilt symposium chair in the stairwell. She said to wait a minute, and then she fumbled through her bag and fished out a nice check that was a monetary award for winning the judge's choice! What a great surprise!

Unfortunately, it did not cover the expenses of the fun things that I purchased from the vendors. But every little bit helps! Here are some of my purchases.

A Symposium T-shirt, a new 6" x 24" ruler that was on special sale at a great price, and a straight ruler to use with the longarm. This one has a plexiglass handle to hold on to while using the ruler. Maybe it will help my stitch-in-the-ditch.

Some fun fat quarters of fabric just right for some little girl quilts.Two adorable patterns for little girl's clothes. Maybe if I get busy, Lily will have a new little dress for her birthday in a couple weeks.Some beautiful bead assortments and beading thread.Misty Fuse and printable fabric sheets in lawn and organza.More girly fabrics in softer shades, and a pattern for all kinds of bags for phones, etc.Gorgeous hand-dyed vintage linens and fibers from Artistic Artifacts.Some nice buttons and charms.

Here is the quilt that won three major awards, including the Carolina Longarm Association ribbon. Isn't it a beauty? It was quilted by Linda James with lots of feathers, pebbling, and McTavishing.

It was a wonderful quilt show with fabulous quilts of all descriptions. I will report on the show tomorrow, and eventually on my class with quilter, beader, and author Larkin Van Horn. She is from Whidbey Island near Seattle, a place I visited when we were out there on Camano Island to visit my brother's family. Lots of fun and I learned a lot.