Quilt Show Entries and The Green Man

In the midst of my painting, packing, and preparations for our floor remodeling project, I have sent in a couple of quilt entries to Innovations 2008, a quilt show in the Seattle, Washington area. This is probably the last outing for my little wall quilt, Something "Girly." Innovations is a Viewer's Choice, or Peer-Judged quilt show, and this little quilt has been pretty popular in other shows.

And, for his first official show, I have entered The Green Man. I have never posted the final picture of him, although I wrote about him when he was a work-in-progress. I finally decided he was finished! I just need to make him a sleeve and a label. You can read his story by clicking on the above link .

The main difference since the last picture is his nose. I wanted it to have some dimension. I finally decided to sculpt a nose out of wool roving and other fibers, and stitch it down.

Now I ask you: could there be any two different styles of quilt in the same show by the same person? LOL! One is so feminine and pretty, and the other...well, it has been interesting to watch people's reactions to him. I have shown him at the CyberBee and my local bee meetings, and also took him to school with me last May for the third grade quilt lessons.

People either love him or hate him! One of the third graders actually stuck out her tongue and starting making "barfing" motions when she saw him. One adult at CyberBee had a more refined, but similar response as this quilt was passed around. I have entered him in the "Unusual" category, which seems just perfect for him!

I have one more entry to prepare. I think I will put "Carolina Woodland Spring" in our state fair. This one is the same technique as Something "Girly", but with patchwork as well. It was shown at MQX last spring, but has not been exhibited locally.

The NC State Fair is not my favorite quilt venue, because the quilts get short shrift when compared to, let's say, cows, pies, 4-H projects, and even needlework. The quilts that don't win any recognition are rolled up and dumped on a table. The ribbon winners are folded about four times and draped over a pegboard wall so you see about an eight-inch section. The big winners are fully displayed. Between the trip to Raleigh to bring the quilt, the dour lady in charge of entries, the sawdust, and a second trip to pick it up, it is hardly worth it. But, I will give it one more try since I have not entered a quilt there in several years.

Another long-armer recently wrote that at the Idaho State Fair, her quilts won multiple ribbons, and she collected $38.00 in prize money. Her sister submitted a plate of brownies and won $150! Now, what takes longer to make...an heirloom quilt or a pan of brownies? Oh, well!

Hurricane Hanna seems to be veering to the east, which they now say will bring the Raleigh area only rain (which we still need very badly) and gusty winds.

So, I think we will leave tonight for the mountains without worrying too much about hurricane preparations. We are on schedule to have the kitchen floor installed on Monday morning, and I have all that area packed, cleaned, and painted.

I hope that you have a great weekend, and if you are in the path of the storm, batten down the hatches and stay safe!

My Baby Went on an Outing

One of my longarm friends from Raleigh, Cathy Kirk, was kind enough to photograph my quilt named Something Girly when it was at Machine Quilters Expo last week. It sure looks like it was hanging in good company, with all the ribbon-winners surrounding it! Hmmm, there is a little something hanging from mine. Maybe a participant ribbon like they give the kids at swim meets? LOL! I had another quilt accepted, too, a little green one called Carolina Woodland Spring. I'm glad my quilts got to go to New Hampshire this year.

Time to do the Happy Dance

I am not planning to go to the Machine Quilters' Expo in New Hampshire this year, but I found out today that two of my quilts are! This year, the quilt show was juried for the first time. And this is my first try at entering a juried show. Yippee! I hope someone will take pictures of my quilts hanging in the show. Here are my two babies that will be going on this outing in April:

Carolina Woodland Spring

2008

Something "Girly"

2007

Now I need to remember to add a five-inch sleeve to Something "Girly" since it currently has only the usual four-inch hanging sleeve. That should not be a problem. Last year I was still painting this one a week before its debut at the Capital Quilters Guild Show!

Two More Fabric Postcards

Magma

Serenity

Both of these cards were constructed the same way. I fused a fabric base to a piece of Timtex, a stiff interfacing. Then I fused a laundry sheet pre-painted with metallic Lumiere paints, using Misty Fuse. Then I had fun adding either bits of ribbon or bits of foil and some Angelina fibers. Since the dryer sheets were kind of "holy" after painting, everything was fused to the same base of Misty Fuse (covering with parchment paper.) I stitched through everything with metallic threads, using decorative stitches on my machine. Then, out with the heat gun for a little blast of melting action. That's when the orange piece began to look like molten rock! After fusing a fabric or watercolor paper to the other side, I zigzagged around the edges about three times, changing thread colors on the orange piece.

I got my entries mailed in to MQX for the spring show, and will have to wait and see if either Something "Girly" or "Carolina Woodland Spring" gets juried in. My first attempts at a juried competition! If you plan to show a quilt at Machine Quilters Expo this year, the deadline for photo entries is January 15.

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!

Capital Quilters Guild Show March 9-11

I have been busy getting my quilts ready to turn in today for the Capital Quilters Guild show at Peace College in Raleigh the weekend of March 9-11. I am entering Dave and Emily's wedding quilt, the basket quilt I finished for my sister-in-law Debbie, and a wall-hanging quilt that I trapuntoed, painted, and embellished with crystals and iridescent Angelina fibers for sparkle. I almost pulled the wall quilt out of the show because I have had so many problems with it. I will devote a post to it when I get back next week after the wedding. For a preview, visit my Webshots album 2007 Longarm Quilting , pages two and three. Here is one picture of the finished quilt. I will turn my quilts in at Quilts Like Crazy shop in Wake Forest, and then we are heading to Boone tonight for my niece Rachel's wedding. Hope we don't get snowed in!