Carolina Longarm Quilt Show

Tomorrow I am getting my eyes checked, then my hair re-touched, and then I'm heading to Kernersville, NC, to spend the night with my sister and brother-in-law.  The next day I will help hang the Carolina Longarm Association quilt show, Romance is in the Air.  I have four quilts entered for judging, and one in the Challenge category. 

Fun With Feathers, 2010

 All challenge quilts have the same fabric and pattern for the top, but each of us quilted it to our own preferences.  That should make an interesting display!

Romance is in the Air-Carolina Longarm Quilt Show

Friday, September 17, and Saturday, September 18

New Hope Presbyterian Church

2570 Harper Road, Clemmons, NC 27012

9:00-5:00, Admission $5.00

Clemmons, NC is just north of Winston-Salem, off 421.  It should be a beautiful day for a ride to the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains!

I'll spend one more night with Katy and Kenny, work at the show on Friday, and then come home to see my son and grandkids.  We will babysit during the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers concert at Walnut Creek in Raleigh.  Looking forward to all these events!

I tried hard to finish the white antique quilt before leaving.  I have the bottom third of two stars, two corner squares, four setting triangles, and one long rectangle left to do---not that I'm counting! When I got to the very bottom it was looking like a dust ruffle.  But, as before, it is "quilting out" nicely.  I ran out of bobbin thread after going through 16 bobbins.  And my thread is breaking so often that I am thinking about washing my own mouth out with soap.  It will be two years this weekend since my sister-in-law entrusted me with this quilt and its twin.  It will be a little past its anniversary before it is complete!

Not sure if I will be able to post until I get home this weekend, but will definitely be blogging about the show sometime soon.

CLA Challenge Quilt and Artsy Bookmarks

I belong to a group of Longarm quilters from North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina, called the Carolina Longarm Association. We are having a quilt show in November, for which I have entered the challenge. A kit was provided with fabric and instructions for this star quilt. Very simple design with lots of quilting opportunities. The whole thing is only about 24 inches square. HMMMN, do I do a traditional feather design? Venture into trapunto? Use wild shiny threads? This will be fun.

Since I got my sewing room semi-orderly yesterday, I decided to immediately mess it up by finishing some artsy bookmarks. I used my Tsukineko inks and Shiva Paintstiks to add some designs to heavy watercolor paper, then cut them into bookmarks. I was going to use them "as is," but decided it would be much more fun to add some fiber "tails." After I did that, I thought it would be fun to add some sparkle with Angelina fibers. I sprinkled a little Bo-Nash powder and ironed on the Angelina between sheets of parchment.

This is one reason I keep every little scrap of ribbon, beading, or other potential embellishment around for inspiration. Wonder if my library book pages will be sparkling when I turn them in?

These were lots of fun. Next time I will add the Angelina before cutting out the bookmarks so the edges are a little cleaner. I stitched around a few of them with invisible thread to hold down the fibers.

This is the other side of the same bookmarks.