Quilt Show Weekend

This weekend was our local guild’s quilt show.  Set up was Friday.  We opened Friday night from 5 pm to 9 pm.  This was the first year that we opened our show up to the public on Friday night.  Saturday we were open from 9 am to 4 pm.

This was the view as you came in the door of the church.

This was our raffle quilt.  This was the first year that we sold all of the tickets that we had printed.

This is our guild banner.

We had a small merchants’ mall as well.

And now….on with the show!

I spent all day Saturday demoing crumb and string quilting.  This was my table – set up in front of one of my quilts, Got Stripes that was entered in the show.

1.)  I entered a total of 14 quilts in this show.  Got Stripes is 99.5″ x 115.5″.  The Pattern is by Terry Atkinson  from Terry’s Time Out Quilts book.  This quilt is part of a collection of quilts gifted to my daughter and her husband on the occasion of their wedding on September 1, 2012.

This was the display that I looked at as I demoed on Saturday.

This display was also in my field of vision as I worked away at my demo table.

2.)  This is where my quilt, Love Is was hanging.

A closeup of Love Is.  This quilt is 37.5″ x 49.5″.  This pattern is by Paula Stoddard and was on her blog, Quilt Happy, Quilt Often, at one time. This quilt was presented to my daughter at her bridal shower in August.

3.)  This is another one of my quilts–Minnesota Hot Dish.  This quilt is 86″ x 101″.  The pattern is by Terry Atkinson and is also part of a collection of quilts presented to my daughter and her husband at their wedding on September 1, 2012.

4.)  This is another of my quilts, Butterfly Trails.  This quilt is 64″ x 77″.  The pattern is by Atkinson Designs and is from Terry’s book, Time Out Quilts.  This quilt is part of the collection of quilts that was presented to my daughter and her husband on their Wedding Day.

5.)  This is where Bento Box hung at the show.

Bento Box was the fifth quilt that I entered in this show and is 61″ x 75″.  This pattern is by Tracy Brooksheir.  This quilt also forms part of the collection of quilts that were presented to my daughter at her bridal shower.

This picture shows the long row of quilts that hung on the far wall of the hall.  Two of my quilts are visible in this picture – Pansies and Fire Escape.

6.)  Pansies is 51.5″ x 68″.  The pattern is by Kari Nichols.  This quilt forms part of the collection of quilts that were gifted to my daughter at her bridal shower.

7.)  This is Fire Escape.  This quilt is 59.5″ x 71″.  This quilt was presented to my daughter at her bridal shower.

8.)  This is where my Jelly Roll 1600 quilt hung at the show.

This is a closeup of JR1600.  This quilt is 47.5″ x 62″.  This quilt still belongs to me!  The pattern for this quilt can be found on You Tube.  The online quilting group that I belong to–the FABs–celebrated each quilter’s birthday in 2011 with an online birthday party.  This quilt was assembled during Pam’s birthday party.  After the presents were opened, we were on to the rest of the party.  Pam and Cher used commercial Jelly Rolls and Linda, Pat, and I used strips cut from our own stash.  After joining 40 – 2.5″ strips end to end you have 1,600 inches of fabric.  Take the end of your strip and match it with the beginning of your strip and put the pedal to the metal and sew!  You will be working on one long seam–800 inches long.  You repeat this 5 times and you end up with a lap sized quilt.  There is to be no pressing of seams until the top is done.  The women on the video claimed to be making their tops in 35 minutes.  It took longer than 35 minutes for me to complete my first seam!  After sewing my top together I thought my top needed something more.  All the green fabrics looked like a lawn to me so I thought about adding some bugs.  After the quilting was finished, I appliqued the 5 ladybugs to the top–one ladybug for each FAB.

9.)  This is a wall hanging that I made from a panel.  I called this one, Love.  (Not very original, eh?)  The pattern that I used was Sidelights by Kari Nichols.  This one finished 46″ x 53″.

10.)  This is where my quilt, Halloween Scrappy Log Cabin hung at the show.

Halloween Scrappy Log Cabin is from a pattern by Two Kwik Quilters and finished 47.5″ x 66.5″.  This was a pattern that many of us from our Monday night quilt group have made.

11.)  This is the quilt that I finished recently–Fall Rail Fence.  This quilt finished at 68″ x 86″ and was inspired by a quilt on the cover of the January 1999 issue of Traditional Quilter.  The quilt in the magazine was called, Christmas Village and had a border of foundation pieced houses and trees on it.  I started this quilt in 1999 and by the time I got around to finishing it recently, I decided that I no longer liked the border that was on the quilt in the pattern so I replace the pieced border with this green/sunflower print.

12.)  This quilt literally came right off our bed before it was hung in the show.  This quilt is 95.5″ x 103.5″ and is called, Rooster Twist.  The name of the quilt pattern is Strip Twist and is by G.E. Designs.  I belong to a group of on-line quilters called the FABs.  One member is from Wisconsin, two members are from Oregon, another member is from Alabama, and then there is myself.  Although we had quilted together on line since 2006, only a few of us had met in person before we got together for a retreat in 2009.  We had a great time–each of us piecing together our own version of this quilt.  Friendships were bonded together forever that weekend and we continue to quilt together most weekends thanks to MSN and e-mails.

13.)  This is a small version–61.5″ x 72.5″–of a larger bed size quilt that I made, All About Halloween.  This is another Terry Atkinson pattern–All About Me.  This quilt was gifted to my son and his wife after the quilt show.   This quilt was a healthy alternative to trick or treat candy this year.

14.)  This is the last quilt that I entered in our quilt show this year.  This quilt is Halloween contemporized Country Squares and measures 73″ x 85″.  This pattern is by The Stitchery in Olds, Alberta.  While attending a family reunion near Olds, Alberta in August 2010, I had an opportunity to visit a local quilt shop called The Stichery.  I fell in love with the samples of this quilt that they had hanging in the shop and purchased my own copy of the pattern from the mother/daughter team that designed the pattern.  This pattern was perfect for my Halloween scrap collection.  This quilt was gifted to my daughter and her husband after the quilt show and was a healthyy alternative to trick or treat candy.

This is a picture of one of the fresh flower arrangements that decorated the tea room tables.

By the end of the show, I was exhausted.  It is always a lot of work to put on a show like this.  However, it is all worth it when you receive the positive comments from the public like we did.  See you all in another two years!

Harrison Mills Quilt Show

This weekend was the annual Harrison Mills Quilt Show.  A small group of quilters–The Stitch and Rip Group–meet weekly in the hall to share their love of quilting and once a year, in October, they host a small quilt show featuring the talents of local quilters.  This is a fund raiser to support the upkeep of the hall.
 
 
This year, I entered six quilts.
 

1.  Lap size All About Halloween

2.  Pumpkin Warm Wishes

3.  Halloween Contemporized Country Squares

4.  Halloween Scrappy Log Cabins (on the left and Contemporized Country Squares on the right)

5.  JR1600 – Ladybugs in the grass

6.  Bear Paw

Fraser Valley Quilters’ Guild – Quiltafair

Since my sewing machine is still in the shop, I was free to attend the Fraser Valley Quilters’ Guild biennial quilt show, called Quiltafair, last Friday.

This was a cute flower arrangement on the registration desk. See the cute “button” flowers.

The guild had sponsored the traditional quilt challenge and an additional challenge that you don’t see at every show–a pin cushion challenge. I had a hard time voting for my favorite pin cushion.

I have seen this quilt pattern several times before. However, this is the first time I have seen it made up as an “I Spy”. What a great idea.

One of the features of this show was the Hungarian Canadian quilt display. “In 2006, Iren Szabo and Sue Dobray initiated a Hungarian/Canadian quilt exchange. All participants created a twelve inch quilt block – the Hungarian blocks were sent to Canada to be matched up with a Canadian participant who in turn sent their blocks to Hungary. All participants added 4 1/2″ around their exchange block or brought the size up to 21″ and that piece was returned to the original block creator to increase the size to an approximately 45″ quilt top. All quilts (21 Hungarian and 21 Canadian) were finished by the original block creator and the completed Canadian quilts were sent back to Hungary to join the Hungarian quilts…this collection of 42 quilts was displayed in the capital city of Budapest in November 2006. This is the first time they have been hung as a group show in Canada” (taken from the FVQG’s show brochure) The next 5 pictures are some of those fabulous quilts.

This next quilt featured incredibly small squares in the 25 patch blocks.

Because it is hard to imagine just how small those squares were, I took a picture of one of the blocks next to my hand so you can see the perspective.
This next hexagon quilt belongs to Val Smith. I met up with two other quilters from Agassiz at the show and I was introduced to Val. The four of us enjoyed a wonderful boxed lunch outside in the sun at lunchtime. Be sure to visit Val’s web page to see some of her other fabulous work. http://web.me.com/myraottewell/Vals_Quilts/Welcome.html

Val used 5 different sizes of hexagons in this quilt.

The next two shots feature some great cat quilts.

This next quilt really interested me. All it said on the note that was hanging next to the quilt was, “I made this quilt from a napkin”.

This next Canadiana quilt was for sale for $800. It features some fabulous cross stitch pieces and the most interesting maple leaf block in the center of the quilt.

This maple leaf block was a cross between a poppy and a maple leaf-very interesting.

This quilt featured a farm in Swift Current, Saskatchewan.

I have always admired this quilt pattern. I believe the pattern is called, “All Lit Up” and is intended as a Christmas quilt. This quilter said the trees reminded her of the forests around Harrison and so she hangs this quilt all year round in her house, not just at Christmas.

I have seen this quilt pattern before many times. I still love it! The expressions on the faces of these birds are priceless.

This was a cute quilt. The workmanship was perfect! Despite the use of triangles, this quilt hung perfectly flat–no friendly borders here!

These next two quilts featured a unique curved and dimensional half square triangle block.

Sometimes a quilt just makes you smile, this was one of those.

This is a two colour BQ.

This quilt was cute.

The quilting design featured chocolates and really made the quilt.

This was a great show.