I have finished quilting BQ Pumpkin Quilt #1! I ordered some new Circle Lord templates for my long arm and used two of them on this quilt.

This quilt will eventually belong to my parents so I chose to do a lot of straight line quilting on this one. My dad is always impressed with the perfectly straight lines that my machine can accomplish so that is what is on this quilt. I used the square spiral template in the large pumpkin squares and in the small pumpkin squares on the border. I used the cross hatch template to do the 45 degree angles and my channel locks to do the horizontal lines.

I will save putting the binding on this quilt for another day. I am anxious to load the next quilt and try some different templates!

The next two pictures are taken at an angle to show the quilting design more. Ideally, I would take pictures of this quilt outside but the heavy rains we are currently experiencing means that outside pictures are out of the question.

This is a picture of the back–sometimes quilting is easier to see from the back.

These are the Japanese Maple Trees in our yard. I just love these trees at this time of year! These pictures were taken yesterday during a break in the rain showers. We are currently in the middle of a “pineapple express” storm and it seems like the rain will never stop!

These pictures are of a quilt that I just finished quilting on my long arm. The quilt belongs to a customer. I don’t always post pictures of my customer’s quilts, but I found this one so appealing that I had to share it. The pattern is Yellow Brick Road and it is not the pattern so much that I fell in love with, but the colours and textures of the fabrics. I love this combination of colours–raspberry and teal.

While working on this quilt I have been thinking about starting Judy’s latest Quilt For an Hour quilt. I usually don’t work in just one or two colours as suggested in the samples posted by Judy. I prefer to work with scraps of all colours. Although the centers of the blocks are suited to my scrap bin, I am stuck when I try to come up with two colours to use for the borders and sashing. November may be over before I decide how I will make my version of the Gratitude quilt–I am currently using my hour a day thinking about which fabrics to use!

After working from my paint chips on my paint chip challenge, I discovered how useful paints chips are when choosing colours for quilts. I did some exploring on the internet and found a wonderful site by Behr Paint. If you go to this site, click on “Start Color Smart”. Then select a colour and find other colours to coordinate with your choice. You can choose to see similar colours, see coordinated colours where your colour choice is the main colour, or see palettes where your colour choice is the accent. I think this could be a very useful tool when you are stumped for choosing colours for quilts when you want to do something other than scrappy.

I am looking for just the right combination of colours for my next quilt–something that appeals to me as much as the teal and raspberry combination of my customer’s quilt.

It is hard to see what is in this picture because the subject is black and does not photograph well. This is a picture of Joey. Last weekend after the quilt show, the quilts that I brought home were put on the bench in the entrance and guess who found them! Joey has learned that quilts present the softest spot to sleep. When I read Finn’s latest post about Ebby, I smiled because I could totally relate!

Joey came to live with us as an older kitten. He had already been on his own, running wild on a farm when we adopted him at six months of age. It took a considerable amount of time to get him to come out from behind the couch. Joey still doesn’t do visitors well. He usually disappears when someone new comes over. The only people he doesn’t run away from are my parents. If my dad puts his hand over the side of the chair Joey will come under his hand to get his back rubbed.

When I am at home, Joey is my constant companion. He follows me from room to room and if I sit at the computer, he is on my lap. He does not like to be cuddled, but he does like to lay on my lap–on his terms only.

My mother felt that I should have a cat perch for my studio window for Joey. I purchased the perch, mounted it and introduced it to Joey. He was not impressed at first. I had to lift him onto it several times over several days before he finally would get up there on his own. Now if I am working in the studio, Joey is on his perch. This is a picture of him from a few days ago.

This post is dedicated to my quilting buddy–Joey.

This has been a busy weekend! The activity has definitely been quilt related, but I haven’t been quilting.

Saturday was our quilt guild’s first “hung” quilt show. We have had two quilt shows in the past – 2 and 4 years ago respectively, but they were a version of “show and tell”. A hung show is definitely a lot more work, but well worth the results.

We had 142 quilts entered. It is surprising that we never asked our members for any quilts in particular, we never jurried the quilts into the show, and yet we received 142 very different and distinct quilts–all wonderful quality!

We received several favorable comments during the show from visitors.

Along with the quilts that were displayed, we had a vendor’s mall: 3 quilt shops, 1 yarn shop, and several of our members had tables including a bear maker. We sold tickets on a raffle quilt – proceeds support purchasing supplies for our We Care program. We had several door prizes–your door prize ticket was included in your admission to the show. We also sold tickets on draws that were made each hour for lovely gift baskets that were chock full of fabric, patterns, kits, coupons for oil changes, travel mugs, Jim Shore ornaments, etc. Some of our members and the local chapter of the Applique Society provided ongoing demonstrations. We also had a tea room where you could purchase sandwiches, crackers and cheese, and sweets to have with your coffee and tea.

The last count I heard was over 350 visitors for the day (not including our own guild members)!

I was involved in the set up of the show on Friday afternoon / evening and was working at the show all day Saturday including take down of the quilts and frames and clean up at the end of the day. I was exhausted today and would have enjoyed sleeping in. This morning I should have been able to sleep an extra hour because of the time change but no one informed Joey of the arrangement so he was up as usual–at 5:30 am! If Joey is up, I soon have to get up because when he is hungry he doesn’t leave me alone until I have fed him!

Enjoy the last of the pictures from the show and join me in congratulating the PieceMakers for a very successful show!