Well, last week we were able to finish quilting yet another quilt during our longarm quilting time! Here is my "mock" grandmother's flower garden quilt that I made back in December of 2008 using one of Moda's freebie patterns. I adjusted the pattern a bit and cut 3" wide strips from a Blackbird Designs fat quarter bundle and then used my hexagon ruler to cut the shapes.
I love it!
Sorry for the bad angle on this picture! The quilt is a queen size plus and I had to lay it on my living room floor and then go up the staircase and shoot the picture at a weird angle! All because I'm to lazy to dig out the tripod quilt stands and go outside to take a picture! LOL
Here's a close up - you can see the quilting better in this picture:
Last weekend's show was fun. The kids went with me and ran the booth like champs while I ran around taking quilt pictures and chatting. I'll upload those photos later on and post a link here to my webshots like usual!
I think the biggest highlight of this past weekends show for me was getting the chance to sit and chat with 3 very accomplished quilters. One lady showed my daughter and I how to do some of those beautiful ribbon work type flowers for Baltimore Album quilts. She showed a great one using rick-rack. The other 2 ladies were priceless and I could have sat an talked with them for hours. Both ladies shared endless tips and techniques on hand quilting. They hand quilt beautifully and could probably do it in their sleep. I also learned a lesson that I need to remind myself of every once in a while - sometimes the good old fashioned way of doing things is best. I'm reminded time and time again that some of the tools in the quilting market today are not all they are cracked up to be and we just don't "need" them. Going back to what our grandmother's used is sometimes best and all we need.
One thing that still gets me though - that tiny, faint little line drawn as a marking guideline for hand quilting using a pencil???? I don't know why I really enjoy studying old antique quilts and love finding the pencil/quilting lines - but why does it irritate me on my own work when I cannot get those lines to erase and be gone! One of those odd little quirks about myself I guess. I even got a little scare last week when I washed 6 of my newest little quilt designs and "assumed" the chalk pencil lines would disappear. When I pulled them out of the wash - they were still there! I about freaked! I had to scrub each individual area very gently with soap and a sponge. What a pain!
Also - if you are interested, the Mountain Mist Blue Ribbon batting is back in stock on the website. This is the batting I use for all my hand quilting projects. I can get several little quilts out of one of these packages! Just go here:
Also - after speaking with those 2 wonderful ladies this past weekend, I ordered some Hobb's Thermore batting. They swear by it for hand quilting. It's a low loft poly batting - which I swore I would never use - but they bent my wrist a little and I decided to try it for my next hand quilting projects. I'm only stocking the smaller size for now to test it out, but if there is enough interest we can get larger batt sizes. I'll be hand quilting some of my newer small quilts using this batting once they are completed. The quilts those 2 special ladies showed me this weekend sold me on trying out the low loft poly batting. Any thoughts on this batting? The Thermore batting is listed here:
Also, the remaining bolts of Aster Manor fabric have been marked down to $5.00 a yard.
And yes, we are still sadly waiting on our initial order of Ravenwood fabric. I'm really bummed it's not here yet. Cocoa Express should be here in the next couple of weeks also - I wonder if I'll get it - or will I get bumped from the order line up again? I guess time will tell!
Plus, I hope those of you that are local will come out to see us at the quilt show this weekend! We'll be in Valparaiso, Indiana vending at the Quilts In Bloom Quilt Show presented by the String-A-Long Quilt Guild. The show is at the Porter County Expo Center, 215 East Division Road, Valparaiso, Indiana. It's conveniently located one mile south of Route 30 on Route 49. So easy to get to and a nice large parking area! I remember going to this location as a child for the fair - brings back a lot of memories!
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