Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Brownsville CA Quilt Show 2012

Brownsville CA is a very small town with a lot of heart. Gil and I went to their quilt show last Saturday. It is quite a drive from our home, but it is a great drive to take. It is up in the hills between Oroville and Grass Valley. There is not much there. No antique stores to wander through. There is a bakery that I hear is a wonderful shop, but it is not open on weekends - not even when something like a quilt show is going on. Now come on folks, we would have stopped in to try you out, as I am sure several of the other people who drive that far would. One weekend a year, you ought to try staying open just for us quilt show hounds.

There is a small second hand store we wandered around in. All the proceeds of the shop goes to the community volunteer fire department. They earned enough to purchase a big tanker truck last year. We, of course, found a few things we couldn't live without. Gil found a music book that is geared for the piano and the guitar, which are two of his favorites. I found an old wine rack that I hope to use in my studio as a storage unit for my one yard cuts of fabric. I also found some old crocheted doilies that were very, very reasonable. Cheap is probably the better term. One was only 25 cents. I have been collecting them for a while. When I have enough, I will sew them all onto different blocks of fabric and put them into a quilt. It will be a good thing. We also found a set of Sundae glasses for only $1.25 for the four glass set. Pretty good. Only problem is, we never buy ice cream any more. I guess I will have to try putting pudding or Jello in them instead.

We did go to the quilt show first, though. Priorities, you know. Again Brownsville is quite small. The quilt show is held in their community center, which is a two story building. The top floor, which is the main floor as you come in out of the parking lot, is where most of the quilts were and the vendors. The room is small and quite crowded. I took one picture from up on the stage, so you can see the size. The other floor is downstairs. There they had some very spicy chili, according to Gil. While I went to a demonstration, he went to check out the chili. There are also more quilts downstairs.

There were only two quilt store vendors. One was the Angel Quilters shop from Lincoln CA. The other one is a shop that is always at that quilt show and I have forgotten their names. They have great panels and good pricing. Angel Quilters has become one of my favorite quilt shops. It is out in the country and carries oodles and oodles of bolts of fabric. I love them because they buy the whole line of fabric or at least enough that you can do a complete quilt without having to look for other fabrics to coordinate with them. I spent quite a bit of time talking with the owner.

Well on to the quilts. As you know, I cannot go to a quilt show and not take pictures. Here is a representation of the quilts on display there. Oh they also had a doll show going on, so there are few pictures of them, too.


The quilt above is a hard one to make out in the picture. I took a picture of the explanation sheet so you would know what it is. This was my favorite quilt there because of the history of it. This quilt top is made completely out of military uniforms. If you look closely, the pockets, name insignia and buttons were left in, which really adds to the charm of the quilt. Very clever quilt with lasting memories.


The above quilt is a quilt that has a designation ribbon on the back stating that it was part of a convention in August of 1897. Beautiful crazy quilt that is in remarkable shape for being as old as it is.


 The above picture was the first that we saw of the quilts and dolls. Cute display.



 I love this design. I saw it at the last show I went to, also, and have it on this blog. When I saw this design in an advertisement and it stated it was in a magazine, Elisa and I went to several stores until we found the magazine. Someday quilt for me, for sure. Actually it will be made for my son. I should get to it while it is still on my mind.


Needle-turn applique. It had some 7,000 pieces as reported on the information tag. I was amazed that it had that many pieces, but I was more amazed that someone actually took the time to count them all. Beautiful quilt.

 I love this design. I especially love the vegetable fabric used in the border around the rabbit. Maybe something I could do for all the veggie fat quarters I have purchased over the years and done nothing with. Hmmm.

 The above quilt is from the featured quilter. I loved the colors she used in this quilt.

 This quilt is also from the featured artist. I met her and was able to express how much I loved this particular quilt of hers. She said she was with a group that decided they would all do embroidery blocks. She hates doing  hand embroidery, so she machine embroidered the blocks. When they were done, she felt they needed a lot more pizazz to them, so she crayon colored the pansies. From a few feet back, it looked like she had needlepointed the flowers. It was really pretty and looked like a lot more work than what she said it was. Very nice.

 The is one of the dolls that was presented. I guess it is not a doll show but a doll clothes show. When I saw this doll from the front side, I was not sure why they displayed it. It had no head and was just underwear. When I saw it from the back, which was not easily seen, I loved it. It is hard to see in this picture, but it is in fact underwear with a bustle. It is really cute.

 The above dress was magnificently done. It has beading all over the dress. Just beautiful.

 Here is a shot from the stage showing most of the main floor of the show. As you can see it is pretty small. It was very well attended, though. I love this show because there is no pretentiousness of the quilters, just lovely quilts.

 And of course I was not disappointed. There were two Halloween quilts. Both were done by the featured quilter. Both easy to do and very cute.


I hope you enjoy seeing the quilts from the shows as much as I love going to the shows and taking the pictures. Going to shows always makes me come home and want to do something creative. Since seeing that show, I have finished a Halloween quilt that was supposed to be a gift for my son and his girl friend and finished my little chick quilt. I just finished binding that quilt this morning. As soon as someone comes home to hold it up so I can get a picture of it, I will post it here for all to see. When I finish here, I am going to make some Christmas pillows. See. I should go to a quilt show every weekend and then I would get more done each week.

Keep on Quilting

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Witches feet pillow done by a missionary

We have a fine young man serving in our ward as a missionary. This young man is from a large family of sisters in Utah. He learned growing up to be appreciative of crafts and sewing. Since I am always working on something when he comes to our home, he has been so kind as to be supportive of my work. In my Halloween Block Exchange quilt that is posted on this blog, he saw a block that he really loved and asked if he could make one like it to send to his mom. "Of course. I would be happy to show you how," was my response.

That block happened to be a block my beautiful daughter exchanged with me, so I knew I had access to the pattern. I asked her if she could, if she would be willing to draw it out or at least loan me the pattern. She took one of her busy evenings after work to draw the pattern out onto Steam-a-Seam Lite and ironed it onto the same fabric she used for my block which would allow this young man to have a block the same as what he saw in the quilt.

He came over yesterday, and I showed him how to iron it onto the backing he chose. Today I sewed the edges down and made it into a pillow. He will mail it off to his mom on Monday. Hopefully she will receive it as a surprise Halloween "present" on Wednesday. How excited she will be when she opens this present and finds a gift from her missionary son. I know I would be.

Good job, Elder Dahl.



You can find this pattern at http://westmichquilter.blogspot.com/2009/08/halloween-tutorial.html.


Keep on Quilting


Saturday, October 13, 2012

Boise Idaho Quilt Show 2012

I was in Boise for my mother's 90th birthday party a couple of weekends ago. Lo and behold, there was a quilt show going on. Well I could not miss that. I gathered one sister, Mom, two nieces and my sister's friend up and we went to see what there was there. I loved the show. They had great vendors with better-than-California pricing. Best of all, they had beautiful quilts. One of the prettiest was my sister's friend's quilt. It was more than pretty, it was fantastic. It easily could have taken best of show. It did take third place. I would have loved to see the judge's notes to see why it did not rate second or even first place.

As always I take lots of pictures at the guild shows. Here are the samplings I took. Good job, quilters.

 This is the Best in Show quilt. It is beautiful, as are the two ladies in front of it. They are my nieces, Melanie and Tabatha. A Baltimore Album quilt usually is hard to beat.

 This quilt and several of the ones following are quilts by the featured artist, Jackie Fuller. She had a huge area filled with her quilts. I was amazed at how many she had, let alone the quality of them all.

 I am a great fan of 1930s reproduction fabrics. This is simply beautiful. I should have taken a close up picture to help highlight the fabrics and workmanship.



 This is another of Jackie Fuller's quilts. I was totally amazed at the patience it must have taken to complete this quilt. It is not a big quilt. Each of the blocks are made of very, very small strips sewn together. I appreciate the work that goes into a quilt like this, but I doubt I would ever take it on. Maybe a mug rug some day, but not a whole quilt.

 Black, white and red quilts always get my attention, as do quilts with hearts on them. Both in the same quilt. Like it.

 I love "home" quilts. This is just a very warm fall quilt. Love it.

 Reminded me of California State Poppies. Colors on this quilt were beautiful.

 I have a son that is an engineer. I have been looking for a pattern that he might like. I think this is it.

 This is not a large quilt. I really like it for its non-conformity. The squares are wonky, as are the sides of the quilt. It was intriguing.

 This quilt was remarkable (I mentioned it in my lead-in.) The amount of work that went into this quilt is astounding. The quilter stated she wanted all the blues to match, which sometimes they did not. She fixed it by fabric painting them so they did. The next picture is a close-up of this quilt.


 I am a Border Collie owner and fan. It might be hard to make out, but there is a picture of, I am assuming, the quilter's Border Collie. Love the quilt, but love the dog more.

 This is another of those quilts that have very tiny rows of fabric. I would say they measure 1/4 of an inch. Unbelievable. I love the "motion" of the water, too. Very nice.

 I just really liked this quilt. I love Flying Geese, and I especially like them in the round like this quilt has. Good job.

 Embroidery is my passion. I love this quilt for its different sized blocks and mostly for its embroidery. Close up of some of the embroidery is below.


 Sunbonnet Sue is also a favorite of mine. Maybe someday I will actually make one. I started one back in the 1970s but never finished and wound up giving it away. Darn. Now I have time to have finished it.

 Christmas. Too cute.

I always include a Halloween quilt. I have stated often it is my favorite. There was only this one that I saw. I do love this particular pattern and how it mirror effects the pumpkins. Very nice.

Loved the show and was very thankful to have the time to go see it.

Keep on Quilting

Witch hat for Elisa

When I got out my many boxes of Halloween decorations, I found I had two witch hats that I had used in the past as costumes. I decided to decorate them instead this year. This is mine:
This is Elisa's [I like hers better]:


Simple and easy to do. Just a little ribbon and some flowers and leaves from fall silk flowers. I did not glue anything down; I just pinned the flowers and ribbon to keep them from moving. The leaves are just stuck in and around. I did stuff the hat with crepe paper to give it substance. The second hat's flower is black and probably doesn't show up as well as the top hat, but it is really cool looking.

As long as I am posting, I will post pictures of some of my other Halloween decorations I have up and around our house.

The quilt above and the close up of the two below this is the quilt made from the blocks received from my quilt block exchange through www.quiltingboard.com plus extras that Elisa and I exchanged with each other. I struggled to get all the blocks to fit in together. After all was said and done and the quilt was quilted (thank you, Elisa), I love it. I wish I could keep it up all year long. It is probably my favorite quilt.



The scarecrow above has been posted on this blog before. It is another of my favorites. Let's face it, Halloween is my favorite holiday. I love the colors associated and the characters, too. This was an easy quilt to do. I had in my stash from way back who knows when a panel of a scarecrow. It was made to be a door panel, but I did not like what it was designed to be. I cut the scarecrow and the pumpkins out and appliqued them onto a great plaid fabric, added a couple of borders and look what I got. I think it is great. It really complements the block exchange quilt, too. Thanks to my dear husband for hanging them together here.

The above quilt is one I made when I had my shop. Moda had put out this great line. We were carrying the whole line along with charm packs and layer cakes. To help highlight the line, I put this together out of one of the packages of charm packs. I loved it then and even more now, as it brings back wonderful memories of my quilt shop. How I miss it and all the people that shopped there.

 At the quilt shop, Cindy Brock and I hosted an evening class on how to make fabric pumpkins. This is the one I made. I love the fabric I chose to use. It is Halloween but not a traditional Halloween.

 This quilt hanging over our loveseat is a quilt top I purchased on e-Bay for less than $30. I has a lot of traditional Halloween fabrics. I put the border on it and quilted it. I should have taken a picture of the back. The fabric is so cute that I often turn the quilt over and show that side instead.

 This little quilt is a wall decoration Elisa made for me two Halloweens ago. She knows how much I love Halloween and whipped it up. It is one of my favorites. I keep it up all year around. During non-Halloween times it hangs in my quilting studio. I love it.

 This quilt was made several years ago for my sister. I loved it so much that I have never mailed it to her. Plus I don't know if she would take offense to it. It says "Things just haven't been the same since the house fell on my sister." Tee hee.

 I belong to Sacramento's River City Quilt Guild. A few years ago I participated in a challenge quilt project. This is what I came up with.

 Spider webs seem to be a theme for me. I HATE spiders, except to decorate at Halloween time. This is a huge plate glass window that is in my dining area. It overlooks a wooded area behind our house where a lot of critters, both large and small, live. It seemed an appropriate place to hang it.

When my kids were little, I made these pumpkins. My kids are now in their late 30s and early 40s, so the pumpkins are holding up quite well. Especially considering the boys thought they were inside balls they could throw around. I guess because they only come out a few weeks every year, the wear and tear on them doesn't show too much. The only part that is starting to fray are the stems. I made them out of green felt. They still make for a cute fall display.

I have more stuff outside but I figured this was enough to show you how much I love Halloween. Have a great and spooky holiday.

Keep on Quilting