Daily Blog

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Step back in time and kick up your heels with Ricky Tims and Jim West as they travel along America's legendary highway: Route 66.  This historic two-lane highway was the route from Chicago to Los Angeles many traveled while trying to escape the Dust Bowl of the 30s.

The 14-day bus trip is filled with fun and sights sure to charm even the most skeptical of visitors.

                                 

                                   June 16 - 29, 2013

                           “If you ever plan to motor west
                      Travel my way, the highway that's the best.
                             Get your kicks on Route 66!”

Package Includes:

• Deluxe hotel accommodations
• Private motor coach & driver
• Special quilting encounters

• Most meals
• Sew Many Places totebag
• Sightseeing as listed in the itinerary

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Have you often been inspired by beautiful architecture or architectural elements you see in the world, on the floors of some large building, or pictures from history? If the answer is, “yes” then please join TQS Members Betty Jo Tatum (sewdreamy) and Teri Lucas (littleflower) in an architectural quilt-off! 

No prizes will be awarded, this is just for fun!

Here are the guidelines:

• Design and create a small wall art quilt.  They suggest a size around 25” x 40” or 40” x 25” and it does not have to have 90 degree corners or straight edges, but it should not be any smaller
• Must be a completely original design
• Can be pieced, appliquéd, painted, or whole cloth
• Must be machine or hand quilted by the originator(s)
• The deadline is April 10th 2013
• Make the entire quilt on your own or pair with a friend for even more fun
• Share your adventure in making this quilt and show your quilt in Show & Tell
• Please consider entering your quilt into the special exhibit at Houston International Quilt Festival in 2013. http://callforentriesarchitecture.com/

For more information, please go to Teri's member blog or Betty Jo's member blog.  Or you can visit the Forum topic.  Terri and Betty Jo also have personal blogs you can visit.  Here's Teri and here's Betty Jo.

If you need inspiration, take a look at the October issue of The Quilt Life magazine.

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Bell Star is just a baby.  This award-winning quilt from Gammill longarm artist, Jo Ann Blade & Kim Diamond, is only three months old and has already won the Judge's Award at the Machine Quilter's Showcase (MQS) and 2nd Place Duet at the Association of Pacific West Quilters (APWQ) (One of Jo Ann's other quilts, American Woman, designed by Kim Diamond, also took 2nd Place Innovative Traditional Large at APWQ).  Bell Star and American Woman were both created completely on a Gammill-Statler machine...applique, borders, and quilting.  Jo Ann travels and teaches Applique the Statler Way.

You might want to catch her class.  Or, Look for patterns from Jo Ann & Kim's new company, "Mom's Legacy Quilt Company" for patterns designed for appliqué using your longarm.

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The Modern Quilt Movement is a hot and fast-growing segment of our community, and we want to introduce you to someone whose work you will very soon see here on TQS. Angela Walters has been quilting for15 years (learning to hand quilt from her husband's grandfather!), and LOVES machine quilting on her Gammill. This charming young mother of three will join us soon as a featured artist on TQS.

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Are you getting an iPhone 5?

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Captain John went to Grand Rapids, Michigan for the AQS show in 2012 and came back with images of Egypt. Here are the fabulous quilts of Jenny Bowker and her friends the Tentmakers of Cairo. Jenny is the curator of the Stitch Like an Egyptian Exhibit featuring the Tentmakers of Cairo. The applique work has to be seen to be believed and as you can see the prices in the last four years have doubled.

Would you like to own an applique of your very own?  TQS is giving one away and you could win.

To learn more about the Tentmakers of Cairo, click here for a video from Pam Holland.

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Ami Simms and the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI) are showing up in an unexpected place, the October issue of Woman's Day Magazine! The exciting part is that by being there they will be reaching so many people who can help the AAQI.

You can also help the AAQI by participating in the online quilt auction for September. The Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative holds monthly online auctions during the first 10 days of each month, hosted by BenefitBidding.com. To see the quilts for September, click here or watch the video below.

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Rob wanted to let you in on what he's doing lately.  One of his action items is a road tour of the Pacific Northwest and a stop at the Northwest Quilting Expo where he'll be teaching,  but in the meantime he's sent us a video of his studio.

Just an FYI, the wonderful Laura Nownes will also be teaching at the Northwest Quilting Expo.

You can watch Rob in Episode 812: Protect our Planet...with Quilts where he talks about one of his most cherished quilting endeavors - the Endangered Species Quilt Project. Rob has teamed with Michael Miller fabrics to build awareness of our planet and her endangered species through quilting.

You can also discover how Rob's sewing machine became that color.

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On location at the Nine Quarter Circle Dude Ranch in Montana.

The crew of TQS has just finished taping another round of great "Road Shows"--this time on location in the Big Sky State of Montana. Check out these great artists we have coming your way soon.

Edyta Sitar shares what new things she has since her last visit to TQS in Episode 802.

                                                                                                   The Main Street Quilting Company quilt store in Bozeman, MT.

Georgia Bonesteel and Charlotte Warr Andersen join forces for their annual retreat at an awe inspiring Dude Ranch in Montana.

And Sue Rasmussen shares tips and tricks for creating stunning pieced quilts from your own photographs.

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Having just recently taken you on our Armchair Tours of Greece & Turkey, we thought you might want to see more from that region.

The Sultan's Garden, which runs from Sep. 21, 2012- Mar. 10, 2013, featured at The Textile Museum in Washington, D.C. will feature a stunning number of textile works created during the Ottoman
empire.

                                                                 (Velvet yastik face, Bursa, 17th cent.
                                                                 Courtesy of The Textile Museum. Washington, D.C.)

Cap, Damascus or Aleppo, Syria, Around 1800.
Courtesy of The Textile Museum.  Washington, D.C.

"Ottoman art reflects the wealth, abundance, and influence of an Empire which spanned seven centuries and, at its height, three continents. The Sultan’s Garden chronicles how stylized tulips, carnations, hyacinths, honeysuckles, roses, and rosebuds came to embellish nearly all media produced by the Ottoman court beginning in the mid-16th century.  These instantly recognizable elements became the brand of the Empire, and synonymous with its power.  Incredibly, the development of this design identity can be attributed to a single artist, Kara Memi, working in the royal arts workshop of Istanbul. The Sultan’s Garden unveils the influence of Ottoman floral style and traces its continuing impact through the textile arts—some of the most luxurious and technically complex productions of the Empire."