Daily Blog

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I recently had the extreme pleasure of attending the taping of The Quilt Show series. What a treat! Everything was professional and what you would expect to see in a New York studio - but in La Veta, Colorado! This is amazing because La Veta is a really, really small (but beautiful) town southwest of Pueblo. As we watched the first segment of filming (careful to do our "hummingbird claps" just as Justin the Terrible, aka "Bad Bart", instructed us to) I was delighted to see Ricky and Alex doing their thing in the best way possible. Their dialogue was so smooth I commented to Alex during the break that I bet she was happy there was a teleprompter. "No teleprompter," she told me. All they work with is a small index card with some cryptic notes. WOW! I was blown away! Read more aout the trip with photos on my blog at www.stitchinheaven.com/blog

Deb Luttrell, Stichin' Heaven

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You may remember past blogs about Ami Simms' Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. You saw the piece we did together on the Priority: Alzheimer's Quilts portion of that Initiative in episode # 103, and you've probably been to www.AlzQuilts.org to see all the other creative ways Ami is raising awareness and funding research. Now that her new book, Alzheimer's: Forgetting Piece by Piece (featuring the magnificent quilts of the traveling Alzheimer's quilt exhibit of the same name) is flying off the shelves, with all the profit being donated to Alzheimer's research, she thinks it's time to get some national media attention for all the quilters participating in the project. She wants to get on Oprah. Let's help her do it!

Ami has made a difference one quilt at a time. Now it's time for us to help her get Oprah's attention one email at a time. I've written my email, will you write one, too?

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If you have not been able meet us for chat then you have missed out on some good quilting information. But not to worry, in the next three weeks we have 6 GREAT reasons for you to make time to join us. Coming up we have:

Ami Simms-Alzheimer's Quilt Project

Denise Labadie-Episode 106

Cheryl Uribe-APQS Long Arm Quilting Machines

Photo Man-Gregory Case

Barbara Olson-Episode 105

Bernina Sewing Machines

Wow! What a fantastic line-up. The topics are as varied as the guests.

To all of you who heeded our request to be patient with questions and to stay on topic while in the chat room with a special guest, a big "THANK YOU, THANK YOU". To see who is in the chat room on which date click here. We look forward to visiting with you.

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Everyone knows that Ricky DOES music and his life as a musician has blended perfectly with his quilting career. In addition to offering spectacular exhibitions of art quilts, the Tims Art Quilt Studio and Gallery in La Veta, Colorado (home of The Quilt Show) offers musical concerts most Sunday afternoons throughout the summer. This year is the second season for the Gallery Concert Series that features a variety of music from classical to New Age to bluegrass. Yesterday a group called Fireweed, a bluegrass band from Pueblo, Colorado, delivered a fun-filled concert with plenty of pickin' and grinnin'.

This concert was a perfect match for the quilts that went up on Friday. The new gallery show is called Oklahoma Holdups and features a solo show by Carol Ann Sinnreich of Lawton, Oklahoma. Much of Carol's work represents subjects of the great American west. She also has a few traditional patchwork and applique quilts and quilts with a botanical theme. The entire collection demonstrates her unique humor and original artistic flair.

On the short video provided with this blog, Carol tells about two of her most significant quilts. The music is Fireweed, the bluegrass band.

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It happened yesterday. We rode motorcycles in the La Veta parade! The day before, we got caught up in a hub-bub of activity trying to 'look good'. The people along the parade route shouted their approval as Quilters on Motorcycles made their debut! Check out this video - it says it all.

Ricky - in festive La Veta, Colorado.

Photo curtesy of Dulany Lingo

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Good Eyes! Look what I might have missed had you not posted your comment! Keep those insights coming!

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Last evening at the last moment John and I decided to head to the hills - however not for bear hunting. I have a quilt deadline and Pine Mountain Lake celebrates the 4th tonight with a spectaular fireworks display. First thing this morning, we got up and went on "the walk" - the one we used to enjoy with our dog Lizzie - a memorial trip. As soon as we got home there was a happy voice at the front door - "Hey - it's Mercedes". As I was preparing to work on the quilt, Mercedes started pawing and folding the fabric. She was as drawn to color and texture as the rest of us are. She particularly liked the polka dots - ahh - a girl after my own heart. Together, we were organizing, stacking and getting ready for my sew day. All of a sudden it occured to me, I'll bet she would like to make a block. So darling Mercedes got a crash course on piecing. Like a duck to water she took to the fabric and sewing machine. Her Dad came over to gather her home, but realized in short order, he could just wait! Look at Mercede's face with her finished block!!! Way to go Mercedes - now YOU can make your own quilt - BTW: I give you an A+ for your first block. PS: that's not blond bear - it is me without makeup - but just as scary!

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Today is the La Veta 4th of July parade. Tims Art Quilt Studio and Gallery will be represented for the first time with Quilters on Motorcycles. We really do want this to become an annual event so we'll see how it goes this time around. I'll keep you posted.

The photos you see here are the new paint job on Justin's Harley. When I designed Fire Dragon Rhapsody , Justin dyed the fabrics. He was attempting to duplicate a fabric I had dyed for the back of a quilt in 1999. It was a multi-colored purple that I was crazy about, but is very hard to replicate. He finally succeeded, so I used it for the quilt. In the Rhapsody fabrics on my website it is called - Fire Dragon. Remember, the quilt now resides at the Museum of the American Quilter in Paducah, Kentucky. You may also know that I used the prize-money from the quilt to put down payments on the Harleys.

So, when Justin decided to have his bike painted with a custom paint job, he sent the actual fabric swatches to the artist. They did an amazing job, but the fun thing is that his bike art is now on their website - check it out here . Better yet, check out this page and click on the images for a large view, you'll see the quilt on that page, too. If you want to see other really cool bike art - check out their homepage and browse the gallery. The interesting thing is that art is art - whether fabric or paint, in a quilt or on a motorcycle. It is amazing to me that Fire Dragon Rhapsody has a Fire Dragon counterpart that is now one of the main-stays of a bike painter. Pretty cool huh?

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BERNINA UNIVERSITY

Orlando, Forida (July 7-11, 2007) Bernina dealers from across America will be heading to Orlando, Florida for the annual dealer gathering called Bernina University. BU is a fun and educational event for dealers to learn new sewing tips and techniqes. New product announcements and training also happen during this week.

Alex and Ricky will both be attending this year. Alex will be giving an overview of The Quilt Show during the opening ceremonies. Ricky will arrive later in the week and teach classes on Rhapsody Design and Techno Teaching (using technology without fear in the classroom). The pair look forward to seeing many friends in the industry and the opportunity to share more information about this innovative endeavor to all the Bernina dealers.

Regardless of what sewing machine you use, please remember to thank Bernina for all their support for The Quilt Show. Martin Favre, President of Bernina of America, shared our vision and he needs to know (more than Ricky and Alex do), just how thankful you are for this site. Email them directly at marketing@berninausa.com.