Daily Blog - TheQuiltShow.com

HMQS 2007 - It's a Wrap!

What a great time! There were over 250 machine quilted quilts and over 4000 people in attendance. Over $12,000 in cash awards and prizes were given to winners at this year's show. For a full list of quilt competition award winners, visit www.hmqs.org/2007_awards.html

Over $1500 was raised and donated to the American Heart Association, which was 100% of the proceeds of the Silent Auction of the Challenge Quilts. A huge thanks to Cranston Fabrics for sponsoring this Challenge and to Winline Textiles for donating batting.

The "Into Africa" project received donations of $378, which Mary Ogwel took on her trip to Kenya right after HMQS 2007. The donation includes a generous gift from one great quilting lady from Vermont who had a birthday party and in lieu of gifts, asked them to donate money for "Into Africa". What a great idea!

Next year's show dates are May 8-10. Plan now to attend, take classes, vend or volunteer. Exact times and more details to be released soon!

Add new comment

Quilters Buzz

I am sure many of you are familiar with Gina Halladay's web site www.quiltersbuzz.com She does a bang up job on her site. Yesterday (Thursday, May17th) she posted the question who most influenced you to start quilting, a quilters hall of fame (great topic Gina!). As I read through the answers, I was struck by the ground root effort of one quilter teaching another. Sure there were some recognizable names there, but in the end it gets down to each and every one of us. Someone passed you the thimble, and now it is your turn to pass it to someone else. Take a moment and read the posts, they are very inspiring!

Add new comment

Shop 'n Tote from Stitchin' Heaven

Hey everyone! Remember to visit our sponsors and thank them for their support of The Quilt Show – we could not do this without them. Our site sponsor Stitchin’ Heaven is launching a great new summer shopping event called "Shop 'n Tote" where you can earn a wonderful Tutto Machine on Wheels Tote for free just by shopping at Stitchin’ Heaven! These totes are great to transport your machine to classes and they are the right size to carry on an airplane. The event starts this Sunday, May 20. Go to the Stitchin' Heaven web site for details!

Add new comment

Quilting Space

When you are a hard core quilter you will quilt in unusual spots. For instance, my friend had her kids return home and that forced her sewing room into the master bathroom. No, she doesn't live in a huge home, it was just that her vanity sported a double sink with some space between the sinks. Another quilter had a really cool sewing spot on their 40 foot boat. Where do you stitch?

Add new comment

"Granny Is In The Driveway"

Photo by Teresa Davis

I referred to my Granny (as I often do) and her quilts during the opening of Episode 104. You can see one of her quilts under Find Out More on the Show 104 page. From 1979-1991, she was a widow and lived directly across the street from our home in Wichita Falls, Texas. Granny loved to garden! On occasion I did too.

During my college days, I planted some beautiful white Shasta daisies in our front flower beds. Year after year they would put on a glorious display. Granny had planted some wild petunias in her front flower bed. In about 1985, after I had gone off to seek my fortune (ha), Granny saw in her Farmer’s Almanac that it was transplanting time. While mom and dad were at work, she dug up our beautiful Shasta daisies and replaced them with her wild petunias. Needless to say mom was not pleased, but Granny insisted that plants needed to be moved around in order for the flower to put on their best show. We didn’t argue. It wasn’t worth it.

In recent years mom has tried to dig up those old petunias and replace them with something a bit less leggy. However, they are hardy and nothing seems to prevent them from coming up. So she finally gave up trying.

Granny passed away in 1993. Her house has long since been sold. The Shasta daisies across the street no longer bloom. However, Granny’s wild petunias persist. Every year about Easter time, those petunias start to bloom - some in the front flower bed of our family home, but most come up and bloom in the cracks of the driveway. Dad will go outside on a spring day, come in and say to my mom, “Granny is in the driveway!” – and we know she’s still with us.

Add new comment

Way To Go Girl!

This past weekend was truly the best Mother's Day EVER! After visiting PA I flew directly to Los Angeles to celebrate Shelly's graduation from Law School (I actually cried tears of joy at the graduation). Who is Shelly you might wonder? Shelly is Joey's fiancee that we love and adore to pieces. She has just raised the bar for intellegance (ha ha intelligence lol) in our family. Speaking of bar - now she has her head in the books preparing for that! WOW! Ahhh ........To be young again....... Wedding date? Next spring. WAY TO GO SHELLY, WE LOVE YOU!

Add new comment

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!!! from John

I want to thank all the mothers for:

Knowing our favorite foods
Being able to find the other sock
Taking out the splinters gently
Making us be a part of the school talent show even though we didn't have any
Telling us we could be anything we want to be, even when it was obvious that nuclear physicist and relief pitcher for the NY Yankees were not an option
Caring when our friends abandoned us
Not leaving when we became teenagers
Telling us we're good looking
Telling us to sit up, say thank you, and don't be scared

....Now it's time for you to add your own.

Add new comment

12 days of Christmas topiary

Story Submitted by: ravels

I found this wonderful 12 days of Christmas print on dark green and just had to have it. I was thinking of doing a different kind of tree, maybe a topiary but wasn't sure how to go about it. My problem was solved when I came across a 5 piece tree stencil that was a topiary tree. I used each stencil to cut out the light then dark green leaves. The tree trunk, 2 piece flower pot and pears have all been padded like trupunto before being quilted. I just loved the "pop" of pink/orange/fushia tie dyed border that matches outfits on the characters in the larger border. This was a slow process but I really liked the result.

Add new comment

DIVAS

Story Submitted by: marit

The Designing Innovative Vibrant Artistic Sisterhood was formed in 2006 and consists of ten quilters who want to try new ideas and create original quilts. Our first project was a signature piece which was not to exceed 9 x 11 inches. This small piece is my contribution without the floral background fabric which is simply a placemat on which I laid my portrait for the photo. The entire quilt which includes all 10 pieces will be shown in the unjudged display at Minnesota Quilter's "Land of 10,000 Quilts" show from June 14 - 16. Enjoy!

Add new comment

A Kindegartener's Nine Patch

Story Submitted by: quiltnmama

Each year I have worked with my children's classmates to create a quilt that they present to their teacher at the end of the school year. In the past, I have worked with water color pastels, fabric marbling, and applique. I wanted to think of a new, unique quilt to do with the students this year. This year, our art docent program included a module which studied the quilts of Faith Ringgold. After this lesson, I decided to work with my son's kindergarten class on quilt block design. The children worked with squares and half-square triangles to create their own nine-patch block. They then picked two batik fabrics to be used in their blocks. Their teacher is currently expecting her first child this summer. At the time of the work, we did not know if she was expecting a boy or girl. I felt the batiks offered bright vibrant colors that any child would love. Many of the fabrics contain animals in the designs. We have since learned that she is due to have a girl. This is the finished product. Each child's name is embroidered on their block. The quilt was presented at a surprise baby shower that the parents and children in the class held.

Add new comment

Page 1277 of 1303