Daily Blog - TheQuiltShow.com

What's Meg Cox Up to Now?

Meg is holding up a souvenir bag from War and Pieced, the Annette Gero Collection of Quilts from Military Fabrics.

The exhibit was organized by the American Folk Art Museum, New York, in collaboration with the International Quilt Study Center & Museum, University of Lincoln–Nebraska. It is cocurated by Dr. Annette Gero, international quilt historian, author, and collector, and Stacy C. Hollander, Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs, Chief Curator, and Director of Exhibitions at the American Folk Art Museum.

War and Pieced is the first exhibition in the United States to showcase the spectacularly complex geometric quilts made exclusively by men using richly dyed wools derived from British military and dress uniforms. - American Folk Art Museum

Meg was at the American Folk Art Museum with TQS and will be introducing videos featuring the cocurators of the exhibit which will be coming soon. The ladies will tell us how these quilts were made, some with 14 layers of fabric, and discuss the times in which they were made. In the meantime, here are a few quilts from the fabulous collection. (The lights were dimmed in the gallery to protect the quilts.)

Click here to learn more about the exhibit.

Learn more about Meg in Show 2106: TQS Challenge with Meg Cox, Alex Anderson, and Ricky Tims.

"Colonial Soldier's Intricately Pieced Quilt" - 1890 - India

"Beaded Soldier's Quilt" - 1860-1870 - India

"Turkish Wars" Intarsia Quilt - 1719

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Baby, It's Cold Outside! ~Get Ricky's Latest Pattern~

BABY IT’S COLD OUTSIDE

Taking Pre-Orders

Begins Shipping September 27

In the Fall of 1991 quilting was my new-found obsession. I was devouring everything I could possibly learn about it. Crazy patchwork was one of those things I had read about and tried. I had the idea to create a whimsical quilt where a cold and perplexed Santa was stuck outside looking in.

The original quilt was improvised using nothing more than a sketch I drew as a guide. Over the years, I felt a pattern might be too complex. However, I came to realize that with some very small alterations to the original I could offer a manageable and doable paper-pieced pattern. Here it is! Released just in time to finish before the holidays. This wall quilt has only seven paper-pieced sections and measures 40” x 46”.

The pattern includes the full-size paper pattern so there’s no enlarging. Easy-to-understand instructions are included.

This fun, NEW pattern will be printed-on-demand, and will ship in the order received.

ONLY $21.95

Click here to PRE-ORDER YOURS TODAY!

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Anna & G on the Road: 7 Habits of a Highly Effective Quilter #6

We are almost done with our 7 Habits of a Highly Effective Quilter! Each week I have been thinking..."What do I think the next habit will be?!" We are in the transition period of one Quilt Roadie adventure to the next and so there is reflective time on where we have been, where we are going and what I have accomplished. G has piles of videos to edit and we have lots to share in this second season of Quilt Roadies! I hope you will subscribe and travel along with us.

As many of us are...I am my own worst critic. I get lots of mail about, "How do I get so much done?" And when I look at the photos I share on Instagram and Facebook...most of them are process photos. Not the finished product, lol. What I can say about my stitching is...I rarely sit without taking a stitch or two. I learned this from my friend Sandy who lives a busy life helping run a farm. Her sewing room is very compact and only about 3 feet from the kitchen where she makes lunch and dinner for her family crew! Prolific is a word I would use for her AND what she shared with me years ago is that if she had 15 minutes between tasks she would sew a seam or take a stitch and all those 15 minutes added up to a finished quilt. I took this lesson to heart.

Thus...A Stitch in Time Saves Nine is #6 of the Habits of a Highly Effective Quilter. As I did research on this proverb, I interpreted its meaning to us as quilters...that if you only take a stitch or two...you will eventually get to the end of your creation. It is when you do the self talk about not having enough time to sit and stitch that quilts languish. I have projects scattered about the house in various stages, which means that when I sit, there is a project that wants a stitch or two!
Heartsong Quilts

I also pay attention when I am on the road to how other quilters are saving time! When the owner of the shop in Hot Springs, South Dakota, Heartsong Quilts, (don't you love that name) shared a binding tip with me I was all about it!!! I know the judges out there are screaming foul...that all quilt bindings need to be hand sewn...but really, as she shared with me, our quilts for the most part are machine pieced, machine quilted, and the binding is machine sewn to the quilt. So why does the final step need to be hand sewn?

On her quilts she chooses a decorative stitch that she likes and fun thread for the final binding stitch and it looks wonderful. If you stitch the primary attachment stitch for the binding onto the back of the quilt and then flip it over to the front, you can create a perfect decorative stitch on the front...A Stitch in Time Saves Nine...the quilter's way!!!

Have a great week and be sure to keep up to date with us on Instagram, Facebook, Quilt Roadies (YouTube) and on wooliemammoth.blogspot.com. Just so you know, I do check every request to follow on Instagram and Facebook and if I can't figure out if you are a quilter because your site is totally private, I will pass to weed out the non-quilter requests, LOL

Click here for Anna's blog.

Click here for Anna's YouTube Channel.

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Take a Look at the Fabric Cuts: Keiko Hasegawa "Canon"

Keiko Hasegawa won a prize for her quilt, Canon, during Quilt Week Yokohama 2011. In looking back at amazing quilts, we wanted you to take a look at the Hexies and the fabric cuts.The purposeful cutting choices make the quilt even more of a treasure.

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Design to Quilt: Principles of Design-Radial Balance (week 34)

This week, as we end our focus on Balance, we look at the term Radial Balance, meaning a design where all of the elements are equally balanced around, toward or away from a central point. Unlike other forms of balance that use either a horizontal or vertical axis, radial balance has all of the interest radiating out from the center like the rays of the sun or spokes on a bicycle wheel. The examples below help to illustrate the definition.

Below on the left is a fabric with bilateral symmetry, while the right has radial symmetry.

Designs can be round or square. Kaleidoscope images are radial. A Radial design can be very effective, as it draws the eye into the center of the design. Examples of Radial balance that can be found both in nature and man made ojects include:

Cathedral Rose Windows (e.g. Notre Dame Cathedral)
A halved orange or grapefruit
Merry go round
Bicycle spokes
Umbrellas
Mandalas
Starfish
Snowflakes
Umbrellas

Let's use the example of Dad's Lonestar by Ricky Tims. Did you notice how all of the elements spin around while at the same time move your eye from the center outward? Also, the brilliance of the yellow star in the center vibrates, which enhances this same outward movement.

Examples of quilts featuring Radial Balance:

. Quilt - Life by Yoshiko Katagiri

Practice Exercise: Create Your Own Radial Balance Design:

Design your own Radial Balance design with just a few simple tools.

Design your own Kaleidoscope Name design. Click here.

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Jinny's Memory Match: 9/18/2017

This block looks like a combination of many Drunkard's Path blocks put together. What do you think it is called? Play the game and find out.

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Jaynie Himsl talks about her quilt "Cottonwood Delta Blues"

Artist Jaynie Himsl talks about her quilt, Cottonwood Delta Blues, in the gallery of The National Quilt Museum. Jaynie's quilt is part of the exhibit H20H! by SAQA at the museum through September 19, 2017.

Click here to learn more about the exhibit.

Click here to see details from the art quilts in the exhibit.

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Make a Wonky Nine-Patch Quilt FREE Pattern and Tutorial from Heather Kojan

Want a quick and fun weekend project? Heather Kojan has come up with a Wonky Nine Patch Quilt that takes no time at all. All you need are some fat quarters, some background fabric, and some sashing and you are on your way.

Requirements:

Soft & Toasty Natural Cotton Batting

10 fat quarters coordinating prints

1 yard background fabric

1 1/4 yard sashing fabric

4 yards backing fabric

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Fall Paducah 2017 - Best of Show

AQS hosted its first Fall Show in Paducah this past week. The Best of Show winner is a familiar face here at TQS. Congratulations to Kathy McNeil for her quilt, "All You Need is Love." Kathy said she spent over 400 hours working on the quilt.

First place winners from 15 categories were placed online for voting - a first for an AQS show. Click here to learn more about the quilt and find a list of winners.

Star Members can watch Kathy in Show 1802: Fearless Quilting Fabulous Results.