Quilt Show Wind Up

First, I want to thank all of you for the kind comments left on my blog yesterday about my quilts and my husband. As Darlene said, so many of our quilts have stories and memories behind them, and these were two of mine.

I was reading blogs last night and saw that PamKittyMorning had posted a photo from Pacific International Quilt Festival of the same basket quilt I posted from our quilt show the other day. I believe the quiltmaker is Jan Soule, and I think I forgot to mention her name in my post. She had three quilts in our show, and here's another quilt of hers that I took a photo of:

My nomination for goofiest category in a quilt show has to go to the "wearable art" category. While many of the things I see entered in this category are just exquisitely made, one wonders WHERE anyone would actually wear these things! Here's a photo I snapped of a couple pieces of our show's not-so-wearable-art. Can you imagine wearing that jacket? The shoulders are something else!

And what did I buy? I looked at those red and white FQs and ended up passing them up. I found another smallish tabletopper kit using that Ellery fabric. In fact, I think my "mission" on Saturday revolved around collecting Ellery, both at the quilt show and the shops I stopped at. At the top of this blog is my ever-growing pile of Ellery fabric and below is the small kit and another couple pieces of yardage I picked up. I love that border stripe--that's the one I've been petting in the quilt shop for the last month.

The second kit I bought included a packet of the Ellery "Spoonfuls"--they're like a charm pack, but the squares are 8-1/2". Kind of cool, huh?

I also picked up these Swarovski crystals--they can be heat set. I bought a small Halloween quilt kit a couple weeks ago where the quiltmaker had used these to decorate a spider's web. I bought the clear, jet, and red--I can envision using the red for berries on a wreath in a tablerunner. Have you tried these?

Finally, I got my son's Halloween quilt done. Blogger's being a little temperamental with photos this a.m., so I won't upload more, but the front and back look much like they did the last time I uploaded photos, so you're not missing anything. I talked to my daughter on Friday and hers hadn't arrived yet despite being mailed over a week earlier, Priority mail. Tahoe is about an hour and a half drive from here, but mail service is horrible. I hope she'll get hers today.

Have a good Monday, and thanks for stopping by to visit!

Quilt Show, Yet Again!

At your urging, I did decide to go to the two quilt shops and quilt show yesterday--wouldn't have done it otherwise, but I like to keep my friends happy, so I made the sacrifice. I have a couple more photos for you of the show and my purchases, but I think I'll save those until tomorrow's post.

I said yesterday that I'd tell you a story about an earlier quilt show. Remember this quilt? This is the one that won Members' Choice and Viewers' Choice one year--I think it must have been in October 2003.

This quilt has many memories tied up in it. In March 2003, I was working on the pinwheel border when the U.S. invaded Iraq. I remember being glued to CNN and other news programs while trying to find different color combinations in my Kansas Troubles stash and eeking out enough fabric to construct the pinwheels.

The quilt show began that year on Friday, October 17th. I finished sewing the binding on this quilt late Monday night, October 13th. All quilts had to be turned into the show on Wednesday, October 15th, between 9 and 11 a.m. That year, I think I had three quilts I was entering.

After work that Tuesday, I was busy trying to finish something in the house before I cooked dinner, and my husband was in the garage, getting some Halloween decorations out of the rafters. It was probably around 7:30 p.m. when I heard a crash. I hurried out to the garage to find my husband stretched out on the floor, half on top of the aluminum ladder, groaning in pain and unable to move. I called 9-1-1, and soon the paramedics arrived, immobilized his neck, and placed him on a stretcher for transport to the hospital. I called both of our kids and got in my car to follow.

As it turned out, my husband had broken a rib and shattered his elbow in the fall. He also pulled and bruised several ligaments and muscles. We spent all night in the emergency room, and they finally admitted him to the hospital at 6 a.m. After getting him settled, I went home, got cleaned up, and gathered up my quilts for the show. I had them checked in and I was home again by 10 a.m. to try to get some much-needed sleep.

At 11 a.m., the roofers showed up and began removing our shingles. I knew they were coming sometime that week, but they weren't certain when they'd begin. Of course, they were ready to start our job the day I desperately needed sleep! Isn't that always the way things work out?

My guild holds a preview party on the Thursday evening before the show, and my husband and I had planned to attend. Of course, we didn't make it. My husband, after much delay, finally had surgery on his elbow to pin the bones back in place. When I wasn't at work, I was visiting him in the hospital, and then going home to take care of things there. On Sunday afternoon, I finally made it to the quilt show for a couple hours before everything was taken down, and I found I had won Viewers' Choice and Members' Choice.

Receiving the awards was somewhat bittersweet given my husband's accident, but knowing I had made a quilt that was liked by so many people was a great comfort and honor.

My husband stayed in the hospital for about a week. After that, he had to go into a nursing/rehab home for another week, so he could regain the strength he needed to get up and down. He came home on the afternoon of Halloween, and we went directly from the nursing home to Sacramento State University to watch our son play soccer in the pouring rain--that was what my husband most wanted to do, and he had pushed himself and his doctors to be released in time to see that game--I think it was the last game of the season, and he didn't want to miss it. He was in a wheelchair then and remained in a wheelchair and off work for the next couple months.

By the time he came home, I had finished piecing and nearly finished quilting this quilt for him, which I named "Pat's Ladder."

My husband has muscular dystrophy which was diagnosed when he was in his mid-20s. Saying someone has muscular dystrophy is a little like saying someone has cancer--very non-specific. Muscular dystrophy is the broader category of a disease that has many variations. My husband's form has never been specifically identified. What it means, though, is that over time, the muscles die off or atrophy. Pat has always done whatever he is able to do, and if doing something the conventional way is difficult for him, he finds another way to get the job done. His balance is not very good, and he probably should not have been up on that ladder that night, but he's never been one to accept limitations. This fall, though, and the amount of time it took him to recuperate from it, convinced him to listen to his body a little more and try to accept what it tells him it cannot do. His Pat's Ladder quilt is a reminder that there are just some things he needs to ask for help with and that it's perfectly alright to not be able to do everything himself. It is a constant and frustrating struggle with new lessons to learn all the time.

More Quilt Show Report

Legal Disclaimer: I am not a photographer nor do I pretend to be. In fact, I'm pretty lame when it comes to the camera arts.

Okay, so that being said, I'll also warn you that I completely forgot to take photos at the show until we were ready to leave. I knew I couldn't let all of you down, so I scurried back to a couple quilts I liked and snapped a couple quick photos.

This first one is a string quilt. Since I've been blogging, I've been looking at the lovely string quilts so many of you have made. Tracey made one that particularly appealed to me because the strings were all in the same color family. I also liked the one above for the same reasons--all the strings are in reds with a bit of orange and yellow thrown in for excitement. The other thing I liked about this one is that at several places in the black sashing, there are a series of red circles. Click to expand this one if you can't see them--hopefully that will work. It's a bit unexpected and I think it really lifts the quilt above the average string quilt.

This second one--well, I thought the use of a colorful striped fabric as a background and then the more solid appearing fabrics for the design was kind of neat--something I wanted to remember. The bright colors don't appeal to me too much, but I like the design idea behind it. It's really a striking quilt.

Finally, for overall design, I really liked this third one. All those tiny baskets are paper pieced. I voted for this one to receive Viewer's Choice.

The funny thing was that Jacquie was trying to see where the quilt maker had quilted those basket blocks and had reached out to touch the quilt. Well, we know you aren't allowed to touch quilts, but being a new quilter, Jacquie had forgotten. Just as I was telling her not to touch, the quilt maker came up. I think she was a little bugged, but she was reasonably gracious about it and explained her quilting to Jacquie.

I'm having quilt show withdrawals today. I'd like to go back. There was a vendor with a whole basket full of red and white FQs of many different prints but all in the same shades of red and white. I'd love to make a red and white quilt. Should I go back and look again? Maybe!

I'm also thinking that there are two local quilt shops I'd like to stop at. One has some fabric on their 50% off table that I've been eyeing from afar. I think it might possibly be from the Sanctuary line and since I won that FQ bundle from the Calico Horse (and did you see Donna's post today, saying she's put it in the mail?!), I think I could use a little more of the fabric for borders, don't you? Of course, with my luck it won't be from that line at all, but it sure is pretty and who can beat 50% off?

The other shop has the line of fabric from that kit I bought yesterday. The line is called Ellery by Marcus Brothers. I've been eyeing that fabric too. Okay, I've actually even petted it a few time--it's a beautiful line of fabric! You know, chances of me making up that kit exactly as the pattern shows are pretty slim, so I just might need a bit more of the fabric. I'm not too crazy about the sections with all the simple patches, although I love the appliqued center and corner blocks.

Today my plan was to clean house and try to finish the meandering quilting on my son's Halloween quilt. Do you think I'll stick to my plan, or will I toss aside my hermit ways, put on make-up, do my hair, and head out for a little more retail therapy? I'll let you know the answer tomorrow. I also have a quilt show story to tell you about from a few years back. See you then!

Quilt Show Report

My friend Jacquie and I went to the local guild's quilt show today during our lunch hour. I work with Jacquie and she just got interested in quilting a little over a year ago. She's a single mom with a younger son still living at home and she doesn't have much time (or money) for quilt classes and such, so she hasn't had very many opportunities to see quilts made by others or learn different techniques. She has taken a couple of beginning quilting classes at JoAnn's and avidly pours through quilt magazines, planning what she wants to make next. And like most of us, her ideas far outstrip her time. Also like most of us when we began quilting, a great deal of her stash consists of fabrics from JoAnn's, but she's discovered the wonders of quilt shop quality fabric, so I wonder how long she'll be content with JoAnn's?

Last weekend, Jacquie joined a bus load of women bound for the Pacific International Quilt Festival, a Mancuso show, held in the Bay Area. Of course she enjoyed it immensely and just wished she could have spent more time. She's already making plans in her head to go back next year and possibly stay overnight. And today, of course, I introduced her to the local guild's annual quilt show. We only had an hour to spend there, and when we got back to the office, she told me she thinks she'll go back again this weekend and spend more time looking at the quilts and the vendors' wares. Isn't it fun to see new quilters fall in love with quilting?

Our local show usually displays a couple hundred quilts and we have about 30 vendors, so it's a reasonably large show. Yes, I did find my hand dyed fabric lady--she's such a nice woman! If you're anywhere on the west coast, perhaps you know Linda of Linda M. Designs? I rarely buy very much from her but I always buy at least a couple pieces to add to my collection, and we chat about the show and what's going on with the other vendors. This time, Linda's booth was across from another woman who had bolts of fabric priced at $4 to $5 a yard. I wondered whether Linda was benefitting from the huge draw of quilters to that corner of the vendor area, but it didn't seem to work that way since Linda and the other vendor tend to attract different types of quilters. Linda got MY money today though! Here are the three pieces I purchased:

I just LOVE this yummy shade of purple, although I'm not much of a fan of purple. I also liked the green, which will make some nicely shaded leaves. And the blue/green combo reminded me of trees reflected on the surface of a lake. I'm always on the lookout for some hand dyed brown/black fabric that looks like the texture of tree trunks and branches, but I haven't had much luck. I DID find some once a few years ago, but I've used most of what I had. But I'll keep looking--that's at least half the fun!

At another vendor booth, I saw this quilt made up and hanging against the back wall and they had just one kit left. The pattern is by Quilt Soup. Now these pastel colors aren't what I'm normally drawn to, but for some reason, in the last couple months they seem to be calling to me. I don't even want to THINK about redecorating my house to accommodate my changing tastes, but it may just come to that some day! When the vendor commented that I was getting the last kit, I told her I was on my lunch hour and had to shop FAST--kits are good for that!!!

I was kind of hoping to find a couple needle punch embroidery kits, but if they were there, I missed them. That's okay, though--I have plenty of other things to keep me busy. We also have a serious lack of stencil vendors at our guild show. Stencils are one of those things that are best shopped for when there's a wide variety, and quilt shops don't usually carry that many. At least we're lucky enough these days to have online access to companies that carry things like needle punch kits and stencils.

Am I boring you yet? I think this post is getting awfully long, so I'll just say good night for now and save the last couple photos--photos of a few quilts from the show--until tomorrow's post.