Abbotsford Quilt Show - Quilts in the Valley 2006

I was at another quilt show Friday night. This time the show was in Abbotsford. The venue is huge and so there were a lot of vendors. In fact with all of the quilts that were there to look at and all of the wares displayed by the vendors, I actually ran out of time to really see things as thoroughly as I would have liked.

This show featured the Worldwide Postcard Quilt Exhibit. In 2004, the Alaska Fiber Festival sent out a challenge to quilters around the world to submit a postcard quilt, with the theme of "My Backyard". they collected over 200 miniature quilts from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, South Africa, the UK, and the US, and Canada. They were wonderful! These are some of my favorites:

This quilter obviously had a sense of humor.

Cross Stitched - Blue Star Quilt Progress

I have been away - I traveled across the country last week to attend a training workshop for work. While spending time in the airports waiting on flights, I worked on my cross stitched quilt. This piece has seen many miles as it seems that I only work on it when I travel. When I am at home I either piece on my Bernina or machine quilt on my long arm. I don't do much hand work anymore. I have to finish the yellow and orange flowers and then I can proceed to the quilting stage.

As I stated in a previous post, this piece is at least 11 years old. While I was at the Langley Quilt show a couple of weeks back, I spotted a twin to my quilt! I wondered if the quilter had this project sitting for years in her UFO pile and she just recently finished it or if it had been finished for some time and she just chose to showcase it to the public now. Somehow there is comfort in thinking that there is someone out there with UFOs as old as mine! Seeing her quilt finished and hanging in a show has inspired me to work towards completing mine. I think I will do a little more hand work in the evenings just so that I can finish it.
The quilter added solid colored borders to her piece and quilted it following the blue suggested quilting lines that are printed on the top.

My top is all wrinkled (see picture above) from being carried everywhere in my travels. I think it will need to be pressed before being quilted. However, if I touch the top with heat I am sure that I will "heat set" the blue quilting lines permanently into the top. Does anyone have a suggestion as to how I can flatten the top for quilting while preserving the quilting lines and still have them so that they can be removed with washing later? I am also thinking of adding a border to my top. I am not sure what the design will be yet, but I like the idea of a pieced border--perhaps triangles.

25th Anniversary

Our wedding was 25 years ago, but the celebration continues to this day.

This was our wedding day - May 16, 1981.

This is us 25 years later - May 16, 2006.

Love seems the swiftest, but it is the slowest of all growths.

No man or woman really knows what perfect love is

until they have been married a quarter of a century.

(Mark Twain)

T-Shirt Quilt - Finished

I finished the t-shirt quilt. I was commissioned to make this quilt by a customer who wanted a memory quilt centered around her love of running marathons. I have grown fond of it and hate to let it go. I am now going to have to make a quilt for myself out of the collection of old t-shirts that I saved! This block seemed particularly appropriate for today. HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all the mothers out there reading this blog!

Coquitlam Quilt Show

Today, the weather was sunny and clear. A perfect day for a drive to a nearby community to enjoy their quilt show. My quilt traveling friend, Dot and I headed to Coquitlam to the Quilt Rhapsody on Blue Mountain Quilt Show.

The Blue Mountain Quilters Guild puts a small but very nice show every other year. Dot and I had a hard time deciding which of the many lovely quilts to vote on for Viewer's Choice. The following pictures are of my pick. The fabrics in this quilt were oriental designs and the whole thing was hand quilted. The piecing was very precise. Very beautiful!

I have posted more pictures from this show on Webshots. If you would like to attend a virtual quilt show, take a look: http://community.webshots.com/album/550344238weRXTl

Baptist Fan Quilting

These pictures are of a customer quilt that I just finished quilting using the Circle Lord Baptist Fan template. I love the look of a curved quilting design on a Yellow Brick Road quilt. The contrasting shapes compliment one another beautifully.

Tulips

These are pictures of tulip fields near where I live. There is nothing better for quilting inspiration than a scene like this!

PieceMakers 2005 Round Robin - Part II

The fifth participant in my Round Robin group was Kathy.

I just finished quilting Kathy's Round Robin project on my long arm last night. I love the colours in Kathy's quilt and seeing it come alive with the quilting has inspired me to pull my own top off the flimsy pile and see if I can't get it quilted soon.

The quilting design is Clam Shell. It is fabulous for adding texture to a quilt without detracting from the piecing. Very appropriate for this quilt.

PieceMakers 2005 Round Robin - Part I

Last year, the Quilt Guild that I belong to--PieceMakers--organized a Round Robin.

Our Round Robin was organized into groups of 5 quilters. To start, everyone was to supply a block that would become the center of their quilt. It was suggested that we use an orphan block - something we already had on hand, something that we started previously and never made it into a quilt, a block that was now sitting on our UFO pile. This was an opportunity to start a new project while finishing off one of those pesky UFOs!

At the guild meeting in January, we passed our center block to someone else in our group. That person made the first border which was a narrow, dark coloured border. At the next meeting in February, the projects were passed to the next person in the group who added a pieced border. At the March meeting, the pieces were passed to the next person who added a pieced border. At the April meeting, we passed to the next person in our group who added the applique border. At the May meeting, we passed to the last person in our group who added a wide border to finish off the top.

Finally, we all returned with our completed flimsies to the June meeting where we returned the quilt tops to their owners - back to the person who supplied the original center block. This was the first time these people had seen these tops since they had turned in their original block. This meeting was filled with excitement and anticipation as each quilt top was revealed to its owner.

These are the quilt tops from my Round Robin group.

First, my own Round Robin - not yet quilted. I had intended to make an entire Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt but only ever finished one block. This was the perfect project to ensure that one lonely block had a home since it is clear that the Grandmother's Flower Garden project is a way off in the future somewhere.

This Dresden plate top accented with butterflies is Tina's.

This "chicken" top belongs to Lesley.

This Fall inspired top belongs to Patricia.

Langley Quilt Show - Part III

This was another quilt pattern that could do some serious damage to your scrap pile!
I liked the use of the Stack-N-Whack quilt pattern combined with an Irish Chain design on this quilt.

One last quilt that captured the theme of the show, Quilting between Friends. This one made me smile with the use of the preserving jars.

Langley Quilt Show - Part II

This was my favorite quilt at the show. The use of green as a background was innovative. The piecing and machine quilting were first rate. The quilter indicated that this project took several years to complete--I can understand why!

I thought this quilt design was perfect for scrap busting. It was called Joesph's Coat of Many Colours.

Another stash busting idea. The use of value in this quilt resulted in a secondary star design. Very nice!

Langley Quilt Show - Part I

I was at the Langley Quilters' Guild Quit Show, "Quilting Between Friends", last night. This was only the second quilt show for this group, but it was fabulous.

I sat through a demonstration on how to make a folded Shoo-Fly coaster. I thought these would make excellent gifts for my quilty friends.

Happy 20th Birthday Matt!

Proud Grandparents!