Home from HMQS!

Hi all!  Well, now that the dust is starting to settle I thought I would share a bit from my trip to the Home Machine Quilters Show (HMQS) in Salt Lake City last week.  It is a wonderful, vibrant growing regional show that is starting to attract a lot of competition from around the world.  Needless to say, competition is pretty stiff.  The Best of Show winner was "Harmony Within" by Sue McCarty.  This quilt is absolutely amazing.  It was done on a whole-cloth background with thread and a small amount of painting. 

"Harmony Within" HMQS Best of Show by Sue McCarty

There were many, many beautiful quilts and a large number of ribbons were given out.  You can see a list of the quilt award winners on the HMQS website

Imagine my delight to find that the 2 quilts I entered in the quilt competion both won "Teacher Award" Ribbons.  "Botanical Bliss" was pieced by Deana Steel and custom quilted by me.  Karen McTavish awarded us her "Teacher Award" ribbon.

"Botanical Bliss"

"Dancing Batiks" was a pieced and quilted by me.  It was made from a Judy Neimeyer paper pieced pattern and took me 2 years to complete.  I used some of my hand-dyed fabrics along with commercial batiks.  Superior Metallics and Rainbow threads were used in the main points and SoFine threads were used in the background fills.  Kimmy Brunner awarded her "Teachers Ribbon" to me.  This was very exciting, because just the night before she was awarded "Teacher of the Year".



"Dancing Batiks"



Detail of "Dancing Batiks"

McTavishing detail on "Dancing Batiks"

Detail of back of "Dancing Batiks" showing SoFine threads on sold black background.

I have to share another award winning quilt with you.  This beautiful "Lone Star" quilt was pieced and quilted by Joyce Carson.  Joyce pieced this at our last "Sew Much Fun" quilters retreat in Jerome here last February during Carmen Geddes Lone Star class!  She also embellished her quilt with Ricky Tims' applique using our GoCutter!  Joyce won 2nd place in the "Off The Bed" catagory.

Joyce Carson's Quiltsmart "Lone Star"

I love going to this particular quilt show in Salt Lake every year.  In addition to immersing yourself in the quilt world, I am able to challenge myself to actually finish something and get it entered into the show (usually).  But the best part is getting to work and visit with friends that you only see occasionally.  I worked in the A-1 Longarm Machine booth during the show for my friend Jen Alexander (she's my longarm dealer).

Jen demonstrating the A-1 Elite

Cara and Megan during a planning session

Megan answering questions

A big thanks to everyone....

Thank you everyone that has joined me this week.  The winner of my drawing for the Fat Eighth Bundle of my hand-dyed "Desert Dyes" fabric is Karen in Cincinnati.  Karen if you would send me an email with your mailing information I will pop this fabric in the mail to you.  Congratulations..... and welcome to my quilty journey!

And the winner is...........

If you stopped by my booth at the quilt show this weekend and signed up for the drawing you were eligible for a FREE Edge to Edge quilting and Quilters Dream Batting (up to a queen size).  Our drawing winner is Nancy Bond of Twin Falls.  I'll be contacting her today to let her know!  Congratulations Nancy.

one end of my booth at this weekend's quilt show

Stay tuned as I will be having another drawing soon....... if you leave a comment on my blog AND become a follower during the next 7 days you will be eligible for a bundle of 8 - FAT Eighth Hand-Dyed Fabrics. 

My new "Desert Dyes" hand-dyed fabric Fat 8th Bundle

A Blue Ribbon Day!

Well, today completed our guild show "Blooming in the Desert".  'Our' quilt "Botanical Bliss" took two 1st Place ribbons in the Guild Challenge Catagory.  Deana Steel pieced this beautiful dimensional applique quilt and I quilted it.  What a wonderful sense of accomplishment for both of us.  We sure make a great team - thanks Deana!

Deana added a few more dimensional touches prior to entered the quilt in this show.  Notice the butterfly?

Two of Evelyn Sprier's quilts also won blue ribbons.  Here she is with her Fuchsia Applique Quilt:

And here is Evelyn's McKenna Ryan quilt that she made for her youngest son.

Joan Anderson's Christmas Quilt that I quilted last year also won a ribbon!

Fatima Franco's Tablerunner won 2nd place in it's catagory.  I quilted this for her last year also; she made it as a wedding gift.

A great big  Thanks to all my wonderful customers!

Angora bunny update...

It's been a few weeks since the baby bunnies were born so I thought I would post an update.  They are growing in leaps and bounds.  Finally have a good coat of fur and are now venturing (tentatively) out of their nest box.   It's so funny to see them try to operate their legs..... hopping about in a chaotic way.  These are Satin Angora hybrids so they will hopefully have long furry coats when they mature.

Some day I hope to have anough Angora fibers to create something!

Out of Africa

I know it's been a while since I posted but life really got in the way last week.  I am a migraine sufferer and had a migraine that brought me to a screeching halt.  On top of that I had a bad reaction to the migraine medication that ended up putting me in the hospital overnight.  Needless to say quilting and dyeing and rabbit shows and quilt shows did not occur last week.  Now that my headache is gone this week has been much more productive.  I did manage to finish one customer quilt for Margaret, which is pictured below:

Margaret brought this hand-painted batik panel back from a recent trip to Africa and wanted a comforter made for her bed.  We added 3 separate borders to make the panel large enough.  I used Superior Rainbows and SoFine threads to quilt freehand motifs to compliment the batik.  She picked out Quilters Dream Wool batting which made this quilt scrumptiously cozy.  I was a little worried it might be stiff because of the painted batik but the wool batting saved the day!

Thanks to all my friends (you know who you are) that rescued me last week and provided much needed
moral support!

Now to try and finish a few quilts for the quilt show next week.  This is as far as I've gotten:

Deana's Spring Quilt

Well, I just finished another stunning quilt made by Deana.  She designed the quilt using pieced blocks that she won 2 years ago at our last local guild show.  By designing the entire quilt setting and adding additional applique and dimensional flowers to these blocks she has outdone herself!  I just finished quilting it last night with custom designs in the blocks and background.  Deana will be adding a few more surprises to the quilt over the next few weeks too.  If you are in our area April 2nd & 3rd come to our guild quilt show "The Desert Blooms" and see this beauty in person. 

Spring is just around the corner!

Well, at least I think it is.  Here in our corner of the world everything is still pretty brown and dead.  Hardly a sign of new life outside, although I did hear a robin singing this morning!  I thought I would share some of my own signs of spring.  With spring quilt shows popping up all over I am busily working on show quilts.  Here's a sneak-peak of Deana's upcoming show quilt.  A stunning beauty with dimensional flowers!

Other signs of spring at our house are the arrival of new baby bunnies.  My daughter's Chocolate-Otter Broken Rex "Hershey" had 10 babies!  Their eyes are just opening up today.... here they are napping in a bunny nest:

Yesterday was a pretty mild day weather-wise so my daughter had all her does out for some exercise and sunshine.  My backyard was full of rabbits tearing around enjoying their time socializing and nibbling.....

Retreat Group

I promised a group photo of our quilters retreat as my picture did not turn out.  Thanks to DeEre we have a great one to share...  left to right (1st row) Janele, Sylvia, Margaret, MaryAnn, Margie, Bea, Debi, karen. (2nd row) Judy, Carmen, Jen, Sue, Tara, Sherrie, Kathy, Alta. (3rd row) Diane, Sandy, Marla, Joyce, DeEre, Barb.  I think the only person that was missing was Kathleen, who was out excercising for the rest of us!

A Colorful Day

This last weekend we finally got some snow (last time was in November). While most of the country has been buried under snow our little corner of Idaho seems to have been in a weather bubble most of the winter. I should have been cleaning house and getting caught up with life after the quilters retreat but I took the weekend to dye fabric instead! (I have such an understanding and loving family.....)

Here are the results..... 2 days and 24 yards later. By the way, this post is dedicated to a blogger-buddie Sherrie who lives in Washington State and is missing the bright colors of her previous life.