HMQS 2010

Last weekend, I went to HMQS in Salt Lake City for some longarm quilting classes and to see the fabulous quilt show. I came away from the classes with lots of new information about designs (lots and lots of designs), new techniques, threads, gadgets, supplies, and even how to make a show quilt! I've been thinking it would be lots of fun to make a show quilt now that I've learned some tips and tricks about how to do it. I think I'll do that in my spare time. (Translation: I'll never do one because I have no spare time). But I can dream, right?

Here's the quilt that won Best of Show for 2010:

Just beautiful. So many of the show quilts use embroidery, fabric painting, and different kinds of embellishing to make them absolutely stunning. The picture really doesn't do this quilt justice.

The main reason I went was to take some classes from some very talented ladies who are well-known in the longarm quilting world. If you want to check out a little bit about each of them, just follow these links.

Renae Hadaddin--gorgeous show quilts that have won many awards.
Sally Terry--best selling author and inventor of the "Terry Twist" quilting technique.
Kim Brunner--travels to teach at quilt shows and has won best teacher awards. I can see why--I LOVED her class!
Pam Clarke--famous for her "Designs With Lines" quilting technique which uses minimal marking and produces fabulous quilting designs based on marking with lines.

All my classes were fabulous and I would take a class from any of these teachers again--I had a great experience with all of my classes this year, and hope to make it back sometime.

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February & March Customer Quilts

So here it is almost May and I'm finally posting my customer quilts for February & March. I've been incredibly busy quilting, greenhousing (not a word, I know) and watching my girls' dance competitions. So on to the pictures...

Cute scrappy throw for Heather B. I quilted this with an all-over swirl pattern.

Straw Hat Sam antique quilt for JoAnn W. I quilted this with a small stipple all over and did a little tacking down on each Sam so I didn't take away from the cute applique.

Cute fall wall hanging for JoAnn W. I quilted this with an all-over loop pattern in the body of the quilt and added some detail to the pumpkins, and I did pumpkins & vines in the outside border.

I love these darling baby quilt samplers from JoAnn W. I quilted different detail in each of the blocks.

Here's the second baby quilt sampler for JoAnn W...

...and the third.

This adorable ladybug baby quilt was for Bette G. I quilted flowers, loops, and vines throughout this one with some detail in the applique flowers. I quilted flowers and vines in the outside border.

This darling fairytale quilt was from Betty W. I did swirls in the red sashing, meander in the map blocks, and detail on the castle--tight stipple to give a rock effect, and clouds in the sky above the castle. I also quilted double loops in the green border and a swirl pattern in the blue outside border.

And 3 more Aggie Star wall hangings for Utah State University. Each one is a little different because I used scraps from the bigger quilts I've done. The bigger quilts measure 72" square, and these ones are 36" square. And yes, I know they're blurry. I had the wrong camera lens on, and that's the best I could do before I sent them out the door.

Here's the second Aggie Star...

...and the third.

Lissy's Flowers for Julia T. I love these ragged flowers that look like lollipops. I quilted this one with an all-over flower & vine pattern with flowers, leaves and vines in the outside border.

Here's a sweet pink & brown patchwork quilt for Julia T. with some cute rick-rack detail in the corners. I quilted a hodge-podge of flowers, leaves, vines, swirls & loops in the body of the quilt. The brown inner border had little pink stars on the fabric, so I quilted stars & loops in that border and flowers & vines in the outside pieced border.

And the next 6 pictures are some large Grandmother's Garden table toppers that I quilted for Marilyn G. She hand pieced each one of these, and I love all the different 1930s reproduction prints she chose to make each one look a little different. I quilted an assortment of swirls, flowers and double loops in each row.

Here's the second...

third...

fourth...

fifth...

...and sixth. She's been busy!

And unfortunately, I let one get away during March without a picture first. I also did a beautiful table topper in civil war reproduction prints for Julia F. Hopefully I can get a picture from her and get that posted. Now I'd better get busy starting a post for April!

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The Little Mermaid

I just finished making 13 of these Little Mermaid blocks for our quilt guild friendship block exchange. The theme this year was fairy tales. I had several fairy tales to choose from, but I had all kinds of ideas about the textures and colors you'd find under the sea, so Little Mermaid it was. At first I was unsure if I could translate my ideas to a quilt block, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I'm excited to go to the exchange this morning and see all the blocks I'll be getting back!

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