Show Shopping

I've been home a full week now since my return from the American Quilter's Society (AQS) Show in Lancaster, PA. My house is pretty much back to normal and life resumes its daily routine of never enough time and too much mess life with little kids. My sewing room is not entirely back to normal.

By "normal" in both instances above, do not read that as neat and tidy. I have learned to temper my creativity with some organization and good habits, but the rest of my family? No. Especially the only other female in the house who has mastered the creative chaos process. Her creative vision seems to require cutting up tons of paper, fabric, string, yarn etc.

But today I thought I'd share my shopping haul from the show. Compared to many shopping trips, this is pretty small. This may be due to having completed my business taxes prior to heading out to the show.

The first thing to buy was batting from Hobb's. Three queen-sized batts were purchased, one 80/20 cotton/poly blend and my new favorite batting- their new cotton and wool blend, Nice stuff! No picture as batting is fairly unexciting to photograph.

The next thing on my shopping list was thread. Now there was a ton of thread for sale at the show, but when faced with a huge selection, my brain just can't make up its mind. Since I couldn't buy it all, I bought what was new to me that I already knew I wanted to try.

The Top Anchor Quilting Tools booth was right next to the YLI booth. The folks there were such good neighbors. Jim saw me eyeing the spools of braid. I explained that I was wondering if it was big enough to use for free motion couching or small enough for bobbin work. The sweet man gave me the two spools shown above! I also bought a ginormous cone of their #40 poly thread that is similar to Glide and two small spools of grey Silk Sparkle, which is silk thread combined with a silver metallic.

Then I had to try some thread from WonderFil. There was a huge selection and again, I just couldn't decide. (Plus I had to hurry back to the booth- no slow shopping stroll here.) I snagged a pack of rayon cord, perfect for bobbin work. (I had bobbin work on the brain since I used it for the Top Anchor banner.) I also picked up a cone of  InvisaFil, a #100 poly thread. So thin and fine! I had heard a few longarmers talk of using it, so I thought I'd check it out.

Then I bought two half yard pieces of unique hand dyed fabrics. Both will end up as table runners and/or teaching samples. The bottom one tells me it wants some straight line ruler work done Zentangle style.

The last stop was the sew Batik booth. I love their gradations line of solid batiks. It was easy to pick up these two and hard to say no to the others. I wanted to pick up some of their rayon batik for a tunic for myself, but since I haven't done anything with the last piece I bought from them, I refrained.

That's it! Positively restrained in my shopping, wasn't I? How about you? Do you go crazy when you get to a big show like this? Do you have a list and stick to it? Are you like me and get overwhelmed with choices? Share in the comments.

Showing off my purchases reminds me of the Mid Atlantic Quilt Festival three years ago when I bought the Janome Frame Quilting Foot Set. I had no idea if I could use it on my stationary machine with my convertible FMQ foot set, but I was going to try it. I'm so glad I did!

I also want to welcome new readers who found the blog after seeing me at the show. Hi!

A final parting note to let you know that Craftsy is having a sale on fabric and kits right now. Use the link to them on the right sidebar to take a look.

AQS Lancaster #2

I'm still dusting and trying to get my sewing space back together after packing so much of it up for the AQS show in Lancaster last week. Something always gets left behind on these trips and this time I left my computer mouse. Thankfully, it was at my dad's and it will be mailed back soon. Makes for a less than enjoyable use of the computer for now though.

Today I bring you two more quilts from the show. Both by fabulous quilters. One is a blogger too and the other I got to meet briefly at the show. Both quilts employ fine quilting on the top before the quilt was sandwiched with batting, which makes it free motion embroidery.

First, there's Stars On Mars by Gail Stepanek and Jan Hutchison. You can check out Jan's fabulous quilting on her blog: The Secret Life of Mrs. Meatloaf. This quilt is amazing, so it's no surprise that it was named best of show.

The white stitching on those spiky swirls are free motion embroidery and it is possibly also trapuntoed.

Those stars are pretty stinking complex and look at all those appliqued circles!

So stinking impressive! I am just amazed at all the work on this piece. You can read more about it at Jan's blog which is linked above.

Let's Do the Dresden Twist is by Teri L. Cherne and I got to meet her briefly at the show when she stopped in at the booth. I hadn't seen her quilt at that point so I missed my chance to grill ask her more about it.

I could have stared for hours at it with all of the creative fills and designs.

In the shot below, you might see that those larger circles and diamonds in the border have a slight purple cast to them. That's because she quilted, or rather, free motion embroidered them with a fine purple thread!

There's so much variety here! But not too busy.

These quilts blow me away. They are the work of very talented ladies on long arm machines, and I suppose that I should be showing quilts done on domestic machines, or at least sit down machines, but these really grabbed me. You know that I believe we can do just as fine work with our smaller, stationary machines. I didn't have much time to see the show quilts, but there were some really fabulous quilting going on. 

Bernina Ruler Foot

I got back from the AQS Quilt Show in Lancaster last night and while I'm still getting life back to normal, I had to hurry and share this with you:

Sorry for the poor picture.

 It's the new ruler foot from Bernina! Yes, it's on its way and made a little debut at the show in the Bernina booth. It was as we had suspected, made for the Bernina longarm, but will fit onto the Bernina sewing machines.

The Bernina representative told me it will be available in April. I got this sneak peek at it at the show as they had the long arm there. It's a nicely done foot, smooth and round with the desired 1/4 inch from the needle to the outside edge. It also has a small cutout for better visibility in front of the needle.

The interest in using rulers and templates with free motion quilting on a domestic sewing machine was incredible! Of course the need for a foot was a bit of a disappointment when I had all of those nifty templates at the ready from Top Anchor Quilting Tools. Especially for those who have non-Janome machines. I made sure to tell folks to check out the Westalee foot or to see if their machine is compatible with the Janome ruler foot and to pester their dealers for a ruler foot. I will have reviews of the final version of the Westalee foot sometime this week.

A Brother dealer made sure to come down and ask about buying the templates for her shop. She said all of her employees at the show kept coming down to our booth to look at the templates. She also said the Janome Ruler Foot combination (Janome Convertible Free Motion Quilt Foot Set (In the appropriate high or low shank) plus the Frame Quilting Feet Set ) worked on their Brother machines.

I was so happy to meet several blog readers at the show! Thanks for coming by and saying "hi". So nice to put some faces to your names. Especially one who gave me a hug and some well-timed words of praise when I was visiting the Janome booth! (That was awesome!)

Now I must go put my house back in order. Seems like while the cat was away, the mice played, while papa bear did some sanding in the house and there's a lovely layer of dust.....

A Banner Day: Free Motion Quilted

After seeing the quilted word art I've begun offering in my Etsy shop, Top Anchor Quilting Tools commissioned me to make a banner for their show booth. Since the necessary colored threads got hung up in some foul weather and the kids have had a bunch of snow days, I'm running short of time.

 In order to get the good color contrast without stitching every last millimeter, I'm using a 30 weight thread that always gives me a bit of trouble. I've tried larger needles, even smaller needles. Different tensions too, but every once in a while some ugly happens. Would you believe I'm getting better results with a smaller needle? Seriously! It certainly does not like backtracking at all. But I'm forging ahead.

I'm surrounding the logo with the various rulers that Top Anchor sells and to make sure they are easy to see on the banner, I'm doing some bobbin work. That's turning out pretty well.

The feather wreath is one of the harder templates for me. It's a lot of fun and so cool to get such a perfect wreath, but you have to be very careful to use the printed guidelines to position the ruler accurately for each plume. Just a tiny bit on each plume and you'll be way off when you get back around to the beginning. Similar to having an accurate piecing seam allowance. Using rulers and templates is a great way to bring uniformity and evenness to your quilting.

Hands-down, my favorite template from them is the 5 pointed star. It's one of the easiest to manage on a stationary machine, simple to line up if you get off a little, and stars are always handy designs for quilters. Do a couple of offset repeats of a star using the same anchor position and you get some really neat designs.

Another of my favorites is the Dahlia. Above is just a simple single version, but offset a second one and it is really fabulous. You can also do a third repeat and it starts looking like Spirograph You can see an older video I made using the Dahlia template, or see the accompanying post.

It's been so much easier to use these templates on my Janome 8200 compared to the 6600. No prongs in the way of the ruler and it's much easier to use the rulers behind the foot.

Now to get back to stitching. I've got to get this banner and another sample quilt done before Tuesday morning when I leave for Lancaster, PA. I am so excited to go to the show. Let me know in the comments if you are going to the AQS Show. Hopefully we can meet up.

If you are in this current winter storm nastiness on the east side of the US, I hope you are staying warm and not having to travel out in it. Come on Spring!

Free Motion Sliding

Whew! I was about to go into free motion quilting withdrawal. Since I packed up my 6600 on Friday, I've been so antsy to get going with my new Janome 8200. Hubby did such a great job with getting it set into my table ( DIY Sewing Table: Updated and Improved) over the weekend.

Then I did what I always do with a new machine. I stitched a sampler of all the stitches, including most of the straight stitches (a bit redundant) and the buttonholes. I used Aurifil thread in two contrasting colors and the automatic thread tension was spot-on.

Today I set it up for free motion quilting! The machine came with its own version of the Convertible Free Motion Foot Set which has a slight difference in the toes, having 2 locations for the needle. The wonderful ruler toe fits on it, of course.

Then it was time to place the Supreme Slider. I bought a brand new one since my previous one had a hang up incident with a basting pin.

How could I possibly get a basting pin hung up in the needle hole?

Well, I cut out around the little cover for my drop-in bobbin. And I neglected to clean the clingy pink side often enough. So the pin was able to slip under the edge. It didn't tear, but it stretched a little and created a ridge. That incident was almost enough to make me regret the easy access I had created for my bobbins.

I also was able to feel the cut edge when quilting. Just a tiny bit, but it was there. I found that sometimes my hand position would land on a basting pin (Yes, I should pull them out before getting them that close to my quilting area. Real world quilting here, folks.) and then I could really feel that tiny thin edge.

I wasn't sure if I was going to cut the same area out of this new Slider or not, given those two issues. But I put the slider on....and a new slider is so nice and clingy....did some quilting and I soon needed to replace a bobbin. Lifting up the corner and reaching under the Supreme Slider for the bobbin cover just that once and I was soon reaching for my Exact-O knife!

A word here about the Supreme Slider: I absolutely love this product when I am free motion quilting! It keeps everything so slick and smooth and it covers over any bumps and grooves between my machine bed so very well. It stays in place with its clingy back. Anytime it doesn't feel like it's staying in place, a run of warm water over the back takes all the lint and dust right off and restores the cling.

Some sewing machine companies carry custom-cut Supreme Sliders for various machines, and Janome has one cut for the 8200 and 8900, but the queen size Slider is bigger and covers more area where I need it for my table. So I DIY'd. (Would that be DIM'd? Do It Myself. Sounds like my kids when they were toddlers!)

First, I took the cover off of the bobbin area. Then I set the Supreme Slider into the desired spot. I actually placed my slider backwards on my machine, if by having the majority of it under the machine is backwards, anyway. My table is nice and smooth, but the bed of the machine has some really handy guidelines etched into the plastic. They are probably really handy if you are putting 6 inch hems on drapes, but not so great for the smooth sliding of a quilt.

Once in position, I carefully made some initial cuts with the Exact-O knife to function as markings of where I needed to cut. I wasn't about to try to mark the slick surface with a pen or marker.

Then I moved the Slider to my cutting mat. You should use the backside of your cutting mat when using the knife to cut. It's a little harder on the mat than a rotary blade and may leave rough cuts in the mat.

I used the bobbin cover plate and a small rotary cutting ruler to guide my knife as I cut outside the initial cuts. The cover was helpful for making curved corners.

Back to the machine to check the fit. Then back to the mat again to lengthen one side to expose the latch for the cover. Whoops!

Finally, the Slider was in place, my bobbin was full and off I went to just do some quilty doodling and other quilting designs on a practice piece.

I am really looking forward to working on some great projects and actually finishing them. I hope my new machine becomes as comfortable and 'known' (All machines have their little quirks.) as my previous machine before I uproot it from its new home and take it on a road trip.

Next month the 8200 and I will be setting up on the vendor floor of the AQS Lancaster show. Three days of nothing but free motion quilting to demo Top Anchor's rotating templates and talk with quilters. Squee! Four nights without kids, dishes, or laundry. Come see me!

Beautiful Applique

I ran off to my local quilt guild meeting Monday night. (The line from the movie, "O Brother, Where Art Thou" pops in my head about the boy's mom "running O-F-T" when I say that) Frances Calhoun was presenting her applique work and it was beautiful!

The detail in her work is just incredible! I didn't realize I had my camera in my purse until after most of her bigger quilts had been shown. But I did get a few to show you with her permission.

George, below, may have been done by machine, but most of her applique is done by hand as is all her quilting. Her mariner's stars/NY beauty type blocks are all traditionally pieced too, no paper piecing for her!

Her style is different from mine, for sure, but we both agree that "our way" is just what works for us and each of us has to find our own way.

I have had an increasing interest in applique as I think it's a great medium for creating quilts that let my quilting really shine. I'm all about the quilting!

Quilt and Sew Expo

Next week I'll be attending the Sew and Quilt Expo, October 4-5 in Fredericksburg, VA to help out one of my favorite quilt shops, Thread Runs Through It.  I'll be demonstrating the new Gammill Charm, a sit down long arm quilting machine. This big machine is a powerhouse and a lot of fun to quilt on.

I'm looking forward to checking out all the vendor booths to see what they have and to fill my head with all kind of eye-candy. There are a ton of classes offered too. There are some pretty amazing long arm classes offered and Threads Run Through It will be providing 20 Gammills for the hands-on classes. There are some free motion quilting classes too, one is already filled. I'm planning on taking a class by Dusty Farrell on gadgets and rulers for quilters (both domestic and longarm). Most of the time I will be in the TRTI booth, stitching, chatting, and helping interested quilters try this new machine.

I  am hoping there will be plenty of vendors with thread!  I could use more colors as always. I'm especially wanting to find someone carrying a particular Krenik thread. It's suppose to look a lot like a string of beads, even though it's mostly some form of knotted mylar from what I can see online. Looks like it might be fun for free motion couching.

I'm also hoping to pick up some new rulers for doing ruler work. While I was disappointed that Quilter's Rule wouldn't have a booth there, Dusty Farrell will have his line of rulers ther and I will be taking a look to see if some of them would be useful on a domestic sewing machine or even the big sit-down long arm machines.

I am also hoping to track down some of the sewing machine reps and educators of the various brands and see if there are ruler toes/feet available for other brands of machine. I did find a generic Ruler Foot for a high shank machine on Amazon, but couldn't find any manufacturer's info on it to see if there's a low-shank version available. I do think buying the Janome convertible free motion foot set for either a low or high shank machine and the Frame Quilting set for the 1600P to get the ruler toe is a better bet and comes out to about the same price.

In the meantime, I've got two quilts to bind for the Expo and some unfinished projects to work on. I hope you are getting to do some free motion quilting too.

If you are going to the Expo, let me know and we'll try to meet up.

Sacred Threads Part 2

The following images are all quilts from the 2013 Sacred Threads Exhibit, which is in Herndon, VA. That's near Washington DC, and it runs through this coming Sunday, July 28.

There are so many quilts that it was hard to pick just a few to share. This quilt was near the beginning of the exhibit, and as I rounded a corner I was thinking how blessed I was to be able to get away with a friend and see this exhibit for a whole weekend. My eyes landed on the heart and for a moment I saw "You Time"! Kind of felt like a voice telling me it was ok to take this time for myself..

"Rooted in the Heart" by Amelia P Morusiewicz, Mitchellville, MD.

 The trunk of this tree (I have a fondness for trees, you know) looks to be done with Texture Magic in a very wonderful application.

The following quilt is by Patty Powers who lives pretty close to me. We have begun to attend a small textile art group together. I love how she handles color in this piece!

I found this next piece just lovely! Peaceful and beautiful. I was calmed just by looking at it and thinking of the 23rd Psalm from which this piece is inspired. Still waters indeed. The quilting was beautiful, the whole piece was just wonderful, and paisleys for leaves? Brilliant!

"He Leads Me By Still Waters" by Sharon L Schlotzhauer from Colorado Springs, CO.

Sacred Threads had an 'Artist in Residence' this year. Dominique Ehrmann from Quebec, Canada creates quilts in 3D. The best way to explain her large work in the exhibit is that it is a series of four quilts layered about 6 inches apart, each depicting a layer of the total image.

It has an incredible amount of detail and of course, depth to it. It has a quality that reminds me of stage props, in that I can imagine a puppet to appear, ready to perform in the midst of the scene. The first part of her statement is below.

Larkin J Van Horn of Freeland, WA created "Pentecost" below.

The quilts in the grief category were up on the stage of the exhibit, and displayed in a way to separate them from the main path of the exhibit. Having bawled my eyes out at the 2011 show when reading the statements of several of the grief quilts when I was in a very fragile state during my husband's cancer treatments, I appreciated this.

Helen Turnbull, of Broad Run, VA created "The Broken Branch". It symbolized her daughter who died in an accident. I was very moved by this quilt and its story, besides being a beautiful work on its own.

Betty Busby, from Albuquerque NM, created "Mourning Doves". I found the piece disturbingly beautiful. Again, this was in the grief section of the exhibit, so I wasn't expecting sunshine and rainbows. Each feather of the doves was an individual raw-edged appliqued piece and further enhanced with stitching and a bit of paint.

Sacred Threads is an exhibit of spiritual themes, but not necessarily Christian based. Judaism was well represented as was Hindi, Buddhism and other faiths. Chrishna made an appearance too. And not all quilts had a particular religious link to them. This white on white quilt was quite large and rather breath taking.

Made by Pierra Vernex of Quebec, "Simply Mandalas" featured dense free motion quilting, machine embroidery and decorative machine stitches.

Nancy Kay Smith of Belleview FL, created "The Journey Through Lent and Easter" below:

I found it absolutely stunning! I hope this quilt graces the wall of whatever church she attends!

I wish I could show more pictures! You can purchase a book or DVD of the quilts in this year's exhibit at Sacred Thread's website.

I'm linking this post with Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday. Go check it out.

Poured Out 2 is going to Sacred Threads Exhibit

I just got the news last night that Poured Out 2 was juried into this year's Sacred Threads Exhibit to be held in Washington DC this July!

Believe it or not, even though this was a goal I set for myself since seeing the 2011 exhibit, it was just icing on the cake for this week! In part because I was hoping for news from the jurying committee next week, but also because I had completely surprising news this week.

I was contacted about possibly using an image of Poured Out 2 as an illustration in a (non-quilting) magazine! After convincing myself (mostly) that it wasn't some sort of scam, I was over the moon! This quilt really 'speaks' to me and I am glad I will be able to share it with others. I am glad I will also be getting some professional photos taken of this quilt, because this pic just does not do it justice.

Now to keep my feet firmly on the ground, my little guy has the flu. My sewing room clean up has been somewhat delayed by laundry and snuggling time.

Poured Out 2 Quilt Done

 Whew! Done just in the nick of time!

This quilt is the second in a series inspired by the combination of my church's logo and the experiences and emotions during my husband's successful battle with cancer. Those negative words in the background threatened to choke the life right out of me. If it weren't for God's love and grace poured out over us over and over, I don't know how we would have gotten through it.

This was another hard quilt for me to do because of the emotions behind it, but it seems as if my best quilts have a spiritual theme. That's why I have entered it into the Sacred Threads Exhibit. It's the first time I have entered anything into a show, exhibit, or competition. I hope that others are touched by it. I do want to do a more cheerful quilt next! I also hope my pictures are good enough to get the quilt into the exhibit. You really can't see all the detail, especially the quilted words on the jug.

I learn so much from each quilt I do. This has machine applique and of course, a ton of free motion quilting! I need to learn more about when to cut the background out from behind applique. I was afraid to do it so I didn't. The black showed through a bit on the jug and the cascade of water, mostly just at the needle holes of the stitching. I also need to mark the edges of the quilt so my feather plumes don't get cut off by the binding.

Designing a Quilt Catastrophy

Hello, my quilting friends!

This week and next will find me with little time to post as I am feverishly working on my quilt that I want to enter in the Sacred Threads Exhibit. It is my first major goal of this year and somehow life happened and the deadline for entries is nine days away. NINE!

Speaking of feverishly, we also have been hit by the stomach flu and three sick kids are keeping me busy with cleaning, laundry, cuddling, and caring for the poor sickies. And the hubby is out of town missing all the germy fun.

Source: freemotionquiltingadventures.blogspot.com via Amy on Pinterest

Source: le-dilemma.tumblr.com via Amy on Pinterest

So I hope to be back soon and share some pics of the finished quilt. How close have you cut it when there's a quilty deadline? Please share in the comments.