Austin quilt show

I went to the Austin, TX quilt show on Sunday, and wow was it great!  Here are some of my favorites:

Little Ruby Jubiliation

A red and white tradition of fifty miniature quilts created by sisters Ellen Carter and Andrea Blackhurst inspired by the 2011 Red and White Quilt Exhibit - "Infinity Variety: Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts" held in New York City. 

I loved this one and the border was little pieced lone stars!  It was made by Margery Hedges and is called Beauty of the Beast.

Below is a fun quilt that I think my bee should try someday!  It was made by the Tuesday Floozies, so cute...

 I loved this architectural piece by MaryAnn Vaca-Lambert.  It is a depiction of San Antonio's Mission Espada walkway. (below)

and I honestly did not realize this was three elephants until just now.  Sometimes you can see these kinds of pieces better through the camera.  Another by Margery Hedges called Wrapped in Love. (above)

Isn't he marvelous?  What a stare...  this Eagle Eyes quilt was made by Margery Hedges also....  she had some fantastic art pieces.  Ooh look I found her website: http://www.margeryohedges.com/

I'm going there to look after I post this!

oh boy, this depicts our daily routine!  The squirrels tease my dogs mercilessly, but the pooches get a lot of exercise and fun at the same time.  I loved the perspective of this quilt.  It's called The One That Got Away and was made by the Bee Cave Bee of Austin.

I loved the quilting and the colors on this quilt.  See the quilting up close below.

It was made by Mary Mikeska and quilted by Amy Mikeska and is called Elaine's Rosy East Texas Star.

There were lots of Mariners Compasses, but this center star was a doozy.  Called Circles, Circles and More Circles by Emma Krenek, it was quilted by Angela McCorkle (who is an amazing quilter who had lots of work in this show).

Love this Friendship Rings quilt by Liz Porter and the Sew Faster Group members who exchanged these blocks. 

Blueberries and Cream by Dottie May Groves is a quilted tablecloth that Dottie found at a flea market.  She did a marvelous job on this. 

And isn't this an old fashioned beauty?  Made by Harold Groves, it's called Rose of My Heart and is a reproduction of a quilt he found at a flea market.

This little beauty was made by Louise Brown and is called Little Leaves.  Look at the quilting, wow!  The applique was stunning, she was inspired by the work of Sandra Leichner.

This (above)  is called Summer in Montana by Linda Huff.  I love the colors and that gradation is great.  

This is called The Patience of Job and was made after Ellen Cabluck took a Let Me Surprise You class with Charlotte Angotti.  (the quilt above) 

Called Rose You Are Our Sunshine by Mona Corbett.  So creative and happy and fun!  I didn't get a close up, but this is like a snippets quilt, but the snippets are large.  

Called Spirograph by Kim Buchmann.  She took a class with Cindy Needham and this is the result, lovely...

ooh la la, this darling quilt had crocheted sachings and binding.  How beautiful and creative.  Amelai De La Rosa called it Blame It On the Rain.  

That was some fun show, you should try to make it in two years.  

Karen

Learning to free motion again

I have a few finishes to show you.  They were all done on my new (used) Innova longarm.  I believe that I should just jump right in and go for it to learn.  So I chose a donated top that I bought for a song.  I practiced stitching in the ditch, free motion quilting and feathers.  I now have more sympathy for my free motion beginner students.  This is hard!  I can barely remember learning to free motion on a domestic machine - it was so long ago.  But even then, I jumped right in and quilted real projects.  I soon learned that if my quilting didn't look so great, just keep quilting on it (echo echo echo).

I figured out some things while quilting this one above.  I don't really like the stitch regulator.  It's too jerky.  I learned that I can stitch in the ditch free hand IF it is horizontal or vertical.  Diagonal lines will not cooperate without a ruler.  I guess it's because the machine is engaging both sets of wheels when going diagonally.  

My wonderful, giving friend Denice invited me to her home to give me tons of great tips on the Innova.  She bought hers last year and is doing incredible work on it.  She had this quilt top from the guild charity comittee and she told me to quilt it and not worry about perfection.  It's done, but I hope no one looks closely!  fortunately the fabric is so busy, I think I'm safe.  

Now I really got brave to quilt this one on the machine.  I made this Arkansas Razorback quilt for my nephew who just started college last week.  

I had it in my head that it needed a giant spiral quilted on it.  But on the longarm, I can only work on a small section at a time.  So I stopped and started those spirals using a curved ruler. I added smaller swirls on the top and bottom when I got sick of spiralling.  

If there's a will, there's a way.  I did it on the longarm.  And it really does quilt up faster than my domestic machine.  Not sure why???  

So don't cringe, but I did not prewash these red fabrics (duh), so when I washed it I used lots of color catchers.  The first wash yielded pink color catchers, but more color catchers were white after the second wash.  The quilt washed up nice and cozy; and any blips on my quilting were camouflaged by the old fashioned lumpiness of the washed quilt.  

I'm working on this one now.  I started it on my sit down machine, it was already ditched, and the center blocks were quilted.  But this is what I did today on my longarm.  I found this top at an antique shop.  It was dirty and smoky-smelling.  I carefully soaked it in a linen wash and sandwiched it with a muslin back and a double batting of wool and cotton.  I am having fun quilting it in a not too- traditional design.  But I consider it a "rescue" quilt and I have given myself permission to experiment and play.  I will put more pics of the finished quilt next time.  

"We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths."  Walt Disney

Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/new_things.html

I'm linking up with cooking up quilts