Hawaiian Quilt

I finally have a (mini) Hawaiian quilt in the works. I have wanted to make one of these since I first saw one, but a) wanted my applique to look decent, and b) I wanted to know how to hand-quilt. (A) is still something of an issue, but I can do reverse applique ok - even with needleturn! Whee. I am taking this with me as we travel for Christmas, so I have something small for handwork. Here's a sneak peek:

The colors are a deep, purple-y blue and bright turquoise. Traditional Hawaiian quilts are made of two contrasting solids - these are true solids, but they "read" like solids. I love the colors. :D

AAQG Show

The Austin Area Quilt Guild biennial show was this weekend. There were lots of great quilts, including many made by friends and fellow bee-members. I did some volunteer work, including check-out at the end which was crazy hectic. My mom came down on Saturday from Dallas for the show. She behaved herself well overall, but some things are just never going to change...

I found multicolored variegated embroidery floss, which made me very happy! I also got three more mini wholecloth pre-printed quilt tops, a Halloween embroidery pattern, and a needleworked scissor case handmade by a guild member and sold in the boutique (all proceeds go to the guild). I'll put pictures up tomorrow, as the camera is currently dead and I need to look for the extra batteries.

Here are a few of the quilts. I didn't get pictures of all of them (there were more than 400!), but I got quite a few and put them up in a Photobucket album.

Here was the Best In Show. It also won Excellence in Design and 1st place in the Art Quilt Category. It was made by Bill Horne, who works at The Quilt Store here in Austin. He's the first male quilter to win a BIS in Texas!


Here are my two quilts! I met my goal of not getting reamed by the judges. I have a few minor things to work on but overall I got good comments. I even got a "lovely hand stitching" from a judge who is known to have a critical eye for handquilting! Whee!


(My little one blended into the grey curtain, bah.) Not a good picture - can't see the wholecloth design! Oh well.


Here are my favorite two - the picture came out small on one of them, though:


Here's a close-up:


This Hawaiian quilt got Excellence in Hand Quilting and 1st in the large applique cateogory. This is my long-term quilting goal - to make a Hawaiian quilt. I can only hope it will be as intricate and beautiful as this one:

Show Quilts...DONE!

Yay! The Austin Area Quilt Guild show is this weekend. Colorblind Coffee will be entered under the handquilting category, and Steely Sun will be under the kit category. I just finished putting the sleeve on CBC tonight.

Label:


It's done!


Close-up of quilting on front:


Close-up of border quilting design:


Everyone seems to like the quilting pattern viewed from the back of the quilt:


Steely Sun. It's only 16" square!


Close-up of design and quilting:

Alzheimer's Day - Make a Virtual Quilt Patch

Ami Simms posted this on her blog: "This Sunday, September 21, 2008, is World Alzheimer’s Day. It is a day to remember the 26.6 million people worldwide who have this vile disease that will eventually rob them of the ability to remember and to reason. It will take from them every skill they ever learned and every relationship they ever held dear. And for most, they will watch this thief at work in their own minds."

Her mother, like millions of others, is suffering from this disease. The loved ones of those with AD are suffering as well - suffering from watching their loved one deteriorate, grieving the loss of the person they once were, and accepting the emptiness that they are slowly becoming. It's heartbreaking. I worked at a nursing home prior to my current job, and it broke my heart watching the residents I had come to know and love take a turn for the worse as the result of this terrible disease.

So please, take a moment to create a virtual quilt patch in someone's honor to remember them. And check out Ami Simms's Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative - all proceeds from the quilt auctions go directly to research for Alzheimer's.

Fun stuff!

I'm not at home this weekend, but I wanted to put up a quick post about fun quilty stuff from this week! I'll post pictures in a few days, maybe Sunday night.

I need to check my mail more often - I got a surprise package from Toni! She had been collecting lots of cute flamingo things, and packaged them up just for me! Thank you thank you! I have no idea how long they were in my mailbox, as I'm bad about going to get the snail mail unless I know something is coming. :D

I went to my sewing bee last night. There was a lady who was a dear friend of one of my bee-mates who recently passed away, and the lady's daughter asked Mary to clear out the woman's quilting room. Mary said there was TONS and TONS of fabric, and she brought a boatload of it to bee last night. We picked out the red, white, and blue fabrics for some Quilts of Valor, as well as some cute juvenile fabrics for baby bundles. After that, it turned free for all. I got probably twenty yards of fabric...free!

I took Jöran in today for his tune-up and bath. :D While I was there, Amber, the girl who sold me my machine, said, "Oh my gosh! I was thinking about you just two days ago, and your group of young quilters that you get together with. Rafaelle here is learning to quilt, and would probably be interested." Raff and I hit it off instantly, and she's super excited about coming to Squad. She's working on her first quilt, a Stack-n-Whack, and is also interested in dyeing fabric. We exchanged information, so I'm going to do my part to keep in touch! Yay for new quilty friends. :D

Practice in Purple

Toni (The Quilting Pirate) will appreciate this one. :D I'm going to use her idea for displaying my little quilts, too! :D

I ordered a few miniature quilt tops from a woman on Ebay for about $10 each. They arrived today, and they're very well made (points, size, lay flat, etc.). I thought it would be a good way to work on specific quilting techniques with minimal hassle - and I'd get a finished product quickly. :D I received my two tops today, and finished the first one. I was working on my stitch-in-the-ditch, which I don't do often (because historically, I've not been good at it) and microstippling. The SITD came out very nicely, as I was using my overcast foot with the little guidebar right in the middle of the foot. That helped a LOT - it's perfect! I also, surprisingly, had NO tension issues with the FMQ. Yay!

Finished quilt. It is 16" x 16":


You can see how the log cabins "pop" out with the denser background quilting with it hanging off the edge of the ironing board here:


Close-up of SITD and fabrics:


Back of quilt (pictures taken before the sleeve or label is put on):


Close-up of FMQ (sorry, it's a little blurry):


This is the other top I bought. I'm still thinking about what I want to work on with regard to quilting it...It'll probably be something FMQ-related, but I'll have to come up with a design just for it. I am going to call this one "Oceans Away!"

Top:


Close-up of the fabrics. There are two batiks and two Fairy Frost fabrics, very pretty!

Compliments

I went to my sewing bee tonight, and took along the mini wholecloth quilt to work on. The "beekeeper," Nancy, asked me how I get my stitches so small. She was flabbergasted and gave me a nice compliment on my quilting. The real compliment, though, was her asking for a tutorial of sorts, and she's a) about three times my age, b) been hand quilting for over 20 years, and c) this is only my second handquilted piece. Whee!

AAQG Show

I still can't believe I'm actually entering something in the Austin guild's show this year...let alone TWO quilts...and lastly, two quilts that are both handquilted! Eek!

One of them is a mini wholecloth kit I bought for kicks. As there was a category for kits and the like, and this one is almost done (and coming along quickly) I figured why not. I'll at least get some feedback on my quilting, you know?


Here's a close-up...of the back. It's not perfect, but it's not bad either IMHO:



The other one is a pieced top, made with coffee-themed fabrics. I decided to call it "Color-Blind Coffee," as the dots remind me of color blind tests. I figured out the quilting design tonight, and I'm excited about it. The piecing turned out well on this one, too, so it may actually have a shot of doing well in the handquilting category. It will have borders on it, but I don't have the fabric yet.


The goal? Not to get eaten alive by the judges. As I feel that my hand quilting skills are better than much of what I see at shows, I think I may actually come out okay in the end. For grins, I decided to have the coffee quilt appraised at the show. I'm just curious...