Monday, September 29, 2008

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:

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

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:
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It's done!
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Close-up of quilting on front:
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Close-up of border quilting design:
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Everyone seems to like the quilting pattern viewed from the back of the quilt:
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Steely Sun. It's only 16" square!
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Close-up of design and quilting:
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Wednesday, September 17, 2008

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.

Raising Awareness & Funding Research