I don’t do a lot of abstract quilting, so this normally isn’t a favorite category, but this year’s entries had lots to enjoy.

Let’s start with some sweet colors!!

The colors and their interaction with the black makes this quilt!!

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I love the spiral piecing in this quilt, but I wondered exactly how she put them all together. The answer was easy….she used raw-edge applique!!

THAT would certainly make things easier!!

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This quilt won one of the Judges Choice awards…..

I love the soft colors and stripes in this one!!

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It doesn’t show as much in the photo, but the perspective achieved was awesome!!

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I love the lines and curves mixed together here!!

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This was the winner of the Blue ribbon in Abstract….

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If you noticed, many of the quilts that I shared today all had a similar theme….. a mixture of straight lines, with overtones of circles.

I am truly enamored with this type of quilt right now.

But don’t worry…..there are plenty more Abstract quilts to enjoy.

Come back on Tuesday!!!

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“Let’s Get Scrappy is about how to decide, not about what to make.”

Let’s Get Scrappy is an on-demand online course that helps quilters overcome decision fatigue and finally make sense of their overflowing scrap bins. With four hours of step-by-step video instruction, you’ll learn simple systems for organizing, piecing, and pressing your scraps—so you can stop overthinking and start sewing beautiful, coordinated quilts with confidence and joy.

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“Let’s Get Scrappy is about how to decide, not about what to make.”

Let’s Get Scrappy is an on-demand online course that helps quilters overcome decision fatigue and finally make sense of their overflowing scrap bins. With four hours of step-by-step video instruction, you’ll learn simple systems for organizing, piecing, and pressing your scraps—so you can stop overthinking and start sewing beautiful, coordinated quilts with confidence and joy.

Well, after a day fraught with travel delays, Linda and I arrived in Houston too late to visit the preview night on Wednesday, but we were first in line on Thursday morning.

And of course, the first quilts we saw were the BIG WINNERS!!!

Check them out…..

Over the next few weeks we will be looking at some of my favorites from the show!!

Be sure to come back so you don’t miss ANYTHING!!

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If you don’t want to miss my personal tour of the International Quilt Festival in Houston, be sure to subscribe…….

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Today, my friend Linda and I head to the Atlanta airport and fly to Houston for the International Quilt Festival.

It is such a fun trip as we meet up with other quilters in the Atlanta airport, and begin our journey to the “happiest place on earth”…. at least for quilters!!

I am looking forward to my first Tex Mex…..

….my first Cajun food…..

…..my first biscuits and gravy…..

….the vendor mall…..

AND….of course…..the quilts!!!

If you are visiting, too, I would love to meet up and say hello. Shoot me an email, and maybe we can spend a few minutes oohing and aahing over the amazing quilts!!

AND, over the next few weeks, I will be showing my favorites from the show!!

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If you don’t want to miss my personal tour of the International Quilt Festival in Houston, be sure to subscribe…….

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Yesterday, I showed quilts made by some of the helpers at the Houston Quilt Show.

As I finished writing this post, there was a notification from my ring-cam, telling me someone was at the door.

I opened it to find a large box from Quilts, Inc., carefully packed by some of the women who I was highlighting!!

The first thing I saw was this note from the “Piece Corp”….

They did a magnificent job of packing up my quilt. There were rolls of acid-free paper in between each fold of the quilt…

It was wrapped in more acid-free paper, enclosed in a heavy-duty plastic bag, and packed in a sturdy shipping box (that has been saved for future entries)!!

It was good to have her home again…..

But the most fun thing in the box were the judge’s comments…..

Many people don’t enjoy having their quilts judged but I love to hear what the experts have to say and I almost always learn something!!

It was exciting to see that most of the comments were very positive.

There were two negative comments…..

• the applique stitches should be less visible.
• there wasn’t enough quilting on the circles.

Honestly, I had that same thought about the circles, but decided that I didn’t want to flatten them down with quilting.

One judge even gave me four plus signs for the pieced color wheel in the center…..

That was fun to see!!

“I Remember”….

…my entry in the Cherrywood Poppy Challenge has recently left Las Vegas and is now headed to Ontario, California and will appear in the “Road to California” Show.

Well, we have spent the last several weeks touring the International Quilt Festival, looking at some of my favorite quilts.

While there are even more categories to explore, we are going to leave the tour here for the moment. But don’t worry, I will continue to have posts scattered through out the next few months!!

I have a couple of new projects that I am excited to show you, and I HAVE to get the Mandala project finished!!

Keep coming back!!

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There was a small and sweet exhibit at the International Quilt Festival dedicated to the white-gloved individuals who work behind the scenes of the festival….

Here are some of their works…..

As you can gain from the title, this quilt was made over a longer period of time, starting in 2019 and finishing in 2024. I love the scrappy nature of this one. especially the border!!

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There seems to be a theme going with these quilts!! This one took 11-years to finish.

She used the Gyleen Fitzgerald rulers to make the pineapples and started in an online challenge.

I understand why it took so long…. I too used her rulers to make a Christmas pineapple quilt that took a number of years to complete!!

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This is a wonderful story…..

“My parents expressed their love daily. The lasting expression of their love was their habit of writing notes to my brother and me. The notes to me started appearing when I was in kindergarten. They were inserted into a book or delivered by a mailman. Advice, encouragement, endearments, stories, and jokes would come to the lonely child and homesick student. Each letter was quickly read and then filed in a memory box. They’ve given me a tremendous gift.”

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This quilt was created as part of a class where the assignment was to listen to music and create a quilt. This was what she heard!!

That sounds fun….maybe we need to do a challenge along these lines!!

“This quilt was made from a pattern (*Sine Wave) and kit by Leonie Shaw. I imagined an otherworldly landscape with Prairie Point birds flying over the buildings.”

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Ginny bought the pattern and fabrics and then it floundered. She used the encouragement of a friend to make a start on this quilt and, as she puts it, “off I went”!

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These were just a few of the fun quilts in this category.

Come back tomorrow to see more of their work!

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If you don’t want to miss my personal tour of the International Quilt Festival in Houston, be sure to subscribe…….

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