Saturday was spent as a demonstrator at the North Georgia Folk Festival in Athens, Georgia. Myself and several guild members set up a booth and proceeded to teach adults and kids about quilting. We were one of approximately 20 vendors and demonstrators, not to mention a lot of fun bands and good music. Here are some photos that capture the fun of the day……
We returned to Georgia on Sunday evening and are back into the swing of life again. We had a good time in Portugal, but it is always good to get home again.
I can now reveal my challenge piece since we had our Guild showing last night. The theme for the challenge was “Blooming “Pokka” Dot”, and was to be made entirely of polka-dot fabrics.
My original idea was to make a wonderful basket of flowers, or maybe two or three. I had considered 3-dimensional flowers, even trying a few from a borrowed book.
BUT….when it comes to challenge quilts, I have trouble getting excited about them until the inspiration strikes me, and in this case the inspiration fairy had a sick sense of humor!!!!
As I kept on thinking about the title of the challenge, I kept coming back to “poking” dots, so here is the finished product……
I am fairly new to surface embellishments and enjoyed starting out with using a few buttons in this piece. I had originally planned to make more dots and attach them with springs, but I couldn’t find any that were the correct strength (strong enough to hold them up, but loose enough to still have movement), so I moved on to buttons.
There were 22 challenges in all and, as usual, it was fun to see how each of us interpreted the challenge.
Last night we had the preview party for our guild (Cotton Patch Quilters) show and I won FOUR ribbons….
First place for “Seasonal Stroll”……
Second place for “Mother – Daughter Flower Garden”……
Third place for “Peacock Pavillion”……..
Honorable Mention for “Paint Can Flowers”……..
I was very excited about all of those. The two quilts that did not win were:
“Ten Around Penhill”
and “Marley”
The show is wonderful and hanging yesterday was a breeze. We used a new system that I had seen at the Houston Quilt Festival and it worked so well. We were thru hanging at 4:15….an all time record. Normally, we have been hanging at 5:30 as the preview party was starting.
Enough for today…..I am out the door to spend a wonderful day among my three favorite things…. quilts, quilters and quilt vendors!!!!
Yesterday was spent photographing the quilts that have been turned in for the Cotton Patch Quilters biennial show which is being held on March 6, 7 and 8. If you are in the Athens, Georgia area, stop by for a look. Click here for more information.
We photographed 90 quilts on Thursday night and finished up the last 150 yesterday….it was a FULL day. As you can see from the photo, it was a hive of activity, with the larger quilts being hung on a frame and the smaller ones being photographed on a design wall with either a black or beige background. In this photo, Francyne W is the photographer, Denise S. is holding the number for documentation and Anita H. is getting the board set up for photographing small quilts needing a lighter background.
I was very pleased with how my queen size quilt hung….by the way, I have named it “Mother – Daughter Flower Garden”. It didn’t ruffle at the bottom and laid extremely straight. I think that part of this is due to the care that I took in squaring the quilt (something I normally dont do), but I also think that part of the reason is that it hasn’t been folded up on a shelf…..it basically came out of the washer and dryer and was put into the storage bag.
As I watched the various quilts during the day, I have come up with a few ideas of how to get your quilts ready to enter into a show.
First of all, get them off of the shelves and laid out flat for at least a week before submitting them. If necessary, give them a light pressing to get rid of the creases formed by folding for long periods of time.
Secondly, when you turn the quilt in, roll it over something so that it doesn’t get re-wrinkled. The best ideas that I saw were to use a cylinder mailing box or a “noodle” (the things that you float on in the pool) that has been cut to the approximate size of the quilt. Be sure to tie it with a small strip of fabric to keep it from falling off of the tube.
Several quilts arrived rolled, but without the tube, and I know that as they were handled several times during the day, they ended up being folded instead of rolled. If you have the rolling tube, then each person handling the quilt knows exactly how to re-package your quilt.
Also, Francyne gave us the advice to roll your quilt with the front side facing OUTWARD. This helps the quilt to lean backwards and will help it to hang better.
I now cant wait for the next show so that I can try out some of my new found ideas!!!
Have a great day!!!
Well, I have finished another of my 18 Unfinished Projects…..although I got a bit of help this time from the Charity Bee of Cotton Patch Quilters.
Our guild makes quilts each year that are given to the American Cancer Society “Relay for Life” program and they raffle the quilts to raise money. We were in need of a FAST quilt that could be given to the Clark County Relay and were all kicking around various ideas. Then, I remembered this UFO…….
It was made from remnants of another quilt that the guild made a few years ago. I knew that it needed to be much bigger than the current size, so I got onto Electric Quilt and started playing with different ways to add borders to it to increase the size.
When I had decided to add borders that needed strip sets, I sent out a plea to our charity group and they showed up with Black and White fabrics, and one friend (Pat K) brought a finished set for us to use. They cut the strips and helped to get the strip sets pieced and then I brought it home and put it together. Ellen N. graciously quilted it on her Long Arm Machine. Here is the final result…….
We are excited to see how much they can make on this offering Even though it is a bit smaller that our usual gifts, we are hoping that the “Red and Black” (ie…Georgia Bulldog) colors will help it to be a big seller.
Only 15 UFO’s to go!!!!