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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Yesterday, we looked at a number of quilts from the 50th Anniversary Exhibition at the Houston Quilt Show.

As I mentioned there was one exhibit that was so exciting, but unfortunately, it was hard to see/photograph the quilts.

Instead, I did a video walk-thru…..

Join me…….

If you are reading on email, you can use this link to go directly to the video….. https://youtu.be/bPh5dw-e0Hg

Come back tomorrow and Sunday as we take a look at the “In the American Tradition” category. There are lots of wonderful quilts there!!!.

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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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Amazingly, this was the 50th anniversary of the International Quilt Festival and there was a special exhibit featuring red, white, and blue quilts.

Let’s have a look at several of them!!

I LOVE the piecing on this quilt and how the blue center moves!!

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I once tried this block in a quilt but felt like it wasted too much fabric. But, man do I like this version….

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This is another design that I have always wanted to try…..

The geometry would be difficult but it would be fun to try!!

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The quilting adds so much to this next quilt….

This New York Beauty variation is also on my “to-do” list…..

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Andrew is a two-time combat veteran with PTSD and he created this quilt to bring light to careers that cause people to process traumatic events, such as firefighters, police officers, nurses and first responders. The quilt has 20,020, 3/4-inch finished squares and took 687 hours!!

Look at it again in a smaller view…..

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The design on this one is great….

I LOVE all of that space for quilting!!

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The “circles” in this quilt appear and disappear as I look at it….

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There were numerous displays with a variety of smaller quilts….

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The main display was spectacular…..

…but sadly, it made it hard to see the quilts, especially the ones on the inside. There were MANY that I wanted to get “up close and personal” with!!

Come back tomorrow and I will give you a “walk-around” video tour of this big display!!

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The quilts in this exhibit are made by a 22-member group (called the Patchwork Divas) that produces exchange quilts based on 19th-century designs. The group started in 1997, focusing on creating antique quilts with reproduction fabrics, and has broadened its scope in the last 25 years!!

This first quilt was made thru a star block exchange…..

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I love the Wheel Of Fortune block and especially how this quilt is set….

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This quilt was inspired by the New Jersey Quilts Heritage project….

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This quilt was from the book “New Jersey Quilts: 1777 to 1950…..

I love the Mariner’s Compass blocks!!

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This “postage stamp quilt” is made up of thousands of 1-inch squares…..

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I love the brown tones in this quilt. The exchanged blocks sat in the closet for 15 years because she thought it would take too long to finish. We have all been there haven’t we???

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This was the maker’s first quilt made with the Patchwork divas…

The title reinforces the friendships made with the group!

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The quilter said that it was easy to construct and hard to pick fabrics!!

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I love a string star design and the pink background fabrics really set off the stars…..

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Finally, I love the subdued nature of the colors in this quilt….oh….and all of the flying geese too!!

Come back tomorrow and we will look at the quilts celebrating the 50 year anniversary of the International Quilt Festival….you DEFINITELY want to see them!!

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