Monday, September 11, 2017

Yay! Something quilty!!



I am not sure WHAT I have won, but at least 1, 2, 3, or Honorable Mention in my category at the Fall Paducah AQS Quilt Show.  

This show, as the newest AQS show, is doing things a little differently from their other shows.  Everyone can vote for the big winners, whether you attend the show or not.  

There are 15 categories of quilts in this show, so that means there are 60 preliminary winning quilts for you to see and enjoy online! If you are interested in seeing this "winners quilt show," and perhaps getting in on the voting, go here after 6:00 PM Tuesday night, September 12.  

There will be a lot of terrific eye candy!

I think they are experimenting with making this show more of a people's show.  Three judges narrow down the field, then real quilters get to vote for the 7 top prizes.

Off I trot to Paducah, KY some time this week...road trip!  It is 231 miles from my driveway.  We are in the path of a weakened Irma, so we will see how much rain we get...

In other news, I seem to be consistently sewing again...I hope it is a trend that continues.

I am working on outer borders for this quilt...finally.


There will be a skinny black stop border after all the busy 6-inch applique blocks.  Then there will be a 2-inch  border of these little devils.


I hand appliqued 116 of these 2-inch (finished) squares.  When all of you were having fun with making one-circle-a-day in the 365 project from last year, I was thinking of making miniature ones...I know, really nuts, huh.

Some day I will be found, sitting in a rubber room, hand appliqueing a cockroach to the hem of the dress I have been wearing for 3 weeks straight...



Two small to trim the backing away underneath the circles.  I made the backgrounds a little bigger than needed, hand appliqued all the circles, dunked the squares in water to soak the glue out, pressed them, and they were trimmed down to 2-1/2 blocks.


Making the circles is easy!  I use a circle paper punch to cut templates from freezer paper.


I scribble on the top of the freezer paper so I know which side of the circle goes "up" when ready them to press to fabric scraps. 

Scraping freezer paper circles off the sole plate of my iron makes me CRANKY!



Then I press the templates on the RIGHT side of the scraps...shiny side down.  (I used my long beading tweezers to handle all this tiny stuff with my mostly useless fingers.)


After trimming a glue-under allowance of about 3/16 inch, they are ready for a glue stick and a good DVD.


The papers are removed, the circles are given a final press, and then they are stored until I am ready to glue baste them to the background squares.  (I find I can reuse the paper circles 2-3 more times...)



I started four lines of blocks, one for each border, and arranged them in a pleasing order, trying to space out the red and pink ones which pull the eye.


Oops...one extra block, number 117.  How did that happen?


Then they were sewn together...


All done!


This is the leader/ender project I was working on as I pieced the border devil blocks together (thank you, Bonnie Hunter!).  The half-square triangles will be trimmed down and used somewhere in the future.

(They really aren't devils...)



I have been working very hard to finish getting my new quilt space finished, but more importantly, comfortable and somewhere I will want to hunker down and enjoy myself.  I will show you soon!

In stitches, Teresa   :o)
 

19 comments:

  1. Love the comment about the cockroach.... I totally understand! I will be sewing strips and crumbs together forever!

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  2. Squeal! How exciting! I will go to the website after Tuesday and cast my vote for you. Woohoo! And, I will be sitting next to you in the rubber room as I have been doing the same thing with circles, only mine finish 3 1/2". There will be 120 eventually! What fun! I can applique circles all day! Thanks for sharing and I cannot wait to hear what you have won. No one deserves it more!

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  3. I will keep an eye out for you at the show and your quilt - I will be there sometime on Thursday - congrats on whatever you won! Love your circles you do a little different then my starch and gather method but end results are the same.

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  4. Congratulations! I hope you enjoy the show :0) Your tiny circles look wonderful!

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  5. I'll be in Paducah Wed and Thursday - come see me in the Author / iQuilt showcase area in the Pavilion!!

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  6. Congratulations! Glad you have been able to return to your Quilt Cave. Your work is amazing as always.

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  7. I'm going to vote in person on Saturday. Can't wait to see it!

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  8. So many circles! They are going to make a fabulous border.

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  9. Great post today. I had to lol about the cockroach statement. I will be right beside you sewing mindlessly but happy. Congrats on the win(s). Your sewing is fabulous and meticulous.

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  10. The rows of circles look so pretty.

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  11. Okay, I still don't get how you can get such perfect circles doing that!! I have troubles doing Perfect Circles. But then, I don't have the applique talent that you have and never will. We're just now getting some squalls from Irma but not looking too bad. Looking forward to seeing you soon.

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  12. Congrats on your mystery win. Now I wish I was going to Paducah AGAIN. I went in April and I was planning to go in Sept., but things changed. Your circle borders look very pleasing all lined up like that. BTW, do you mean Bonnie Hunter? I've never heard of Bonnie Sullivan - will have to look her up.

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  13. You made me laugh out loud! I love that circle border, but wow what a lot of work!

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  14. congratulations, enjoy the show

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  15. Congrats on the win! And that's quite a border, wow! I thought of you Friday as I drove past Cherokee on the way home from Iuka.

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  16. Hey! Congratulations on your mystery win! Your work is so marvelous, it certainly deserves to be recognized. LOVE all your circles! This is going to be yet another fantastic quilt.

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  17. Congrats on the ribbon. Can't wait to see the circles added to the quilt. Welcome back.

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  18. I just found out 2 of my friends are going so I put a bug in their ears to look and vote for your quilt. :)

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  19. Congratulations on the win! So exciting! I once made 120 leaves for a border and thought I was going to lose my mind...

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