Blog Buddies Make it Big...

I definitely have quilt show fever as I look forward to attending the AQS - Grand Rapids, Michigan show this week.  I had 2 quilts accepted, so I am excited to see them hanging with so many fabulous quilts.

There are times, recently, when I am convinced that I lost the last nine or so months of my life.  I wasn't posting on my blog or staying caught up with my favorite blogs that I follow, much less doing enough personal sewing  This thought came home to roost a few days ago when I was thumbing through a recent issue of the AQS quilt magazine.  I stumbled on the pictures of winners from the AQS shows in Lancaster and Paducah, and THERE WAS BARB VEDDER and her beautiful quilt!  How did I miss this??  (Barb's blog is Fun With Barb, and you will find it here - the pictures are shown here by her permission.)

She won first place in the "Wall Hanging - Hand Quilted" category.  There she was, in the magazine, her thumbnail picture right next to a picture of her quilt.  Isn't it cool to find someone you "know" in a quilt magazine...especially when it is someone who does high calibre work all the time?    (her "Mother's Garden" quilt also took a blue ribbon at the Vermont Quilt Festival this year...).

Click here to read about the genesis of this beautiful work.

I keep finding pictures of quilts made by Kathie Holland in magazines and calenders...her blog is called Inspired by Antique Quilts.  The Better Homes and Gardens American Patchwork and Quilting 2010 Calendar is just one example (where her quilt made the cover AND she was "Miss October.")  Then there are several more of my favorite bloggers with recent books - wow!  Can I pick 'em, or what?  They all keep me so inspired and charge my creative battery on the days when I drag myself to my computer.

Karen, of Quilt...Etc. blog just emailed me to let me know that my "All Around the Town" quilt got an honorable mention ribbon at the AQS - Grand Rapids Show (Wall Quilt, Hand Quilted)!  Yahoo!  I was already excited beyond belief about going to the show tomorrow...now I wonder if I will sleep!  

Click here to see the YouTube video of the winners!

If you are feeling out of sorts and a little uncreative, I hope you find some inspiration soon...sometimes it is found in the darned-est places (I'm sure darned-est isn't a word, but I bet you get the idea).

In stitches,
Teresa  :o)

My first BIG quilt show...YAHOO!!

 

As many of you have heard, AQS is hosting their first regional quilt show in Grand Rapids, Michigan, August 22-25.  At the last minute a few weeks ago, I decided to enter "All Around the Town" and "Life of Riley" (my Civil War Bride quilt) in the show.  I had never entered anything in a major, juried show, and was a little daunted by the entry requirements (oh, the perfect photos required...sigh), but thought the process might be good experience and I really needed some good photos of these quilts anyway.

AQS wanted the photos taken outside, and as you Midwestern people know, there is ALWAYS a breeze in Michigan.  It took ALL DAY to photograph 2 quilts (waiting for the rare, windless moments so that the quilts would hang correctly and look square).

Well, I received envelopes in the mail a couple of weeks ago...not the regular-sized, "we're sorry, we don't want your quilt..." type, but the large, "here are some more hoops you need to jump through" acceptance letters...for BOTH of them!!!  You could have knocked me over with a small baggie of fabric snippets!  Those letters came on a day when I REALLY needed a boost!

So, then I needed to figure out how to make and attach the "right kind of hanging sleeve" to the quilts so that they could be hung with their hanging system.  Construction wasn't too hard with their enclosed directions.  

The hard part came when I had to quarantine the kitty and do a SEVERE and THOROUGH job of removing Weasley hair from the quilts with the lint roller.  Of course, that required removing cat hair (ahem...and the cat...) from that area of the quilt cave first, LOL!

It is fun to have the August quilt show to look forward to...road trip!  It will be thrilling to have a couple of quilts hanging at the show...don't you think a quilt show just feels different when you are a participant??  Don't get me wrong, ANY opportunity to go to a show is awesome, but it is fun to be an "anonymous lurker" in the area where your quilt is hanging...

Will I see some of you at the Grand Rapids AQS show? 

In stitches,
Teresa, the "lurker"    :o)