2014 Sauder Village Quilt Show, Part Two...

Enjoy the eye candy!  This will be one of 4 or 5 posts of quilts from the 2014 Sauder Village Quilt Show.  This little wall hanging won the overall show ribbon for hand quilting.

This won first place in Bed Quilt: Appliqued and Machine Quilted...

This lovely quilt won Best of Show Bed Quilt and Best Machine Quilting.  I wonder if Edyta Sitar knows how many beautiful winners her patterns inspire?

I loved the rabbits in this quilt...and the colors!

Another Edyta Sitar quilt...

What a cute wiener dog quilt...

Another Edyta Sitar quilt...love the sashing and color palette...

A fun yo-yo quilt...I really liked the size of the yo-yo's...

This one fist place in Lap Quilt: Pieced and Machine Quilted...

Another Edyta Sitar quilt...

My friend Mary's fabulous repro scrappy quilt...also an Edyta Sitar quilt pattern...

Quilt show ribbon key:
     blue - first
     red - second
     pink - third
     white - honorable mention

In stitches,
Teresa

Sauder Village Quilt Show (a little tardy), Part One...

Nothing makes me feel more normal than quilting, so yesterday on my first full day back from being at my parents' house for 3 weeks, I drove out to see my friend Mary and pick up my quilts.  I received news of my parents' fatal accident before the Sauder Village Quilt Show was over, and Mary and her husband graciously offered to pick up my quilts after the show and hold onto them until I got home.

Mary had made me lovely, zippered fabric bags for both of the quilts to protect them (thank you!!) and carefully preserved my ribbons.  Somewhere in the blur of the last 3 weeks I remember being told that I had won the people's choice award for my music quilt in addition to winning first place in its category.  It didn't sink in until I was driving back to Ypsilanti yesterday with the quilts and ribbons in the back seat, and I cried all the way home.  I am so touched by receiving this award from my quilting peers...it means more to me than any ribbon from a judge ever could!

I was going to get a picture of the music quilt hanging in the show on the last day when I went to pick them up, but I never got the opportunity.  I really couldn't get near it to photograph it on the day I went to the show, so I took the following picture, lurking NEAR it, behind an adjacent quilt on the next row of the set up...

It is fun to lurk near your quilt at a show and hear the comments...comments like, "no WAY are the edges turned under on THAT tiny piece," or "do you think it is really FUSED instead of hand appliqued?!?"  Hee-hee-hee...all fun and games...here's the picture from the day I tore up my family room for photography's sake...

My little version of Lori Smith's "Songs of Spring" did well, too, also taking a first place ribbon in the appliqued, hand quilted wall hanging category.

I had to pull out of the NQA Show in Columbus, OH this past weekend due to circumstances, but "Baltimore Rhapsody - Symphony" will be making its way to Shipshewana, IN in June, the AQS Grand Rapids, MI show in August, and the AQS Chattanooga, TN show in September.  My parents were very supportive of my quilting, this quilt in particular, and the launching of my fledgling pattern business.  I hope to endeavor to live up to their opinion of my abilities.

I will follow with posts of the Sauder Village Quilt Show pictures in the next few days...tardy, but still full of beautiful quilts and much inspiration!  I managed to photograph about 130 of the 400 entered into the show on the day I went.

In stitches,
Teresa   :o)

Life goes on...

Hello friends...thank you for all of your incredible messages of peace and comfort that you have posted on my site for the last three weeks.  This has definitely been the saddest time of my life.  I find that I simply don't have the words to describe the profound sadness.  My father was my best friend and I was extremely close to my stepmother, my Mom (she has been a loving "mom" since 1973.)  Since my mother passed away two years ago, now I am, like many of you, without parents.  Time to finally grow up, I guess.

I have spent the past three weeks in their house, alone and not alone, as family came and went in waves.  I have been surrounded by their works of carpentry, woodwork, stained glass, and my quilts, hanging on their walls and draped over their furniture.

I did not take any pictures while down there, but I found a few in my computer files that were taken some time ago.  This is the quilt I made for their 25th anniversary, over 15 years ago.  It hangs on the wall near their dining table, even though I have wanted them to move it for many years due to the sun shining on it and fading it.

I designed a quilt for a block-of-the-month a few years ago, "Quilting Through America."  My Dad particularly liked it, so I gave it to him.  He hung it on a wall in a hall that would get no sun so that it would not start fading as the 25th anniversary quilt had done.  They both liked walking by it to get to their home offices every day.

In addition to being doctors, they were very creative.  My stepmother designed and made some of the most beautiful stained glass windows.  The square ones are 28" square.  The rectangular one is 16" X 30."

She loved birds and all growing things...I've always said she fed every bird and hummingbird in N. Alabama...

My dad was an incredible carpenter and woodworker, and together they built their home.  I would sit and look at every log, every board, every piece of trim, every floor board, every piece of homemade furniture and just feel awe struck.

My parents had wishes not to have a funeral or memorial service and wanted their bodies donated to medical education.  Just the family gathered on "the point" on the Tuesday afternoon, overlooking miles and miles of the county, and just hung out listening to the birds and the wind through the trees.  It was their favorite place on the property and will ultimately be where their ashes reside.

A lot of my future is up in the air right now, but I will continue to blog and post...quilting is still my "fabric therapy," and I will need it now more than ever.  My parents were very supportive of me trying to figure out how to make a living out of my quilt passion.  I am still committed to my fledgling pattern business and getting on with all my plans for future quilts!

If interested, you can visit their memorial page:

http://lemoneandleeyieldingmemorial.blogspot.com/


Teresa    :o)

sad post...

I will be quiet for a little while...I lost my dad and mom in a car accident yesterday evening.  Please keep me, my family, and extended family in your prayers.  They were extraordinary people, parents, grandparents, brother, sister, doctors, preservers of natural places, and lovers of life.  

Teresa  

I got the blues, and that ain't bad...

The 38th Sauder Village Quilt Show opened on Tuesday, and little birds have told me I took two 1st place blue ribbons (happy dance, happy dance...).

One for "Baltimore Rhapsody - Symphony" (Bed Quilt: Appliqued and Hand Quilted) and one for "Songs of Spring" (Wall Quilt: Appliqued and Hand Quilted).

I can't go to the show until Friday, so I will have to contain myself for another day or so...

The show runs through Sunday in Archbold, Ohio.  There are 400 quilts there...I promise LOTS of pictures!

In stitches (and on top of the world!!),
Teresa  :o)