Shipshewana Quilt Festival...Part One

I am finally home from recent travels down home and I can post about the 2014 Shipshewana Quilt Festival, June 25-28 in Indiana Amish Country.  The day I went to the show wasn't the best day for me...I had been up and driving since the wee hours of the morning to take Riley to music camp on the Michigan west coast.  I didn't get to Shipshewana until 3:30 in the afternoon!  

With only a couple of hours to see the show and get pictures, it was not the quilt show experience I had hoped for.  There was not enough lighting in the two halls where the quilts were hung to get good pictures without using flash photography (which was prohibited).  I apologize for the pictures ahead of time.  Where the labels didn't photograph well (or at all), I will try to at least give you the quilter's name.

Someone was kind enough to take my picture with my quilt (WITH the flash...since it was my quilt, I didn't mind...).  My quilt was in such a dark place...and a minority (most quilts were machine quilted).

I loved all the tiny, scrappy houses (on my bucket list...) in this next quilt...interesting setting.

So many lovely quilt, so few ribbons (sigh)...

The following quilt won second place, "Pieced-Large."

The following quilt won second place, "Applique-Large."  It is called "I Dream of Wild Horses," made by Kristin Vierra.

The colorful machine quilting in the black areas surrounding the horses was very hard to photograph in that light.

The following quilt won third place, "Mixed Techniques-Large."  It was one of the few hand quilted quilts at the show!

The next one was made and entered by my blog buddy, Jill...such a beautiful quilt with nice hand quilting.

I have this pattern somewhere in the quilt cave...it was fun to see it in person...

The following quilt won third place, "Mixed Techniques-Small."
It is called "Bauer's Flowers," made by Mary Bauer (sorry about the blurry label).

The next quilt is small and the paper piecing is TINY!

It was fun to see a beautiful "Phebe" quilt there.  Yep...me and the judges had very different tastes...

Another lovely...

I love double wedding ring quilts, and this was one of two really nice ones that were in the show.

For those keeping score at home, three of the quilts in this post were hand quilted.  More quilts and more winners in the next post...

In stitches,
Teresa  :o)

A "little" hand applique...REALLY little...

When I say little, I mean LITTLE!  These are some more of Lori Smith's little applique blocks from her pattern, "Miss Emilie's Garden."  The whole quilt only measures 42" x 42."  

I just love her applique projects...whether the block size is 6 inches or 12 inches, her shapes are very forgiving and easy to applique no matter what method you choose to use.

I already had these little blocks glue prepped and tucked away for a time when I needed something to grab and go...or a time when I wanted busy hands without having to put a lot of thought into it. Yep, that's where I am (emotionally) in a nut shell.

My daughter finally finished with school/finals on June 18...she is officially a high school senior now...YIKES!.  Then, she and Steve have birthdays in the same week, and we are getting her ready to go to Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp early tomorrow morning.

Cripes, it has been a busy two weeks!  I also made a trip to Shipshewana, IN to drop off my "Baltimore Rhapsody - Symphony" quilt for the big quilt show that opens tomorrow (Wednesday) and runs through Saturday.  I am getting an appraisal done at the show and was a little nervous about shipping the quilt before having THAT done.

I will drop Riley at camp north of Muskegon then drive south to Shipshewana to take in the quilt show (doors open Wednesday at noon).

Once I drown myself in wonderful quilts, quilters, fabric, lots of photography, and a good Amish chicken dinner, I will head the car south for a week at my parents' house.  There are things to do and my siblings and I have another family meeting.  It's still hard to imagine my parents not being there to greet me, wanting to hear all about the show, and how my music quilt did.

Then I will drive home to Michigan, pick up Steve and head to Blue Lake for Riley's final concerts in the beautiful, great outdoors of west Michigan.  Here is the orchestral concert shell during the orchestra warm up last year...it is difficult and disruptive to get up and take pictures once the audience is seated and they are playing...

The French horns are in the middle in the back, which is bad for Mom finding her in the photo, but good for the sound of the horns to be bounced off the back wall and be heard by the audience (she's in the middle, in the back, hiding behind the bassoons, smiling at her Mama...).

Blue Lake is such a great fine arts camp...this is Riley's 5th or 6th summer of going.  I'm sure we will all be tearing up as we listen to the beautiful music and soak in all the surroundings.  In addition to playing French horn in both orchestras last year, Riley played with the brass ensemble and had a separate little performance of that music (she's the 3rd from the left on the front row...).

My parents drove up from Alabama in their little RV for her final concerts last year and then we spent the rest of the week seeing the sites on the west coast of Michigan...priceless memories...it sure meant a lot to Riley to have her Grandparents there to experience the camp and enjoy the concerts.

It meant a lot to me, too.  They will be there with us in spirit this year...

In stitches,
Teresa  :o)

Home Depot to the rescue...

Thanks to Happy Zombie and the Home Depot, my Singer Featherweight storage/travel problems are SOLVED!  This is the Stanley "Three-in-One Rolling Workshop."  Monica of Happy Zombie calls it her "mobile sewing center."

It is lightweight, sturdy, inexpensive (under $40), and the bottom section SAFELY houses my little 221K Singer Featherweight sewing machine.  (I have a Singer "Genie" as well...a slightly larger portable machine that weighs 19 pounds...I need to see if it will also fit in this...)  Bliss!

When my real Mom passed away a little over two years ago, I inherited her little white/mint green machine.  The plastic handle on its storage box had gotten brittle and broken years ago, therefore it was difficult and impractical moving it around.  I made a crappy, make-shift, wide ribbon handle for it, but was always afraid that I would somehow drop the box when moving the machine around and break my baby.

The white spool of thread demonstrates the odd green tint of this "white" sewing machine.

It nests nicely in the bottom section of my new treasure with room to spare for a small pressing/cutting mat or rulers...or plug strip, extension cord, snack, etc.

The second section is this removable covered accessory tray...

  Awesome!

When I leave the house to do a little fabric therapy somewhere else, I can take along all the tools and gadgets I need to do whatever...

Or, I can leave this center sectional tray out and just leave the house with the upper tool box attached directly to the bottom tub. When I am doing applique work "on the road," I could leave the Featherweight at home and fill the bottom wheeled tub with fabric, etc.  Oh, the possibilities...

The handle doesn't telescope, but securely snaps down when not needed so you can use the toolbox's smaller handle when just using the top section.

And look how roomy the top tool box is!

The tray holds...more tools and gadgets!

The top toolbox holds lots of stuff...here, I have loaded my full-sized iron and an Ott light...

...and there is STILL room for the tray (and more stuff underneath...).

I like my Genome 6600, but this little jewel sews straight stitching like nobody's business!!  While I had it out last night, introducing it to it's new home, I oiled it and got it ready for lots of chain-stitching, scrap-eating, mood-inducing, life-escaping fabric therapy.

The cart was ordered online and Steve just picked it up at our local Home Depot to save shipping...and time (there was no waiting because they had several in stock!).  I later checked the price elsewhere online...Amazon sells the same thing for over $100! Thanks, Home Depot!

Home Depot has lots of goodies for quilters...like little organizing units with drawers...

I also buy my plastic storage shelves there...not very attractive, but perfect, inexpensive storage for a basement quilt cave when paired with plastic bins...

Time for more fabric therapy!

In Stitches,
Teresa  :o)