Stray Threads Quilt Show March 14th and 15th

Our local quilt show is quickly approaching and I'm the featured artist!!!  Please stop by and say hello, I'd love to meet you!

Here's the postcard for the show:

Fun with Friends

This is the third year I was able to meet up with friends in Sisters, OR during the Quilter's Affair and Sisters Quilt Show.  This year, all my friends couldn't fit into one house, so there were two houses, but we were able to get together for dinner at each house to visit while we were there.  During the quilt show, my housemates and I posed for a few pictures together:

They close off the main street during the show, so everyone can wander around looking at all the quilts safely.  Many buildings have quilts hung on more than one side and at the end of the day, I always hear about something I missed from one of my housemates.

There were other interesting things to see like this old truck (can you tell I have boys?):

Pictures of poppies from my trip three years ago became the poppy quilt on my book cover, so I made sure I took more flower pictures:-)

And look at this old basket:

We saw lots more  beautiful quilts, spent time looking through many shops and booths, which were only there for the show and had lots of fun!  Of course, I did some shopping, even finished a couple projects, but I'll save those for another post.

BPQ Vendor Booth

For those of you who weren't able to make it to the Block Party Quilt Show, I thought you might like to see some pictures from my booth.  My friend, Ellen helped me with the entire show, from set-up through take-down, as well as helping me sell books at my lecture at the Stray Threads Quilt Guild meeting on Thursday night (yep, it was on the same day as set-up, so I needed all the help I could get), and I have to say, I wouldn't have been able to do it without her.  THANK YOU ELLEN!!!

Setting up the booth was a bit tricky, as we had to leave space to add my book quilts in the hour before the show opened, because I needed them for my lecture on the night before.  Here's how the booth looked on the first couple of days:

I realized that I should have hung the poppies at the top of the booth, so it would be at eye-level, but when you've got less than an hour to decide and hang 11 quilts, you just want to get them up.  At the end of the day, we rearranged a couple to make the booth look better:

Inside the booth, there was even more to see:

Lecture / BPQ show / Raffle Quilt / Vendor Booth

This is such a busy time for me, but all fun stuff!  This coming weekend is the Block Party Quilt Show is Issaquah, WA, and I have a vendor booth!  With the book release, and just returning from Quilt Market,  it's busy around here!  Tomorrow I'll be setting up my vendor booth at the Block Party Quilters Show, as well as lecturing at Stray Threads Quilt Guild, tomorrow evening, and Friday, through Sunday I will be found at the show, tending my booth.  Luckily, my friend Ellen came to my rescue, working on things that needed to be done while I was gone, and also helping me at my lecture and also in the booth through this weekend.  

The Block Party raffle quilt was designed by me, but made by the quilt guild (I did participate in the sew-in for the blocks) and tickets can be purchased for a chance to win it.  For more details, you can visit the guild website here.  So far, I hadn't been able to get an unobstructed picture of the quilt, but today this one came in my email:

If you get to the show, please stop by and say hi at my booth.  I'd love to meet you!

Innovations Quilt Show

The Innovations Quilt show had some very amazing quilts this year, as well as some special exhibits! My friend Ellen and I traveled together, and it was a lot more fun than going by myself, and she pointed out many things I would have missed! My camera battery also died before I got to Sharon Schamber's gorgeous quilts, so I don't have any pictures here, although you can visit the gallery on her site to see better pictures than I could have taken. Her site can be found at: http://www.sharonschamber.com/ .

I love this pictorial quilt of Venice, and have been dreaming that someday I will be able to make my own version (maybe someone will let me use their picture:-)). I was hoping that the label would be readable when I got home, but it isn't, so if you know the maker of this quilt, please let me know so that I can update this entry with his / her name!




I love this quilt! It has so many features I love, and is a wholecloth quilt. I don't remember seeing a label on this quilt, so if you know who made it, please let me know and I'll update this post. It was in the area of Irena Bluhm's quilts, so it's possible that it belongs to her, but I don't know.



This next one belongs to Irena Bluhm. I have her book and have to say it is beautiful! She is such a nice lady to chat with, and I purchased a couple books from her, but don't have them yet, as she is shipping them to me. Her website is: http://site.irenabluhmscreations.com/index.html .

This quilt is similar, but has been made by Pat Noonan, one of her students!

Judy Irish is so much fun to talk with, and when she's not longarming quilts for authors and others, she finds time to make a few fun quilts herself. This one has so much texture when you see it in person, I'm sure the picture can't do it justice! I don't know if she has a website, but does have a blog at: http://wildirishrowsquilting.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default .

Kathleen Craig made this beautiful moonscape, and I'm reminded of a wholecloth that I need to get back to. Isn't it beautiful!

Finally, I was able to see one of Ferret's quilts in person, and I must say it's awesome!!! I"m amazed how she was able to convey such a realistic image with such few pieces of applique! Her blog can be found at: http://ferfab.blogspot.com/ .

More Pic's from Sisters

Most quilt shows have some vendors, and the Sisters Quilt Show is no exception, although being an outdoor show, with the quilts being hung around town, there is a lot more variety, and colorful displays are everywhere. I love the colorful stars and bird houses outside of this shop!




Nearby was a vendor that had some beautiful baskets for sale - boy was I being tempted, and I did manage to settle with a picture:-)




The town is charming, and there are lots of cute houses, this one having a canoe on the roof to hold their rose garden up where the deer can't reach!

Many people bring their dogs along, and this one is a Havanese, with such a sweet temperment, it was nice to visit with them for a few minutes.

Flowers are everywhere, and I love the way they included this wagon and filled it with flowers!

One of my housemates found an interesting garden on her daily walks. The lady that lives there actually has her bed on a covered deck in summer, so that she can sleep outside! I'm sure you could find her if you asked for The Garden Angel.

I've always wondered how they get the quilts hung and taken down from the side of the Stitchin' Post, and now I've seen what they do. The firemen come with their truck and ladders and help hang and take down the quilts - imagine that!

A close-up:

Sisters Quilt Show

Let's begin with the most important picture - my friend Cathy purchased this beautiful quilt at the show, and here she is with the lady that quilted it!!! Ellen and I had been walking around the show with her and Cathy was really attracted to this one. She said it would look great at her house and was wondering if it would fit her bed, and as she pulled off the sales tag to purchase it there was cheering by a group of people behind us! What I remember of the quilt's story is that there is a group of quilter's that enter a number of quilts for sale into the show, with the proceeds of those sold donated to a hospital. The lady that made this top had passed away and the top had been donated to their group, and they were very happy that it had sold and would be going to a new home. Another interesting thing is that Cathy is an anesthesiologist at her local hospital, and the sale of the quilt benefits their hospital! What are the chances of this happening?



There are also vendors in Sisters, and one of my regrets last year was not purchasing an antler basket from this booth. Of course I had to remedy the situation, so she's posing with the basket that I bought!




One of my favorite parts of the show is the teacher booth. There are so many beautiful quilts they have to hang some of the largest outside of the tent! This one is "Woody and the Seashell" by Janet Fogg.

Even though most of my current work with textiles includes my sewing machine, I used to do quite a bit of handwork and have started playing with wool and some of Sue Spargo's patterns. This one is on the cover of her book "Contemporary Folk". If I could have fit more classes into the week before the show, I would have liked to have added a class with her.

Barbara Shapel's herons are so beautiful, and I'm sure many of you have seen this quilt before, but I couldn't help posting it.

I've got more pictures from the show, so another post to come...

My quilts both won third place!

On the first day of Innovations (Wednesday) I visited the quilt show after my classes were finished for the day. I wondered who had won what, as there were no ribbons on anything, but hoped to check again before the show was over. Well, that never happened, as Thursday I was in Bellevue, where I gave two lectures and taught a class to the Eastside Quilter's Club, and then Friday turned out to be very busy with just a short visit to a couple vendors before heading to visit our construction project.

Tuesday, while I was working on a quilt project with Alice from Block Party Quilters, there was a knock at the door, and I had to sign for a package. It was my quilts returning from the show, so I anxiously open the box, and was surprised to find 4 third place ribbons. Two were from the official judge, as they were filled out on the back, and I can only guess that the other two were from the peer judged votes from visitors to the show - I'm so Grateful and Amazed!!!

My Quilts at Innovations

This Fantasy Fish quilt and my Water quilt are in Tacoma, WA for the Innovations machine quilting show. Wednesday and Friday I'll be down there to see how they did in the show, as well as take classes (and of course, there's a vendor mall too). If you're in the area, the show runs September 16-19.

Block Party Quilt Show

My first quilt show booth! (Picture quickly taken before the show opened Friday morning.)

I must say I did have lots of unexpected help from other ladies in the guild and my friend Angie to get it set up so that I would be able to attend my son's graduation Thursday night. It was a super busy day, but well worth it! [I'm hoping I can take a few more pictures this morning because you can't see quite all of it in this picture (I could only back up so far), and there is a bit more to see. ]

Angie is helping man my booth for the show, and I think we have one of the nicest spots in the show, as we are not too far from the entrance, and have a great view of the show. This harp player is right in front of our booth, so we have musical entertainment too! (Before we get busy today, I'll have to find out his name.)

There's a first time for everything...

and Thurday I will be busy setting up my first vendor booth at the Block Party Quilters Show in Issaquah, WA. The show runs Friday through Sunday, and there are quilts and demonstrations to view, vendors to visit, and grownups and kids can help create blocks for our Ronald McDonald house charity quilts. Don't forget to purchase a ticket for the raffle quilt!

I'm getting ready, but it takes quite a while, as there are patterns to sort, price and pack...


Samples and fabric to pack...

velvet, and rayon / silk make-up or toiletry bags. There is one kit for my Harvest Gathering quilt - I know I've been asked about these before, and found I still had this one, so it will go to some lucky customer.

I also decided it might be a good time to let go of some of my stashed fabrics that I'm no longer interested in, so those are priced right.

Then there are beads, more samples, and of course, all the other bits and pieces that are necessary, or I think might be needed to run the booth.

I'll probably bring excess inventory, and of course a stepladder so I can hang and take down the booth, as well as the pop-up booth framework that my wonderful husband helped me find (I had seen the new ones online, and they were way out of my price range, but he managed to find some on Craig's list, and I'm looking forward to using them).

I'm sure my suv will be packed to the gills on Thursday, trying to get everything there and set up, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I don't forget anything important! I'll try to remember to take at least one picture to show you how it turned out.

Northwest Flower and Garden Show - my quilts

Here are some pictures from the Northwest Flower and Garden Show that is at the Seattle Convention Center through this weekend. They are all pictures of the seasonal garden display that was created as a collaboration between Olympic Nursery and Gathering Fabric Quilt Shop, here in Woodinville, WA. Some of us were asked to participate by lending quilts for the Patchwork Garden, and we are all so proud to be a part of it, and extremely happy for them that the garden has won a silver medal!

The quilt on the back wall is my Woodinville Wine Country quilt, which was made for Susan's first quilt shop challenge (Gathering Fabric), and won best of show. After many requests, and being shown in Quilt Sampler, as part of the write up on the Gathering Fabric Quilt Shop, I wrote up the pattern, and it is now available from LAM Designs (my company), or through quilt shops, and distributors (links on the right).

This little floral quilt hanging from the ironing board was my first pattern, and the reason I started my pattern company. The block was the first shop hop block I designed for Gathering Fabric, and grew into a quilt sample, and then a pattern - so I had to start a company to be able to sell them the pattern, right???

My Sunflower Garden quilt is brightening up the window in this garden. A little different construction for this one, but so fun to make. It's also available from LAM Designs.

I made this tulip quilt from a watercolor quilt book, although I can't find the book to confirm which one it was made from.

My Grape Fairy quilt flew above the crowd, and is another quilt that was made to compete in the applique category of that first Gathering Fabric challenge. After many requests, it also became a LAM Designs pattern.

Tom Quigley and Susan Webster, the master minds and collaborators for the Patchwork Garden display.

Here is Susan in her Gathering Fabric booth at the show. If you are able to get to the show, please take a minute to stop and say hi, and congradulate her for helping to create the Patchwork Garden. My Dragonfly Pond quilt is at her lower left, and not only does she have the pattern for it, but also for the other LAM Design quilts that I have in the show.

In case you didn't receive Susan's email about the show, here it is:

On the eve of the Northwest Flower & Garden Show, I am filled with awe and amazement over the incredible efforts and creative process on the part of the show organizers, garden creators, volunteers and staff to bring to our region, a show of all shows. Every single element of time and energy going into each garden is truly worthy of a hardy applause. The mounds of sawdust, compost materials, heavy equipment, manual labor and plant material is being transformed around the clock into a magical arena of garden spaces that cannot adequately be described, only seen.

Bee sure to visit the show starting Wednesday, Feb. 18-22nd. http://www.gardenshow.com/

Thanks to Olympic Nursery, volunteers and staff, our Patchwork Garden is coming to life. The quilts are staged with tall trees and lush landscaping and are perfectly presented in the atrium of the Washington State Convention Center. Thank you everyone who has made a contribution to this garden. It is a beautiful blend from the quilt artist and garden artist, a remarkable sight to see.

Stop by Booth 315, where Gathering Fabric Quilt Shop will showcase quilt kits, small projects, books, patterns and garden inspired items, all with the quilter and gardener in mind. See just how quilters and gardeners share a love of color, design, texture and dimension. In this our very first patchwork show on the road, we are excited to share our quilting world with northwest garden lovers.

Spring has come to the garden show this week. We hope you'll make a visit. And please, send this to all your quilt and garden friends.

Thank you! See you at the show.

Susan