STOLEN QUILTS Alert

Oh gosh, I am always heartbroken every time I hear about quilts being stolen.  Oh, don't get me wrong - LOTS of things in this world are heartbreaking - starving children, abused animals, and so forth.  I'm not immune to such feelings too.  However, this blog is about quilts, so I will refrain from straying that far off topic.

Anyway... Nancy Rink is an internationally known quilt lecturer and teacher from here in California.  Recently her studio was broken into and a lot of quilts were stolen.  I won't go into details, or show pictures of the quilts here on my blog.  HOWEVER - you can read all about it HERE.

That link tells all about what happened and shows pictures of the missing quilts.  Please watch Etsy, Ebay and the like and keep your eyes open for these missing gems.  If you see them, report them immediately.

I cannot even begin to closely imagine Nancy's sense of loss and violation over this theft.  If I were her, I'd be more than hurt, I'd be angry too, and I'm sure she is, and has every right to be.  My best wishes are with her that the rogue(s) are caught and prosecuted and that she gets all her quilts back safely.

Thanks for listening.

On the Journey

My word for this year was JOURNEY, involving myself more in the process than my investment in the finish.  I have been doing more hand work than usual, and less speed-sewing (except for that one lapse for the Row by Row Experience)...

Anyway, I kinda lost my mojo a little bit after the rush of the Row by Row.  I didn't sew for almost two weeks after I finished that quilt.

Today I got 'restarted' sewing.  I've had these two applique blocks that were fused but not sewn, and today I sat down at the machine, took my time, watched a couple of movies while doing my blanket stitching.  I finished up the machine stitching on two blocks:

Bertie's Year, July

Bertie's Winter, Sleight Ride

Neither block has the embellishments, like embroidery and buttons added yet... those will come in time... maybe later this week.  Still, it was fun making them to this point. 

Tomorrow is another day, and I'm not in a big rush to finish these, though I will get a new Bertie's Year block early in August, so I'd like to be done by then.  We'll see... I'm not going to stress over it, though. 

Row by Row

Row by Row Experience is a different sort of shop hop... it is nationwide (plus Canada) and requires no passports.  You simply go to participating shops and pick up their row pattern for free.  The first person to return to a shop with a completed quilt that includes rows from at least 8 different participating shops wins 25 fat quarters and possibly more prizes as well.  What a lot of fun!!! 

I went to eight shops in my area and picked up patterns, then sewed like a mad demon for a few days to finish up my rows.  Then I basted, bound and labeled it and returned to one of my local quilt shops to claim my prize.  My finished quilt:

It's not the best applique I've ever done, not the best quilting, but it's done!!  So thrilled to win 25 fat quarters, which they cut from whatever I wanted in their stock at Cotton and Chocolate Quilt Shop. 

So generous to cut me what I wanted... Naturally I went right for the batiks, my favorite fabrics.  Because I included their row in my quilt, I also won a gift certificate for the shop, a beautiful tote bag, and a coffee mug.

Now that the row by row experience is done for me, I'm at a loss for quilty things to do.  I already pieced my Saturday sampler blocks for July, pin-basted a table runner, with no plans for immediate quilting, and made a few more hexagons for my hex quilt.  I DO have two Bertie blocks to complete, but I have lost my mojo for actually working on them.

If you see my mojo floating around somewhere in the ether, send it back my way, please.
 

Travel Time

I haven't posted in a while.  I've been busy busy with travel.  I drove from my home in Southern California to a quilt show in Midway, Utah with a friend.  It was a fun drive, with a stop in Vegas on the way there and back (gotta sleep somewhere!).  We hit several quilt shops in St. George, Utah (a small town with like 8 quilt shops!!!) on the way to the show, and then some shops in Provo and Orem too.  Midway is in the Heber Valley, which is about 25 miles north of Provo in a quiet, beautiful valley ringed by majestic hills and mountains.  Everything was SO green (especially notable after coming through all that desert!).  Just beautiful!

 Even the view from our room was charming!

Anyway, the show 'A Small Town Quilt Show in a Big Town Way'  was very cool... just beautiful quilts on display and about 12 or 15 vendors.  It was not a huge show, but very fun.  We took some classes there too.

I learned how to sew hexagons together by machine (easier than it sounds).  It was so cool to learn a new technique!  I made a very pretty bag out of the hexagons.  The class was taught by Sherri McConnell of A Quilting Life.

I also took a class on making fabric postcards.  Now if you read my blog, you know I already do this, but Laurel Dillman taught a class on how to make them a bit differently.  She fuses motifs to the background fabric, then the background fabric to the Peltex and THEN stitches the motifs with either a satin, zigzag or blanket stitch.  I have always done that edge stitching around the motifs before fusing the background to the Peltex.  It is actually very cool to do it Laurel's way as the Peltex is much more stable than the fabric alone.  I learned something new!  I love that!

I also won some ribbons at the show, which was very exciting!  A first place ribbon on my Woodland Creatures quilt, second place on Under the Jellicle Moon and third place on I.D., Therefore I Am.  Exciting!  I love winning!

Woodland Creatures

Under the Jellicle Moon

 

ID, Therefore I Am

Tres cool!  My fourth quilt in the show didn't place in its category, but that's okay, it was very cool that it got juried in.

I'm looking forward to more shows with Woodland Creatures.  It is going to be in a show in Plano, TX in August, and my guild's show in October, and will be submitted to a few more shows in the near future after that.  The quilting on it is superlative.  I simply cannot say enough about Kathy Bradbury's extreme quilting!  It is just amazing.  Seeing it up close and personal for the first time at Midway was a thrill!

I have lots more summer travel planned visiting quilt shows around the western states.  A busy time, and as much as I love being home with my husband, kitties, dog (and air conditioning!), I love being out and about too!  I can't wait to see all the eye candy out there and be inspired!