October 12, 2015

Fanfare

Our local guild, the Heritage Quilters of Huntsville, held its biennial Fanfare Quilt Show this past weekend.  Here is the view as you enter the hall:



Yes, that is my "Ode to Joy" quilt, front and center! ***Best of Show!!!***


This was quite a surprise!  There was a lot of talent represented in this great show.

I was happy to learn that the judge recognized some of the musical references in the quilt.  I heard that she even sang the tune represented by the music notes for some guild members in a walk-through Thursday night.

I had four quilts in the show, and received a couple of honorable mentions in addition to the award above.

My "New Star Rising" quilt was entered in the "First HQH Fanfare Quilt" category:


"Peach Kaleidoscope" was entered in the "one maker, extra large, pieced" category:


And "Pickled Leftovers" was entered in the "small, pieced" category:



I wish I had a photo of all the folks taking my photo when we arrived Saturday morning.


This was a great experience, and I appreciate all the hard work by our guild members in putting together this show.

October 1, 2015

Some gifts

Just before heading off for her freshman year of college in August, my daughter asked me to make her a pillowcase.  Of course I agreed, and figured it would be pretty simple -- but it soon became clear that what she wanted was a pillow sham instead of a pillowcase.





I had used this tutorial before, so it seemed a good choice this time.  I made a couple of modifications, re-sizing it to fit a standard pillow, and quilting the front panel.  Using a quilted front makes a few of the steps trickier, but otherwise it worked out OK.

I quilted the front by following the printed design, then filling in the background with pebbles.



The quilting doesn't show very well in the front photo, so here's a shot from the back (inside?):



And here is the actual back of the sham:



Getting good miters was difficult with the thickness of the batting getting in the way.  The corners are not perfect, but they are not bad either:



Her roommate had bought matching bedspreads for their dorm; the only color reference I had was an online photo from the store.  When I delivered the sham, I could see that the colors in these Amy Butler 'Bright Heart' fabrics are actually pretty close to the bedspread in hue, but noticeably brighter.  Still, it looks good in her room.

I made her a regular pillowcase too, using Dotties Cousin from Cotton+Steel and a Medium Pearlized Spot from Robert Kaufma, along with a bit of Bright Heart trim.


I enjoyed working with the bright Amy Butler fabrics.  I think someone should try out a mash-up of Bright Heart with Anna Maria Horner's Loominous, and maybe even throw in a few fabrics from Jennifer Paganelli's Caravelle Arcade (but not me -- I've got enough projects in the queue!).

I also completed another wall hanging based on our church logo.  This time I used prints, and quilted with straight lines, which gives it quite a different look:


Both gifts have been delivered to their recipients.  Yay!

I'm linking up with crazy mom quilts for Finish It Up Friday.