HMQS 2013 Part 1 – Overview

May 10, 2013June 5, 201313 Comments

This weekend Jason and I are in Utah, checking out HMQS – the Home Machine Quilting Show, and it is simply amazing! I took the plunge and entered my Busy Hands quilt into the show. After much trial and error, I was able to get most of the bleeding out, and I enjoyed seeing it hang in the show.

Christa at HMQS

I eagerly await the judges critiques! (I’ve definitely decided I like entering my quilts into shows – it’s the best way for me to learn what quiltmaking skills need improvement.)

I also happened to catch a glimpse of my friend Melissa Corry‘s adorable Read With Me Quilt. Isn’t it the cutest?? In fact, there’s even a Moda Bakeshop tutorial for it!

Read With Me by Melissa Corry

While browsing around, I bumped into the fabulous Lisa Sipes giving demos at the Gammill booth. Her quilting helped win both the best of show quilts and viewer’s choice at Quiltcon.

She showed her stuff on the long-arm and I tried out the sit-down version. Almost it persuadeth me to become a long-armer, LOL!! You can read more indepth about Lisa and her amazing quilting in my previous post here.

Near the end of the day, I ran into Vicki Anderson, CEO & publisher of Modern Quilts Unlimited. She was nice enough to pose for a photo with me, next to this gorgeous quilt.

Christa and Vicki at HMQS, in front of “Andrew”, pieced and quilted by Kathi Carter of Vineyard, Utah.
Teacher’s Choice Award

It was fun seeing her again after meeting her for the first time at QuiltCon.

I shot so many pictures it will take me all weekend to sort them out. I’ll share more on Monday, including some beautiful award winners and a few fabulous modern quilts. For now, I will end with the amazing Best of Show quilt by Marilyn Badger, called Super Star.

Super Star by Marilyn Badger of St. George, Utah
HMQS Best of Show Winner

What a wonderful day!

You can read my followup posts: HMQS Part 2 and HMQS Part 3.

Sewing Summit Anyone?

May 3, 2013May 2, 20137 Comments

I’m way excited – I just found out there is going to be another Sewing Summit for 2013.

For anyone who hasn’t heard, this is a weekend long modern sewing retreat. After attending QuiltCon earlier in the year but being too far away to attend Sew South, I’m thrilled to join up with other modern sewists for Sewing Summit later this year.

Here’s what I know so far – it runs from September 19th-21st in Salt Lake City, Utah and as of today, registration is still open. I didn’t attend the previous 2 years but I’ve heard from a few other blogger friends that it was a blast, so this year I signed up right away!

Angela Pingel, Cut to Pieces

Jeni Baker, In Color Order

Two of the blogs that I sponsor, Angela Pingel from Cut to Pieces, and Jeni Baker from In Color Order are going to be among many of the amazing teachers! Whoo-hoo this is going to be fun! So, who else is going??

DQN Quilt Show 2013 Modern Quilts

April 29, 2013April 27, 201324 Comments

After attending my local guild’s quilt show this past weekend, my daughter is thrilled that I am giving her my Hugs ‘n Kisses quilt.

Jenna’s Hugs ‘n Kisses by Christa Watson

While there was a “modern” category at the show for the first time ever, there were quite a few quilts entered into other categories that I would also classify as modern. Here they are for you to enjoy (and you will notice many of them won ribbons as well):

Cranes in Octagon by Ruthie Kerr
3rd Place, Hand Quilted

Heat by Lorraine Allers, Quilted by Sheilah Crum
1st Place Wall Quilt, Professionally Quilted

Enso by Rickie Seifreid, Quilted by Linda Natale
2nd Place Mixed Technique, Professionally Quilted

Fast Triad by Bobbie Stoner
1st Place, Modern Quilt, Small

A Little Bit Modern by Marcella Peek
1st Place, Modern Quilt, Large

X Marks the Spot by Michael Coughran, Quilted by Lin Zhao

A-maze-ing by Karen Atkinson
2nd Place, Machine Quilted Wall Quilt

Optical Illusion by Kathy Williamson, Quilted by Dana Stauffer
2nd Place, Large Quilt Professionally Quilted

Modern Circles by Ann Pugh
3rd Place, Modern Quilt, Small

Aboriginal Suns by Lorraine Allers, Quilted by Brenda Alcorn
3rd Place, Mixed Techniques

Baby Bricks by Christa Watson, Baby Quilt

Charming Chevrons by Christa Watson
2nd Place, Modern Quilt, Small

You can read some excerpts from last year’s quilt show here, here, and here.

Happy Quilting!

Desert Quilters of Nevada Award Winning Quilts 2013

April 27, 2013April 27, 201337 Comments

My daughter and I attended my traditional guild’s show today and it was great to see so many beautiful quilts. I was thrilled to find a second place ribbon on my Charming Chevrons quilt and a third place on my Baby French Roses.

Charming Chevrons by Christa Watson
2nd Place, Modern Quilt Movement

They gave us cute little buttons to wear that matched our awards. I am not a ribbon-chaser, but earning some sure does give me validation as a quilter!

Roses for Katelyn by Christa Watson
3rd Place, Mixed Techniques

Here are more award-winning quilts for you to enjoy. I wish I had room to show them all!

Lest We Forget by J. Lee Bagan
Best of Show, Small

Flower Penny Garden by Jean Bailey, quilted by Valerie Krueger
Best of Show, Large

Lotus Blossom by Cory Allender
Judge’s Choice

Round and Round by Elwyn McGaugh
1st Place, Hand Quilted

Fire Dancers by Helen Prosser and Karen Garth
1st Place, Collaboration Quilt

Happy Hour by Cynthia Anderson
1st Place, Pieced Wall Quilt

Churn Dash Crazy by Cher Chu, Quilted by Diane Chipman
President’s Choice

Migration by Karen Garth
Show Chair’s Choice

Desert Quilters of Nevada by Guild President Karen Garth
2013 Challenge Winner

The next time I post, I’ll show pictures of many outstanding modern quilts seen at the show!

DQN Quilt Show 2013 Behind The Scenes

April 26, 20136 Comments

Today I will be heading out to my traditional guild’s quilt show to check out all of the gorgeous quilts. Be sure to check back later this weekend when I post pictures of some of the ribbon winners, including a couple of mine. 🙂

For now I thought it would be fun to show a little behind the scenes, since I was involved in the setup. It’s a lot of work to put on a show!

Monday was check in day for the 200+ quilts, wallhangings, wearables, dolls and more that will be seen this weekend. Our guild is an “educational organization” which promotes the art of quilting and therefore run by all volunteers. These ladies work tirelessly to put on a good event!

Tuesday was photography and most of the quilt judging. Each quilt was loaded onto a quilt rack or pinned to the wall before being judged.

An NQA certified judge, Edie Richmond Dyke, carefully evaluated each and every quilt.

The volunteer quilt handlers would take a stack of quits per category, lay them out onto a table so the judge could go over them in detail. Those of us in the room were not to breathe a word or let her know in anyway if she happened to be looking at our quilts, or those of anyone we knew.

It was such a wonderful experience to listen to her thoughtful comments on how to improve and even more exciting when she liked one of my quilts! Volunteer scribes would right down her comments on an evaluation form for the owner to read later.

Wednesday and Thursday were set up and quilt hanging. Most of the large quilts were hung on pvc pipe frames that were assembled mostly by volunteer husbands and sons.

My son Ryan was earning some community service ours for a scouting merit badge so they were happy to have some extra help!

Probably the thing I liked best about helping out was being able to see many of the quilts up close and personal. This weekend I will take my time, look at all of the quilts in detail, read the artists’ statements and bask in the fun of it all!

If you are in the Las Vegas area this weekend, see the flyer below for complete quilt show details:

Las Vegas Quilt Show This Weekend!

April 23, 201311 Comments

If you are in the Las Vegas area this weekend, please come check out the Desert Quilters of Nevada‘s annual quilt show at the Henderson Convention Center. See the flyer below for complete details:

I am very excited for this show. My guild just celebrated their 26th anniversary and they’ve been putting on a quilt show for nearly as long.

I’ve entered my 5 quilts below as part of the show. Quilting really is such good therapy for me so I’m excited to be a part of this, especially this week!

Detail of my Hugs ‘n Kisses quilt. It’s finished, but in my haste to get it delivered by the check-in deadline, I forgot to snap a completed picture. I’ll take one later this week at the show. (Read more about the quilting during tomorrow’s quilt along lesson). This one is going to my daughter after the show and she’s very excited about that.

French Roses for Katelyn is going to my sister for her brand new little baby girl that she just adopted in February. Now she has 3 kids like me, so when we go to Utah for a visit next month, it will be quite the noisy (but fun) house!

My Charming Chevrons Quilt will be included in my guild’s first-ever modern quilt category. I can’t wait to see the other entries in this category!

Baby Bricks in Pink was one of my early a quilt alongs and is still a favorite of mine.

I like the low volume look of Baby Bricks in Blue. It’s fun to see how a pattern can look so completely different depending on the fabrics.

Whenever I enter anything in a show I never set any expectations of winning. It’s just fun for me to hear what the judges have to say, and learn from them on how to improve my techniques. Plus it’s pretty awesome to stand back and watch the reactions of others as they view my quilts in person. 🙂

Sew and Tell Baby French Roses #4 – FMQ Practice

April 5, 2013July 20, 201316 Comments

I am moving right along on my French Rose Buds quilt. This week I practiced some free-motion quilting designs which I will finalize shortly. I decided to enter the quilt top into the weekly Quilting Gallery contest so I’d love for you to vote for it!

Vote here and you can be entered to win the Quilting Gallery’s weekly giveaway!

French Rose Buds Quilt Top 36″ x 43.5″

Before I jump right into quilting this puppy, I decided to take some time and plan out my quilting. Since this quilt is for my brand new niece, I want to make it extra special. I also think it’s a great quilt to show off some fun free-motion quilting texture.

I started by drawing out some quilting designs on paper and then making up a few practice sandwiches to test it out. I’ve always wanted to try swirls ever since taking Angela Walters’ quilting negative space class at QuiltCon and on Craftsy. (Even though she quilts on a long-arm I was able to adapt her techniques to my domestic machine.)

Next I tried starting sketching out possible designs directly onto the quilt top.

That didn’t give me enough of an idea so I pinned my quilted practice piece onto the quilt top for a better perspective. So far so good. Now I want to try swirls and pebbles.

I really like this! I think combining two designs makes it more fun and whimsical. I stitched out a couple more practice sandwiches, cut them to size and pinned them to the top so I could see how they would really work in the quilt.

My plan is to quilt each section in matching thread so all you see is the quilting texture, not the thread. Hopefully I will have time to baste and start quilting this weekend. I will post more of my progress next week.

By slowing down and only working on this quilt a little each week, I am able to get all of my other projects accomplished without feeling overwhelmed!

You can read about my previous Baby French Roses progress here.

A Little Modern Applique Quilt Inspiration

March 28, 2013March 23, 201317 Comments

I thought it would be fun to share a few more quilts with you from QuiltCon. These are beautiful applique quilts that I just adored. Who says applique can’t be modern?

Squiders and Winks by Janet McWorkman, Anchorage, Alaska
Quilted by Laurie Vandergriff

Apiary by Casey York, Chesterfield, Missouri

Time Travel by Barb Forrister, Austin, Texas

Apeeling Rainbow by Jen Eskridge, Helotes, Texas

From One Color to Another by Mary Langenberg, Overland Park, Kansas

Orange Trails by Leila Gardunia, Huxley, Iowa

Dream a Little Dream by Angela Pingel, South Bend Indiana

Click here for pictures of all the QuiltCon 2013 Award Winning Quilts.

Quilting With Friends and Joining a Modern Guild

March 7, 2013March 19, 201312 Comments

I finally did it! I joined my local modern guild – The Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild. When I went to my first meeting last week, I knew right away that these were my “peeps!”

Cola and Regina with LVMQG Banner

Is this a fantastic banner or what? The president, Cola, had it printed from Spoonflower. Now the next step is to quilt it.

Bonnie & Camille Challenge

These gals have it all – show and tell, retreats, swaps, etc. They even had a challenge using Bonnie and Camille fabric where Camille herself came to judge. How cool is that?

Yum – Delicious Cake!

After meeting so many great bloggers at QuiltCon, it is nice to know I can find more fun friends that also share my interests right here at home. 🙂

Christa’s Quilt Links – QuiltCon Edition

March 2, 2013February 11, 20153 Comments

This is my last post about QuiltCon for the week. I think I blogged about it more days than I was there, LOL!

For today’s list of blog links to check out, I am going to share with you links to a few of the bloggers I met at QuiltCon. It was quite the fun friendship frenzy with everyone meeting up (many for the first time in person), swapping business cards and chatting. Enjoy the ride:

Carolyn Friedlander and Ellen Rushman

Carolyn Friedlander is a fabric designer for Robert Kaufman. Her project, The Local Quilt was one of the QuiltCon award winners. (I really need to get Architextures!)

Ellen Rushman presented the findings of her research study into Modern Quilting for her college thesis. She basically confirmed what everyone has been saying – Modern Quilting is part aesthetics/part attitude.

Both of these creative women were a joy to meet!

Latifah Saafir

Latifah Saafir is one of the board members of the Modern Quilt Guild.

She also moderated a lecture/panel discussion on how to get one’s work into magazines.

The info I gained in that one lecture was worth the entire trip to QuiltCon!

Heather Jones

Heather Jones presented a lecture on Everyday Inspiration in Modern Quilts at QuiltCon. It was the first lecture I attended upon arriving and it really set the tone for the weekend.

She showed numerous beautiful examples of how she took pictures of the world around her and interpreted them into breathtaking graphic quilts.

I wish I had taken more pictures of her work, but fortunately her lecture and several others from the show are available for free on Craftsy – so check it out!