More Amazing Quilts

March 19, 2012March 17, 20122 Comments

I wanted to share a few more pictures with your from several of my quilt guild friends. These were all entered into the Desert Quilters of Nevada Quilt show and are shown with the permission of each artist. (If I’d have had more time and space, I could literally show hundreds more – there were over 300 pieces in the entire show – it was a feast for the eyes!) Be sure to see my previous posts for more amazing quilts!

Maribeth Benedict, Best Friends

This adorable piece was begun at our guild’s quilting retreat last year. We had a class on Sunbonnet Sue and it was fun to see everyone’s finished quilts. This one took 2nd in the Hand Quilted category. It’s nice to know that people still enjoy hand quilting.

Ann Pugh, Happier Than a Bird...

Ann’s whimsical quilt above says, “Today I will be happier than a bird with a french fry!” I thought that was so cute with the coordinating french fry fabric! Ann was one of the first people I met when I joined the guild over 15 years ago. She’s one of the founding members and is still making scores of quilts. Our guild has been around now for over 25 years!

Sandy Crawford, Mojave Majesty

The quilt above is an example of Sandy’s beautiful landscape work. She was our featured quilter for this show. For years she’s been making beautiful landscapes depicting the desert areas surrounding Las Vegas. This took first place in the Wall-Applique quilt category. Be sure to click on the picture to see a larger version. The details are amazing!

Jenna Watson, Jenna's 1st Quilt

Finally, I’ll end this post with quilts made by my daughter Jenna, and her friend Ashtyn. Jenna was so excited to get a 3rd place ribbon on her quilt in the youth category and Ashtyn took 2nd with hers. We were pleasantly surprised that there were enough youth entries that they could actually be judged, not just displayed.

Ashtyn Whatcott, Rubies for Ruby

Green Deviled Eggs Recipe

March 17, 2012March 19, 2013Leave a comment

Today is National Quilting Day AND St. Patrick’s day. So that means I should be making some green quilts, right? Well, I did make something green today, but it wasn’t sewing. I made my favorite little finger food for a church social activity tonight.

Deviled Eggs are my specialty – the thing I bring to any potluck because they are easy to make and cheap! They are sort of old-school, but hardly any one makes them and everyone loves them! Our theme for the evening is green food, so I just added a little food coloring.

Here’s the recipe, more or less: 1 dozen boiled eggs, dash of paprika, squirt of mustard, glop of sweet relish, a few table spoons of mayo, and food coloring (optional). I’m not exact, but everything is to taste – just keep it on the dry side; too wet & it’s more like egg salad filling.

First, boil the eggs but peel off the shells before you dye them. A few drops of green food coloring added to boiling water with a teaspoon of vinegar does the trick.

Green Eggs - Hold the Ham!

Next, cut each egg in half, scoop out the yolks and mash up with the rest of the filling stuff. For extra greenness, add a few drops of green to the filling. Looks like pistachio ice cream! You could even cut the eggs in 1/2 before you dye them so the entire egg-white turns green.

For travel, I like to put my eggs in a dish with little ovals that hold each one separately. It doesn’t have a lid, so I just put toothpicks on a few random eggs and cover with plastic. Yummy!

DQN Quilt Show Part 2

March 16, 20121 Comment

Here are some more lovely pictures from my guild’s Quilt Las Vegas Quilt Show from last weekend. As tomorrow is National Quilting Day, I’ve resolved to aspire to such great workmanship as these shown below. Pictures are shown with the permission of each artist.

Helen Baczynski, Can You Hear the Music

We had a category for show theme, which was “Trip Around the World”. Helen’s beautiful quilt above took 2nd place in the category. It depicts a traditional Folklorico dancer of Mexico swirling her skirt to the music, surrounded by Mexican Star blocks. This quilt also took viewer’s choice. All of that color that you can see in the black background was gorgeous machine quilting with colorful variegated threads.

Jean Schantol, When Pigs Fly

There was also a special recognition given for the quilt with the best humor, given to my friend Jean, for her quilt above, “When Pigs Fly”. Notice the pig in the outhouse. Too cute!

Jean Schantol, Northern Lights

This quilt was also made by Jean and I love how she used lots of beads to create the appearance of sparkling stars and galaxies beyond. Very artistic!

Karen Garth, Hearts and Roses

Karen combined lots of machine embroidery with colorful machine applique and intricate machine quilting to create this beautiful piece, which took 3rd place in the use of embroidery as a design element category.

It will take me at least one more post to show you the last set of quilts I found very fascinating. Then I’ll wrap up with a couple of other fun events at the show. Until next time!

DQN Quilt Show Part 1

March 13, 2012March 13, 20121 Comment

It will take me multiple posts to share with you just a few of the beautiful quilts from my local guild’s quilt show this past weekend. All photos were taken at Quilt Las Vegas 2012, presented by Desert Quilters of Nevada. Quilts are shown with permission of each artist.

First off, I must start with the best of the best: two Best of Show quilts.

Anthony Ratola, Military Around the World

I met husband and wife quilting team, Anthony & Carolyn this year whom I previously only knew from their work. Each year they enter, and each year they take some very top honors at our show. Just take one look at Tony’s wonderful quilt above and you can see why!

Cynthia Anderson, Stars for a New Day

My friend Cindy received top honors for her “mini” quilt shown above. I was so thrilled for her (and just a tiny bit jealous – but not really!!) I sat in on the judging process and the judge went on for several minutes gushing about the fine workmanship, precision and quilting of this quilt. It truly is a work of art!

Helen Baczynski, Sundae Treats

Helen is another one of our guild’s top quilters who deservedly receives many awards each year for her outstanding machine quilting. This fun piece was embellished with fabric paints and delicious threads! It won best machine quilting.

Karen Garth, Fire Baskets

The quilt above is my personal favorite. Fire Baskets, made by our guild president, amazed me with all of the hand-dyed fabrics, exquisite quilting, and colorful machine applique. It was begun in a Ricky Tims workshop and she hand-dyed most of the fabrics herself.

This is just a sampling of all the wonderful quilts our members make. I’ll post more pictures later in the week. Now I have to get back to work!

Quilt Las Vegas This Weekend!

March 9, 2012March 9, 20122 Comments

This weekend is my quilting guild’s 22nd annual quilt show! The show theme is “Trip Around the World” and it will be held Friday through Sunday at the Henderson Convention Center. There will be dozens of vendors, over 300 outstanding quilts and dolls, with prizes for the most outstanding quilts, a fashion show, bed turning, and a mini quilt auction.

It was my job to get all of the quilts checked in and ready for judging. A crew of about 8 ladies met in 4 different quilt shops this past week as guild members dropped off their quilts. And that was just my committee. We had several others in charge of judging, vendors, set up etc. I learned that it’s quite a lot of work to put on such a large show!

What you don’t see behind us in this picture is stacks of beautiful quilts piling up.

The week before the show had a different task each day. Quilt delivery on Monday, judging on Tuesday, frame set up and hanging on Wednesday, tagging & ribbons on Thursday, show opening on Friday. I’ve been so tired I can hardly think straight. But it’s been fun!

Here’s another part of my crew below. We are preparing the quilts for final presentation, attaching artists’ statements to the front of the quilts and winners’ stickers so the ribbon committee can properly hang the ribbons on the correct quilts. We want no mistakes there!

After the final two weeks of planning, preparation, and paperwork, we are ready for the show!

My next blog entry will show pictures of some of the ribbon winners, after the show opens to the general public. Hope to see you!

Color – Not Just for Fabric!

March 1, 2012March 19, 20132 Comments

My running buddies and I took a break from our usual training last weekend to race in a super crazy 5K called the Color Run. Here are the before and after shots:

Before

After

During each 1/2 mile to 1 mile of the race, we ran through aid stations where they sprayed colored powder on us as we ran. It was all safe and washable but boy was it a crazy mess!

Hmm, now that mess of colorful threads and fabric scraps all over my sewing room floor doesn’t seem so bad!!

A Visit With Linda Schmidt

February 17, 2012February 11, 2012Leave a comment

At our last quilting guild meeting, quilt artist Linda Schmidt came for a visit and it was simply fabulous! She brought dozens of quilts to talk about and gave us some insight into how she creates her works.

One of my favorite thing about Linda’s quilts was that she said she likes to make the backs as interesting as the fronts. All of her designs were original creations and she’s won many major awards for her quilts.

After viewing quilts of this caliber at Road to California last month, I felt right at home with Linda showing us her amazing work. Everyone around me kept saying, “I could never do that!” I had quite a different reaction. Mine was, “I can’t wait to follow in her footsteps!”

Lord of the Rings Quilt

This was my favorite quilt that she displayed. She told us how she made it for her teenage son. She created the middle part of the quilt, showed it to him and his response was, “Where’s the rest of the story?” So she created the individual scenes as side borders. It was truly a work of art.

What My Heart Desires for Valentine’s Day…

February 14, 2012February 11, 20122 Comments

What I desire for Valentine’s Day is more time to quilt! I recently helped my quilting guild, the Desert Quilters of Nevada with a quilt challenge. The rules were simple: take a piece of Challenge Fabric and create a quilt with the theme “What Your Heart Desires”. I provided the fabric (red Hoffman Cardinal batik) and helped organize the hanging, count the ballots, and present the winners. Each of the members of the guild got to vote for their favorite quilts and winners were selected based who received the most votes in their category: pieced, applique, mixed, group, mini, etc.

This is the quilt I put together for my quilt circle, Rainbows. Each member submitted a heart block and I added novelty fabrics surrounding each representing what they desired. Themes were things like more time, money, happiness, sleep, travel, chocolate!, peace, tranquility, wisdom, good health, fabric & thread, etc. Although we didn’t win, we sure had fun trying!

Below are just a few of the quilts other guild members made. I am amazed all the talent we have in our group. They never cease to inspire me! Click each picture for a larger image.

Such beauty and workmanship!

Here’s a group shot of our quilting guild. We have big events each calendar quarter.

Ballot Counting

Finalizing the Winners

It sure was fun to be behind the scenes and see all the work that goes into running a successful quilting event. With the help of several members, we got the ballots counted in record time. Each winner received a gift certificate valid at the quilt shop of her choice (including mine!)

On my next blog post, I’ll write about the special guest speaker we had and show some of her beautiful quilts!

California Dreamin’ Pillows

February 11, 20121 Comment

Megan from Australia emailed me this picture of two fantastic pillows she made using Jenean Morrison’s California Dreamin’ fabric from Free spirit. Aren’t they gorgeous? It only took about 1/2 yard of each fabric to make them.

She just converted a bedroom back into her sewing studio, so she wanted something nice and bright to replace the cushions on the worn out sofa in there. Nice job, Megan, and thanks for the inspiration!

Teach a Child to Sew…

February 4, 2012March 19, 20133 Comments

And she’ll become quilter for life! I helped my daughter make her first quilt last summer on my Bernina. For Christmas, she got her very own sewing machine – a little Janome. Today we finally set it up and started teaching her to sew on her own.

I want to teach her the basics first, so we practiced loading the thread, winding the bobbin, and threading the needle. She got the hang of it quickly, and it’s just the right size for her.

I wanted her to practice straight lines so she sewed on pieces of lined paper for awhile. She had a lot of fun with that and picked it up very quickly. For our next lesson, we’ll practice on fabric and I’ll let her rummage through my scrap pile. We had a great Saturday afternoon!