What you learn from a quilt show

We've talked, on various email lists, about entering quilt shows. Some people say they don't want to be judged, that they make quilts for fun, others have had bad experiences entering shows. But if you are entering a show with a judge who knows what she's doing, you can learn something, even if it's only to confirm what you already know you should work on.

I'd entered quilts at another type of show before and got only a very brief judging sheet, but for our show, we got a little more in-depth feedback.

I entered 24 quilts in the High Cotton Quilt Show, three older ones for display only. So I got a stack of judging sheets back for the other 21. The evaluations were well done, satisfactory, needs improvement and N/A if it didn't apply. Each quilt got marks for general appearance, then quilt top construction, quilting and finishing, under workmanship, and fabric usage, color/value contrast and quilting design under design.

Looking through the stack, I had pretty consistently high marks in the design side, with mostly plus or satisfactory on workmanship – except finishing where I had the most needs improvement marks.

No real surprises there, I've always felt design is my strong point, and many of these quilts were made a couple of years ago when I hadn't learned as much about borders and bindings.

Entering quilt shows may not be for everyone, but I found it fun and enjoyed the compliments from the people attending.

I just discovered that the local paper has posted its Studio Statesboro with a nice piece on the show.

Enjoy! More later.

Quilt show brags

Lots and lots to report on the quilt show, but I have to leave for something for work soon, so just a quick recap on my quilts in the show.

I entered a total of 24 quilts, including my very first quilt, finished in 2004 (not for judging), and a number of art quilts. Four of the quilts were finished in the month leading up to the show, Vintage Bow Ties, Cool Jazz, Triple Star and Boxy Stars With Black.

I won three ribbons, second place in groups for Peacock Blues, third place in art quilts for Angel of the Garden and an honorable mention in art quilts for Palm Puzzle. Here are some pictures.

More later.

Fabulous day!

We had a great, great day for the first day of the High Cotton Quilt Show. Beautiful weather, all the last minute details came together smoothly. Great turnout of visitors, lots of compliments on the quilts, good media coverage. I don't think you could ask for a day to go much better.

I'm hoping today will be just as good. The only thing I'm dreading is taking down the show. We're all so tired that will be a challenge. But the great thing is by taking it down today, we don't have to worry tomorrow!

Personally, I'm pretty pleased. I got a second place in group quilts for Peacock Blues, a third in art quilts for Angel of the Garden and Honorable Mention in art quilts for Palm Puzzle. And I got lots of compliments on my quilts.

I did demonstrations of free motion quilting on one of my treadle machines. I was scheduled for a morning session and got started a little late as I was acting as media escort for the reporter from the television news. The demo went great. I had lots of questions about technique and the machine, and lots of stories about learning to sew on a treadle, or watching grandmother sew on a treadle. Then, just as I was about to finish, the photographer from the newspaper showed up and he wanted to take some pictures. Hope some of them came out!

Time to get ready for another day. More later!

It's all a blur!

It's Friday and the High Cotton Quilt Show begins in just over three hours! The last few days are a blur of final projects and getting ready for the show. After getting the program booklet off to the printer (and getting a little "real" work done) it was back to prepping quilts.

Amazingly enough, everything got done. I finished both the Boxy Stars and Triple Star, got sleeves on the last quilts, sewed labels on everything, made little yo-yos which I glued on to clothes pins to hold the quilt labels, and even got finished cleaning the machine I'll use for demonstrations. Yesterday it was a busy day, picking up the programs, then helping where I could with setup, while taking pictures and setting the up winners list to print. Once I had the winners list, I entered it on the computer, then was off to the office supply store to have them print 500 copies which we'll insert into the program this morning.

Then home to relax just a bit, before pulling out the machine I'll use for demonstrations and setting it up and testing it. Thankfully, it sewed great right away, so no fussing with it. As soon as it's light, I'll be loading everything up and be off to the show.

It was great seeing my Triple Star hanging – especially since I don't have anywhere to hang a queen-size. Time to start getting ready. More later!

It's getting close!

What a gorgeous weekend we had on Tybee Island! I was working, but still able to enjoy the perfect weather, and the sights and sounds of Pirate's Fest.

What fun it is to see all the costumes, props and accessories. People were dressed in everything from everyday clothing to improvised costumes, to inexpensive Halloween pirate costumes to elaborately detailed costumes.

As a fiber artist, I had to be inspired by the colors and textures, the contrasts, the feathers, the scarf and coin belts, the fabrics, the blinking and glow in the dark swords. So many visual impressions to capture. I liked the blues in the costumes in this picture, they really stood out in a group that had lots of red and black.

Now that it's over, I'm on deadline for the High Cotton Quilt Show. I have to turn in my quilts Wednesday afternoon, so I have two and a half days to finish!

Fortunately, I had a little time during the weekend to spend on the computer and was able to nearly finish the show program. Just a few minor tweaks this morning and it's off to the printer.

We got in early enough yesterday afternoon to spend some quality time in the studio. I finished the central quilting on the Boxy Stars quilt, and just have the border to finish quilting. I didn't make it to JoAnn's for more thread for Triple Star, so it's off to Plan B to finish quilting it.

Then bindings on both quilts, sleeves on those two and one more, and labels on everything. It's a lot to do in two and a half days, but somehow I'll get it done!

More later!

Climbing quilt mountain

The list of things to do is getting a lot more checkmarks, but there are still so many things to do before our quilt show! And I have to work all weekend, so am losing prime quilting time.

The pile on the left has hanging sleeves.  Triple Star,
in the background needs a little quilting and binding.

But the progress is there. I got almost finished with quilting the Triple Star a couple of nights ago when – drum roll – I got to almost the end of the spool of thread. And no, I didn't buy a second extra when I ordered last week! But I have a couple of options for finishing the two small sections that still need to be quilting. First is to get another spool of the thread, since I'll be in Savannah tomorrow. As long as they have more, I'm fine. If they don't have any more, I'm planning to use several different colors (matching the colors in the spool) to quilt on each square in the section, using a contrasting color in each. I think it would look great, just don't tell anyone I came up with the idea in desperation

My helper. I put a couple of bolts on top of the quilt so he
wouldn't test it for comfort, so he napped in my chair
and glared!

I still need to bind the Triple Star, but last night I started quilting the last of my quilts for the show, a Boxy Stars I started last year when Bonnie Hunter gave a class for our guild. I decided to go with a variegated pastel thread (don't worry, it's a big spool!) and a simple pattern with spirals connected by curving lines. It's coming along pretty well, I'm about halfway through quilting. Fortunately this is a smaller quilt.

The other stuff is coming along, just three quilts left to put sleeves on, which includes the two in progress, and the program for the show is moving along, though there is still a lot to do. That will be my priority for any bits of time this weekend, then Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday will be a frenzy of quilting, binding and sewing on labels.

Almost and almost

What a beautiful weekend. If I hadn't been on deadline for sewing I might have spent part of it out working in the yard.

Instead I just enjoyed the view from inside and made progress on my list of to-dos. I had hoped to finish quilting the Triple Star, but it's not quite there – almost. I'm over halfway done with the piano key border and just have a tiny outside border to finish. As I was quilting yesterday I started watching the thread and worrying – why didn't I buy another extra when I ordered this spool. But I think I'll have enough. I guess I'll know this evening.



Last week, while I was quilting the first sections, I got my sweetie to video me quilting one of the flowers. I had to convert it to a smaller format to post, so here it is.

My quilting design is winding vines with very simple leaves. The flowers have a spiral in the center and petals curved like the top of the heart. I think it looks great, and pretty complicated, but all of the components are simple.

Other progress, I got Boxy Stars laid out for pinning and am about half done with pinning. I need to decide how I will quilt this one quickly, as time before the show is getting short.

Changing gears yesterday, I pulled out the sewing machine that I hope to use for demonstrations at the quilt show. It's a Singer 15-30 with Tiffany decals that a friend gave me last year. It's a treadle machine, but had a motor and light added at some time. I started the cleanup by taking off the motor and light and wiping it down with a damp cloth to remove the loose dirt and spiderwebs. This picture is after wiping it. It was moving very stiff – probably not oiled in years – so I gave it a good oiling with Tri-Flow synthetic oil, and left it to sit and soak in.

With a little luck, I can put this together with a base and simple top to make a traveling treadle.

Time to get to work, more later.