Monthly Archives: March 2014

Pop-up Show

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quilt show

Asheville Modern Quilt Guild Show

Here are some pictures from the Asheville Modern Quilt Guild’s Pop-up Quilt Show, held Sunday, March 16 at the Folk Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  We had good attendance and gained several new members!  As you can see, we had some members demonstrating quilt making, as well.  If you missed it, the Guild will have a show at the Handmade in America gallery in Asheville from mid-May through mid-August.  Meanwhile, here are some of our members and their quilts:

First, here’s Diana Kantor with her amazing table runner.  It has 3-D folded flowers and leaves in addition to that beautiful quilted design in the center!

quilted table runner

Diana Kantor

And here’s Erica Kilgo with her very fun Bricks and Bubbles quilt:

modern quilt

Erica Kilgo

Here’s Amy Anderson with three of her beautiful quilts:

modern quilts

Amy Anderson

Here is Connie Brown with some of her amazing art quilts:

art quilts

Connie Brown

Emily and Miriam Coffey weren’t able to be there, so I don’t have their pictures, but here is one of their beautiful quilts:

modern quilt

Emily and Miriam Coffey’s quilt

And of course we had our Opportunity Quilt on display so people could take an interest and maybe even buy tickets:

modern quilt

Asheville Modern Quilt Guild Opportunity Quilt

Hopefully you’ve found these quilts inspiring.  If you’re interested in joining our guild, here is a link to our Facebook page.

Next week I’m starting a series on designing your own quilts.

Pantone Challenge–Go Vote!!!

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The online Pantone Challenge is accepting Reader’s Choice votes now.

Go HERE to vote for your favorite quilt in each of the 3 categories:

  • Quilts (full size)
  • Mini quilts
  • Just the Top (entries that aren’t quilted yet)

You have to scroll down quite a ways to get to the entries.  Pick one favorite in each category.  Vote by clicking the heart in the upper right hand corner.

Mine is #36 in the second category, Mini Quilts.  So many fun quilts to look at!

Applique quilt

Radiating Orchid mini-quilt for the Radiant Orchid Challenge, 15″ x 15″

Pantone Challenge

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You’re getting this blog early because of the deadline for the Pantone Challenge.  I’ll be back to my regular schedule on Sunday, March 30.

The Quilt Alliance’s TWENTY challenge was so much fun last year that when I heard about the Pantone Radiant Orchid Challenge I decided to enter

Applique quilt

Radiating Orchid mini-quilt for the Radiant Orchid Challenge, 15″ x 15″

This challenge is via link-up with one of the two sponsoring blogs, On the Windy Side and Play Crafts.  You can go to either blog to see the other entries and get details.

Luckily I had a pretty orchid color FQ (fat quarter) in a collection of modern solids (came from my smart son-in-law at Christmas!).  And I took a piping class with Susan K Cleveland a few years ago where I learned to make little bitty piping.  I’d already gotten the Alison Glass green fabric to go with the modern solids, so I was ready to roll!

Using piping to help turn under the edge is one of my favorite ways to applique circles, and I wanted a little extra definition for the edges.  I had to make templates (yikes!) to cut the green and, naturally, the print turned out to be directional so I had to be careful how I cut it (double yikes!).

As always, I learned several things making this project.  Using templates wasn’t so bad; I made them from freezer paper & ironed them onto the fabric for cutting.  And Susan’s method for joining the ends of the piping worked perfectly so you can’t tell where it begins and ends as it circles the shapes.  So, it was fun and now it’s done!  😉  Have a good week!

3 Lessons from an Older Quilt

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I recently got to borrow a quilt I made for our daughter when she left for college 12 years ago, and I learned several things from looking it over.

patchwork quilt

The Cheerful Child Quilt

First, it was much softer than when I made it.  This is notable because when I gave it to her, she wondered, “When will it be soft like Granny’s?”  Many of the quilts she grew up with were made by my grandmother (her great-grandmother).  Those quilts, made from the 1930s through the 1950s, were soft by the time our daughter slept under them in the 1990s.  She was happy to get the quilt but was disappointed with the stiffness of new fabric.  Having learned that lesson, I subsequently backed quilts for her with minky, which is very soft from Day 1.

patchwork quilt

“Punch bugs” were popular cars when our daughter was in high school

Second, some fabrics have held up better than others, and the price of the fabric does NOT seem to be as important as other factors.  Pastels have not held their brightness well over time, and “sparkles” on some of the fabrics have worn off.  On the other hand, the car and child prints in the photo at left were inexpensive novelty prints but have held up well.

Third, and most gratifying, my work has kept the quilt intact.  There are no ripped seams, loose binding, or quilting that has come undone.  I pieced this quilt on my old faithful Bernina and quilted free-motion stars on the same machine.  (That’s when I learned that sending a quilt to a longarm quilter is worth every penny–my shoulders ached for days!)  I backed it with a sheet, which was my practice for years despite all the dire threats that sheets are inappropriate for quilt backing, and that worked out fine.

My quilting style has changed a lot since I made this quilt, and I certainly am much more technically adept now.  It was great to see that an earlier quilt has survived our daughter’s college and young adulthood intact, even if it isn’t as bright as it once was.

Stick your neck out with me!

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New-Sue-2OK, folks, you may recall that I made a donation quilt for the Quilt Alliance last year BEFORE I realized that most of the other quilters were WAY better known than I am!  It turned out pretty well, because the ladies who won first place were local and not all that famous (at least until they won)!  And my quilt did sell in the auction, so it’s all good.

IT’S THAT TIME AGAIN!  The Quilt Alliance has just announced the 2014 contest, and I hope you’ll consider making a quilt for them.  You can see the contest announcement and a link to the rules on the Quilt Alliance website. (You can see last year’s donation quilts here–mine is #29 if you’re interested.)  The theme this year is “Inspired by” and your entry must be inspired by one of the quilts in the Alliance’s Quilt Index or their Quilters’ S.O.S.- Save Our Stories (Q.S.O.S.) project.

I already have my project in mind and here’s a hint:  it’s based on Sunbonnet Sue.  I searched the QSOS project files for Asheville, since that’s the nearest town of any size, and one of the first quilts I saw was a Sunbonnet Sue–you can see it if you click the link but I think it would be a copyright violation for me to reproduce it here.  I was immediately drawn to it because I have a Sunbonnet Sue quilt made by my Grandmother (Mary Lee Ownbey Kimsey, who lived in Asheville) and it hangs in my studio much of the time.

I also made Eleanor Burns’ Sunbonnet Sue and Overall Sam a few years ago; that is the quilt at the top of this post.  The contest quilt is going to be “inspired by” Sunbonnet Sue, but you’d have to know Sue to “get it”.  You’ll see later!

Sunbonnet Sue

Sunbonnet Sue by my Grandmother

Meanwhile, come on:  STICK OUT YOUR NECK WITH ME!  Even if you’ve never entered a contest, I’m pretty sure you regularly make donation quilts.  Design a donation quilt and send it in to the Quilt Alliance Contest. Here are the TOP 3 REASONS to make a quilt for this contest:

1.  DO SOMETHING NEW!  TAKE A RISK!  If I can do it, you can do it.

2.  You’ll have to spend time browsing the Quilt Index or the Q.S.O.S.–either could be hours of fun!

3.  It’s just a LITTLE quilt–16 x 16 this year!  Just do it!  Here’s the link again: Quilt Alliance

My friend is famous!

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One of my quilting buddies dared to submit her quilt to the AQS Paducah show and IT WAS ACCEPTED!  I think that’s pretty special (even if she isn’t really famous yet).  Here’s the quilt:

applique storybook quilt

Jerri’s quilt, which she calls “Tell Me A Story”

And here is a picture of Jerri Szlizewski, who made the quilt:

head shot of Jerri

Jerri Szlizewski

.The pattern is “Once Upon a Time” by Cheryl Almgren Taylor, who graciously gave Jerri permission to enter the quilt in AQS shows.  Here’s a close-up of the work on the quilt:

Jerri's quilt close-up

Close-up of Jerri’s quilt

Jerri is very patient when it comes to her quilting and does beautiful applique as well as lovely pieced quilts that some of us would consider tedious 😉  I’m so happy for her to have a quilt in this prestigious show!  The quilt will be shown at AQS in Lancaster, PA as well, so if you live near either Lancaster or Paducah you’ll have a chance to see it in person.