Vermont Quilt Show

The Vermont Quilt Show, held last weekend in Essex Junction, Vermont was awesome! Inspiring prize winning quilts and incredible antiques, a display of Dear Jane quilts and several challenge quilts. Challenge packets for next years show were on sale along with vendors selling everything from quilting machines to thimbles. There were demonstrations and courses and yummy fabric was everywhere.  I indulged my weakness for stash building thinly disguised as "I need fabric for a quilt for my massage therapist!"

I took some great photos but the pamphlet asks that they be published only with credit. Since I don't have details for all my photos, I'd just like to share this prize winner, my favourite, called Finally a Quilt for our Bed pieced and quilted by Kristin Brewer of Waterbury Center, VT:

Here is the official website for the 2013 exhibit and details for future shows:
http://www.vqf.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1&Itemid=1

They're also on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Vermont-Quilt-Festival/90999492040?ref=ts

And Twitter: @VTQuiltFestival

I know I'll be going back next year and who knows, maybe I'll exhibit!

Do something scary - Meet your objectives

Twenty five years I worked for a major corporation where objectives were established and regular evaluations measured my performance. Objectives were usually clear, concise and achievable even if they were a stretch.  Now that I'm closing on three months of retirement I'm considering my next evaluation.  What were my retirement objectives? Have I achieved?

When I mentioned my concerns about setting and achieving my retirement goals to my daughter she said "If you want to know if you're making the most of your time and achieving your goals ask yourself 'What have you done that's scary'?"


Hmmm.....interesting. I thought about it and I realized I'd done lots of scary things since I retired, actually retiring was first on the list!

Let's see:

Retirement objectives: Start an online quilting business and work at it full time. Complete my nine UFO's (unfinished objects!)

Accomplishments:

I opened an Etsy shop. www.etsy.com/shop/pieceandtranquilty Scary: lots of techie stuff to learn. Then I actually made my first sale after 2 weeks! I can't say I'm working at it full time but I do several hours a day.

I joined a quilt guild. Scary, not good at groups, shy meeting new people, Everyone was wonderful, nothing to be scared of.

At the insistence of my new guild friends I entered a quilt in a show for the very first time. Very scary! I won a Viewers Choice Award at my very first show! What was I scared of exactly?

I started this blog, writing about all of the above. Scary, would I have something interesting to say? Would anyone want to read what I write?

I started a Facebook page for my business: https://www.facebook.com/PieceAndTranquilty. Not too scary after all that other techie stuff.

Last but not least, I completed a dozen cat quilts, 2 table runners (one of them was a UFO), and made progress on a full size quilt (another UFO) - only a little left to do on that one!

Only a few days to go until my evaluation.....I hope it goes well! Maybe I'll give myself a raise! What do you think?

UFO # 2

Seems I'm always on a cat theme. One of my objectives for retirement was to finish up all those UFO's clogging my storage cabinets. This is what I managed to get done this week:

I started this quilt top several years ago for another cat lover in the family. (Shhh, it's a secret)

Got to this point and decided that maybe the colours were too dark. Then it got added to the UFO pile.

Took it out last week and thought it looked pretty good. Maybe the colours are in style now!All that was left to do was add the pieced borders. Easier said than done. What is it with pieced borders. They never fit on the first try! Only 75 more to make and string together, then attach to quilt. Easy Peasy!

Corner blocks: pattern called for plain squares, hmmm.....that won't do. Lets make it more complicated. Add an appliqué fence post. No problem. Love the blanket stitch on my Bernina.

Okay, borders fitted and attached. Time to piece the backing and pin baste the quilt "sandwich". 84 x 98 inches. Do I have a work surface that big? Does anyone?

Time for hubby help. Two folding tables, clamped together, plus the dining table, plus hubby's extra long arms. That should do it.

Take 1: tape backing to table #1, layer on batting, add quilt top. And, pray! Smooth, pat, pin, hope. Moment of truth: turn over and check. Oh God, pleats. Remove pins, remove top, remove batting. start again.

Take 2: Start over at beginning. Use basting spray. There's not much but it should help.

Success! At least it seems to have worked. Time to try quilting and see what happens. A few straight rows first in one direction and then the other. It's working!

Ok, all the horizontal and vertical rows are done and no pleats or folds. Yay! Now for the free motion quilting: A flower on each cat? Or a heart? Or both? Hearts and Flowers? What do you think? I'd love to hear your opinions.


Oh, I bet you noticed that this blog was named UFO #2. Wondering what happened to UFO#1?

Here it is. Finished Chicken table runner!

And the winners are........

Well, everyone's a winner actually! What an experience! Organizers did a fantastic job. The quilts were beautifully displayed. Welcome table staffed perfectly, quilt raffle tickets sold en masse and a successful sales table!

And the quilts, beautifully displayed. Row after row. For a small guild, members are very productive.

Wonderful colours, creative designs, varied techniques and excellent technical skills.

This fabulous quilt by fellow quilt artist Ariana won the Canadian Quilter's Association prize:

A photo and article about Ariana's quilt will be published in the Canadian Quilter's Association Newsletter http://www.canadianquilter.com/

Get more info about the Ariana and her quilts via:

http://www.quiltmoxie.com/

A three dimentional floral quilt by Hélène won the Courtepointe Quebec Award. Unfortunately I don't have a photo of her quilt. Here is link to the CQQ: http://cqq.ca/home/

There were also 7 Viewer's Choice Awards (including my own, What a surprise. I still can't believe it!). Here are the ones I photographed:

Scrappy log cabin

A few of my favorite things

Dresden Plate

And my contribution at the end of the row:

Here's a close up of my Y2K Millennium quilt relaxing and enjoying it's ribbon:

Guild show opening night

Last night I volunteered for 2 hours and already my feet are aching! But I had fun meeting new quilt lovers and several of my friends stopped by for a look. Everyone's quilts are set up in rows on rented quilt hangers and the set up group did a wonderful job. It was a difficult task to choose three favorites from everyone's creations. What talent! My "job" was to provide information to guests and provide them with white gloves so they could touch the quilts if they wanted to. I was also there to answer questions. Tomorrow I have a 4 hours shift and I will take some photos to share with you.

Quilt Show Weekend

I've been a guild member for less than two months and I have a
quilt in this weekend's show! I am very excited! Everything is ready to go for set up tomorrow morning at 10. I'm showing the Y2K quilt and even though it's old, it looks spectacular. There was only one badly worn square which I replaced and then embroidered the quilting lines.






I wrote a text to accompany my quilt with examples of the exchange letters and "squishies". You can read more about this quilt in my Y2K +13 blog.

I'll be back with an update of "opening night"

Y2K + 13

Has anyone ever participated in a quilt fabric exchange? Squares or finished blocks? If you have I'm sure you will agree that it is an amazing experience. Quilters are fascinating individuals each with their own mix of dedication, perserverence and creativity.

In 1999 as a celebration of the upcoming millennium, I swapped "squishies" with quilters all over the world when I participated in the Y2K fabric exchange. A squishy looks like this:

 25 fabric squares 2.5 inches by 2.5 inches in a baggie. Just the right size to fit into a regular envelope and easy to mail. One fabric square is personalized with the name and location of the quilter. Often the envelope also contained a biography of the sender, description of her home state, province or country and other interesting facts or details.

I exchanged squishies with at least 250 quilters. Hailing from Quebec where there weren't an abundance of quilters at the time, I was a popular source for those wanting a "full set" of Canadian provinces.

In all, I received squishies from every province in Canada, every state in the US, every province in Australia, as well as the UK, France, Spain, Portigal, The Netherlands, Iceland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Japan, India, Thailand and many more. Enough squares to complete 2 queen size quilts each of which contains 2000 different 2.5 inch blocks, a true charm quilt. Another collection of 3 inch squares to make a king size quilt is a UFO on my "to do" list for this year..

This month, 13 years after the exchange, one of these quilts is about to be shown for the first time at a quilt show. It has been well used and loved over the last 13 years and may have faded a little but is still beautiful to behold. I am looking forward to sharing it's incedible story with others.

A quick search of the internet brought up other Millenium quilts made by fellow quilters all over the world. Hopefully some of these have my signature square in them. https://www.google.ca/search?q=millenium+quilts&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=8Nh7UcPNI6rX0gHy34CoCg&ved=0CE4QsAQ&biw=1366&bih=622

 

Let me know what you think!